■NETHERLANDS
Ajax end FC Twente’s run
FC Twente’s 21-game unbeaten run since the start of the Dutch league season finally came to an end on Sunday when they were defeated 3-0 at Ajax. Kenneth Perez wasted two golden chances in the opening 15 minutes for Twente. He took too long to beat advancing Ajax goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg in the 10th minute, allowing Gregory van der Wiel to make a hurried clearance, before heading wide from close in four minutes later. Midfielder Demy de Zeew gave Ajax the lead in the 22nd minute with a low shot from the edge of the area. Marko Pantelic scored from a rebound in the 44th minute, before setting up substitute Dennis Rommedahl for the third in the 75th minute. “They had two good chances, but they didn’t score,” De Zeeuw said. “We are still in the race for the title. PSV still need to come here and they also have to play Twente.” Earlier on Sunday, defending champions AZ Alkmaar beat Feyenoord 2-1 after Hector Moreno headed a late winner. Mounir El Hamdaoui opened the scoring for AZ in the 28th minute, but his strike was canceled out by teammate Pontus Wernbloom, who scored an own-goal 11 minutes later. Moreno headed home three minutes from time, rising to meet a corner taken by Stijn Schaars. Civard Sprockel scored an own-goal and Patrick Paauwe found the net two minutes from time as VVV Venlo beat Vitesse Arnhem 2-0. Also on Sunday, Bas Sibum’s stoppage-time goal gave NEC Nijmegen a 1-0 win over last-placed RKC Waalwijk.
■GREECE
Djibril Cisse fires a brace
French striker Djibril Cisse scored twice in three minutes to guide Greek league leaders Panathinaikos to a 3-0 victory at Larissa on Sunday. The Athens club now have 52 points, six ahead of Olympiakos, who had earlier trounced Levadiakos 5-1. Panathinaikos had already missed one clearcut scoring chance when Cisse broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute, firing home after a cross by Giorgos Karagounis. The Frenchman then added his 17th goal of the season in first-half stoppage-time after a cross by Nikos Spiropoulos. Sotiris Ninis, who replaced Dimitris Salpingidis in the 79th minute, made it 3-0 just three minutes later with a shot from the edge of the area. In a game resumed on Sunday after a downpour forced its suspension on Saturday, last-place Panthrakikos caused a shocked by winning 2-0 at Aris. Already 1-0 up from Saturday through a 42nd-minute goal by Fotis Papoulis, Panthrakikos made sure when French midfielder Bertrand Robert converted a 78th-minute penalty. Also on Sunday it was: Atromitos 1, Panionios 0; Iraklis 1, PAOK 1; and Ergotelis 4, Asteras 3.
■PORTUGAL
Porto win to stay in touch
Porto beat Naval 3-0 on Sunday to stay in touch with leaders Benfica and second-placed Braga. Tomas Costa, Falcao and Silvestre Varela all scored to take Porto to 39 points, seven behind Benfica and three behind Braga. Also on Sunday, it was Olhanense 1, Nacional 0; Maritimo 1, Leiria 0; Rio Ave 2, Leixoes 0; and Pacos Ferreira 2, Guimaraes 1.
■BRAZIL
Robinho scores the winner
Robinho marked his return to Santos with a brilliant back-heeled winner in their 2-1 away win over Sao Paulo in the Paulista championship on Sunday. The Brazil striker, on loan for six months at his first club from Manchester City, came on as a substitute 13 minutes after halftime and with five minutes to go back-heeled Wesley’s pass past goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni.
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