BASEBALL
MLB stars to play Taiwan
Major League Baseball will send a team of All-Stars to Taiwan in November for a series of exhibition games. The MLB All-Stars will play five games against Taiwan’s national team starting on Nov. 2, MLB announced on Thursday. Games will take place in Taipei (Nov, 2), Greater Taichung (Nov. 3 and Nov. 4) and Greater Kaohsiung (Nov. 5 and Nov. 6). MLB and the players are also in talks to have Oakland and Seattle play regular-season games in Japan next season.
TENNIS
Tsonga, Gasquet advance
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet won in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals of the Moselle Open on Thursday, while Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany lost to a qualifier. The top-seeded Tsonga beat French qualifier Mathieu Rodrigues 6-3, 6-4 to line up a match with Nicolas Mahut, who outlasted 2003 champion Arnaud Clement 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in an all-French encounter. The second-seeded Gasquet cruised past Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-2, 6-1 and next plays Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. However, there was an upset for seventh-seeded Kohlschreiber, who lost to Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling 6-4, 7-5. Sijsling now meets fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.
RUGBY WORLD CUP
Fiji coach defends hakas
Fiji coach Sam Domoni said critics of the famous haka could break-dance before games if they like, but they could not stand in the way of Pacific tradition. Domoni was speaking after South Africa coach Peter de Villiers said the pre-match war dances were becoming over-exposed during the World Cup and were in danger of losing their impact. Fiji captain Deacon Manu dismissed de Villiers as a “bit of a spin doctor” and said the hakas would give important pointers about both teams.
GOLF
Solheim Cup matchups set
US captain Rosie Jones has put her faith in big hitters Cristie Kerr and Michelle Wie in the opening series of foursomes as the US begin their title defense of the Solheim Cup against Europe at Killeen Castle in Ireland. Jones picked world No. 3 Kerr and Wie, unbeaten on her debut two years ago, as her top pairing and they face the Swedish duo of Maria Hjorth and Anna Nordqvist. Paula Creamer and Brittany Lincicome, who hurt her right wrist landing a huge fish a couple of weeks ago, are in match two against England’s Melissa Reid and Karen Stupples. European captain Alison Nicholas opted for a blend of youth and experience as she paired up Catriona Matthew, a veteran of six Solheims, and rookie Azahara Munoz. They take on Stacy Lewis and Angela Stanford.
GOLF
Liam Bond leads in Australia
Welsh 41-year-old rookie Liam Bond, who only escaped qualifying school at the 16th attempt last year, took a one-shot lead at the Austrian Open on Thursday. He enjoyed seven birdies, with four coming in the final five holes, against one bogey, for a six-under 66 to lead by one from Denmark’s Thomas Norret, Australian Daniel Gaunt, Dutchman Joost Luiten and Steve Webster of England. It was a timely round for Bond, who has yet to record a top 20 finish this season and who came into the tournament on a run of five successive missed cuts. At 193 on The Race to Dubai order of merit, Bond still faces a huge struggle to keep his card for next year. Of the three Walker Cup players making their professional debuts in the event, Andy Sullivan had the best day with a level-par 72.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS