BOXING
Ramirez dominates Abraham
Gilberto Ramirez on Saturday became the first Mexican fighter ever to hold a super middleweight world title after dominating champion Arthur Abraham of Germany to claim a unanimous points victory in Las Vegas. Ramirez was awarded the win by emphatic margins of 120-108 on all three judges’ cards to take the WBO title at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The undefeated 24-year-old from Mazatlan used his superior reach and mobility to attack Abraham from all angles, scoring freely in the early rounds with a series of stinging jabs. That strategy was more than enough to see Ramirez home to victory in the later rounds as Abraham wearily trailed the Mexican around the ring.
TENNIS
Sock progresses to final
Fourth-seeded defending champion Jack Sock beat top-seeded John Isner 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 on Saturday in an all-American semi-final in the US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Sock was scheduled to face Argentina’s Juan Monaco in yesterday’s final at River Oaks. The 23-year-old American has won 16 consecutive sets in the event dating to his first-round match last year. “I love playing in this city, on this court. I love the clay,” Sock said. “There’s something about that little stadium there, it’s a great atmosphere.” The 32-year-old Monaco, the 2012 winner, beat third-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-4, 6-2. “I’m really happy to be here again in the final,” said Monaco, an eight-time winner on the ATP Tour. “I was really focused, consistent from the baseline,” he said.
TENNIS
Coric defeats Vesely
Third-seeded Borna Coric beat eighth-seeded Jiri Vesely 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5) on Saturday to reach the Grand Prix Hassan II final, where he is set to bid for his first career title. The 19-year-old Croat is to take on Argentine Federico Delbonis, who eliminated Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-3. Delbonis, who won the only title of his career two years ago at Sao Paulo on indoor clay, has never faced Coric. Coric, ranked 48th, lost his only career final in January on an outdoor hard court at Chennai, India. After both players broke once in the first set, Vesely opened up a 3-1 lead in the second, but Coric broke back against the Czech and sealed victory on his second match point.
TENNIS
Virus knocks out Kerber
Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber, ranked No. 2 in the world, retired because of a viral illness during her semi-final match on Saturday at the Volvo Car Open, sending American Sloane Stephens to the final. Stephens is to face Elena Vesnina, the Russian qualifier who upset fifth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 in the other semi-final. Vesnina, who reached the final in Charleston five years ago before losing to Caroline Wozniacki, is the first qualifier to make the finals in the 44-year history of the tournament.
TENNIS
Giorgi seeks WTA title
Fifth-seeded Camila Giorgi of Italy and eighth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia on Saturday advanced to the Katowice Open final. Giorgi, who is seeking her second WTA title, has won both of their previous encounters. In the semi-finals, Giorgi beat third-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-4, 6-3 to play in her third straight Katowice final. Cibulkova dispatched Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 6-0 to improve to 4-1 against the unseeded French player. She was hoping to win her fifth WTA title yesterday.
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