BADMINTON
China’s Wang defeats Tai
China’s Wang Shixian overcame Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan 21-23, 21-12, 21-15 to reach her first All-England Open Badminton Championships final in two years. Wang had a 6-2 winning record over her opponent prior to their semi-final, but Tai sensed an upset when she produced a delightful backhand drop to take the opener. However, Wang rallied to create pivotal openings in the next two games before criticizing her performance, as well as the match officials’, following her 71-minute victory. “I’m really not happy with the performance, something went wrong with my tactics today,” Wang said. She went on to criticize the English umpire and line judge and, despite her opponent Tai heralding from Taiwan, Wang added that she “wished the umpires could be fair to the Asian players.” Wang will not have to face top-ranked Carolina Marin in the final, after the defending champion lost 11-21, 21-16, 21-14 to Nozomi Okuhara of Japan.
BOXING
Braehmer defends title
Juergen Braehmer on Saturday night defeated fellow German Eduard Gutknecht by unanimous decision for the second time to retain his WBA light heavyweight title. The judges awarded it 116-111, 116-111 and 118-110 in favor of the 37-year-old southpaw, who was clearly better in the earlier rounds and was then able to withstand a spirited rally from the challenger. “It was fine for the first six rounds, I was clearly in control, but then from the sixth or seventh I felt a pain in my left hand and, you know how it is, you don’t want to take any risks. The opponent senses that too,” said Braehmer, who had been landing the cleaner blows. Braehmer had a cut above his left eye in the ninth round from a clash of heads. The blood encouraged Gutknecht, who improved, but his punches were wild or delivered close in, and he had a point deducted in the 10th after a number of warnings. Braehmer improved to 48-2 (37 KOs) after making the sixth defense of the vacant title he won by defeating Marcus Oliveira in December 2013.
SOCCER
Pearce plays for Longford
Former England captain Stuart Pearce on Saturday came out of retirement at the age of 53 to help out a non-league team dubbed “the worst in Britain.” Leftback Pearce came on as a second-half substitute for Longford AFC, who went into Saturday’s match having lost 22 out of 22 league games, with a goal difference of minus-190. The beleaguered club brought in Pearce in a bid to boost morale and help turn the tide. Performances have improved since Pearce’s signing was announced in January, but the defeats kept coming. Despite the England legend’s appearance for Longford in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two, the 13th tier of English soccer, they still lost 1-0 to visitors Wotton Rovers, thanks to a penalty.
SOCCER
Van der Sar saves first club
Former Netherlands and Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar on Saturday came out of retirement to play for his first club, VV Noordwijk, marking the occasion by saving a penalty. The amateur club were left without a goalkeeper after a spate of injuries and 45-year-old Van der Sar agreed to step in for a one-off game, almost five years since he last played professional soccer. On Saturday, Van der Sar starred in a 1-1 draw against CVV de Jodan Boys by diving to his left to save a penalty, a moment captured by a fan behind the goal who posted the footage online.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
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