WNBA
Game disrupted again
A sex toy was tossed onto the court during a WNBA game for the second time this week. Video showed the sex toy out of bounds under a basket after a whistle was blown to stop play during the third quarter of the Golden State Valkyries’ 73-66 victory over the Chicago Sky. An official then kicked it aside before it was picked up and removed. “It’s super disrespectful,” Sky center Elizabeth Williams said in the postgame news conference. “I don’t really get the point of it. It’s really immature. Whoever is doing it needs to grow up.” A similar incident occurred on Tuesday during the Valkyries’ 77-75 victory over the Atlanta Dream in College Park, Georgia. “I mean, first of all, it was super dangerous,” Valkyries forward Cecilia Zandalasini said after Tuesday’s game. “When we found out what it was, I guess we just started laughing. I’ve never seen anything like that. I’m just glad we worked through that situation. We stayed locked in, we stayed concentrated.”
SOCCER
Pavlovic injured in training
Bayern Munich midfielder Aleksandar Pavlovic’s bad luck with injuries and illness seems to have struck again. The German champions yesterday said that Pavlovic has undergone surgery after fracturing his eye socket in a team training session on Friday. Bayern did not say exactly how the injury happened or how long Pavlovic would be out, just that he “is facing a spell on the sidelines.” The 21-year-old Pavlovic is considered one of world soccer’s best young defensive midfielders, but has already racked up a list of absences for sometimes-unusual injuries and illness. Pavlovic struggled with tonsillitis in his breakthrough 2023-24 season and was ruled out of Germany’s team for the UEFA European Championships in 2024 with illness.
CHESS
Carlsen wins e-sports title
Norwegian grandmaster Magnus Carlsen won the inaugural Esports World Cup chess tournament on Friday, defeating Alireza Firouzja in Riyadh. World No. 1 Carlsen claimed the US$250,000 top prize and saw his Team Liquid sneak ahead in the overall championship after his win over Firouzja. The prize pool of the tournament was US$1.5 million. “It’s been an amazing show, unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Carlsen said just before lifting the trophy on stage, with pyrotechnics lighting up behind him. The inclusion of the centuries-old board game in the e-sports tournament comes after it experienced a significant revival during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arbitration
CAS authority challenged
The European Court of Justice on Friday said that national courts must be permitted to carry out detailed reviews of arbitral awards by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The ruling is potentially damaging for the authority of CAS, sport’s top court, whose awards are currently considered final and cannot be re-litigated, and the ruling could also have wide-reaching consequences for FIFA. The ruling stemmed from a CAS judgement against Belgian club Seraing, which was banned from registering new players and fined about 143,000 euros (US$165,787) by FIFA in 2015. FIFA ruled that Seraing had breached rules by selling the economic rights to four of its players to a Maltese fund, Doyen Sports.
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Top seeds Alexander Zverev of Germany and American Coco Gauff on Tuesday advanced to the third round of the Canadian Open after both players were pushed hard by their opponents. World No. 3 Zverev, playing in his first match since his first-round loss at Wimbledon, was far from his best, but emerged with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 win over Adam Walton under the lights in Toronto. Momentum shifted firmly in Zverev’s favor when he won a 52-shot rally in the first set tiebreak and he sealed the win on a double fault by the Australian in the second set. “It was a very
Cycling great Marianne Vos won the opening stage of the women’s Tour de France with a brilliant late attack on Saturday. The 38-year-old Dutchwoman overtook her Visma–Lease a Bike teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prevot approaching the line, and then held off Mauritian rider Kim Le Court in the closing meters of a grueling uphill finish. Ferrand-Prevot looked set to win the stage, but the Frenchwoman attacked too early from 600m and could not withstand the late surge from Vos, who punched the air with her left fist as she crossed the line. Moments later, Vos hugged an exhausted-looking Ferrand-Prevot, the Paris-Roubaix winner. “I didn’t know if
TAIWANESE EXITS: Fellow Australian Christopher O’Connell joined Tristan Schoolkate as a winner following his 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Tseng Hsin-chun Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate on Monday dispatched rising Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 at the ATP Toronto Masters, ensuring a breakthrough into the world top 100. The 24-year-old from Perth moved to 98th in the ongoing live rankings as he claimed his biggest career victory by knocking out the ATP NextGen champion from November last year. Schoolkate, son of a tennis coach, won his first match over a top-50 opponent on his sixth attempt as he ousted the world No. 49 teenager from Brazil. The qualifier played a quarter-final this month in Los Cabos and won through qualifying for his
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