U.S./World Sports category, Page 378
Boomer Sooner: Tide QB Jalen Hurts transferring to Oklahoma
Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley could not help but admire Jalen Hurts from a distance. He respected how the Alabama quarterback who lost his starting job to Tua Tagovailoa put the team above his pride. Hurts could have transferred right after Alabama went another direction, as so many quarterbacks do these...
Europeans unravel massive tennis match-fixing ring
PARIS — The crooked tennis players knew him as “Maestro.” To European investigators, the Armenian based in Belgium is emerging as something else: The suspected ringleader of an organized gambling syndicate suspected of fixing hundreds of matches and corrupting more than 100 players from around Europe. As Roger Federer and...
Super Bowl planners: Shutdown brings ‘uncharted territory’
ATLANTA — A day after travelers waited nearly 90 minutes in snail-speed security lines at the world’s busiest airport, Atlanta’s mayor is concerned about the waits that could result when the city hosts the 2019 Super Bowl. The ongoing partial government shutdown is “uncharted territory” amid planning for one of...
American Sloane Stephens advances at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, Australia — Sloane Stephens advanced at the Australian Open at the expense of her former doubles partner, Timea Babos, in a second-round match the women’s tour billed as a battle of the so-called “frenemies.” Fifth-seeded Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, dominated the Rod Laver Arena opener 6-3, 6-1...
Serena Williams makes return to Australian Open a triumphant one
MELBOURNE, Australia — Serena Williams jumped straight back in where she left off at the Australian Open, returning for the first time since winning the title in 2017 when she was pregnant with her first child. Williams conceded only five points in the first set and was completely clinical in...
Syracuse upsets No. 1 Duke in OT
DURHAM, N.C. — Tyus Battle scored a season-high 32 points, and Syracuse used its 2-3 zone defense to rattle No. 1 Duke in overtime as the Orange pulled off a 95-91 upset Monday night. With swingman Cameron Reddish out with an illness and point guard Tre Jones suffering a shoulder...
Heisman winner, Athletics prospect Kyler Murray declares for NFL Draft
Kyler Murray, the first-round MLB draft pick and Heisman Trophy-winning Oklahoma quarterback, declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft on Monday. Murray announced his decision in a tweet, ending his brief and storied college career. What’s next for the Murray is not known. The Oakland Athletics made the speedy outfielder...
Duke stays at No. 1 in AP Top 25; Kentucky, Marquette rise
RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke remained firmly entrenched at No. 1 for a fourth straight week in The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll, which was enough to give its Hall of Fame coach another record. The Blue Devils led an unchanged top 10 in Monday’s AP Top 25 and spent...
On bad hip, Andy Murray bounced from Australian Open; Nadal finds form
MELBOURNE, Australia — If this was it for Andy Murray, if this truly was it, he gave himself — and an appreciative, raucous crowd that included his mother and brother — quite a gutsy goodbye, the type of never-give-in performance he’s famous for. What Murray could not quite do Monday...
Maria Sharapova opens Australian Open with easy win
MELBOURNE, Australia — Maria Sharapova has the second-best record among active players in first-round matches at the majors, and she gave an illustration of why that’s the case with a ruthless 6-0, 6-0 win over Harriet Dart at the Australian Open. The 2008 Australian Open champion got play started on...
Explosions bring down roof of Milwaukee Bucks’ former homeVideo
MILWAUKEE — Dozens of small, simultaneous explosions have brought down the steel roof of the Bradley Center, the former home of the Milwaukee Bucks. The controlled demolition Sunday morning left debris scattered in the street. The Bradley Center closed last summer and the Bucks moved next door to the $524...
Joe Gibbs’ eldest son dies at 49 from neurological disease
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — J.D. Gibbs, eldest son of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, was remembered as the visionary behind the stellar career of several NASCAR stars following his death from complications a long battle with a degenerative neurological disease. He was 49. Joe Gibbs Racing announced Gibbs’...
Tide change: Top of golf now belongs to youth
HONOLULU — Leave it to the oldest rookie to best illustrate how the PGA Tour has become such a young man’s game. Chris Thompson tried for 19 years to reach the highest level of golf, and he finally earned a PGA Tour card when he was 42. With every year...
Nadal: Andy Murray will be big loss but show must go on
MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal knew it was inevitable that sooner or later the Big Four would become the Big Three. That Andy Murray is the first of the longtime leading four in men’s tennis to signal the end of his career is something Nadal has to keep in perspective....
Tearful Andy Murray says Australian Open could be his last tournament
MELBOURNE, Australia — Andy Murray is still hoping to make it to one more Wimbledon tournament before his problematic hip forces him into retirement. For now, he’s only committing to the Australian Open. In an emotional news conference Friday, when a tearful Murray had to leave the room shortly after...
Lawyer: Vegas police seek Ronaldo DNA in rape investigation
LAS VEGAS — Cristiano Ronaldo is being asked by police in the U.S. to provide a DNA sample in an ongoing investigation of a Nevada woman’s allegation that he raped her in his Las Vegas hotel penthouse in 2009, the soccer star’s lawyer in Las Vegas said Thursday. Attorney Peter...
Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman breaks elbow in fall on stairs
BOSTON — Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman says she is recovering from a broken elbow suffered in a fall on the stairs. Raisman in a Twitter post says “I survived two Olympic Games and 19 years of gymnastics without ever breaking a bone … the stairs got me … I fell...
Russia says WADA has started copying doping data
MOSCOW — Russia says World Anti-Doping Agency experts have started copying data from a Moscow laboratory which could implicate numerous Russian athletes in past drug cases. Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov says in televised comments that “work has started with the equipment, setting the equipment up and copying the database.” He...
90-year-old cyclist unfairly tainted by positive test
With each pedal-stroke of his 80- and now 90-year-old legs, Carl Grove sought to show his fellow Americans that old age can be rich and rewarding. His bike is his soapbox. As time caught up with many of his peers, the former United States Navy Band saxophonist, who played for...
Coaches push for changes to targeting rules, kickoffs and eliminating Friday night games
Looking to provide some clarification for the sometimes ambiguous targeting rule, coaches taking part in the annual American Football Coaches Association Convention this week have put forth a proposal that would create a two-fold penalty. The concept put forth by the group, which consists of college football coaches from every...
Former St. Francis (Pa.) standout Lorenzo Jerome signs with Calgary of CFL
Former St. Francis (Pa.) defensive back Lorenzo Jerome signed an entry-level contract with the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders, the reigning Grey Cup champions. Jerome made the San Francisco 49ers’ opening-day roster in 2017 and appeared in four games before being released. This past season, he spent time in camp with the...
Clemson coach Swinney already looking forward to defending national title
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Dabo Swinney won’t be celebrating for long. After leading Clemson to its second national title in three years, the coach is eager to get started on the next one. Swinney will be back in the office Friday — meeting with players, going over the schedule for...
Very early college football rankings: Ready for Alabama-Clemson, Part 5?
A perfectly reasonable ranking of any college football season in the late 2010s can be summed up as follows: No. 1. Alabama or Clemson No. 2. Alabama or Clemson Nos. 3-roughly 130. Cannon fodder But though the Crimson Tide and the Tigers have traded national titles and met in the...
Watch: Hulk Hogan, WWE honor ‘Mean’ Gene Okerlund on Raw
WWE and Hulk Hogan paid tribute to the late “Mean” Gene Okerlund on the Jan. 7 edition of “Monday Night Raw.” The wrestling legend returned to WWE television for the first time since being fired in July 2015 after racist comments he made in 2006 leaked. Despite some pushback from...
Clemson is No. 1 for 3rd time in AP poll; ‘Bama 2, Ohio St 3
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Clemson finished No. 1 in The Associated Press poll for the third time after routing Alabama in the national championship game. The Tigers received all 61 first-place votes. The Crimson Tide, which was trying to become just the third team to go wire-to-wire as the No....
