SOCCER
Juventus win Super Cup
Serie A champions Juventus scored twice in extra-time to clinch the Italian Super Cup against a Napoli side who had two players sent off at Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” stadium on Saturday. The team from Turin had to come from behind on two occasions and a bad-tempered period of the game saw Napoli reduced to nine men moments before the regulation 90 minutes finished at 2-2. Juventus seized the win in extra-time, with Napoli fullback Christian Maggio scoring an own-goal and Montenegrin striker Mirko Vucinic putting the game beyond doubt. Juventus had come into the game the day after the unsettling news that coach Antonio Conte has been banned for 10 months following an inquiry into match-fixing. However, it was a sweet victory for the club’s No. 2 Massimo Carrera — who is taking charge during Conte’s absence — particularly as Juventus’ last competitive defeat was at the hands of Napoli in the Coppa Italia.
CRICKET
KP wants full comeback
Kevin Pietersen wants to commit to England in all three forms of cricket, ending speculation he would quit Tests after the final match with South Africa starting on Thursday. The 32-year-old had retired from one-day cricket in May, but said in a video released on YouTube on Saturday that he would like to be considered again for 50-over and Twenty20 international cricket. “Yes I’m wanting to play all three forms of cricket for England again,” he said. “The one-day internationals against South Africa in a couple of weeks and the T20 World Cup hopefully if they select me in the final squad.” It remains to be seen if the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will pick him for the upcoming one-dayers, especially September’s Twenty 20 World Cup in Sri Lanka, after he was left out of the provisional squad.
GOLF
S Koreans dominate in Ohio
South Koreans Jiyai Shin, I.K. Kim, So Yeon-ryu and Hee Kyung-seo dominated the leaderboard, sharing the top spot with an 11-under 202 on Saturday through the third round of the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic. Two more South Koreans, Inbee Park and Chella Choi, are a shot back with Japan’s Mika Miyazato. Shin and Kim shot five-under 66 for the low rounds of the day, while Ryu had a 67 and Seo a 68. South Koreans have dominated the LPGA Tour in recent years, but have seldom taken over a tournament like the one at Highland Meadows. In addition to filling the top four spots and six of the top seven, South Korean players had seven of the top 11 positions and 11 of the top 25 through 54 holes. Taiwan’s Candie Kung was tied 43rd on one-under after a 73, while Lin Tzu-chi carded a disappointing 77 to sit 73rd on five-over.
CYCLING
Tuft takes Eneco sixth stage
Svein Tuft of Canada, riding for Orica-GreenEdge, won the sixth stage of the Eneco Tour on Saturday to take the leader’s white jersey from Belgian home favorite Tom Boonen of OmegaPharma. Tuft came home in 20 minutes, 25.70 seconds in the 17.4km time-trial around Ardooie in Belgium to see off US youngster Taylor Phinney of BMC-Racing by 5 seconds and Rabobank’s Dutchman Lars Boom by 6 seconds. The win allowed him to establish a 4-second lead going into the final stage, a 214.5km ride from Maldegem to Grammont. Former Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, returning from his doping ban, came in seventh on the day at 22 seconds as he looks to set out his stall for the upcoming Vuelta a Espana.
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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier