BASKETBALL
Kanter to gain ‘Freedom’
Enes Kanter, the Boston Celtics center from Turkey, was planning to change his name to Enes Kanter Freedom after he gained US citizenship yesterday, The Athletic sports Web site reported. Kanter, 29, has long been a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, dubbing him the “Hitler of our century” in 2017. He has not reserved his criticism for Turkey, condemning the human rights record of China, while earlier this month voicing support for Taiwan.
FORMULA ONE
Ecclestone recalls Williams
Former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone paid tribute to the late Frank Williams as a pioneer who helped to build the modern sport. Williams, who had been quadriplegic since a 1986 car accident in France, died on Sunday aged 79, his family said in a statement. The eponymous team he founded, still the second-most successful in terms of constructors’ championships and third-oldest, was sold to Dorilton Capital last year. Williams came from an era where title-winning teams were run by their founders, men such as Enzo Ferrari and Ken Tyrrell. “Without those type of people I doubt whether Formula One would have still been going now. Probably Ferrari would have stopped and that would have been it,” 91-year-old Ecclestone said. He recalled Williams as an old friend who got over life’s financial and physical obstacles with charm and determination. “Frank was a little bit special as a person, and that sort of showed in the way he kept going,” he said. “Things were never really bad as far as Frank was concerned, he never complained about things. He got on with things the best way he could, and that’s the reason he was so successful. He was a racer through and through.”
TENNIS
Spain out of Davis Cup
Russia on Sunday knocked reigning champion Spain out of the Davis Cup to set up a quarter-final against Sweden. The Russians’ tie against the depleted Spanish team came down to a late-night doubles encounter in Madrid. Aslan Karatsev and world No. 5 Andrey Rublev won 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 against Marcel Granollers and Feliciano Lopez to win Group A and deprive the Spanish team of the chance to play in front of a home crowd in Madrid on Thursday. Karatsev and Rublev, playing under the name the Russian Tennis Federation because of sanctions against Russian sport for doping, made a bad start to the tie when Lopez beat Rublev 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening singles rubber. US Open champion Daniil Medvedev stepped up to bring the tie level with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/3) win over Pablo Carreno Busta, before the doubles decided the match.
ICE HOCKEY
Toronto tie team record
Michael Bunting, Alexander Kerfoot and William Nylander each had a goal and an assist, and the Toronto Maple Leafs completed their most successful month in franchise history by beating the Anaheim Ducks 5-1 on Sunday night. The Maple Leafs went 12-2-0 this month, becoming the eighth NHL team to win 12 games in November. Toronto also tied a franchise record with its seventh straight road victory. The team also had seven straight road wins in the 1940-1941, 1960-1961 and 2002-2003 seasons. “The mood in the room is upbeat, everyone’s happy, so it’s really fun to be a part of,” Bunting said.
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