■EGYPT
Brazil, Costa Rica advance
Late substitute Maicon scored twice as Brazil beat Germany 2-1 in extra-time on Saturday to reach the semi-finals of the under-20 World Cup. Brazil, the only remaining team with a previous tournament win, now face Costa Rica, who beat the United Arab Emirates in the day’s second match. Ghana play Hungary in tomorrow’s other semi-final, ahead of the third-place match and the final on Friday. Brazil, who easily overcame other opponents, struggled against the defensive Germans, who took a late lead when Lewis Holtby scored in the 73rd minute. Maicon came on in the 77th minute to turn the game — scoring with just two minutes remaining. He exploited a gap in the German defense to beat Manchester United reserve goalkeeper Ron-Robert Zieler. Maicon got his second in the first minute of extra-time, again getting the better of Zieler with an expert lob, as German defenders were caught in a mix up. Supporters returned to the Cairo International Stadium to watch the Brazilians and cheer on the Emirates, following a lull in attendances after hosts Egypt were knocked out by Costa Rica in the round of 16. Costa Rica again disappointed the local fans, however, when Marcos Urena scored a last-gasp goal in extra-time to beat the UAE. Ahmed Ali had put the UAE ahead in the 32nd minute, driving in a cross from Ahmed Khalil, but a header from Josue Martinez leveled it five minutes later.
■ITALY
Cannavaro to be cleared
Fabio Cannavaro did not commit a doping offense and should be cleared because he took cortisone only to treat a wasp sting, the Italian Olympic Committee’s anti-doping prosecutor said on Saturday. Prosecutor Ettore Torri will now recommend to an anti-doping tribunal, due to meet in the coming days, that the Italy captain should not receive any sanction. The tribunal will make the final decision. “The prosecutor asks for the Cannavaro case to be dropped,” a statement from the prosecutor’s office said. “We can exclude [the possibility] that Cannavaro is responsible. This office reserves the right to make further judgments in the future over other parties ... which were responsible.” It was not clear from the statement who those other parties might be. Cannavaro received emergency cortisone treatment after being stung by a wasp at training on Aug. 28 and then failed a dope test after a Serie A match two days later. The 36-year-old had requested an exemption after being treated for the sting, but did not receive the documentation before he was tested.
■NORWAY
Norway defeat South Africa
Kjetil Waehler scored in the 48th minute on Saturday to give Norway a 1-0 victory over South Africa in an international friendly. John Arne Riise set up the goal with a long throw-in to John Carew, who passed the ball for the unmarked Waehler to beat goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs. It was Waehler’s first goal for Norway. The win gave Norway an unbeaten home record this year in seven games, including five World Cup qualifiers. Norway dominated throughout and could have won by a bigger margin, wasting numerous chances, while their goalkeeper Jon Knudsen only made his first save off a tame shot in the 81st minute. Norway finished second in their World Cup qualifying group and are not likely to clinch a spot in the playoffs.
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with