Stade Rennais rocketed to the top of Ligue 1 for a day at least after a 25m screamer from Razak Boukari set up a 2-0 home win over lowly Lens on Saturday.
Rennes, who have never won the French championship, but are making a surprise title bid under charismatic Corsican coach Frederic Antonetti, moved a point above Lille.
Togo striker Boukari fired into the top corner after a fortunate ricochet on 14 minutes and the club from the northwest of France, ninth last term, never looked back.
They doubled their lead against when Colombian Victor Montano beat the offside trap and showed pace and power to finish midway through the second half.
“It took us 10 minutes to get into the game, but then we played well,” Antonetti said. “It’s necessary to concentrate on our next match [at Montpellier] because everything will be decided on the field.”
Unfashionable Rennes and Lille have threatened to overturn the status quo in French soccer this season, but traditional powerhouses Olympique de Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain are also still in the hunt for the championship in a crowded top half.
In Saturday’s other Ligue 1 games, third-bottom Monaco went 2-0 up thanks to Park Chu-young’s brace, but drew 2-2 at home to Stade Malherbe Caen, while bottom side Arles-Avignon stay 15 points from safety after being held 1-1 by Stade Brestois 29 in Provence.
Under-pressure Girondins de Bordeaux coach Jean Tigana was given a boost after his mid-table side won 3-0 against fourth-bottom Auxerre, third last season, in driving rain.
Bordeaux ultras entered 15 minutes late in protest at the 2009 champions’ poor form, which led assistant coach Michel Pavon to leave in midweek, but Alou Diarra’s goal, a dubious penalty from Anthony Modeste and Jaroslav Plasil’s superb curler settled matters.
Nice eased their relegation fears and further hit faltering Saint-Etienne’s push for the Champions League places with a surprise 2-0 win at Les Verts.
Sochaux and sixth-placed Montpellier drew 0-0 with a red card apiece, while Lorient’s trip to Valenciennes also ended in stalemate.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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