FORMULA ONE
Sauber signs Calderon
Formula One team Sauber said it has signed Colombian driver Tatiana Calderon as its test driver this year. The 24-year-old Calderon was the team’s development driver last season. “She will be completing simulator training sessions and coaching with engineers” during race weekends and at the team’s headquarters in Switzerland, the team said. “[I have] been able to substantially expand and develop my skills as a race driver, and I am convinced that I will be doing so throughout this year,” Calderon said on Tuesday. Calderon started her racing career at age nine. She competed in the GP3 series in the last two seasons and will remain in the development series along with her role as Sauber’s test driver, the team said. The last woman to participate in an F1 race weekend was Susie Wolff with Williams, who took part in a practice session at the 2014 British Grand Prix. Before her, Italian Giovanna Amati competed with Brabham in 1992, but failed to qualify for a race in three attempts. Spaniard Carmen Jordan was appointed a development driver for Lotus in 2015.
TENNIS
Williams set for Indian Wells
Serena Williams makes her return today to the pro tour after a 14-month absence with a first-round match at the BNP Paribas Open. She is to play Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan in a night match at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. Williams has played just one Fed Cup doubles match while away from the WTA Tour. The former world No. 1 is unseeded and as a result did not receive a first-round bye. Williams will try to become the first woman to win three singles titles in the desert. Her other titles came in 1999 and 2001, before she boycotted the event for several years. Williams, a winner of 23 Grand Slam titles, is in the same quarter of the draw as her older sister Venus. The siblings could potentially face each other in the third round.
BOXING
Boxing Barbie not for sale
A Barbie doll in the likeness of British Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams, complete with “boxing gloves to shatter any glass ceiling,” has been unveiled to mark International Women’s Day. Toymaker Mattel, whose Barbie dolls have in the past drawn criticism for promoting harmful stereotypes, on Tuesday said it hoped the Adams doll would inspire girls to achieve greatness. The doll is among 14 new Barbies honoring “boundary-breaking women” around the world to show the next generation they can be anything they want to be, Mattel said. Others in its “Sheroes” series include American snowboarder Chloe Kim, who won gold at this year’s Winter Olympics and Chinese prima ballerina Tan Yuanyuan. Adams said her doll was “cool” and hoped it would inspire young girls to go for their dreams. “Without my own role models, I wouldn’t be where I am today,” she said in a statement. “Growing up, my biggest role models were my mum and Muhammad Ali — there were no female boxers in [the] media when I was a kid, and I might have discovered my passion sooner if I’d seen other women boxing.” The doll features Adams’ distinctive hairstyle and boxing gear emblazoned with her trademark “Lioness” nickname. However, the doll’s body type appears to reflect Barbie’s super-slim silhouette more than Adams’ muscular physique. The doll is not available for sale, and Mattel could not say whether it would go into production.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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