BOXING
Golovkin batters Rosado
Gennady Golovkin battered gutsy Gabriel Rosado on the way to a seventh-round technical knockout on Saturday to remain unbeaten and retain his World Boxing Association middleweight world title. Kazakhstan’s Golovkin, who lives in Germany and was fighting in the US for the second time, poured on the pressure from the opening bell until Rosado’s corner threw in the towel and referee Steve Smoger officially stopped the bout after two minutes, 46 seconds of the seventh. The hard-punching middleweight improved to 25-0 with 22 victories inside the distance. Fighting in the Theater at Madison Square Garden, the 30-year-old Golovkin notched a second-straight convincing win in front of US fans, following up his punishing fifth-round knockout of Grzegorz Proksa in September last year and positioning himself for a shot at World Boxing Council champion Sergio Martinez. Even Golovkin’s jabs rocked Rosado, who fought gamely despite the blood that was pouring from the cut over his eye and from his nose by the sixth round. Before the seventh, his corner asked if they should stop the fight and he said no. However, as the seconds ticked away in the seventh and he was unable to respond effectively to Golovkin’s punches, they called a halt.
RALLYING
Peterhansel defends title
Frenchmen Stephane Peterhansel and Cyril Despres have successfully defended their car and motorbike titles in the Dakar Rally. Peterhansel, leading the race since the second stage on Jan. 6, became the most successful driver in the world’s toughest rally with his fifth victory to go along with a record six on a motorbike. He is the first person to win the car category twice since the rally moved from Africa to South America in 2009 for security reasons. Overall, Peterhansel beat 2009 winner Giniel de Villiers of South Africa by 42 minutes, and by nearly 90 over Mini teammate, third-placed Leonid Novitskiy of Russia. Despres’ fifth title on a KTM tied him in rally history with the inaugural Dakar winner, countryman Cyril Neveu. They are second only to Peterhansel in bike titles.
RALLYING
Loeb wins Monte Carlo Rally
Nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb of France won the Monte Carlo Rally for the seventh time in the past eight races on Saturday. The Citroen driver, competing in the first of only four races this season after going into semi-retirement, won ahead of countryman Sebastien Ogier and Daniel Sordo of Spain after race organizers cancelled the day’s final two stages on safety grounds. Adverse weather forced many spectators to attempt to abandon the mountainous terrain ahead of the last two stages, causing major congestion. Loeb, who clinched the day’s third stage ahead of Ogier and Sordo, finished one minute, 39.9 seconds up on Ogier and 3:49 clear of Sordo overall.
SOCCER
Milan eye Balotelli
AC Milan vice president Adriano Galliani says the club is interested in signing Mario Balotelli, but only if Manchester City drops its asking price for the Italy striker. Balotelli, who is a Milan fan, has long been linked with a return to Italy, where he progressed through the ranks at Inter before joining City in 2010. Balotelli’s agent, Mino Raiola, spent time at Milan’s headquarters on Friday. Galliani is more hopeful of bringing Milan idol Kaka back to the San Siro and is in talks with the Real Madrid player about reducing his salary.
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
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
Switzerland’s Riola Xhemaili on Thursday scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a dramatic 1-1 draw with Finland that sent the joyous hosts through to the quarter-finals at Euro 2025, and heartbroken Finland home. Switzerland, who needed only a draw to advance based on goal-difference, finished second in Group A behind Norway to go through to the knockout round for the first time and are to face the winners of Group B, which would be world champions Spain as things stand. “I think we set ourselves a goal on the pitch, to write history, to go into the knockout stages, which we’ve never
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