GOLF
Ko wins, Tseng ties for sixth
World No. 6 Lydia Ko of New Zealand won the Swinging Skirts World Ladies Masters tournament yesterday after outplaying So Yeon-ryu of South Korea over the final five holes. Taiwan’s Yani Tseng carded five birdies and one bogey for a four-under 68 that left her tied for sixth at two-under 214, one of her best finishes of the year. The 16-year-old Ko shot a three-under 69 in Sunday’s final round to finish at 11-under 205 for the tournament and win her first title since turning pro in October. Ryu, who started the final round with a one-shot lead over Ko, was locked in a tense battle with the New Zealander and still had a lead after 13 holes, but fell off the pace with a double bogey on the par-three 14th hole and a bogey on the par-three 17th. The Swinging Skirts is a stop on the Korea Ladies Professional Golf Tour and the Taiwan Ladies Professional Golf Association.
BOXING
Sturn claims Barker’s belt
Felix Sturm defeated defending champion Darren Barker with a second-round TKO to take the Briton’s IBF middleweight title on Saturday. Former WBA champion Sturm twice knocked Barker to the canvas and looked set to finish him off when the towel was thrown in. Referee Mark Nelson called it off 2 minutes, 9 seconds into the round. “I hit him well with my swings,” said Sturm, a German of Bosnian descent. Barker, who pointed at his hip after going down the second time, was limping and clearly in major discomfort. The Londoner has had two hip replacement operations. He was taken to a hospital directly after the bout to assess the extent of his injury. “It’s good that it was short. My wife didn’t have to suffer so much,” said Sturm, who dedicated his win to her. “She deserves this belt more than I.” He became the first German to win four world titles and improved to 38-3-2 (17 KO), while Barker dropped to 26-2 (16 KO).
BOXING
Malignaggi defeats Judah
Paulie Malignaggi won a unanimous decision against Zab Judah in a welterweight bout on Saturday between two Brooklyn-born fighters billed the “Battle of Brooklyn.” The judges scored it 116-111, 117-110 and 117-110 in favor of Malignaggi (33-5) in a fight that had many in the crowd at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center booing the lack of action. The 33-year-old Malignaggi landed 230 of his 607 punches thrown, including 122 of 376 jabs. It was the third loss in four fights for the 36-year-old Judah (42-9), who is a five-time champion in the light welterweight and welterweight divisions. Judah landed 121 of 498 punches, including 67 of 386 jabs. Malignaggi was dropped briefly in the second when Judah connected with a hard left hand, but he came back swinging.
BOXING
Rigondeaux keeps titles
WBA and WBO super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux retained his titles with a 12-round, unanimous decision over former two-time bantamweight champ Joseph Agbeko on Saturday. All three judges had Rigondeaux winning every round, with identical scores of 120-108. Rigondeaux, a Cuba native living in Miami, delivered a solid, yet conservative, performance. The two-time Olympic gold medalist is seen as one of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters, but draws criticism for his style. He won cheers from the crowd in the sixth round by landing five straight powerful left crosses to Agbeko’s midsection, but otherwise was content to stay on the outside and pepper his Ghanaian opponent with right jabs and left hooks before dancing out of danger.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Francesco Bagnaia yesterday profited from a mistake by rookie Pedro Acosta to win the Japan MotoGP sprint and close the gap on overall championship leader, Jorge Martin. Spaniard Acosta crashed with four laps to go while leading the field at Motegi, allowing defending world champion Bagnaia to take first ahead of Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. Spain’s Martin finished fourth and saw his overall lead over Italian Bagnaia in the championship standings cut to 15 points. “I am very happy because with these conditions, it’s not very easy to win and gain points,” Bagnaia said after a sprint race that took place under
Naomi Osaka is braced for a “battle” after yesterday setting up a clash with Coco Gauff in the round-of-16 of the China Open, while top seed Aryna Sabalenka also marched on. Osaka defeated 60th-ranked American Katie Volynets 6-3, 6-2 and next faces Gauff in a showdown of former US Open champions in Beijing. World No. 2 Sabalenka swatted aside Ashlyn Krueger 6-2, 6-2 for her 14th consecutive victory and plays another American in 24th-ranked Madison Keys. Looking ahead to the Gauff meeting, four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka said: “She’s very athletic, obviously.” “For me, my strongest traits are being aggressive and also my serve,
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