BASKETBALL
US players fail doping tests
Two players from the US failed doping tests earlier this year while competing in China’s professional basketball league, the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) said on Tuesday. Montrezl Harrell and Troy Akeem Gillenwater tested positive in April for tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, a precursor to tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound in marijuana. They failed routine in-competition tests, while Harrell was contracted to the Xinjiang Flying Tigers and Gillenwater was playing for the Guangdong Southern Tigers. The CBA in a statement said it would impose penalties on the players after the China Anti-Doping Agency makes a final decision on their cases.
BASEBALL
Carroll’s return uncertain
Taiwanese-American outfielder Corbin Carroll has a chip fracture in his left wrist and his timeline for a return is unknown, Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. He told reporters on Monday night after a 10-0 win over the Chicago White Sox that Carroll would “continue to get some opinions just to find out what that official diagnosis means and what the time frame will be.” Carroll has not played since a pitch hit him in the left hand on Wednesday last week in Toronto. “It’s on the back of his hand,” Lovullo said of the chip fracture. “The impact of the ball hit the side of his hand. Just goes to show you how hard these guys are throwing today.” Carroll is batting .255 with 20 homers and 44 RBIs this season. He was the National League Rookie of the Year and an All-Star in 2023.
ICE HOCKEY
Matt Martin to retire
Matt Martin on Tuesday announced his retirement after 16 NHL seasons, all but two with the New York Islanders, a departure that leaves the league with only a few players who take the ice without a visor. Martin was one of just five holdovers in the league who played without a visor on his helmet. His move to the front office as special assistant to Islanders general manager Mathieu Darche makes Ryan O’Reilly, Jamie Benn, Zach Bogosian and Ryan Reaves the only remaining visor-less players, after a new rule in 2013 mandated visors for newcomers, grandfathering them like helmets were decades earlier. Martin, who has said much of his role on ice was fighting, played his final of 1,075 regular-season and playoff games without one on April 17. “If they mandated it, I would’ve wore it,” Martin said in 2023. “I took it off because of the role I play, and at the time, everybody that played that role didn’t wear it. I got used to that, so I never changed.”
SOCCER
Salary-stealing ring busted
Brazilian authorities on Tuesday said they had dismantled a bank-fraud ring that embezzled wages from professional soccer players. The Brazilian Ministry of Justice said the suspected fraudsters stole more than 1 million reals (US$180,695) from players. They opened bank accounts in the players’ names using false documents and then requested the transfer of their salaries from the accounts into which they had been paid by their clubs. Authorities did not specify the names of the players involved, but local media reported that several play for Brazilian first-division clubs, and included Cruzeiro striker Gabigol and Gremio’s Argentine defender Walter Kannemann. The authorities said 135,000 reals had been recovered.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
The Canterbury Crusaders edged the Waikato Chiefs 16-12 in an intense Super Rugby Pacific final battle in Christchurch yesterday to claim their 15th title in 30 years of the Southern Hemisphere competition. Hooker Codie Taylor scored a try and Rivez Reihana contributed 11 points from the kicking tee as the most dominant team in Super Rugby history extended their perfect home playoff record to 32 successive matches since 1998. The Chiefs, who were looking for a first title since 2013, scored first-half tries through George Dyer and Shaun Stevenson, but were unable to register a point after the break and fell to
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