TENNIS
Tseng loses Next Gen opener
Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin on Tuesday lost his opening match of the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan to tournament favorite Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 4-2, 4-2, 4-2. World No. 90 Tseng, the highest ranked Taiwanese on the ATP Tour, is seeded fifth for the year-ending tournament for 21-and-younger players. The 21-year-old, who turned professional in 2019, was yesterday to play Jack Draper of England in the round-robin portion of the event, which this year features shorter sets of first to four games and other experimental format changes. New rules for this edition include no changeovers after the first game of each set and only one sit-down per set after three games; and a 15-second serve clock after aces, double faults and unreturned serves.
BASKETBALL
Griner sent to penal colony
WNBA star Brittney Griner was last week transferred from a detention center outside Moscow and is on her way to a penal colony, her legal team said yesterday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested on Feb. 17, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. She was sentenced on Aug. 4 to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs. Neither Griner’s exact whereabouts nor her final destination were known, the legal team said in a statement, adding that in line with Russian procedures, her attorneys as well as the US embassy should be notified upon her arrival at her destination. The notification would take up to two weeks to be received.
SOCCER
Qatar a ‘mistake’: Blatter
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter said the decision to award the 2022 World Cup finals to Qatar was a “mistake.” In 2010, FIFA’s executive committee voted 14-8 for Qatar to host the tournament ahead of the US. “It was a mistake,” Blatter said in an interview with German sports news agency SID. “It was based on a decision when I was president, and therefore I bear part of the responsibility for it.” Blatter said he voted for the US to host the tournament and blamed then-UEFA president Michel Platini for swinging the vote in Qatar’s favor at the behest of then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy had recommended to Platini “that he and his people should vote for Qatar,” Blatter said. Platini has denied that version of events.
OLYMPICS
Valieva case escalates
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has referred the case of Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, WADA president Witold Banka said on Tuesday. Last month, WADA warned the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to speed up its investigation into Valieva. The Russian agency said it would not reveal the date of Valieva’s hearing nor the verdict, adding that it had made the decision to “protect the interests” of the teenager who is a “protected person.” Earlier this year, the teenager became the first woman to land a quadruple jump in Olympic competition, helping the Russian team secure gold in the team event. It later emerged she had tested positive before the Games for trimetazidine, a drug used to treat angina, but which is banned for athletes because it can boost endurance.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with