ENGLAND
Cole quits internationals
Chelsea leftback Ashley Cole announced on Sunday he was retiring from international soccer after being told he had been left out of England manager Roy Hodgson’s squad for the World Cup. “I got the call from Roy and agree England team should be about the young players,” the 33-year-old Cole told his Twitter followers. “We have a great manager and team, and I wish them only success. I will be supporting them like a true fan. Thanks to everyone for everything,” the 107-time capped Cole added ahead of Hodgson’s official squad announcement yesterday. Cole’s words indicated his failure to hold down a regular first-team spot at Chelsea this season, where he has been displaced by Spain’s Cesar Azpilicueta, had cost him his England career. His omission means that Everton’s Leighton Baines is set to be confirmed as England’s first-choice leftback, with Southampton teenager Luke Shaw providing cover for the 29-year-old.
ENGLAND
Rams grab playoff final spot
Derby County swept into the Championship playoff final as their 4-1 win over Brighton and Hove Albion in their semi-final second leg sealed a 6-2 aggregate victory on Sunday. Steve McClaren’s team had taken a significant step on the road to Wembley with their 2-1 win in the first leg at the Amex Stadium on Thursday last week and the Rams, bidding to return to the Premier League after a six-year absence, finished the job in ruthless fashion in front of their supporters at the iPro Stadium. Will Hughes opened the scoring in the first half, before strikes from Chris Martin, George Thorne and Jeff Hendrick after the interval capped an eye-catching display from hosts. In the final on May 24, Derby face either Queens Park Rangers or Wigan Athletic, who were due to play the second leg of their semi-final at Loftus Road in London yesterday after a goalless first leg. Kazenga LuaLua got one back for Brighton in the final moments, but they were left with a familiar feeling of frustration after losing in the semi-finals for the second consecutive year.
GERMANY
SC Paderborn 07 promoted
Modest SC Paderborn 07 were promoted to the top tier of the German Bundesliga for the first time on Sunday, as SpVgg Greuther Fuerth were forced to settle for a playoff place. Paderborn, from North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany, won 2-1 at home to VfR Aalen on the final day of the season to clinch second place behind champions Cologne, an excellent second half to the campaign seeing them finish two points clear of Fuerth. Fuerth beat SV 1916 Sandhausen 2-0, but now face a two-legged playoff against Hamburg SV. The first leg of their tie will be played on Thursday in Hamburg, with the return leg on Sunday.
RUSSIA
Anzhi drop to second tier
Anzhi Makhachkala were relegated from the Russian Premier League on Sunday, continuing the fall from grace of the one-time big-spenders who previously boasted the likes of Roberto Carlos and Samuel Eto’o among their ranks. Anzhi’s 1-0 loss to Krasnodar saw the team from the volatile Dagestan region lose their top-flight status after a miserable season in which they picked up just three wins from 29 matches. “We needed to win today, but we could not. We had a lot of chances. We now have the task of trying to get back into the Premier League next season,” Anzhi coach Gadzhi Gadzhiev said. A year ago Anzhi were on the verge of a third-placed finish in the league and dreaming of European competition.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with