TENNIS
Taiwanese makes final
Taiwan’s Liang En-shuo and Eudice Chong of Hong Kong yesterday ousted Taiwanese duo Cho I-hsuan and Cho Yi-tsen in the women’s doubles semi-finals at the Philippine Open. The Taiwanese-Hong Kong pair won 6-3, 6-3 at the US$115,000 hard-court tournament at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila to earn a place in today’s final against US duo Quinn Gleason and Sabrina Santamaria, who defeated Taiwan’s Li Yu-yun and Sara Saito of Japan 6-2, 6-3. The Cho sisters earlier yesterday defeated Ma Yexin of China and Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-3, 6-4 in their quarter-final.
Photo: AFP
SOCCER
Senegal coach banned
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw on Wednesday was banned for five games and fined US$100,000, while Senegal and Morocco players also received suspensions following a walk-off during a chaotic Africa Cup of Nations final. The sanctions by the Confederation of African Football included fines totaling US$615,000 for the Senegalese soccer federation and US$315,000 for the Morocco federation for unsporting and improper conduct by their players, coaching staff and supporters, among other offenses. The African showpiece match on Friday last week was marred by Senegal players walking off, led by Thiaw, in protest against a late penalty awarded to hosts Morocco. The game restarted after a delay, Morocco missed the penalty, and Senegal won the African title 1-0 after extra-time.
Photo: AP
SOCCER
Chinese body bans 73
The Chinese Football Association (CFA) yesterday issued lifetime bans to 73 people, including former national team head coach Li Tie, and punished 13 top professional clubs for match-fixing and corruption. A CFA statement did not specify when the most recently announced match-fixing took place or how it worked. The punishments were made after a “systematic review” and were needed “to enforce industry discipline, purify the football environment and maintain fair competition,” the CFA wrote on social media. Li, a former Everton player who led the national team from 2019 to 2021, is already serving a 20-year prison sentence for bribery, after being sentenced in December 2024. He is now banned from all soccer activities for life, alongside 72 others, the CFA said.
FORMULA 1
Williams ready for Bahrain
Williams would be ready to test in Bahrain next month after taking the “incredibly painful” decision to miss this week’s shakedown in Barcelona, team boss James Vowles said on Wednesday. The former champions are the only absentees from the five days of running at the Circuit de Catalunya that started on Monday. “I’m pleased to say that we’ve passed all necessary tests and we’re ready to run in Bahrain, and we’ll carry out a promotional filming day ahead of it,” Vowles said in a video call. “We’re also carrying out a VTT [virtual test track] as a physical car testing rig ... we’ve been running that pretty much in tandem to Barcelona.”
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
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