BASEBALL
Pitcher earns marathon win
Japanese high-school pitcher Tomohiro Anraku led his team to a 4-1 win with a 159-pitch effort yesterday, just four days after throwing 232 pitches in one game at the national high school baseball tournament. The 16-year-old struck out eight batters in a complete-game win as Saibi High School advanced to the quarter-finals of the annual spring tournament. Anraku recovered after being hit on the wrist of his pitching hand by a line drive in the first inning at Koshien Stadium. He also drove in the game-winning run with a triple to the left field wall in the eighth inning. On Tuesday, the right-hander threw 232 pitches over 13 innings in a 4-3 win in which he struck out 13 batters. High pitch totals are fairly common in Japanese baseball. Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka once threw 250 pitches in a single game during a high school tournament in which he pitched 36 innings over four days.
SOCCER
Zagallo hurt in car accident
Former Brazil coach Mario Zagallo, 81, escaped with minor injuries in a car accident in Rio de Janeiro late on Thursday, police reported. Zagallo, who managed the legendary 1970 World Cup-winning Brazil team before returning to lead them at the 1998 tournament, suffered a bruise to his right eye, but was otherwise in good shape, according to a family source quoted in the Lance sports daily. Zagallo, who was also a player in the Brazil teams which won the 1958 and 1962 World Cups, was reported to have lost control of his car which hit a pillar. He was taken to hospital, but later released to return home. Nicknamed “The Old Wolf,” Zagallo also worked as assistant to then coach Carlos Alberto Parreira at the 1994 World Cup when Brazil won their fourth title in the US.
ATHLETICS
Injury still troubling Powell
Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell’s left hamstring injury which forced him to pull up during the 100m race at the London Olympics is still giving him problems more than seven months later. Powell experienced soreness during the warm-up yesterday for the 120m Stawell Gift handicap race. The 30-year-old Powell considered withdrawing from the race rather than risk further injury, but ran and finished third in his heat. However, he was unable to run at full pace, finishing in 12.24 seconds after starting the heat from scratch. Powell said he did not feel he would be fit enough to run again at Stawell even if he qualified for tomorrow’s semi-finals.
SOCCER
Gameiro scores PSG winner
Substitute Kevin Gameiro scored the only goal as Paris Saint-Germain beat Montpellier Herault 1-0 on Friday to open an eight-point lead in Ligue 1. Gameiro’s 80th-minute strike arrived just nine minutes after the 25-year-old had replaced Clement Chantome as PSG secured a morale-boosting win just four days before they tackle Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals. David Beckham, who had come on as a substitute at the same time as Gameiro, played a key role in the goal. The former England captain, showing no signs of fatigue after his four-day publicity trip to China, started the move which yielded all three points. His pass found Jeremy Menez, who in turn released Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the Swede’s pass was collected by Gameiro to score at the Parc des Princes.
‘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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