■Tennis
Taiwanese takes gold
Chinese Taipei's Lu Yen-hsiun (盧彥勳) defeated his Slovakian opponent in the men's singles tennis championship match yesterday to win gold at the 22nd World University Games being held in Daegu, South Korea. Chuang Chia-jung (莊佳容) and Chan Chin-wei (詹謹瑋) also triumphed on the tennis court, taking gold in the women's doubles. Chinese Taipei has so far won three gold, two silver and five bronze medals at the games, which opened Aug. 21.
■ Soccer
Thais get tough on betting
Thai police have issued an appeal to newspapers to refrain from publishing the odds of European football matches in a bid to curtail rampant betting by local punters, a news report said Fri Somboonsap called on the journalists to stop running suggested betting odds for football matches because they could be handy for gamblers. He was quoted by The Nation newspaper as saying the editors should help increase public awareness about the negative side of gambling. Thani was appointed head of the police department's illegal gambling suppression unit with a mandate to get tough with football betting.
■ Soccer
Italy's top division to start
The president of the Italian soccer league said on Thursday that Italy's top division season would start on time this weekend, but the fate of the second division's schedule remained unclear. Presidents of nearly all the second-division Serie B clubs announced last week that they would boycott the season's start in response to a move by the Italian Soccer Federation to increase Serie B by four teams. Several Serie A presidents had suggested they will join the Serie B boycott in a show of unity. But a day before a key league meeting to try to resolve the issue, league president Adriano Galliani said Serie A would start on time. "Tomorrow there's the league assembly, but the championship of Serie A will begin," the ANSA news agency quoted him as saying.
■ Golf
Mickelson turns to baseball
Now that the majors are over, Phil Mickelson wants a shot at the minors -- in baseball. Mickelson was scheduled to have a tryout yesterday with Toledo, the Triple-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Detroit Tigers, with hopes of pitching for the Mud Hens this weekend. "This is a lifetime dream of mine, and I'm extremely grateful to the Toledo organization for giving me the chance to live it," Mickelson said in a statement. Mickelson, whose 21 victories on the PGA Tour are the most of any player in the modern era to have never won a major, threw to six players from the Akron Aeros, a Double-A team, last weekend during the NEC Invitational. He offered US$300 to anyone who could hit a homer off him, and the best anyone could do was a fly to the warning track. Mickelson, who throws right-handed, says he often plays catch to loosen his rotator cuff. He has worked recently with former Texas Rangers pitching coach Tom House.
■ Golf
Jacquelin fires into lead
Raphael Jacquelin fired a sizzling opening round 10-under-62 for his second straight tournament on Thursday, giving the Frenchman a two stroke lead after the first day of the BMW Open. Jacquelin strung together 10 birdies in his flawless round, duplicating his 62 to open the Nordic Open three weeks ago before skipping the last two events.
Agencies
BOUNCE BACK: Curry scored 46 points in the Warriors’ victory over the Spurs, after ‘everybody stepped up’ following Tuesday’s blowout loss to Oklahoma City Nikola Jokic scoring 50 or more points had never been enough for the Denver Nuggets to win — until now. Jokic on Wednesday night tied the highest-scoring performance in the NBA this season with 55 points, as the Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Clippers 130-116 for their sixth straight victory. The Nuggets were 0-4 in his previous 50-point outbursts. “It’s a good feeling,” the three-time NBA Most Valuable Player said. He equaled Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who had 55 in a double-overtime game at the Indiana Pacers on Oct. 23. Jokic has been on a roll during Denver’s winning streak. He is the
TIGHT GAME: The Detroit Pistons, the NBA’s second-best team, barely outlasted the Washington Wizards, who fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss Cade Cunningham’s triple double, Daniss Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer and Javonte Green’s overtime dunk lifted Detroit past Washington 137-135 on Monday, stretching the Pistons’ win streak to seven games. In an unexpected thriller, the NBA’s second-best team barely outlasted a Wizards club that fell to an NBA-worst 1-10 with their ninth consecutive loss. “We knew how big this game was for us,” Jenkins said. “We wasn’t going to let nothing stop us from getting this W.” Cunningham made 14-of-45 shots and 16-of-18 free throws for a career-high 46 points, and added 12 rebounds, 11 assists, five steals and two
The tri-nation Twenty20 international series featuring hosts Pakistan, as well as Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, is to be played entirely in Rawalpindi from Tuesday next week, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said yesterday, after this week’s suicide bombing in the capital, Islamabad. The change came after at least eight Sri Lankan players asked to leave over security fears following Tuesday’s bombing that killed 12 people and wounded 27. Their country’s cricket board issued a stern directive to the team to stay put or face consequences. Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) said the decision to stay was taken after “close consultations” with hosts Pakistan who
LIKE FINE WINE: Thirty-eight-year-old Djokovic won his 101st title of his career in Athens, becoming the oldest tournament winner since Ken Roswell, 44, in 1977 Elena Rybakina on Saturday clinched her biggest title since Wimbledon in 2022, defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (7/0) at the WTA Finals in Riyadh. The world No. 6 put on yet another serving masterclass and was at her returning best as she became the first Kazakh and the first player representing an Asian country to lift the WTA Finals singles trophy. Having gone 3-0 in round-robin play, Rybakina earned a record US$5.235 million and would finish the year ranked No. 5 in the world. “It’s been an incredible week, I honestly didn’t expect any result, and to go so far,
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