Wednesday Sports in Brief | Hilton Head Island Package

TENNIS

LONDON (AP) — Tennis players from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to play at Wimbledon this year because of the war in Ukraine, the All England Club announced Wednesday.

Among the prominent male players affected by the ban are reigning US Open champion Daniil Medvedev, who recently reached No. 1 in the ATP rankings and is currently No. 2, and No. 8 Andrey Rublev. Players affected include No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka, who was a Wimbledon semi-finalist last year; Victoria Azarenka, a former No.1 who won the Australian Open twice; and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, finalist of Roland-Garros last year.

Medvedev, Rublev and Pavlyuchenkova come from Russia; Sabalenka and Azarenka are from Belarus.

Wimbledon starts on June 27.

LONDON (AP) — Former professional tennis player Pam Shriver, now a television commentator for ESPN and the BBC, said she “had an inappropriate and damaging relationship with my much older coach” that began when she was 17 and he was 50.

In a first-person account published by Britain’s The Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday, Shriver describes a “painful and emotional journey” that included what she writes was a relationship with trainer Don Candy that lasted just over five years. .

Candy passed away in 2020.

Shriver, 59, turned professional in 1979, a year after reaching the US Open singles final at 16. She defeated Martina Navratilova in the semifinals before losing the title match to Chris Evert.

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKTBALL

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jay Wright shocked college basketball Wednesday night with his immediate resignation to Villanova, the Big East program he led to two national championships and four Final Fours in a Hall of Fame career.

Wright, 60, guided Villanova to titles in 2016 and 2018 and just led the Wildcats to the Final Four, where they lost to national champion Kansas. He went 520-197 in 21 school seasons and 642-282 overall, also coaching Hofstra from 1994 to 2001.

Kyle Neptune, who was on Villanova’s coaching staff before accepting the head coaching job at Fordham in 2021, has returned to replace Wright.

NBA

PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix Suns All-Star guard Devin Booker is suffering from a strained right hamstring, obscuring his status for the remainder of the team’s first-round playoff series against the New York Pelicans. New Orleans.

The Suns said Booker’s MRI on Wednesday confirmed “mild” hamstring strain. Booker was hurt in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss during the third quarter when he tried to defend a New Orleans shot on a fast break. The 25-year-old sprinted into the court, jumped up and then grabbed his right hamstring after landing.

The Pelicans won the game 125-114 to tie the series at 1.

NHL

PITTSBURGH (AP) — American women’s hockey star Amanda Kessel is joining the Pittsburgh Penguins for an executive management program that could put her on track to work full-time in an NHL front office.

Kessel is the first participant in the new program the team unveiled on Wednesday. She follows the lead of retired American star and Hockey Hall of Famer Cammi Granato and other women in NHL management roles.

Kessel said she was excited to learn on the job with the Penguins, where she will work alongside team executives in the hockey operations, marketing and broadcast departments.

GOLF

Pebble Beach is the third course to become an anchor site for the US Open, with the USGA announcing four US Opens and four US Women’s Opens over the next 26 years on Wednesday.

Pebble Beach joins Pinehurst No. 2 and Oakmont Country Club as anchor sites, a strategy that allows the USGA to return to its most famous US Open courses more frequently.

The USGA has ensured that women are not left behind.

The US Women’s Open will first be held next year on America’s most famous seaside course, then it will return three times in 2035, 2040 and 2048.

FOOTBALL

WASHINGTON (AP) — DC United fired coach Hernán Losada on Wednesday and handed assistant Chad Ashton the interim job with the club in last place in the MLS Eastern Conference.

United is 2-4-0. His last game in MLS was a 3-2 loss to Austin on Saturday after DC led 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining.

Losada was in his second season in the nation’s capital. He was signed by DC United in January 2021 and, at 38, was the youngest active manager in MLS at the time. The club went 14-15-5 and missed the playoffs last season.

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

BALTIMORE (AP) — Towson has hired Coppin State’s Laura Harper as its new women’s basketball coach.

Towson announced the move on Wednesday. Harper coached Coppin State for two years. The Eagles went 15-13 last season for their first winning season since 2013-14.

Harper replaces Diane Richardson, who led Towson to a school-record 24 wins last season before taking over the program at Temple.

CAR RACE

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Three Indianapolis 500 winners spun out of the pits Wednesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and four-time racing champion Helio Castroneves hit the second-turn wall with about 80 minutes to go in an unusually chaotic testing session .

Castroneves was taken to the track medical center where he was checked and cleared to drive shortly after the crash. The Brazilian won last year’s race in the same car that hit the wall.

The test session was delayed early in the day for about 90 minutes due to rain. After the track dried, temperatures in the 40s and warmed into the 60s as the riders took to the track

Castroneves wasn’t the only veteran who struggled with the cool and windy conditions. Alexander Rossi, who won the 500m in 2016, and Will Power, the 2018 champion, also spun in the warm-up lane.

SPORTS COMPANY

SYRACUSE, NY (AP) — The Carrier Dome in Syracuse has a new look and will now have a new name.

The university announced Wednesday that Carrier Global Corp. had agreed to end Carrier’s hold on the naming rights to the site, which is home to the school’s basketball, soccer and lacrosse teams, effective May 1. A new name has not been revealed.

According to a report in Sportico last week, JMA Wireless, a Syracuse-based local tech company, will assume naming rights. An Associated Press email seeking comment from the company went unanswered.

OBITUARY

Bob Babich, a member of the College Football Hall of Fame who played linebacker in the NFL for the Chargers and Browns, has died. He was 74 years old.

Babich died on April 3 at his home in Clairemont, Calif. His death was reported by the National Football Foundation on Wednesday.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Babich played for coach Bo Schembechler at the University of Miami (Ohio). He was a first-team All-American captain and linebacker in 1968, then elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1994. He is still the only player from the Mid-American Conference school in Oxford, Ohio to be elected. in the College Football Hall of Fame.

Babich was selected by the San Diego Chargers in the first round of the 1969 NFL Draft. He spent three years with the Chargers and another six at Cleveland, primarily playing center linebacker.

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