Hip injury prevents Nadal from playing Indian Wells event
Rafael Nadal will miss the upcoming Indian Wells and Miami tournaments because of a lingering right hip injury.
Nadal made the announcement Friday on Facebook. He withdrew from the Mexico Open before his first match on Wednesday, saying he needed more time to recover.
He wrote Friday “the injury I suffered in Acapulco before starting the tournament is the same area as the one suffered in Melbourne.”
The second-ranked Spanish star hasn’t played since retiring in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in late January. Last year, Nadal lost to Roger Federer in the fourth round at Indian Wells and in the final at Miami.
Soccer
LAFC FINALLY READY TO PLAY >> After several years of meticulous preparation and a few frantic months of roster assembly, Los Angeles Football Club finally hits the field this weekend to take on the Sounders in Seattle on Sunday in the first match in franchise history. The expansion club is MLS’ 23rd franchise. LAFC’s deep-pocketed ownership group and innovative front office have laid extensive groundwork for success since being awarded the franchise in 2014.
They’re down to the final weeks of work on a $350 million arena in LA’s revitalized downtown. They’ve already sold their maximum 17,500 season tickets for the 22,000-seat Banc of California Stadium.
LAFC will face a Sounders team which lost in the MLS Cup final last season and which will be without former Stanford star Jordan Morris for the season after he tore his ACL in a CONCACAF Champions League match.
Motorsports
BLANEY TAKES VEGAS POLL >> Ryan Blaney has won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Blaney earned his third career pole with a lap at 191.489 mph in his Team Penske Ford on a windy Friday night. Kevin Harvick kept up his outstanding start to the season and secured a front-row Ford lockout with a second-place finish in qualifying. The Stewart-Haas Racing stalwart earned his best starting position in 18 career races in Vegas by turning a lap at 190.248 mph.
Fords claimed the top three spots and five of the first eight. Las Vegas native Kurt Busch qualified right behind Harvick at 190.067 mph.
Football
RAMS TO TRADE QUINN TO DOLPHINS >> A person familiar with the agreement says the Miami Dolphins have agreed to acquire Los Angeles Rams defensive end Robert Quinn for a mid-round draft pick. The person confirmed the deal to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because under NFL rules, no 2018 trades can be completed until March 14.
Baseball
SWING AND A MISS >> Russell Wilson struck out in his first spring training at-bat with the New York Yankees. The Seattle Seahawks quarterback pinch hit for AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge in the fifth inning against Atlanta and swung past a 2-2 pitch from left-hander Max Fried.
Iditarod
TROUBLES IN ALASKA >> The 46th running of Alaska’s famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race kicks off Saturday amid the most turbulent year ever for the annual long-distance contest that spans mountain ranges, the frozen Yukon River and dangerous sea ice along the Bering Sea coast.
Among the multiple problems: a champion’s dog doping scandal, the loss of major sponsor Wells Fargo, discontent among mushers and escalating pressure from animal rights activists, who say the dogs are run to death or left with serious injuries.
Track
NO ONE WINS >> All five runners in a 400-meter heat were disqualified at the world indoor athletics championships in Birmingham, England. Abdalelah Haroun, a Qatari who won bronze at the world championships last year, was first to leave after a false start. Bralon Taplin of Grenada, who ran the fastest time this year, then finished first in the heat but officials later disqualified him, and Steven Gayle of Jamaica, Austris Karpinskis of Latvia, and Alonzo Russell of the Bahamas for running out of their lanes.