■Cricket
West Indies get stalled
Australian captain Steve Waugh hit an undefeated 41 to stall an impressive West Indies performance with the ball on the first day of the third cricket test Friday. The visitors, chasing a historic 4-0 sweep in the four-match rubber, went to tea at 175 for four after winning the toss and batting first. Waugh, following a century in the third test in Barbados, hit four fours off 74 deliveries in 113 minutes. Jermaine Lawson led the way with three wickets to reduce Australia to 128 for four half way through the day. But the 37-year-old Waugh and wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist hit back in an unbroken stand of 47 for the fifth wicket. Left-hander Gilchrist lashed four boundaries in a typically forthright 28 not out off 52 balls at the break.
■ Auto racing
Sainz leads in first stage
Spain's Carlos Sainz opened a narrow lead in the Rally of Argentina Friday, nudging Finland's Marcus Gronholm from the top spot in tight racing during the competition's opening stages. Sainz, driving a Citroen Xsara, completed the first seven stages in 1 hour, 2 minutes and 35 seconds, leaving him 0.8 seconds ahead of Gronholm, the current world champion. Running in third was Markko Martin of Estonia, who climbed up the leader board after opening seventh and showing newfound speed in his Ford Focus. He was 4.2 seconds behind the leader. Saenz edged Gronholm to move into the top spot after winning the seventh stage in a day of racing that includes 11 stages of competition in and around this mountainous region in central Argentina. The fifth round of the World Rally championship opened Thursday night and will run through today with 78 participants driving some 1,456km of tracks that criscross the mountains bordering Argentina's second-largest city of Cordoba.
■ Basketball
Mourning gets cleared
Alonzo Mourning was cleared by doctors to return to the NBA next season for another comeback from kidney disease. "We're excited and optimistic about the upcoming season and looking forward to getting back on the court," his agent, Jeffrey Wechsler, said Friday. Mourning missed all of the past season. His seven-year, US$105 million contract with the Miami Heat expired at the end of the regular season, and he'll become a free agent July 1. The 33-year-old center was cleared to play after a physical examination Thursday by Dr. Victor Richards, his Miami nephrologist. Following the exam, Dr. Gerald Appel -- the New York nephrologist overseeing Mourning's treatment -- granted written approval for a return to action.
■ Boxing
Lewis, Tyson fight in court
Lennox Lewis got a court order that keeps Mike Tyson and promoter Don King from settling any money disputes without telling Lewis in advance. The same temporary restraining order, obtained Friday by Lewis' lawyer Judd Burstein, also directs television networks Showtime and HBO to withhold all money due to King in connection with his sponsorship of past fights. Tyson, meanwhile, said King owes him US$100 million, Burstein said. The lawyer said he will ask on May 19 for an order of attachment on anything that King pays to settle with Tyson, and on anything the television networks owe King.
Agencies
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but