The United States Tennis Association is pressing ahead with preparations to stage the US Open in New York this year but is "aggressively" drafting alternative plans for the tournament, a spokesman said.
With New York the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the US Open's apparently precarious place on the sporting calendar has faced increasing speculation in recent weeks.
Multiple reports have suggested that USTA officials are mulling a possible switch of the August 31-September 13 tournament to either Indian Wells or Orlando in an effort to evade the clutches of COVID-19.
However, USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier said in an email to AFP on Thursday that the organisation's sights remained firmly set on staging the Open at its regular venue and date.
"The USTA's goal is to hold the 2020 US Open in New York on its currently scheduled dates," Widmaier said, describing planning for the tournament as "ongoing."
"We understand that there is a great deal of speculation ...

USTA planning for New York US Open, mull alternatives

PTI Automatic

Dropped from the list of centrally contracted players, Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali is now staring at the possibility of being sidelined because of a back injury which might require surgery abroad.
According to a reliable source in the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Hasan, who has been battling injury problems since last year's World Cup, is now suffering from a back pain after he appeared in the Pakistan Super League matches in February-March.
"He has developed a back problem since late April and the PCB has sent his medical reports to medical experts in Australia and some other countries for advice," the source said.
He said the board was prepared to send Hasan to Australia or any other country if the experts advised he undergo surgery for his back problem.
"There are two options available for Hasan, either he undergoes a long-term therapy treatment or has surgery but everything will depend on the advice by the foreign experts," the source said.
Hasan was also dropped from the list of ...

Pak pacer Hasan Ali battling back injury, might require surgery

Austrian league leaders LASK Linz faces possible punishment for violating health regulations by resuming full training, a move which incurred the wrath of their rivals.
The league investigation was triggered by a video tape of the training sessions, which was filmed without the club's knowledge and which allegedly showed a breach Austrian regulations for fighting with coronavirus pandemic.
Since April 20, clubs in Austria have only been allowed to train in groups of up to six players. Full training will only be allowed from Friday. The championship is scheduled to resume on 2 June.
LASK has filed a burglary complaint claiming that a camera was smuggled in to spy on training sessions and that the perpetrators were themselves filmed.
LASK, coached by Frenchman Valerien Ismael, did not deny the accusations, acknowledging in a statement that "as shown by a camera illegally introduced during a night-time break-in, the rules of distancing were not strictly observed".
The case will be ...

Austrian league leaders investigated for breaking training rules

The future of former Chelsea and Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas as coach of Marseille was on a knife-edge after the departure of his right-hand man Andoni Zubizarreta.
The club's sporting director, a former Spanish international goalkeeper, still had a year on his contract to run at the French giants.
"I ended up as a sports director but I started as a supporter of Marseille," wrote Zubizarreta, thanking owner Frank McCourt, president Jacques-Henri Eyraud and Rudi Garcia, the former coach.
The club said in a statement: "Olympique Marseille announces the departure, by mutual agreement, of Andoni Zubizarreta.
"The recruitment of a general manager in charge of football is in progress." Zubizarreta, 58, leaves despite Marseille having ended the truncated Ligue 1 season in second place behind Paris Saint-Germain and with a Champions League place secured.
In January, Villas-Boas had publicly supported his Spanish colleague who had arrived at the club in 2016, three years before the ...

Villas-Boas' Marseille future in doubt as right-hand man Zubizarreta departs

NASCAR stock car racing, due to resume it's coronavirus disrupted season on Sunday, Thursday announced five more events in its revamped 2020 calendar.
The hugely popular closed-cockpit racing series takes to the track for the first time since March 8 on Sunday on the Darlington Raceway Oval.
That's the first of four oval events already announced for May -- two at Darlington and two more at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina.
All four will be staged without spectators and with special protocols in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among drivers and other essential personnel.
On Thursday NASCAR said it's premier level Cup series would continue after the May 27 race at Charlotte with a May 31 race at Bristol, Tennessee, followed by events on June 7 in Atlanta, June 10 in Martinsville in Virginia, June 14 at Miami and June 21 at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.
All five races will be held without fans in attendance, NASCAR said. All of the venues are also within driving ..

