TENNIS
Iga Swiatek moved up one spot to the top of the WTA rankings on Monday, becoming the first tennis player from Poland to be No. 1 in the sport.
The 20-year-old Swiatek takes over from Ash Barty, who announced last month she would be retiring at the age of 25 after more than two years at No. 1.
Swiatek won the 2020 French Open and is currently on a 17-match winning streak that includes the title at the hard-court Miami Open, where she defeated Naomi Osaka 6-4, 6-0 in the final on Saturday. That followed Swiatek’s triumph at Indian Wells, California, last month, making her only the fourth woman to complete what’s known as the “Sunshine Double,” and another trophy in Doha, Qatar, in February, so she is the first woman to win the first three WTA 1000 events in a year.
“I felt like everything clicked this season,” Swiatek said in a video interview with The Associated Press.
She is the 28th woman to lead the rankings.
Osaka is a former No. 1 whose run to her first tour final in more than a year allowed her to go all the way from No. 77 to No. 35 on Monday.
Miami Open men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz, an 18-year-old Spaniard, jumped five spots to No. 11 in the ATP rankings, his highest showing so far.
The player he beat 7-5, 6-4 in the final Sunday, Casper Ruud, also got to his best ranking, rising one place to No. 7.
Novak Djokovic remained at No. 1 despite not having played at Indian Wells or Miami because he has not been vaccinated against COVID-19 and couldn’t travel to the United States.
Daniil Medvedev briefly held the top spot this year and could have returned there depending on his performance in Miami, but his quarterfinal loss meant he stayed at No. 2. He announced Saturday he would be sidelined for a month or two after having hernia surgery.
Reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova rose two places to No. 2 in the WTA rankings, equaling her best. Paula Badosa moved up three spots to No. 3 to set a career high.
Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins, an American who beat Swiatek in the semifinals at Melbourne Park, went from No. 11 to No. 8, her highest placing.
Jessica Pegula, who made it to the semifinals in Miami before losing to Swiatek, soared from No. 21 to No. 13, the best ranking of the American’s career.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Cleveland Cavaliers Coach J.B. Bickerstaff was fined $15,000 by the NBA for criticizing the officials following Sunday night’s loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
Upset by inconsistency in calls and the Sixers getting 42 free throws, Bickerstaff said the game “was taken” from the Cavs, who are trying to hold onto the No. 7 play-in spot with a week left in the regular season.
Bickerstaff also was upset that a foul wasn’t called on Sixers star Joel Embiid in the closing seconds of Philadelphia’s 112-108 win. Cavs guard Darius Garland was bumped on a layup with the Cavs down by a point.
On the two-minute report released Monday, the league agreed with Bickerstaff and said Embiid should have been called for a foul.
However, Bickerstaff was most bothered by the free-throw discrepancy as the Sixers attempted 42 free throws to 31 for the Cavs. Embiid went to the line 21 times, and All-Star forward James Harden attempted 12.
“We deserved to win that game. That game was taken from us. We deserved to win it,” Bickerstaff said Sunday. “We did a great job defensively, of making their two best players have a difficult time from the field.
“But one thing you can’t defend is the free-throw line. And that’s absurd. That’s absurd. Our guys deserve way better than what they got tonight.”
• Ben Simmons of the Nets was back on the practice court, but don’t expect to see him in a live game anytime soon.
Nets Coach Steve Nash said the little bit of Simmons’ activity reporters saw at the end of practice summed up what he’s been able to do since receiving an epidural in mid-March for the pain a herniated disc caused. While that progress is a positive, Nash ruled him out for appearing in games this week or for the play-in tournament — which could be their final game of the year if they finish the regular season with the ninth or 10th seed, then lose their sudden-death matchup next Tuesday.
ESPORTS
BETTING: New Jersey’s first company to take bets on competitive video games said it planned to begin full operations Monday, having completed a trial period for state regulators.
Esports Entertainment Group was approved Friday to end a testing period of “soft play” while New Jersey regulators evaluated its product.
The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement confirmed it had authorized the company to commence full operations. The company is affiliated with the license of Bally’s casino.
“We are pleased to have passed through the soft play period, which is a testament to all the hard work put in by our team over the past year,” said Grant Johnson, the company’s CEO. “As the first licensed esports-focused betting site in North America, we’re thrilled to fully launch the VIE.gg platform in New Jersey, one of the gold standard jurisdictions for sports wagering in the country.”
The company is based in London and has offices in Hoboken, New Jersey, and in Malta. For now, it can only take bets on esports. It will take bets on people playing games including Call of Duty, Overwatch, CS:GO, League of Legends and DOTA 2. Johnson estimated betting on esports is expected to reach $205 billion by 2027.
SOCCER
U.S. MEN: The United States was drawn to play 74th-ranked El Salvador and No. 170 Grenada in the CONCACAF Nations League in preparation for the World Cup in November.
The 15th-ranked U.S. has Nations League games on June 11 and 14 in Group D, and it also intends to play exhibition games on June 1 and 5, and on Sept. 23 and 27.
Back in the World Cup for the first time since 2014, the U.S. opens Group B against Scotland, Wales or Ukraine on Nov. 21. It faces England four days later and meets Iran on Nov. 29.
APPEAL: Bundesliga club Freiburg has appealed the result of its 4-1 loss to Bayern Munich after the Bavarian powerhouse briefly had an extra player on the field, but insisted it feels “extremely uncomfortable” about doing so.
Bayern briefly had 12 players on the field toward the end of the match when Marcel Sabitzer came on and Kingsley Coman didn’t realize he was supposed to come off. The mixup apparently happened because a Bayern staff member gave the fourth official Coman’s old number to hold up during a double substitution instead of his current one.
Freiburg defender Nico Schlotterbeck informed referee Christian Dingert that the visitors had a player too many, leading to brief hold-up in play before Coman was taken off. Bayern was already 3-1 up at the time, with Coman having scored the third goal, and Sabitzer then netted the fourth in the sixth minute of injury time.
Freiburg said the mix-up forced it into a “dilemma through no fault of our own. SC Freiburg had no part or influence on the events around the substitution process. Nevertheless, the legal and procedural rules of the German soccer federation formally force us to play an active role in order to have the processes legally checked.”
The club added that “we have no interest whatsoever in this active role, which has been given to us against our will in terms of procedure, and we feel extremely uncomfortable in it.”
The club said it nevertheless decided to appeal the result after intensive discussions and legal consultations to give a sports court the chance to evaluate the situation. It said it was important to set a legal precedent for possible future cases for other clubs.
NETHERLANDS: Coach Louis van Gaal has revealed that he is being treated for an aggressive form of prostate cancer but still plans to lead the team at the World Cup in Qatar in November.
Van Gaal told Sunday night Dutch talk show “Humberto” that players in the team did not know about his diagnosis even though he was receiving night-time treatment during four training camps.
“You don’t tell something like this to people you work with because it could influence their choices, their energy or whatever, and I thought, `they shouldn’t know,”‘ he said.
He said he has undergone 25 radiation therapy treatments.
“I have been to the hospital in the evening or night in every period, without the players knowing,” the 70-year-old coach said.
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