TENNIS
Jarkko Nieminen advances
Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen beat eighth-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 to reach the second round of the Open Sud de France on Tuesday. The 33-year-old Nieminen broke his opponent’s serve three times and next meets either Japan’s Tatsuma Ito or Steve Darcis of Belgium. Meanwhile, Kenny de Schepper, one of several Frenchmen to reach the second round, had 10 aces in a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win against Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan and next faces top-seeded Gael Monfils of France, the defending champion. Edouard Roger-Vasselin, Paul-Henri Mathieu and wild-card Lucas Pouille also advanced. Roger-Vasselin served 14 aces as he beat Germany’s Andreas Beck 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Mathieu downed qualifier Taro Daniel of Japan 6-3, 6-7 (7/5), 6-1, while Pouille beat Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
TENNIS
Lajovic wins in Ecuador
Seventh-seeded Dusan Lajovic of Serbia has reached the second round of the Ecuador Open, defeating Luca Vanni of Italy 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 on Tuesday. In a match between unseeded players, Alejandro Falla of Colombia beat Brazilian Joao Souza 6-7 (7/3), 6-1, 6-4 to advance. The four top-seeded players — Feliciano Lopez, Santiago Giraldo, Fernando Verdasco and Martin Klizan — have byes into the second round. The Quito event is the first in a month of ATP and WTA clay-court tournaments across Latin America, all pointing toward the French Open in May.
BOXING
Carl Froch vacates title
Carl Froch has vacated his IBF super middleweight title because of an elbow injury, giving fellow British boxer James DeGale a chance to claim it. The 37-year-old Froch was hurt in training, ending hopes of meeting Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in Las Vegas on March 28. Froch (33-2, 24 KO) said: “It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks with terms agreed for the Chavez fight, only for me to be unable to proceed in camp due to injury.” He won the belt in 2012 and successfully defended it four times, most recently in May last year by stopping George Groves at Wembley in London. He retains the WBA crown, which he won in 2013 against Mikkel Kessler. Froch still hopes to line up Chavez this year. DeGale (24-1, 14 KO) was the IBF’s mandatory challenger and is in negotiations for a fight in London in April.
SOCCER
Algeria to keep Gourcuff
Frenchman Christian Gourcuff is set to remain as Algeria coach despite their quarter-final elimination from the Africa Cup of Nations, the Algerian Football Federation (FAF) confirmed on Tuesday. “FAF president Mohamed Raouraoua has renewed his confidence in The Greens’ [Algeria] coach Christian Gourcuff,” an FAF spokesman said. The former Lorient boss signed a contract in August last year and the decision to renew his contract was taken just after their elimination by Ivory Coast from the tournament in Africa. “There will be changes within the Greens. Some players are entering their 30s and are preparing to leave the team,” Gourcuff said. “We’ll have to call up other younger players. We already have a core of young and good players around which the future national team will be built. We’ll only need to reinforce certain areas by other elements for upcoming deadlines, notably the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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