■ BADMINTON
Taiwan to host finals
Taiwan is to host the next Super Series finals, the climax of badminton’s 12-leg Super Series circuit. Staged in Malaysia for the last two years, the finals feature the top eight-ranked players in the Super Series standings in all five of badminton’s events — men’s and women’s singles, men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The last Super Series tournament of the year is in Hong Kong in December. The Taiwan finals will be staged from Jan. 5 to Jan. 9. “With so many top players in the event, fans are in for some amazing badminton,” Taiwan’s badminton association secretary-general Tsai Hung-Peng said in a statement on Monday.
■ SUMO
Wrestlers to get iPads
Japan’s ancient sport of sumo is embracing the latest technology, with its governing body set to distribute Apple’s iPad to wrestlers who often struggle with smaller cellphone keypads due to their giant hands. The sumo association said it will hand out iPads to Japan’s 51 “stables,” or the clubs the wrestlers belong to, with the aim of improving communication among the roly-poly grapplers after some in the past had missed information sent by fax or telephone. “We will hand out the newest iPads to all the sumo stables to swiftly communicate what we need to,” association vice chairman Hiroyoshi Murayama said. The iPad tablet PC was likely chosen because many stable masters do not use computers and wrestlers are not good at punching in messages on their mobile phones with their big hands, Jiji news agency said.
■ BASKETBALL
Jose Calderon ruled out
Spanish playmaker Jose Manuel Calderon has been ruled out of the world championships starting in Turkey this weekend because of injury, the Spanish basketball federation confirmed on Monday. Calderon, who plays for the NBA’s Toronto Raptors, suffered a torn muscle in his left leg during a warm-up game against the US in Madrid on Sunday night. He will be replaced by Raul Lopez. Calderon, 28, was also forced to miss last year’s European championships, which Spain won, because of injury. Spain play their opening match on Saturday against France in a group which also includes Lithuania, New Zealand, Canada and Lebanon.
■ FORMULA ONE
Hamilton avoids conviction
Formula One star Lewis Hamilton has been fined A$500 (US$445) and avoided conviction for doing a burnout outside the Australian Grand Prix circuit in March. Hamilton, 25, did not appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court yesterday. His lawyer, Sandip Mukerjea, said Hamilton was overseas, but he would plead guilty to the charge of improper use of a motor vehicle. Mukerjea said Hamilton had publicly apologized over the incident and suffered “embarrassment, humiliation and distress” after he was criticized in the media.
■ SOCCER
Cavalieri moves to Cesena
Liverpool goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri has completed his move to Serie A newcomers Cesena, the English Premier League club announced on Monday. The Brazilian was signed by former Reds manager Rafael Benitez from Palmeiras in July 2008. However, he was never more than back-up to first-choice Jose Reina and made just 10 appearances for the first team. The arrival last week of Middlesbrough’s Brad Jones, who qualifies as a “homegrown” player despite being an Australia international, effectively signaled the end of Cavalieri’s Anfield career.
‘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
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
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