■ST JUDE CLASSIC
Garrigus takes two-shot lead
US journeyman Robert Garrigus upstaged his more illustrious rivals to take a two-shot lead in the third round on Saturday. Two strokes off the pace overnight in the final PGA Tour event before the US Open, Garrigus fired a sparkling four-under-par 66 on a sizzling hot day at the TPC Southwind. He bogeyed the par-four last after pushing his tee shot into the right rough and missing the green with his approach, but retained overall control with an 11-under total of 199. Garrigus, who has limited playing status on the PGA Tour this season and is seeking his first victory on the US circuit, covered the back nine in four-under 31 after an eagle on the par-five 16th. Swede Robert Karlsson chipped in for birdie from just off the 18th green for a 68 to lie second. Britain’s Lee Westwood, co-leader overnight, battled to a 71 and was a further stroke back at eight under with Heath Slocum (66) of the US. “I didn’t know what anybody was doing behind me,” Garrigus told reporters. “I was just concentrating on my game, which I should probably do tomorrow.”
■CURTIS CUP
US win all six matches
A day after a shaky start, the US swept all six matches at the Curtis Cup on Saturday to take an 8 1/2-3 1/2 lead over Great Britain and Ireland. Alexis Thompson, yet to lose a match, teamed with Jessica Korda to beat Danielle McVeigh and Leona Maguire 3 and 1 in the afternoon foursomes. The 15-year-old Thompson, expected to turn pro soon, consistently outdrove her opponents by 30 yards or more. The visitors led all three afternoon matches early on the second day of the biennial competition at Essex County Club. Americans Jennifer Song and Kimberly Kono birdied the 13th, 16th and 17th holes on the back nine to come from behind and beat Hannah Barwood and Holly Clyburn 3 and 1. Tiffany Lua and Jennifer Johnson won the 14th, 15th and 16th holes and beat Sally Watson and Rachel Jennings 3 and 2. The Curtis Cup pits teams of eight female amateur golfers from the US against a team from Great Britain and Ireland.
■PORTUGAL OPEN
Bjorn forges ahead
Dane Thomas Bjorn holed seven birdies on route to a third round seven-under-par 65 which put him three strokes clear on Saturday. The 39-year-old, who has not won a tournament for four years, was being chased by the Australian Richard Green as they went into yesterday’s final round. Green’s 64 was the round of the day, leaving him two strokes clear of Irishman Damien McGrane in third. In spite of the absence of many of the top European players who are on the other side of the Atlantic preparing for next week’s US Open at Pebble Beach, it marks a timely return to form for Bjorn, a Ryder Cup winner in 1997 and 2002. He missed six consecutive cuts before last week’s Wales Open, where he tied for ninth.
■STATE FARM CLASSIC
Storms halt third round play
The third round of the LPGA State Farm Classic was suspended because of thunderstorms on Saturday and was to resume yesterday, organizers said. After a four-hour break, play was called for the day with 46 players still to complete their rounds. Second-round leader MJ Hur of South Korea and American Cristie Kerr were atop the leaderboard at 13-under when play was halted. Hur had completed three holes and Kerr had played four. South Korean Amy Yang and Sweden’s Anna Nordqvist were a shot back. More rain was forecast for yesterday.
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
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed