■ Tennis
US bags spot in semi-finals
The US secured a spot in the Davis Cup semifinals on Saturday when the top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan beat Spain's Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The decisive win over Spain in front of a partisan crowd left the US squad confident they'll end their 12-year Davis drought. Andy Roddick invited the fans to party with him, James Blake sounded confident and Bob Bryan went as far as to predict a title. Coupled with Friday's singles wins by Roddick and Blake, it gave the US a 3-0 lead in the best-of-five tie, putting the US players a step closer to their first Davis title since 1995.
■ Tennis
Russia leads France 2-1
Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Andreev gave Russia a 2-1 lead over France in the Davis Cup quarter-finals by beating Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Moscow on Saturday. France, which has not lost a doubles match to Russia in six previous Davis Cup matches since 1973, was broken in the eighth game of the fifth set when Grosjean sent a forehand return wide. Andreev then served out the match at love. "We haven't played together for almost a year," Davydenko said. "We were lucky to win in five sets." The best-of-five series was scheduled to be decided yesterday in the reverse singles matches when Davydenko faced Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Youzhny took on Paul-Henri Mathieu.
■ Track and field
Trial set in doping case
A trial date has been set in the case against Trevor Graham, the elite athletics coach who helped launch the US government's probe of doping in professional sports and later became a target for allegedly lying to federal agents. Graham's trial is to begin on Sept. 24 in San Francisco federal court, US District Judge Susan Illston ruled last week. A pretrial conference is set for Sept. 11. Graham, who coached Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery, was indicted last November on three counts of making false statements to a government agency.
■ Rowing
Cambridge defeats Oxford
Cambridge rallied to beat Oxford for the first time in three years on Saturday in the 153rd Boat Race on the Thames in London. The more experienced and stronger Light Blue crew won by a length in almost perfect conditions on the river after initially trailing underdog Oxford. The Dark Blues of Oxford pulled ahead early on the 6.8km course after winning the toss and taking advantage of the Surrey bend. As the rowers powered to the Hammersmith Bridge, there was little to separate the crews and they came close to touching oars. But just after the halfway point at Chiswick Steps, Cambridge got into its rhythm and pulled ahead to win.
■ Cricket
Shastri to become coach
Former India all-rounder Ravi Shastri will take over as India's cricket coach when the team tours Bangladesh next month and Rahul Dravid will stay on as the captain, a senior official of India's cricket board told reporters on Saturday. The board met to discuss the debacle of the Indian team's first-round World Cup exit and to chart a course for the future after coach Greg Chappell's resignation last week. Former medium-pacer Venkatesh Prasad has been brought in as bowling coach.
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