SOCCER
Olympiakos claim 43rd title
Olympiakos clinched a record-extending 43rd Greek Super League title with a 3-0 victory over Veria on Sunday. Spanish midfielder David Fuster, the club captain, scored in each half before his blocked shot rebounded for Mexico striker Alan Pulido to add a late third goal and seal a straightforward win at a sun-drenched Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium. Olympiakos retained the title with six matches to spare as they have a better head-to-head record against second-placed AEK Athens, who are 18 points adrift. Olympiakos’ 43rd league title, and their 18th in the past 20 seasons, was also their fastest. They had never before sewn up the title as early as February.
TENNIS
Cuevas retains Brazil crown
Third-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay successfully defended his Brazil Open title on Sunday with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain. The 27th-ranked Cuevas needed less than 90 minutes to beat No. 67 Carreno Busta, who was playing in his first ATP final. The previous Sunday, Cuevas won the Rio Open after beating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. “This crowd makes me feel at home in Brazil,” Cuevas said. Four trained shelter dogs who retrieved balls that went out of bounds in an exhibition match on Thursday last week were also present for the final.
SAILING
Ainslie wins America’s Cup
Former Olympic star Ben Ainslie of Britain led his Land Rover BAR team to victory in the America’s Cup World Series on Sunday. Ainslie beat his former skipper, Jimmy Spithill, and Oracle Team USA, by two points, with the winning margin secured on a late charge in the final race. Ainslie’s crew finished second, fourth and third in Sunday’s races. They had two firsts and a third on Saturday. Team New Zealand, Oracle and Groupama Team France each claimed a win on Sunday. Emirates Team New Zealand finished third to retain their place atop the overall Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series leaderboard, although Oracle closed the gap to just six points.
ICE HOCKEY
Rangers reach Staal deal
The playoff-bound New York Rangers strengthened their roster with the acquisition of former Canadian Olympian Eric Staal from the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. In exchange for the 31-year-old center, the Hurricanes received second-round selections in this year’s and 2017 National Hockey League entry drafts as well as Finnish prospect Aleksi Saarela. With the NHL trade deadline expiring at 3pm yesterday, the Hurricanes wanted something in return for Staal, eligible to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Staal spent his first 12 seasons with Carolina and had to waive a no-movement clause in his contract to consent to the trade.
BASEBALL
Rangers to sign Desmond
The Texas Rangers have agreed to a one-year contract worth US$8 million with former All-Star shortstop Ian Desmond, pending a physical examination, according to multiple reports on Sunday. Desmond, 30, played the past seven seasons with the Washington Nationals before he decided to test free agency and is a three-time winner of the Silver Slugger award as the top-hitting shortstop in the National League. According to media reports, the Rangers must surrender a first-round draft pick — 19th overall — to Washington for signing Desmond, with the Nationals having extended him a US$15.8 million qualifying offer.
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