SOCCER
Las Palmas fire coach
UD Las Palmas have become the first La Liga club to fire their coach this season after Paco Herrera paid the price for Sunday’s 4-0 thrashing at Getafe, which left the Canary Islands club second from bottom. Herrera, 61, who has also had stints in charge at clubs including Real Zaragoza and RC Celta de Vigo and was an assistant to Rafael Benitez at Liverpool, helped Las Palmas win promotion to Spain’s top flight last term after a 13-year absence. However, they have only five points from eight matches and the club said on their Web site they needed a “boost” after the woeful showing against Getafe. There was no immediate word on a successor. Las Palmas have not had a sustained run in the top flight since the 1980s and were playing in the third tier of Spanish soccer less than a decade ago. The club said they wished Herrera “every professional success in the future, conscious of the fact that he wrote one of the happiest pages in the history of this club.”
SOCCER
Sporting, Granada draw 3-3
Real Sporting de Gjion scored two late goals after Granada had been reduced to nine men to claim a dramatic 3-3 draw in Gijon, Spain, in La Liga on Monday. Sporting trailed by two goals until Nacho Cases gave them hope with a goal in the 88th minute after Granada lost Hugo Miguel to his second booking. That sparked a furious push by the hosts, and after Granada’s Matheus was dismissed for a second bookable offense, substitute Miguel Herrero netted the equalizer six minutes into second-half stoppage-time. Granada squandered a great performance by forward Isaac Success, who netted his side’s second and also played a part in two more goals as the visitors built a two-goal lead.
TENNIS
Karlovic beats Seppi
Ivo Karlovic added 17 aces to his all-time record total while defeating Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in the first round of the Erste Bank Open on Monday. The seventh-seeded Croat held serve throughout and broke Seppi at 3-2 in the second set for the only break in the match. Karlovic has now hit 10,306 aces in his career. Earlier, Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic defeated Austrian wild-card Gerald Melzer 6-4, 6-3. The 40th-ranked Vesely dropped serve once in the opening set on the only break point he faced. He will next play second seed Kevin Anderson or Andreas Haider-Maurer of Austria. Radek Stepanek won another Czech-Austrian duel, beating Dennis Novak 6-4, 6-3, while Lukas Rosol became the third Czech player to advance after defeating Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-4, 7-6 (7/2). Also, Ernests Gulbis of Latvia ended his five-match losing streak by defeating Austrian qualifier Lucas Miedler 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. The 522nd-ranked Miedler appeared in his first main-draw match at ATP level. David Ferrer of Spain is the top-seeded player at the 41st edition of the Austrian indoor event.
GOLF
Spieth to headline Singapore
Organizers say PGA Tour Player of the Year Jordan Spieth will headline the Singapore Open in January, when the tournament returns after a three-year absence. Spieth, who won this year’s Masters and US Open, will be looking to join a list of big-name Singapore Open winners, including three-time title holder Adam Scott, Ian Poulter, Angel Cabrera and defending champion Matteo Manassero. Spieth, 22, will play in Singapore for the first time. “I know the SMBC Singapore Open is one of Asia’s leading events and I couldn’t be more excited to add it to my 2016 playing schedule,” he said.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
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