GOLF
Hanoi tournament postponed
Vietnam’s return to top-level regional golf has been postponed until later this season in the latest unwanted development for the sport in Asia. Players have been told that next month’s inaugural Volvik-Sky Lake Vietnam Masters, set to be the richest played in the country, has been delayed. The US$500,000 tournament in Hanoi had been announced with some fanfare by the Asian Tour, which is predicting a “new boom” for professional golf in the country. No reason for the delay was given on the Asian Tour’s Web site. The Southeast Asian country last hosted an Asian Tour event five years ago in 2008. The hiccup follows the cancelation of an event on the rival OneAsia tour, as well as this year’s Singapore Open, usually one of the major events on the Asian calendar.
BASKETBALL
Cavaliers sign Bennett
The Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday signed Anthony Bennett, the No. 1 selection in the NBA draft in June last year. The Cavaliers did not release the terms of the deal, but the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported it is worth US$16.7 million over three years. Bennett entered the draft after being voted the top freshman in the Mountain West Conference last season, when he averaged 16.1 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. He made league history as the first Canadian-born player to be taken first in the draft. Bennett was born in Toronto and the scouts like him because he is a strong rebounder and has a nice scoring touch. The Cavaliers are hoping Bennett can help them forget about the loss of LeBron James, who fled the city for Miami following the 2010 season. Cleveland went 24-58 last season and have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons.
BASKETBALL
‘The Beast’ arrives in Athens
Chinese national team player Ping Shang arrived in Greece on Tuesday and took part in his new Panathinaikos team’s first practice session. “It is with great pleasure that I embrace being the first Chinese player on the team and I am thoroughly thrilled to be here,” the 29-year-old said. Ping becomes the first Chinese basketball player to play professionally in Europe, according to the Greek club. “Panathinaikos is the best team in Europe. I knew the team. I know that it has achieved everything and it is a dream come true to be getting to play for it,” Ping said. Ping was born in Harbin and stands 2.09m tall. He played college basketball in the US at Illinois Central Community College and then at Nebraska University. Due to his physical power, he was given the nickname “The Beast” in his university days.
RUGBY
Henson regrets brawl
Wales center Gavin Henson says he regrets the incident that saw him sent sprawling to the floor in a bar by a punch from Bath teammate Carl Fearns. The two players were warned and fined by English Premiership side Bath after Fearns hit Henson during a pre-season social event that took place just a month after the Welshman joined the club. Henson has challenged Fearns to a charity boxing match, but he said on Tuesday that he was eager to draw a line under the incident. “It wasn’t a great start to my Bath career and I’d like to put that behind me,” he told BBC Radio Bristol. “Hopefully I can get out on the field and people will see me as just a rugby player... I had a big headache that day and I went down quite easily. Maybe we will have a charity boxing match at the end of the year so I can get a bit of respect back.”
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
The NHL postponed the Los Angeles Kings’ home game against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday with several massive wildfires burning across the greater Los Angeles area. The Kings and Flames were scheduled to play on Wednesday night at the Kings’ downtown arena. The NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers were scheduled to host the Charlotte Hornets in the same arena last night. “Our hearts are with our entire Los Angeles community,” the Kings said in a statement. “We appreciate the hard working first responders who are diligently working to contain the fire and protect our community. We appreciate the league’s support in keeping our
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
TWO IN A WEEK: Despite an undefeated start to the year playing alongside Jiang Xinyu of China, Wu Fang-hsien is to play the Australian Open with a Russian partner Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien yesterday triumphed at the Hobart International, winning the women’s doubles title at the US$275,094 outdoor hard-court tournament, while McCartney Kessler lifted the trophy in the women’s singles. Fourth-ranked Wu and partner Jiang Xinyu of China took 1 hour, 15 minutes to defeat Romania’s Monica Niculescu and Fanny Stollar of Hungary, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) at the Hobart International Tennis Centre, their second title in a week. Wu and Jiang on Sunday won the women’s doubles title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, beating Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Sabrina Santamaria of the US. Their winning ways continued in Australia as they stretched
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