PARIS — The curse of French Open defending champions continued as Iga Świątek was knocked out (6-4, 6-4) by Greek Maria Sakkari in the French Open quarterfinals, leaving the women’s draw wide open on Wednesday.

THE NBA fined Miami Heat president Pat Riley $25,000 for violating the league’s anti-tampering rule with a comment he made about Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.

FRESH off a key defensive play in a victory to open a Western Conference semifinal series, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year on Wednesday.

Nikola Jokić was beaming as other Nuggets broke into applause. National Basketball Association Commissioner Adam Silver had just congratulated him, via a video linkup that interrupted head coach Michael Malone’s address, for becoming just the sixth non-American to be named Most Valuable Player. The development wasn’t really from left field; he became the prohibitive favorite for the award after early frontrunners LeBron James and Joel Embiid succumbed to injuries that required significant time away from the court. That said, he took in the news with pride, if nothing else because it recognized how much work he put in to get to the top.

ACTION in the third window of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Asia Cup Qualifiers kick off next week in a “bubble” setup at Clark City in Angeles, Pampanga, with the Philippines and Korea up for key matches.

FILIPINO tennis ace Alex Eala and doubles partner Oksana Selekhmeteva of Russia advanced to the quarterfinals (QF) of the 2021 French Open girls’ doubles on Tuesday night (Manila time).

ATHLETES looking to compete in the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games later this year may have to wait some more if plans of organizers to postpone the event to next year over prevailing conditions with the coronavirus pandemic pushes through.

JUDGMENT day has come for The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition as the winner is to be revealed on Thursday.

PARIS — Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas beat world number two Daniil Medvedev in straight sets on Tuesday to advance to the French Open semifinals for the second straight year and end the Russian’s surprise run on the Parisian clay.

DENVER Nuggets center Nikola Jokić won the 2020-21 National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, becoming the first player in franchise history and the first second-round draft pick in league history to earn the honor.

ILOCOS Norte is steadily building its standing as a go-to sports-tourism destination in the country.

GARY Sanchez and Miguel Andujar homered and the New York Yankees took advantage of four Minnesota errors to snap their four-game losing streak with an 8-4 victory over the Twins in the opener of a three-game series on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.