TENNIS
Chan, Chuang win in Ningbo
Third-seeded Taiwanese duo Chan Chin-wei and Chuang Chia-jung advanced to the doubles quarter-finals at the WTA 125K Yinzhou Bank International tournament in Ningbo, China, yesterday. Chan and Chuang saved five of six break-point chances and converted five of eight to defeat fellow Taiwanese pairing Chang Kai-chen and Hsieh Shu-ying in exactly an hour. Chan is due to face Zhu Lin of China in the singles today, while Hsieh Su-wei is also taking part in the singles following her loss in the doubles final at the WTA FiIRnals in Singapore on Sunday.
SOCCER
Samp apologize for gaffe
Serie A highflyers UC Sampdoria have issued an apology to Inter president Erick Thohir after Samp president Massimo Ferrero referred to the Indonesian as a “Filipino.” Film producer Ferrero, who took over the Genoa-based club at the end of last season, made the gaffe in a Sunday interview with Rai Sport after being asked about Massimo Moratti resigning as Inter’s honorary president. “It’s not right that Moratti was treated like this. I am very sad for him. I told him: kick out that Filipino,” Ferrero said. Moratti was the predecessor of Thohir, a businessman who owns Major League Soccer club DC United and bought a majority 70 percent share in Samp in November last year. Sampdoria released a statement which cited Ferrero as saying: “I would like to sincerely underline I did not mean any disrespect to Thohir, the directors of Inter or the people of the Philippines, who I have always had a great relationship with.”
CRICKET
Rain clouds Proteas parade
Rain washed out the third limited-overs cricket international between New Zealand and South Africa yesterday, leaving the Proteas with a 2-0 series win. South Africa was 157-3 after 30.4 overs, batting first after New Zealand won the toss, when rain forced the players from Hamilton’s Seddon Park at about 4pm. Nevertheless, South Africa were still able to provide further evidence of the depth and quality of their batting, as wicketkeeper and opening batsman Quinton de Kock was 80 not out when play was abandoned and captain A.B. de Villiers was unbeaten on 33. South Africa remain atop the world one-day cricket rankings.
RUGBY UNION
Patston tells of text trauma
Former Wallabies team business manager Di Patston yesterday told the Australian she felt “degraded” and considered suicide after receiving an offensive text message from Wallabies back Kurtley Beale. Beale was fined A$45,000 (US$40,000) by an independent tribunal on Friday last week for sending a picture of a naked, obese woman labeled “Di” to Patston last year after mistaking her telephone number for that of one of his teammates. Patston then received a second photo, but the tribunal could not establish that it came from Beale. “If it was one image or two or 20, what does it matter?” Patston told the paper. “They were both of very obese women in a very derogatory way. I am overweight and they were both naked with everything exposed. He doesn’t know my background. I’ve had an ongoing illness myself and I’m on medication.” In another rugby scandal, New South Wales captain Paul Gallen was fined A$50,000 yesterday and handed a provisional Kangaroos Test suspension for an explosive tirade against National Rugby League officials on social media. The league said it imposed the heaviest possible fine on the Cronulla Sharks skipper and that he will be ineligible to play for Australia unless he completes a leadership course.
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