SOCCER
Kaka wants a break
AC Milan midfielder Kaka does not want to play for Brazil in the Copa America next month due to tiredness. Kaka said he needed a holiday, the Brazilian Soccer Confederation said on its Web site on Friday night. The tournament starts in Venezuela on June 26. In a letter to the confederation, the Brazilian playmaker said he had played three seasons without a proper break. “I won’t have the psychological or physical conditions to perform the role expected of me in an international competition,” Kaka said. Brazil coach Dunga is to announce the roster on Thursday.
SOCCER
Olympiakos deny claim
Greek champions Olympiakos said on Saturday that they had offered their star midfielder Rivaldo a renewal of his contract for one year with the same pay as this season, only to have it rejected by the Brazilian. The team made the announcement shortly after a bitter Rivaldo held a press conference to announce that he was leaving Olympiakos after three seasons, saying the club did not keep its promises to him. Rivaldo had claimed in the press conference that Olympiakos had asked him to stay on a fourth year with the team, but with a 50 percent reduction in his pay.
CRICKET
Bangladesh change five
Bangladesh selectors have made five changes for the two-match Test series against India beginning on Friday following defeat in the one-day series. Rajin Saleh, Tushar Imran, Khaled Mashud, Enamul Haque and Mehrab Hossain have been drafted into the 14-member Test squad in place of Aftab Ahmed, Tamim Iqbal, Abdur Razzak, Mushfiqur Rahim and Fahad Reza, a Bangladesh Cricket Board press release said. India, who clinched a three-match one-day series last week with an unassailable 2-0 lead, play the last one-dayer in Chittagong on May 15. The first Test will be played in Chittagong while the second would be hosted by Dhaka.
CRICKET
Vaughan may miss first Test
Injured England captain Michael Vaughan is set to miss the first Test against the West Indies, according to Darren Gough, his skipper at Yorkshire. The selectors, who were due to announce their squad yesterday for the opening match of a four-Test series, due to start on Thursday at Lord’s, have said they will give batsman Vaughan as much time as they can to recover from having his finger broken facing Hampshire’s Australia pace bowler Stuart Clark last week. But former England fast bowler Gough reckoned Vaughan was struggling although he thought he might be fit for the second Test.
Golf
Lee Westwood leads
Lee Westwood takes a one-shot lead into the final round of the Andalucia Open in Marbella, Spain, after a 7-under 65 in the third round on Saturday. “I was pleased with the way I played. I didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have liked but it was nice to hole a few putts for a change,” said Westwood, who is 15-under par with a total score of 201. Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano of Spain is second with 202. Westwood’s third round ended disappointingly with bogeys at the last two holes — one day after the Englishman set a course record 8-under. “On the last two holes I short-sided myself and it’s just one of those things you have to accept,” Westwood said. “I was trying to make birdie, not bogey, but I’m not particularly bothered. These things happen.”
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