ICE HOCKEY
US, Canada make quarters
The US, Canada, Russia and Switzerland clinched spots in the quarter-finals at the ice hockey world championships in Helsinki on Sunday. The US beat Germany 3-0 due to the goaltending of 19-year-old John Gibson, while Jeff Skinner scored the game-winner in the third period in Canada’s 2-1 win over the Czech Republic. Bobby Butler and Paul Stastny scored within the first five minutes for the US, and Stephen Gionta put the game away midway through the third period. Gibson finished with 30 saves. Skinner went around the net for a wraparound goal against the Czechs. Wayne Simmonds gave Canada the lead in the first period, before Petr Koukal tied it six minutes later. Reigning champions Russia came back after two losses to beat Slovakia 3-1, and unbeaten Switzerland defeated Norway by the same score to win their sixth game.
TENNIS
Dimitrov beats Baghdatis
Coming off his upset of top-ranked Novak Djokovic in Madrid, Grigor Dimitrov opened his Italian Open campaign with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cypriot veteran Marcos Baghdatis in Rome on Sunday. At 21, Dimitrov is the youngest player in the Foro Italico draw. The Bulgarian is ranked No. 28. Dimitrov will next face ninth-seeded Richard Gasquet, who beat Sam Querrey of the US 6-2, 7-6 (10/8). John Isner, the only other American in the draw, was eliminated by Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
RUGBY SEVENS
NZ beat Australia in final
New Zealand set the seal on their Sevens World Series victory by winning the ninth and final round in London on Sunday. Six weeks before the Rugby World Cup Sevens, the New Zealanders beat Australia 47-12 in the Twickenham Cup final to finish the series with 173 points, 41 ahead of second-placed South Africa on 132. Fiji finish third in the Series on 121, ahead of Samoa (104) and Kenya (99), who reached a fifth Cup semi-final of the season in London.
CYCLING
Westra leads in California
Lieuwe Westra of the Netherlands easily outsprinted Spaniard Francisco Mancebo to claim the sweltering and hilly stage 1 of the Tour of California and assume the overall race lead on Sunday. Westra, an eight-year pro who claimed his 12th career win, completed the 165km Escondido road race in 4 hours, 31 minutes and 33 seconds. Mancebo finished second a few bikes lengths behind on the opening day of the eighth annual race that featured more than 3,660m of desert climbing. Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who won five stages of the race last year, finished third, trailing by 6 seconds. Westra received a 10-second bonus and leads Mancebo by 4 seconds in the eight-day race.
SOCCER
Eindhoven finish second
PSV Eindhoven will play in the UEFA Champions League qualifying round next season after finishing second in the Dutch league, following a 3-1 loss at Twente in the last round. Feyenoord are level on points with PSV after their 1-0 win over NAC Breda on Sunday, but Eindhoven have a better goal-difference. Vitesse Arnhem finished fourth after a 1-0 loss at VVV-Venlo. Feyenoord and Vitesse will play in the Europa League, along with AZ, who won the Dutch Cup. PSV midfielder Mark van Bommel retired after the match. The 36-year-old Van Bommel played for Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AC Milan, and captained the Netherlands team that lost the 2010 World Cup final. Ajax have already clinched the Dutch title and a berth in the Champions League.
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