■ BASEBALL
Sabathia to open for Yankees
C.C. Sabathia will have double Opening Day duties for the Yankees, as the big lefty will start the season opener on April 6 in Baltimore and throw the first pitch at the opening of their new stadium 10 days later. New York manager Joe Girardi confirmed to reporters on Thursday that Sabathia, signed to a seven-year, US$161 million free agent contract in the off-season, would be the starting pitcher for both openers. “I’m excited to be able to take the ball the first game of the season and to open up the stadium,” Sabathia said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” The opener of the Yankees’ new US$1.5 billion home will be against the Cleveland Indians, Sabathia’s original major league team. Before the official opener of their park, the Yankees will play two exhibition games there on April 3 and April 4 against the Chicago Cubs. Girardi has said Wang will pitch on April 3.
■ OLYMPICS
IOC ends torch relays
After a year of embarrassing protests leading up to the Beijing Games, Olympic leaders called on Thursday for an end to international torch relays starting next year in Vancouver. The torch relay turned into a convenient platform for protesters to denounce China’s human rights record. Some of the biggest protests were in London, Paris and San Francisco. In San Francisco, officials were forced to reroute the parade to avoid confrontations. The International Olympic Committee announced the change at its three-day meetings in Denver, Colorado, but said it doesn’t require an adjustment of the contracts for host cities. There was no requirement for cities to take the relays internationally, but in recent years cities have requested such a tour.
■ GOLF
Seve to get more treatment
Seve Ballesteros will undergo a fourth round of chemotherapy following the brain surgery he underwent last year to remove a brain tumor, the Spanish golf star announced on his Web site on Thursday. The 51-year-old, a five-time major winner, has undergone four operations since cancer was discovered in October last year and now he is ready to take more treatment. “After receiving the third round of chemotherapy, the blood analyses confirm that I can go ahead with the fourth round, which will start on Saturday [today],” he said in a statement. “Also, I want you to know that my spirits are still high.”
■ SOCCER
No nightlife brings success
The coach of surprise Turkish league leaders Sivasspor has said their success is partly because of the lack of nightlife in conservative central Turkey. “There is no nightlife in Sivas,” Sivasspor coach Bulent Uygun was quoted as saying on the Hurriyet daily’s Web site. “There are only a few shops where my players can buy drinks, but I’m in contact with the shop owners, so I am informed as soon as one of my players buy drinks and I warn him.” Sivasspor, from the city of Sivas in the icy Anatolian heartland, are top of the Turkish championship with 50 points.
■ GERMANY
Rutten leaves Schalke
German side Schalke 04 said on Thursday that they had parted company with their Dutch coach Fred Rutten. Mike Buskens, Youri Mulder and Oliver Reck, all members of the club’s back-room staff, will take charge of training. Rutten had a contract with Schalke until 2010 having only taken over as trainer last July, but the club are eighth in the table and have been blighted by erratic form.
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