Man City Manager PEP GUARDIOLA denied a claim that the grass on the Etihad Stadium pitch was "left long to slow down Liverpool" during his club's 2-1 win last Thursday. Guardiola said, "I'm not the greenkeeper. I never did -- if they want to play quick, we want to play quicker; always we try to put water [on] but it's not necessary here because of the weather" (London GUARDIAN, 1/8). ... BERNARD TOMIC slammed the Australian Open's new Dunlop match ball after playing with it for the first time at the Kooyong Classic on Tuesday. He said, "I don't know what the Australian Open has done, but it is terrible" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 1/8). ... ALEX FERGUSON is "poised to reprise his role" as ManU manager in a repeat of the 1999 Champions League final against Bayern Munich in May. ManU and Bayern "hope to lure back as many players as possible" to play the exhibition match (London DAILY MAIL, 1/8). ... Japanese three-time Olympic wrestling champion SAORI YOSHIDA said Tuesday that she will "close the curtain" on her career with less than two years to go until the next Summer Games. Yoshida, 36, has been "taking time away from the mat" since the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she fell short of a fourth-straight Olympic Gold Medal (KYODO, 1/8). ... Former England football int'l PAUL GASCOIGNE pleaded not guilty to a charge of sexual assault at a hearing at crown court. The 51-year-old was arrested while traveling on a train between York and Newcastle for "allegedly kissing a woman without her consent in Darlington in August" (PA, 1/8).
