Sports

LEBRON JAMES is closing in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s National Basketball Association (NBA) career scoring record. And now, he has caught Abdul-Jabbar on another page of the All-Star record book.

PEDAL power is returning to the America’s Cup.

SAN FRANCISCO—Draymond Green dribbles the ball up court and takes charge of Golden State’s backups, directing two-way teammate Anthony Lamb on the wing, dishing the ball to Donte DiVincenzo or finding Jonathan Kuminga down low.

MELBOURNE—Stefano Tsitsipas had a harder time strictly following all of the rules than he did outplaying his opponent in the early going, then recovered after blowing two match points late in the third set, and eventually reached the final at the Australian Open for the first time by beating Karen Khachanov, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3, on Friday.

THE Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) established on Thursday its “French Connection” whose mission is to help guarantee the preparedness both physically and mentally of Filipino athletes who qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

AARON JUDE BADO stunned hometown bet and favorite Thanarat Saengphet, 3-2, to snatch the men’s flyweight gold medal at the Asian Boxing Confederation Asian U22 Championships on Thursday at the Huamark Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

SHAWN GLOVER steadied Blackwater at crunch time as the Bossing withstood the

SAN JUAN, Argentina—Three-time world champion Peter Sagan will ride a farewell season of World Tour road races and then target the mountain bike event at the 2024 Paris Olympics before retiring.

CIGNAL flaunted its deep bench as it overpowered Santa Rosa City in straight sets, 25-19, 25-18, 25-17, in the 2023 Spikers’ Turf Open Conference at the Paco Arena Friday.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Stefano Tsitsipas had a harder time strictly following all of the rules than he did outplaying his opponent in the early going, then recovered after blowing two match points late in the third set, and eventually reached the final at the Australian Open for the first time by beating Karen Khachanov, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3, on Friday.

MELBOURNE, Australia—What all seemed so different, so daunting, even, about trying to win a Grand Slam title to Elena Rybakina a little more than six months ago is now coming rather naturally.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Novak Dkovic’s father decided to stay away from the 21-time Grand Slam champion’s semifinal after getting embroiled in a flap involving spectators who brought banned Russian flags to Melbourne Park, Tennis Australia said Friday.

MELBOURNE, Australia—The Brazilian pair of Luisa Stefani and Rafael Matos beat India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, 7-6 (2), 6-2, on Friday to win the Australian Open mixed doubles title in Mirza’s last match at a Grand Slam tournament before she retires.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates—Patrick Reed fared better than Rory McIlroy after some pre-tournament friction as the Dubai Desert Classic got off to a wet start Thursday with only 11 players managing to finish their weather-affected first rounds.

BOBN BAFFERT can once again enter horses at New York’s major tracks.

KANSAS CITY, Montana—The Kansas City Chiefs have lost three straight games to the Cincinnati Bengals, including last year’s Amerian Football Conference (AFC) title game, when they blew an early 21-3 lead in an overtime defeat before a sea of stunned fans inside Arrowhead Stadium.

MELBOURNE—Novak Djokovic was still in the first set of his Australian Open quarterfinal against Andrey Rublev when the guy who would face the winner of that match, Tommy Paul, sat down for a news conference.

ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA settled for a silver medal in his first indoor campaign at the Internationales Springer-Meeting on Thursday in Cottbus, Germany.

A TOTAL of 91 junior golfers—a mix of leading players in the ranks and siblings and offsprings of former and current touring pros—make up the cast in the Junior Philippine Golf Tour (JPGT) launch on Sunday at The Country Club (TCC) in Laguna.

DEFENDING champion Davao Occidental-Cocolife vented its ire on Sta. Rosa Laguna via an 82-68 rout on Wednesday night in the Manila Bankers Life-Pilipinas Super League Pro Division Second Conference Dumper Cup at the Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center in San Fernando, Pampanga.

EARLY favorites Cignal and Cotabato get the chance to show their wares as take on separate rivals Friday in the third eliminations playdate of the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference at the Paco Arena. 

PLATINUM Karaoke lost no time booking a berth in the Leg 3 knockout stage of the Philippine Basketball Association 3×3 Third Conference Season 2 on Thursday.

GENEVA—The International Olympic Committee (IOC) made clear Wednesday it wants Russians to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympics as neutral athletes, in defiance of Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s call to exclude them entirely.

ANOTHER battle between Rory McIlroy and Patrick Reed began to take shape Wednesday.

JR SMITH followed his own path to golf, from high school basketball star to 16-year National Basketball Association (NBA) veteran and now older-than-usual college athlete at North Carolina A&T.

