Tennis: John Tomic, father and coach of Australian world number 52 Bernard, has been sentenced to eight months in prison after he beat up his son’s practice partner in a Madrid street in May, a court said yesterday. But the 49-year-old, who said he acted in self-defence when he butted Thomas Drouet in the face and broke his nose, will not have to serve jail time as his sentence is less than two years, a court official said.
Hall of Fame: Former American world no.1 Lindsay Davenport, a winner of three grand slam singles titles, headlined the list of nominees up for induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Davenport was announced as a nominee along with two-times grand slam winner Mary Pierce, of France, and 1994 Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez, of Spain, the Hall of Fame said. The 37-year-old Davenport produced 55 singles titles and a 753-194 record over a 17-year career that included grand slam titles at the 1998 US Open, 1999 Wimbledon, and 2000 Australian Open.
Basketball: South Korea’s top flight basketball league (KBL) has handed down a lifetime ban to disgraced former coach Kang Dong-hee, who was found guilty of fixing matches involving his Dongbu Promy team. Kang was sentenced to 10 months in prison by a district court in August after being found guilty of taking almost $50,000 from brokers to fix four games in 2011. The KBL’s disciplinary committee met yesterday and decided to remove him from the league, handing down the heaviest punishment available.
Tennis: American twins Bob and Mike Bryan had their calendar-year grand slam hopes dashed at the US Open. The top-seeded brothers, who won this year’s Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon men’s doubles titles, fell 3-66-3 6-4 to Czech Radek Stepanek and India’s Leander Paes in the semi-finals of the men’s doubles at Flushing Meadows. The hype surrounding the brothers’ attempt to secure the first doubles calendar slam since Australia’s Ken McGregor and Frank Sedgman in 1951 came to a halt after one hour and 51 minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Canoeing: The International Canoeing Federation (ICF) has reacted angrily to a proposal by Brazil to move the venue for the Rio 2016 Olympic Canoe Slalom to an existing course 700km outside the host city. Keen to placate a restless public over spiralling costs, authorities want to move the event from Deodero to a course close to the Iguazu Falls – a three-hour flight away. But the ICF has vowed to fight the move, insisting it has not been consulted on ways to minimise the cost of the prospective course at Deodero, and questioning both the practicality and the precedent of staging the competition so far from the rest of the Games.