TENNIS
Nadal grinds first grass win
Rafael Nadal began the difficult annual transition from clay to grass on Thursday, taking more than two-and-a-half hours to advance to the quarter-finals of the Stuttgart Open. The top seed, whose ranking has fallen to 10th after a terrible clay season, in which he failed to win a European title, overcame Marcos Baghdatis 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 for his 30th victory of the season. Nadal is next to face fifth seed Bernard Tomic after the Australian overpowered Tommy Haas 7-6 (8/6), 6-2. Second seed Marin Cilic, the US Open champion, made a successful start on grass, defeating German lucky loser Matthias Bachinger 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
TENNIS
Agut exits Topshelf Open
Defending champion Roberto Bautista Agut was paid back by French qualifier Nicolas Mahut, who beat the Spaniard 6-2, 6-4 at the Topshelf Open on Thursday. Mahut was the titleholder last year when Bautista Agut beat him in the quarter-finals en route to his maiden title there. On Thursday, Mahut broke him five times to move into the quarters. Second seed David Goffin of Belgium beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria 7-6 (2), 6-2 for his first win there in three attempts, and No. 6 Adrian Mannarino defeated Swiss qualifier Marco Chiudinelli 6-3, 6-2. No. 8 Joao Sousa of Portugal, a semi-finalist last year, lost to qualifier Illya Marchenko of Ukraine 6-3, 7-6 (2). In women’s play, second seed Jelena Jankovic reached the last eight with a 6-1, 6-4 win against Andrea Hlavackova of the Czech Republic, and next faces Annika Beck of Germany, who beat another Czech, Klara Koukalova, 6-4, 6-4.
GOLF
Palmer colead in Memphis
The US’ Ryan Palmer, benefiting from extra work on his putting, produced bogey-free golf to charge into a three-way tie for the lead in the opening round of the FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis on Thursday. Bidding for a fourth victory on the PGA Tour, the 38-year-old Texan piled up six birdies as he carded a six-under-par 64 at the TPC Southwind, the final event before next week’s US Open at Chambers Bay. Also at six-under were compatriot Brooks Koepka, who finished birdie-birdie, and English veteran Greg Owen, who competed on the lower-tier Web.com Tour last season.
GOLF
Bourdy takes Austria lead
France’s Gregory Bourdy, looking for a first European Tour title in two years, carded a seven-under to grab a two-shot lead after the first round of the Austria Open on Thursday. The 33-year-old’s last title came in Wales in 2013, but he looked in convincing form at the Diamond Country Club with seven birdies for a 65 in perfect playing positions. German Max Kieffer, Spain’s Carlos Del Moral and English pair Robert Dinwiddie and Chris Wood are all two shots back on five-under.
RUGBY
Ross breaks arm on live TV
An arm wrestling match for charity involving former Australia international winger Wendell Sailor went horribly awry when his opponent’s arm broke on live TV. Only seconds into the contest, Ben Ross, a former Australian rugby league professional, was screaming in pain after his arm snapped during the segment on The Footy Show, a local chat show broadcast live on Thursday. Distressed, Sailor called for a “medical” as the studio audience sat stunned. “We’ll go to a break, we’ll come back after this. We need an ambulance,” the show’s shaken host Paul “Fatty” Vautin stuttered, as 35-year-old Ross crouched in pain.
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