■SQUASH
David wins fourth Open
Nicol David of Malaysia won her fourth squash World Open in five years by defeating Dutch hope Natalie Grinham 3-11, 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 in Sunday’s final in Amsterdam. David joined greats Susan Devoy of New Zealand and Sarah Fitz-Gerald of Australia as the only women to win four crowns. The dominant force in women’s squash for more than three years, top-ranked David bounced back from a stunning quarter-final defeat in last week’s British Open — only her second loss all year — to add to her Women’s World Open titles in 2005, 2006 and last year.
■FORMULA ONE
Sutil fined over crash
Force India’s Adrian Sutil was fined US$20,000 on Sunday at the Singapore Grand Prix for crashing into Nick Heidfeld, ending the BMW Sauber driver’s remarkable run of race finishes. On lap 19, Sutil tried to pass Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari, but touched wheels and spun. The German immediately restarted and tried to turn his car around on the track, but ran the nose of his car into the path of compatriot Heidfeld. The ensuing crash immediately ended the race for Heidfeld, while Sutil replaced his nose and continued on briefly before retiring with a brake problem. “I didn’t see him coming as I was on the move already and couldn’t react to it, but I’m sorry for it,” Sutil said. “It was a race incident.” Heidfeld was fuming, as the crash ended his run of 42 straight races in which he had finished or completed enough laps to be officially classified in the results.
■BASEBALL
US wins World Cup
The US exploded for six seventh-inning runs, and got a three-run home run from LA Dodger Lucas May, as well as a solo homer from Tug Hulett, to defeat Cuba 10-5 and successfully defend their World Cup title in Nettuno, Italy, on Sunday. The US defeated Cuba for the second time in four days and reeled off 13 straight wins. Cuba’s second straight silver comes after nine consecutive titles, while Canada defeated Puerto Rico 6-2 to take bronze. In the fifth-place play-off, Australia beat the Netherlands 4-1 for their best performance.
■RUGBY UNION
Wallabies add fresh faces
Australia coach Robbie Deans has added 10 fresh faces to an expanded training squad for the Wallabies’ end-of-season tour to Japan, Britain and Ireland. Deans included 10 uncapped players in a 43-man squad that will meet in Sydney next week to start training before being trimmed to 35. The Wallabies are due to play New Zealand in Tokyo before they head to Europe to face England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales for the “Grand Slam.”
■CYCLING
Evans wins men’s race
Cadel Evans of Australia won the men’s race at cycling’s road world championships on Sunday, finally adding a major victory to a career resume stacked with second places. Evans broke clear on the final climb to finish in 6 hours, 56 minutes, 26 seconds on the 262.2km course in Mendrisio, Switzerland. Alexandr Kolobnev of Russia was 27 seconds behind to take silver, beating Spain’s Joaquin Rodriguez in a sprint finish. Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara was in contention on the final lap, but finished fifth as he sought a historic gold medal double after winning the time trial on Thursday. For Evans, 32, it was the biggest win of his career after finishing runner-up in the Tour de France in 2007 and last year, and the past three Dauphine Libere stage races.
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