RUGBY
Cooper faces hearing
The Queensland Reds’ playmaker Quade Cooper’s hopes of playing in the Super Rugby playoff against South Africa’s Coastal Sharks on Saturday hinge on a judiciary hearing today. The Wallaby flyhalf was sin-binned by referee Steve Walsh and later cited for a high tackle that forced NSW Waratahs counterpart Berrick Barnes to be replaced in the defending Super 15 champions’ 32-16 win in Brisbane on Saturday. South Africa New Zealand Australia Rugby (SANZAR) yesterday said Cooper would face a hearing today. A SANZAR statement said Cooper was alleged to have tackled Barnes in the 63rd minute of the match, making contact above the shoulders. Cooper was one of Queensland’s outstanding players in the five-tries-to-two win over the Waratahs to claim the Australia conference and the third ranking playoff spot ahead of the ACT Brumbies.
TENNIS
Errani, Strycova in final
French Open runner-up Sara Errani beat Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-4, 6-1 to reach the Italiacom Open final on Saturday and shoot for her fourth title of the year. The top-seeded Errani has dropped just 16 games in four matches. She also won in Palermo in 2008. Her other victories this year were in Budapest, Barcelona and Acapulco. British teenager Laura Robson’s impressive run was ended in a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 defeat by eighth-seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the other semi-final. Robson, a Junior Wimbledon champion four years ago at 14, appeared in her first WTA semis. Zahlavova Strycova, a Czech, won her only WTA title in Quebec City last year.
TENNIS
Cilic contest Croatia final
Marin Cilic of Croatia and Marcel Granollers of Spain were to play in the Croatia Open final yesterday. The second-seeded Cilic defeated defending champion Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 7-5, 6-2, while Granollers upset top-seeded countryman Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 6-7 in the semi-finals on Saturday. Cilic aims to become the first Croat since 1990 to win his home tournament and Granollers seeks his fourth career title. Cilic has a 4-1 record against Granollers, who won their last clash in Valencia last year. Cilic made a slow start as Dolgopolov broke twice and led 5-4. However, Cilic broke back amid a six-game winning streak that gave him a set and 3-0 lead. Last year, Cilic lost to Dolgopolov in the Umag final. Fourth-seeded Granollers broke twice to win the first set against Verdasco. Verdasco reached 5-3 in the second, but Granollers forced a tiebreaker. Verdasco, the 2008 Umag champion, carried momentum into the third set by breaking immediately, but Granollers broke back and never lost a game to the end of the semi-final.
TENNIS
Tipsarevic, Monaco face off
Top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia and No. 2 Juan Monaco of Argentina were to contest the final of the Mercedes Cup. Tipsarevic reached his first final on clay by beating Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the semi-finals on Saturday. Monaco had to work even harder against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. Monaco wasted five match points in squandering a 5-0 lead in the third set before prevailing 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. Monaco was looking for his third title of the year.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set