PORTUGAL
Porto claim the league title
Porto won the league title after Benfica drew 2-2 at Rio Ave on Sunday. Porto hold a six-point lead over Benfica with two games to play, but they successfully defended their title due to a better head-to-head advantage over their closest rivals. Porto, who won 2-0 at Maritimo on Saturday, secured the title for the sixth time in seven seasons. Rio Ave opened the scoring through Christian Atsu, before Manuel Agudo and Oscar Cardozo put Benfica ahead by halftime. Yazalde Gomes’ 50th-minute equalizer earned the hosts a draw. “Mathematically we lost the championship today since we have no more chances, but the only thing that matters is our game,” Benfica coach Jorge Jesus said.
PORTUGAL
Leiria scrape together team
Premier League club Uniao Leiria took to the pitch with only eight players for their match against Feirense on Sunday after 16 squad members submitted collective resignation letters over delays in salary payments. The professional players’ union said on Saturday that the resignations meant the match would not take place, but Leiria managed to scrape together a team. Eight stern-faced Leiria players lined up in formation for the pre-match photograph and they then resisted bravely on the pitch until just before the halftime whistle, when they conceded the first goal. Feirense went on to win the match 4-0. Leiria president Joao Bartolomeu said in a post-match press conference that Malian midfielder Keita, who was expected to take part in the match, stole a suitcase of money from the club just before the match.
SWITZERLAND
Basel acknowledge title win
Basel, having twice refused to accept the Swiss title in the past week, finally recognized themselves as champions on Sunday after a 3-1 win over Lausanne Sport. Both Basel and the Swiss League agreed on their respective Web sites that the team were champions for the third time in a row and the sixth in the past nine seasons. The confusion over whether or not Basel had won the title capped a chaotic season marred by court battles, hooliganism and financial problems, which led to Neuchatel Xamax being kicked out of the league and Servette Geneva filing for bankruptcy. Basel took an unassailable 16-point lead over Luzern the previous weekend, but they would not accept the title because their rivals could theoretically have won two points from a case they had taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. On Saturday, Luzern drew 2-2 with Grasshoppers, meaning they could no longer catch Basel even if they won the case. However, Basel again refused to celebrate on the grounds that Sion could still catch them should they win an appeal against the decision to deduct 36 points for fielding ineligible players. The confusion ended on Sunday when Basel’s win over Lausanne meant they could not be caught, even if Sion won back their 36 points.
SERBIA
Partizan secure 24th title
Partizan Belgrade secured their 24th league title and their fifth in a row with Sunday’s 4-0 win at Borac Cacak, finally giving coach Avram Grant success after the Israeli suffered a series of setbacks in England. The result gave Partizan an unassailable 12-point lead over traditional city rivals Red Star, who they meet at home on Saturday. Midfielder Sasa Markovic sent Partizan on their way with a long-range effort in the first half, before Bulgaria defender Ivan Ivanov and a late brace from Senegalese striker Lamine Diarra sealed matters.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with