BOXING
Pacquiao calls for rematch
Manny Pacquiao yesterday said he was still wanted a rematch with Jeff Horn after the Filipino boxing hero pulled out of their scheduled bout in Australia later his year. Queensland’s premier, whose state government was the financial backer of a Nov. 12 fight, announced on Friday that Pacquiao “cannot return to the ring” due to other commitments. “It will not push through there in Australia, but we are bringing the fight here in the Philippines,” Pacquiao said on radio station DZBB, adding negotiations were ongoing. “This will be good for our country’s tourism,” Pacquiao said.
BASKETBALL
Stars end their worst season
Kayla McBride had 28 points, 11 rebounds and six assists on Saturday to lead the San Antonio Stars to a 75-71 victory over the Indiana Pacers in a season-ending game for the two worst teams in the WNBA. After trailing 32-28 at the half, the Stars (8-26) erased a nine-point deficit in the third quarter, scoring 27 points behind McBride’s nine, to lead 55-51 and went on to end a four-game losing streak. San Antonio swept three games from the Fever (9-25), who end the season with eight-straight losses. Kayla Alexander and Kelsey Plum added 11 points apiece for the Stars. Candice Dupree had 19 points and 13 rebounds for Indiana with Natalie Achonwa adding 18. The Fever had made the playoffs for 12 straight seasons.
SOCCER
Croatia qualifier abandoned
Croatia’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Kosovo was abandoned on Saturday midway through the first half in Zagreb because of a waterlogged pitch. The game was level at 0-0 when the players went off. The abandonment means that Croatia, temporarily at least, lose top spot in Group I of European qualifying. Ukraine jumped up from fourth to first thanks to a 2-0 home win over Turkey as new Borussia Dortmund winger Andriy Yarmolenko scored a brace. Iceland, who were second going into the day, saw their hopes of reaching Russia take a hit with a surprising 1-0 loss in Finland.
FORMULA ONE
Ricciardo entertains off track
Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo chose an unusual way to occupy his time while waiting for qualifying to resume at the Italian Grand Prix on Saturday. During the rain delay, Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas played a video game, while Ricciardo took over a live TV camera from the official broadcaster for yesterday’s race. With the camera on his shoulder, the Australian walked into the Mercedes garage and zoomed in on Hamilton’s car before being escorted away. “I was just playing around, trying to entertain the fans,” Ricciardo said. “It was very nice of them to stick around today in the rain.”
BASEBALL
Padres rough up Darvish
Carlos Asuaje homered and Erick Aybar had three singles off Yu Darvish, who failed to get an out in the fourth inning on Saturday night, as the San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 for a doubleheader sweep of the runaway NL West leaders. It was the shortest outing of the year for Darvish (2-2), who allowed five runs and eight hits, struck out five and walked three. His previous shortest outing was 3 2/3 innings in a loss to Miami on July 26, his final start with Texas before he was traded to the Dodgers at the July 31 deadline. The Dodgers have lost seven of their last eight.
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