■BASEBALL
Singh on song for Pirates
Former Indian farmhand and reality show contestant Rinku Singh earned his first win on Monday pitching in the second game of a minor league Gulf Coast League doubleheader. Singh struck out the only batter he faced in Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate team the Bradenton Pirates’ 10-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers’ affiliate. He is believed to be the first Indian player to win a professional baseball game in the US. Singh and Dinesh Patel were signed by the Pirates last year after appearing on an Indian reality TV show called Million Dollar Arm that drew about 30,000 contestants in a country where baseball is almost unknown. The show sought to find athletes who could throw strikes at 85mph (137kph). Singh and Patel made their professional debuts on July 4.
■SOCCER
Hartson battles cancer
Former Wales, Arsenal and Celtic striker John Hartson has been diagnosed with cancer, it was revealed on Monday. The 34-year-old attended Swansea’s Singleton Hospital on Friday “displaying symptoms consistent with testicular cancer” and further tests have revealed the disease has spread to his brain. Gianfilippo Bertelli, consultant medical oncologist at ABM University NHS Trust in Swansea, said: “We are awaiting the results of further tests to establish a full picture of Mr Hartson’s diagnosis. We will be commencing a course of radiotherapy and chemotherapy as soon as possible and foresee many months of treatment.” Hartson was capped 51 times for Wales. He went from Celtic to West Bromwich Albion and retired last year.
■BASKETBALL
Shaq visits Shaolin Temple
NBA All-Star center Shaquille O’Neal said he hopes to bring his martial arts skills to the basketball court, during a visit to China’s Shaolin Temple — the birthplace of kung fu. “When I was a kid, I saw a lot of Shaolin kung fu performances,” O’Neal told Titan Sports, China’s top sports newspaper, as he toured the temple in Henan Province on Monday. “I always wanted to know if Shaolin kung fu was real or not. Now, at last I know — the Chinese kung fu I saw on television, it was all real,” he said in remarks translated into Chinese. “When I go home I will study this and hopefully even use it when I’m playing basketball.” O’Neal has practised martial arts in the off-season for years. On Monday, he met with the temple’s top monks and watched a group of warrior monks performing martial arts exercises. “I am really interested in snake-style kung fu,” Titan quoted O’Neal as saying. “When I retire, I hope to come back to the Shaolin Temple to study for a year. To come here just this one time is not enough.”
■BASKETBALL
McGrady switches for Darfur
Houston Rockets guard Tracy McGrady will switch jersey numbers next season to help raise awareness for his Darfur humanitarian project, the NBA team said on Monday. McGrady will surrender his No. 1 jersey to new teammate Trevor Ariza, a swingman. McGrady, who could miss up to the first half of next season while recovering from left knee surgery, will wear the No. 3. McGrady hopes to raise attention for the 3 Points documentary that will debut in the US later this year, a movie chronicling his 2007 journey to Darfur refugee camps in Chad. The “3 Points” refer to the goals of peace, protection and punishment in Darfur, with McGrady seeking peace and protection for those forced into camps and punishment for those involved in the Darfur violence.
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
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