■SPAIN
Sevilla fires embattled coach
Sevilla have fired coach Antonio Alvarez and appointed Gregorio Manzano in his place, the Spanish club said on their Web site. Alvarez had been under pressure since failing to qualify the side for the group stages of the Champions League last month and Sunday’s 2-0 La Liga defeat by promoted Hercules proved the final straw. Manzano, who led cash-strapped Real Mallorca to fifth in the championship last season before quitting, was to take charge of his first training session yesterday evening. He faces a tough first week with a trip to play Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League on Thursday and a La Liga debut at home to former club and direct rivals for a top four finish Atletico Madrid on Sunday.
■ ARGENTINA
Quilmes shock River Plate
An injury-time equalizer gave bottom team Quilmes a shock 1-1 away draw that wrecked River Plate’s plans of keeping on the heels of the leading pair in the Argentine championship in Buenos Aires on Sunday. Playing at home in a packed Monumental, River managed the solitary score after halftime when striker Mariano Pavone volleyed home Ariel Ortega’s corner. They are three points adrift of leaders Velez Sarsfield, who beat lowly Olimpo 3-0 on Friday, and two behind Estudiantes with 14 points. Quilmes, the only team without a win after eight rounds of the Apertura championship, equalized in the second minute of added time when midfielder Miguel Caneo headed home a free kick at the far post. Estudiantes moved within sight of top place with a 1-0 home win over Boca Juniors on Saturday, stopping striker Martin Palermo’s team in their tracks after they had won their previous two matches. Juan Sebastian Veron’s side can go top if they win their game in hand, the postponed La Plata derby against arch-rivals Gimnasia on Wednesday.
■ NETHERLANDS
Feyenoord slump in race
Dutch giants Feyenoord slumped 10 points off the pace in the Dutch title race when they fell to a shock 3-0 defeat by Nijmegen in Paris on Sunday. Midfielder Lasse Schone gave the home side a 19th-minute lead with his third goal of the season with Rick ten Voorde and Bram Nuytick adding late goals. Second and third-placed Groningen and PSV Eindhoven drew 1-1 on Saturday. PSV, who have won the Dutch league 21 times, were ahead thanks to Swedish striker Ola Toivonen finding the target after 62 minutes. Gonzalo Garcia leveled for Groningen two minutes from time. Ajax, who welcome AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday, twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with defending champions Twente and maintain their two-point lead at the top. Theo Janssen scored both Twente goals but Mounir El Hamdaoui and Eyong Enoh made sure of a point for Martin Jol’s team.
■ PORTUGAL
Sporting draw with Nacional
Danielson Ferreira scored a late equalizer to give Sporting a 1-1 draw with Nacional in the Portuguese league in Lisbon on Sunday. Ferreira found the net in the 80th minute. Carlos Saleiro had scored for Nacional in the 64th. Carlos Alexandre de Souza Silva’s 90th-minute penalty gave Leiria a 1-0 win over Rio Ave, and Angelo Pena’s 53rd-minute goal led Portimonense to a 1-0 victory against Beira Mar. On Saturday, FC Porto made it six wins out of six when it beat Olhanense 2-0 to lead the standings with 18 points, seven clear of Academica, Braga and Guimaraes. In Friday’s game, Braga beat Naval 3-1. On Monday, it’s Setubal versus Pacos Ferreira.
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
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
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