Serena Williams skips match with knee injury
PERTH, Australia — Serena Williams withdrew from her opening match at the Hopman Cup on Monday because of inflammation in her left knee, an early setback in her preparations for an Australian Open title defense. The top- ranked Williams practiced ahead of her scheduled season opener against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the international mixed- team competition at Perth Arena but withdrew from the match and was replaced by Vicky Duval. Duval lost 6- 4, 6-1 to Svitolina and Alexandr Dolgopolov beat Jack Sock 6-4, 6-2 to clinch the best- of- three Group A match for Ukraine before the U.S. pair won the mixed doubles 6-2, 6-3. Williams said she expected to be able to join Sock in the U.S. team to play the Australia Gold team today.
OLYMPICS
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RIO DE JANEIRO — The track and field stadium for this year’s Rio de Janeiro Olympics was without power Monday with the city hall and Rio soccer club Botafogo blaming each other for unpaid utility bills. In a statement to The Associated Press, the city hall said Botafogo has been responsible for the utility bills since May 2015. But the club told the AP in a released statement that the city government owed it money to pay water and electricity bills. “We have to find out who is responsible for the debt,” the club said. The Brazilian website Globo Esporte, which is connected to the newspaper O Globo, said the unpaid bills totaled 1 million reals ($250,000). It reported electricity has been off since last week and said water was cut more than a month ago.
SOCCER
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MADRID — Real Madrid fired coach Rafa Benitez after only seven months on Monday and replaced him with its former star player Zinedine Zidane. Club president Florentino Perez announced the decision at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium on Monday, a day after Madrid’s 2-2 draw at Valencia deepened a crisis that started with an embarrassing
4- 0 home loss to rival Barcelona in November. “We have to do our best so that the team is able to win something,” said Zidane. “I’m going to put all my heart into Real Madrid.” Madrid has won seven of nine matches since the demoralizing defeat to Barcelona but fans continued to demand the departure of Benitez, whose Liverpool side won the Champions League in 2005.
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CHICAGO — Retired American goalkeeper Brad Friedel has been hired as coach of the new U.S. under-19 national team. The 44-year-old made 82 appearances for the U. S. from 1992 to 2005 and started at the 2002 World Cup, where the Americans reached the quarterfinals in their best showing at the tournament since the initial World Cup in 1930. At the club level, the Lakewood, Ohio, native played for Galatasaray (1995-96), Columbus (1996-97), Liverpool (1997-00), Blackburn (2000-08), Aston Villa ( 2008-11) and Tottenham (2011-14). The first event for the under-19 team will be the Copa del Atlantico tournament at Las Palmas in Spain’s Canary Islands from Jan. 27 to Feb. 6. The roster will include players from last year’s American under17 team. Former Iran assistant coach Omid Namazi has been hired to coach the American under-18 team, the U.S. Soccer Federation also said Monday.
BASKETBALL
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INDIANAPOLIS — The NBA fined Indiana Pacers forward Paul George and Detroit Pistons forward Marcus Morris on Monday for their roles in a shoving match late in Saturday night’s game in Indianapolis. Morris was fined $ 15,000 after initially shoving George. The Pacers’ two- time All- Star was fined $ 10,000 for retaliating. Teammates of both players met at midcourt as they tried to pull the players apart. George has been fined three times by the league since October and has paid an additional $ 13,000 for six technical fouls, costing him about $68,000.