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Sports Briefs

■ Tennis
Chang may coach Peng
Michael Chang (張德培), the youngest ever player to win a grand slam event, appears close to landing a deal to coach China's Peng Shuai (彭帥), one of the country's tennis hopes in next year's Beijing Olympics. "We are negotiating with Michael Chang but there is no agreement yet," Xie Miqing (謝彌清), a spokes-woman for the Chinese Tennis Association, said yesterday. The Chinese American began talks late last year with the CTA, showing interest in coaching the Chinese team for next year's Olympics, but he has since focused on coaching individual players.

■ Gambling
Lebron, Rooney head east
A host of sporting superstars including NBA forward LeBron James and　Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney will be on show in Macau this summer, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday. Manchester United, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic will play exhibition games to celebrate the opening of the US$3.2 billion Venetian Macau-Resort hotel in August, the report said. It said the two NBA teams would play a two-game series, one in Macau and another in Shanghai, while Manchester United would travel to Macau as part of their Asian tour.

■ Rugby Union
Ella OK to coach Canada
Former Wallaby and current Australia sevens coach Glen Ella has been given permission to help Canada at this year's World Cup, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said yesterday. Ella, who played four times for the Wallabies, will be on the Canadian bench for the final Group B match against Australia in Bordeaux on Sept. 29. "This is the first time I've coached against the Wallabies," he told the rugbyexclusive.com Web site. Ella, who will resume coaching the Australian sevens team at the end of the Sept. 9 to Oct. 20 World Cup in France, said Canada were targeting victories over Fiji and Japan in the pool phase.

■ Curling
US defeat China
The US scored five in the seventh yesterday to defeat China 10-3 at the women's world curling championship. US skip Debbie McCormick took five with an open hit, forcing the Chinese to concede after seven ends. With the win, McCormick's rink improved to 6-3 in the round-robin draw and they were scheduled to play Switzerland later yesterday for a chance to secure a berth in the playoffs. Canada improved to a perfect 9-0 with a 10-5 win over Russia. Denmark defeated Germany 11-7 and is right behind Canada at 8-1. The top four teams advance to the playoffs. Scotland, the US, Switzerland, and defending champion Sweden are the contenders for the top two spots.

■ Soccer
Hearts lose another coach
Valdas Ivanauskas on Tuesday became the third head coach to quit Hearts in the last 18 months after leaving the Scottish Premier League club "by mutual consent." The Lithuanian's departure had been expected following Hearts majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov's recent decision to replace him "temporarily" with Anatoly Korobochka. Ivanauskas took over as head coach in March last year, succeeding Graham Rix who was himself sacked by Romanov less than than six months after taking over from George Burley. Ivanauskas guided Hearts to victory in last season's Scottish Cup but he leaves with the club lying fourth in the SPL table and with little prospect of catching second-placed Rangers in the race for a place in the Champions League qualifying competition next season.

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