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Wednesday July 19, 2017

ROGER FEDERER’S eighth Wimbledon title pushed him back up to No. 3 in the ATP rank-ings Monday after he ended last season at No. 16.

And, because he sat out the last half of 2016, his points will only continue to accumulate, making a return to No. 1 a real possibility.

“I’m playing for titles at this stage of my career. Rankings, not so much, unless I’m as close as I am right now,” said the 35-year-old Federer, who also clinched a berth in the season-ending ATP Finals, held in London on Nov. 12-19. “So I just have to check the situation, if it’s worth it to run after it or not.”

Garbine Muguruza’s fi rst championship at the All England Club returned her to the WTA’s top 10 at No. 5, a rise of 10 spots, while runner-up Venus Williams goes from No. 11 to No. 9.

Karolina Pliskova became the 23rd woman to be ranked No. 1, a debut for her that was guaran-teed last week, based on results at Wimbledon. She had been No. 3, and swaps positions with former No. 1 Angelique Kerber.

Serena Williams has not com-peted since January because she is pregnant. By losing rankings points she earned last year, including a title at Wimbledon and runner-up fi nish at the French Open, she went from No. 4 to No. 15 — leaving her out of the top 10 for the fi rst time since April 1, 2012.

The rankings count points from the preceding 52 weeks, which is why Pliskova is able to take over at No. 1 despite losing in the second round at the All England Club in London.

Pliskova, a 25-year-old from the Czech Republic, has never won a Grand Slam title — she’s not the fi rst player to top the rankings without that achieve-ment on her resume — although she was the runner-up to Kerber at last year’s U.S. Open and a semifi nalist at Roland Garros last month.

Kerber lost in the fi rst round at the French Open, then the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Simona Halep had a chance to be No. 1 this week but lost to Johanna Konta in the Wimble-don quarterfi nals.

So Halep continues at No. 2, with Konta going from No. 7 to No. 4. (SD-Agencies)

FOUR-TIME Olympic medalist Frankie Fredericks has been suspended from duty by track and fi eld’s governing body, the IAAF, while he is investigated for alleged corruption suspected of being linked to the 2016 Olym-pics hosting vote.

The inde-pendent Ath-letics Integrity Unit said Monday that its request for an interim ban on Fredericks, a former sprinter from Namibia, was granted by the IAAF disciplinary panel.

Fredericks, who is also an International Olympic Com-mittee member, is separately being investigated by the IOC ethics commission over a near US$300,000 payment he received Oct. 2, 2009 — the same day Rio de Janeiro won the 2016 Olympic hosting vote in a four-city contest.

French daily Le Monde alleged in March that the payment came from a Brazilian businessman and was channeled through a sports marketing company created by Papa Massata Diack, the son of former IAAF president Lamine Diack. Both Diacks are implicated by French prosecu-tors in a corruption case that includes extorting money from athletes to cover up doping.

(SD-Agencies)

WITH their fi rst pick in the 2017 NBA draft, the Lakers selected the Summer League MVP. With their second pick, they nabbed the Summer League champion-ship game MVP.

LA defeated Portland 110-98 at the Thomas & Mack Arena on Monday, clinching the Las Vegas Summer League championship. Playing with-out prized rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, who sat due to calf tightness, the Lakers ran away from the Blazers in the fourth quarter thanks to a game-high 30 points (on 11-16 shooting) and 10 rebounds from rookie forward Kyle Kuzma.

The exhibition champion-ship marked a win for the Lakers’ new management team of Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, who watched from courtside seats after selecting Ball with the second overall pick and grabbing Kuzma with the 27th pick in June’s draft. Ball, who posted two triple-doubles and captivated audiences all week with his passing, was named Summer League MVP during a brief pre-game cer-emony. Kuzma was tabbed as

the Championship Game MVP following the Lakers’ victory.

Even without Ball, the Lakers managed to consistently push the tempo, share the ball and rack up the points in an excit-ing, high-scoring contest. Kuzma, who was named to the All-NBA Summer League Second Team, electrifi ed the pro-Lakers crowd by hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer to close the third quarter on a night that saw him shoot 6-10 from outside.

