TENNIS
Ferrer advances in UNICEF
Top-seeded David Ferrer reached quarter-finals of the UNICEF Open on Wednesday after beating Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-3, 6-1 at the grass-court tournament. The Spaniard beat Mayer in an hour to set up a quarter-final against Igor Sijsling, the only Dutch player left in the Wimbledon warm-up event. On the women’s side, Francesca Schiavone of Italy saved four match points to beat Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (8/6). Schiavone, who beat fifth-seeded Maria Kirilenko in the first round, will play against Kim Clijsters of Belgium in the quarter-finals. Kirsten Flipkens, the Belgian who ousted top-seeded Samantha Stosur in the first round, beat Daria Gavrilova of Russia 7-5, 7-6 (7/4). In other men’s matches, Tatsuma Ito of Japan took less than an hour to beat third-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-2, 6-2, and Frenchman Benoit Paire beat eighth-seeded Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-3, 0-6, 6-4.
TENNIS
Murray suffers fresh blow
World No. 4 Andy Murray suffered a fresh blow to his Wimbledon preparations on Wednesday as the Scot was beaten by Janko Tipsarevic at an exhibition tournament. Just hours after being named as the fourth seed in the men’s draw at Wimbledon, Murray slumped to his second successive defeat on grass, losing 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 10-7 (super tie-break) against Serbia’s Tipsarevic in The Boodles event at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire. The 25-year-old British No. 1, who has reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon for the last three years, crashed out of the All England Club warm-up event at Queen’s last week after losing to Nicolas Mahut in his first match. Murray, still looking to win his first Grand Slam title, is Britain’s only serious contender for the Wimbledon men’s title, which has not been won by a home player since Fred Perry lifted the trophy in 1936.
CRICKET
England to play three Tests
England will play three Tests, three one-dayers and three Twenty20 internationals on their cricket tour to New Zealand starting next February. The Feb. 4 to March 26 tour will include the first Test played at Auckland’s Eden Park since 2006. However, New Zealand Cricket said it had been unable to schedule a match in earthquake-hit Christchurch because of the lack of a suitable venue. The tour will begin with two T20 warmup matches against a New Zealand XI at Whangarei before T20 internationals at Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington on Feb. 9, Feb. 12 and Feb. 15. The one-day internationals will be played at Hamilton, Napier and Auckland and the Test matches at Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland. With Christchurch unable to host a game, Dunedin took over as the South Island’s Test venue. It will be the first time England has played a Test in Dunedin since 1966.
OLYMPICS
Nadal to carry Spanish flag
Rafael Nadal will carry the Spanish flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London on July 27, the country’s national Olympic committee announced on Wednesday. Nadal, the world No. 2 and recently crowned seven-time French Open champion, is the fourth top tennis player to be afforded the honor. World number one Novak Djokovic will carry the Serbian flag, Roger Federer will be responsible for the Swiss while Maria Sharapova will lead out the Russian delegation.
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