Sports World Highlights May 17: Brazil To Host 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup; WADA Suspends Indian Boxer Parveen Hooda

What a jam-packed Friday it was for sports enthusiasts! Tennis witnessed Aryna Sabalenka overpowering Danielle Collins for the trophy clash at the Italian Open to face Iga Swiatek. Alexandar Zverev emerged victorious in Men's singles semifinal. In IPL, two teams out of playoff contention, Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants fought for pride on the cricket pitch. On the Football front, Barcelona defeated 2-0 Almeria in La Liga while FIFA declared Brazil as the 2027 Women’s World Cup host. In Ligue 1 Marseille Coach Jean-Louis Gasset grabbed headlines by announcing his retirement after this season. In other sporting news, WADA suspended boxer Parveen Hooda for three whereabout failures in 12 months. Here's all the important highlights from May 17 in the dynamic world of sports

The knife of mistrust falls on baseball star Shohei Ohtani after controversial words from Tim Donaghy, a former NBA referee convicted of betting on games he officiated.

Donaghy states that the Japanese player had some involvement in the gambling scandal of his translator, Ippei Mizuhara.

The defending champion Brendan Lawlor and world number one Kipp Popert will face off again in the final round of the G4D Open on Friday. Lawlor shot a marvelous second consecutive 71, moving to two under and overtaking England's Popert, the top-ranked disability golfer.

Xander Schauffele hit a vital equalizer 62 to move the pace in the first round of the US PGA Championship in Kentucky. The American holed nine birdies and led by three at Valhalla.

Archer Deepika Kumari is all set to train in South Korea later this month. Deepika is part of the Indian women’s team that will bid to seal a quota for the Paris Olympic Games at the Final World Qualification tournament in Turkey next month.

Adrian Newey, the renowned designer in Formula 1, has disclosed his intention to depart from Red Bull and potentially join another team. The 65-year-old expressed his thoughts, "I'm seriously considering changing teams, going somewhere else, and working on another four or five years or whatever."

Brazil will be hosting the 2027 Women's World Cup, winning over a joint bid from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany (BNG). For the first time the hosting rights were decided by an open vote, with member associations voting 119 to 78 in favor of Brazil at FIFA's congress in Bangkok on Friday.

Australian professional soccer was rocked Friday by accusations that the captain of A-League club Macarthur FC paid two younger teammates up to 10,000 Australian dollars ($6,600) to deliberately receive yellow cards in a scheme set up by a South American gambling connection.

The player were identified Macarthur team leader Ulises Davila and fellow players Kearyn Baccus and Clayton Lewis as the players arrested over their alleged involvement in the match-fixing scheme, which police say led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being paid out in winnings.(AP)

Joel Matip and Thiago Alcantara will leave Liverpool when their contracts expire at the end of the season, according to AP reports.

Liverpool announced their imminent departures on Friday, two days before the team's final Premier League game.

The 32-year-old Matip, a ball-playing centre back, arrived at Anfield on a free transfer from Schalke in the offseason of 2016 as one of Klopp's first signings.

World championship bronze medallist boxer Parveen Hooda is likely to lose her Paris Olympic quota after being suspended by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for three whereabout failures in 12 months, according to PTI reports.

Parveen, who fetched an Olympic quota in the women's 57kg weight class during the Asian Games last year, failed to file her whereabouts in the period from April 2022 to March 2023 as per the WADA rules.

Paris Games quota-winning women wrestlers on Friday pleaded with the national federation not to subject them to selection trials, saying that every single step they take and every little thing they do from now on will have a bearing on India's medal chances at the Olympics, according to PTI reports.

Anshu Malik, India's first female wrestler to reach the senior World Championships final in 2021, said all they need now is "mental peace" to prepare for the Games.

Formula One arrives at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with a look to the past — it's 30 years since Ayrton Senna's death — and the prospect of tougher competition for Max Verstappen and Red Bull.

Drivers joined a memorial run around the Imola track on Thursday evening to mark the anniversary of three-time champion Senna's death in a crash during the 1994 race there.

Senna was a childhood hero to many, including seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who was nine in 1994 and is a part of F1 history for the 13 current drivers who were not born when he was killed. (AP)

The Defender of Leipzig, Benjamin Henrichs has signed a contract extension through 2028 just one day after his named appeared in Germany's preliminary squad for the upcoming European Championship.

“We've always had a very fair exchange of views. I'm now 27 years old and of course I have also thought about whether I'd like to try something new again," Henrichs said in a statement.

The Pakistan Cricket Board is looking to take advantage of the window set aside for the Indian Premier League (IPL) each year to hold the Pakistan Super League in the same time-frame as very little international cricketing activity takes place during that period.

PCB said on Friday that it had held a meeting with PSL franchises where the advantages of holding the PSL in 2025 and 2026 in the April-May window were discussed in detail. (PTI)

The Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to field against Lucknow Super Giants in the final IPL encounter for both teams at the Wakhande stadium.

Marseille coach Jean-Louis Gasset said Friday that he will retire at the end of the season.

The veteran Frenchman replaced Gennaro Gattuso in February, in the middle of a mediocre campaign for Marseille.

Gasset guided the team into the semifinals of the Europa Conference League but was unable to improve the club's poor record on the road this season. (AP)

Pakistan fast bowler Haris Rauf is likely to make a comeback from injury in the first T20I against England later this month, brightening his chances of being included in the 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup in the Americas according to PTI reports.

According to a team official in England, Haris has started training with the Pakistan side ahead of the first T20I at Leeds on May 22.

The Pride House of the Paris Olympics was inaugurated on a barge in the Seine River by Games organizers on Friday.

The boat moored between the Grand Palais and the Place de la Concorde in the city centre is meant to be a safe space for LGBTQ athletes and visitors during the Olympics and Paralympics.

“France will guarantee that everyone feels like they belong in the celebration,” French Equality Minister Aurore Bergé said at the inauguration. (AP)

That concludes our coverage tonight. We will be back on Saturday (May 18) morning with all that is current in the world of sport, as it happens. Until then, goodbye.