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Tennis: Former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli (picture) sparked speculation yesterday of a return from retirement less than two years after bowing out of professional tennis. The 30-year-old who quit tennis in 2013 on the heels of a Wimbledon grand slam win that crowned her career, raised the question of a possible comeback on her Twitter page, instead of answering it. “Coming back or not coming back to tennis? What do you think? Should I?” Bartoli said. The tweet from the Frenchwoman, who since quitting the sport launched a line of sports fashion shoes, immediately triggered speculation in French and English-language news media of a possible comeback.
Athletics: Michelle Carter unleashed the season’s longest women’s shot put throw at the US indoor championships in Boston, her mark of 19.45 metres on her final attempt capping a solid series that included two other throws over 19m. “Any time you can have your top three throws of a competition be the best three throws in the world, you can’t complain about that,” the 2012 world indoor bronze medallist told reporters.
Motor Racing: Former F1 driver Max Chilton will race in this year’s Le Mans 24 hour race after joining the Nissan LM P1 world endurance championship team. The 23-year-old Briton, who spent two years with the Marussia F1 outfit, will make his debut for Nissan at the WEC opener at Silverstone on April 12. “I’m honoured to have been asked to join a manufacturer as prestigious as Nissan in a championship that is growing year on year,” Chilton said in a statement. “Le Mans has always had an amazing following and to be racing there as a works driver is a dream come true.”
Basket, NBA: Houston Rockets guard James Harden has been suspended one game without pay for kicking Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James in the groin, the NBA announced yesterday. The incident between the two league most valuable player candidates occurred with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter of Houston Rockets’ 105-103 overtime victory on Sunday against the Cavaliers in Houston. Closely guarded by James, Harden lost his footing, fell to the floor and then lifted his left leg and kicked James below the belt. Harden was assessed a flagrant foul for the incident.
Racing: Australian officials have handed life bans to five greyhound trainers who used live animals as bait to train their dogs. Officials in several Australian states launched probes into their local greyhound racing industries last month after a TV programme showed leading trainers were secretly using possums, pigs and rabbits as live bait. Footage on ‘Four Corners’, an investigative show on state broadcaster ABC, showed trainers tethering animals to mechanical lures to propel them around tracks in three Australian states while dogs gave chase. Clips showed dogs being allowed to attack and kill the animals on the lures and a possum snapped in half after being sent around the track at high speed dozens of times.
Cricket: Australia paceman Pat Cummins has been ruled out of today’s World Cup match against Afghanistan, captain Michael Clarke confirmed. The 21-year-old Cummins suffered a slight side strain in Australia’s one-wicket defeat to New Zealand but had been cleared of serious injury. Selectors have yet to decide on the 11 to take on non-test playing nation Afghanistan, Clarke said, saying they needed to see how the team recovered from training. Australia are keen to hit back against minnows Afghanistan after the narrow defeat to New Zealand, which came after their second match against Bangla-desh was washed out.