Digest

BASKETBALL

Ducks deny Marbury's Royals again in derby

The Jeremy Lin-less Beijing Ducks battled back from a 21-point deficit to edge the Beijing Royal Fighters 91-90 on Tuesday, completing a derby double over their Stephon Marbury-coached city rival.

The Royal Fighters, who lost 87-79 to the Ducks on Nov 20, led 73-52 after Kyle Fogg reeled off three straight 3-pointers. However, the Ducks refused to throw in the towel and eventually prevailed with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Zhu Yanxi to deny their beloved former player Marbury victory.

Justin Hamilton led the Ducks with 24 points, with Zhai Xiaochuan and Zhu adding 18 and 17 points respectively as the visitor halted a two-game skid.

"It's very difficult to win a game after two losses," said Ducks head coach Yannis Christopoulos, who was without former NBA star Lin due to a back injury.

"Congratulations to the players, they deserve the whole credit."

Sani Sakakini of the Royal Fighters had a game-high 26 points.

SAILING

Ainslie adds SailGP to America's Cup chase

Olympic great Ben Ainslie is taking over the British team for the second season of the SailGP global league.

The 42-year-old, the most successful sailor in Olympic history, said competing in SailGP will help with the development of his America's Cup team, "although the two challenges are unique and the (SailGP) F50 catamarans are vastly different from the AC75 monohull".

"SailGP is the only league of its type with the best sailors in the world on the fastest boats on a global platform, meaning we can regularly compete at the highest level of sail racing－which will be a huge benefit for the team and our America's Cup aspirations," he added.

Ainslie will helm the SailGP team. The next America's Cup is more than a year away, although a series of preliminary regattas will start in April in Italy.

NFL

Ravens, Pats, Niners still media's favorites

Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens just keep on rolling.

The surging Ravens, who have won seven in a row, retained the top spot in the latest Associated Press Pro32 poll.

Baltimore routed the Los Angeles Rams 45-6 on Monday night to move to 9-2 for the season.

The Ravens earned 11 of the 12 first-place votes for 382 points in balloting on Tuesday by media members who regularly cover the NFL.

The New England Patriots (10-1) received the other first-place vote for 366 points to stay in the No 2 spot.

The San Francisco 49ers (10-1) followed close behind with 365 points and remained No 3. The 49ers head to Baltimore to face the Ravens in the top matchup of Week 13.

The Seattle Seahawks (9-2), the only team to beat the 49ers this season, stayed No 4.

SOCCER

Private-equity firm buying into Man City

The owner of Manchester City is selling a $500 million stake to private-equity firm Silver Lake, valuing the club's owner at $4.8 billion, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the deal.

Silver Lake is buying over 10 percent of Abu Dhabi-controlled City Football Group (CFG), the newspaper reported, adding that an official announcement was expected as early as Wednesday.

The deal was signed on Saturday by CFG chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Silver Lake managing partner Egon Durban, according to the FT. The report added that Abu Dhabi aims to retain its majority ownership of CFG.

The English champion achieved record revenue of 535.2 million pounds ($686.66 million) in a fifth consecutive year of profitability in 2018-19, marking its 11th straight year of revenue growth under the ownership of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Last season, City won an unprecedented domestic treble.