Key Biscayne, Fla.
Clearly, she wasn’t star-struck when facing her idol.
Collins got the biggest win of her pro career on Wednesday night, shocking the eighth-seeded Williams, 6-2, 6-3, in the Miami Open quarterfinals. Collins needed to survive two qualifying matches before making the main draw at Key Biscayne and will now meet sixth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko in today’s semifinals.
“The first time I saw Venus in the locker room, I nearly cried,” Collins said. “I mean, I’ve idolized her my whole life. She’s been my favorite player for forever. This is such a special moment; I’m just trying to wrap my head around it.”
Collins topped U.S. Open finalist Madison Keys earlier this month at Indian Wells and made a much bigger statement with this win. She threw both fists into the air when Williams couldn’t handle a serve on Collins’ second match point, and even the three-time champion at Key Biscayne gave her a big smile when they shook hands at the net.
“I’m just starting to finally put all of the pieces together,” said Collins, the 2014 and 2016 NCAA champion at Virginia.
Collins, No. 93 in the world for a few more days, will more than double her career earnings when the money from Miami arrives. She came to Key Biscayne with $305,385 in career earnings, to which she’ll add at least $327,965 now that she’s in the semifinals. And she’s going to soar in the world rankings, to no lower than 67th.
Ex-Husker QB Humm Dies
Alameda, Calif.
The Oakland Raiders announced Humm’s death on Wednesday, calling him a true Raider for his seven years with the team.
Humm had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1988 and was in a wheelchair for more than 20 years. The Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star said he died on Tuesday night at home in Las Vegas.
Patrick’s Indy Laps Put Off
Indianapolis
She was still able to debut her new No. 13 Ed Carpenter Racing machine on Indy’s famed Yard of Bricks. Patrick had input in both the livery and firesuit design for the final race of her career and fought for a clean car that sports the GoDaddy green — with a splash of the company’s new use of the color magenta — and Patrick’s personal brands.
She had been scheduled to test the car at Indy this week but the session was canceled because of weather. She instead revealed the final race car of her career, which she now will first get to drive at a rescheduled May 1-2 test at Indy.
Aussie Cheats Get Year Ban
Johannesburg
Cricket Australia said Warner “instructed” young batsman Cameron Bancroft to carry out the tampering on the field with a piece of sandpaper — even showed Bancroft how to do it — then misled match officials and tried to cover up his role in the cheating.
Smith, the top test batsman in the world and the star of Australian cricket, knew about the plan. But the captain failed “to take steps to seek to prevent the development and implementation of that plan,” Cricket Australia said as it released the findings of the investigation by its head of integrity that dragged in all the players, coaches and backroom staff for questioning.
Smith and Warner were banned from playing for Australia, or any high-level cricket in Australia, for a year. Bancroft, maybe because he’s an impressionable newcomer in the team, received a nine-month ban.
The 28-year-old Smith will not be allowed to captain Australia for two years and Warner will never be allowed to hold a leadership position in Australian cricket again. At 31, Warner may never play for Australia again.
The fallout extended beyond Australia. The three players were also all banned for the 2018 edition of the Indian Premier League, denying them places in the lucrative Twenty20 tournament where players are paid big money to appear.
“These are significant penalties for professional players and the (Cricket Australia) board does not impose them lightly,” CA chairman David Peever said. “It is hoped that following a period of suspension, the players will be able to return to playing the game they love and eventually rebuild their careers.”
All three were encouraged by national administrators to play low-level club cricket during their bans in an attempt to rebuild trust with the Australian public.
In terms of Smith’s future captaincy prospects, CA said that “would be conditional on acceptance by fans and the public.”
Underlining the extent of the damage to Australia’s reputation, the Cricket Australia bans were far more serious than punishments handed out by the International Cricket Council. The ICC banned Smith for one test, gave Bancroft disciplinary demerit points but no ban at all, and didn’t even charge Warner with any offense following the tampering episode in the third test last weekend.
That led some to argue that CA had gone too far in their punishments for an offense that has happened multiple times before in cricket.
“We are all so hurt and angry and maybe we weren’t so sure how to react. We’d just never seen it before,” Australia great Shane Warne, one of the best bowlers the game has seen, wrote on his social media accounts. “But the jump to hysteria is something that has elevated the offense beyond what they actually did, and maybe we’re at a point where the punishment just might not fit the crime.”
Smith’s fall from grace was sudden and steep after he captained Australia to a 4-0 Ashes rout of England a few months ago, establishing himself as the best batsman in the world with a series of outstanding performances.
Now, he’s an outcast in his sport, only allowed to play club cricket.
As he left the team hotel in Johannesburg, Smith told the Associated Press he didn’t feel like playing any cricket right now.
Wearing a white T-shirt and dark baseball cap, Smith hugged teammate Tim Paine, who has replaced him as Australia’s test captain, before he headed for the airport. Coach Darren Lehmann, who was cleared of having any knowledge of the tampering plan, was part of a small group of players and backroom staff to see him off. Smith was later escorted by police into Johannesburg’s international airport.
Smith faced humiliating scenes as he moved through the airport, accompanied by boos and calls of “cheat.” He was surrounded by at least six police officers and was led by the hand, several times jostled by the crowd.
The three cricketers will return to face an outraged Australian public which has witnessed the treasured reputation of its favorite sports team severely tarnished.
“They have made a grave mistake, but they are not bad people,” Lehmann said.
The saga could signal the end of the international career of Warner, a pugnacious opening batsman who has a series of disciplinary breaches behind him.
Warner had already been identified as the chief culprit in the plot by Australian media, which said he had completely fallen out with his teammates.
Australia’s Fox Sports reported that Warner was seen drinking champagne in a hotel bar in Cape Town earlier this week with non-cricket friends while the investigation into one of the most damaging scandals in Australian sport was underway.
The ball tampering plan could be seen as being almost comical if it hadn’t destroyed reputations and possibly careers.
Tasked with doing the tampering in the game in Cape Town, Bancroft was caught in the act by television cameras and then panicked and tried to hide the piece of sandpaper he used down the front of his trousers, an action that was also caught on TV and replayed over and over in slow-motion and close-up.
Smith and Bancroft were forced to front up and admit the plot to reporters after play in the face of the overwhelming TV evidence.
In one intriguing detail, CA said that Bancroft used sandpaper on the ball to rough it up. The players originally said they used yellow sticky tape and dirt.
With Smith, Warner and Bancroft on the way home, three players had been flown out from Australia to take their places for the final test in South Africa starting on Friday.
Following a crushing 322-run loss in that fated third test in Cape Town, Australia trails 2-1 in the series and faces losing a series in South Africa for the first time in nearly 50 years.