TENNIS
Murray ‘forced’ into karaoke
It started out as a joke to pass the time, but now Serena Williams says she’s planning to force Andy Murray to sing karaoke at Wimbledon. During a day of incessant rain in England on Sunday, Murray, who was playing at Queen’s, asked his Twitter followers what the players could do to entertain the fans, suggesting “Karaoke would be great!!?” Serena, who was being kept off the practice court at Eastbourne, revealed she had a portable karaoke machine with her and tried to commandeer Murray to join her in a singing session. “omg I LOVE karaoke!!! Let’s do it on rain delays! What’s your go to song?? I’m in!!!!!! Let’s go! :)” she tweeted. And after winning her opening match at Eastbourne on Tuesday, Williams was still keen, promising: “We’ll do it at Wimbledon. I’ll bring it and I’ll force him to sing.” Murray said his song of choice would be REM’s Losing My Religion. Williams went for Straight Outta Compton by NWA.
OLYMPICS
Libya gets London tickets
Organizers of next year’s London Games have allocated Libya “a few hundred tickets” for the event, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday. The Libyan National Olympic Committee (NOC), headed up by Muammar Qaddafi’s son Muhammad al-Qaddafi, has been given passes, even if the Libyan leader himself cannot attend because of an international travel ban and arrest warrant. “The Libyan NOC, not an individual, has been allocated a few hundred tickets which they are responsible for distributing to sports organizations and athletes within their country,” a London 2012 spokeswoman told the Telegraph.
SOCCER
Maradona sues China firms
Argentine soccer icon Diego Maradona is suing popular Chinese Web portal Sina and an Internet company for using his name and image to promote an online game, state media said yesterday. Maradona is seeking 20 million yuan (US$3 million) in compensation from Sina and The9 Limited, which designed the game Winning Goal, the Global Times quoted an official from the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court as saying. “The case was accepted yesterday [Monday],” said Chen Shi, a spokesman for the court. The9 and Sina launched the game in June last year claiming Maradona was a celebrity spokesman, the report said. However, Maradona said he never gave permission to the Chinese companies to use his image, the Xinhua news agency said earlier this month, citing a statement from the soccer legend. The9 apologized and said they had been tricked by a Chinese soccer agent who told them Maradona had signed an endorsement contract, Xinhua said. “I do not accept the apology from The9 Limited and I will continue to protect my legitimate interests through legal procedures,” Maradona said in the statement.
RUGBY UNION
Fiji, Scottish heads resign
Fiji Rugby Union chief executive Keni Dakuidreketi has become the second head of a national rugby union to step down in 24 hours, following his Scottish counterpart Gordon McKie in quitting just three months out from the rugby World Cup. Dakuidreketi resigned yesterday after spending 10 years as the union’s chairman or chief executive, while McKie had spent six years in charge of the Scottish Rugby Union. “Its been my privilege and honor to have served an organization which affects the very heart of the nation and where each and every individual regardless of creed or color has an opinion,” Dakuidreketi said in a statement on the union’s Web site.
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