■GOLF
Seve Ballesteros in hospital
Five-time major winner Seve Ballesteros was admitted to a Madrid hospital on Monday after feeling dizzy and fainting. Ballesteros was taken to La Paz hospital after briefly losing consciousness, the hospital said in a statement. His condition was stable, and he was undergoing diagnostic tests, the hospital said. No further information on his condition or treatment would be made available under instructions from Ballesteros’ family, the hospital said. The 51-year-old Ballesteros, who has a long history of back pain, officially retired from competition last year. He won the British Open three times and the Masters twice, and earned 50 victories on the European Tour. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999.
■SOCCER
David Beckham suspended
David Beckham will miss the Los Angeles Galaxy’s last away game of the Major League Soccer season on Oct. 18 at Houston because of a mandatory one-game suspension for earning his fifth yellow card. Beckham was penalized in the Galaxy’s 1-0 loss at Columbus on Saturday. He won’t be available for Sunday’s home game against Colorado after being summoned by England for two World Cup qualifiers. Galaxy players Alan Gordon, Brandon McDonald and Greg Vanney also will be suspended for the game in Houston if they pick up a yellow card against Colorado.
■CRICKET
Ganguly to retire after series
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said yesterday he would retire from international cricket at the end of the upcoming four-Test series against Australia. “This will be my last series,” Ganguly, 36, told reporters after a training session ahead of the first Test starting in Bangalore tomorrow. “Before coming here, I spoke to my teammates and hopefully I will go out with a winning knock.” Ganguly was a surprise inclusion for the first two Tests after being ignored for the five-day domestic Irani Cup tie last month, regarded as a trial match for the series. He was India’s most successful Test captain with 21 wins in 49 matches before he was sacked in 2005 following a public spat with then coach Greg Chappell. The elegant left-hander, who made his Test debut in 1996, has so far scored 6,888 runs in 109 Tests at an average of 41.74 with 15 centuries.
■BASEBALL
Venezuela mull WBC boycott
Leading Venezuela players are threatening to boycott next year’s World Baseball Classic unless team officials listen to their opinions. US-based stars Magglio Ordonez, Miguel Cabrera and Johan Santana were among several top players who believe local officials are ignoring them regarding the Classic. They and others also are unhappy over the reappointment of Luis Sojo as manager. “We haven’t been consulted regarding the important issues,” Cabrera told reporters on Monday. “We only want Venezuela to go to the Classic with the best coaches and players, but it’s necessary that we work together.” The dispute has drawn resignations from some of Venezuela’s organizing officials. One official, Eduardo Alvarez, resigned last week citing “differences with other members.” Some other representatives of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League resigned from the organizing committee on Sunday, saying in a statement that their resignations were aimed at “bringing together Venezuela’s best team for the World Baseball Classic.”
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