BASKETBALL
Cousins tossed in civvies
NBA bad boy DeMarcus Cousins was ejected on Friday from the Golden State Warriors’ game while wearing his street clothes. Cousins has yet to suit up for the Warriors in a game this season, but that is not stopping him from causing problems for NBA game officials. He was ejected in the first quarter against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden for arguing with referee Scott Foster. It was announced that Cousins had been slapped with a technical foul while sitting near the end of the Warriors’ bench. He was then thrown out of the game.
SOCCER
Wembley shelters Spurs
Tottenham Hotspur are to play their remaining home games this season at Wembley Stadium, the Premier League club announced on Friday. Spurs had been hoping to move into a new 62,000-seat stadium near their old White Hart Lane home in north London last month, but chairman Daniel Levy said that “factors completely outside of our control” meant that Spurs would not play at their new ground until next year at the earliest. “There isn’t an hour that goes by when I am not asked when we will be able to stage our first game at our new home,” Levy said.
SOCCER
Clasico fraudsters arrested
Spanish police on Friday announced the arrest of seven suspects in a fake tickets scam that cost the Barcelona soccer club 1.5 million euros (US$1.7 million). Fraudsters sold more than 2,800 fake tickets for a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid last May at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. At least eight businesses were involved in the fraud, a statement from the Guardia Civil police said. They got hold of Barcelona club supporters’ Quick Response codes to create the fake tickets and sell them at inflated prices, the statement said. Barcelona suspended the accounts of the subscribers involved and 33 of them found to have used this practice in the past had their subscription canceled.
GYMNASTICS
Biles in ER before worlds
Simone Biles was in an emergency room in Doha with kidney stone problems less than 24 hours before she was to compete to qualify for the world gymnastics championships, the Olympic champion said on Twitter on Friday. However, the problem was not going to keep her out of the championships, she said. “Nothing like a late night ER visit less than 24 hrs before world championships,” Biles tweeted, adding pictures of her in the emergency room. “This kidney stone can wait ... doing it for my team!... I’ll be gucci girls!” USA Gymnastics was not immediately available for comment, but an hour after Biles’ comments, the federation said in a tweet of its own that “@Simone_Biles and the rest of the team are amped to get things rolling.”
TENNIS
Nadal healed, set for Paris
Rafael Nadal on Friday arrived in France ahead of his expected return at the Paris Masters next week from the knee injury that flared up at the US Open. The 17-time Grand Slam champion was forced to withdraw from his US Open semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro early last month. The injury sidelined him for Spain’s Davis Cup semi-final against France, and also from the tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai. Nadal “has arrived in Paris,” Paris Masters director Guy Forget confirmed at Friday’s draw. In his absence, Novak Djokovic has moved to within 215 points of world No. 1 Nadal in the ATP rankings.
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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