Tennis voice sues ESPN
A tennis commentator dropped by ESPN for a r emark about Venus Williams during the A ustralian Open sued the sports network yesterday for wrongful termination.
Former t ennis pr o Doug Adler maintains he w as describing W illiams’ agg ressive style last month as “guerrilla” tactics and not comparing her with a “gorilla.”
He apologized f or his poor w ord choice but was let go from ESPN midtournament.
Adler claims “emotional distr ess” in the f iling in Los Ang eles S uperior C ourt, alleging he w as wrongly branded a racist and has lost other TV opportunities because of the controversy.
The lawsuit calls for punitive financial damages but doesn’t name an amount.
ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys s aid the network hadn ’t seen the lawsuit and had no comment.
The suit points ou t that “Guerrilla Tennis” was the name of a N ike TV ad fr om the 1 990s f eaturing Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.
“Obviously, (Adler) saw that c ommercial many times, and the phr ase became widely used by those who actually under stood t ennis vernacular and f ollowed the sport closel y,” the lawsuit said.
Suspended MSU coach retires
The women’s gymnastics c oach at Michigan S tate suddenly announc ed her r etirement, a da y aft er she w as suspended f or w hat her bos s described as her “passionate def ense” of a sports doctor accused of sexually abusing female athletes for years.
Kathie Klages has also been mentioned in lawsuits by two women who claim she brushed of f c omplaints of abuse by Dr. Larry Nassar in the lat e 1990s.
Klages is “extremely distressed” by the alleg ations and w ould ne ver do anything to put athletes in“harm’ s way ,” her attorney, Shirlee Bobryk, said in a statement.
“Out of respect to the university and the gymnastics program in particular, Ms. Kl ages believe sit is in everyone’ s best interests for her to retire from her current position at MSU,” Bobryk said.
It’s one of the biggest development son campus since N ass ar was fired by Michigan State in September and more than two dozen women and girls filed lawsuits against him.
Lloyd to sign with Man City
Reigning FIFA Women’s Player of the Year Carli Lloyd will sign a short -term contract to play for Manchester City, a person with knowledge of the deal said.
The person spoketo The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the deal before it was formally announced, which could be as early as Wednesday. The Philadelphia Inquirer first reported that Lloyd was offered the contract this weekend; Sports Illustrated first reported that she would sign.
Lloyd is expected to re join the Houston Dash of the National Women’ s Soccer League in June ....
Two y ears aft er being humiliated by Barcelona in the Champions League, Paris Saint-Ger main turned the table son the five-time champions with a relentless display of skill, energy and determination.
Angel Di Maria scored two superb goals and top scorer Edinson Cavani grabbed his 34 th of a prolific season, with both players scoring on their birthdays as PSG battered Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of their Round of 16 contest.
Newly signed winger Julian Draxler got the other one as PSG’ s irrepressible front trio—a mixture of constant movement, power and pace— tormented Barca.
Dream sofa sixth European crown should be put firmly on hold because Barcelona has a massive task ahead in the second leg on March 8.
In yesterday’ s other Round of 16 match, Borussia Dortmund squandered chance after chance, including a second-half penalty, before slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Benfica.
Kostas Mitroglou scored shortly after halftime and goalkeeper Ederson made some key saves afterward to help Benfica hold on for victory at the Stadium of Light.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed the penalty in the 58 th minute when his shot was stopped by the Brazilian goalkeeper.
Benfica will be looking to reach the quarterfinals for the second straight season in the second leg on March 8 in Germany.
Sponsor fuels Patrick
One of Danica Patrick’s sponsors has stepped up to fill a sudden funding void created w hen Stew art-Haas Racing sued her primary backer for $31 million in a breach-of-contract lawsuit.
Aspen Dental s aid it will be the lead sponsor for Patrick and debut on her car during the Feb .26 seasonopening Daytona 500. Teams arrive this week to begin preparations for one of NASCAR’s showcase races.
Patrick and SHR w ere left with 2 0some races to fill less than two weeks before teams report to Daytona International Speedway because of a nasty split between the team and primary sponsor Nature’s Bakery. SHR is suing f or money it says is owed for the final two years of the Nature’s Bakery contract.
Aspen Dental sponsored four races on Patrick’ s No .10 last season, and that total will be raised to“double digits” in 2017 the team said.