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sports Diasabra 6 augustus 2022

Brittney Griner recognized with WNBA moment of silence

(AP) — Following Brittney The whole group is crying proud to be part of this group
Griner's sentencing in before the game. You try to and the way they showed up
Russia to nine years in honor her and still play hard and came out and played. We
prison Thursday, WNBA for her. Regardless of wheth- approached the game tonight
players, coaches and fans er she's here or not. Right with a heavy heart, as we have
locked arms and tried to now, we still got to try and every game this season."
send the American bas- keep her spirit alive. Honor
ketball star strength dur- her spirit." Sun coach Curt Miller wore
ing a moment of silence. a "WE ARE BG" t-shirt.
The Mercury watched the
Before the Connecticut Sun verdict together in the morn- Griner, a two-time U.S.
beat the Phoenix Mercury ing right before the team had Olympic champion and a
77-64, players from both its pregame shootaround. eight-time WNBA all-star,
teams met at midcourt and "I mean, it's like you're wait- was convicted of drug pos-
silently bowed their heads for ing for a bomb to drop session and smuggling by
42 seconds — a nod to Gri- watching it, seeing her be- Judge Anna Sotnikova.
ner's jersey number with the hind bars," Mercury guard
Mercury. Diamond DeShields said. She was sentenced for near-
ly a decade in a politically yers said later she was "very Russia over Ukraine. Griner
"Nobody wanted to even play Diggins added that it was "a charged case that could lead upset, very stressed." had told the court she had no
today," said Phoenix guard helpless feeling. It's heavy." to a high-stakes prisoner ex- intention to break the law by
Skylar Diggins-Smith, who change between Washington U.S. President Joe Biden de- bringing vape cartridges with
scored 16 points to lead the "Obviously, it's devastating," and Moscow. nounced as "unacceptable" cannabis oil when she flew to
Mercury. "How are you sup- DeShields said. "You can't the verdict and sentence, Moscow to play basketball in
posed to approach the game say anything other than that. Griner showed little emotion which came amid soaring ten- the city of Yekaterinburg dur-
and court with a clear mind? I know personally, I'm really to the sentence, but her law- sions between the U.S. and ing the WNBA offseason.

Nadal withdraws from Montreal because of abdominal injury

(AP) — Rafael Nadal with- "I have been practicing for a while
drew from the upcoming now without serving and started
hard-court tournament in with serves four days ago. Every-
Montreal on Friday because thing has been going well. How-
of the abdominal injury ever, yesterday, after my normal
that caused him to pull out practice, I felt a slight bother on
of Wimbledon ahead of the my abdominal and today it was
semifinals. still there," Nadal said in a state-
ment. "After speaking with my
The Spaniard had been 19-0 in doctor, we prefer to take things
Grand Slam matches this year in a conservative way and give a
when he decided the injury was few more days before starting to
too much at Wimbledon. He compete."
won the Australian Open and the
French Open to increase his ma- American player Mackenzie Mc-
jor total to a men's record 22 — Donald will replace Nadal in the
one more than Novak Djokovic draw.
and two more than Roger Fe-
derer. Djokovic withdrew from the
Montreal tournament on Thurs-
Nadal is a five-time champion in day because he is not vaccinated
Montreal. against COVID-19 and is there-
fore not allowed to enter Canada.

US stays top of FIFA

women's rankings; England

up to No. 4

(AP) — The United States pics silver medalist, drops
women's soccer team ex- one place to No. 3 after be-
tended its five-year reign ing beaten by England in the
atop the FIFA rankings on semifinals at Euro 2022.
Friday and new European
champion England moved Fifth-place France and No.
up to No. 4. 6 Netherlands both dropped
two spots. Olympic cham-
The U.S. won its regional pion Canada is No. 7.
championship for the third
straight time in July and leads New African champion
No. 2 Germany, which rose South Africa jumped four
three places despite losing the places to No. 54 in the rank-
Euro 2022 final on Sunday. ings which now include a
record 185 of the 211 FIFA
Sweden, the 2020 Olym- member federations.