BOXING
Taylor on life support
Australian world middleweight champion Shannan Taylor was on life support in hospital yesterday after suffering from a drug overdose, reports said. Doctors were monitoring Taylor, but there were serious concerns for his health, the Daily Telegraph said. The Illawarra Mercury newspaper said Taylor was admitted to a Wollongong hospital, south of Sydney, in the early hours yesterday. A hospital official confirmed that Taylor, 39, was in critical condition. Taylor defeated Thailand’s Sintung Kietbusaba in his Wollongong home town last month to win the vacant World Boxing Foundation middleweight title. He has a 52-10 record with 37 knockouts. Taylor’s biggest fight was against Shane Mosley for the WBC welterweight title in 2001 in Las Vegas, with the American winning the bout. He is one of the longest-serving professional fighters in Australia, having started his career in the paid ranks back in July 1992.
BASKETBALL
Syracuse fires coach
Syracuse University fired assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, the target of an investigation into allegations he molested a former ball boy and at least one other boy, the university said on Sunday. Fine, who has called the accusations against him “patently false in every aspect,” was in his 35th season with Syracuse and the longest-serving coach at one school in major college basketball. He was accused of inappropriate behavior with the former ball boy, identified as Bobby Davis, now 39, and his stepbrother Mike Lang, now 45, when they were juveniles. Fine’s longtime boss, Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim, who has coached Syracuse for 34 years, had previously issued a statement supporting Fine, but said on Sunday the university had taken appropriate action in firing him.
BASKETBALL
NBA season may run late
If the NBA and its players ratify a new contract in time to play on Christmas Day, a shortened season would run through April 26 and require each team to play at least one stretch of games on three consecutive nights. The NBA posted an outline of a possible schedule “assuming the season tips off on Christmas” on its Web site on Sunday. The plan is a 66-game regular season, ending 10 days later than usual. The last possible end date for the NBA finals would be June 26, a fortnight later than the title series ended last June. Teams would play 48 games within their conference and 18 non-conference games. No team would play on three straight nights more than three times, but all teams would do so at least once.
SOCCER
Players buy Italian debt
Pummeled by the markets and facing close scrutiny by European partners, debt-ridden Italy has been offered a helping hand by an unusual group of millionaires — its professional soccer players. Not known for their business acumen or altruism, Italy’s highly paid calciatori have joined a patriotic, grassroots campaign to buy up Italian government bonds as foreign investors reduce their exposure on fears of an Italian default. “We want to be an example,” said Damiano Tommasi, a former Italy player and now director of the Italian soccer players’ association, which has sent a letter to members urging them to buy bonds. Tommasi said he had a positive reaction to his letter and hoped to see soccer players lining up to buy bonds starting yesterday, when Italian banks were to begin waiving their usual fees.
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