TENNIS
Swaitek races to quarters
Second-ranked Iga Swiatek dropped only two games and advanced to the quarter-finals of the China Open by thrashing Magda Linette 6-1, 6-1 yesterday. She next faces either ninth-seeded Carolina Garcia or Anhelina Kalinina tomorrow. Swiatek raced into a 5-0 lead in the first set and snuffed out any hope of an unlikely comeback when she forced her fellow Pole to fire a forehand long. The four-time Grand Slam champion then presided over a second-set masterclass, blitzing an exhausted Linette with an unrelenting salvo of mighty groundstrokes to wrap up the match in just over an hour. World No. 4 Jessica Pegula crashed out with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, who faces Liudmila Samsonova in the last eight after the Russian defeated Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 in a match that took nearly three hours. Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina defeated Russia’s Mirra Andreeva 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. The men’s singles final between Italy’s Jannik Sinner and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev was delayed and was not over as of press time last night.
TENNIS
Polmans hits umpire
Australian Marc Polmans yesterday said he had apologized to the chair umpire after accidentally hitting him in the face with a ball in a Shanghai Masters qualifying match on Tuesday. The world No. 140 was leading Italian Stefano Napolitano after winning the first set when he hit a volley into the net on his second match point. The Australian then hit the ball in anger as it bounced back from the net. His errant hit narrowly missed the ball person before hitting chair umpire Ben Anderson in the face. Anderson was apparently not seriously injured. Polmans was immediately disqualified. “An update from me — the umpire, Ben, has accepted my apology for my actions — he knows it was unintentional and I shanked the ball on the frame in frustration in the heat of the moment,” Polmans wrote on social media platform X yesterday. “We both move on. It was a high pressure situation and I should have reacted better.” Polmans would forfeit all prize money and ranking points picked up during the qualifying tournament. He could still face further punishment from the ATP for the incident.
OLYMPICS
Bedbug sightings spark furor
A rash of bedbug sightings across France is causing paranoia among travelers and becoming a sore spot for the government as Paris prepares to host the Olympics next year. Videos that appear to show the bloodsucking insects crawling over seats on the Paris Metro and a high-speed train have gone viral on social media in the past few weeks, and some Metro passengers posted videos on TikTok vowing to stay standing. Public transport operator RATP, which runs Paris’s subway, trams and buses said in a statement that it had investigated, but “no cases of bedbugs have been confirmed to date.” While it is unclear whether infestations are up significantly, it has become a political issue in France, which is hosting the Rugby World Cup. French Minister Delegate for Transport Clement Beaune was to hold an emergency meeting with public transportation operators yesterday to discuss how to tackle the issue.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
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