TENNIS
Hsieh wins Prague opener
Taiwanese star Hsieh Su-wei and partner Tsao Chia-yi on Monday won the women’s doubles opener at the Prague Open as they prepare for the opening of the Paris Games. The third seeds defeated the Czech Republic’s Miriam Kolodziejova and Jesika Maleckova 5-7, 6-1, 10-4 to advance to the quarter-finals. The Taiwanese are to face the winners of yesterday’s match, Estelle Cascino of France and Tang Qianhui of China against Elixane Lechemia of France and Astra Sharma of Australia. Women’s Olympic doubles start on Saturday, the day after the Prague Open ends. Chan Hao-ching and her sister, Latisha Chan, are also to compete in Paris.
OLYMPICS
Snoop Dogg to carry torch
US rapper Snoop Dogg is to be among the torchbearers carrying the Olympic flame in the final stretch before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games on Friday. Snoop Dogg, 52, is to carry the torch through the streets of Saint-Denis, the underprivileged northern Paris suburb that is home to the Stade de France Olympic Stadium, Saint-Denis Mayor Mathieu Hanotin wrote on X. “Saint Denis: last step before the Eiffel Tower. An international cast @SnoopDogg for the last stretch of the Olympic Flame,” Hanotin wrote. The rapper, who is also contributing to NBC coverage of the Games, is better known in the sports world for his Snoop Youth Football League. The championship game is called the “Snooper Bowl.” Other torchbearers in Saint-Denis on Friday include French actress Laetitia Casta and French rapper MC Solaar.
BASKETBALL
Miami win Summer League
Pelle Larsson on Monday broke a tie by scoring from the lane in overtime to give Miami a 120-118 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies and hand the Heat their first NBA Summer League championship. “Coach [Dan Bisaccio] drew up a great play we’ve run in practice a bunch of times,” Larsson said. “They did a good job guarding it. We have shooters everywhere and they want to help, and I just made it.” It was the highest-scoring game in championship history and just the second one to go into overtime. The Los Angeles Lakers’ 110-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in 2017 had the previous record for total points in the Summer League final. Just the year before, the Chicago Bulls defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 84-82 for the only other final to reach OT. Under Summer League overtime rules, both teams played to a target score rather than under a clock. That score was set at 120 points.
CYCLING
No more Tours: Cavendish
British cyclist Mark Cavendish has confirmed that he has competed in his last Tour de France, having finally broken the all-time record for most stage wins at the Tour. Cavendish had been level on 34 stage wins with Eddy Merckx since 2021, but this year he sprinted to victory on stage five to make the record his own, and now the 39-year-old can bow out in style. “I think now it’s time. I’ve done 15 Tours de France and I’ve created some incredible memories of the Tour de France,” Cavendish said. “This race has given me a life I could only dream of. It’s given me the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.”
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds said it felt like an “impossible dream” when fellow Hollywood A-lister Rob McElhenney first floated the idea of buying soccer club Wrexham, along with a pitch for a documentary. The ultimate goal was reaching the Premier League. Four years after they purchased the north Wales outfit, Wrexham are one league away from achieving their lofty goal after a 3-0 win over Charlton Athletic on Saturday saw them promoted for a record third consecutive time. “We were standing there doing a press conference four years ago, and said our goal is to make it to the Premier League, and
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