FOOTBALL
Hernandez in court
Former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was due in court yesterday to be arraigned on murder charges for allegedly ambushing and gunning down two men in 2012 after a chance encounter inside a Boston nightclub. Hernandez was scheduled to appear in the Suffolk Superior Court in the shooting deaths of Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. A third man was wounded. Prosecutors have said that after Hernandez and an associate encountered the two men in a club, Hernandez followed them in an SUV, pulled up alongside them as their vehicle stopped at a red light and opened fire. Hernandez, 24, already faces charges in the murder last year of semi-pro player Odin Lloyd. He was released by the Patriots last summer after his arrest in Lloyd’s shooting death. Lloyd’s body was found in an industrial area near Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough. Lloyd was dating a sister of Hernandez’s fiancee. Hernandez’s lawyers have said the former pro player is looking forward to proving his innocence.
RUGBY UNION
Wales’ Williams banned
Leicester flyhalf Owen Williams is to miss Wales’ tour of South Africa next month after being given a six-week ban which sidelines him until Sept. 1. Williams, 22, would have been hoping to earn his first senior cap in the Test series with the Springboks, but the Rugby Football Union has handed him a lengthy suspension after he pleaded guilty to acts contrary to good sportsmanship. The former Scarlets halfback admitted he “made contact with the eye[s] or eye area of Luther Burrell” in Leicester’s Premiership semi-final clash against Northampton. A statement from the RFU said: “Williams was given a six-week ban from today [Tuesday] until the 1st September 2014. He is free to play again on 2nd of September.” Wales are scheduled to play two Tests against the Springboks, on June 14 in Durban and June 21 in Nelspruit.
CRICKET
Younis Khan eyes comeback
Pakistan batsman Younis Khan said on Tuesday he hopes to revive his one-day career in time for next year’s World Cup. The 36-year-old has been out of the one-day side since March last year following a run of wretched form, with the last of his six hundreds coming against the West Indies in 2008. However, Khan, who is one of Pakistan’s modern Test batting greats, insisted he wanted to end his limited-overs career on his own terms. “My desire is to walk away on my own conditions, playing in every form of the game I am available to play, rather than being dropped,” he said at a team camp ahead of the team’s tour of Sri Lanka in August. “I surely would like to grab the opportunity to play the World Cup,” he added. Next year’s edition is to be held in Australia and New Zealand, and Pakistan are due to get plenty of practice against the hosts in a series from October to December.
CRICKET
Palestine, Philippines face off
Palestine are to clash with the Philippines for a place in next year’s Asian Cup in Australia after both nations advanced to the final of the AFC Challenge Cup in the Maldives on Tuesday. Palestine upset Afghanistan 2-0 and the Philippines ousted hosts the Maldives 3-2 in extra-time in the semi-finals played at the National Stadium in the capital, Male. The final tomorrow at the same venue is to lift the champions into the continent’s showpiece event Down Under.
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