Sports Briefs

 

Hotels fined for World Cup price-gouging

 

MOSCOW (AP):

Russian authorities in two cities say they have issued hundreds of fines after finding many hotels were illegally hiking prices for the World Cup.

The Rospotrebnadzor consumer regulator says one Moscow hotel raised prices up to 570 per cent above what is allowed by a government decree designed to prevent excessive profiteering during the tournament.

The regulator's Moscow branch says it issued fines totalling 5.95 million roubles (US$105,000) to 198 legal entities and 181 people.

In the Ural mountain city of Yekaterinburg, where Mexico and France will each play a group game, the regulator said it fined seven hotels, some of which were charging almost three times the allowed rate for rooms.

 

West Ham charged with breach of anti-doping rules

 

LONDON (AP):

West Ham has been charged with a breach of anti-doping rules by the English Football Association (FA) yesterday.

West Ham failed to ensure that the necessary whereabouts information for the Premier League team was kept accurate on three separate occasions within a year, the FA said.

West Ham, which has until next Tuesday to respond to the charge, blamed "administrative oversights" when filling in the FA system.

"A player's address had been registered and the house number digits transposed," the east London club said. "We would like to make it clear that the breach is a club administrative matter and does not concern any of our players."

A breach of the same FA rule saw Manchester City fined £35,000 (about US$50,000) last year.

 

Easy win for Kerber

 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP):

Sixth-seeded Angelique Kerber needed less than an hour to beat Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1 yesterday in the first round of the Dubai Championships.

Fifth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France also advanced, beating Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5.

Kerber was broken in the opening game but had no trouble the rest of the way against the 2016 runner-up. She broke back immediately and earned another break in the fourth game to take control of the match. She will next face Italy's Sara Errani.

"I played a solid match," Kerber said. "It's always tough to play against her. You never know what's going to happen. She's always a fighter."