MADRID—Conor McGregor is under investigation in Spain after being accused of physical assault in Ibiza, court officials said Wednesday.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Two days after advancing to her first Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal, unseeded Magda Linette has gone one better and is into the Australian Open semifinals.

HEAD Coach Frankie Lim and NLEX got their wish at the 11th hour as import Jonathon Simmons suited up in a Road Warriors uniform and didn’t disappoint.

ERNEST JOHN “EJ” OBIENA opens the indoor season on Thursday at the Internationales Springer-Meeting in Cottbus, Germany, where he will be vying against familiar foes who have become his pals in the small world-class men’s pole vault community.

PARIS—Paris is rushing to finish construction work in time for the 2024 Olympics, with just 18 months to go.

YOUTH prevailed over experience as Iloilo marked its Spikers’ Turf debut in style by grounding returning Air Force, 25-21, 25-23, 25-19, on Wednesday night to join Army and Imus in the early lead in the Open Conference at the Paco Arena.

LOS ANGELES—LeBron James hit a career-high nine 3-pointers while scoring 46 points, but the Los Angeles Clippers hit 19 3-pointers of their own on the way to a comfortable 133-115 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

MELBOURNE, Australia—On the court at Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday night, Victoria Azarenka—the athlete—displayed the same confident brand of take-the-ball-early, hard-hitting tennis that carried her to two Australian Open titles and the No. 1 ranking a decade ago.

MELBOURNE, Australia—When Matteo Berrettini missed what should have been a simple backhand on match point against Andy Murray in the first round of the Australian Open last week, the crowd inside Rod Laver Arena let out a collective gasp of disbelief.

NYON, Switzerland—Russia tried to make progress Tuesday on its slow and difficult return to international sports amid its war in Ukraine at a meeting Tuesday with officials at European soccer body UEFA.

THE National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star Game is February 19. And nobody will know the All-Star rosters until that night.

NEW YORK—Kevin Durant is at least two weeks away from returning to the Brooklyn Nets, though his right knee is improving enough for him to resume some basketball activities this week.

SAN VIGILIO DI MAREBBE, Italy—Exhaustion. Relief. Satisfaction.

MELBOURNE—It took about a week for Novak Djokovic to go from worrying about whether he simply could play a match at all on his injured left hamstring to thinking he can win the Australian Open.

THE Strong Group is banking on its sixth man—overseas Filipino workers (OFWs)—in Dubai for a much-needed boost as it takes on an expectedly tough field in the 32nd Dubai International Championship beginning Friday.

TNT Tropang Giga clashes with Phoenix Super LPG in a game featuring a subbing coach and a debuting mentor—Jojo Lastimosa for TNT and Jamike Jarin for Phoenix—on Wednesday of the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

NATIONAL University (NU) staked its reputation against one of the new teams eager to show potential as the reigning champion Archipelago Builders face off with the Vanguard Volley Hitters at the resumption Wednesday of the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference at the Paco Arena in Manila.

JL DE LOS SANTOS showcased an all-around effort to help power Koponang Lakan ng Bulacan past Bicol, 94-80, Monday night for its second straight win in the Manila Bankers Life-Pilipinas Super League Pro Division Second Conference Dumper Cup at the San Leonardo Gym in San Leonardo, Nueva Ecija.

MELBOURNE, Australia—For a full set, Karen Khachanov’s Australian Open quarterfinal against Sebastian Korda on Tuesday was as tight as can be. Right up until, that is, Khachanov unleashed a down-the-line backhand to cap a 17-shot point and steal a tiebreaker.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Ben Shelton’s concerns leading into his first Australian Open had less to do with playing tennis and more to do with everything else associated with the trip.

MELBOURNE, Australia—Some professional tennis players strive to improve their serve, say, or might tweak their mechanics on a backhand slice. Maybe better returning is a focus. Or altering their patterns.

TWILA KILGORE knew her career path when she was just 12 years old, thanks to a youth soccer coach who used to drive her to practice.

FORMULA One great Lewis Hamilton experienced bullying when he was only six years old and said he had bananas thrown at him when he was racially abused at school.

HIDILYN DIAZ-NARANJO won’t vie for a third consecutive Southeast Asian Games gold medal in favor of the Asian Weightlifting Championship—a Paris 2024 Olympics qualifier that runs in conflict with the Cambodia Games in May.

TOPEX ROBINSON coaching in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)—and De La Salle University at that—ranks tops in his bucket list.

