CRICKET
Pomersbach case dropped
An Indian court has dropped a criminal case against Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach of the Royal Challengers Bangalore after the woman who accused him of molesting her said they had agreed to an out-of-court settlement. The Delhi High Court on Friday said charges against Indian Premier League (IPL) player Pomersbach, 27, of molesting the US woman and later beating up her fiance in a posh hotel room in New Delhi had been dropped. The cricketer’s arrest last week made headline news in Indian and Australian newspapers, adding to a recent string of bad press for the cricketing league.
TENNIS
Schiavone beats Stephens
Francesca Schiavone beat Sloane Stephens of the US 7-5, 6-1 on Friday to reach the Strasbourg International final, where she will play Alize Cornet of France. The second-seeded Italian dropped her own serve three times, but broke Stephens’ serve six times. Schiavone, the 2010 French Open champion, bids for her fifth career title against Cornet, who rallied to beat fellow French player Pauline Parmentier 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in a long, error-strewn match that featured 16 double faults and 13 serve breaks.
TENNIS
Radwanska beats Kanepi
Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 7-6 (8) 6-3 in Brussels on Friday and will play Simona Halep of Romania in the Belgian Open final. The third-ranked Radwanska was trailing Kanepi 5-1 in the first set, but saved two set points and fought back to earn the win. Halep reached her first final in a premier tournament when she beat Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-4, 6-3.
SHOOTING
Martynov’s win streak ends
Sergei Martynov’s winning streak in the 50m rifle prone ended in the shooting World Cup in Munich, Germany, on Friday when he overtook everyone except Wang Weiyi of China in the final. Martynov, of Belarus, came from starting seventh in the eight-man final to second with a final-high 105.1 points. However, his total of 702.1 was almost two short of Wang, who started the final with a one-point advantage and scored 105 to tally 704 for his second career victory. Martynov had won four straight World Cup shoots and five of the last six dating to more than a year ago. Marco De Nicolo of Italy won a second successive bronze after Milan last week, edging Han Jin-seop of South Korea by two-tenths of a point. Also, Teruyoshi Akiyama of Japan won his first World Cup in the 25m rapid fire pistol, tying the world-record final score of 34 set by silver medalist Christian Reitz of Germany just last week.
BASKETBALL
Miami Heat’s coach fined
The NBA fined Miami coach Erik Spoelstra US$25,000 on Friday for critical public comments on the officiating of the Heat’s Eastern Conference second-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers. Spoelstra made the remarks following the shoot-around prior to Thursday’s Game 6 of the series, which the Heat won 105-93 to win the best-of-seven series four games to two. After a physical Game 5 saw Heat reserves Udonis Haslem and Dexter Pittman suspended for flagrant fouls against Pacers players, Spoelstra had commented on Thursday morning on hits being taken by Miami stars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. “The league does not have a problem with hard fouls on our two main guys,” Spoelstra said.
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