SWIMMING
Thorpe reveals he is gay
Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe revealed he is gay in an interview set to be broadcast yesterday, according to media reports, after years of denying rumors about his sexuality. The five-time Olympic gold medallist made the revelation in an interview with British presenter Michael Parkinson due to be aired last night by Australia’s Channel Ten, reports said. Australia’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper said the 31-year-old also describes his years of depression in the emotional interview recorded last month. His decision to come out as gay attracted a flurry of supportive comments on social media.
TENNIS
Rogers, Petkovic reach final
The 147th-ranked Shelby Rogers upset Sara Errani of Italy 7-6 (14/12), 6-3 at the Gastein Ladies tournament on Saturday to reach her first career WTA final. The American, who won three qualifying matches to reach the main draw and had not beaten a top-50 player before the event, was to face the fourth-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany in yesterday’s final. Petkovic, who beat Grace Min of the US 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the first semi-final that was interrupted by rain for 1.5 hours, won the first of her three career titles there in 2009.
TENNIS
Halep to meet Vinci for title
Simona Halep overcame fellow Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 to reach the final of the inaugural Bucharest Open against Roberta Vinci of Italy on Saturday. The top-seeded Halep dropped four straight games to lose the second set, and staved off a break point in the first game of the third to eventually make her fourth final of the year. Halep’s rise, to a current world No. 3 ranking, helped get the tournament off the ground, and the French Open finalist could yet cap the organizers’ dreams in yesterday’s final. She has a 3-2 record against the second-seeded Vinci. Vinci, coming off a Wimbledon doubles triumph, was slowed only by a shower in the second set in beating Kristina Kucova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-3 in their semi-final. Vinci will be playing for her 10th singles title.
TENNIS
Bautista Agut, Rosol in final
Roberto Bautista Agut and Lukas Rosol reached the final of the Mercedes Cup with victories over the top two seeds in the semi-finals on Saturday. Bautista Agut of Spain defeated defending champion and top seed Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-3, 6-4, then Czech player Rosol beat the second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 7-6 (3), 6-2. No. 3 seed Bautista Agut won almost three-quarters of his service points and saved five break points for victory in 1 hour, 14 minutes. The Spaniard was leading 4-1 in the first set when play was suspended for 40 minutes due to rain. Fognini, who defeated Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in last year’s final, had been bidding to reach his fourth final of the season. Rosol struck 10 aces to Youzhny’s five, and converted four of his nine break points to win in just under 1.5 hours. Youzhny won the tournament in 2002.
TENNIS
Cuevas, Sousa in final
Pablo Cuevas advanced to the Swedish Open final by defeating Fernando Verdasco of Spain 7-6 (6), 6-3, on Saturday. The 28-year-old Uruguayan, who has fought a serious knee injury for the past three years, trailed 5-1 in the tie-breaker before rallying to take the first set at the Bastad Tennis Stadium. Cuevas will play his first ATP final on Sunday against the fifth-seeded Joao Sousa. The Portuguese beat defending champion Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the other semi-final.
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