■SOCCER
Gazza taken to hospital
Former England star Paul Gascoigne was taken to hospital after an incident at a London hotel, police sources said on yesterday. Ambulance crews and police were called to the Knightsbridge hotel on Sunday afternoon, from where Gascoigne voluntarily went to hospital where he was being assessed. No offense was reported and no further action was taken, police said. “A man was causing concern in a hotel in SW1,” police said in a statement.” He was tended to by an ambulance crew and taken to hospital voluntarily.” The 40-year-old former Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder, known as Gazza, has battled with alcohol and personal problems. In February he was detained under the mental health act after a disturbance at a hotel in Gateshead. He was released after two weeks of treatment.
■BADMINTON
Officials look out for fixing
Malaysian officials will be on the lookout for the “menace” of match-fixing during the finals of the Thomas and Uber cups in Jakarta next week. Malaysian sport was rocked by a scandal last month in which six soccer players from Sarawak were detained by Anti-Corruption Agency officers investigating match-fixing allegations. There has also been speculation that badminton players have been involved in arranging results. The finals of the Thomas and Uber cups, from May 11 to May 18 in Jakarta, Indonesia, are the most prestigious team events in international badminton. “Yes, we have heard stories about shuttlers fixing matches but this is only hearsay. It’s very hard to prove such cases,” Nadzmi Salleh, president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia, was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times yesterday. “We will be monitoring the players in Jakarta to ensure they stay away from this menace. We have been conducting such checks for quite some time now.”
■SOCCER
FA probes gambling patterns
The English Football Association is to investigate a League Two result after at least two bookmakers closed betting on the match because of unusual gambling patterns. Accrington Stanley lost 2-0 to Bury on Saturday in the last round of the season. William Hill closed the book on the match on Friday evening, while Coral stopped bets at 1:45pm on Saturday — both because of large amounts being placed on Bury to win. Both companies would normally stop taking bets at the kickoff, which was 3pm on Saturday. “We were seeing substantial money for just one result, Bury to win,” William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe said on Sunday. “We shortened the price four times and we were still seeing people wanting to bet. That was the point at which we decided to close the book. I can’t ever recall us taking this action on an English league game.” Sharpe said William Hill contacted the Football League, which governs the three lower divisions of English soccer. FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said it would investigate the issue. Accrington Stanley chief executive Rob Heys said the club would also investigate.
■TENNIS
Chilean wins BMW Open
Fernando Gonzalez captured his 10th career title and second of the year on Sunday at the BMW Open by beating Simone Bolelli of Italy 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 6-3. The second-seeded Chilean wasted two match points while leading 5-4 in the second set in the clay-court match. He went on to win after breaking serve for the first time in the match at 2-2 in the final set. Bolelli playing in his first final, upset top-seeded Paul Henri-Mathieu of France in the semi-finals.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two