A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
IMAGE: Lucas Pouille is seeded second at the Dubai tournament. Photograph: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports/Reuters
Lucas Pouille overcame Karen Khachanov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships and avenge his defeat by the Russian in last weekend’s final in Marseille.
Second seed Pouille served seven aces and converted three break points to prevail in an hour and 39 minutes. Up next for the Frenchman is a first career meeting with Yuichi Sugita, who beat Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 7-6(4) 6-4.
“I knew it would be a tough one,” Pouille, who won the Montpellier title earlier this month, said.
“In the final in Marseille, he won just three points more than me. I knew it was very close. I had to play some good tennis… I’m just very happy that I got my revenge today.”
Pouille, the highest seed remaining in Dubai after Grigor Dimitrov’s shock loss to Tunisian wildcard Malek Jaziri on Tuesday, broke world number 41 Khachanov in the ninth game before cruising to a one-set lead.
Khachanov hit back in the next set to drag the contest into a decider, before Pouille saved two break points in the third set and upped his game to advance.
Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, seeded third, also reached the quarter-final after a 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-1 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert in windy conditions. He next faces Borna Coric, who eased past Benoit Paire 6-1, 6-4.
Greek wildcard Stefanos Tsitsipas dumped out sixth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
US Olympic chief resigns after sex abuse scandal, health cited
US Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun is resigning for medical reasons, the organization said on Wednesday, following months of sustained criticism stemming from the sex abuse scandal involving former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
In a statement, the USOC cited Blackmun’s “ongoing health issues” related to prostate cancer, for which he has been receiving treatment. As part of the same press release, the group also outlined new reforms aimed at protecting its athletes from abuse.
The Colorado Springs, Colorado-based USOC, which announced the change less than a week after the Winter Olympic Games ended in Pyeongchang, South Korea, had resisted calls to fire Blackmun over the Nassar case. Blackmun, 60, did not attend the Games.
The scandal prompted the entire board of directors at USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body, to resign, along with the president and athletic director at MichiganStateUniversity, where Nassar also worked. It also spawned lawsuits and criminal and civil investigations.
A number of critics, including athletes who said they were abused and two U.S. senators – Iowa Republican Joni Ernst and New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen – had called for the ouster of Blackmun and USOC board members, accusing them of failing to promptly act on complaints raised against Nassar and fostering a culture of silence.
“Scott Blackmun’s resignation as CEO of the US Olympic Committee is long overdue,” John Manly, a lawyer representing 120 of Nassar’s victims, said in a statement. “Under his leadership, USOC has focused nearly all its efforts on money and medals while the safety of our athletes has taken a back seat.”
Shaheen also welcomed the resignation, citing Nassar’s years of abuse. “It’s clear that the culture at the US Olympic Committee desperately needs to change,” she said in a statement.
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an advocate for female athletes and member of the Committee to Restore Integrity to the USOC, said in a Twitter post that Blackmun “didn’t enact basic #ChildProtection policies or educate the membership about how to prevent it.”
“His legacy will be that he failed athletes,” she added.
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