■TENNIS
Bets open on Federer twins
World No. 1 Roger Federer’s daughters are less than 48 hours old, but bookmakers on Friday had already posted odds on the twins winning Wimbledon. British bookies Ladbrokes were offering 100-1 for either Charlene Riva or Myla Rose to win the grasscourt title just a day after Federer’s wife, Mirka, 31, gave birth to the tots. The twins, whose Swiss father has won a record 15 grand slam titles, were also 25-1 to claim one of the four slams with all bets based on either doing so before their 25th birthdays. The girls, who were born at a private clinic in Switzerland on Thursday, are 50-1 to win a grand slam as part of the same doubles team and 200-1 to take the Wimbledon doubles crown.
■DIVING
Champs take gold again
Olympic champions Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia successfully defended their gold medal in women’s 3m synchronized diving at the world championships in Rome on Friday. Guo and Wu earned 348 points over five dives. Tania Cagnotto and Francesca Dallape of Italy took silver with 329.70 points, and Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdniakova of Russia — the Olympic silver medalists — were third with 310.80. Guo also won the individual 3m springboard title Tuesday, and now has 10 world championship golds to go with her four Olympic victories.
■FORMULA ONE
War may be over soon
Formula One’s civil war could be nearing an end after FIA said on Friday the document that Agoverns auto racing’s premier sport could be signed by next week. F1’s governing body said its World Motor Sports Council had received the new Concorde Agreement, which would come into force “on receipt of confirmation that a satisfactory cost-reduction agreement is in place.” All 13 teams registered for next season’s championship negotiated the document, FIA said in the statement. “I think that we are very, very close to reaching a solution,” Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said.
■RUGBY UNION
Nude pictures removed
Alleged nude photographs of All Blacks rugby star Dan Carter were pulled from an Internet auction site on Friday within hours of being offered for sale, apparently a hoax. A vendor using the login PerpignanPatty offered 11 pictures of the New Zealand flyhalf. Carter played for the Perpignan club during the last French season before suffering a serious Achilles tendon injury. The pictures were said to include a “raunchy at-home striptease” and the vendor claimed they would have the New Zealand Rugby Union “squirming.” They were posted on the Trademe Web site at 7pm on Friday and removed by Web site staff less than three hours later. A Trademe spokesman said PerpignanPatty had broken Web site rules by using more than one account. He said there was also no evidence the pictures existed and the auction was likely a hoax.
■GOLF
John Panton dies aged 92
British golfer John Panton, who was the oldest surviving Ryder Cup player, has died at the age of 92. Scotsman Panton represented Great Britain and Ireland in the competition on three occasions, in 1951, 1953 and 1961. He also won the British Match Play Championship in 1956 and finished fifth in the Open Championship in the same year. European Tour board of directors chairman Neil Coles said on the European Tour Web site: “He was the last of that generation.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
Japanese players are moving to English soccer in record numbers and more look set to follow with clubs attracted by their quality, strong work ethic and value for money. Kaoru Mitoma is the standout talent of five Japanese players in the English Premier League, with eight more in the Championship and two in League One. Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo, the captain of Japan, believes his compatriots are “being held in higher esteem” by English clubs compared with the past. “The staff at Liverpool ask me about lots of Japanese players, not necessarily with a view to a transfer, but just saying this or
Taiwan yesterday survived Bosnia and Herzegovina to win their Davis Cup World Group I tie at the Taipei Tennis Center. The tight series started on Saturday with world No. 123 Jason Tseng losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to Mirza Basic in the opening singles matchup. However, teammate Tony Wu kept the tie even, dominating world No. 86 Damir Dzumhur 6-2, 6-1. Yesterday, 24-year-old Ray Ho and partner 25-year-old Hsu Yu-hsiou kept up the momentum, making short work of Basic and Nerman Fatic, winning 6-3, 6-4. Tseng then suffered another defeat, losing 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to Dzumhur in a brutal match that lasted more than two
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