BASKETBALL
Jordan’s home for sale
Basketball fans with a penchant for luxury can truly “Be Like Mike” now that NBA icon Michael Jordan’s sprawling suburban Chicago home has hit the market — for a cool US$29 million. The secluded compound in tony Highland Park greets fans with a shimmering 23 — Jordan’s Bulls jersey number — stretched across an imposing gate. “Among the most extraordinary features of the sprawling estate is the attached indoor basketball complex,” realtor Baird and Warner said in a press release on Wednesday. “It features a full size regulation basketball court with specially cushioned hardwood flooring, adjustable backstops and baskets, and competition-quality high intensity lighting.” It also features a custom sound system with speakers tuned to provide “perfect acoustics” within the court space and has a separate entry and nearby parking area.
TENNIS
Australia face South Korea
Former Davis Cup power Australia will continue their bid to climb back into the World Group against South Korea on the hard court of Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena from April 6-8, Tennis Australia said yesterday. Australia, led by aging two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt and teenage wunderkind Bernard Tomic, whitewashed China 5-0 in their regional tie in Geelong last month. Victory over South Korea in the Asia/Oceania Group One tie would put 28-times champions Australia into a playoff to get back into the World Group. A fixture in the Davis Cup elite until the middle of last decade, Australia lost their fourth successive World Group playoff last year when hosting Roger Federer and Switzerland in Sydney.
BASKETBALL
Irving eyes Olympics
Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving would make a decision shortly about whether he would opt to play for Australia at the London Olympics. Irving, who was born in Australia while his father was playing in Melbourne and holds dual US and Australian citizenship, has justified his choice as No. 1 overall pick in last year’s NBA Draft with a sparkling rookie season. Australia selectors have made no secret of their interest in the 19-year-old, who is averaging 18.3 points and 5.1 assists per game after leaving Duke University for the NBA, and Irving has expressed interest in playing in the London Games. Irving would face a technical hurdle to joining the Australians since he represented the US at the under-18 level last year and would have to appeal to the International Basketball Federation to switch his eligibility.
ATHLETICS
Blake to race in New York
Jamaica’s 100m world champion Yohan Blake will race at the Grand Prix Diamond League athletics meet in New York on June 9, organizers said on Wednesday. Blake, 22, won the 100m world title at Daegu, South Korea, last year as compatriot and world record-holder Usain Bolt was disqualified for a false start. Now Blake will be looking to challenge Bolt and the rest of the world’s top sprinters at this year’s London Olympics. He launched his Olympic season by helping his club team to 4x100m and 4x400m victories at the Gibson Relays in Jamaica on Feb. 25. “The Gibson Relays were a great start for my 2012 season,” Blake said. “I am already looking forward to that fast track in New York City on June 9th.” The New York meeting, at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island, is the sixth stop on the 2012 Diamond League circuit.
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