BASKETBALL
McGrady lands in China
Seven-time NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady has arrived in China to a raucous welcome from huge crowds ahead of his debut later this month in the country’s increasingly popular basketball league. The 33-year-old, who has signed a one-year deal for Qingdao DoubleStar Eagles, flew into his new home town on the eastern coast yesterday and was greeted by about 2,000 screaming fans, the China Daily reported. “For myself, I just want to go out and make my team better. I hope whatever we do, we can look back and say we gave it our all,” the state-run paper quoted him as saying. The 2.03m forward is the latest NBA player to choose China for a lucrative stint in their sunset years. Former NBA superstar Stephon Marbury led the Beijing Ducks to a first Chinese championship last season. Former All-Star Gilbert Arenas is also reportedly on the verge of signing a deal to play for the Guangdong Southern Tigers. McGrady is popular and well known to Chinese fans after his years playing alongside the now-retired Yao Ming — one of China’s most popular athletes — with the Houston Rockets.
OLYMPICS
Nationality bothers golfers
North Ireland’s Graeme McDowell says the International Olympic Committee (IOC) should step in to resolve the growing debate over whether he and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy should represent Britain or Ireland at the 2016 Olympics. McIlroy in particular has found himself drawn into the controversy as to which nation he should compete for in Rio de Janeiro. There have also been suggestions the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) would offer McIlroy the chance to carry the Ireland flag into the opening ceremony in four years’ time if he competes for the republic. However, OCI president Pat Hickey earlier this week said he was misquoted with this offer to McIlroy. McDowell says he and McIlroy “have one foot on each team” and added that the IOC should step in and say “you guys are either playing for Ireland or you’re playing for Great Britain.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with