Azarenka downs Badosa
PARIS - French prosecutors said yesterday they had opened a terrorism investigation into an explosion that went off under a French vehicle involved in the Paris-Dakar rally in Saudi Arabia.
The blast, which seriouly injured one of the rally competitors, hit a support vehicle belonging to the French team Sodicars soon after it left its hotel in the Saudi city of Jeddah for the race route, according to accounts from the team and race organisers.
Five team members were in the vehicle at the time and one of them, driver Philippe Boutron, sustained serious leg injuries. French newspaper L’Equipe quoted a teammate as saying the blast ripped through the floor of the vehicle, which then caught fire.
Boutron has now been med-evacced to France and is in a medically-induced coma at the Percy Military Hospital, near Paris, with his family at his bedside, the team said in a statement.
News of the blast emerged during the weekend, but at the time rally organisers and the sports governing body said there was no explanation for what had happened.
France’s anti-terrorist prosecutors, in a statement issued on Tuesday, said they had launched a preliminary investigation into a terrorism-motivated assassination attempt.
The statement said the investigation had been entrusted to France’s domestic counter-terrorism agency.
Saudi Arabia’s government media office CIC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Saudi Arabia was the scene of a series of largescale militant attacks on Western targets in the 2000s. The attacks subsided since then.
But in late 2020, a blast at a World War One remembrance ceremony organised by the French consulate in Jeddah wounded several people, in the first attack with explosives in years to attempt to hit foreigners in the Gulf Arab state.
The previous month a Saudi man was arrested after attacking and wounding a security guard at the French consulate in Jeddah.
ADELAIDE - Victoria Azarenka of Belarus smacked 24 winners while producing a 6-3, 6-2 victory over fourth-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain on Tuesday in the Adelaide International 1 in Australia.
It was the first match for former world No. 1 Azarenka since she lost a marathon threesetter to Bodosa in the Indian Wells final in mid-October. Badosa had 20 winners but was hurt by four double faults.
In another first-round match, Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic was a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Despina Papamichail of Greece. Melbourne Summer Set 1
Vera Zvonareva of Russia knocked off ninth-seeded American Alison Riske 7-5, 6-3 to advance to the second round in Melbourne.
Germany’s Andrea Petkovic also pulled off an upset with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over fifth-seeded Liudmilla Samsonova of Russia. Croatia’s Ana Konjuh also beat a seeded player, winning 6-4, 6-4 over seventh-seeded Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic.
Among other matches, No. 6 Viktorija
Golubic notched a 7-5, 6-1 victory over American Lauren Davis.