BOXING
Rigondeaux wins title
Guillermo Rigondeaux remained undefeated by beating Nonito Donaire by a unanimous decision in their world title junior featherweight fight in New York City on Saturday, handing the Filipino his first loss in 12 years. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Rigondeaux recovered nicely from an earlier knockdown to win the 12-round bout on all three judges’ scorecards: 114-113, 115-112 and 116-111. Rigondeaux retained his WBA junior featherweight crown and improved to 12-0 with eight knockouts. He also took Donaire’s WBO version of the belt. The 32-year-old Rigondeaux, who defected from Cuba two years ago, went down from left in the 10th round, but became the aggressor in the 12th, opening up a cut near Donaire’s eye at the Radio City Music Hall venue. Donaire came into the bout riding a brilliant 30-fight win streak. The 30-year-old Donaire dropped to 31-2 with 20 knockouts. Donaire’s only previous loss was March 10, 2001, in his second pro fight.
TENNIS
Almagro crushes Williams
Top-seeded Nicolas Almagro needed less than 1 hour to cruise into the final of the US men’s clay-court championship in Houston, Texas, as he defeated US wild card Rhyne Williams 6-2, 6-1 on Saturday. The Spaniard, ranked 12th in the world, will face the US’ John Isner for the title. The fifth-seeded Isner defeated champion Juan Monaco 1-6 6-4 6-4, avenging his loss in last year’s final to the Argentine. Almagro won eight of the first 11 points in his match with first-time semi-finalist Williams. He broke Williams five times. “I think I played better than yesterday,” Almagro told reporters. Isner dropped the opening set to Monaco in 33 minutes before the momentum shifted. Isner fired nine aces in the match, bringing his total to 57 over four matches and three short of the tournament record of 60 set by Pete Sampras in 2002.
TENNIS
Robredo eyes 11th title
Tommy Robredo of Spain was to aim for his 11th career title against second-seeded Kevin Anderson in the Grand Prix Hassan II final in Morocco after they both came from a set down to win their semi-finals on Saturday. Robredo beat top-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach his first final since winning on outdoor clay in Santiago, Chile, two years ago. Anderson followed up with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win against third-seeded Martin Klizan of Slovakia and was to aim for his third career title — and first on clay — in yesterday’s decider.
SOCCER
Klopp cool in ‘hairy’ situation
Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp on Saturday laughed off his decision to undergo a hair transplant. “It could have been a hairy situation, but it wasn’t because of my team’s high level of concentration,” quipped Klopp after his team, who face Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-finals, won 6-1 against Bundesliga bottom side SpVgg Greuther Furth in Furth. On Friday, the 45-year-old admitted to German daily Bild that he had a hair transplant in a Duesseldorf clinic before the start of the current season, which has sparked a debate in the German media about male grooming. “Yes, it’s true. I underwent a hair transplant. I think the results are really cool, don’t you?” said Klopp, whose coiffure attracted attention in January when his flowing locks were trimmed into a shorter hairstyle. German gossip magazine Closer was the first to report Klopp’s transplant, saying he opted for the procedure to combat a receding hairline.
TITLE CAMPAIGN: The victory sent the Monkeys to the Taiwan Series for the third time in the past four seasons as they seek their first championship since 2019 The stage is set for the Taiwan Series after the Rakuten Monkeys on Monday beat the Uni-President Lions 4-3 in Game 5 of the CPBL Challenger Series in Kaohsiung. The Monkeys, who entered the top of the ninth scoreless, tied the game with a three-run blast by Lin Chih-ping and scored the winning run in the 10th on an RBI single by Lin Li, a three-time batting champion in the CPBL. Both players entered the game as pinch hitters. “The coach told me to stay prepared as a pinch hitter in the later part of the game. My teammates had
The Ministry of Sports on Wednesday night called for the Chinese Taipei Football Association (CTFA) to address issues in Taiwanese soccer after national manager Huang Che-ming on Tuesday resigned following Taiwan’s elimination in AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Taiwan on Tuesday were thrashed 6-1 by Thailand in their Group D tie at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Taiwan finished with no points, after losing all four of their matches, eliminating them from qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup. Huang made his surprise resignation at a post-match news conference, following three losses since he took over the team from English coach Gary White in August. Huang
For a second straight day, protests by La Liga players against staging a regular-season game in Miami, Florida, in December were censored or not fully broadcast for television audiences. The television feed of Barcelona’s home game against Girona switched right before kickoff to an exterior view of the stadium, which only showed part of the field from a distance. That impeded home audiences from seeing the teams’ players standing still for the first 15 seconds in opposition to La Liga’s plan to hold the Barcelona-Villarreal game across the Atlantic on Dec. 20. The broadcasts of the initial moments after kickoff of the
HIT AND RUN: Toronto manager John Schneider got his wish that his team ‘find some slug in the air out here,’ as the Blue Jays combined to total 611m of homers Tired in Toronto, the Blue Jays slugged in Seattle. Vladimir Guerrero Jr and George Springer on Wednesday woke up the Jays, as Toronto hit five home runs to rebound from an early deficit, routing the Mariners 13-4 and closing to 2-1 in the American League Championship Series (ALCS). Toronto had 18 hits — all within the first three pitches of each at-bat. “If they give us a first pitch, the pitch that we’re looking for, we’re going to attack and we’re going to be aggressive,” Guerrero said. Seattle starter George Kirby gave up eight of the hits. “I wasn’t really executing when they got
RSS