BOXING
Zhang knocks out Joyce
Chinese heavyweight Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang knocked out Britain’s Joe Joyce in the third round of their rematch at London’s Wembley Arena on Saturday. Forty-year-old Zhang sent his 38-year-old opponent sprawling to the canvas with a huge right hook to his jaw. Joyce got back to his feet and received oxygen after the referee waved off the fight. Zhang, the 2008 Olympic silver medalist who stopped Joyce in six rounds at London’s Copper Box in April last year, is the WBO’s mandatory challenger for Ukraine’s WBO, IBO, IBF and WBA champion Oleksandr Usyk. “Like I said before the fight, it’s going to end sooner than the first one,” Zhang, now with a record of 25 wins with one defeat and one draw, told the crowd through a translator.
SOCCER
Rapinoe retires regret-free
Megan Rapinoe is to bid farewell to international soccer with no regrets about her time on and off the pitch, she told a news conference on Saturday ahead of her last game, a friendly against South Africa yesterday. The striker, who earned recognition not only for being a two-time world champion but also for her activism, gained fame for her advocacy of LGBT+ rights, solidarity with NFL player Colin Kaepernick and famously confronting former US President Donald Trump. “The off-field stuff is what is most meaningful [to me], and I think what I’m most proud of leaving this team and leaving the game,” she said. “Being so vocal about racial justice or gay rights, I feel like the team really stepped into it and took upon itself to be so much more of what we were on the field and really focus on that.”
TENNIS
Sakkari’s title wait over
Second-seeded Maria Sakkari on Saturday ended her four-year wait for a second WTA title, beating Caroline Dolehide 7-5, 6-3 to win the 1000 level Guadalajara Open. Greece’s Sakkari, ranked ninth in the world, had come up empty in six finals since her breakthrough victory in Rabat in 2019. That included the Guadalajara final last year, when she lost to the US’ Jessica Pegula, and a loss to Coco Gauff in the final at Washington this year. An emotional Sakkari thanked her coach of five years. “We’ve heard so many bad things — that I will never win a title, that I’m a top-five player with only winning one title, that was very hard for me to overcome,” she said. “I’m so happy that I did it here this week.”
SOCCER
Kane beats Bayern record
Harry Kane on Saturday bettered a record first set by legendary German striker Gerd Mueller when he hit a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 7-0 rout of VfL Bochum, which took the champions back to the top of the Bundesliga. Kane fired in Bayern’s second just 13 minutes in, before scoring a penalty in the second half. He added a third with two minutes remaining when he tapped in a low cross from Leroy Sane. With six goals in five games, the England captain now has more goals in his first five league matches than any other player in Bayern’s history, beating the mark of Mueller (1965), Miroslav Klose (2007) and Mario Mandzukic (2012), who all scored five times in their first five games for the club. “I’m happy to play my part and I hope there will be many more to come. So far so good,” Kane said.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
The Major League Baseball World Series trophy is headed to Los Angeles, but the party is extending all the way to Japan. People milled around local train stations yesterday morning in Tokyo as newspaper extras were ready to roll off the presses, proclaiming Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto as world champions along with their Dodgers teammates after a stirring Game 5 victory over the New York Yankees. The 30-year-old is a national hero in Japan whose face adorns billboards and TV adverts all over the country. Ohtani this year became the first player in history to hit 50 home runs and
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop