RUSSIA
Zenit go top of the table
Champions Zenit St Petersburg jumped to the top of the Russian Premier League table on Sunday with a 3-0 thrashing of visiting Samara. Zenit have 13 points from six matches to put them one point ahead of second-placed Kuban Krasnodar, with CSKA Moscow third on 11 points with a game in hand. Zenit took an early lead after 11 minutes when striker Alexander Kerzhakov fired home a well-struck free-kick following a foul on Alexandedr Bukharov. The hosts continued to dominate at the Petrovsky Stadium, but missed all their chances before Serbian forward Danko Lazovic found the net after 81 minutes. Second-half substitute Lazovic claimed his second four minutes later. Kuban Krasnodar had taken the provisional lead on Saturday with a tight 1-0 win at Volga Nizhny Novgorod thanks to a 72nd-minute goal from midfielder Vladislav Kulik. CSKA Moscow were overtaken after a 1-1 draw against Tomsk.
NETHERLANDS
PSV’s title hopes dented
PSV Eindhoven’s title hopes suffered a huge blow with a 3-1 defeat at Feyenoord on Sunday, the Rotterdam side exacting revenge for their 10-0 humiliation by PSV in October. PSV, who led the standings heading into the weekend, have slipped to third on 65 points with two matches remaining. Reigning champions Twente Enschede are top on 68 points, one ahead of Ajax, who thrashed Excelsior Rotterdam 4-1 on Sunday. Feyenoord set about atoning for their heaviest ever defeat when Georginio Wijnaldum notched the opener after 27 minutes. PSV were reduced to 10 men early in the second half following a straight red card for Orlando Engelaar, but Ola Toivonen then equalized for the away side on the hour with a crisp drive. Their joy lasted a mere three minutes as Diego Biseswar set up Wijnaldum to restore Feyenoord’s lead with his 13th goal of the season and Luc Castaignos settled the clash from close-range after 79 minutes.
SCOTLAND
McGregor saves Rangers
Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor saved a late penalty from Celtic striker Georgios Samaras on Sunday to ensure that the Old Firm derby in Glasgow ended 0-0. Rangers stayed top of the Scottish Premier League with 81 points from 34 games, but Celtic are a point behind from 33 games and need only win their remaining five matches to win the league. Samaras had the best chance of the match, but saw his penalty pushed around the post by McGregor in the 82nd minute. Scottish police said this week that parcel bombs had been sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon and two high-profile supporters. Acrimony between Celtic, which has a predominantly Catholic fan base, and Rangers, whose supporters are mainly Protestant, is long-running and deep-seated.
BRAZIL
Flamengo down Fluminense
Flamengo, without injured captain Ronaldinho, beat archrivals Fluminense 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in a thrilling Carioca championship semi-final on Sunday. Goalkeeper Felipe saved two spot-kicks in the shootout to put Flamengo within one victory of the Rio de Janeiro state title. As winners of the first stage of the Carioca, if Flamengo beat Vasco da Gama in next weekend’s second-stage final there will be no need for a grand final. Vasco beat Olaria 1-0 on Saturday. Disappointed Brazilian champions Fluminense came back down to earth with a bump having qualified for the knockout phase of the Copa Libertadores in midweek with a thrilling 4-2 victory over Argentinos Juniors.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier