TENNIS
Hsieh advances to quarters
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Monday beat Japan’s Miyu Kato and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi 6-3, 6-3 at the Madrid Open to advance to the quarter-finals. They are today to play Taylor Townsend of the US and Leylah Fernandez of Canada, who beat Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova and Russia’s Yana Sizikova 6-3, 7-5. In women’s singles, world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka made light work of 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva with a 6-3, 6-1 win to reach the quarter-finals. “Of course I’m happy with the win. I wish I would have played at Madrid when I was 16,” Sabalenka said.
SOCCER
Wolfsburg beat Arsenal
VfL Wolfsburg are to play Barcelona in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final after Pauline Bremer’s last-gasp winner sealed a dramatic victory against Arsenal on Monday. The Germans won 3-2 in the semi-final second leg at the Emirates Stadium, as Bremer’s goal in the closing seconds of extra-time sealed a 5-4 aggregate success. Stina Blackstenius put Arsenal ahead, with Jill Roord and Alexandra Popp netting for Wolfsburg before Jennifer Beattie leveled for the Gunners, setting the stage for Bremer’s decisive goal. “Credit to Arsenal, they’ve been through a lot as a team, but they made it super hard,” Roord said. “At the end they could have won, we could have won. We were the lucky ones.”
BOXING
IBA lashes out at ‘hyenas’
International Boxing Association (IBA) president Umar Kremlev on Monday blasted the national federations who broke away from the body to form a new world boxing federation, describing the officials as “black sheep” and “hyenas” who do not belong in sports. A group including the US and Britain announced a new federation — World Boxing — last month in a breakaway aimed at securing the troubled sport’s Olympic future while seeking recognition from the International Olympic Committee. With representatives from Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sweden and the US, World Boxing has an interim executive board and said there would be no bar on any national federation being a member of both bodies. Russian Kremlev said the IBA is the only international association that governs the sport. “We say that there’s always a black sheep in our family, there are always people who go their own ways... Someone tried to register an international association from their garage, why should we even consider them,” he told a news conference.
SOCCER
Fan with chainsaw caught
A soccer fan wielding a chainsaw was arrested during riots at a CAF Champions League match in Tunis, a source at the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior said on Monday. The return leg of the quarter-final between Tunisia’s Esperance and Algeria’s JS Kabylie at the Rades Stadium on Saturday was interrupted by violence, which caused a 40-minute delay to the second half. Esperance fans clashed with security forces and lit fireworks on the terraces. Local reports said that a warehouse at the stadium was looted and some equipment, including a chainsaw, was stolen. “We can confirm the arrest of a fan holding the chainsaw,” said the ministry source, who requested anonymity.
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
Memphis Grizzlies forward Brandon Clarke, 29, has died, the NBA team said in a statement on Tuesday, while the family of Jason Collins, the first openly gay man to play in a major US pro sports league, announced the former Grizzlies and Brooklyn Nets player had died after a battle with brain cancer. “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of Brandon Clarke,” the Grizzlies said in a statement posted on social media. “Brandon was an outstanding teammate and an even better person whose impact on the organization and the greater Memphis community will not be forgotten.” The statement did not provide
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