Portland showed signs of fatigue down the stretch, but kept things close thanks to fi rst-round pick Caleb Swanigan (25 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists), an All-NBA Summer League First Team selection.

The Lakers, who fi nished Summer League with a 6-2 record and six straight wins, became the fi fth team to win the Summer League title since the event adopted a tournament format in 2013. The previous winners, in order, were the War-riors (2013), Kings (2014), Spurs (2015) and Bulls (2016). Portland wrapped Summer League with a 5-3 record. (SD-Agencies)

Lakers clinch Summer League title

Federer returns to No. 3 spot

Roger Federer

Fredericks suspended in graft probe

Rockets owner puts the team up for sale

Leslie Alexander

► Los Angeles Lakers’ Kyle Kuzma (L) puts up a layup against the Portland Trail Blazers during their match at the Thomas & Mack Arena on Monday. SD-Agencies

THE most stunning news of the NBA’s offseason had nothing to do with a free-agent signing, a blockbuster trade or a front-offi ce restructuring. After 24 years of ownership, Leslie Alexander is putting the Houston Rockets up for sale, a shocking development announced Monday that prom-ises to reverberate throughout the basketball world.

“It’s been my great joy and honor to own the Houston Rock-ets for the past 24 years,” Alex-ander said in a team statement. “I’ve had the incredible oppor-tunity to witness true greatness through the players and coaches who have won championships for the city, been named to All-Star and All-NBA teams, enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and done so much for our franchise and our fans.

“The Houston community has been home to me; I will continue to support the charities I have made commitments to through-out the years. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the fans, partners, city offi cials and employees who care so deeply for this team. I’ve made this decision after much delibera-tion with my family and friends, and do so knowing the franchise is in great shape with the players, coaches and management team in place.”

Rockets CEO Tad Brown made the announcement at a Monday afternoon news conference.

“It’s been a great joy of [Alex-ander’s] life, and a pleasure, to be the owner of the Houston Rockets,” Brown told reporters.

“The great players, Hall of Fame players and coaches, and cham-pionships won, All-NBA teams made — just the connection to the community that’s been established over 24 years has been an incredible opportunity that he’s just loved.”

Even so, the commitments of ownership “can wear on you after so many decades,” Brown said. And while Brown emphasized that Alexander has no health issues, the longtime owner has decided to look at “changing the fabric of his life,” by getting out after nearly a quarter-century in charge.

“He’s just been tired,” Brown said. “I’m sure many of you [reporters] who know him well can probably sense that. It’s a grind. It’s a grind. And even now, things are ratcheted up even that much more with the expectations [that come with adding All-Star point guard Chris Paul to MVP runner-up James Harden on a 55-win roster] and the ability to really go deep and compete. It’s

been tough. And so I think he just had a real good conversa-tion with his family, and some of his close, close friends, and he just decided it was time for him to make another change in his life.”

The revelation caught some of the most plugged-in people in the NBA completely off-guard.

Brown said it even caught him by surprise.

This latest desire for change promises to make Alexander — whose net worth Forbes pegs at about US$2 billion — a very, very tidy profi t.

Alexander paid US$85 million for the Rockets in July of 1993. In February, Forbes valued the franchise at US$1.65 billion, the eighth-highest mark in the NBA.

The relative accuracy of those evaluations always gets batted around by sports business types. It’s worth noting, though, that the Atlanta Hawks sold for US$850 million in April of 2015, a few months after the magazine valued them at US$825 mil-lion. And, of course, that Steve Ballmer shelled out US$2 billion for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014 after Fobes valued the Clips at US$575 million.

Still, if Alexander benefi ts from anything akin to that level of infl ation — and from prospec-tive bidders eager to get their hands on a franchise that already has both a superstar player and a highly regarded top basketball executive locked up for the long haul — it should be some very, very big numbers. (SD-Agencies)

Frankie Fredericks