TENNIS
Querrey aims for third title
Two-time champion Sam Querrey won his opening match in the Farmers Classic, beating Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-2 on Wednesday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center. Querrey, the 2009 and 2010 tournament winner who missed the event last year after undergoing surgery for a right shoulder injury, had nine aces and did not face a break point in the 53-minute match. In the quarter-finals today, the American will face fifth-seeded Xavier Malisse of Belgium or Matthew Ebden of Austria. Earlier, Rajeev Ram beat Chile’s Paul Capdeville 6-3, 6-1 in another second-round match. Ram set up a match against third-seeded Leonardo Mayer of Argentina. Mayer had a 6-0, 4-0 lead when Italy’s Flavio Cipolla retired because of a neck injury. Ram won the singles and doubles titles in Newport, Rhode Island, in 2009, beating Querrey in the singles final, and made the semi-finals there this year.
TENNIS
Rain halts Bet-at-Home play
Simone Bolelli of Italy defeated second-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany 6-2, 7-6 (4) to reach the quarter-finals of the Bet-at-Home Cup on Wednesday. Bolelli will next play Martin Klizan, the fifth-seeded Slovak who defeated countryman Pavol Cervenak 6-4, 6-4. Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic beat Antonio Veic of Croatia 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to set up a quarter-final against either top-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany or Attila Balazs of Hungary. Balasz led Kohlschreiber 3-0 in the opening set when play was suspended for the day because of rain. In another unfinished second-round match, Wayne Odesnik of the US led Jurgen Zopp of Estonia 5-7, 7-5, 3-0.
GOLF
Larrazabal leads in Austria
Spain’s Pablo Larrazabal took an early lead on Wednesday in the Austrian Open, on a first day marred by heavy rain that drenched the course in Atzenbrugg and forced officials to suspend play for several hours. Larrazabal, who had raced to six under par in his first 12 holes, held his form after play resumed to finish with an eight-under-par 64 — matching the course record. However, the 29-year-old’s lead was provisional, as the rain delay of three hours and 40 minutes meant many players were still finishing their rounds late in the afternoon. The tournament also features former tennis world number one Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who turned to golf after retirement and made his European Tour debut in 2008, missing the cut at the Russian Open by 27 shots.
SOCCER
MLS All Stars beat Chelsea
John Terry and Frank Lampard were on target for Chelsea, but the European champions fell to a 3-2 defeat to the MLS All Stars in their latest tour match in Philadelphia on Wednesday. The All Stars took the lead in the 21st minute through US international Chris Wondolowski, who converted a low cross from former Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry. Chelsea drew level in the 32nd minute with a Terry header from a Lampard corner and then the provider turned scorer by putting the Premier League team ahead with a tap-in at the back post in the 58th minute. After a series of substitutions from both teams, the All Stars rallied well with David Beckham having a hand in Chris Pontius’ 73rd minute equalizer. The All Stars then snatched victory in injury time through a deflected shot from Seattle Sounders striker Eddie Johnson.
OLYMPICS
Taiwanese in US team
The US national Olympics team this year includes six Taiwanese-Americans who are hoping to win medals in the fencing and table tennis competitions. The athletes on the US table tennis team are Ariel Hsing, Erica Wu and Timothy Wang, while Alexander Massialas, Doris Willette and Gerek Meinhardt are on the fencing team. Hsing, who won a girls’ title in the US at the age of eight, hopes to be the first to bring back an Olympics table-tennis medal to the US. Erica Wu of southern California, 15, said she travels to Taiwan every year for table tennis practice, which helps her to improve her game. Timothy Wang of Texas, 20, won the men’s singles at the 2010 US National Championships and is competing in the Olympics for the first time. Among the fencers, Massialas, 18, ranks No. 2 in the US in the men’s foil and No. 13 in the world. He is one of the US’ medal hopefuls and his father, Greg Massialas, who is also his coach, competed in Olympic Games three times on the US team. Gerek Meihardt, who took part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, will compete in the men’s foil event in London.
RUGBY UNION
Genia is player of year
Wallabies scrumhalf Will Genia was yesterday named Australia’s Super 15 player of the year for the second season in a row after a stellar year with the Queensland Reds. Genia pipped teammate Scott Higginbotham by a single vote, joining former Wallabies flanker George Smith and ex-Reds fullback Chris Latham in winning back-to-back awards. The Reds also secured the Australian team of the year for topping the Australian conference table. Former World Cup-winning Wallaby Ewen McKenzie was named coach of the year after steering the Reds to the knockout round.
SOCCER
Kagawa stars for Man U
New signing Shinji Kagawa scored his first goal for Manchester United and put in a man-of-the-match performance in their 1-0 friendly win on Wednesday against a Shanghai Shenhua side missing Didier Drogba. The Japanese attacking midfielder, who signed from Borussia Dortmund in a £17 million deal last month, forced the ball home from 10m out in the 68th minute following a Bebe cross. “Kagawa was man of the match and I thought he deserved that,” said Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, adding: “He took his goal well, even though it was a deflection. Kagawa has settled in really well, he’s going to be a really good player for us and I was really impressed with him tonight.”
OLYMPICS
Stars honor Muhammad Ali
Stars of sport and screen gathered in London on Wednesday to honor legendary heavyweight boxer and Olympic champion Muhammad Ali as the countdown to the Games neared its finale. The 70-year-old boxer attended the gala event at the Victoria and Albert Museum in central London which was hosted by Hollywood A-list couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Others guests at the UK-themed Sports For Peace dinner included Live Aid creator Bob Geldof, Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton and actress Rosario Dawson. Ali’s brother, Rahaman, said the former champion was “very happy and proud to be here. He was a part of the 1960 team, and he’s glad to be here. He won in 1960, and he thinks the US team are going to be the champs this year.”
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