■GOLF
Chi Chi Rodriguez robbed
Chi Chi Rodriguez was robbed inside his home on Wednesday by three assailants who stole cash and jewelry worth US$500,000, police said. Masked men woke Rodriguez and his wife at around 1:45am and tied them up inside their apartment at the Legado Golf Resort the Puerto Rican town of Guayama, said Maria Morales, the golfer’s publicist. She said the couple was not injured. “They are a little shaken, up but they are fine,” Morales said. The 74-year-old golfer, known for his showmanship and victory dances, is the winner of eight PGA tournaments and has 22 senior tour victories.
■TENNIS
US wins doubles Cup
Bob and Mike Bryan gave the US a 2-1 win over Spain on Wednesday by winning the decisive doubles at the World Team Cup. It was the Americans’ second straight group stage victory, and they will play the Czech Republic for a spot in tomorrow’s final.
■SOCCER
Del Neri to coach Juventus
Luigi Del Neri was confirmed as the new coach of Juventus on Wednesday, days after leading Sampdoria to Champions League qualification. Juventus officials agreed to hire Del Neri at a board meeting, and he signed a two-year contract. Del Neri was to be officially presented as the new coach yesterday. Del Neri helped Sampdoria to wins over Inter, AC Milan, AS Roma and Juventus and held off the challenge of Palermo to finish fourth in the Serie A. He replaces Alberto Zaccheroni, who was appointed caretaker coach after Ciro Ferrara was fired earlier in the season.
■BASEBALL
Bradley Harman banned
Bradley Harman, who was on Australia’s roster at the 2007 and 2009 World Baseball Classics and briefly played with the Philadelphia Phillies, has been banned for 14 months by the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) over the whereabouts rule. ASADA said yesterday that Harman violated anti-doping rules for failing to inform drug-testing officials of his location three times in an 18-month period. Second baseman Harman can resume competing on May 26, 2011.
■SOCCER
Advocaat to coach Russia
It was almost inevitable for Dutchman Dick Advocaat to become Russia’s national team coach, given the way that his career has long been intertwined with that of compatriot Guus Hiddink. This week, the 62-year-old Advocaat replaced Hiddink, signing a four-year contract with the Russian FA (RFU). Hiddink, 63, led the Russians to the Euro 2008 semi-finals, but opted out of renewing his contract after failing to guide the team to this year’s World Cup finals.
■CRICKET
Pakistan officials summoned
The leaking of video showing Pakistan team management raising suspicions about match fixing has resulted in Pakistan Cricket Board officials, coaches and players being summoned to appear in front of a parliamentary committee. The match fixing suspicions and parliamentary probe are the latest fallout from Pakistan’s woeful tour of Australia early this year when Pakistan lost three Test matches, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 international. The committee has summoned PCB chief Ijaz Butt, chief operating officer Wasim Bari (also head of the inquiry committee), Younis Khan, manager Yawar Saeed and the then chief selector Iqbal Qasim for a May 25 meeting.
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