CRICKET
England extend lead to 489
England on Sunday set their sights on a series-leveling victory after dismissing Pakistan for 198 and taking a monumental 391-run first innings lead on a rain-interrupted third day of the second Test. Captain Alastair Cook surprisingly did not force the follow-on, with England reaching 98-1 at stumps for an overall lead of 489 runs on a day when rain disrupted play four times. No team has ever successfully chased down more than 418 runs to win in the history of Test cricket. Chris Woakes, who took 11 wickets in England’s first Test defeat, grabbed 4-67 and led England’s four-man seam attack. Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq (52) scored a fighting half-century, while Shan Masood and No. 10 Wahab Riaz both made 39 in an otherwise poor display by rest of the batsmen. England bowlers exploited overcast conditions and Joe Root ended with four catches at second slip after Pakistan resumed on 57-4 overnight.
GOLF
Vegas wins Canadian Open
Jhonattan Vegas on Sunday rallied to win the Canadian Open for his second PGA Tour victory, birdieing the final three holes at Glen Abbey for an eight-under 64 and one-stroke victory. The 29-year-old Venezuelan Olympic player began the day five strokes behind leader Brandt Snedeker and four behind US Open champion Dustin Johnson and Canadian amateur Jared du Toit. Vegas had five straight birdies on holes two through six, bogeyed the par-four eighth and also birdied the par-five 13th. He then birdied the par-five 16th, par-four 17th and par-five 18th to post at 12-under 276. Johnson, Jon Rahm and Martin Laird tied for second. Johnson eagled the 16th and birdied the 18th for a 69. Laird finished with two pars in a 67. Rahm birdied 16 and 18 in a 67.
TENNIS
Konta wins maiden title
Britain’s Johanna Konta on Sunday captured her first WTA title in style, beating former world No. 1 Venus Williams 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford, California. Konta, ranked 18th in the world and seeded third, appeared on her way to an emphatic victory in her first career final after racing to a 4-1 lead with two breaks of serve in the second set. However, Williams, seeking her 50th career title, won six of the next seven games to knot the match at a set apiece. Konta, 25, fired 12 aces to three from Williams and did not let the seven-time Grand Slam champion’s resurgence rattle her. She broke Williams in the third game of the final set and took a 3-1 lead with her 10th ace of the match. She broke Williams again to serve for the match at 5-2 and, despite a couple of nervy missteps in the final game, sealed the victory on her third match point.
TENNIS
Monfils tops Karlovic at Citi
Gael Monfils on Sunday ended a two-and-a-half-year title drought by overcoming Ivo Karlovic 5-7, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 in the final of the Citi Open in Washington. The win was Monfils’ first victory since February 2014 in Montpellier, France, and came at a place where two of the players he looked up to — Yannick Noah and Arthur Ashe — had won before him. “I grew up with those names,” Monfils told reporters. “Definitely, to have my name next to them, it’s priceless. It meant a lot for me. I’m very happy, very proud.”
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
Taiwan on Wednesday finished with 15 medals at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in Hong Kong, taking home four gold, five silver and six bronze medals across the age group divisions. Taiwan ranked third on the medal table after South Korea with 17 golds and the US with eight golds at the five-day competition. “Your athletes have proven themselves as the best in the world,” World Taekwondo president Choue Chung-won said at the closing ceremony of the martial art contest that was attended by a record 1,727 athletes from around the world. On the first day of the competition at the Hong Kong
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
Taiwan’s Lin Cheng-jing won a bronze medal in the clean and jerk in the women’s under-49 kg division at the 2024 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Bahrain on Saturday. Lin won her first medal at a World Weightlifting Championships for lifting 107kg in the clean and jerk in her weight class, 2kg more than Rosegie Ramos of the Philippines. However, Ramos won bronze for the combined lift after topping Lin by 5kg in the snatch. Ri Song-gum of North Korea won gold in the division’s combined lift with a total of 213kg, while Xiang Linxiang of China took silver with
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