TENNIS
Serena out of China Open
Reigning Wimbledon and US Open champion Serena Williams has withdrawn from the China Open because of flu, while her sister Venus has also pulled out, citing a back injury, organizers said yesterday. Serena, who confirmed her place among the tennis greats this year by raising her Grand Slam haul to 15 and winning gold at the London Olympics, pulled out late on Thursday, just two days before the start of the first round. It is a big blow to the organizers of the Beijing event as the world No. 4 — who has already qualified for the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, next month — is one of the tour’s most bankable stars. “We would have loved for Venus and Serena to play the China Open this year, but unfortunately, players get injured and sick and are unable to compete,” said Charles Hsiung, a director of the tournament. “We hope that they both recover quickly and look forward to them returning to the National Tennis Stadium in 2013,” he added.
FOOTBALL
Andersen up for Hall of Fame
Morten Andersen, who became the NFL’s all-time leading scorer during a 25-year career, was among 13 first-year eligible players nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday. Offensive linemen Larry Allen and Jonathan Ogden, defensive linemen Warren Sapp and Michael Strahan and defensive back John Lynch also were among those nominated for the Class of 2013. The complete list of candidates consists of 127 nominees and is comprised of 89 players, 14 coaches and 24 contributors, the Canton, Ohio-based Hall of Fame said in a statement. The list will be trimmed to 25 in November and to 15 in January.
BASEBALL
Astros name Porter manager
Bo Porter, a third-base coach for the Major League Baseball playoff-bound Washington Nationals, has been named as the next manager of the Houston Astros. Porter will remain with the Nationals as long as they remain in the Major League Baseball playoffs before taking over the Astros, who fired Brad Mills last month and replaced him with interim manager Tony DeFrancesco. The Astros, who went a team record-worst 56-106 last year, are flirting with breaking that mark with a 51-105 record with six games remaining in the season. “Bo’s experience and management style will help lead our young players in creating a sense of urgency to restart the Astros’ winning tradition,” Astros owner Jim Crane said. Porter will lead the Astros into new territory next season when the club switches from the National to the American League to balance the number of teams in each league at 15. The Astros have played in the National League since being established in 1962.
BASEBALL
Indians fire manager
The Cleveland Indians have fired manager Manny Acta and named Sandy Alomar to finish the season, the Major League Baseball team said on Thursday. Acta had a 214-266 record in three seasons as manager of Cleveland, who are 65-91 this year and tied for last place in the American League’s Central Division. “Managerial changes are never easy or taken lightly, but as we approached the end of the season and turned our attention to assessing the year, we determined a change was necessary,” Indians general manager Chris Antonetti said in a statement. Alomar, 46, has been a member of the Indians’ coaching staff since 2010. The six-time All-Star catcher, who played 11 seasons with Cleveland during a 20-year career, will be a candidate for the full-time position, the team 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
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