Sports briefs
By NewsPress Now
Jannik Sinner tops
Grigor Dimitrov
for Miami Open title
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. | Jannik Sinner’s strong 2024 continued as he won the Miami Open with 6-3, 6-1 victory over 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday.
In a flawless display on a 79-degree afternoon, Sinner, the 2024 Australian Open champion, moved to 22-1 on the year in winning the Miami Open for the first time. Sinner had been runner-up twice in 2021 and 2023.
In his second straight Miami Open finals appearance (Sinner lost last year to Daniil Medvedev), the 22-year-old played with an abundance of confidence despite the crowd cheering on the underdog from Bulgaria. Sinner ended it in 1 hour, 13 minutes with a backhand winner.
“This was my third time in the final and I figured this would be the lucky one,” Sinner said. “I’m really happy I can hold the big trophy.”
Chants of “Gri-gor’’ resounded the entire match inside the home stadium of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins. Dimitrov had created a buzz this week with upsets of top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals and No. 3 seed Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
Sinner, who was never broken and faced just one break point, was undeterred by the pro-Dimitrov crowd and could be an early favorite for the upcoming French Open.
The men’s tour swings in April to the clay-court season in Europe finished off by the French at Roland Garros which begins on May 20.
Sinner won his first major at the Australian Open, then captured the title Rotterdam, and was a finalist in Indian Wells. His only loss in 2024 was in the Indian Wells final to Alcaraz.
Dimitrov, 10 years older than Sinner at 32, will vault into the top 10 rankings for the first time since 2018 while Sinner also hits a milestone, moving from No. 3 to 2 — highest ranking of his young career.
Dimitrov won the first eight points on his serve, holding at love in each game. Then the Bulgarian got broken at 2-2 when he tried to get too fancy.
Amidst a long rally, Dimitrov hit a drop shot into the net. Thereafter, he advanced to the net twice only to get beaten by two deft passing shots by Sinner. While Dimitrov has a decent net game, Sinner is perhaps the best passer in tennis.
At 3-5, Dimitrov got broken again with Sinner at his best. He set up a double-set point with an inside-out forehand return that clipped the far sideline for a winner. Dimitrov saved the first set point before Sinner closed it out with another passing shot — this time with a backhand down the line.
His chances in the second set were wiped out when he got broken at 2-1. Sinner kept the ball deep on the final two rallies of the game and Dimitrov flubbed shots into the net. At 4-1, Dimitrov got broken again when he flubbed an easy volley long.
The American women made a clean sweep. On Saturday, Danielle Collins won the women’s singles title. In women’s doubles Sunday, Americans Sofia Kenin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands rallied from a set down to top Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) and Erin Routliffe (New Zealand) 4-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9 in a third-set match tiebreaker.
The American men didn’t fare well in Miami without anyone advancing in singles to the round of 16.
Newspaper edits
its column about
LSU-UCLA game
ALBANY, N.Y. | The Los Angeles Times has edited a column it published last week about the LSU women’s basketball team ahead of its game against UCLA following criticism from Tigers coach Kim Mulkey, who blasted it as sexist and hurtful.
Mulkey defended her players after they were referred to as “villains” and “dirty debutantes” in a piece first published Friday that likened the Sweet 16 game between LSU and UCLA as a battle of good versus evil.
“How dare people attack kids like that?” she said Saturday. “You don’t have to like the way we play. You don’t have to like the way we trash talk. You don’t have to like any of that. We’re good with that. But I can’t sit up here as a mother and a grandmother and a leader of young people and allow somebody to say that.”
The Times removed those references late Saturday as well as one comparing UCLA’s team to “milk and cookies” and republished the column with a note that said: “A previous version of this commentary did not meet Times editorial standards. It has been updated.”
UCLA coach Cori Close apologized on social media for retweeting the column, saying in part: “I would never want to promote anything that tears down a group of people in our great game.”
Mulkey said Sunday she was only generally aware of the response to her comments a day earlier.
“I had someone say the LA Times updated, rewrote, did something, and they did it at 10:20 last night or 10 something, and I said, OK,” she said. “That was the extent of it.”
