Keep up to date with all the sports news. We have set up special pages on our website for football, tennis, skating, motorsport, cycling and darts news, on which the most important matters in these sports are highlighted. In this section Sport Kort mainly the other messages are discussed.
NBA game has been stopped for a long time because of a crooked basketball ring
08.31 am: The NBA game between Dallas Mavericks and Philadelphia 76ers has been stopped for almost 45 minutes because the ring was tilted. Luka Doncic, the Slovenian star of the Mavericks, noticed this after making a three-pointer in the first fifteen minutes. The referees determined with a spirit level that the ring was indeed a bit crooked. Since the problem could not be solved, a completely new sign including ring had to be hung.
The ‘Sixers’ led 19-17 when the game was interrupted. With a new ring on the field, the Mavericks soon took the initiative. They won 107-98 in front of their home crowd. Doncic recorded 33 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds. It marked his 44th NBA triple-double for the 22-year-old Slovenian. He is thus in tenth place in the ‘eternal’ standings. Russell Westbrook tops that list with 193 triple-doubles (three scores in double digits).
With 30 wins versus 23 losses, the Dallas Mavericks is fifth in the West. The Philadelphia 76ers are in fifth place in the east, 31-21.
Lleyton Hewitt keeps Nick Kyrgios out of Australian tennis team in Davis Cup
08:02 am: Although Nick Kyrgios recently won the Australian Open with Thanasi Kokkinakis, the Australian tennis player has not been invited to meet Hungary in the Davis Cup. Captain Lleyton Hewitt did select Kokkinakis, for the first time since 2015. Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, debutant Luke Saville and doubles specialist John Peers make up the rest of the squad.
Kyrgios stranded at the Australian Open in singles in the second round. The 26-year-old Australian had to lose out to Russian Daniil Medvedev, who eventually made it to the final in Melbourne.
Kyrgios formed a high-profile and successful duo with Kokkinakis in doubles. The two friends had been admitted on a wild card and stunted by taking a grand slam title, with loud encouragement from the Australian public. It resulted in Kokkinakis (25) returning to the Davis Cup team. Kyrgios, who dropped to place 122 in the global singles ranking, is not in the plans of former world number 1 Hewitt.
Australia will compete with Hungary at the beginning of next month in Sydney for a place in the final round of the Davis Cup.
Sports tribunal CAS lifts suspension of former football boss Hayatou
6.28 am: The international sports tribunal CAS has lifted the suspension of former African football boss Issa Hayatou. The ethics committee of world football association FIFA suspended the 75-year-old Cameroonian for a year in August for allegedly violating the rules on the sale of media and marketing rights. He also had to pay a fine of 30,000 Swiss francs, about 28,000 euros.
Hayatou, who was chairman of the African Football Association CAF for nearly 30 years, challenged his suspension at the CAS. The sports tribunal ruled after a hearing that FIFA had insufficient evidence.
Hayatou was the president of the African Football Federation from 1988 to 2017. He served as FIFA’s interim president in 2015 and 2016 when Sepp Blatter was suspended over a corruption scandal. Hayatou had competed against Blatter in the 2002 FIFA presidential election, but then lost out to the Swiss. He served for many years as “senior vice president” at the global federation. Hayatou has been an honorary member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2017.
Eredivisie resumes with the public, just not in Enschede
6:22 a.m.: The Eredivisie continues after a short interruption due to the international match, with an audience in the stadiums. After playing in front of empty stands for weeks, the clubs are now allowed to use one-third of the capacity of their stadiums. FC Twente, which receives Vitesse on Saturday evening, finds that too little and therefore keeps the Grolsch Veste in Enschede completely closed.
The 21st round of the Eredivisie starts at 4.30 pm with FC Utrecht – SC Cambuur. At 6.45 pm the kick-off in Limburg is at Fortuna Sittard against sc Heerenveen. The Frisian club fired head coach Johnny Jansen at the end of last month.
PSV, the number 2 in the Eredivisie, will play at home from 8 p.m. against AZ, which is in fifth place. Trainer Roger Schmidt announced this week that he will leave Eindhoven after this season. PSV lost 2-1 to Ajax before the international match and now has 2 points less than the leader. Ajax will play at home against Heracles Almelo on Sunday (from 4.45 pm). That day, the Rotterdam derby between Feyenoord and Sparta is also on the program in De Kuip (12.15 pm).