PREMIER LEAGUE
Chelsea crush Southampton
Chelsea on Sunday racked up a fourth consecutive league win without conceding a goal as they outclassed Southampton with strikes from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton. Hazard cut back and rifled a shot through Fraser Forster’s legs after six minutes and Chelsea never surrendered their command. Spain striker Costa doubled the lead 10 minutes after the break when he received a pass from Hazard and beat Forster with a swerving shot from 25m.
LIGUE 1
Balotelli leads Nice to win
Mario Balotelli on Sunday further underlined his real value since joining OGC Nice on a free transfer, scoring his sixth goal in five league games as the French leaders thrashed Nantes 4-1. Brittany side Stade Rennais have one of the best youth academies in France — arguably second only to Olympique Lyonnais. Forward Wesley Said is the latest revelation to come through the ranks, and he brilliantly volleyed home the winner against Metz in the 56th minute. Despite the best efforts of winger Florian Thauvin, Olympique de Marseille could not beat resilient Girondins de Bordeaux.
LA LIGA
Villareal suffer first defeat
Villarreal on Sunday spurned the chance to move up to third in La Liga as Sociedad Deportiva Eibar struck twice in the final 10 minutes to inflict their first league defeat of the season 2-1. RC Celta de Vigo blew a three-goal lead in a pulsating 3-3 draw at UD Las Palmas, while Athletic Bilbao remain seventh after being held 1-1 at home by CA Osasuna. The game of the weekend came in the Canary Islands, as Las Palmas stormed back from conceding three times in the opening 21 minutes. Real Betis Balompie boss Gustavo Poyet’s future looks uncertain after his side lost 1-0 at home to RCD Espanyol.
BUNDESLIGA
Cologne demolish Hamburg
Hamburg SV forward Bobby Wood was on Sunday sent off in a 3-0 defeat at Cologne that left the side struggling at the bottom of the Bundesliga. Hamburg paid an immediate price for the American’s dismissal, with Anthony Modeste grabbing the first of his three goals three minutes later. Unbeaten TSG 1899 Hoffenheim defeated high-flying Hertha BSC 1-0 to go third and match their club record of five straight league wins.
SERIE A
Skorupski thwarts Roma
AS Roma were on Sunday thwarted repeatedly by Empoli goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski, as they were held 0-0 and failed to keep pace with Serie A leaders Juventus. AC Milan are emerging as serious challengers for the title and a fourth successive home win saw them leapfrog SSC Napoli into third place. Inter coach Frank de Boer’s position remains perilous as his side fell to a fourth defeat in five league matches. Fabio Quagliarella scored the only goal of an entertaining match on the stroke of halftime. SS Lazio are just a point behind Milan after a hard-fought 2-1 victory over US Sassuolo. Earlier, Atalanta BC comfortably beat Genoa 3-0 with a first-half double from Jasmin Kurtic and a late goal from Papu Gomez.
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