Golf: World number one Jason Day drew comparisons with Tiger Woods after an emphatic four-stroke victory at the $10.5 million Players Championship in Florida on Sunday. Day was never seriously tested in the final round en route to his seventh victory in his past 17 starts, a hot streak that few other than Woods can boast in the modern era. He began the day with a four-shot cushion, and never led by less than two strokes despite some wayward tee shots at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium Course in Ponte Vedra Beach. He displayed a stellar putting touch to card 71 and finish at 15-under-par 273. American Kevin Chappell (69) birdied two of the final three holes to claim the runner-up spot on 11-under.
Cricket: Deepak Shodhan, who was India’s oldest living Test cricketer, has died at the age of 87. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced Shodhan’s death yesterday, saying the former batsman had been suffering from lung cancer. Shodhan’s most memorable display came in his Test debut for India when he struck a century to help salvage a draw against arch-rivals Pakistan at Eden Gardens in October 1952. In doing so, he became the first India player to make a century in his maiden Test innings.
ATP Tour: Another grasscourt tournament will be added to the tennis calendar next year after the ATP announced yesterday that a World Tour 250 event would be staged in Antalya, Turkey in June. The tournament will take place from June 25-July 1 and give players another event at which to prepare for Wimbledon. Next month the WTA will hold a brand new grasscourt event in Mallorca. The tournament, one of seven grasscourt tournaments on the ATP Tour next year, will be staged at the Kaya Palazzo Belek resort where seven grasscourts will be laid.
Rugby Union: Former Wallabies loose forward George Smith will head back to Japan for a second stint with Top League side Suntory Sungoliath after completing his English Premiership season with Wasps, Japanese media said yesterday. Smith, regarded as one of Australia’s finest openside flankers over a 111-cap career, returns to the Tokyo-based club where he played from 2011-14 before heading to Europe. The evergreen 35-year-old has been in stellar form for Wasps and was named the Players’ Player of the Year in England last week. Wasps play Exeter Chiefs in the Premiership semi-finals on Saturday.
Tennis: Tomas Berdych has split with his tennis coach Daniel Vallverdu just days after a humiliating 6-0 6-0 defeat at the Italian Open in Rome. The 30-year-old Czech player, the world number eight, has suffered a lean year and a crushing defeat by Belgium’s David Goffin in the Italian capital last week proved the last straw in his partnership with the former hitting partner of Andy Murray. “My results lately have not been what I expected. As I am not a tennis player at the beginning of his career I have to act quickly when I feel that I need a change,” Berdych said.