Furor over Messi no-show deepens with Argentina’s tour of China canceled
HONG KONG » The fallout from Lionel Messi’s failure to play in a club exhibition match in Hong Kong has spread with both of Argentina’s friendly matches as part of a tour of mainland China next month canceled by local football authorities.
The Beijing Football Association said on Saturday it would not organize Argentina’s scheduled friendly against Ivory Coast in Beijing in March, reportedly saying to local media: “Beijing does not plan, for the moment, to organise the match in which Lionel Messi was to participate.”
The news comes a day after Chinese sports authorities canceled Argentina’s scheduled exhibition match against Nigeria.
Gut-Behrami wins, overtakes Shiffrin
SOLDEU, ANDORRA » For Lara Gut-Behrami, skiing isn’t all about winning races any more. It’s just as much about avoiding injuries, too.
The Swiss star overtook the absent Mikaela Shiffrin on top of the women’s World Cup overall standings with a giant slalom victory on Saturday.
Enjoying a three-race winning streak, GutBehrami raised her season’s tally to 1,214 points, five more than Shiffrin, who sits out this weekend’s races to nurse a left knee injury.
Paul, Giron in Dallas Open final
DALLAS » Second-seeded Tommy Paul and unseeded Marcos Giron won in straight sets to set up an all-American final in the Dallas
Open.
Paul beat No. 3 seed Ben Shelton of the U.S., 6-2, 6-4, and Giron rolled over a seeded opponent again, beating No. 4 seed Adrian Mannarino of France, 6-1, 6-3, in the semifinals.
China dominant in first week
DOHA, QATAR » China finished a dominant first week at the World Aquatics Championships with more titles in artistic swimming and diving Saturday to top the medal table with 16 golds out of 29.
Cheng Wentao and Shi Haoyu retained their world title in the artistic mixed duet free event and Yang Hao won the 10-meter platform diving for a sixth career gold at worlds.
Australia took the other gold on offer
Saturday as storied diver Maddison Keeney paired with Domonic Bedggood to win the mixed 3-meter synchronized springboard — a rare event in which China did not compete.
Odermatt wins 9th straight GS
BANSKO, BULGARIA » Swiss star Marco Odermatt dominated a men’s World Cup giant slalom on Saturday to claim his ninth straight win in the discipline.
Odermatt wasn’t clean on the icy steep middle part of the Banderitza course in either run. But he gained time on his competitors in all other sections as he extended his lead from the first leg to finish 0.91 seconds ahead of runner-up Alexander Steen Olsen of Norway.