PREMIER LEAGUE
Chelsea defeat Spurs 2-1
Chelsea on Saturday retained top spot in the Premier League after goals from Pedro and Victor Moses earned them a comeback 2-1 win over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Chelsea looked disjointed for most of the first half and in the 11th minute, Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen whipped the ball home from just outside the area after a defense-splitting run from Dele Alli. Just before halftime, Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic slipped the ball to Pedro, who executed a neat turn and curled a magnificent shot past Hugo Lloris. After that, Chelsea looked rejuvenated and Tottenham, knocked out of the Champions League midweek, were beaten by a 51st-minute goal from Moses, whose bullet shot rebounded off Lloris and Jan Vertonghen on its way in to give Chelsea a seventh straight win.
LIGUE 1
Monaco rout Marseille 4-0
AS Monaco on Saturday kept up their outstanding recent form as Valere Germain scored twice in a 4-0 win over Olympique de Marseille in the Mediterranean principality. Bordeaux made it six league games without defeat as Guinea forward Francois Kamano scored two late goals to secure a 3-2 win at home to Dijon FCO. They are behind En Avant de Guingamp in fifth on goal difference, with the Bretons coming from behind to draw 1-1 at Stade Malherbe Caen thanks to Nill De Pauw’s late equalizer. Bottom club Lorient threw away a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 at Metz, while Montpellier Herault’s meeting with Nancy ended goalless, as did the encounter between Nantes and manager-less Lille OSC.
LA LIGA
Ronaldo leads Real to win
Cristiano Ronaldo on Saturday struck twice as Real Madrid were thankful for a late missed penalty from Duje Cop to open up a seven-point lead over Barcelona with a 2-1 win over Real Sporting de Gijon. Sevilla leapfrogged Barcelona into second with a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Valencia. Earlier, Malaga and RCD Espanyol moved into the top half of the table with victories over RC Deportivo la Coruna and CD Leganes respectively.
BUNDESLIGA
Bayern beat Leverkusen 2-1
With Uli Hoeness back in charge, Bayern Munich on Saturday bounced back from two straight defeats to beat Bayer 04 Leverkusen 2-1 at home and keep pace with Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig, who defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-1. Neither Hamburg SV nor Werder Bremen will be happy after sharing the points in the northern derby, drawing 2-2. Borussia Moenchengladbach’s patchy form continued after letting a lead slip against unbeaten TSG 1899 Hoffenheim to draw 1-1. VfL Wolfsburg rode their luck early against Ingolstadt 04 in a 1-1 tie, with Moritz Hartmann hitting the post and then having a penalty saved by Diego Benaglio. Elsewhere, Cologne were held to a scoreless draw at home by Augsburg.
SERIE A
Milan demolish Empoli 4-1
AC Milan on Saturday motored into second place in Serie A with an emphatic 4-1 win at Empoli. Gianluca Lapadula, taking advantage of the absence through injury of Colombia striker Carlos Bacca, bagged a brace, while Spaniard Suso also hit the target. An own-goal from Andrea Costa completed the rout. In Saturday’s other game, Joe Hart’s Torino thanked a double inside three first-half minutes from Spanish forward Falque for a 2-1 win over AC Chievo Verona.
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