PHILIPPINE Sports Commission (PSC) chairman Richard Bachmann has committed to enhance training facilities for national athletes after making the rounds of PSC-supervised venues the latest of which was the Teachers’ Camp in Baguio City over the weekend.

MELBOURNE—Fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka defeated Belinda Bencic, 7-5, 6-2, on Monday to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time.

THE Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) is welcoming Toyota Motor Philippines as a key partner for the country’s hosting of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Basketball World Cup 2023 in August.

THE Ironman 70.3 Davao gears up not just for a grand comeback on March 26 at Azuela Cove but also for the pros’ return to one of the highlight events of each triathlon season.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score in his Saudi Pro League debut for Al Nassr, but his presence electrified fans at the King Saud University Stadium as the team beat Ettifaq, 1-0, to retake first place on Sunday.

MELBOURNE—Andy Murray evened his Australian Open match at a set apiece and stood in a corner of Margaret Court Arena with his hands on his hips, staring up into the stands, where spectators were jumping and screaming, pumping their arms and waving blue-and-white Scottish flags.

THE Country Club (TCC) Invitational braces for a grand return after a two-year hiatus with the best and the brightest eager and ready to fuel their respective title drive in the richest-ever edition of the flagship tournament of each Philippine Golf Tour (PGT) season.

BRICE VINCENT BAISA pulled off another “double,” crushing a couple of top-ranked rivals to claim the boys’ 16- and 18-under titles with Jana Jelena Diaz matching the feat in the girls’ side of the Palawan Pawnshop-Palawan Express Pera Padala (PPS-PEPP) Gov. F. Castro national juniors tennis championships at the Villareal Stadium courts in Roxas City, Capiz over the weekend.

THE Victoria Sports Cycling Team (VSCT)—the country’s newest professional cycling team—was launched over the weekend with high goals in sight for the current season.

By Josef Ramos

IMUS got its act together in the fourth set to finish off Santo Rosa, 25-22, 28-26, 29-31, 25-16, and kickstart its maiden campaign in the Spikers’ Turf Open Conference at the Paco Arena in Manila Sunday night.

RETURNING import KJ McDaniels and the Meralco Bolts proved too much for Rain or Shine at the start of the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup. 

MELBOURNE—Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina eliminated No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek in straight sets Sunday to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time.

MELBOURNE, Australia—It’s been almost two full decades since this many US men reached Week 2 at the Australian Open.

NEW DELHI—Top Indian wrestlers on Saturday called off a sit-in protest near the parliament building following a government assurance that a probe into their allegations of sexual harassments of young athletes by the federation would be completed in four weeks.

ADELAIDE, Australia—Australia’s Jay Vine has defended his overnight lead to win the Tour Down Under cycling race, the first event of the 2023 World Tour.

THE University of Perpetual Help System DALTA Junior Altas are in harness to defend their National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) boys’ volleyball frown for the sixth straight time when Season 98 kicks off next Monday at the Arellano University-Taft Avenue gymnasium in Pasay City.

The 5-foot-10 Yu banged in nailed a backbreaking three-pointer that pushed the Kings’ to 73-68 with 34 seconds remaining before a Joseph Brutas’s layup pulled the Slashers to within 70-73, only 17 seconds left.

MELBOURNE—When she was younger, Katie Volynets used to fake stomach aches so she could get out of swimming. She was much more focused on improving her tennis.

PARIS—Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has passed Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant for the All-Star Game voting lead among Eastern Conference players, now putting him on track to be a captain for the February 19 game in Salt Lake City.

THE Belarusian track coach who tried to force a sprinter to return home from the Tokyo Olympics after she was critical of the team has been charged with breaching the sport’s integrity standards.

MELBOURNE, Australia—The times on the clock shifted from p.m. to a.m., the day from Thursday to Friday, and Andy Murray never wavered, never relented, no matter that he faced a two-set hole at the Australian Open, no matter that he is 35 and possesses an artificial hip, no matter that this was the longest and latest-finishing match of his long, illustrious career.

WOMAN National Master Antonelle Berthe “Tonelle” Murillo Racasa thanked ALC Group of Companies Chairman and CEO D. Edgard A. Cabangon for supporting her campaign in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Rated International Open set from January 27 to 29 at the Gunadarma University Karawaci in Tangerang, Indonesia.

THE Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) recently turned over a check worth P256.38 million in remittances to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for the training of athletes bound for the Cambodia 32nd Southeast Asian Games (SEAG) in May.

IRAQ won the Gulf Cup for the first time since 1988 with a 3-2 victory over Oman on Thursday but the triumph was marred by a deadly stampede outside the Basra International Stadium.