Mulkey’s players praised her Saturday for letting them be themselves on and off the court, with Angel Reese labeling herself and her teammates as “good villains” who are changing the game and supporting each other.
Hailey Van Lith told reporters Sunday that includes when they have to deal with bigotry.
“We do have a lot of Black women on this team, and unfortunately, that bias does exist still today, and a lot of the people that are making those comments are being racist towards my teammates,” said Van Lith, who is white. “I’m in a unique situation where I see with myself, I’ll talk trash and I’ll get a different reaction than if Angel talks trash. I have a duty to my teammates to have their back. Some of the words that were used in that article were very sad and upsetting.”
Mulkey reiterated Sunday that she would not read another newspaper article over which she threatened to file a defamation lawsuit.
She was the subject of a profile published Saturday in The Washington Post in which family members and former players are quoted about her personality and how she runs her basketball program.
Mulkey’s father and sister are quoted as saying they have not talked to Mulkey in years while others suggest she was uncomfortable at best with the LGTBQ+ community, including some of her own players.
“The lawyers will review it, and when this season is over, they’ll give me a call and say, this is our next step,” Mulkey said Sunday. “I’m not reading that stuff.”
Days before the story was published, Mulkey threatened to sue the newspaper for what she said would be a “hit piece.” Instead, it was a wide-ranging profile that examined both positive and negative aspects of her life.
After her team beat UCLA 78-69 on Saturday, she responded with false surprise when a reporter told her the article had come out an hour before the game started. (She had been asked about it on ESPN before tipoff.)
“Imagine that,” she said. “Must have thought y’all would look at it, get some clicks or be a distraction. No, ma’am, I haven’t read it and I probably won’t read it.”
The profile comes during a season when LSU opened the defense of its national title with a surprising loss to Colorado and a holiday tournament in which Reese didn’t play because of unspecified “locker-room issues” that Mulkey declined to divulge.
Reese made some general references to her mental health and not wanting her behavior to be detrimental to the team.
The Tigers bounced back to have a solid season, losing in the Southeastern Conference Tournament final to South Carolina. They entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed and are trying to become the first back-to-back champions since UConn won its fourth straight in 2016. LSU will play Caitlin Clark and top-seeded Iowa on Monday in a rematch of last year’s national title game.
Pitchers Génesis
Cabrera and Yohan Ramírez suspended
three games each
NEW YORK | Pitchers Génesis Cabrera of the Toronto Blue Jays and Yohan Ramírez of the New York Mets were suspended for three games each by Major League Baseball on Sunday for their actions in separate games.
And Mets manager Carlos Mendoza was suspended for one game as a result of Ramírez’s actions, Major League Baseball senior vice president for on-field operations Michael Hill said.
Cabrera was penalized for on-field actions that caused a benches-clearing incident during the bottom of the seventh inning of Toronto’s 5-1 loss Saturday at Tampa Bay.
Ramirez was disciplined for intentionally throwing at Milwaukee’s Rhys Hoskins during the seventh inning of the Mets’ 7-6 loss Saturday.
Both pitchers appealed, causing the suspensions to be on hold until the appeals process is completed.
Mendoza served his suspension Sunday in the Mets’ series finale against Milwaukee — the third game of his career as a major league manager.
All three were fined.
Benches cleared at the end of the seventh inning in St. Petersburg, Florida, when Cabrera exchanged words with José Caballero and shoved the Tampa Bay shortstop.
Caballero drove in a run with a bunt single and continued around the bases on third baseman Justin Turner’s throwing error. After Caballero was tagged out at third for the final out of the inning, Cabrera — who was backing up third base — exchanged words with Caballero and shoved the infielder. Cabrera was ejected.
A day after Hoskins’ hard slide at second caused a confrontation with Mets infielder Jeff McNeil, Hoskins hit a two-run single in a three-run first inning and followed with a two-run homer in the third and singled and scored on a balk in the fifth by Luis Severino.
Ramírez’s first pitch to Hoskins in the seventh sailed well behind the right-handed hitter, who dropped his bat and glared at Ramírez as the reliever raced to pick up the ball, which caromed off the backstop. Ramírez was ejected by plate umpire Lance Barrett and said after the game he was not intentionally throwing at Hoskins.
—From AP reports
