■ SOCCER
Palermo pile on Juve misery
Bogey side Palermo embarrassed Juventus 3-1 away on Thursday to leave the Turin club at a new low ebb. The visitors, without a Serie A win this term prior to the game, were quickly ahead when skilful Argentine playmaker Javier Pastore pounced after Marco Storari could only parry Mauricio Pinilla’s shot on two minutes. Pastore pulled the strings all game and when Storari pushed away his fierce effort in the second half, Josip Ilicic was on hand to score the second. Cesare Bovo’s 85th-minute free-kick then gave Juve fans a familiar sinking feeling. Vincenzo Iaquinta headed in a late consolation for the hosts. Palermo have now won at Turin’s Stadio Olimpico on their last three visits and also beat Juve at home last term. Juve, in the bottom half on four points from four games like Palermo, spent big in the close season, but fans fear Italy’s most successful domestic team have bought good rather than great players who could struggle to reverse the club’s decline since a 2006 match-fixing demotion.
■ SOCCER
Cleo becomes Serbian
The Serbian government has granted citizenship to Brazilian-born Partizan Belgrade striker Cleverson Gabriel Cordova Cleo. The move is apparently designed to enable Cleo to play for Serbia in their qualifying campaign for the 2012 European Championship. Serbia’s next match is against Estonia on Oct. 8. Four days later Serbia play in Italy. It was not immediately clear when Cleo could join up with the team. The 25-year-old joined Partizan last year after playing for rivals Red Star Belgrade for a year.
■ TENNIS
French Open may stay put
The French Open could stay at Roland Garros instead of moving to the Paris suburbs after plans to extend the Grand Slam venue took a step forward, the French Tennis Federation (FFT) president said on Thursday. “There has been significant progress for the project ‘Roland Garros within Roland Garros’ although nothing is final,” Jean Gachassin told reporters. The FFT was granted a concession to use several courts next to the Roland Garros Stadium, which may be enough for the tournament to remain in its current location. “Ten days ago, we were granted a concession to the Jean Bouin Stadium [which] is huge because it means 17 courts some 100m from Roland Garros,” Gachassin said. Despite the progress, a move has still not been ruled out, with Gachassin adding: “We are still considering Marne La Vallee, Gonesse and Versailles.” A decision will be made during an FFT general meeting in February, with the new Roland Garros set to be made available by 2015 or 2016. “Obviously, there is a soul at Roland Garros. We have to take this into account,” Gachassin said.
■ BOXING
Khan to hit Vegas
Britain’s Amir Khan will defend his World Boxing Association light welterweight world title on Dec. 11 in Las Vegas, taking on Argentina’s Marcos Maidana, Golden Boy Promotions confirmed on Thursday. Khan, who fashioned a stunning US debut when he stopped Paulie Malignaggi in the 11th round of a lopsided bout in New York in May, will fight in Vegas for the first time. He agreed earlier this month to what could prove a tough encounter with Maidana, who has won four straight fights since dropping a split decision to Andreas Kotelnik last year. Khan, who won Olympic silver in Athens, beat Kotelnik last year to claim the light welterweight crown.
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
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with