RUGBY UNION
Ioane in doubt for first Test
Australia winger Digby Ioane is in doubt for the first Test against the British and Irish Lions next month after having a minor knee operation yesterday. Ioane had arthroscopic surgery to work on cartilage in his left knee after returning early from the Queensland Reds’ two-match Super Rugby tour to South Africa. The Reds said Ioane will miss two Super Rugby games, and the Wallabies reported on Twitter that the blockbusting winger was “touch and go” to be fit for the June 22 first Test in Brisbane. Ioane was included in Australia’s preliminary 25-man squad to go into camp on June 2 for the three-Test Lions series. Six more players will be added to the squad.
TENNIS
Hsieh advances, Bartoli out
Top-seeded Marion Bartoli and No. 2 Tamira Paszek were beaten on Tuesday in the first round of the Strasbourg International, while fourth-seeded Taiwanese Hsieh Su-wei rallied to beat Annika Beck 6-7 (6/8), 7-5, 6-1. Bartoli, the 2007 Wimbledon finalist, lost 6-3, 6-2 to the 88th-ranked Camila Giorgi after dropping serve six times. Paszek was beaten 6-1, 6-4 by wild-card entry Virgine Razzano. Lauren Davis upset sixth-seeded Christina McHale 7-5, 6-3, while Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor downed No. 8 Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/4). Third-seeded Alize Cornet converted all four breakpoints to win 6-3, 6-2 against Mathilde Johansson and No. 5 Monica Niculescu of Romania rallied past Marina Erakovic 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 7-5 (7/5). No. 7 Chanelle Scheepers topped Claire Feuerstein 7-5, 6-4. Flavia Pannetta, Misaki Doi, Anna Tatishvili, Eugenie Bouchard, Johanna Larsson, Lucie Hradecka, Magda Linette and Shelby Rogers also advanced.
GOLF
Teenager to skip US Open
Guan Tianlang has decided not to try to play in the US Open. The US Golf Association (USGA) said on Tuesday that the 14-year-old from China has withdrawn from sectional qualifying in Dallas on June 3. Guan informed the USGA shortly after he received a sponsor’s exemption to play in the Memorial, which ends on June 2. The USGA offered to move Guan’s qualifier from Texas to Ohio to help with travel, but the teen declined. Guan was exempt from the first stage of US Open qualifying by winning the Asia-Pacific Amateur. That also got him into the Masters, where he became the youngest player in history to make the cut in a 72-hole major. Guan made the cut in New Orleans, and then missed the cut last week in the Byron Nelson Championship.
BASKETBALL
Threatening 911 call probed
Authorities in San Antonio are investigating a 911 emergency call threatening Spurs point guard Tony Parker during an NBA playoff game on Sunday, local media reported. Local television station KSAT reported on its Web site that Parker’s life was threatened, although a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office declined to specify the nature of the threat in speaking with the San Antonio Express newspaper. The caller telephoned 911 with about five minutes left in Sunday’s Western Conference championship game against Memphis and threatened the French player. San Antonio police received the call and passed the information to the sheriff’s office, which handles security at the Spurs’ arena. Security was increased and Parker was escorted home by officers, although sherrif’s office spokesman Paul Berry told the Express that authorities determined “there was no danger.”
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