TENNIS
Serena slams Russian boss
Serena Williams says comments by the head of the Russian Tennis Federation referring to her and older sister Venus as “brothers” were bullying, sexist and racist, and that she supported the one-year suspension imposed by the WTA against the official. Shamil Tarpischev was also fined US$25,000 for making the comments on Russian television. He also said the sisters were “scary” to look at. “I think the WTA did a great job of taking [the] initiative and taking immediate action to his comments,” Serena said yesterday in Singapore ahead of her WTA Finals defense. “I thought they were very insensitive and extremely sexist as well as racist at the same time. I thought they were in a way bullying.” Asked whether he regretted his comments, Tarpischev told reporters on Saturday at the Kremlin Cup that the program on which he spoke was “a humorous show,” adding: “I don’t answer stupid questions.” When asked about his ban, Tarpischev said: “I can’t comment. I don’t understand it.” In a statement released later by the Russian Tennis Federation, Tarpischev denied any “malicious intent” and said his quotes had been taken out of context.
TENNIS
Ferrer, Murray make final
David Ferrer came from a break down in the final set to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/3) in Vienna on Saturday and set up a final against Andy Murray at the Erste Bank Open. Earlier, second-seeded Murray defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 6-3 to reach his second final of the season after winning his 29th career title in Shenzhen last month. Both players are competing to qualify for the ATP Finals in London next month. Murray’s 50th win of the season saw him provisionally rise to eighth place in the qualifying race to the eight-man event.
GOLF
Martin leads in Las Vegas
Ben Martin carded a nine-under-par 62 to earn a two-stroke lead after the third round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas on Saturday. Martin steamed home with five consecutive birdies from the 13th hole in ideal scoring conditions at the TPC Summerlin in the Nevada desert. He posted a 17-under 196 total with one round remaining, while joint halfway leader Russell Knox of Scotland carded 66 for second place on 15-under. Jimmy Walker vaulted into contention with a 62 to trail by four strokes, tied for third with Andrew Svoboda (67). Tour rookie Andrew Putnam, who shared the halfway lead, shot 73 to plunge nine strokes off the pace.
GOLF
Luiten remains unbeaten
Joost Luiten remained the only unbeaten player at the Volvo World Match Play Championship on Saturday, winning his quarter-final tie 6 and 5 over a hapless Pablo Larrazabal of Spain. The Dutchman was the only player to win all three of his group matches on the way to the last eight at London Golf Club and the outcome of his clash with Larrazabal was never in doubt as Luiten stormed ahead for the largest winning margin of the week. “The course is playing soft so I think a lot of the boys out there are having a lot of birdies and you really have to make birdies to win holes,” Luiten said. Luiten next faces Finland’s Mikko Ilonen, who eased home 2-up over French Ryder Cup standout Victor Dubuisson. The other semi-finalist are South African George Coetzee and world No. 5 Henrik Stenson. Coetzee defeated US Ryder Cup player Patrick Reed 2 and 1, while Stenson beat Jonas Blixt of Sweden 2-up.
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