BADMINTON
Taiwan’s Tai claims KL title
Rising star Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan won her first title of the year by defeating Yao Xue of China in straight sets in the final of the women’s singles event at the Malaysia Open on Sunday. Tai, ranked 12th in the world and seeded sixth in Kuala Lumpur, needed 36 minutes to beat Yao 21-17, 21-14. The 18-year-old put together an impressive string of victories over third seed Tine Baun of Denmark, top seed Saina Nehwal of India and the up-and-coming Yao to claim the title, winning all three matches without dropping a set. Tai said she will ask her parents to hold on to the US$30,000 in prize money she earned for winning the tournament. The young player, who showed her potential in a close two-set lost to eventual gold medalist Li Xuerui of China at the London Olympics last year, credited her coach for the victory, saying that the strategy he advised her to follow was effective. Her coach, Lee Wei-jen, said she would focus on preparing for the Badminton Asia Championships in Taipei in April. The victory was the Greater Kaohsiung native’s second Super Series title of her career following her victory at the Japan Open last year.
ALPINE SKIING
Neureuther wins in Wengen
Felix Neureuther of Germany won the men’s World Cup slalom in Wengen, Switzerland, on Sunday in 1 minute 50.53 seconds to bring to an end a run of three successive wins for Austrian Marcel Hirscher. The 28-year-old — recording his second win of the campaign — was 0.21 seconds quicker over the two legs than overall World Cup leader Hirscher while Croatian great Ivica Kostelic was third 0.25 seconds adrift of the winner. Hirscher posted the fastest time on the first run, but Neureuther comprehensively overhauled his five-hundredths of a second advantage on the second run. At the halfway stage of the season, Hirscher is a massive 188 points ahead of Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal in the overall standings.
ALPINE SKIING
Rebensburg takes super-G
Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany won a shortened World Cup super-G amid heavy snowfall at Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, on Sunday, while Lindsey Vonn struggled with the difficult conditions and lost her lead in the super-G standings to Tina Maze. Rebensburg, the Olympic champion in giant slalom, clocked 1 minute, 16.45 seconds down the Olympia delle Tofane course. Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria finished second, 0.33 seconds behind, and overall leader Maze of Slovenia was third, 0.34 back. Vonn, who finished seventh, dropped four points behind Maze in the super-G standings after four of seven races. Maze increased her lead in the overall standings to a massive 718 points ahead of Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, who finished 19th.
CRICKET
Warne fined A$5,000
Australian veteran Shane Warne was fined A$5,000 (US$5,250) yesterday for a code of behavior breach in the domestic Big Bash League, his second penalty this month, officials said. Cricket Australia said Warne was fined following a disciplinary hearing into his failure to list himself as captain during the Melbourne Stars’ semi-final against the Perth Scorchers in a bid to dodge a penalty for a slow over-rate. Warne had previously been issued with one strike for a slow over rate violation and a second strike this season would have resulted in an automatic one-match suspension. “Warne was found guilty of breaching Rule 5: Laws of Cricket and Spirit of the Game by Commissioner Arthur Lodge,” Cricket Australia said.
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
HSIEH ADVANCES: In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei was to play in the second round last night, but Taiwan’s Ray Ho exited in the men’s doubles It is more than 10 years since Grigor Dimitrov reached his sole Wimbledon semi-final and back then it still seemed a reasonable bet that the Bulgarian once dubbed “Baby Federer” would win a Grand Slam title. There were semi-final runs at the US Open and Australian Open after that, but it has never quite happened and despite him still being ranked No. 21, it most likely never will. Dimitrov, 34, remains one of the most stylish players on the circuit though, with his elegant single-handed backhand and smooth all-court game a rare reminder of how tennis was before the power merchants turned
Real Madrid’s FIFA Club World Cup quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund had taken three crazy turns during nine minutes of second-half stoppage time when Marcel Sabitzer chested the ball and sent a right-footed volley toward Thibaut Courtois’ post. Courtois leapt to his right, extended the long arm on his 2m frame and just managed to get his gloved fingertips on the ball, knocking it down. Courtois hit the ground as the ball bounded up. He looked skyward, planted his right hand to regain his balance, grabbed the ball with both hands on the second bounce and fell onto it with his chest. Sabitzer turned
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
RSS