TENNIS
US Open site to host beds
A portion of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center was set to transform yesterday into a 350-bed temporary hospital, the USTA said, as the COVID-19 pandemic strains resources in New York City. Chris Widmaier, spokesman for the US Tennis Association, which owns the tennis center, said that the conversion of an indoor tennis facility on the venue would begin yesterday. “We’re here to help — no two ways about it,” Widmaier said. “New York is our home. We’re all in this together.”
GOLF
Augusta donates US$2m
Augusta National Golf Club, which in most years would be preparing to host the Masters, on Monday announced that it would give US$2 million to help fight the pandemic in the US’ southeast. The donation to the Community Foundation for the Central Savannah River Area features US$1 million to Augusta University for immediate expansion of coronavirus testing and US$1 million to the emergency response fund to relief efforts to the area’s most vulnerable people. “We believe Augusta National has an important responsibility to support and protect the community who has so generously and consistently supported us for many years,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said.
SOCCER
Aston Villa to fine Grealish
Aston Villa captain Jack Grealish is to be disciplined and fined for ignoring government guidance to stay at home during the pandemic, the English Premier League club said on Monday. Media had reported that West Midlands Police opened an investigation after Grealish was photographed leaving an estate in the suburbs of Birmingham on Sunday morning. The 24-year-old Grealish apologized in a video on Twitter shortly before Villa issued a statement. “I just got a call from a friend asking to go around to his and I stupidly agreed to do so,” Grealish said. “I don’t want anyone to make the same mistake that I did, so I urge everyone to stay at home.”
NFL
Safety at stadium doubted
A day after a construction worker at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, was revealed to have tested positive for COVID-19, a second worker is “presumed positive,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. Construction continues on the US$5 billion stadium in efforts to have it ready for the NFL season in the fall. “If they want to get the stadium done, they need to provide something to minimize the risk of exposing anyone,” an electrician said. Many workers are torn between safety and the need to work, the Times added.
SOCCER
Brazilian boss freed early
Former Brazilian Football Confederation president Jose Maria Marin, convicted in the sport’s global bribery scandal, became one of the highest-profile prisoners in the US to win release amid the pandemic. US District Judge Pamela Chen in Brooklyn on Monday granted the release of Marin, 87, from a federal prison camp in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. His lawyers had made an emergency request for his release, citing the virus, his medical history and his advanced age. It came amid reports that at least one inmate at the adjacent, maximum-security penitentiary has tested positive for COVID-19.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier