MOTORSPORTS
Schumacher family to sue
Michael Schumacher’s family is planning legal action against a German weekly magazine over an “interview” with the former Formula One champion that was generated by artificial intelligence (AI). A spokesperson for the Schumacher family on Wednesday pointed to published reports of legal action. The Ferrari great has not been seen in public since he sustained a serious brain injury in a skiing accident on a family holiday in the French Alps in December 2013. The family has guarded his privacy since, with access limited to those closest to him and little information given about his condition. The latest edition of Die Aktuelle ran a front cover with a picture of a smiling Schumacher and the headline promising “Michael Schumacher, the first interview.” The strapline added: “It sounded deceptively real.” Inside, the supposed quotes had been produced by AI.
TENNIS
Sabalenka beats Krejcikova
World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday said that her win against Barbora Krejcikova in the second round of the Stuttgart Open would boost her preparations for the Roland Garros Grand Slam. Sabalenka defeated Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3 in 1 hour, 15 minutes, becoming the first player to book her spot in the quarter-finals. The Belarusian said the victory handed her a confidence boost ahead of the tournament in Paris, which is to start next month. “It’s tough, but an interesting challenge to play the first match against a Grand Slam champion,” Sabalenka told reporters. She had a bye in the first round. “It is something unique like you’re never going to play the first round against a Grand Slam champion in the bigger tournament,” she said.
BASEBALL
A’s sign ballpark deal
The Oakland Athletics have signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a new ballpark with a retractable roof in Las Vegas after being unable to build a new venue in the Bay Area of San Francisco. Team president Dave Kaval on Wednesday said that the team finalized a deal last week to buy the 19.8-hectare site where the A’s plan to build the stadium close to the Las Vegas Strip with a seating capacity of 30,000 to 35,000. The team would work with Nevada and Clark County to fund the stadium. Kaval said that the A’s hope to break ground by next year and would hope to be move to their new home by 2027. “It’s obviously a very big milestone for us,” Kaval said. “We spent almost two years working in Las Vegas to try to determine a location that works for a long-term home. To identify a site and have a purchase agreement is a big step.”
RUGBY UNION
RTS to return to league
All Blacks center Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (RTS) is to head back to rugby league with the New Zealand Warriors at the end of this season. The 29-year-old, who switched to the 15-man game in 2021 and played three Tests, has agreed to move back to his former league club next season on a three-year deal. “Once I knew what my future held, I wanted to announce this and quickly shift the focus back to this season,” he said in a statement.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
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