■SOCCER
San Jose blunt Spurs
English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur were held to a scoreless draw by the San Jose Earthquakes in the opening match of their pre-season tour of the US on Saturday. Both teams created opportunities, with Robbie Keane having a goal disallowed for offside then missing perhaps the best chance for Spurs, but neither was able to break the deadlock. The north London club were missing most of their World Cup players and they looked rusty as they began their preparation for the start of the Premier League season next month. Their next game is against New York Red Bulls on Thursday, where they are likely to face a familiar foe in former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry, who joined New York last week.
■SOCCER
Zenit maintain unbeaten run
Russian Premier League leaders Zenit St Petersburg kept up their unbeaten record on Saturday with a 2-0 home win over Novosibirsk which preserved their seven-point lead. The 2007 champions now have 33 points from 13 matches, with defending champions Rubin Kazan, who defeated Spartak Moscow 1-0, in second place. Zenit were ahead after 30 minutes when Belgian defender Nicolas Lombaerts headed in from a corner. Midfielder Roman Shirokov added a second goal eight minutes into the second half, firing home from Portuguese teammate Danny’s pass to secure his team’s well-deserved win. Zenit manager Luciano Spalletti was delighted by the performance and result. “We played very well tonight,” the Italian said. “I enjoyed every minute and found no reasons for criticism. I can only praise my players for their performance.” Rubin Kazan clinched a 1-0 win at Spartak Moscow thanks to a third-minute goal by Ecuador’s Christian Noboa, who beat Spartak goalkeeper Soslan Dzhanayev with a shot from outside the box. Dynamo Moscow battled back from a goal down to beat Rostov 3-2. Vladimir Granat grabbed the winning goal with a header nine minutes after the break.
■SOCCER
Birmingham labor to win
Birmingham City endured an uncomfortable afternoon in hot and sticky Hong Kong yesterday, laboring to a 3-2 win in the opening game of their Far East tour. Garry O’Connor fired the winner a minute from time in a disjointed pre-season friendly against a Hong Kong League XI. The Blues took the lead on 21 minutes when Scott Dann headed home from a corner. Four minutes later the Hong Kong side were level in a first-half that they shaded in terms of possession and chances. Sebastian Larsson made a mess of his clearance and Sandro Leonardo fired in. Things got worse for the English Premier League side as they went behind in injury time at the end of the first 45 minutes. The visitors’ defense stood off Christian Annan, allowing him time to curl the ball home. Craig Gardner headed an equalizer in the 74th minute before O’Connor saved Birmingham’s blushes.
■SOCCER
Serena needs foot surgery
Serena Williams needs surgery on her right foot after cutting it on a broken glass at a restaurant. The WTA Tour said the top-ranked women’s player was injured last week and will miss three tournaments leading to the US Open. Williams offers no other details on the tour’s Web site about what happened at the restaurant but says she’s “upset” at having to skip the tournaments in Istanbul, Cincinnati and Montreal. The Rogers Cup in Montreal begins on Aug. 16. The US Open starts on Aug. 30.
■TENNIS
Bolton wins in friendly
Kevin Davies scored and set up another goal to give the Bolton Wanderers a 2-0 win over Charleston Battery in a friendly in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. Bolton went ahead in the 29th minute after a Charleston turnover in midfield. Bolton’s Matt Taylor seized on the loose ball and slid it to new signing Martin Petrov making a strong run left flank. Petrov took the ball to the corner and made a beautiful cross to a wide-open Davies, who easily volleyed it past Charleston keeper Keith Wiggans. Charleston — which plays in the USL Second Division, the third tier of professional soccer in the US — responded with pressure and possession and almost equalized in the 41st. Striker Tom Heinemann shouldered his way past central defender Zat Knight and blasted a shot on net that Bolton keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen stopped. Tamir Cohen scored for Wanderers in the 52nd. Midfielder Ricardo Gardner picked up a loose ball about 40m out and chipped it forward to Davies, who passed for Cohen to chip past Wiggans. Another new signing, Robbie Blake, had a chance to make it 3-0 in the 78th, but his shot was saved.
■INDY 500
Wilson earns pole position
England’s Justin Wilson has earned the pole position at the Honda Indy Toronto. The 31-year-old Wilson emerged from a three-stage qualification process on Saturday to grab his first IndyCar Series pole. Wilson also gave owner Dreyer and Reinbold Racing its first IndyCar pole since Sarah Fisher led the field at Kentucky Speedway in 2002. Wilson saved a set of red-lined tires for the 10-minute, six-car qualifying finale. He posted a series track-record lap of 168.703kph on the 11-turn, 2.834km street circuit. Wilson is the first driver to reach the final six-car session — called the Fast Six — without using a set of the red tires in the first two segments since the alternate-tire program was introduced last season.
■BASKETBALL
Ilgauskas signs with Heat
Lithuanian center Zydrunas Ilgauskas has signed a free-agent contract with the Miami Heat, and will now play for a team other than the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time in his career. Ilgauskas agreed in principle to a deal on Tuesday last week, then had to wait for Miami to complete other pending moves before completing the move on Saturday. The 2.2m center is 12th among all active NBA players with 1,269 blocks, and 21st among current players in rebounds with 5,904. He’s the ninth player to sign with Miami for the coming season, joining his former Cleveland teammate LeBron James.
■RUGBY UNION
Tackle costs de Villiers
South African wing Jean de Villiers has been suspended for two weeks for a dangerous tackle during the Springboks’ 31-17 loss to New Zealand in their Tri-Nations test in Wellington on Saturday. De Villiers had been cited for an alleged lifting tackle on All Blacks winger Rene Ranger in the 27th minute of the match. He appeared in Wellington yesterday before judicial officer Dennis Wheelahan, who found De Villiers guilty after he considered submissions from the player, his representatives and video evidence, governing body SANZAR said in a statement. De Villiers was suspended until Aug. 1 and will miss the Springboks’ next Tri-Nations match against Australia next Saturday in Brisbane, Australia. He is the second Springboks player to be banned in this year’s competition.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later