SOCCER
Barcelona to face Bilbao
Holders Barcelona are to face Athletic Bilbao in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey after Friday’s draw threw up a repeat of last season’s final. Barca beat Bilbao 3-1, with Lionel Messi scoring twice, in a final played at the Camp Nou, before the Basque side gained a measure of revenge by winning when the teams met again in the Supercopa de Espana at the start of this season. The teams are to meet at San Mames in the first leg on Wednesday, with the return leg to come a week later. Meanwhile, La Liga leaders Atletico Madrid are to meet RC Celta de Vigo, while Gary Neville’s Valencia were drawn against UD Las Palmas. CD Mirandes, the only survivors from the second tier, after they eliminated RC Deportivo de La Coruna 4-1 on aggregate in the last 16, are to face Sevilla.
CRICKET
Modi drops Cairns lawsuit
Billionaire Indian Lalit Modi has dropped his multimillion-US dollar lawsuit against Chris Cairns in the latest twist in the long-running match-fixing related saga, it was reported yesterday. Modi was seeking to recoup £1.5 million pounds (US$2.13 million) in costs from a libel suit he lost when former New Zealand star Cairns successfully argued he had been defamed by the Indian cricket entrepreneur. However, the Weekend Herald said Modi had now “given up trying to claw back costs.” Cairns, who no longer lives in New Zealand, declined to comment, “but his UK solicitor Rhory Robertson confirmed a Notice of Discontinuance had been filed by Modi to halt proceedings,” the newspaper said. The five-year legal battle began in January 2010 when Modi alleged in a tweet that Cairns had been involved in match-fixing. Cairns won the libel case in 2012 and in an eight-week trial last year, he was also found not guilty of perjuring himself in the defamation hearing.
SWIMMING
Phelps wins 100m butterfly
Michael Phelps won the 100m butterfly race on Friday night in an Arena Pro Swim Series event. Preparing for his fifth and final Olympics, the 30-year-old Phelps finished in 51.94 seconds. He won the gold medal in the event at the 2012 Olympics in London. Phelps was sixth in the 100m freestyle, an event won by Nathan Adrian in 48.91 seconds. Adrian also won the event in the London Olympics. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom won the women’s 100m freestyle in 53.12 seconds and the 100m butterfly in 56.38 seconds — the best times ever in the US. Katie Ledecky won the 400m freestyle in 3 minutes, 59.54 seconds — the fifth-best time ever. The 18-year-old American holds the world record and seven of the top eight.
TENNIS
Williams eyes Rio doubles
World No. 1 Serena Williams confirmed on Saturday that she plans to play doubles at the Olympics in Rio this year and is even mulling the mixed event if she can find a partner. Williams and her sister, Venus, have an enviable record for the US at the Olympics, claiming the women’s doubles gold in 2000, 2008 and 2012. Serena is also the current Olympic singles champion and is keen for more glory. “We definitely want to play doubles there,” she said ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne. “So we are going to play some tournaments later in the year, get our doubles game back, see how it goes.” Asked if she would consider playing mixed doubles as well in Rio, she replied: “I would love to. I do not know, though. That is a lot of matches.”
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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