■TENNIS
Bets open on Federer twins
World No. 1 Roger Federer’s daughters are less than 48 hours old, but bookmakers on Friday had already posted odds on the twins winning Wimbledon. British bookies Ladbrokes were offering 100-1 for either Charlene Riva or Myla Rose to win the grasscourt title just a day after Federer’s wife, Mirka, 31, gave birth to the tots. The twins, whose Swiss father has won a record 15 grand slam titles, were also 25-1 to claim one of the four slams with all bets based on either doing so before their 25th birthdays. The girls, who were born at a private clinic in Switzerland on Thursday, are 50-1 to win a grand slam as part of the same doubles team and 200-1 to take the Wimbledon doubles crown.
■DIVING
Champs take gold again
Olympic champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia successfully defended their gold medal in women’s 3m synchronized diving at the world championships in Rome on Friday. Guo and Wu earned 348 points over five dives. Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape of Italy took silver with 329.70 points, and Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdniakova of Russia — the Olympic silver medalists — were third with 310.80. Guo also won the individual 3m springboard title Tuesday, and now has 10 world championship golds to go with her four Olympic victories.
■FORMULA ONE
War may be over soon
Formula One’s civil war could be nearing an end after FIA said on Friday the document that Agoverns auto racing’s premier sport could be signed by next week. F1’s governing body said its World Motor Sports Council had received the new Concorde Agreement, which would come into force “on receipt of confirmation that a satisfactory cost-reduction agreement is in place.” All 13 teams registered for next season’s championship negotiated the document, FIA said in the statement. “I think that we are very, very close to reaching a solution,” Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said.
■RUGBY UNION
Nude pictures removed
Alleged nude photographs of All Blacks rugby star Dan Carter were pulled from an Internet auction site on Friday within hours of being offered for sale, apparently a hoax. A vendor using the login PerpignanPatty offered 11 pictures of the New Zealand flyhalf. Carter played for the Perpignan club during the last French season before suffering a serious Achilles tendon injury. The pictures were said to include a “raunchy at-home striptease” and the vendor claimed they would have the New Zealand Rugby Union “squirming.” They were posted on the Trademe Web site at 7pm on Friday and removed by Web site staff less than three hours later. A Trademe spokesman said PerpignanPatty had broken Web site rules by using more than one account. He said there was also no evidence the pictures existed and the auction was likely a hoax.
■GOLF
John Panton dies aged 92
British golfer John Panton, who was the oldest surviving Ryder Cup player, has died at the age of 92. Scotsman Panton represented Great Britain and Ireland in the competition on three occasions, in 1951, 1953 and 1961. He also won the British Match Play Championship in 1956 and finished fifth in the Open Championship in the same year. European Tour board of directors chairman Neil Coles said on the European Tour Web site: “He was the last of that generation.”
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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