FOOTBALL
Brady trying out new helmet
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is breaking in a new helmet this exhibition season, yet another sign the 41-year-old quarterback is planning to play next year. Brady’s old helmet is among the models being phased out by the NFL, because tests showed that it is not as effective at protecting against concussions. The new rules take effect next season, but Brady used a compliant helmet in last week’s pre-season game against the Philadelphia Eagles instead of the one he has had through most of his NFL career. Brady said he was still tweaking the new model to make sure the mask allows for the same comfort and peripheral vision as the one he was used to. He said he asked his teammates if he looked younger or faster in it. “They said yes, so I might keep it,” Brady said.
GOLF
Woods, Mickelson to duel
The winner-take-all match between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson is on. WarnerMedia said it has secured the rights for a pay-per-view event it is promoting as “The Match,” which is to feature 18 holes between Woods and Mickelson on Thanksgiving weekend at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. The winner is to receive US$9 million. The pay-per-view cost is to be announced later. Woods announced that the match was on in a tweet, setting off Twitter banter with Mickelson, who only signed up for a Twitter account on Wednesday. Pay-per-view coverage would be distributed through Turner’s B/R Live, AT&T DirecTV and U-verse, as well as on other on-demand platforms, WarnerMedia said. Woods and Mickelson are to make side bets during the match on things such as longest drive or closest to the pin.
ICE HOCKEY
The Cup to visit Humboldt
The Washington Capitals’ Chandler Stephenson is today to take the Stanley Cup to Canada in the hopes of providing a lift to the Saskatchewan town of Humboldt, home to the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team. A bus crash in April killed 16 people, including 11 members of the team. Stephenson is from nearby Saskatoon. He said he knew he wanted to use his time with the Stanley Cup to take the famous trophy to Humboldt, adding that the community deserves to have a good day. Members of the Broncos organization are to be around Stephenson and the Stanley Cup for a private function before he takes the trophy to a public event in the afternoon that is to feature street hockey with a handful of NHL players.
RUGBY UNION
Cipriani escapes with fines
England flyhalf Danny Cipriani is not to face further sanction by the Rugby Football Union following an incident at a nightclub in Jersey last week that left a female police officer bruised. The union had charged Cipriani with “conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game” following his conviction for common assault and resisting arrest. He was fined ￡2,000 (US$2,582) and ordered to pay ￡250 in compensation to the officer after pleading guilty to common assault at Jersey Magistrates’ Court. He was on Monday also fined ￡2,000 and told to undertake 10 hours of community service by his club, Gloucester Rugby. A disciplinary panel on Wednesday upheld the union charges, but decided the punishment handed out to him by magistrates and the club was sufficient.
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,”
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.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
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