Taiwanese table tennis players Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching on Saturday clinched victory to reach yesterday’s mixed doubles semi-finals at the World Table Tennis Championships Finals.
The duo defeated Lee Ho Ching and Ho Kwan Kit of Hong Kong 11-7, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 in the quarter-finals in Houston.
Lin and Cheng won the first two games, but their opponents came back to clinch the third, which was also the first the Taiwanese duo had lost in the tournament.
Photo: AP
Lin and Cheng opened the fourth game with a 7-2 lead, then secured four match points when leading 10-6 and broke the first one.
The world No. 2 pair, who won bronze medals in mixed doubles in the Tokyo Olympics, are to play the world No. 36 duo of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha from China. The two teams have not played against each other in previous matches.
The winners would later in the day face the victors of a match between Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata, and the pairing of China’s Lin Gaoyuan and Lily Zhang of the US.
Lin Gaoyuan and Zhang’s partnership was touted as celebrating the 50th anniversary of “ping-pong diplomacy,” in which a Chinese and an American player met at the 1971 world championships, helping to mend relations between the countries.
As there would not be a match for third place in Houston, Lin and Cheng would at least secure bronze medals.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
Juventus on Sunday stopped Inter from replacing SSC Napoli at the top of Serie A by beating their fierce rivals 1-0 and moving into the UEFA Champions League positions. Francisco Conceicao made sure that Napoli would stay two points ahead of reigning champions Inter by classily tucking home the winning goal 16 minutes before the end of an entertaining contest in Turin. Portugal attacker Conceicao netted his fourth goal of the season in all competitions after brilliant work from Randal Kolo Muani to give Juve a third straight league win. Juve are in fourth place on 46 points, ahead on goal-difference from SS
Eugenie Bouchard already has her own signature pickleball paddle. She is No. 17 in the pickleball rankings and constantly appears on the main court at events because she is always a big draw. However, just to be absolutely clear, she is not retired from tennis. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist still practices on the tennis court, still competes at tennis events and still has a Women’s Tennis Association ranking (No. 1,288). The Canadian standout just has a new sport that has caught her attention. Bouchard is one of several familiar tennis names — like Jack Sock and Donald Young — crossing over to
Stephen Curry and Jayson Tatum on Sunday combined for 27 points as Shaquille O’Neal’s “Team Shaq” cruised to victory in the new-look NBA All-Star game in San Francisco. Curry, playing on his home court at Golden State’s Chase Center, reeled off a string of trademark three-pointers to help his star-studded lineup coast to a 41-25 victory over Charles Barkley’s “Team Chuck.” Boston Celtics star Tatum finished with 15 points after delivering a dominant performance in a starting lineup that also included Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard and James Harden. Team Shaq’s preparations for the game had been dealt a blow shortly before tip-off when
RSS