CRISTIANO RONALDO "has begun to pay his debt to Spain's tax authorities." He reportedly made a payment last week of €13.5M ($15.7M) and still owes €5.3M ($6.2M) (MUNDO DEPORTIVO, 7/19). ... Prosecutors in Kazakhstan said that Olympic figure skating Bronze Medalist DENIS TEN was killed, and they are "treating the case as murder." Kazakh news agencies reported Ten was "stabbed after a dispute with people who tried to steal a mirror from his car." Doctors in the city of Almaty said that he died in a hospital there, aged 25 (AP, 7/19). ... Trident Formula 2 fired Haas F1 junior driver SANTINO FERRUCCI "over a sponsor dispute and after a succession of incidents at the British Grand Prix weekend earlier in July." The 20-year-old American was "judged by race stewards to have deliberately made contact" with teammate ARJUN MAINI following the conclusion of the Sunday sprint race after he had already been disqualified for "forcing Maini off the track during the race" (AUTOWEEK, 7/18). ... Matildas player SAM KERR was named the best int'l women's football player at the ESPYs. The 24-year-old was the only Australian to claim an award (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 7/19). ... Motorsport Network acquired the archives of renowned photographer ERCOLE COLOMBO, which include the largest private collection of Ferrari images in the world. The collection will be added to the Motorsport Images digital archive that now holds more than 23 million assets under management (Motorsport).
