■ GOLF
Seve speaks to family
Five-time major winner Seve Ballesteros has spoken to his family as he makes progress in his recovery from a third operation on a brain tumor. “Seve Ballesteros continues to evolve favorably. He is conscious, is breathing spontaneously and can talk with his family,” said a statement from Madrid’s La Paz hospital on Monday. “He has begun to receive rehabilitation treatment in the intensive care unit.” The 51-year-old Spaniard underwent his third operation on a brain tumor just over a week ago. His family also posted a statement on the golfer’s official web site on Monday, thanking everyone for their messages of support. “Seve is putting as much positive strength in this battle as he is capable of,” said the family. “With the help of God, the neurosurgeons and their teams, and those who are keeping watch over his state of health at the intensive care unit, we trust with unquestioning faith Seve will come out successfully from this hardship.”
■ SOCCER
Coach slams spitting Messi
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has criticized the team’s star forward Lionel Messi for spitting at an opponent during a Spanish league game with Malaga on Saturday. Television cameras caught Argentina’s Messi spitting at midfielder Sergio “Duda” Barbosa after a collision between the players during Barcelona’s 4-1 victory. “It’s not right for these things to happen. We will try to avoid this type of thing,” Guardiola was quoted as saying by the Web site of sports daily Marca on Monday.
■ SOCCER
Star quits clean-up effort
Former Greek star striker Demis Nikolaidis this weekend announced he was quitting a four-year effort to clean up finances and curb hooliganism at Athens powerhouse AEK Athens. Nikolaidis, who had a rocky relationship with AEK’s organized supporters after he fronted a group of alleged club hooligans three years ago, quit on Sunday when the team was booed after a narrow 2-1 home victory over Asteras Tripolis. “I had hoped to change the mentality of the fans but I did not succeed,” the former AEK idol told reporters. “I cannot be the chairman of a team booed by its fans after it scores.” Nikolaidis had been hailed as a breath of fresh air in Greece’s violence-ridden soccer scene after he spearheaded an investor effort to rescue AEK from bankruptcy in 2004. Within a year, he ordered the photos of alleged AEK hooligans published in an unprecedented step to secure arrests after a serious clash between fans and police during a match in Livadia, central Greece.
■ BOXING
Olympic champ to turn pro
China’s first Olympic boxing gold medalist Zou Shiming has shelved plans to defend his title in London in 2012 and will instead turn professional next year, local media reported on Monday. Zou claimed gold in the light-flyweight category at August’s Beijing Games. “I want a professional golden belt for my country. I think I am capable,” the 27-year-old Zou told the Beijing News. “The professional contests are easier and more attractive to watch.” Zou earned the country’s first Olympic boxing medal with a bronze at the 2004 Athens Games and China has gone from strength to strength on the amateur stage. However, while Zhang Xiyan won the women’s World Boxing Council crown in 2006, the men have struggled on the professional circuit.
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