Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, who was abused on social media for tweeting his support for Scottish independence last week, was disappointed over the matter, but did not “regret giving an opinion” he told the BBC yesterday.
The 27-year-old Scot tweeted his support for the “Yes” campaign a few hours before the polls opened on Thursday last week, but told the BBC he thought the UK was now going to be stronger after Scottish voters rejected independence.
Speaking to the BBC in China, he said: “It was a very emotional day for Scottish people, and the whole country and the whole of the UK — it was a big day.”
“The way it was worded, the way I sent it, is not really in my character. I don’t normally do stuff like that,” he said. “So, yeah, I was a bit disappointed by that. It’s time to move on. I can’t go back on that and I’ll concentrate on my tennis for the next few months.”
Murray was then subjected to online abuse, with one hate message referring to the Dunblane massacre in 1996. He was a pupil at the Dunblane school where Thomas Hamilton murdered 16 children and their teacher.
MALAYSIAN OPEN
AP, KUALA LUMPUR
Rajeev Ram of the US moved into the second round of the Malaysian Open by beating Australian qualifier Omar Jasika 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Ram next faces top seed Kei Nishikori, who reached the US Open final this month.
Also yesterday, seventh seed Pablo Andujar of Spain beat Gregoire Burquier of France 6-2, 6-4; Philipp Petzschner of Germany defeated James Ward of Britain 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5); and Go Soeda won an all-Japanese match against Kento Takeuchi 6-2, 6-1.
In a late match, Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France beat Bernard Tomic of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7).
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