BASKETBALL
Cousins tossed in civvies
NBA bad boy DeMarcus Cousins was ejected on Friday from the Golden State Warriors’ game while wearing his street clothes. Cousins has yet to suit up for the Warriors in a game this season, but that is not stopping him from causing problems for NBA game officials. He was ejected in the first quarter against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden for arguing with referee Scott Foster. It was announced that Cousins had been slapped with a technical foul while sitting near the end of the Warriors’ bench. He was then thrown out of the game.
SOCCER
Wembley shelters Spurs
Tottenham Hotspur are to play their remaining home games this season at Wembley Stadium, the Premier League club announced on Friday. Spurs had been hoping to move into a new 62,000-seat stadium near their old White Hart Lane home in north London last month, but chairman Daniel Levy said that “factors completely outside of our control” meant that Spurs would not play at their new ground until next year at the earliest. “There isn’t an hour that goes by when I am not asked when we will be able to stage our first game at our new home,” Levy said.
SOCCER
Clasico fraudsters arrested
Spanish police on Friday announced the arrest of seven suspects in a fake tickets scam that cost the Barcelona soccer club 1.5 million euros (US$1.7 million). Fraudsters sold more than 2,800 fake tickets for a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid last May at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. At least eight businesses were involved in the fraud, a statement from the Guardia Civil police said. They got hold of Barcelona club supporters’ Quick Response codes to create the fake tickets and sell them at inflated prices, the statement said. Barcelona suspended the accounts of the subscribers involved and 33 of them found to have used this practice in the past had their subscription canceled.
GYMNASTICS
Biles in ER before worlds
Simone Biles was in an emergency room in Doha with kidney stone problems less than 24 hours before she was to compete to qualify for the world gymnastics championships, the Olympic champion said on Twitter on Friday. However, the problem was not going to keep her out of the championships, she said. “Nothing like a late night ER visit less than 24 hrs before world championships,” Biles tweeted, adding pictures of her in the emergency room. “This kidney stone can wait ... doing it for my team!... I’ll be gucci girls!” USA Gymnastics was not immediately available for comment, but an hour after Biles’ comments, the federation said in a tweet of its own that “@Simone_Biles and the rest of the team are amped to get things rolling.”
TENNIS
Nadal healed, set for Paris
Rafael Nadal on Friday arrived in France ahead of his expected return at the Paris Masters next week from the knee injury that flared up at the US Open. The 17-time Grand Slam champion was forced to withdraw from his US Open semi-final against Juan Martin del Potro early last month. The injury sidelined him for Spain’s Davis Cup semi-final against France, and also from the tournaments in Beijing and Shanghai. Nadal “has arrived in Paris,” Paris Masters director Guy Forget confirmed at Friday’s draw. In his absence, Novak Djokovic has moved to within 215 points of world No. 1 Nadal in the ATP rankings.
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