SOCCER

Cristiano Ronaldo received FIFA’s best player award for the fourth time on Monday, after Portugal and Real Madrid won both major European titles in 2016.

He beat runner-up and great rival Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann to complete a sweep of top individual awards.

Leicester Manager Claudio Ranieri earned the men’s coaching prize for a stunning English Premier League title.

Carli Lloyd of the United States won the women’s FIFA player prize for the second year in a row.

Lloyd won despite Germany midfielder Melanie Behringer playing on the Olympic gold medal-winning team. Five-time winner Marta was runner-up and Behringer was third.

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MLS: FC Dallas defender Ryan Hollingshead is recovering from three fractured cervical vertebrae after he was struck by a car while trying to assist another driver who had spun on an icy road in Irving, Texas.

Hollingshead will be in a neck brace for 6 to 8 weeks. The MLS club said he is not at risk of spinal cord damage or loss of function.

BASKETBALL

NBA D-LEAGUE: The Maine Red Claws acquired Cameron Ayers from the available player pool and waived Pendarvis Williams.

Ayers, a 6-5, 205-pound guard, played seven games for the Reno Bighorns this season, averaging 3.3 points per game before being waived on Nov. 30. Last season, Ayers averaged 11.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists for the Bighorns. He played college ball at Bucknell, finishing his four-year collegiate career in 2014 by being named Patriot League Player of the Year.

TENNIS

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SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL: Former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki continued her preparations for the Australian Open with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win over Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig at Sydney.

Wozniacki, who finished back-to-back years at No. 1 in the rankings in 2010 and ’11, has never won a major and is determined to make up for a first-round exit at the Australian Open last year.

Third-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, last year’s WTA Finals champion and a finalist at the Australian Open in 2014, opened in Sydney with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Laura Siegemund, advancing along with No. 6-seeded Johanna Konta and No. 9 Roberta Vinci.

AUSTRALIA: A former Australian Open junior boys’ finalist has been banned from the sport for seven years by the Tennis Integrity Unit after being found guilty of match-fixing offenses at a minor tournament in 2013.

Police in New South Wales state charged Nick Lindahl with intentionally losing a tennis match on which friends had placed bets at an ITF futures tournament in September 2013.

TRACK AND FIELD

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RUSSIA: Runner Maxim Dyldin has been banned for four years for failing to give a doping sample.

The Russian track federation says Dyldin was given the sanction by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for “evading, refusing or failing to submit for sample collection.”

CAS did not immediately confirm Dyldin’s ban and it was not clear when the offense occurred.

Dyldin won a European gold medal in the 4×400-meter relay in 2010.

Russia’s track and field team has been suspended from all international competition since November 2015 over widespread doping.


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