Rugby Union: Argentina will host Australia at Twickenham in their Rugby Championship match on October 8, moving the southern hemisphere competition over the equator for the first time, its organisers said yesterday. The clash will reprise the Rugby World Cup semi-final the two teams played at the same London venue in October, which the Wallabies won 29-15. The four countries that contest the Rugby Championship, which also includes world cham-pions New Zealand and South Africa, filled the four semi-final places at last year’s sell-out event.
Tennis: Sabine Lisicki coasted into the second round of the Volvo Car Open in Charleston with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Irina Falconi. The 15th-seeded 2009 champion returned to the scene of her first career title and despite serving seven double faults cashed in on all four of her break points to advance. Number 11 seed Kristina Mladenovic ended a four-match losing run with a 6-4 6-3 win over Tatjana Maria, while Mirjana Lucic-Baroni encountered little problem in seeing off Peng Shuai with a clear 6-2 6-1 triumph.
Basketball: Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson, Tom Izzo and modern-day basketball pioneers Yao Ming and Sheryl Swoopes headline the 2016 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class announced this week. Longtime Chicago Bulls owner and chairman Jerry Reinsdorf will be enshrined and posthumous inductees are NBA referee Darrell Garretson, John McLendon, the first African-American coach in professional basketball, and former stars Zelmo Beaty and Cumberland Posey.
Golf: Golf’s major championships threw their support behind the sport’s return to the Olympic Games yesterday, offering exemptions for men’s and women’s gold medal winners this year to all grand slam events. Augusta National chairman Billy Payne, who ran the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, said the men’s gold medal winner in Rio de Janeiro in summer would get an invitation to the 2017 Masters. The Royal and Ancient announced it would offer similar one-year exemptions to both the men’s and women’s British Opens while the PGA of America and United States Golf Association followed suit with each of their two flagship events.
Boxing: Boxing champion Adrien Broner surrendered to law enforcement in Cincinnati after a warrant for his arrest on two felony charges stemming from a bowling alley altercation was issued last month. Broner, charged with felonious assault and aggravated robbery, posted $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Hamilton County court today. The 26-year-old boxer allegedly pointed a handgun at a man after losing a bet in a high-stakes bowling match in January. He is accused of then knocking the man unconscious and taking money from him.