TENNIS
Nadal to return to Queen’s
Rafael Nadal will start his bid to win a third Wimbledon title by returning to the grass-court tournament at Queen’s Club later this year. Nadal, a 14-time Grand Slam champion, has reached the Wimbledon final in each of the five years he played at Queen’s, but UK tax laws forced the world No. 3 to turn his back on the west London event. The 28-year-old Spaniard had instead prepared for Wimbledon by playing in Germany at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle in recent years. Since his last visit to Queen’s in 2011, Nadal has failed to get past the fourth round at the All England Club and the former world No. 1, who last won Wimbledon in 2010, has decided to return after a three-year absence.
RUGBY UNION
Ugo Monye plans to retire
Harlequins’ former England and British and Irish Lions wing Ugo Monye plans to retire at the end of the season, he announced on the English Premiership club’s Web site on Monday. “It is a decision that I have been thinking about for a long time, and one that I haven’t taken lightly,” said Monye, who has spent his entire playing career at Quins, making 237 appearances. “I have had an unbelievable 13 years at Quins, and look back on my career with no regrets.” Monye, 31, won 14 England caps between 2008 and 2012, and played in two Tests on the Lions’ 2009 tour of South Africa, scoring one try in the third-Test victory in Johannesburg. He added: “I can honestly say that the one thing I am most proud of is that I have been a one-club man in a game that is ever-changing, and I am excited to be staying on at the club after my retirement in a different capacity.”
BASEBALL
Dodgers’ Ryu placed on DL
Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, a South Korean left-hander, is scheduled to begin the upcoming Major League Baseball season on the disabled list, team manager Don Mattingly said. Ryu, who turns 28 today, went 14-7 with a 3.38 earned-run average last season. However, he has a nagging left shoulder injury that prompted the Dodgers to send him home from pre-season training in Arizona to be examined by a doctor. Mattingly said a cortisone injection, treatment that helped ease shoulder stiffness last season, was delivered last week, but Ryu was barely able to lob a ball on Sunday.
SOCCER
Lucarelli banned over insult
Crisis-hit Parma have yet another problem. Captain Alessandro Lucarelli has been banned for three matches for insulting the referee. The incident occurred when Lucarelli was sent off in Sunday’s 2-0 loss at home to Torino. Parma were declared bankrupt by an Italian court last week with debts of more than 200 million euros (US$219.7 million), and the club’s new owner and president, Giampietro Manenti, was arrested on charges of money laundering and embezzlement. Players have not been paid all season and Parma sit last in Serie A.
RUGBY UNION
Manu to move to Edinburgh
Highlanders cocaptain Nasi Manu is to leave the Super 15 competition at the end of the season to join Edinburgh, the New Zealand club said yesterday. The Highlanders said Manu had signed a two-year contract with the Scottish club, but remained focused on this year’s Super 15 campaign. Manu should find conditions familiar in Scotland — the Highlanders home city Dunedin has a similar climate and is known as “the Edinburgh of the south.”
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
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