GOLF
Rain suspends play at BMW
Heavy rain on Saturday wreaked havoc on the BMW International Open, leaving the leading group of players facing 36 holes yesterday after only four hours of action were possible on the third day. Leading duo Henrik Stenson and Raphael Jacquelin were due to go out for the third round at 1:20pm, with the third man at 11-under, Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, due out nine minutes earlier with Thorbjorn Olesen, who was a shot further back. However, rain led to a suspension of play at 11:59am at the Golf Club Gut Laerchenhof in Pulheim, Germany, and play was called off for the day at 4pm.
TENNIS
Johnson wins maiden title
The US’ Steve Johnson on Saturday sealed a first career ATP title by defeating Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 to win the Aegon Nottingham Open grass-court title. In only his second final, 38th-ranked Johnson edged a tight contest, dropping serve just once. “It feels really good, I’m not going to lie,” said Johnson, who reached the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club last week and is to move inside the world’s top 30 for the first time. “I had some ups and downs so far this year. To find my groove on the grass is fantastic. I had a good week at Queen’s Club and felt pretty comfortable on the grass. Once I got here and played my first couple of matches, I knew I was definitely a contender to win this.” Johnson joins Australia’s Nick Kyrgios and Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman as first-time winners this year.
OLYMPICS
Teddy Tamgho breaks leg
Former world triple jump champion Teddy Tamgho was on Saturday ruled out of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after breaking his leg at the French national trials, the country’s athletics federation said. The 27-year-old suffered the injury to his upper left leg in Angers, where the French championships, which double as the Olympic qualifiers, were taking place. It will take up to six months for the injury to heal, meaning he has no chance of making the Games, which take place on Aug. 5-21. “Again, it was a jump which could have gone to 18m+. But God is great, it’s not over,” the Frenchman, who had to be stretchered off the track and into an ambulance, said on Twitter. Tamgho, who hit the sand heavily and screamed with pain, holding his knee, has been plagued by injury throughout his career. In 2011, he fractured his ankle, broke his left leg for a first time in 2013 and then suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in Doha in May last year.
OLYMPICS
Bailey-Cole to run with Zika
Jamaican sprinter Kemar Bailey-Cole said he has been infected with the Zika virus, but would participate in his country’s Olympic trials next week. The Gleaner on Saturday reported that the 24-year-old track star said he has rashes and eye pain, but is not afflicted by the muscle pain often associated with the virus, which he caught in Jamaica. Bailey-Cole won a gold medal in the 100m relay at the London Olympics in 2012. His case comes amid rising concern among athletes over a surge in Zika infections in Brazil, where Rio de Janeiro is to host the Olympics in August. Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy, US cyclist Tejay van Garderen and British long jumper Greg Rutherford have dropped out of the Games citing Zika worries.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
Erling Haaland on Sunday scored twice to propel Manchester City up to second in the English Premier League with a 3-1 win over AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries started the day in second thanks to the longest unbeaten run in the English top flight, but Andoni Iraola’s side were undone by the scintillating form of the Norwegian striker, who took his tally to 13 Premier League goals in 10 games. Haaland’s relentless streak is maintaining City’s title challenge as they reduced the gap to leaders Arsenal back to six points and edged one point ahead of Liverpool, who they face at the weekend. “Important
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
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