■ BASEBALL
Matsui to miss World Classic
New York Yankees star Hideki Matsui won’t play for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in March as he continues to recover from surgery to repair ligament damage in his left knee. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said the 34-year-old Matsui won’t be ready to participate in the 16-team international tournament, MLB.com reported. Matsui sat out 69 games last season and underwent surgery in September. Japan won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and Daisuke Matsuzaka of the Boston Red Sox are among the MLB players who may play for the defending champions next year.
■ SKIING
Ex-NFL man mulls return
Out of the NFL, Jeremy Bloom is returning to the US ski team to possibly revive his freestyle skiing career in time for the Vancouver Olympics. The 26-year-old Bloom announced on Monday he’s returning to the American team this week for its annual fall camp, where he’ll evaluate how he feels. Bloom traveled to Switzerland last month, where he was on skis for the first time since ending his freestyle career after the Turin Olympics. He said things felt pretty good, and it made him decide to reconnect with the US team. “I’m open to wherever that decision may take me,” Bloom said. “There are some questions to be answered, for sure. I haven’t said this is a full-blown, 2010 comeback, but it could very well lead to that. That’s a question to be answered in a little bit of time.” A star receiver and kick returner at Colorado in college, Bloom had to give up football after being told skiing endorsements made him ineligible to compete in the NCAA. He competed at the 2006 Olympics, where he finished sixth in the moguls. He then went on to the NFL. A fifth-round pick of the Philadelphia Eagles, he fought injuries and never caught on. His NFL career ended this summer when he was cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
■ SOCCER
Camara clicks as Wigan win
Henri Camara’s goal gave Wigan a much-needed 1-0 win over Everton on Monday in their English Premier League clash and lifted them out of the relegation zone. The 31-year-old — a hero for Senegal in the 2002 World Cup when they reached the quarter-finals after his golden goal beat Sweden in the round of 16 — struck in the 51st minute to give his side a welcome three points. His goal means that Wigan gain a bit of breathing space in the relegation battle and that Premier League giants Newcastle descend back into the bottom three. However, despite the victory Wigan manager Steve Bruce was not happy. “It was arguably one of our worst performances this season — we have played better and lost,” he said. His Everton counterpart David Moyes held his hands up for a really dreadful performance by his side. “I was hoping for more from us but it was a poor performance,” the ever frank Scot said.
■ BASKETBALL
Wizards sack coach Jordan
The Washington Wizards fired Eddie Jordan on Monday after a 1-10 start to the season and appointed director of player development Ed Tapscott as interim head coach. “At 1-10 it was an unacceptable record obviously and we felt a change needed to be made,” president Ernie Grunfeld told a news conference. “We need to do things a little bit different. These things are always very difficult especially since Eddie and I have become very good friends over the last five years.”
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
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