BASKETBALL
Kanter to gain ‘Freedom’
Enes Kanter, the Boston Celtics center from Turkey, was planning to change his name to Enes Kanter Freedom after he gained US citizenship yesterday, The Athletic sports Web site reported. Kanter, 29, has long been a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dubbing him the “Hitler of our century” in 2017. He has not reserved his criticism for Turkey, condemning the human rights record of China, while earlier this month voicing support for Taiwan.
FORMULA ONE
Ecclestone recalls Williams
Former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone paid tribute to the late Frank Williams as a pioneer who helped to build the modern sport. Williams, who had been quadriplegic since a 1986 car accident in France, died on Sunday aged 79, his family said in a statement. The eponymous team he founded, still the second-most successful in terms of constructors’ championships and third-oldest, was sold to Dorilton Capital last year. Williams came from an era where title-winning teams were run by their founders, men such as Enzo Ferrari and Ken Tyrrell. “Without those type of people I doubt whether Formula One would have still been going now. Probably Ferrari would have stopped and that would have been it,” 91-year-old Ecclestone said. He recalled Williams as an old friend who got over life’s financial and physical obstacles with charm and determination. “Frank was a little bit special as a person, and that sort of showed in the way he kept going,” he said. “Things were never really bad as far as Frank was concerned, he never complained about things. He got on with things the best way he could, and that’s the reason he was so successful. He was a racer through and through.”
TENNIS
Spain out of Davis Cup
Russia on Sunday knocked reigning champion Spain out of the Davis Cup to set up a quarter-final against Sweden. The Russians’ tie against the depleted Spanish team came down to a late-night doubles encounter in Madrid. Aslan Karatsev and world No. 5 Andrey Rublev won 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 against Marcel Granollers and Feliciano Lopez to win Group A and deprive the Spanish team of the chance to play in front of a home crowd in Madrid on Thursday. Karatsev and Rublev, playing under the name the Russian Tennis Federation because of sanctions against Russian sport for doping, made a bad start to the tie when Lopez beat Rublev 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening singles rubber. US Open champion Daniil Medvedev stepped up to bring the tie level with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) win over Pablo Carreno Busta, before the doubles decided the match.
ICE HOCKEY
Toronto tie team record
Michael Bunting, Alexander Kerfoot and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist, and the Toronto Maple Leafs completed their most successful month in franchise history by beating the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Sunday night. The Maple Leafs went 12-2-0 this month, becoming the eighth NHL team to win 12 games in November. Toronto also tied a franchise record with its seventh straight road victory. The team also had seven straight road wins in the 1940-1941, 1960-1961 and 2002-2003 seasons. “The mood in the room is upbeat, everyone’s happy, so it’s really fun to be a part of,” Bunting said.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Jahmyr Gibbs was offered oxygen on the bench after a 78-yard run. He turned it down. Clearly, he was not out of breath. Gibbs on Monday scored on a long sprint in the second quarter, a five-yard spinning plunge in the third and accounted for a career-high 218 yards from the scrimmage to lead the Detroit Lions in a 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. “You felt like this was coming,” Detroit coach Dan Campbell said. “This has been building.” The Lions (5-2) bounced back from a loss as they have done flawlessly for nearly three years, extending their NFL-long streak of 51 games
RSS