TENNIS
Krajicek accepts proposal
Michaella Krajicek’s joy at winning on home grass was easily surpassed when her boyfriend stepped on court and dropped down on one knee straight after her Topshelf Open first-round victory on Monday. The Dutchwoman, half sister to 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, hit 11 aces to beat Jana Cepelova 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in the Wimbledon warm-up tournament, but her heart was soon beating even faster. German doubles specialist Martin Emmrich stepped onto the court and got down on one knee. “It was a huge surprise,” Krajicek told the WTA Web site. “We met here one year ago and I think it’s such a very special place to do it. I just knew I was for sure going to say yes. That was all I knew in that moment.”
CYCLING
Tour to get royal sendoff
Prince William, his wife, Kate, and his brother, Prince Harry, are to attend the start of the Tour de France in Leeds, England, next month, Kensington Palace announced on Monday. The young royals will be at the Grand Depart in Yorkshire to see the 22 teams set off on the first leg of the 3,664km race. The opening stage will see riders race from Leeds, through the Yorkshire Dales national park, to the spa town of Harrogate. “The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry will attend the Tour de France Grand Depart in Yorkshire on July 5,” a Kensington Palace spokesman said. The trio showed their interest in cycling when they watched Britain’s gold medal-winning team in action at the Velodrome during the London 2012 Olympics. The Tour de France often crosses into neighboring countries, but it will be the first time it has visited Britain since 2007. On the second day of the race, the cyclists will ride from York to Sheffield, while on the third they will go from Cambridge to London, before the tour heads to France.
HORSE RACING
First Frankel progeny sold
The first progeny of the horse widely recognized to have been the world’s greatest racehorse, Frankel, has been sold at auction along with his mother, Crystal Gaze, on Monday. The colt foal was snapped up by Ireland’s Coolmore Operation, who recently won the Epsom Derby with Australia, at a special auction held by Irish thoroughbred auctioneers Goffs at Kensington Palace in London. M.V. Magnier, son of Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier, began the bidding for both the foal and Crystal Gaze, who is in foal again to Frankel, for a combined sum of £1.15 million (US$1.9 million).
SOCCER
Barcelona sign Ivan Rakitic
Barcelona have struck a deal to sign Croatia midfielder Ivan Rakitic from Sevilla on a five-year contract, the clubs said on Monday. The 26-year-old, currently on World Cup duty with Croatia in Brazil, “arrives at the Camp Nou after impressing for three seasons with Sevilla. He has done nothing but improve” there, Barcelona said in a statement. Sevilla captain Rakitic scored 32 goals in his three and a half years with the club and led them to victory in the Europa League last month. The two clubs “reached an agreement for the transfer” of Rakitic, who “will sign a contract with FC Barcelona for the next five seasons,” the Catalan club said. Barcelona also agreed to send striker Denis Suarez to Sevilla for the next two seasons, it added. Barcelona have also signed a new first-choice goalkeeper, Germany international Marc-Andrfe ter Stegen from Bundesliga club Borussia Moenchengladbach in a deal reportedly worth 12 million euros (US$16 million).
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