■TENNIS
Hsieh loses, Chan wins
Taiwanese players enjoyed mixed fortunes in the second round of the WTA Guangzhou Open yesterday. Olga Savchuk of Ukraine beat Hsieh Su-wei 6-4, 6-4 but Chan Yung-jan defeated ninth-seeded Italian Maria Elena Camerin 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2). It was a much-needed win for the 20 year-old, who has seen her ranking slip from 68 at the end of last year to her current position of 140. Chan plays Israeli fifth seed Shahar Peer in the next round of the hardcourt tournament. World No. 21 Annabel Medina Garrigues of Spain is the top seed at the US$220,000 event.
■SOCCER
Hammers sign Franco
West Ham United have signed Mexico striker Guillermo Franco, the Premier League club said yesterday. No contract details were given on West Ham’s Web site but the 32-year-old Franco, who had been without a club, was delighted to get the opportunity of first-team soccer in the lead-up to next year’s World Cup. “This is a very important stage in my career and I hope to score lots of goals for the club this season and then play at the World Cup,” the former Villarreal, San Lorenzo and Monterrey player said. A member of Mexico’s 2006 World Cup squad in Germany, Franco was called up by national coach Javier Aguirre for this month’s World Cup qualifiers and scored in the 3-0 win at Costa Rica.
■RUGBY LEAGUE
Coach and player sacked
South Sydney sacked coach Jason Taylor and New Zealand international David Fa’alogo yesterday over a bar fight, highlighting a troubled season for Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL). The club named John Lang as their coach for the next two seasons and apologized for the incident, in which Fa’alogo allegedly punched Taylor down a flight of stairs in retaliation for a playful slap. “The incident that occurred on Sept. 6 has undoubtedly done damage to the club’s reputation,” chief executive Shane Richardson told journalists. “The game needs to make a stance on our behavioral incidents and each club needs to make their own statement about what is acceptable behavior. We believe this is not acceptable behavior from the head coach of South Sydney.” It was the latest unsavory incident to mar the NRL which has been overshadowed by group sex, domestic violence, racism, doping and drug abuse scandals this season.
■BASKETBALL
Bateer urges Yao to rest
Menk Bateer, the first Chinese to start an NBA game, has urged his injured countryman Yao Ming not to rush back into action, advising the star Houston Rockets center to skip the 2009-2010 season. “He is higher and heavier than most of the NBA players and has more duties during the off-season. It’s better for him to take a rest next season,” he told the Oriental Sports Daily. Yao underwent surgery in July after suffering a fracture in his left foot during a playoff game against eventual champions the Los Angeles Lakers. Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said last month that Yao was improving and that his career was no longer at risk, adding that there was a chance he could return this season. But Bateer, who played for the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs, among others, said it would be a mistake to push Yao too hard. “Health is the start of everything,” he said. “Take your time, don’t hurry. There is nothing more important than your health. I don’t want to see Yao on the court until he really feels ready for the game.”
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