■SOCCER
Strikers’ curse strikes again
Darren Bent, who was called into the England squad as a late replacement for injured strikers Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole, has been ruled out of today’s World Cup qualifier against Ukraine. England manager Fabio Capello has called up Aston Villa’s Gabriel Agbonlahor as a replacement for the injured Bent, who damaged a tendon in his knee in training late on Monday. “I have called up Agbonlahor, but I will start with Peter Crouch in attack,” Capello said. England lost Heskey with a thigh strain after 15 minutes of Saturday’s 4-0 friendly win over Slovakia. Carlton Cole, who came on as a substitute, was replaced after 34 minutes when he suffered an abductor muscle injury.
■SOCCER
Luca Toni set to return
Italian World Cup winner Luca Toni is set to return for Bayern Munich’s all-important Bundesliga clash at Wolfsburg on Saturday, having finally shaken off his Achilles tendon injury. Toni, 31, has not played a league game since Valentine’s Day when the striker limped out of Bayern’s 2-1 defeat at Hertha Berlin and then sat out Italy’s 2-0 World Cup qualifier win at Montenegro on Saturday. But his return will boost Munich ahead of next week’s the Champions League quarter-final, first-leg against Barcelona. Klinsmann will also welcome back Italian defender Massimo Oddo, from a calf injury, and midfielder Hamit Altintop for the trip to Wolfsburg.
■SOCCER
Armenia fires Poulsen
The Armenian soccer federation announced yesterday their decision to sack national manager Jan Poulsen after a 2-2 home draw with Estonia in a 2010 World Cup qualifying match. The 63-year-old Poulsen took over Armenia’s national side in January, but in the qualifiers to date, his side have suffered four defeats and just the one draw against Estonia.
■SOCCER
Abbiati out for months
AC Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati will be out of action for five to six months following surgery on his cruciate knee ligament, the club said on Monday. Abbiati injured his knee two weeks ago in Milan’s 5-1 victory at Siena, after which he was replaced by Brazilian Dida. Milan said on their Web site that the operation had been a complete success but not only is Abbiati’s season over, he will also miss the beginning of the next campaign. In Dida, though, Milan have a player who was first choice goalkeeper for the Rossoneri for five-and-a-half seasons since joining from Corinthians of Brazil in 2002. He lost his place to Australian Zeljko Kalac halfway through last season and the return of Abbiati — who lost his place to Dida in 2002 after four seasons as the club’s first choice No. 1 — from Atletico Madrid at the beginning of this campaign relegated both to the bench.
■BASEBALL
Tigers sign Josh Anderson
The Detroit Tigers added some speed on the bases and depth to their outfield corps on Monday by trading reliever Rudy Darrow to the Atlanta Braves for Josh Anderson. The 26-year-old Anderson had been competing for the starting job in center field for Atlanta before losing out to Jordan Schafer. “He gives us a dimension that we really don’t have, which is speed,” Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski told reporters. Anderson, who stole 42 bases in 49 attempts last season at Triple-A Richmond, is expected to back up Detroit’s starting outfield trio of Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson and Carlos Guillen.
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