NASCAR adds more races to revised schedule

Augsburg coach Heiko Herrlich will have to sit out the Bundesliga resumption this weekend after breaking quarantine rules to go and buy a tube of toothpaste.
The 48-year-old Herrlich was to have made his debut as coach of the top flight strugglers in Saturday's game with Wolfsburg after a two-month wait when the sport was shutdown because of the coronavirus.
"I made a mistake by leaving the hotel," admitted Herrlich who said he went to a supermarket to buy toothpaste and skin cream.
"In this situation, I didn't live up to my position as a role model for my team and the public." Herrlich, who underwent treatment for a brain tumour in 2000, admitted: "I'm a risk patient, to be precise."
He added: "I made a mistake by leaving the hotel. Even if I have followed all hygiene measures both when leaving the hotel and otherwise, I cannot undo this.
"Because of this misconduct, I will not be leading the training tomorrow (Friday) and will not be in charge of the team against Wolfsburg on ...

Toothpaste trip sidelines Augsburg coach from Bundesliga restart

South African-born Devon Conway has been rushed on to the New Zealand cricket payroll before completing the required three-years residency because his form was "impossible to ignore", chief selector Gavin Larsen said Friday.
The 28-year-old batting maestro, who does not become eligible for selection until August, was one of three new players named in the 20-strong Black Caps contracted squad.
Imposing all-rounder Kyle Jamieson, who burst on to the international scene during the recent India series and spinner Ajaz Patel have also been promoted to the elite group while Colin Munro and Jeet Raval have been dropped and Todd Astle confirmed his retirement in January.
Conway, a left-handed batsman, has topped the domestic batting charts across all three formats since emigrating in 2017 and his eligibility when international cricket resumes left no room for Test opener Raval and limited-over batsman Munro.
"Devon's form with the bat across all three formats these past two seasons made him ..

South African Conway fast-tracked into New Zealand squad

With Carlos Sainz moving to Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo heading for McLaren, AFP looks at how the grid in the 2021 Formula One world championship is shaping up.
Mercedes
========
-- Six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is under contract until the end of 2020 and has made no secret of his intention to stay with the sport's top team as he targets Michael Schumacher's record of seven titles.
His teammate Valtteri Bottas is also signed up until the end of this year. However, the 30-year-old Finn is believed to be under pressure from highly-rated Williams driver George Russell, a product of the Mercedes young drivers scheme. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has said he wants to keep Hamilton and Bottas together.
But he also admitted that he cannot "ignore" the fact that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has already announced he is leaving Ferrari at the end of this season.
Ferrari
=======
-- Monaco's Charles Leclerc, just 22, has a deal with the Italian giants until 2024 and with ..

Formula One grid in 2021: What we know so far

Major League Soccer extended its moratorium on team or group training through June 1 as coronavirus concerns continue to disrupt global sport.
MLS suspended play on March 12 in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Last week the league allowed individual players to return to outdoor team facilities to train where local government restrictions allowed.
Social distancing measures were in place, but at least nine teams have yet to receive permission from local authorities to welcome players back.
"MLS and its clubs will continue to remain in close contact with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and local health authorities on this continually evolving situation and provide further updates as they become available," MLS said in a statement.
The update came amid reports that MLS was considering a resumption of competition with all 26 clubs taking part in a stand-alone tournament to be played inside a secure "bubble" in Orlando, ...

MLS extends team training moratorium

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said he's "hopeful" that concerns over the coronavirus pandemic and financial considerations can be overcome and allow a 2020 season to go ahead.
Speaking on CNN in a "Global Town Hall," Manfred insisted he was optimistic that MLB and players would come to terms and open a season that was due to start on March 26.
MLB has pitched a reopening plan to the MLB Players Association that would see play begin in July, with strict protocols in place to screen for COVID-19 and prevent spread of the deadly virus.
The union has reportedly balked at the suggestion that players take a further pay cut from the pro-rated salary rates they already agreed upon in April for a season expected to be shortened to about 82 games per club.
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell said Wednesday that he was concerned about potential long-term health damage if he contracted COVID-19, and said he wasn't interested in assuming that risk for a lesser amount of ...

MLB commissioner 'hopeful' virus-hit season will begin

World number one Rory McIlroy and America's most popular auto racers will nudge United States sport forward this weekend as hope grows for a June revival from the coronavirus shutdown.
Four-time major champion McIlroy and fifth-ranked Dustin Johnson will team up to face Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff in a made-for-television Skins Game without spectators on Sunday to raise $3 million for virus relief charities.
"Golf can return to doing things like this," McIlroy said.
"We can keep ourselves socially distant. We can keep ourselves in different carts and stay more than six feet away from one another. That's very important, too, taking all the necessary precautions to be able to put this match on."
That's in part because other sports organizations seeking their own returns will be watching to see how well these events handle the challenge.
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) also returns Sunday without fans with a 400-mile (643km) race at the 1.33-mile ...

