SPAIN
SD Eibar win promotion
Minnows SD Eibar won promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history on Sunday, although they are still far from certain that they will be able to take their place next season. Founded in 1940, the Basque Country side beat Deportivo Alaves 1-0 at home on Sunday night and, with two games of the season remaining, are now guaranteed to finish in the top two automatic promotion berths. However, the club from the small town situated midway between San Sebastian and Bilbao, who have the smallest average gates in the second tier, do not currently meet the complicated financial rules governing teams in the top two divisions. Eibar need to raise about 1.7 million euros (US$2.3 million) if they are to be allowed to come up against the likes of Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid next season. Meanwhile, second-placed RC Deportivo de La Coruna missed the chance to seal an immediate return to the top flight after losing 2-1 at CD Numancia.
SERBIA
Red Star wrap up 26th title
Red Star Belgrade won their first league title since 2006-2007 and 26th overall after a 4-2 home win over OFK Beograd on Sunday left them three points clear of outgoing champions Partizan with one game left. Red Star, who have 71 points from 29 games ahead of Partizan on 68, will finish top no matter what happens in the final round of matches because of a better head-to-head record against their bitter city foes. OFK stunned a capacity 55,000 crowd when a Savo Pavicevic own-goal gave them an early lead, before Red Star turned the tide thanks to striker Darko Lazovic and Slovenian midfielder Nejc Pecnik. The visitors drew level shortly before halftime, but the league’s top scorer Dragan Mrdja and playmaker Milos Ninkovic sent the jubilant home fans into raptures.
HUNGARY
Ujpest celebrate Cup win
Ujpest won their ninth Hungarian Cup by beating Diosgyori VTK on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the final at Ferenc Puskas Stadium on Sunday. The Lilacs led through Andras Gosztonyi’s own-goal after six minutes, but Diosgyori equalized when striker Patrik Bacsa tapped home in the 90th minute to force extra-time. Diosgyori, twice Cup winners, had defender Tamas Kadar sent off after his second yellow card in the 95th minute, but hung on for a shootout in which Senad Husic and Willam Alves missed the target.
SINGAPORE
Malaysia clash postponed
The Football Association of Singapore has postponed a highly anticipated match against archrivals Malaysia over concerns that its state-of-the-art new sports complex is not ready to host the fixture. Officials said there was no new date yet for the game, which was planned for Aug. 8 as the inaugural match at the 55,000-seat National Stadium.
ASIAN CUP
Japan win maiden title
Azusa Iwashimizu’s 27th-minute goal gave Japan a 1-0 win over defending champions Australia in the final of the Women’s Asian Cup on Sunday. Japan won their maiden title after four previous final appearances, becoming the first country to hold both the Asian and World Cup titles at the same time. Earlier, in the match for third place, striker Li Yang struck in the dying minutes to help eight-time champions China beat South Korea 2-1. All four semi-finalists as well as fifth-placed Thailand qualified for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
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