TENNIS
Chan advances in Seoul
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Danish partner Clara Tauson last night dominated France’s Lois Boisson and the Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens to advance to the women’s doubles quarter-finals at the Korea Open in Seoul. Chan and Tauson won 6-2, 6-2 in just over an hour. They are today to face third seeds Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and England’s Olivia Nicholls in the rain-delayed tournament. Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jaqueline Cristian of Romania are to play the Czech duo of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova. Hsieh and Cristian on Monday survived top seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and Hungary’s Fanny Stollar 7-6 (7/2), 6-4. Fourth seeds Wu Fang-hsien of Taiwan and Japan’s Miyu Kato were knocked out in the opening round 6-3, 4-6, 10-4 by the Chinese pairing of Yang Zhaoxuan and Xu Yifan. In women’s singles, Taiwan’s Liang En-shuo exited in the second round of qualifiers following a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Caty McNally of the US.
Photo: Screen grab from Chan Hao-ching’s Facebook page
SOCCER
Messi to stay with Miami
Inter Miami and Lionel Messi have agreed to extend the Argentine superstar’s contract to remain in Major League Soccer beyond next year’s FIFA World Cup, a source close to the matter said late on Wednesday. The contract extension would ensure that the 38-year-old remains in competitive action until and after the World Cup hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. An official announcement is expected within the next two weeks, the source said, and would mean Messi ending his career in the US league. Messi moved to Inter Miami in 2023 after an unhappy stay at Paris Saint-Germain, after a stellar run at Barcelona.
ATHLETICS
N Korea eyes Asian Games
Japan is to consider whether to allow North Korean athletes to participate in next year’s Asian Games in Nagoya after the North expressed its intention to take part, the Japanese government said yesterday. The neighboring countries have no diplomatic ties, and North Korea was a no-show when Japan last hosted the Games in 1994. Japan has banned North Korean citizens from entering the country since 2016 over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. However, it has allowed North Korean athletes to visit to take part in international sports events. Kyodo News cited a source familiar with the matter as saying North Korea had expressed its intention to send about 150 athletes to compete in 17 events. North Korea competed at the most recent Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in 2023, winning 11 gold medals and 39 overall.
SOCCER
Monaco strip down on flight
Take off had a different meaning for AS Monaco players when they were unable to fly to Bruges as planned for a UEFA Champions League match. The air-conditioning on the plane malfunctioned and led to excessively hot conditions. So the players took their clothes off. Videos posted online by Monaco player Jordan Teze showed sweat-soaked players stripping down to just their underwear to deal with the heat and some fanning themselves. They then all stepped off the plane and onto the tarmac at Nice airport on Wednesday afternoon. Monaco decided to fly out instead yesterday morning for safety reasons, coach Adi Hutter said.
‘DEVASTATED’: Argentina’s win was a reversal of their 28-24 defeat last week, with Australian forward Fraser McReight adding that ‘we did the same thing last week’ Argentina flyhalf Santiago Carreras punished an undisciplined Australia with 23 points off the tee as the Pumas held on grimly for a 28-26 win in Sydney yesterday to breathe new life into their Rugby Championship campaign. A try-fest beckoned in afternoon sunshine at Sydney Football Stadium, but Argentina needed only one through captain Julian Montoya, with Carreras doing the damage with seven penalties and a conversion in front of a sell-out crowd. A week after letting a 14-point lead slip in a 28-24 defeat to Australia in Townsville, Argentina saw most of a 21-point advantage erased in the final quarter as the
Captain Vijay Kumar led the way yesterday as the Hsinchu Titans claimed the Taiwan Premier League title at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山), beating PCCT by 27 runs. The weather was a topic again, but not the rain that played a role in previous matches in the often-delayed tournament. Kumar, who made 80 not out from 63 deliveries, and teammate Vishwajit Kumar (58 from 43) rescued the Titans from a precarious state at the end of the power play in the T20 match. The visitors were put in to bat and struggled to 26-3 as PCCT
China’s state-run People’s Daily newspaper on Monday published an essay about Chinese basketball it said was written by LeBron James, but a representative for the NBA star said on Thursday that the article was based on a series of interviews. The paper, better known as the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, had said James authored the essay, “Basketball is a Bridge that Connects Us,” a tribute to Chinese players and fans of the sport written in the first person. “LeBron James Pens an Article in the People’s Daily,” read a post published on the newspaper’s official WeChat account. On Thursday, a representative
San Francisco Giants pitcher Teng Kai-wei impressed against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday despite an 8-1 loss in the opener of the team’s nine-game road trip. Teng, the only Taiwanese pitcher active in MLB, struck out five while allowing two hits and one walk over four innings at Chase Field to finish with a no decision, as the teams were tied 1-1 when he finished his outing. He surrendered the lone run of his outing in the bottom of the first, which began with a walk, a hit-by-pitch and two strikeouts. Diamondbacks leadoff hitter Geraldo Perdomo advanced to third on
RSS