Boris Becker arrives at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Thursday after being accused of not complying with obligations to disclose information about his bankruptcy. Aaron Chown/PA via AP
TENNIS
BORIS BECKER: Former tennis star Boris Becker appeared in a London court Thursday, pleading not guilty to a string of criminal charges related to his bankruptcy case.
Becker, who was declared bankrupt in June 2017, is accused of not complying with orders to disclose financial information and hiding properties in the U.K. and Germany from his bankruptcy trustees.
The 52-year-old faces seven years in jail if convicted.
Becker stood in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday and denied 19 charges of failing to disclose money, property and debt between May and June 2017.
Prosecutors alleged he hid his stake of shares in an artificial intelligence company and did not mention bank accounts in Belgium and Guernsey to bankruptcy proceedings.
Becker, who lives in London, is being prosecuted by the Insolvency Service. He was bailed until his next court hearing on Oct.22.
The tennis star became the youngest Wimbledon men’s singles champion in 1985, when he was 17 years old.
HAMBURG OPEN: Stefanos Tsitsipas powered past Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Hamburg European Open and continue his warm-up for the French Open.
His quarterfinal opponent is Dusan Lajovic, who swept past eighth-seeded Karen Khachanov 6-1, 6-2 in their second-round match. Since the tour restarted amid the coronavirus pandemic, Khachanov has gone four tournaments without making the quarterfinals.
After knocking out top-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the first round, France’s Ugo Humbert followed it up with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Jiri Vesely to reach his first career ATP quarterfinal on clay. He will face either Fabio Fognini or Casper Ruud.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Jewell Loyd scored 20 points and the Seattle Storm beat the Minnesota Lynx, 89-79, to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-5 semifinal series in Bradenton, Florida.
GOLF
PGA: Tyler McCumber was the only player to reach 8-under par in the Caribbean breeze until he dropped a shot on his 17th hole and fell into a four-way for the lead in the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship at Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Sepp Straka was the only one at 7-under 65 who kept a clean card. He and McCumber were joined by Hudson Swafford, who made two tough par saves late in his round, and Scott Harrington, who made bogey on the second-easiest hole.
They were one shot ahead of Xinjun Zhang and Joseph Bramlett.
FOOTBALL
NFL: All-Pro tight end George Kittle practiced on a limited basis for the second straight day in a sign that he could be ready to return after missing one game because of a knee injury.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Penguins traded forward Patrick Hornqvist to Florida Panthers in exchange for defenseman Mike Matheson – a former Portland Pirate – and forward Colton Sceviour.
Hornqvist, 33, spent six seasons in Pittsburgh after being acquired in a 2014 trade that sent James Neal to Nashville. Known for his hard-nosed play around the net, Hornqvist scored 132 goals in 407 games for the Penguins and added 22 more in the playoffs, including 14 during Pittsburgh’s run to consecutive Stanley Cups in 2016 and 2017.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR: Hendrick Motorsports was fined $100,000 for exceeding the amount of wind tunnel testing allowed in a year.
NASCAR also docked the organization 10 hours of wind tunnel time for next year. An organization is allowed a maximum of 70 hours in 2020 and 90 hours in 2021.
BIATHLON
DOPING APPEALS: Two-time Olympic biathlon champion Olga Zaitseva lost her appeal Thursday against disqualification from the 2014 Sochi Olympics for her part in Russia’s state-backed doping program.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges upheld the International Olympic Committee’s disciplinary ruling of 2017, which used evidence against Zaitseva from Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov.
Zaitseva’s disqualification from all her Sochi events strips Russia of its silver medal in the women’s biathlon 4×6-kilometer relay. She won — and will retain — her gold medals from the same relay event at the two previous Winter Games in 2006 and 2010.
Her lawyer in Switzerland, Yvan Henzer, said Zaitseva would appeal the CAS ruling at Switzerland’s supreme court. The federal court typically only intervenes if legal process was abused.
Two of Zaitseva’s relay teammates at Sochi, Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova, won their appeals Thursday, and had their IOC disqualifications from individual biathlon events at Sochi overturned.
Vilukhina’s silver medal in the 7.5-kilometer individual sprint will be reinstated. Romanova had a best result of 19th in her individual events.
The court said its judges found “none of the acts alleged to have committed by these two athletes had been established to its comfortable satisfaction and beyond the mere suspicion” of doping.
All three biathletes have retired from competition.
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