■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.”
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
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