BASKETBALL
Bulls’ Rose named MVP
Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose ended LeBron James’ two-year reign as the NBA’s most valuable player on Tuesday when he became the youngest winner of the league’s highest individual honor. Rose led the Bulls to the best record in the NBA this season. The 22-year-old All-Star, taken with the first overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, is the first Bulls player to capture the honor since Hall of Famer Michael Jordan claimed the last of his five MVP awards in 1998. Rose averaged a career-high 25 points and 7.7 assists this season while guiding the Bulls to a 62-20 record that earned them the top seed in the playoffs.
TENNIS
Williams’ stalker charged
A man was charged with stalking Serena Williams after police said they caught him trying to enter the star’s gated neighborhood. Palm Beach Gardens police said 40-year-old Patenema Ouedraogo told officers he was going to Williams’ home on Monday night “because he loves her” and “he knows the feelings are reciprocal.” A lawyer for the 13-time Grand Slam singles champion said he had recently obtained a restraining order after Ouedraogo tried three times to contact the player. Police said neighborhood security guards stopped Ouedraogo as he walked in several minutes after Williams’ sister, Venus, returned home. According to the police report, Serena Williams’ lawyer, Malcolm Cunningham, got a restraining order to keep Ouedraogo away from Williams after he followed her to a meeting with her agent in Los Angeles last October. Cunningham told police Ouedraogo also posed as Williams’ assistant while she was at the Home Shopping Network in Tampa, Florida, this year, gaining access to her dressing room before he was escorted from the building. Ouedraogo also followed Williams to a radio interview in Florida last month, the lawyer said.
HORSE RACING
Toby’s Corner cut from Derby
Wood Memorial winner Toby’s Corner has been scratched from Saturday’s Kentucky Derby after developing an unspecified injury to his left hind leg. Trainer Graham Motion detected a problem with the son of Bellamy Road on Monday and shipped the colt from his training center in Fair Hill, Maryland, to the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, for evaluation. “After what was a perfect work on Sunday, we weren’t 100 percent happy with him yesterday,” Motion told the Steeplechase Times on Tuesday. “He had a lameness in his left hind, we had him looked at here and then we sent him to New Bolton. At this point, there’s nothing obvious that’s causing the lameness.”
RUGBY UNION
Armitage suspended again
London Irish and England fullback Delon Armitage received his second suspension of the season on Tuesday — just over a month after coming back from an eight-week suspension. The 27-year-old, who missed the whole of this year’s Six Nations for pushing an anti-doping officer, was banned for three weeks for striking Northampton flyhalf Stephen Myler in the Premiership clash on April 23. His ban, imposed after he pleaded guilty at a disciplinary hearing in London on Tuesday, take effect from yesterday until Monday next week and then from May 24 to June 6. The ban has been split as London Irish cannot qualify for the playoffs. It means Armitage will miss sixth-placed Irish’s final league game away to leaders Leicester on Saturday and also England’s match against the Barbarians at Twickenham on May 29.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
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
Ollie Watkins’ second-half header on Thursday gave Aston Villa a 1-0 win over Lille OSC in the first leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-16 tie. Just past the hour mark, Ezri Konsa sent a deep pass that Emi Buendia headed to Watkins in the home team’s box. The England forward noticed goalkeeper Berke Ozer was off his line before sending a looping header over him and into the net. Minutes later, Watkins wasted a chance to double the advantage when he failed to score in a one-on-one with the ’keeper. Nottingham Forest were stunned 1-0 by Danish club Midtjylland, with substitute Cho
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
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