Olympic and world champions Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh of the US defeated Germany's Helke Claasen and Antje Roeder to secure a semi-finals berth at the beach volleyball world championships on Friday.
The top four women's seeds reached the last four.
May-Treanor and Walsh are two wins short of becoming the first men's or women's team to win three consecutive world titles.
They beat Claasen and Roeder 21-10, 22-20, and will face fourth-seeded Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China in yesterday's first semi-final. The US players have a 3-1 record against the Chinese pair.
World Tour points champions Juliana Felisberta Silva and Larissa Franca of Brazil, seeded second, also advanced after they defeated Greece's Efthalia Koutroumanidou and Maria Tsiartsiani 21-15, 18-21, 15-10.
Juliana and Larissa meet third-seeded Tian Jia and Wang Jie, also from China. The Brazilians lead that series 5-3, but Tian and Wang won three of the last five meetings, including the final last August in the Austrian grand slam.
Xue and Zhang prevented an all-US semi-final, defeating Nicole Branagh and Elaine Youngs 17-21, 21-16, 15-11.
On their part, Tian and Wang prevented an all-Brazilian semi-final, beating Salgado sisters Carolina and Maria Clara 21-15, 21-19.
On the men's side, only nine of the top 16 seeded teams reached yesterday's round of 16, including the three top-ranked teams from Brazil -- Olympic champions Emanuel and Ricardo, Pedro Cunha and Franco Neto, as well as defending world titlists Marcio Araujo and Fabio Magalhaes.
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