■ Soccer
Hargreaves out with injury
England midfielder Owen Hargreaves likely broke his left foot during his play on Saturday for German Bundesliga team Bayern Munich. Hargreaves was sent out of Bayern's 2-1 loss at Arminia Bielefeld after a collision with an opponent. "There is the suspicion he has a broken fibula -- we won't know more until after the examination," Bayern coach Felix Magath said. The x-rays were to be performed late on Saturday in Munich for the 25-year-old Hargreaves, whom Manchester United tried to sign this season.
■ Field Hockey
De Nooijer voted year's best
Teun de Nooijer of the Netherlands was named field hockey's world player of the year on Saturday for the third time in four years. The 30-year-old playmaker was picked in a poll of players from the 12 countries that participated in the World Cup. German striker Christopher Zeller was voted the best under-23 player after leading his country into yesterday's World Cup final against Australia with six goals in six matches. "What makes this so worthwhile is I was chosen by hockey comrades all over the world," Zeller said.
■ Golf
Sorenstam wins Skins
Annika Sorenstam beat Mexican star Lorena Ochoa in the Acapulco Skins, finishing with US$165,000 in the two-player event at the Tres Vidas course on Saturday. Ochoa earned US$105,000 in the US$15,000-a-hole competition. Ochoa bogeyed the 16th to hand Sorenstam US$45,000. "It was an error. My shot went to the right," Ochoa said. After they tied on the 17th, Ochoa took the 18th for US$30,000. "It was a good game," Ochoa said. "I fought like I'd hoped. I don't like to lose, and that's why I asked for a rematch, and she already told me, `Yes.'" Sorenstam struggled on the unfamiliar course. "Sometimes I didn't know where to shoot. That's why I made some mistakes," she said.
■ Tennis
Baghdatis outlasts Paradorn
Marcos Baghdatis outlasted Thai star Paradorn Srichaphan 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 on Saturday to reach the China Open final in Beijing, his first since the Australian Open. Cyprus' third-seeded Baghdatis was scheduled to face Croatian No. 4 Mario Ancic in yesterday's finale. Ancic, in his first tournament since Wimbledon, overcame No. 8 Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 4-6, 6-1, 6-1. After making the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, Ancic hurt his back and knee in a yachting accident, and was sidelined for two months until this week. "It was very hard to expect anything coming back from a long injury but I worked pretty hard," Ancic said. "I knew I was ready but match situations are completely different."
■ Sumo
Asashoryu tops Tamakasuga
Grand champion Asashoryu of Mongolia overpowered winless Tamakasuga in Tokyo yesterday to stay tied for the lead at the Autumn Grand Sumo Tournament. Asashoryu, who is bidding for his 18th Emperor's Cup, barely broke a sweat in the day's final bout at Ryogoku Kokugikan when he came bursting out of the blocks and shoved the No. 4 maegashira out in a matter of seconds. Asashoryu improved to 7-1 and is tied for the lead with Roho and Ama midway through the 15-day tourney. In other major bouts, sixth-ranked maegashira Ama kept pace when he forced out Mongolian compatriot Kyokutenho to improve to a 7-1 record in the tournament.
■ Soccer
Celtic top Scottish league
Stephen McManus scored on Saturday to give Celtic a 1-0 victory over Dunfermline and lift the Glasgow club four points clear atop the Scottish league. McManus headed in Shunsuke Nakamura's 31st-minute corner at Celtic Park for the Hoops' fifth victory in seven games. Second-place Rangers, unbeaten in six games, had the chance to trim the defending champion's lead to one point yesterday by winning at Hibernian. In Saturday's other games, Aberdeen moved third with a 2-0 victory at Falkirk with goals by Gary Dempsey and Dyron Daal, and Kirk Broadfoot's own goal 20 minutes from the end enabled Kilmarnock to climb to fourth after a 1-0 victory at St Mirren. Inverness and Dundee United drew 0-0. Yesterday's other game was Motherwell at home to Hearts.
■ Soccer
Juventus gets Serie B win
David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero scored on Saturday to give Juventus a 2-1 win over Vicenza and its first ever win in Italy's Serie B. Striker Trezeguet, who was making his Serie B debut, scored just before halftime by tapping in a cross from left-back Giorgio Chiellini. Captain Del Piero then curled in a 53rd-minute free kick from a central position just outside the penalty area. The game gave Juventus coach Didier Deschamps his first opportunity to pair Trezeguet and Del Piero.
■ Rugby Union
Fan interrupts game
The English Premiership match between Northampton and Bath on Saturday was briefly interrupted after a spectator complained about racist abuse allegedly being traded between the two teams. The game, won 33-18 by Northampton, was held up in the 57th minute by referee Wayne Barnes on the orders of the chief security officer at Northampton's ground, Franklin's Gardens. Barnes told Northampton captain Bruce Reihana and Bath skipper Isaac Feaunati to warn their players about their conduct before restarting the game with a scrum. None of the refereeing team was aware of any abuse but the Rugby Football Union confirmed it would be investigating what took place.
■ Rugby Union
Tests coming to Brisbane
Brisbane will host 10 Australian rugby internationals over the next eight years, including three money-spinning Bledisloe Cup Tests against New Zealand, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said yesterday. The ARU said Lang Park will host one of the two Bledisloe Cup Tests in 2008, with other trans-Tasman Tests in 2011 and 2014 pending the extension of the SANZAR joint venture with New Zealand and South Africa beyond 2010. ARU chief executive Gary Flowers said a new record ground crowd for this year's Bledisloe Cup Test demonstrated that Brisbane, Australia's third-biggest city, deserved to stage more high-level rugby Tests.
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