■ SOCCER
Ronaldo has knee examined
AC Milan forward Ronaldo traveled to Belgium on Thursday to have his left knee examined by a specialist. The Brazil striker's knee problem ruled him out of Milan's first two games of the Serie A season -- as well as the European Super Cup win over Sevilla last week. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has said he expects Ronaldo back for the team's next game against Siena on Sept. 15 -- or when the squad opens defense of its Champions League title against Benfica three days later. Ronaldo transferred to Milan from Real Madrid in January and was ineligible to play for the squad when it won the Champions League last season.
■ BASEBALL
Card sells for US$2.8m
A rare Honus Wagner card has been sold for a record US$2.8 million, just over six months after it was bought for a then-record US$2.35 million. Referred to as the "Mona Lisa" of baseball cards, it's in the best condition of the few known T206 Wagner cards, released in 1909 by the American Tobacco Company. It was purchased by an unnamed private collector in a deal brokered by SCP Auctions, the firm that handled the previous sale to a California private collector and took a minority ownership position in the card at the time. Past owners of the card include Wayne Gretzky.
■ SOCCER
Baros out for Euro qualifier
Czech Republic striker Milan Baros has injured his back and will not be available for this week's European Championship qualifier at San Marino. Baros had to cut short his training session Wednesday and doctors ruled him out of tomorrow's game after discovering a muscle injury in his back, Czech Republic spokesman Lukas Tucek said Thursday. Baros was set to undergo a treatment but it was not immediately clear whether the Lyon player would be available for another qualifier against Ireland in Prague on Wednesday, Tucek said. Baros has scored 31 goals in 58 international games.
■ CRICKET
Ponting to play in Twenty20
Australia captain Ricky Ponting will fly out to lead his team in the Twenty20 world championship in South Africa after an improvement in his wife's health. Ponting is expected to arrive in South Africa in time to attend the International Cricket Council Awards ceremony at Johannesburg on Monday ahead of the start of the tournament, he said yesterday. Ponting had been in doubt for the inaugural Twenty20 championship after staying behind when the Australian team flew out on Monday because of a "private family reasons." Yesterday, he revealed that the issue was a health problem for his wife, Rianna, which he did not specify.
■ CYCLING
Freire takes Vuelta stage
Spanish rider Oscar Freire won the sixth stage of the Vuelta on Thursday in a sprint finish, taking his second leg in as many days and third overall. Vladmir Efimkin retained the overall lead. The three-time world champion finished the mostly flat, 184.3km leg from Reinosa to Logrono in 4 hours, 24 minutes, 10 seconds. The Rabobank rider edged Koldo Fernandez of Spain and Angelo Furlan of Italy. They finished with the same time as Freire. Team Milram had worked sprinter Alessandro Petacchi into position to take the sprint finish but Freire stayed close to his tail and edged his way through the pack.
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
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