ICE HOCKEY
Blues’ streak reaches five
Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the third round of the shootout to help the St Louis Blues stretch their winning streak to five games with a 4-3 victory over the New York Rangers in the NHL on Monday. Tarasenko, who had a goal and an assist in regulation, fired a shot past Cam Talbot to end the game and give the Blues their eighth win in their last nine visits to New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The Rangers lost at home in a shootout for the second straight game, following a 1-0 defeat against Winnipeg on Saturday. Alexander Steen also scored in the shootout, and Patrik Berglund and Jay Bouwmeester added goals in regulation for the Blues, who lost a 2-1 lead in the third period before tying it at 3. Brian Elliott made 36 saves.
TENNIS
Konjuh aces first round
Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh rallied to beat fourth-seeded Annika Beck 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday in the first round of the inaugural Limoges Open in France, part of the WTA 125K series. Konjuh hit seven aces in a nearly two-hour match featuring 10 breaks of serve. Regarded as one of the most promising young talents, the 16-year-old Konjuh has improved to 90th in the WTA rankings from 274th at the end of last season. The sixth-seeded Alison Van Uytvank of Belgium also progressed to the second round after routing Italian qualifier Gioia Barbieri 6-0, 6-1. In an all-French encounter, wild-card entry Oceane Dodin ousted eighth-seeded Pauline Parmentier 7-6 (7/5), 6-2. Tournaments in the WTA 125K series are a step below full tour level.
BASEBALL
Kershaw wins two awards
Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was voted the player of the year in balloting by his fellow Major League Baseball players. The players’ union on Monday said that Kershaw also won the Marvin Miller Man of the Year award. Kershaw was 21-3 with an MLB-best 1.77 ERA. He was voted the National League’s outstanding pitcher and became the first player to win three Players Choice awards in one season since voting began in 1992. Voting was conducted on Sept. 16. That was before Kershaw went 0-2 with a 7.82 ERA in a pair of postseason starts against St Louis. The Miller award is for a player who most inspires others through his efforts on and off the field. Kershaw and his wife, Ellen, funded construction of homes for homeless children in Zambia. Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton was voted the NL’s outstanding player and the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout was selected the American League’s outstanding player. Seattle’s Felix Hernandez was voted the AL’s outstanding pitcher.
BASKETBALL
NBA fines Kevin Martin
The NBA on Monday fined Minnesota Timberwolves guard Kevin Martin US$15,000 for what officials deemed a “lewd gesture” in celebrating a three-point shot. After hitting a long-range shot that gave Minnesota a 102-100 lead with 1:37 to play against Chicago on Saturday, Martin gestured with cupped hands near his crotch while looking toward the bench. It is a gesture that was popularized by former Timberwolves guard Sam Cassell, but NBA officials apparently want to stamp it out. They have fined Marco Belinelli, Andray Blatche, Caron butler and Jameer Nelson for similar demonstrations. Andy Greder of the St Paul Pioneer Press called Martin’s celebratory move “the most enjoyable moment” of the game, but the league did not see any entertainment value in it. Martin scored a season-high 33 points for the game, but the Bulls won 106-105.
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