TENNIS
Wang books Wimbledon spot
Taiwan’s Jimmy Wang made the main draw for next week’s Wimbledon Championships by defeating world No. 172 Malek Jaziri in qualifying at the Bank of England Sports Centre in Roehampton on Wednesday. Wang beat the Tunisian 7-5, 7-5, 6-2 to secure his fifth appearance in the men’s singles tournament on the grass courts at the All England Club. The 28-year-old’s best performances came in 2006 and 2007 when he reached the second round.
SOCCER
Anzhi must find new venue
Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala were asked by UEFA on Wednesday to find an alternative stadium for their Europa League home fixtures due to concerns over security in Dagestan and the North Caucasus. The European soccer governing body’s Emergency Panel decided that due to the “security situation” in the area that “no UEFA competition match is allowed to be played in this region during the 2013/14 season.” Anzhi, who achieved their best finish with third place in last season’s championship, have consequently been given until June 30 to propose another venue for their home matches. Also factored into the panel’s decision were “warnings issued by various governments,” with the ruling to remain in place for subsequent seasons until further notice.
SOCCER
Larsson and son triumph
The name “Larsson” was once again on a scoresheet in a Swedish match as former international striker Henrik Larsson made a comeback, but this time it was his 15-year-old son Jordan who netted the goal. “We didn’t combine a whole lot, but obviously I’m proud,” Henrik Larsson told newspaper Expressen after seeing his son score in Hogaborg’s 4-2 win over Tenhult in Sweden’s Division Two (fourth tier). “It is of course a rare luxury to get to play with your son,” added Henrik, who won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2006 and the European Golden Shoe award in 2001, and was part of the Sweden side who came third at the 1994 World Cup. Jordan has already been linked to several major European clubs, as well as Helsingborg, the Allsvenskan club where his father made his name after leaving Hogaborg. “It was great fun — maybe next time I can make an assist for him,” Jordan told Expressen.
TENNIS
Serena sorry for comments
Serena Williams has apologized for comments she made in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine in which she appeared to assign blame to the 16-year-old victim in a Steubenville, Ohio, rape case for being drunk. “What happened in Steubenville was a real shock for me. I was deeply saddened,” the women’s world No. 1 said in a statement on her Web site. “For someone to be raped, and at only 16, is such a horrible tragedy! For both families involved — that of the rape victim and of the accused. I am currently reaching out to the girl’s family to let her know that I am deeply sorry for what was written in the Rolling Stone article. What was written — what I supposedly said — is insensitive and hurtful. I by no means would say or insinuate that she was at all to blame. I have fought all of my career for women’s equality, women’s equal rights, respect in their fields — anything I could do to support women I have done. My prayers and support always goes out to the rape victim. In this case, most especially, to an innocent 16-year-old child.” The victim accused two Ohio high-school football players of raping her while she was drunk at a party.
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