US sport edges back from virus shutdown with golf, auto events

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Thursday said it is open to appoint a foreign head coach at its High Performance Centre in Lahore.
PCB's newly-appointed Director of High Performance, Nadeem Khan said that merit and experience would be the main criterion while deciding the individual.
"Now if a foreigner meets the criteria he will be appointed. If a Pakistani meets all eligibility criteria he will be selected," Nadeem said while speaking to reporters via video conference.
The former left-arm spinner, who is the elder brother of Pakistan's former Test captain Moin Khan, also made it clear that coaches with a suspicious background or history would not be allowed to work at the High Performance Centre.
"We will check the background of all the available coaches and if if someone has a suspicious background he will be released," Nadeem said.
Nadeem, who has replaced former Test all-rounder Mudassar Nazar as the head of the High Performance Centre, didn't agree with suggestions that only 

PCB open to appoint foreign coach at Lahore's High Performance Centre

The Pakistan team's tour of Ireland to play a T20 series in July has been postponed due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
The two cricket boards decided to postpone their two-T20I series in July after the Ireland Government announced behind closed-door matches can only be possible after 10 August.
This means that since Pakistan is due to tour England from late July, the two T20 matches could also be rescheduled. The matches in Dublin were planned for 12 and 14 July.
Earlier last month, Holland also indefinitely postponed a home series against Pakistan due to the pandemic.
PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said: "It is sad that due the current Covid-19 pandemic, we have to postpone our tour to Ireland. We were looking forward to returning to the venue, where we featured against Ireland in their inaugural Test in 2018, and country where our players have always been supported and admired by the friendly and knowledgeable fans.

Pakistan's tour of Ireland in July postpned due to COVID-19

England captain Harry Kane said Thursday that he will sponsor the shirts of former club Leyton Orient for next season by thanking frontline workers for their efforts during the coronavirus crisis and promoting two other charities.
Tottenham Hotspur striker Kane scored his first professional goal during a loan spell with Orient in 2011.
The League Two club's home shirt will be emblazoned with "Thank You Frontline Heroes", while the away and third kits will carry the logos of Haven House children's hospice and mental health charity Mind.
"Very proud to announce that I'm supporting the club that gave me my first pro start and three amazing causes by sponsoring @leytonorientfc's shirts for the 2020/21 season," Kane said on Twitter.
Orient hailed Kane's generosity at a troubled time for lower league clubs.  Most teams in the lower reaches of the football pyramid are far more reliant on gate receipts than television revenue to survive and it is likely to be many more months before ...

Kane sponsors Leyton Orient shirts with charity messages

Philadelphia Union forward Kacper Przybylko says he is the previously unidentified player the Major League Soccer club announced last month had tested positive for coronavirus.
The 27-year-old Polish striker said in a video posting on the team's website that he feels over the effects of the coronavirus after having been quarantined for 14 days.
"I feel great right now. I feel fully recovered," Przybylko said.
"I'm looking forward to the magical moment to be back at the practice."
On April 1, the Union said a player had tested positive after reporting mild symptoms.
The team said no mass testing of players and staff was needed because club facilities had been closd since March 12 and the positive fell beyond the 14-day period where anyone would have been infected.
"I immediately alerted the proper team officials about my symptoms and went straight to self-isolating," Przybylko said.
"I just needed some time for myself before I wanted to share with everybody."
The Germany-born forward ..

Polish MLS striker Przybylko says he contracted COVID-19

The International Olympic Committee said Thursday it had created a fund of USD 800 million to tackle the financial hardships created by the coronavirus pandemic which has forced the postponement of this year's Tokyo Olympics until 2021.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the body had released "an envelope of up to USD 800 million to address the financial consequences of this COVID-19 crisis".
The envelope has two parts: USD 650m (602 million euros) which "refers to the cost of organisation" of the postponed Games; and USD 150m as an aid package for the Olympic movement, in particular international federations and Olympic committees.
Bach said the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed almost 300,000 people worldwide, had had "a very severe financial effect... on the Olympic Games, the entire Olympic movement and the IOC".
The IOC, which has approximately USD 1 billion (926 million euros) in reserves, in March took the historic decision to postpone the Games, scheduled to open on July 24, .

