TENNIS
Igor Sijsling advances
Igor Sijsling advanced to the second round of the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, on Tuesday after Andreas Seppi retired with a lower back pain. Sijsling, ranked 74th in the world, was leading 6-0, 4-1 when his Italian opponent called it quits after just 39 minutes on court. In a match pitting together two qualifiers, Michal Przysiezny of Poland defeated local favorite Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4) for only his second Tour win of the season. Przysiezny saved two break points in the third set and faces 2009 champion Gael Monfils in the next round. After losing in the US Open second round, former Wimbledon semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz rallied to beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in just over two hours. The seventh-seeded Janowicz earned the only break of the third set and next faces either Jarkko Nieminen or Sergiy Stakhovsky. Two other Frenchmen bowed out in the first round as Laurent Lokoli lost 6-2, 6-4 against Paolo Lorenzi of Italy and qualifier Kenny De Schepper was defeated by German Tobias Kamke 6-3, 7-6 (7/5).
CYCLING
Movistar re-signs Valverde
Spanish cyclist Alejandro Valverde celebrated his third place finish in the Tour of Spain by signing a new three-year deal with Movistar on Tuesday. “I am very happy. It is what both parties wanted,” he said in a statement released by the team. There had been some doubt over Valverde’s future at Movistar, as his position as the team’s lead rider has been rivaled by Colombian Giro d’Italia winner Nairo Quintana. Prior to Quintana’s retirement from the Vuelta a Espana due to two heavy crashes, team officials had refused to confirm who was their main man. However, Valverde insisted he had no thoughts of breaking his nine-year association with Movistar team manager Eusebio Unzue. “In the end, this is my family and we understand each other. I feel better than when I was 25. The seasons seem shorter every year and I handle things better,” Valverde said.
SOCCER
Al-Hilal win Asian opener
Nassir al-Shamrani scored twice within four minutes and Thiago Neves added another second-half goal as Al-Hilal opened the Asian Champions League semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Al Ain. Al-Shamrani scored in the 61st and 64th minutes to break the deadlock before Al Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa was sent off for a challenge on Nawaf al-Abid. Neves missed the resulting penalty, but quickly recovered to score in the 70th against 10-man Al Ain and put the result beyond doubt. Al Ain, who failed to score in an Asian Champions League match for the first time this year, are to host the return match in the United Arab Emirates.
SOCCER
Hamburg name new coach
Troubled German Bundesliga club Hamburg SV have named Josef Zinnbauer as their new coach, a day after parting company with Mirko Slomka. Zinnbauer, 44, steps up from his role as the coach of the club’s under-23 side, who have won all eight of their regional league games to date this season. “Joe Zinnbauer has been tasked with bringing more emotion out of the team,” Hamburg president Dietmar Beiersdorfer said on Tuesday as he insisted that he did not see the appointment as a mere interim solution. “We have absolute faith in him and he has our full support.” Slomka and his backroom staff were fired on Monday after Hamburg collected just one point from their opening three Bundesliga games.
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