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Fri/Sat/Sun July 6~8, 2018

BASKETBALL offi cials from Australia and the Philippines have issued a joint apology for the vicious brawl during Monday’s World Cup qualifi er in the Philippines that resulted in the ejection of 13 players.

Philippines basketball federa-tion president Alfredo Panlilio

and Ned Coten, president of Basketball Australia, said in the statement Thursday that the “actions displayed have no place on any basketball court.”

“We wish to apologize to the entire basketball community worldwide, and in particular to our fantastic fans in the

Philippines and Australia, for the behavior displayed by both teams and for bringing the game of basketball into disrepute.”

World basketball governing body FIBA has yet to announce any sanctions for the brawl that saw nine Philippines

players ejected and four from Australia.

Australia assistant coach and former NBA player Luc Longley said on his return to Australia that the brawl at Philippine Arena in Ciudad de Victoria was the worst thing he had seen on a basketball court. (SD-Agencies)

ROGER FEDERER moved into the third round at the All England Club as he chases his record-extending ninth cham-pionship there, using close-to-impeccable serving to beat 73rd-ranked Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4, 6-1.

The Swiss champion was at his breath-taking best as he crafted 48 exquisite winners during a 90-minute masterclass that seemed more an exhibition of his shot-making than a charge towards a record ninth Wimble-don title.

The last time Federer turned up to defend his crown, in 2013, he suffered a shock second-round humbling by Sergiy Stakhovsky.

There was no danger of a repeat performance Wednes-day, however, and a forehand swish on match point gave the top seed a 26th consecutive set at the grasscourt major.

“On certain days it goes better than others,” summed up a grin-ning Federer, who will be seek-ing a 10th successive win at the All England Club when he takes on Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the third round.

Lacko had probably hoped he could throw some curve balls Federer’s way after enjoying a run to the Eastbourne fi nal at the weekend.

Unfortunately, it was the Slovakian who was left dodging the majestic missiles that kept raining down on his half of the court.

The top seed belted down 16 aces, hit the target with 70 per-cent of his fi rst serves, dropped

RUMORS of a potential trans-fer that would send Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid to Italian champion Juventus led the front pages of multiple daily sport newspapers in Europe on Tuesday.

Sources close to Ronaldo told ESPN that Juventus has made an offer to Real Madrid for the Portuguese superstar but that no decision has been reached by any party at this point.

Marca in Spain and A Bola in Portugal led their Tuesday print editions by amplifying a claim made on Spanish TV station La Sexta’s “Jugones” show Monday night that Madrid had agreed to sell Ronaldo to Juventus.

The newspapers cited the TV report in their own discussions of a potential transfer, but did not

confi rm that the deal has already been agreed.

Meanwhile, the story on the front of Italy’s Tuttosport on Tuesday said Juventus was preparing an offer of nearly 120 million Euros (US$140 million) for Ronaldo.

ESPN Deportes’ Paola Nunez reported that the “Jugones” story means that Real Madrid is at least considering the possibility of negotiations with Juventus.

Any transfer would still require Ronaldo to leave and agree personal terms on a new contract. The “Jugones” report said Juventus would offer to make Ronaldo the highest-paid player in their history at 30 mil-lion Euro a year.

Juventus CEO Giuseppe Marotta met with Ronaldo’s

agent Jorge Mendes last week while fi nalizing the signing of another client, Portugal full-back Joao Cancelo.

Ronaldo threw his future into doubt in May by talking about Madrid in the past tense after beating Liverpool in the Champi-ons League fi nal, voicing frustra-tion over long-stalled talks with club president Florentino Perez about an improved contract.

A source close to Ronaldo told ESPN in June that he remained determined to leave Real Madrid this summer, though he would only consider a move to England, France or Italy.

However, the situation was quite similar a year ago, as the former Manchester United player let it be known that he wanted out of Madrid over issues with

Spanish tax authorities, only to end up staying at the Bernabeu. Last month, he reportedly agreed to pay 18.8 million Euros to settle his tax case.

When the transfer rumors escalated again in January, sources close to United said at that time they doubted any claims that Ronaldo really wants to leave Real Madrid — and that he was merely trying to force a better deal out of his current club.

Ronaldo said in December that he wanted a raise after helping Real win the Club World Cup. Sources close to the player have told ESPN multiple times in the months since that the player is still unhappy with Perez for not keeping his promise of a new contract. (SD-Agencies)

FIFA says it “strongly rebukes” Diego Maradona’s criticism of referee Mark Geiger following England’s World Cup penalty shootout win over Colombia on Tuesday.

The Argentina icon — who has rarely been out of the headlines during World Cup 2018 — believes Colombia was victims of a “monumental theft” and laid into the performance of the offi cials.

FIFA responded and described the 57-year-old’s comments as “entirely inappropriate and completely unfounded.”

A statement read: “Follow-ing comments made by Diego Armando Maradona in relation to Tuesday’s round of 16 game, Colombia Vs. England, FIFA strongly rebukes the criticism of the performance of the match offi cials, which it considers to have been positive in a tough and highly emotional match.

“Furthermore, it also consid-ers the additional comments and insinuations made as being entirely inappropriate and com-pletely unfounded.

“At a time when FIFA is doing everything within its power to ensure principles of fair play, integrity and respect are at the forefront of this World Cup and how the organization is now run, FIFA is extremely sorry to read such declarations from a player who has written the history of our game.”

(SD-Agencies)

FIFA rebukes Maradona’s referee claims

Diego Maradona

Ronaldo-to-Juve rumors played up by European papers

Cristiano Ronaldo

Basketball officials from Australia, Philippines sorry for brawl

Federer marches on in title defense

only three points on his fi rst serve and did not even come close to facing a break point.

Federer fi red three of those aces in a row to take the second set and he got his 15,000-strong Center Court fan club gasping in astonishment as he produced a ridiculous backhand drop shot from behind the baseline.

With Federer having an elegant answer to everything Lacko could throw at him, it was not until the 20-time Grand Slam champion walked off court that he was fi nally stumped.

Meanwhile, Wimbledon No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki

was defeated 4-6, 6-1, 5-7 by unseeded Russian player Ekat-erina Makarova on Wednesday, marking the fi fth top eight seed to be eliminated through the fi rst three days of the 2018 competi-tion.

In the third set, Makarova went up 5-1 and had four match points while serving up 5-3, but Wozniacki battled her way back to 5-5. However, Makarova was able to hang on and win 7-5.

Notably, play was paused mid-match as Wozniacki was attacked by a swarm of fl ying ants.

Makarova is the reigning Wimbledon doubles champion,

as she won the 2016 title with partner Elina Vesnina. This win marks the second time Makarova has defeated Wozniacki in a one-on-one matchup; the other time was in the 2017 U.S. Open.

Makarova is a former top-10 player, and in addition to Woz-niacki, has previously defeated the Williams sisters in Grand Slam play.

In addition to Wozniacki, No. 4 seed Sloane Stephens, No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina, No. 6 seed Caroline Garcia, and No. 8 seed Petra Kvitova have been eliminated.

(SD-Agencies)

Switzerland’s Roger Federer celebrates winning the second round match against Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko in London, Britain, on Wednesday. SD-Agencies