SOCCER
Socceroos edge Hong Kong
Favorites Australia edged the hosts 1-0 in East Asian Cup qualifying at the Mong Kok Stadium in Hong Kong on Monday. Brett Emerton scored the winner in the 85th minute for the Socceroos, who opened their campaign with a nervy win. North Korea had no such problems earlier in their tie against Guam as they ran out 5-0 winners to make it two wins out of two. Ri Myong-jun scored a brace, while An Il-bom, Pak Nam-chol and Jong Il-gwan got the others. In the next round of matches today, Taiwan take on Guam in the 5:50pm kickoff at Hong Kong Stadium, while North Korea face Australia at 8:30pm in a match likely to decide who qualifies to face South Korea, Japan and China in next year’s finals in South Korea.
TENNIS
Nadal has five-year plan
Rafael Nadal is aiming to be back to his best after injury in time for the claycourt season and the run-up to Roland Garros, the Spaniard said on Monday. The 26-year-old former world No. 1 has slipped down to fourth in the ATP rankings and has not played since his shock second-round exit at Wimbledon in June. The Spaniard was diagnosed with a partial tear of the patella tendon and inflammation of the left knee, only returning to hitting balls on a practice court two weeks ago. “My recovery is going well and the doctors are pleased,” Nadal told Spanish radio. “I have to look at my career with a five-year view. I considered having surgery, but the doctors have always preferred not to take risks with my treatment.” The 11-time Grand Slam singles champion was pragmatic about his return to competition. “I would like to return in January,” he said. “I don’t expect to return and win the Australian Open, I have to be realistic,” he said.
FOOTBALL
Vick loses starting role
Quarterback Michael Vick has lost his starting role for the Philadelphia Eagles, the struggling National Football League team said on Monday. Vick is currently out injured, but head coach Andy Reid said he would serve as the backup if and when he returns from a concussion this season. The Eagles (3-9) have lost their last eight games and Nick Foles, who has taken over at quarterback since Vick went down with a concussion three weeks ago, will keep the job for the season’s final four games. “He was very positive about it, completely understood and was on board,” Reid said about Vick’s reaction to the news. “Where we’re at right now in the season, I think it gives [Foles] an opportunity to play and finish it up.”
SOCCER
Ruppert to join Hall of Fame
Jacob Ruppert, who bought Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox and turned around the fortunes of the New York Yankees, was among three people chosen on Monday for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Joining Ruppert on the list of inductees from the hall Pre-Integration Era Committee are umpire Hank O’Day and 19th Century infielder/catcher Deacon White. They each received the 12 or more votes needed from the 16-member committee, and will be inducted into the Cooperstown, New York, shrine in July next year. The election results were announced at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. Ruppert, a brewer who also served in the US House of Representatives, bought the Yankees in 1915 and transformed them from a struggling franchise into one that would go on to win a record 27 World Series championships. In addition to buying Ruth, Ruppert built the original Yankee Stadium.
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