■ Boxing
Peter TKOs Martinez in 3rd
Undefeated heavyweight Samuel Peter stopped Mexico's Gilbert Martinez in the third round of a scheduled 10-round bout in Las Vegas, Nevada on Friday for his 23rd straight victory. Peter, ranked fifth by the World Boxing Council and ninth by the International Boxing Federation, unleashed a barrage of punches to the head of Martinez before the fight was stopped at 2:05 of the third. The 24-year-old Peter, of Las Vegas, improved to 23-0 with 20 knockouts. The 38-year-old Martinez slipped to 18-9-3 with seven knockouts.
■ Cycling
Italy's Cunego takes Stage 3
Italy's Damiano Cunego won the third stage of the Tour de Romandie in Anzere, Switzerland on Friday, but Colombian Santiago Botero's third-place finish was good enough to give him the overall lead. Cunego finished the 146.5km stage in 3 hours, 45 minutes, and 49 seconds, to edge out Russia's Denis Menchov and Botero after a difficult 15km climb to the finishing line. With a time of 11 hours, 50 minutes, and 34 seconds, Botero leads Cunego by two seconds in the race for the overall title. The Colombian took the leader's yellow jersey from Italy's Alessandro Petacchi as the five-day event moved to the mountains for the first time. Petacchi -- who won the first two stages in sprint finishes -- finished the third stage in 107th place and drops out of the overall top 10. Spain's Pedro Diaz Lobato broke away from the peloton early in the race, but he was reeled in 4km from the finish as Cunego led a group of six riders up the final climb. The tour concludes Sunday in Lausanne.
■ Boxing
Hopkins and Taylor to fight
Middleweight boxing champion Bernard Hopkins and undefeated challenger Jermain Taylor are one step closer to getting into the ring. The two are scheduled to attend a press conference Tuesday in New York to formally announce the July 16 bout, which has been in negotiations for months. The 40-year-old Hopkins, who has defended his title 20 times, last month gave Taylor 24 hours to accept a US$1.5 million purse for the fight. He later relented and increased the offer to US$1.8 million, but the bout was still delayed in negotiations over terms for a possible rematch. Taylor, a member of the 2000 US Olympic team, is undefeated in 23 fights and considered the best prospect among the middleweight challengers. The fight is scheduled to be held at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
■ Soccer
Croates and Serbs clash
Fans of rival soccer clubs fought in the stadium parking lot, and threw rocks and sticks at buses after a match involving Croatian and Serbian-backed teams in Sydney on Saturday. It was the second time in two months that supporters of the Bonnyrigg White Eagles and Sydney United fought after a New South Wales Premier League match. When the teams last met on March 13 in Sydney, six people were arrested and two police officers injured after 50 fans rioted inside the stadium. On Saturday, as part of increased security measures, Parramatta Stadium officials released fans of the Croatian-backed Sydney United team from the stadium before fans of the Serbian-backed Bonnyrigg White Eagles. Bonnyrigg won the match 4-1. But police said violence erupted in the car park when buses carrying fans away from the match were pelted with rocks and sticks.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with