ATHLETICS
Friedrich names stalker
Top German high-jumper Ariane Friedrich has posted the details of an alleged cyberstalker on her Facebook page, claiming that she wanted to name and shame the individual for sending her explicit pictures of himself. “I’ve been offended in the past, sexually harassed, and I’ve had a stalker before,” she wrote, after posting the name and e-mail address of a man who allegedly sent her a photo of his genitals. “It’s time to act, it’s time to defend myself and that’s what I’m doing.” Friedrich, who works as a police officer, has filed a complaint and her manager has refused to comment after a wave of media inquiries. The 28-year-old from Frankfurt, who is the German high-jump record holder, won bronze at the 2009 world championships and gold at the European indoor championships in 2009.
CRICKET
Bangalore down Royals
Tillakaratne Dilshan and A.B. de Villiers put on an unbroken 122-run stand off 50 balls on Monday as the Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated the Rajasthan Royals by 46 runs in the Indian Premier League. Dilshan scored 76 off 58 balls and De Villiers smashed five sixes for 59 from 23 balls to help steer Bangalore to 189-3. Left-arm spinner Prabhu Appanna polished off Rajashtan’s top order by taking 4-19 to restrict the home team’s chase to 143-7. Rajasthan had kept Bangalore in check at 67-3 in the 12th over, before Dilshan and De Villiers cut loose, with seamer Siddharth Trivedi conceding 44 runs off his four overs. Rajasthan and Bangalore have eight points.
TENNIS
Defending champion exits
Alexandra Cadantu of Romania defeated defending champion Alberta Brianti of Italy 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 on Monday in the first round of the Grand Prix SAR in Fez, Morocco. Brianti, who captured her first WTA title last year, was broken 11 times and won only 48 percent of points on first serve. Top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain beat Nina Bratchikova of Russia 6-2, 6-4. The 2009 champion has won 10 of her 11 career titles on clay. Sixth seed Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa also advanced, beating Australia’s Anastasia Rodionova 6-4, 6-4. Also winning were Mandy Minella of Luxembourg and Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania. Patricia Mayr-Achleitner of Austria downed fourth seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 6-4, 6-2.
TENNIS
Milos Raonic defeats Falla
Milos Raonic took advantage of local support to record his first clay-court victory of the year, beating Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) in the first round of the Barcelona Open in Spain on Monday. The Canadian, whose training base is at Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, served seven aces in a closely contested match to win for the first time in a month. Santiago Giraldo of Colombia beat the only seeded player to lose, winning 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 against No. 18 Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan. Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Robin Haase of the Netherlands also won.
TENNIS
Starace dumps out Chardy
Potito Starace of Italy defeated ninth seed Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 6-0 in the opening round of the Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest, Romania, on Monday. Seventh seed Lukasz Kubot of Poland saved nine of 10 break points in a 6-2, 6-3 win against Gabriel Moraru of Romania, while Matthias Bachinger of Germany served nine aces in rallying to beat Filippo Volandri of Italy 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.
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