TENNIS
Ferrer, Berdych advance
Top-seeded David Ferrer of Spain and No. 2 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic advanced to the Nice Open quarter-finals after winning in straight sets in Nice, France, on Wednesday. Ferrer beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 6-2, while Berdych won his second-round match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-4. Ferrer dominated, winning 96 percent of first serve points, firing six aces and not facing a single break point. He broke Seppi’s serve three times. Ferrer plays fifth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov in the quarter-finals, after the Ukrainian labored to beat Spanish qualifier Pere Riba 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). Berdych was also relatively untroubled, saving the only break point he faced and taking Mannarino’s serve three times. He next plays Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, who beat Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. No. 3 Nicolas Almagro of Spain, a winner of two clay titles already this year, also advanced to the last eight by rallying to a 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 win over Carlos Berlocq of Argentina. Almagro next plays countryman Pablo Andujar, who won 6-3, 6-4 against Frenchman Julien Benneteau. Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Michael Russell of the US 7-5, 6-2, while lucky loser Robin Haase of the Netherlands advanced after ousting No. 7 Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4.
RUGBY
Tuilagi banned from final
Leicester center Manu Tuilagi will miss this month’s Premiership final after receiving a five-week ban for launching a flurry of punches to the head of England international Chris Ashton in Saturday’s semi-final win over the Northampton Saints. Samoan-born Tuilagi, who has represented England’s second-string team the Saxons, pleaded guilty to the charge and had a 10-week ban for the “top end” offense reduced by 50 percent to reflect his youth and inexperience, admission of guilt and genuine remorse, the Rugby Football Union said on its Web site. Leicester beat the Saints 11-3 in a combustible semi-final at the Tigers’ Welford Road ground and face the Saracens in English rugby’s showpiece match at Twickenham on May 28.
SOCCER
Real Madrid draws in benefit
Real Madrid drew 2-2 on Wednesday with a team of players from the Murcia region in a benefit match for victims of last week’s earthquake in southeastern Spain. Some 32,000 people packed Real Murcia’s Nueva Condomina stadium for the match, the club said on its Web site. French striker Karim Benzema and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Real. The Murcia team benefited from an own goal from Pepe as well as one from Meca. Proceeds from the match went to victims of the May 11 earthquake that struck the Murcia town of Lora, killing nine people in the injuring at least 100 and leaving thousands homeless.
GOLF
Woods still has star power
Former world No. 1 Tiger Woods’ golf game may have taken a turn for the worse, but his star power remains almost as bright as ever. The 35-year old American continues to be the biggest sports celebrity in the world, sitting at No. 6 on Forbes magazine’s annual “Celebrity 100” list of the most powerful people in the entertainment business. Woods, who has not won a golf tournament in the past year and a half, is the highest ranked athlete on the Forbes list. There are 19 athletes listed, including NBA basketball player LeBron James (10th), tennis star Roger Federer (25th) and soccer icon David Beckham (tied for No. 35).
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