TENNIS
Lu blitzes Belgian
Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan routed Belgium’s Romain Bogaerts 6-1, 6-1 on Sunday in the first round of the Winston-Salem Open. The tournament — the final men’s tuneup event before the US Open — began on Sunday with a handful of first-round matches. Mardy Fish beat Evgeny Donskoy 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Fish — a wild-card entrant — advanced to face Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the second round. Alex Bogomolov Jr of Russia beat Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-4, while Robin Haase of the Netherlands edged Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3, 6-3. Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez topped Grega Zemlja of Slovenia 6-1, 4-6, 6-1.
CYCLING
Stybar wins stage and race
Czech rider Zdenez Stybar won the seventh and final stage of the Eneco Tour of the Low Countries on Sunday to claim overall victory. The Omega-Pharma rider beat Britain’s Team Sky rider Ian Stannard by four seconds following a sprint finish after countering the Team Sky rider’s attack 7km from the end of the 208km stage from Tienen to Geraatdsbergen. Last year’s winner Dutchman Lars Boom finished third at 12 seconds with overnight leader Tom Dumoulin coming home in eighth, 25 seconds down. Stybar had started the day 9 seconds off the lead and coupled with time bonuses gained for winning the stage, he finished the tour 26 seconds ahead of Dutchman Dumoulin in second with Ukrainian Andriy Grivko third overall at 50 seconds.
SOCCER
Saints splash out for striker
Southampton broke their club record transfer fee on Sunday when they paid Roma £15 million (17.6 million euros) for striker Pablo Osvaldo. The four-year deal for the 27-year-old Argentina-born Italian international betters the £12.5million Southampton paid for Celtic midfielder Victor Wanyama last month. Osvaldo will now be reunited with Saints boss Mauricio Pochettino under whom he played during an 18-month spell with Spanish side RCD Espanyol. Osvaldo should be available for Saturday’s Premier League game against Sunderland at St Mary’s.
FOOTBALL
Keller out for season
Miami Dolphins tight end Dustin Keller has been ruled out for the season with multiple knee ligament damage suffered in the pre-season loss to the Houston Texans, ESPN reported on Sunday. Keller suffered the injury when he was tackled in the second quarter of Saturday’s game and ESPN reported that he had suffered three torn ligaments and a dislocated knee cap. The 28-year-old joined the Dolphins in the off-season after spending four years with AFC East rivals the New York Jets.
SAILING
Luna Rossa even series
Emirates Team New Zealand fell out of the second race of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals series because of a mechanical problem on Sunday, handing Italy’s Luna Rossa a victory that evened the finals at one each. After a nosedive sent two men tumbling overboard during their opening win, Emirates sailed smoothly at the start of the second day. The Kiwis pushed ahead by about 400m before the electronic system that controls the hydraulics malfunctioned near the end of the third leg of the five-leg race on foggy San Francisco Bay. For the second straight day, officials called off the second race due to strong wind. Two makeup races were due to be held yesterday if conditions permitted. The winner of the best-of-13 series will face Oracle Team USA in the 34th America’s Cup starting on Sept. 7.
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Roger Federer on Wednesday said that staying involved with tennis in retirement helped him avoid feeling “like an alien” ahead of this week’s Laver Cup in Berlin. Federer, who helped create the tournament, retired at the Laver Cup in London two years ago and has since stayed involved with the competition as an ambassador. “I’m happy I went back right away to some tournaments,” the 43-year-old told reporters. “I feel I ripped the Band-Aid off quite quickly and when I walk around the tennis sites I still feel I belong there,” he said. “I don’t feel like an alien, which is a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two