BROADCASTING
Longtime Boston sports radio personality Dale Arnold announced Thursday that he is retiring. Arnold, co-host of WEEI’s Dale & Keefe midday show, announced that Friday will be his last day on the show.
“I’m gonna retire from the radio business,” Arnold said. “I am not gonna be coming back after tomorrow’s show.”
Arnold, who grew up in Maine and Minnesota and graduated from Bowdoin College, confirmed that a new co-host will take his place and appear alongside Rich Keefe when the show returns on Monday, but deferred to the station to make those announcements.
Arnold has been with WEEI since 1991 in various capacities, including long stints as a midday host, most notably alongside Michael Holley and, more recently, Keefe.
Arnold said that the short notice of the announcement was to avoid any sort of long, drawn-out “farewell tour.” He added that he intends to spend more time with his wife, who had to retire recently due to medical issues, and more free time in the summer months.
“I did a rough numerical thing – and my son’s the statistician – I’ve done somewhere in the vicinity of 29,000 hours of sports talk radio,” Arnold said. “I’ve worked almost 30 years here at this radio station, from the day they opened the doors. I’ve worked in the Boston radio market for 33 years, and I’ve had enough.”
GOLF
PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Sergio Garcia rushed to the first tee and raced to the finish line in The Players Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Garcia fired off a 7-under 65, capped off by a birdie-birdie-eagle finish for a two-shot lead over Brian Harman.
Rory McIlroy, the defending champion, opened with a double bogey from the trees. He hit two in the water on the 18th and made a quadruple-bogey 8. He wound up with a 79, his worst score since his opening round at Royal Portrush in the 2019 British Open.
When darkness brought the first round to a halt – 21 players didn’t finish – there already were 13 scores of 80 or higher. That included Henrik Stenson with an 85, his highest score ever on the PGA Tour.
There were 22 scores of triple bogey or worse.
TENNIS
QATAR OPEN: Roger Federer failed to convert a match point before losing 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to Nikoloz Basilashvili in the quarterfinals, his second match back on tour after a 13-month injury layoff.
Basilashvili saved a match point at 5-4 in the deciding set and then broke Federer’s serve in the next game.
It was a second straight grueling three-setter for Federer after his win Wednesday over Dan Evans took nearly 2 1/2 hours. The 39-year-old Federer was playing in his first tournament since the 2020 Australian Open following knee surgery.
Basilashvili has now won three consecutive tour matches for the first time since 2019. His semifinal opponent will be Taylor Fritz after the American upset fourth-seeded Canadian Denis Shapovalov 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.
For the first time in the 31-year history of the ATP Tour, a player reached the semifinals without hitting a ball after getting his second walkover in a row. Russia’s Andrey Rublev benefited from a first-round bye, before Richard Gasquet withdrew ahead of their second-round match. Marton Fucsovics then withdrew from their quarterfinal Thursday with a lower back injury.
Rublev will face either top-seeded Dominic Thiem or fifth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in Saturday’s final.
DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS: Garbiñe Muguruza rallied from a set and a break down Thursday to beat Aryna Sabalenka for the second week in a row and reach the semifinals of the Dubai Championships.
Muguruza was broken in the opening game of the second set before turning the match around to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. She has reached back-to-back semifinals, having lost to Petra Kvitova in the Qatar Open final last week. Muguruza faces Elise Mertens in the semifinals after the 10th-seeded Belgian saved three match points to beat Jessica Pegula 5-7, 7-5, 6-0. Pegula served for the match at 5-3 in the second set and had the match points on Mertens’ serve in the next game. Mertens won the last 11 games.
Jil Teichmann won 6-3, 6-3 against 16-year-old American Coco Gauff to set up a semifinal with doubles specialist Barbora Krejcikova.
Krejcikova is a match away from her second career singles final after beating Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-2.
HORSE RACING
JOCKEY SUSPENDED: An amateur jockey from Ireland has been suspended for one year after admitting he sat on a dead horse in a 2016 incident caught on video.
Robert James, a winner at the Cheltenham Festival last year, showed “extremely poor judgement” and damaged the sport’s reputation, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board said in its decision published Thursday. The last eight months of his one-year ban were suspended.
The board last week suspended trainer Gordon Elliott’s license for a year for a similar offense, with six months suspended.
The suspension of James’ rider’s license and handler’s permit takes effect Monday. He was also ordered to pay $1,190 in costs.
The 27-year-old James had previously apologized after the video circulated on social media this month. The horse – a 5-year-old mare – had just suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during exercise. James was assisting in removal of the animal, and in the video he was seen straddling the dead horse while others watched and laughed.
SOCCER
MLS: French midfielder Samuel Grandsir has agreed to a three-year contract with the LA Galaxy.
Grandsir, 24, had been with AS Monaco since 2018.
Grandsir made only 12 appearances for Monaco, which acquired him from Troyes. He scored three goals while spending last season on loan with Brest, and he spent part of the 2018-19 season on loan with Strasbourg.
• Trinidad and Tobago national team regular Joevin Jones agreed to a two-year contract with David Beckham’s Inter Miami.
A 29-year-old old midfielder and left back, Jones has nine goals in 76 international appearances and was a second-half substitute in the Soca Warriors’ 2-1 win over the United States in October 2017 that prevented the Americans from reaching the World Cup.
OLYMPICS: Norwich forward Sebastian Soto and midfielders Johnny Cardoso of Internacional, Ulysses Llanez of Heerenveen and Sebastian Saucedo of Pumas headed a 20-man U.S. roster announced for the delayed qualifying for the men’s soccer tournament.
Sixteen players are from Major League Soccer, a reflection of FIFA rules that do not require teams to release players for Olympic qualifying or the Olympics, which this year is limited to players 24 years old and under.
The U.S. is trying to qualify after missing the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. The senior U.S. national team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
The U.S. opens Group A against Costa Rica on March 18 at the North and Central American and Caribbean qualifying tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Americans play the Dominican Republic on March 21 and complete Group A on March 24 against host Mexico.
BASKETBALL
G LEAGUE: Devin Cannady scored 22 points and the Lakeland Magic won the NBA G League championship, beating the Delaware Blue Coats 97-78 at Walt Disney World Resort at Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
Cannady, a point guard from Princeton, was 9 of 16 from the field, hitting 4 of 9 3-pointers in the finale of the eight-team, single-elimination tournament at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Former Michigan center Jon Teske had 12 points for Lakeland. Former Arkansas-Little Rock guard Rayjon Tucker led Delaware with 20 points, and former Arkansas guard Isaiah Joe had 15.
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