TENNIS
Zverev claims debut title
US Open champion Stan Wawrinka came up short against rising German star Alexander Zverev in the Saint Petersburg Open final on Sunday, the teenager claiming his debut ATP Tour title 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. “I’m full of emotions. I just couldn’t have chosen a better place to win my maiden title,” said Zverev, who has Russian origins. “It was really hard when I was trailing 3-0 in the deciding set, but I forced myself to keep on fighting and now I’m really happy with my win.” Wawrinka congratulated Zverev, calling him the future of tennis. “You’re the future of the tennis, but you’re already at the top,” Wawrinka said. “Today you’ve played a great match and won deservedly. My congratulations for what you’re doing so far.”
TENNIS
Pouille triumphs in Metz
France’s Lucas Pouille won his first career ATP Tour title on Sunday when he downed top seed Dominic Thiem of Austria 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 in the Moselle Open final. World No. 18 Pouille, who defeated Rafael Nadal on his way to the US Open quarter-finals, claimed the victory in 78 minutes. The 22-year-old Frenchman notched his fifth victory over a top-10 opponent this year and a 30th match win overall. “Winning a title is a big step, it’s an objective I wanted to achieve this year. It was a well-played final. We both played at a high level,” Pouille said.
SOCCER
It could’ve been six: Noble
West Ham United’s Mark Noble admitted with rare post-match candor that his side were fortunate to escape with a 3-0 defeat by Southampton at the London Stadium on Sunday — their fourth successive reverse in the English Premier League. “To be honest, it could have been six,” said Noble, the club captain and veteran of 12 years. “It was laughable. We probably could have played until tonight and still not scored.” Manager Slaven Bilic looked shell-shocked after the match, answering questions with soft, measured tones. “It is the same players and manager who were doing good things last season [when they finished seventh]. Eighty percent of the team is like that, but we were not happy with how we played in the last third of the pitch,” he said.
CYCLING
Terpstra wins Eneco Tour
Dutch rider Niki Terpstra of Etixx-QuickStep won the Eneco Tour after taking second to Edvald Boasson Hagen in Sunday’s seventh and final stage. Norway’s Boasson Hagen of Dimension Data claimed the closing day’s honors in a sprint at the end of a challenging 197.8km ride from Bornem to Grammont, Belgium. Terpstra was placed fifth going into Sunday’s stage, almost half a minute behind Australian BMC Racing rider Rohan Dennis, the overall leader, but Dennis’ hopes of victory were compromised when he crashed after 48km.
GOLF
Levy edges Fisher in playoff
Frenchman Alexander Levy beat England’s Ross Fisher on the second hole of a playoff to win the European Open title in Bad Griesbach, Germany, on Sunday. After both players parred the 18th on their first attempts, Levy claimed his third European Tour title with a 30-foot putt to win the event, which was reduced to 54 holes by bad weather. It was Levy’s first title since the 2014 Portugal Masters.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with