Aussie Alex de Minaur repeats as ATP Acapulco champion

GLENDALE, Arizona: Yoshinobu Yamamoto let loose a few fastballs and some nasty breaking balls during a bullpen session while manager Dave Roberts and pitching coach Mark Prior stood a few steps to each side of the pitcher, smiling as the ball popped into the mitt of catcher Will Smith.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were in a pretty good mood as spring training began at Camelback Ranch.

The defending World Series champions went through a light workout on Tuesday and most of their stars were on the field, including NL MVP Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts. Left-hander Clayton Kershaw played catch, a sign that the three-time Cy Young Award winner is returning for his 18th season.

“Everyone’s more hungry than ever,” third baseman Max Muncy said.

Muncy said he’s been in Arizona for the past 1 1/2 weeks, coming to the Dodgers facility early to get in defensive work with Betts and Miguel Rojas. It’s been a short offseason: The Dodgers hoisted the World Series trophy barely three months ago after beating the New York Yankees in five games.

Betts said the quick turnaround presents challenges, but they’re good problems to have.

“It’s definitely tough, but we didn’t win last year because we were talking about the World Series every day,” Betts said. “We won last year because we talked about the task at hand every day.

“We have an end goal, of course, but you have to take stepping stones to get there. We’ll get there when we get there.”

Los Angeles open against the Chicago Cubs in Tokyo on March 18-19 and are trying to become the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the New York Yankees won three in a row from 1998-2000. The Dodgers’ owners spent to sign two-time All-Star Blake Snell, Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki and relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates.

“Talent will take you to a certain place,” Rojas said. “But then the character will make you win championships. We realized that last year.”

Ohtani didn’t pitch last year following elbow surgery and is recovering from a partially torn labrum in his left (non-throwing) shoulder, an injury sustained while sliding into second base during the World Series.

Even without pitching, Ohtani won MVP last season after becoming the first MLB player to hit 50 homers and have 50 stolen bases in the same season. Now he’ll try to return to the mound, where he was 10-5 with a 3.14 ERA in 2023 with the Los Angeles Angels.

Roberts said at the team’s fan fest on Feb. 2 that a May return to the mound is “about right.” The manager also said Ohtani’s recovery from the offseason shoulder surgery was encouraging.

“He looks really strong,” Roberts said. “I saw some videos recently and you just wouldn’t think that there was any shoulder surgery this past winter.”

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last week that some fans were concerned about the sport’s lack of a salary cap, mostly because of the big spending of teams like the Dodgers and New York Mets.

Muncy says the team welcomes the attention — positive or negative.

“It’s just the nature of Dodger Stadium, our fans, the scene,” Muncy said. “We go on the road, our fans travel so well that we’re selling out every stadium we go to and that was even before the last couple years.”

GUINGAMP, France: Ousmane Dembele kept up his remarkable form in front of goal with a double as Paris Saint-Germain took a big step toward qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League with a 3-0 win over French rivals Brest in the first leg of their play-off tie on Tuesday.
PSG were overwhelming favorites coming into this tie against opponents who had never taken part in European competition before this season, and there seems little prospect of Brest recovering from this loss in next week’s second leg.
Vitinha opened the scoring for PSG at the Stade de Roudourou in Guingamp with a penalty just before the midway point in the first half, and Dembele swept in a second on the stroke of half-time before netting again on 66 minutes.
The French international forward now has 23 goals for the season, including 18 in 11 appearances over the last two months.
Indeed he has 10 goals in just the last four games, a run which includes a hat-trick against Brest in Ligue 1 only 10 days ago.
He is irresistible just now, and Luis Enrique’s side are unbeatable at the moment against French opponents, against whom they have not lost since last May.
“Ousmane is full of confidence just now. He was good in 2024 and he is even better in 2025,” said Luis Enrique.
The teams will meet again in the return leg of this knockout phase play-off tie next Wednesday in Paris, with the winners advancing to a last-16 showdown with either Liverpool or Barcelona.
Assuming they make it through, PSG will feel they are capable of beating either of those sides on current form, although Luis Enrique is taking nothing for granted.
“There is no chance we will treat the second leg like a training game,” said the Spaniard. “Our objective is to qualify for the last 16 by winning the return.”
Brest had not defeated the Parisians in any competition in 40 years, since January 1985, and have now lost 18 of the last 19 meetings between the teams.
They will have to try again next week to end that miserable run.
“It is disappointing and frustrating. I think 3-0 is harsh on us but PSG deserved to win,” said Brest coach Eric Roy. “Not many people will imagine us winning 4-0 at the Parc des Princes.”
Once again hosting a Champions League game an hour away from Brest itself in Guingamp, they nearly got lucky early on, when an attempted clearance by PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma struck the face of forward Ludovic Ajorque and almost ricocheted in.
However, PSG were handed the chance to go ahead when a Dembele shot struck the arm of Pierre Lees-Melou inside the Brest box in the 17th minute.
The Bosnian referee had to come across to check the pitchside monitor before pointing to the spot, and Vitinha then stepped up to send goalkeeper Marco Bizot the wrong way with the penalty.
Brest did not let their heads go down and Abdallah Sima had two big chances to equalize, first being denied by Willian Pacho’s great recovery tackle and then heading against the far post from the resulting corner.
Achraf Hakimi almost scored an own goal too, but instead Paris struck again just before the break, majestically playing their way out of Brest’s press and breaking away.
Hakimi fed Dembele, who cut in from the right and beat the goalkeeper at his near post.
Brest then saw Sima hit a post at the start of the second half, but the visitors continued to look so dangerous.
Desire Doue had the ball in the net only for his effort to be ruled out for a tight offside in the build-up, while Dembele fired wide from a good position.
Dembele did then strike again almost midway through the second half, trying to feed Bradley Barcola and then seeing the ball break back to him before shooting past Bizot with the aid of a deflection.