TENNIS
Hsu advances in Taipei
Taiwan’s Hsu Yu-hsiou yesterday defeated Japan’s Yosuke Watanuki 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the men’s singles round-of-16 at the Taipei OEC Open. Hsu next plays Venezuela’s Gonzalo Oliveira in the ATP Challenger Tour event. Taiwan’s Huang Tsung-hao lost 7-5, 6-1 to Australia’s Adam Walton. In men’s doubles, Hsu and South Korean partner Chung Yun-seong crashed out of the round-of-16, losing 6-4, 6-3 to France’s Antoine Escoffier and Benoit Paire, while Taiwan’s Tony Wu and Yi Chu-huan beat top seeds Evan King and Reese Stalder of the US 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 14-12 to advance to the quarter-finals. Taiwan’s Ray Ho and Tseng Chun-hsin lost 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 12-10 to Britain’s David Stevenson and Marcus Willis.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
BASEBALL
MLB legend Valenzuela dies
Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the National League Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, has died at age 63. The team said he died on Tuesday night at a Los Angeles hospital, but did not provide the cause or other details. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said Valenzuela would be honored during the World Series at Dodger Stadium. Last month, Valenzuela left his color commentator job on the Dodgers’ Spanish-language television broadcast without explanation. He was reported to have been hospitalized earlier this month. “God bless Fernando Valenzuela,” actor and Dodgers fan Danny Trejo wrote on social meida. Valenzuela was one of the most dominant players of his era and a wildly popular figure in the 1980s. “He is one of the most influential Dodgers ever and belongs on the Mount Rushmore of franchise heroes,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten said in a statement.
BASEBALL
Ohtani ball fetches US$4.39m
The ball hit by Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani for his 50th home run of the season sold for a record-breaking US$4.39 million, auction house Goldin said yesterday. Ohtani become the first player in MLB history to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in the same season. “We received bids from around the world, a testament to the significance of this iconic collectible and Ohtani’s impact on sports, and I’m thrilled for the winning bidder,” Goldin CEO Ken Goldin said in a statement to ESPN. The record price for a baseball was previously the US$3.05 million paid for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball of 1998.
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Holloway downplays jab
Max Holloway on Tuesday said he was not insulting his upcoming UFC 308 opponent’s ability to speak English in a recent interview. In an interview ahead of the Saturday main event in the United Arab Emirates, Holloway jumped in as featherweight champion Ilia Topuria was talking and told him to “speak.” On Tuesday, Holloway said that he was not insulting the German-born fighter’s ability to speak English. “I wasn’t teasing that he was speaking English. I know he speaks like five languages. I speak one language and I have a hard time speaking English. I have a hard time saying names. I understand how hard speaking one language is,” Holloway told MMAfighting.com. “What I was teasing was that he sounded so scripted.”
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
Seattle’s Cal Raleigh defeated Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero 18-15 in Monday’s final to become the first catcher to win the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby. The 28-year-old switch-hitter, who leads MLB with 38 homers this season, won US$1 million by capturing the special event for sluggers at Atlanta’s Truist Park ahead of yesterday’s MLB All-Star Game. “It means the world,” Raleigh said. “I could have hit zero home runs and had just as much fun. I just can’t believe I won. It’s unbelievable.” Raleigh, who advanced from the first round by less than 25mm on a longest homer tiebreaker, had his father
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