■ARGENTINA
Banfield win first title
Banfield won their first league title despite a 2-0 defeat at Boca Juniors on the final day of the season on Sunday. Argentina striker Martin Palermo ended a run of eight matches without a goal by netting twice for Boca. Newell’s Old Boys, Banfield’s only remaining challengers who began the day two points behind, also lost 2-0 at home to San Lorenzo, for whom Fabian Bordagaray struck twice. At Boca’s Bombonera ground, Palermo converted a sixth-minute penalty to the joy of Newell’s fans in the Rosario 350km north of the capital. Newell’s goalkeeper Sebastian Peratta then saved an early penalty from former Argentina winger Kily Gonzalez, only for Bordagaray to put San Lorenzo in front in the 10th minute with a shot into the top corner that raised a cheer from Banfield fans down in Buenos Aires. Palermo grabbed his second for Boca on the hour from defender Gabriel Paletta’s downward header following leftback Claudio Morel’s cross.
■NETHERLANDS
Utrecht held by Arnhem
FC Utrecht lost ground on the pacesetters in the league when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Vitesse Arnhem on Sunday, as the top four teams all won earlier in the weekend. Fifth-placed Utrecht next meet league leaders FC Twente in their final match before the winter break. Twente scored three times in the second half on Saturday to beat NAC Breda 3-1 and seal their 12th straight win to lead the league with 47 points, two ahead of PSV Eindhoven. PSV beat defending champions AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in Eindhoven on Saturday, with Ola Toivonen heading in the only goal four minutes before the end of the game. Third placed Ajax beat NEC Nijmegen 3-0 on Friday. Also on Saturday it was VVV-Venlo 3, RKC Waalwijk 0 and SC Heerenveen 0, Feyenoord 2. On Sunday it was Willem II 1, Roda JC 3; ADO The Hague 1, Heracles Almelo 4; and Sparta Rotterdam 2, FC Groningen 4.
■GREECE
Olympiakos stay on top
Olympiakos kept their one-point lead over Panathinaikos at the top of the Greek Super League on Sunday courtesy of a 3-0 home win over bottom club Panthrakikos. Luciano Galletti set Zico’s team on their way with a 37th-minute opener. Brazilian midfielder Dudu scored either side of halftime to complete a resounding victory that moved the Reds on to 36 points after 14 matches. Panthrakikos have just two points following 12 defeats and two draws. New Panathinaikos coach Nikos Nioplias got his reign off to a winning start at Iraklis on Saturday, with Sotiris Ninis scoring the only goal of the game in the 73rd minute. In Thessaloniki, Hector Cuper, the former Valencia coach, was left labeling Aris’ 1-0 home defeat by Asteras Tripolis “a disgrace.” Nigerian Shaloze Udoji Chigozie scored the only goal in the 12th minute and the defeat left Aris down in eighth spot.
■PORTUGAL
Porto close on leaders
FC Porto beat last-placed Setubal 2-0 on Sunday to close in on the Portuguese league leaders, as Braga blew a chance to move clear at the top with a 0-0 draw against mid-table Naval. League leaders Benfica, who drew 2-2 at Olhanense on Saturday, and Braga both have 30 points. Four-time defending champions Porto have 29 points after Ernesto Farias and Silvestre Varela scored within two minutes of each other in the first half. Also on Sunday, Rio Ave beat Maritimo 1-0 and Academica were 2-0 winners over Leixoes. Sporting fell to a 1-0 loss to Leiria on Saturday.
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
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
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