IOC creates $800m fund to address coronavirus crisis

The president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) said on Thursday that he is "99 percent" sure that the Serie A season will restart next month following its coronavirus-enforced suspension.
"From one to 100, what do I think the chances are Serie A starts on June 13? I'd say 99 percent," Giovanni Malago told public broadcaster RAI.
"Everything is ready for a restart, to put the system in a position to begin again. However if you asked me what the chances are of the season finishing once it's begun, I'd need a crystal ball."
On Wednesday Serie A clubs announced they wanted to return to competition on June 13, over three months since the season was halted, if they get the all-clear from the Italian government.
The country's sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora has given clubs the green light to restart team training sessions from Monday after players were allowed to enter club facilities for individual sessions earlier in the month.
The most delicate issue surrounding a possible ...

Italian Olympic chief '99 percent' sure of June Serie A restart

The chairman of Istanbul giants Besiktas tested positive for coronavirus after a series of medical checks on players and staff members, the club said Thursday, a month before games are set to resume.
Earlier Thursday, the club said eight people at the club had contracted the virus. No further details were given, and it was not clear if chairman Ahmet Nur Cebi was among the eight.
Tests were conducted on footballers, technical committee members and facility staff on Wednesday, Besiktas said.
The results will raise further concerns after the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) said games in the top league would resume on June 12 after they were suspended in March.
TFF chief Nihat Ozdemir said the matches would be played without spectators but this could change depending on how the pandemic evolves.
Super Lig club Kasimpasa later Thursday said two footballers had tested positive for COVID-19 after conducting tests on players and staff.
Second division club Erzurumspor said Wednesday 11 ...

Besiktas chairman tests positive for coronavirus

The Africa Cup of Nations is the latest international sports event to become embroiled in a debate about rescheduling in the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Olympics, the Euros and the Copa America, all scheduled for this summer, have already been put back a year.
The Cup of Nations -- CAN to give it its acronym in French -- is set for the start of 2021 in Cameroon, but several leading figures in African football are pleading for a postponement.
Others worry that the likely traffic jam in the 2021 football calendar means they will struggle to find other "free slots".
Cameroon was originally scheduled to host the event in the summer of 2019 but Ahmad Ahmad, president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), decided the hosts were not ready and moved the tournament to Egypt. That gave Cameroon two extra years to prepare.
After experimenting with a summer tournament in Egypt, CAF has returned to the winter slot, so unpopular with the European clubs, and the event is ...

Debate swirls around adding Africa Cup of Nations to list of postponements

Quail Hollow, where American Justin Thomas captured his first major title in 2017, was named the host club for the 2025 PGA Championship on Thursday by the PGA of America.
The Charlotte, North Carolina, course opened in 1961 and has been a regular US PGA Tour stop. In addition, the 7,600-yard layout is set to host next year's Presidents Cup matches.
"Quail Hollow's course has a well-earned reputation as a stern test for the world's finest players," PGA of America president Suzy Whaley said.
Combined with Tuesday's announcement that Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would host the 2030 PGA, the major championship has settled its future venues for every year through 2031.
The tournament shifted from August to May dates last year in a major revamp of the global golf schedule.
In 2017, Thomas beat compatriot Patrick Reed, Italy's Francesco Molinari and South African Louis Oosthuizen by two strokes to claim the Wanamaker Trophy.
"To have Charlotte serve as the host for a second PGA ...

Quail Hollow named host for 2025 PGA Championship

An Indonesian badminton legend has claimed the Southeast Asian nation's sports ministry is full of corrupt "rats", after admitting his own role in a bribery case.
"No matter who the minister is, it'll be the same," retired Olympic gold medallist Taufik Hidayat said in a YouTube interview this week.
"Half the building should be destroyed because there are so many rats inside."
The 38-year-old's comments came after he testified in court last week that he delivered one billion rupiah ($67,000) to the personal assistant of former youth and sports minister Imam Nahrawi, who is on trial for corruption.
Hidayat, who denied knowing the money was a bribe, claimed that it was common for ministry officials to embezzle funds through sports programmes.
But he acknowledged that he had no concrete evidence to back up the claims.
The youth and sports ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
However, local media quoted Youth and Sports Ministry secretary Gatot S. Dewa Broto as saying that the 

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