■GOLF
Furyk wins PGA Grand Slam
Jim Furyk won the PGA Grand Slam of Golf by birdieing the final hole to force a playoff with Padraig Harrington and winning with an 8-foot eagle putt on the first extra hole on Wednesday. Furyk shot his second straight 2-under 68 to match Harrington at 4-under 136 on the Mid Ocean Club course in Tucker’s Town, Bermuda. Harrington, the British Open and US PGA champion, also shot consecutive 68s. “Obviously, I had a chance to win,” Harrington said. “I think Jim played well, solid golf through the two days, and you know, is a deserved winner, but I had opportunities ... That’s the way it goes sometimes.” Retief Goosen shot a 71 to finish at 1 over, and Masters champion Trevor Immelman had a 69 to end up last at 5 over.
■TENNIS
Venus triumphs in Zurich
Venus Williams began her bid to recapture the Zurich Open title she last won in 1999 by defeating Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday. The second round match did not go entirely smoothly for the American, although she was never placed under any real pressure. Although Williams hit four aces she also produced four double-faults, and her several advances to the net were not always successful. After failing to convert three break points at 2-1, and needing to save a break point at 3-3 before holding on her sixth game point, Williams finally broke to lead 5-3 with a fine forehand winner. The second set was decided when Bondarenko double-faulted to drop her serve at 1-1, and although Williams failed to take two match points on her opponent’s serve at 5-3 she closed out the match in the next game. In other matches, Italy’s Flavia Pennetta took just 54 minutes to overwhelm Russian Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-1 and Swedish qualifier Sofia Arvidsson rallied to defeat Austria’s Sybille Bammer 0-6, 7-5, 6-4.
■TENNIS
Federer advances in Madrid
Roger Federer beat Czech Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) to advance into the third round of the Madrid Masters on Wednesday. The Swiss second seed returned successfully to the ATP after a three-week pause as he determines his remaining schedule through next month’s Masters Cup in Shanghai. In other matches Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came back from 3-5 down in the final set to beat Spaniard Marcel Granollers 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) while Novak Djokovic escaped against Romanian Victor Hanescu, who retired with a groin injury to hand a 6-7 (8/10), 7-6 (10/8), 3-1 victory to the Serb. Ninth seed Juan del Potro also advanced without completing his match as Finn Jarkko Nieminen quit while trailing 6-2, 4-2 with a thigh injury. David Nalbandian began his title defense by overcoming Czech Tomas Berdych 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1. Ivo Karlovic fired 24 aces as he beat Swede Robin Soderling 7-6 (9/7), 7-6 (10/8). Robby Ginepri shocked fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
■GOLF
Ballesteros stable after op
Seve Ballesteros was in stable condition on Wednesday after undergoing surgery on a brain tumor a day earlier. La Paz hospital said were no complications from the surgery. Spanish state news agency Efe reported the operation lasted 12 hours. The hospital said a sizable part of the 51-year-old Spaniard’s tumor was removed. It was not immediately known if it was malignant. “At the moment he is conscious and stable, although he will not be able to receive any visitors in the coming days until he has recovered from the surgical process,’’ the hospital said in a statement.
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