TENNIS
Pospisil out of Chennai Open
Vasek Pospisil of Canada was the only seed not to reach the Chennai Open second round when he lost to Aljaz Bedene of Britain 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) on Tuesday. Pospisil, seeded seventh, beat Bedene two months ago indoors in Valencia, Spain, but the closely ranked pair virtually went point for point outdoors in Chennai, India. The other two seeds in action, No. 5 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain and No. 6 Gilles Muller of Luxembourg, won three-setters. Russian teen Andrey Rublev, a wild card, beat local qualifier Somdev Devvarman 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 for a shot at two-time defending champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland. Also the top seed, Wawrinka is aiming for a fourth Chennai title. Second-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa also learned of his next opponent, 248th-ranked wild-card Ramkumar Ramanathan of India, who beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-2, 6-0 for his second career win on the ATP Tour.
SOCCER
Dyke eyes England success
Football Association (FA) chairman Greg Dyke said: “We’ll all shoot ourselves” if Roy Hodgson’s team fall at the group stage of Euro 2016. England face Wales, Russia and Slovakia in the tournament in France from June 10, haunted by the memory of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where they were eliminated at the group phase for the first time since 1958. Dyke stood by manager Hodgson after the debacle in Brazil, but said a repeat this year would mean heads would roll. “I think we’ll all shoot ourselves if we don’t get out of the group,” Dyke said. “We’ve got to get out of that group. If we don’t, that really is bad news for English football.” The 68-year-old former BBC director-general was speaking at the launch of a year of celebrations to commemorate the 50th anniversary of England’s 1966 World Cup success. “The FA is the richest FA in the world, the most income. The FA has to take some of the blame,” Dyke said.
SOCCER
Elect right man: Prince Ali
Suspended FIFA president Sepp Blatter and suspended UEFA president Michel Platini were “totally irresponsible” to agree a payment that has brought ignominy to world soccer, said Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, who hopes to take over the FIFA presidency next month. The Jordanian crown prince said the global governing body would be heading for a new “catastrophe” if it fails to elect the right candidate to succeed Blatter in the presidential election on Feb. 26. Eight-year bans against Blatter and Platini have left the pair in disgrace and fighting to save their names. Prince Ali said there is no way they could avoid trouble over a US$2 million payment approved by Blatter to Platini in 2011, adding that it is the sort of dark practice that must be rooted out. “In this day and age, to have an oral agreement is totally irresponsible,” he said.
FOOTBALL
Browns hire DePodesta
The Cleveland Browns hired MLB executive Paul DePodesta of as their chief strategy officer on Tuesday, taking an unconventional route to fix their NFL woes. DePodesta, 43, served as the vice president of player development and scouting for the New York Mets from 2010 and helped the franchise reach the World Series this past season. DePodesta previously had front office roles with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres. He gained further exposure as a key figure of Moneyball, a book-turned-movie that chronicled the Oakland Athletics and their method of using sabermetrics to target players.
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
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
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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