SOCCER
Ronaldo pleads guilty
Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed to plead guilty to tax fraud and pay a fine of 18.8 million euros (US$21.8 million) in exchange for a prison sentence that would most likely be suspended, El Mundo reported on Friday. Ronaldo is ready to admit to four counts of tax fraud that would carry a prison sentence of two years, the newspaper said. Prison sentences not more than two years in Spain are often suspended for first-time offenders. The deal has yet to be ratified by the Spanish Tax Office, according to different Spanish media, including Europa Press news agency. Neither the office, the Spanish Ministry of Justice nor people close to Ronaldo would confirm the existence of a deal when called by reporters. One year ago, a Spanish state prosecutor accused Ronaldo of four counts of tax fraud from 2011 to 2014 worth 14.7 million euros.
BASEBALL
Kang back after third DUI
Pirates infielder Kang Jung-ho was on Friday reinstated from the restricted list and optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis after missing last season and the first part of this year because of visa issues. The 31-year-old was unable to secure a work visa to travel from South Korea after he was arrested for driving under the influence for a third time in December 2016 in Seoul. He received an eight-month suspended prison sentence. Friday’s move is primarily procedural, since Kang has already played in 11 minor league games. He was cleared to travel to the US on April 27. Kang finished third in the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year voting after becoming the first native South Korean position player to make the jump from the South Korea Baseball Organization to the MLB.
BASKETBALL
NBA teases rule change
The NBA on Friday sent a memo to all 30 teams saying the draft’s “eligibility rules” could change as soon as 2021 based on a review of issues “related to player development and the corruption investigation in college basketball,” ESPN reported. The memo does not specifically mention the league’s one-and-done rule — which prevents players from entering the NBA until age 19 or a year removed from high school — but it indicates that rule could be eliminated “prior to the 2021 or 2022 draft,” ESPN said. The elimination of the rule would likely make the ensuing draft much more talent-rich than a typical draft by featuring much of the top talent from consecutive high-school classes in one draft.
TENNIS
Romania mad over cartoon
Romanians are expressing outrage at a cartoon in Charlie Hebdo likening their newly crowned tennis champion Simona Halep to a Roma scrap metal collector. The caricature in Thursday’s edition of the weekly showed Halep holding up her French Open trophy and shouting “Old iron! Old iron!” French ambassador to Romania Michele Ramis defended “freedom of expression and a free press,” adding on Friday that the cartoon “doesn’t at all represent French public opinion.” Halep, who received a hero’s welcome upon her return to Romania, said she was not “in a position to comment,” but Brussels-based Romanian journalist Dan Alexe said he believed the joke was directed at “ignorant French who think all Romanians are metal thieves.” The ethnic Roma minority, some of whom prefer to call themselves Gypsies, makes up about 3 percent of Romania’s population of nearly 20 million.
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
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