■TENNIS
Stepanek takes a break
Radek Stepanek is suffering from a fatigue syndrome and has to rest for about two months. Czech Republic Davis Cup team spokesman Karel Tejkal said on Wednesday it was not clear whether the 31-year-old could recover in time for the World Team Cup in Duesseldorf, Germany, next month, and could miss the French Open which begins on May 23. Stepanek, ranked 18th, could even be in doubt for the Davis Cup quarterfinals in July in Chile.
■SOCCER
Maradona said ‘good night’
Maradona’s personal doctor said on Wednesday the Argentina coach required 10 stitches to his mouth after being bitten by one of his pet dogs when he put his face close to the animal’s face to say good night. “He [Maradona] told me that it’s common he gets close to the dog like this before he goes to bed,” Alfredo Cahe said. “[He] said the dog moved suddenly. He said the dog had never behaved like this in the three years he’s had her.” Maradona was bitten on the upper lip on Tuesday by his pet Shar Pei.
■MOTORSPORT
Andretti, Petty team up
Two of the biggest names in US motorsport — Andretti and Petty — will join forces to enter a car in this year’s Indianapolis 500, the two teams said on Wednesday. Andretti Autosport owner Michael Andretti and NASCAR great Richard Petty will combine behind a car in the May 30 race at the famed Brickyard that will be driven by John Andretti, cousin of team boss Michael. For two races, including a warmup in Kansas, John Andretti will join the Andretti Autosport stable of drivers alongside cousin Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Ryan Hunter-Reay. “Richard is a legend and has millions of fans worldwide and hopefully a few of them are going to become Andretti Autosport fans after the month of May,” Michael Andretti said on a conference call to announce the partnership.
■COMMONWEALTH
Fiji ban upheld
Fiji’s National Olympic Committee said it could not understand the basis of a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision upholding its ban from October’s Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. Fiji appealed the ban to the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, and urged its athletes to stay in training for the games, but the court yesterday rejected its appeal. Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth last September when military ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, refused to bow to demands to hold elections next year.
■RUGBY UNION
All Blacks schedule changes
The All Blacks will now start their quest for a third Grand Slam in five years against England later this year after the Rugby Football Union (RFU) agreed to a date change for their test match. Graham Henry’s side had originally been scheduled to play England at Twickenham as the last of their four tests on Dec. 4, but the RFU have agreed to shift the fixture to the start of the tour on Nov. 6. “We indicated to the RFU that, if possible, we would have preferred to play the match earlier in November to allow our players the chance to get home earlier,” New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew said in a statement yesterday. The All Blacks will also meet Scotland in Edinburgh on Nov. 13, Ireland in Dublin on Nov. 20 and Wales in Cardiff on Nov. 27.
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