TENNIS
Kei Nishikori advances
Japan’s Kei Nishikori yesterday cruised into the third round of the Paris Masters with a 6-2, 7-5 win against Serbian Viktor Troicki. The fifth seed, one of six players to have already qualified for the ATP World Tour finals, breezed through the first set and quickly broke in the second. Nishikori broke again to end the contest in straight sets. David Goffin also advanced, beating Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (7/5), 6-3. Novak Djokovic, Stanislas Wawrinka and Andy Murray were to play after press time last night. On Tuesday, Tomas Berdych kept alive his hopes of reaching the Tour finals with a gritty 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Portugal’s Joao Sousa.
TENNIS
Konta defeats Stosur
Johanna Konta of Britain yesterday defeated Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-4, 6-2 in Group A of the Elite Trophy women’s singles in Zhuhai, China, . In Group B, Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland beat Timea Babos of Hungary 6-4, 6-2, while Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic defeated Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 in Group C.
CRICKET
Windies eye tight win
West Indies skipper Jason Holder yesterday took a maiden five-wicket haul to set up a likely win in the third and final Test against Pakistan in Sharjah, but his batsmen made heavy going of a small chase in the United Arab Emirates. The right-arm fast bowler finished with 5-30, while leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo took 3-46 to bundle Pakistan out for 208 in their second innings on a wearing pitch. However, the visitors stumbled to 114-5, though opener Kraigg Brathwaite was still at the crease as the day ended early due to bad light with the target of 153 in sight. Brathwaite was defiantly standing on 44 with Shane Dowrich on 36 leaving West Indies needing 39 runs to break a 14-match losing streak stretching back to May last year. Pakistan began the day on 87-4 before a battling 91 by opener Azhar Ali and 42 for Safraz Ahmed looked to have steadied the ship. However, they lost their last five wickets for 33 to end on 208 with Holder claiming his first five-wicket Test haul. Roston Chase claimed the pick of the wickets in laughable circumstances. Having leaped to catch a Mohammad Amir drive over long-on, he realized he would step over the rope and released the ball back into play. Chase recovered so quickly that Amir, who had stood still admiring his shot, was unable to scramble home as Chase’s accurate throw from the boundary ran him out.
CRICKET
Zimbabwe battle for draw
Dilruwan Perera, Suranga Lakmal and Lahiru Kumara yesterday grabbed two wickets apiece, but a stubborn partnership gave Zimbabwe a chance of preventing a Sri Lanka victory in the first Test in Harare. After declaring on their overnight total of 247-6 to set Zimbabwe 412 for victory on the final day, Sri Lanka were well on their way to a win when Peter Moor was adjudged LBW to Kumara nine overs after lunch. However, Sean Williams and Graeme Cremer dug in to bat out the remainder of the session, seeing Zimbabwe to tea on 136-6. With clouds gathering Zimbabwe’s hopes of securing a draw in their 100th Test grew. At press time last night, the hosts were 183-9 and about 10 overs from stumps.
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