GOLF
Tseng makes donation
World No. 1 Yani Tseng of Taiwan celebrated an emphatic win on home soil by handing over US$100,000 — a third of her prize money — to help develop a new generation of Taiwanese golfers. Tseng said she hoped to boost the sport in her homeland, which traditionally prefers baseball and basketball. “It is a long road to develop and groom a golfer. Young golfers need as much support as possible to help them compete with the best from the rest of the world,” the 22-year-old said late on Sunday. “I hope I can set an example so more people will follow suit to help chip in and contribute to this cause in an attempt to bring out more young talents.” Tseng, who has now won seven times on this year’s tour, will donate the money through the Golf Association Republic of China, a program that helps train and develop young golfing talent in Taiwan. “Golf is not as popular as baseball, basketball here, but now [it] seems like we’re growing it a lot and I’m really happy to see this. I wish in the future there will be more people and more people playing,” she told reporters.
TENNIS
Lu defends title in S Korea
Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan successfully defended his title at the Samsung Securities Cup in South Korea on Sunday, defeating compatriot Jimmy Wang 7-5, 6-3 in the final. Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei beat Japan’s Yurika Sema earlier in the day to claim the women’s singles title. Lu and Wang will take home prize money of US$14,400 and US$8,480 respectively, while Hsieh won US$2,940. Lu told the Central News Agency that Taiwanese players’ dominance in the US$100,000 tournament, part of the ATP Challenger Tour, has provided a great boost to the country’s tennis scene. Eyeing next year’s Davis Cup tournament in South Korea, Lu said it would be a great challenge for Taiwan as it will be played in a group format meaning the nation will have to muster its best players if it wants to defeat South Korea, he said.
GOLF
Garcia triumphs at Castello
Former world No. 2 Sergio Garcia ended a near three-year wait for a ninth European Tour success by romping to an 11-shot triumph at the Castello Masters in Spain on Sunday. The 31-year-old’s fellow Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez--Castano carded a 64 to finish a distant second behind Garcia, who compiled an eight-under 63 for a 27-under total of 257. Garcia’s winning aggregate would have been a tour record, but for the fact preferred-lies were used. “Gonzalo was pushing, so I knew I couldn’t have any hiccups, and an 11-shot win is the result of good ball-striking, chipping and putting,” he told reporters. It was a second Castello Masters win on his home Mediterraneo course by tournament promoter Garcia in the last four editions of the event.
TENNIS
Azarenka defeats Niculescu
Victoria Azarenka of Belarus cantered to her third title of the year in Luxembourg on Sunday beating Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-2, 6-2. The top-seeded Azarenka, 22, broke Niculescu in the third game of the first set to go on and take the set in half an hour and then broke the Romanian again in the first game of the second set. Azarenka, who has never lost in four meetings with her opponent, was overjoyed with her form heading into the season-ending Masters in Istanbul this week. “I am playing the best tennis of my career,” said the world No. 3, who was winning her eighth career title. “I will not be the favorite. But I will arrive in good order, confident and in form. So who knows?”
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