TENNIS
Del Potro advances
Two-time Swiss Indoors champion Juan Martin del Potro beat Joao Sousa 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 to advance to the second round on Wednesday at Basel, Switzerland. The fourth-seeded Del Potro dominated with his serve and sent down nine aces and 19 service winners against the 60th-ranked Portuguese. Del Potro won back-to-back titles at Basel in 2012-13, both times beating hometown favorite Roger Federer in the final. In a second round match Wednesday, fifth-seeded Jack Sock won 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 against Robin Haase of the Netherlands to be the only American victor as three others lost. Sixth-seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut advanced to the quarterfinals beating Ryan Harrison 6-3, 7-6 (1). In first-round matches, Julien Benneteau of France beat Donald Young 6-4, 6-2 and Marton Fucsovics of Hungary won 6-0, 6-1 against Jared Donaldson.
Wozniacki moves up
Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the semifinals at the WTA Finals in Singapore by beating top-ranked Simona Halep 6-0, 6-2 Wednesday. The former No. 1 from Denmark, who made only seven unforced errors in the match, took advantage of the slow court, using the time to set up her shots and cover more ground. In the first set, Halep won only 10 of the 35 points played, and Wozniacki never faced a break point. The sixth-seeded Wozniacki saved the one break point she faced in the fifth game of the second set. She broke Halep's serve twice in the second set. There was a much tougher match for eighth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France, who outlasted Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-7 (7) 6-3, 7-5 in a grueling encounter. Svitolina served for the match at 5-3 in the final set, but lost the last four games. Garcia and Halep stand at 1-1, while Svitolina is 0-2 in the round robin. All three remain in contention for the second semifinal spot in the Red Group.
BASKETBALL
Fultz out 2 games
Philadelphia 76ers rookie guard Markelle Fultz will miss the next two games with soreness in his right shoulder. Fultz, the No. 1 pick in the 2017 NBA draft, has had problems with his shoulder all season that have greatly affected his free-throw mechanics. Fultz's form has been widely mocked as his shots clanked off the backboard. Fultz is shooting 33 percent, 50 percent from the free-throw line and has not attempted a three-point shot all season. Fultz missed Wednesday's game against the Houston Rockets and will miss road games Saturday at Dallas and Monday at Houston. The 6-foot-4 guard out of Houston is the latest in a string of 76ers' first-round picks who missed time with injuries, joining Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel in recent years. The Sixers gave Fultz a cortisone injection this month and said he will be evaluated again on Tuesday.
FOOTBALL
Kaepernick to meet
NFL spokesman Joe Lockhart said Wednesday the league expects Colin Kaepernick to be invited to the next meeting between owners and players to discuss social justice initiatives. Lockhart said the meeting probably will take place next week. The players' union and its members decide who attends such gatherings; the league and players met last week in New York in the wake of backlash concerning player demonstrations during the national anthem. Kaepernick, who began kneeling during the national anthem before the 2016 season and currently is out of the NFL, did not attend that meeting.
Chargers trade Inman
A source with knowledge of the deal said the Los Angeles Chargers have agreed to trade receiver Dontrelle Inman to the Chicago Bears for a seventh-round pick. The source spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Wednesday because the paperwork on the trade was still being completed. Inman has spent four seasons with the Chargers, catching 107 passes for 1,463 yards and seven touchdowns. He played every game last season in San Diego. While the Virginia product developed into a dependable NFL receiver, Inman has been inactive for the past two weeks after the Chargers activated first-round pick Mike Williams, who missed training camp and the first five games of the season with a back injury. ESPN first reported the trade.
HORSE RACING
Arrogate leads Classic
Defending champion Arrogate heads a full field of 14 horses for the Breeders' Cup Classic, with the world's all-time leading money earner facing off against a horse that has beaten him twice in a row in the $6 million race that includes five runners trained by Bob Baffert. The Classic won't include Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, Preakness winner Cloud Computing and Belmont winner Tapwrit. Pacific Classic winner Collected, who handed Arrogate his last two losses, Whitney and Suburban winner Gun Runner, Ireland-bred Mubtaahij and Travers winner West Coast are among the 14 horses expected to run in the 1¼-mile Classic. The Nov. 4 race will be shown live in prime time on NBC. The Classic field is among a total of 187 horses pre-entered Wednesday for the $28 million, 13-race Breeders' Cup world championships at Del Mar spanning two days. The track north of San Diego is hosting the event for the first time. A record 46 foreign horses were pre-entered, including a leading 14 by Irish trainer Aidan O'Brien. New York-based Chad Brown is second with 13 horses. Coolmore Stud leads all owners with 14 pre-entries. Baffert is going for his fourth consecutive victory in the Classic, after winning the last three years with Bayern, Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and Arrogate. It would be a record if all five of his horses start in the Classic. Besides Arrogate and Collected, his other runners are Cupid, Mubtaahij and West Coast. Final entries and the post-position draw will be Monday at Del Mar. Besides Arrogate, there are eight returning or former champions pre-entered: Highland Reel, Drefong, Oscar Performance, Lady Eli, Champagne Room, Queen's Trust, Finest City and Mongolian Saturday. The Classic winner will earn $3.3 million.
SOCCER
First person sentenced in U.S. in FIFA scandal
A former judge who led Guatemala’s soccer federation became the first person sentenced in the U.S. in the FIFA world soccer corruption scandal when a judge ordered him to serve eight months in prison, saying his bribe money could have been used to build soccer fields for poor children.
Hector Trujillo, 63, was sentenced in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday by Judge Pamela K. Chen. He had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy in June. Besides the prison term, the judge also ordered him to pay $415,000 in restitution.
The judge said the $175,000 in bribes that Trujillo pocketed to steer sports marketing contracts to the federation over several years was money “that should have been used to build soccer fields in poor neighborhoods” or buy uniforms for young players.
Trujillo said his conscience failed him when he accepted the bribes. He choked up as he asked the judge for forgiveness, saying he’d suffered enough.
Prosecutors had asked that the former general secretary of Guatemala’s soccer federation serve more than three years in prison. Defense lawyers asked for no prison time for crimes between 2009 and 2016.
Free on $4 million bail, Trujillo has been staying in Miami. He was arrested in December 2015 in Port Canaveral, Fla., during a Disney cruise with his family. He spent more than a month in prison before home confinement was ordered.
Prosecutors said in pre-sentence papers that Trujillo minimized the seriousness of his crime by noting he did not violate the laws of Guatemala, even as he indisputably broke FIFA rules.
The U.S. investigation of corruption linked to FIFA has resulted in indictments or guilty pleas from more than 40 people and marketing agencies linked to soccer in the Americas since 2015. Many of the charges involve bribes paid around the organization for regional tournaments and World Cup qualifying games.
Sports on 10/26/2017