■ TENNIS
Robredo into Estoril semis
Tommy Robredo reached the last four of the Estoril Open by beating Argentine Agustin Calleri 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-3 on Friday. The second-seeded Spaniard led 5-3 in the second set before allowing his seventh-seeded opponent back into the match. Robredo was due to face Novak Djokovic in yesterday's semi-finals. The third-seeded Serb, who has won two titles this year, beat Guillermo Garcia Lopez of Spain 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Fifth-seeded Richard Gasquet also reached the last four, beating Vince Spadea of the US 6-3, 6-4. Gasquet earned a clash with Paul-Henri Mathieu, who beat Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
■ BOXING
Cazares defends world title
Mexico's Hugo Cazares successfully defended his WBO junior flyweight title by stopping Colombia's Wilfrido Perez in the second round on Friday. Cazares, making his fifth defense of the title he won in 2005, dropped No. 1 contender Perez twice in the first round at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Cazares, 25-3-1 with 19 knockouts, floored Perez, 23-2-3 with 16 knockouts, 25 seconds in the second round and the referee ended the mismatch. Both boxers weighed in at the 108-pound (49kg) limit.
■ CRICKET
Bouncer fells Dravid
India captain Rahul Dravid was injured yesterday after being hit in the face by a ball during batting practice ahead of his team's tour of Bangladesh. Dravid, who was wearing a helmet, lay on the ground for some time after he took the impact of a bouncer from pace bowler R.P. Singh on his face. He eventually got to his feet and left the field, covering his face with a towel. Samir Dasgupta, a local manager for the Indian team, said Dravid's injury didn't appear to be serious, but doctors have kept him under observation. The Indian team leaves for Bangladesh today to play three limited-overs internationals, followed by two Tests.
■ MOTORCYCLING
Rossi roars to pole position
Motorcycling supremo Valentino Rossi roared to pole position in the Grand Prix of China in Shanghai yesterday with a record-setting lap of 1 minute 58.424 seconds on his Yamaha. It was the seven-time world champion's 48th career pole as the Italian got his MotoGP championship bid back for this season on track after a disappointing performance two weeks ago in Turkey where he finished 10th. American John Hopkins riding a Suzuki was second, just 0.891 seconds off the pace, while fellow countryman and Rossi team-mate Colin Edwards clinched third. Australian Casey Stoner was fourth and last year's winner Honda rider Dani Pedrosa will line up fifth for today's race.
■ YACHTING
Race to be re-run
Mascalzone Latino will re-sail its Louis Vuitton Cup match race against Desafio Espanol after it broke the rules. For the Naples-based syndicate, a re-sail is much better than getting thrown out of the America's Cup. "The judgment could be seen as lenient," Mascalzone Latino mastman George Skuodas said on Friday. "It's slightly gone in our favor on balance, so we've probably gotten a little bit lucky." Mascalzone Latino altered the configuration of its backstay on the final lap of its fourth-flight victory over Desafio Espanol on Wednesday, its third breach of the America's Cup class rules. The Italian team was fined 10,000 euros (US$13,560) and had the two points from its 35-second win deducted from its round-robin points total.
■ GOLF
Thompson leads FedEx
Leonard Thompson shot a tournament-record 8-under 64 to take a two-stroke lead in the FedEx Kinko's Classic, making the 60-year-old player the Champions Tour's oldest first-round leader of the year on Friday. "Everybody can play out here," said Thompson, who finished his round with an eagle on the par-5 18th. "You don't get out if you can't play." Loren Roberts, making his first appearance at the tournament, opened with a 66. He was tied with Japan's Massy Kuramoto, who shared the lead with Thompson before making a double bogey on his final hole, the par-4 ninth.
■ GOLF
Castrale leads SemGroup
Nicole Castrale fired a 4-under-par 67 on Friday to claim a one-shot lead after the first round of the US$1.4 million LPGA SemGroup Championship in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. In her second full season on the LPGA tour since turning pro in 2001, Castrale has two top-10 finishes this year, including a fourth-place tie at the Ginn Open three weeks ago. After making US$409,000 in her injury-disrupted first six years as a professional, Castrale has already won US$181,000 this season. "[I've] gotten off to a pretty good start this year," Castrale said.
■ BASEBALL
Pitcher in crash was drunk
St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock was almost twice over the legal blood alcohol limit when he died in a road accident last weekend, the St. Louis, Missouri, medical examiner announced on Friday. Hancock died shortly after midnight last Sunday when his vehicle smashed into the back of a tow truck which was attending to a previous accident on a St. Louis highway. Medical examiner Michael Graham said Hancock had a blood alcohol level of 0.157 percent. The legal driving limit is 0.08 percent. Police Chief Joe Mokwa said 8.55 grams of marijuana and a glass pipe used to smoke marijuana were also found in Hancock's rented car.
■ HOCKEY
Sabres defeat Rangers
Maxim Afinogenov scored a power-play goal in overtime for Buffalo to defeat the New York Rangers 2-1 and move the Sabres to within a win of the NHL Eastern Conference finals on Friday. Chris Drury forced overtime by scoring with less than eight seconds left as the Sabres finally beat goalie Henrik Lundqvist with their 37th shot on goal. Buffalo rebounded from two defeats at New York -- the Sabres' first losing streak since March -- and a 1-0 deficit to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series that shifts to Manhattan for Game 6 today. If necessary, a deciding game would be held on Tuesday in Buffalo.
■ BASKETBALL
Stern pans racism study
NBA commissioner David Stern criticized a study regarding racial bias among league officials and the New York Times for printing it, saying racism "doesn't exist in the NBA." On Friday, Stern said: "This is a bum rap, and if it is going to be laid on us it should be laid on us by basis of some people who are purported to be scholars in a publication that purports to hold us up to a higher standard -- a little bit more should have been done." Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and Joseph Price, a Cornell University graduate student, found white referees called fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier