The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Venus Williams, 43, is set for return to play at Indian Wells
Seven-time major champion Venus Williams and former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki have received wild card entries into the BNP Paribas Open next month.
The combined ATP and WTA event is March 6-17 at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Williams, 43, has been dealing with the lingering effects of a knee injury she suffered in her first-round match at Wimbledon last July. She lost in the first round of the U.S. Open in September and hasn’t played a tour match since.
Williams is scheduled to return to the Southern California desert for the first time since 2019, when she reached the quarterfinals.
Wozniacki also returns to the desert for the first time since 2019. She took three years off to have two children. She won the Indian Wells title in 2011 and was a finalist in 2010 and 2013.
Wozniacki returned to the circuit last August and reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open. She lost in the second round of last month’s Australian Open, a tournament she won in 2018.
The remaining wild-card entries will be announced in the coming weeks.
MEDIA Report: ESPN retains CFP through 2031
ESPN and the College Football Playoff have agreed to a six-year deal worth $1.3 billion annually that allows the network to keep exclusive rights to the 12-team playoff through the 2031 season, two people with knowledge of the agreement told The Associated Press. The people spoke to the AP on condition
of anonymity because a deal cannot be finalized until the CFP works through issues regarding the format and revenue distribution.
ESPN was first to report the offer of $1.3 billion annually from the network to the CFP, and The Athletic reported that an agreement had been reached. The network declined to comment.
The playoff expands from four teams to 12 this season but within a preexisting 12-year contract with ESPN that runs through the 2025-26 season. That deal pays the CFP $608 million for seven games annually: two playoff semifinals, a championship game and four other major bowl games.
GOLF Tiger launches his ‘Sun Day Red’ brand
Tiger Woods in a red shirt on Sunday has become as recognizable as a Masters champion in a green jacket. Only it’s no longer about a Sunday red shirt for Woods.
It’s about a brand. Five weeks after Woods and Nike announced their relationship had ended after
27 years, the 48-yearold Woods said it was “the right time in my life” to develop his own brand in an expanded partnership with Taylormade Golf.
The brand is called “Sun Day Red,” and men’s apparel — golf shirts, hoodies, outerwear — will be available online in the United States and Canada starting May 1. The plan is to expand his line to include footwear, along with women and kid’s apparel.
The logo is a tiger with 15 stripes, one for each of his majors. And if he happens to win another major? “We’re going to have to redo the trademark,” he said with that famous smile. case and charged Monday with four counts stemming from the theft and a 2022 case, records show. Wichita police Lt. Aaron Moses said there was no evidence it was a “hate-motivated crime” but rather the intent was to sell the metal for scrap.
Wichita police Chief Joe Sullivan said it was “only the first arrest” and that there were more to come. Thieves cut the bronze statue from its base last month at a park in Wichita, Kansas. Only the statue’s feet were left at a park, where about 600 children play in a youth league called League 42. It is named after Robinson’s uniform number with the Brooklyn Dodgers, with whom he broke the major leagues’ color barrier in 1947.
• Jordy Bahl, the softball pitching star who transferred to Nebraska after winning two straight national championships at Oklahoma, will miss the rest of the season after injuring her knee during the Cornhuskers’ opener last week. Bahl, a two-time Allamerica, was hurt while delivering a pitch in the third inning against Washington in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Feb. 8.
• An attorney for former Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald urged a judge to move up the trial in a dispute over his firing, saying he can’t get another major job until he puts a hazing scandal behind him.
“It has decimated his career,” lawyer Dan Webb said.
Fitzgerald was initially suspended and then fired last year after 17 years as head coach. Northwestern said he had a responsibility to know that hazing was occurring and should have stopped it.