■ SOCCER
Juve go through to semis
Juventus completed the Italian Cup semi-final line-up after beating Napoli in a penalty shoot-out at Turin’s Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday following a 0-0 draw. They will play Lazio in the last four, while Serie A leaders Inter face Sampdoria in the other semi. In what was a largely dull match, Juve and Napoli barely mustered a single chance between them throughout 120 minutes. The hosts did have the ball in the net in the last seconds of normal time through David Trezeguet, but he was somewhat controversially ruled offside. So the tie went to a shoot-out, with veteran Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved the first to miss as his spot-kick was saved by Nicolas Navarro. But Argentina forward Ezequiel Lavezzi saw his effort saved by Alex Manninger to level matters. Momo Sissoko hit the bar to give Napoli another sniff at glory, but both Matteo Contini and Walter Gargano skied their shots well over the bar.
■BASKETBALL
Bogut out with back injury
Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut will miss at least eight weeks with a stress fracture in his back. The former No. 1 overall pick went through a series of tests this week that revealed the injury. Bogut will need exercise and rest, but no surgery is scheduled. Bogut’s injury is another blow to the Bucks, who are in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, but have already lost leading scorer Michael Redd to a season-ending knee injury. Bogut is averaging 11.7 points and a team-high 10.3 rebounds, but started suffering back spasms after a game on Dec. 17 against Philadelphia. The Australian had missed 13 of the last 18 games and played less than 17 minutes in his last two games before missing Tuesday’s loss at New Jersey.
■SOCCER
Vannes to face Bordeaux
Second-division Vannes surprised Nice 4-3 in a penalty shoot-out on Wednesday to set up a French League Cup final against Bordeaux. Vannes became the first second-division club to reach the final since Gueugnon in 2000. Bordeaux cruised past defending champions Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 to reach the final at Stade de France on March 29. Vannes — who also beat Metz on penalties in the quarter-finals — held Nice to 1-1 over 90 minutes and extra-time of their semi-final. Seid Khiter put visiting Vannes ahead in the 60th minute and they looked set for victory until Tunisian striker Chaouki Ben Saada equalized for Nice in the 88th minute. At Parc des Princes, David Bellion headed in Franck Jurietti’s cross for Bordeaux in the 17th minute and it remained the only goal until late and against the run of play. After defending a corner, Bordeaux’s counterattack finished with Marc Planus’ cross lobbed in by Souleymane Diawara. In the last minute, Geraldo Wendel scored to cap Bordeaux’s fine performance.
■CYCLING
Cavendish wins in Qatar
British rider Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia won the fourth stage of the Tour of Qatar on Wednesday, narrowing the gap on overall race leader Tom Boonen. Cavendish defied some extremely windy conditions to win the 141km stage in a time of 4 hours, 4 minutes and 55 seconds. German rider Heinrich Haussler of Cervelo Test Team finished second and Boonen finished third. Both riders had the same time as Cavendish. “I am very happy. I only made a dash for the finish line when I could actually see it,” Cavendish said. “I had three or four guys with me, but I made it. I am delighted after the disappointing times in the earlier stages.”
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