GOLF
Mickelson wins at Phoenix
Phil Mickelson fired a four-under-par 67 on Sunday to complete a wire-to-wire victory in the US$6.2 million US PGA Phoenix Open, capturing his 41st career title by four strokes. It was the first time a player led every round alone on the way to a tour title since Rory McIlroy’s breakthrough major triumph at the 2011 US Open. “I played really good golf,” Mickelson said. “This is how I’ve been playing for a while and it feels really good to get that golf out of me when I’m at a big tournament.” Together with a dominant victory a week ago by Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines, Mickelson’s triumph showed that two of the game’s most popular stars are in top early-season form with the year’s first major tournament looming in April at the Masters. The 42-year-old left-hander, a three-time Masters champion, won for the first time since last year’s Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
GOLF
Gallacher takes EU Tour
Briton Stephen Gallacher ended his nine-year wait for a second European Tour title in stunning fashion with a three-shot victory at the Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday. Gallacher holed his approach to the par-four 16th in the final round for his fifth eagle of the week to shake off the persistent challenge of South African Richard Sterne. “I’m obviously delighted,” Gallacher said after carding one-under-par 71 in the final round. “It’s taken a long time, but it’s sweeter now,” added the Scot, whose only previous European Tour title in 404 starts came in 2004 at St Andrews. Chilean Felipe Aguilar and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen tied for third place and England’s Lee Westwood was joint fourth with Australian Marcus Fraser after hitting his second shot into the water on the par-five final hole.
TENNIS
Second WTA title for Barthel
Germany’s Mona Barthel clinched her second WTA title by beating top seed Sara Errani 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) in a hard-fought final at the Paris Open on Sunday. The 22-year-old Barthel, ranked 45, battled for one hour and 56 minutes before sealing the victory with her 53rd winner of the day on her fourth match point. World No. 7 Errani, bidding for her seventh singles title, suffered a second disappointment in Paris after losing to Maria Sharapova in last year’s French Open final. Barthel seemed to be cruising to victory when she broke her opponent’s serve to lead 2-0 in the second set. She held on to lead 5-2, but the resilient Errani fought back by taking advantage of the German’s nervousness, only to surrender in the decisive tiebreak. “It was a bit complicated to wrap it up, but it was my first final in as big an event. I was feeling the tension,” Barthel, who won her first title in Hobart last season, told reporters.
CYCLING
BMC team win Qatar stage
US racer Brent Bookwalter of the BMC team won Sunday’s opening stage of the Tour of Qatar, seeing off Swiss rivals Martin Elmiger (IAM) and Gregory Rast (RadioShack) in a sprint finish in tricky, windy conditions. The 28-year-old from Albuquerque, New Mexico, edged home for his first professional win after a 145km ride from Katara to Dukhan Beach which saw the riders dogged by Shamal, a strong northerly wind which provided an additional challenge. British star Mark Cavendish was sixth after the wind threw him off his rhythm in the early stages, while favored French FDJ sprinter Nacer Bouhanni saw his chances take a knock following two punctures that left him 15 minutes adrift.
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