TABLE TENNIS
Lin and Cheng out
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju and Cheng I-ching were defeated in the mixed doubles semi-finals of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Europe Smash in Malmo, Sweden, on Friday.
The Taiwanese duo, ranked 11th in the world, lost to world No. 5 Chinese pair Lin Shidong and Kuai Man 5-11, 5-11, 9-11. Lin and Cheng reached the semi-finals after beating the world’s top-ranked South Korean mixed doubles pair Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin in the quarterfinals on Thursday, raising expectations for the Taiwanese duo. However, they were unable to build on their momentum from the previous round. With Lin and Cheng eliminated, the only Taiwanese table tennis player still in the competition is 18-year-old Peng Yu- han, who faces Japan’s Miyu Nagasaki in the women’s singles round of 16.
SWIMMING
Ramsay-Peaty deflated
Britain’s world record holder Adam Ramsay-Peaty trailed home 20th in the 50m breaststroke heats at the European championships in Paris on Friday and said he was frustrated and confused by his continuing poor form.
The triple Olympic gold medalist, 31, was eighth in his heat with a time of 27.34 seconds. His world record, set in July 2017, stands at 25.95. Italian Nicolo Martinenghi, the reigning 100m breaststroke Olympic champion, won the heat in 26.65 and was second fastest overall behind compatriot Simone Cerasuolo in 26.20.
Ramsay-Peaty was fifth in the 100m breaststroke final earlier in the week, the world record holder’s first defeat in the event at a European aquatics championship, after having to settle for bronze at the Commonwealth Games in the 100m and 50m. “These performances are not good enough at all. Even now I’m like it’s so bad that I’m confused,” he said on Friday. “It’s very frustrating, but I’m hoping we can figure it out.”
Soccer
Giuliani defends Infantino
Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and executive director of the White House Task Force for this year’s World Cup, voiced his support for embattled FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Friday, calling Infantino’s critics jealous. Infantino has faced widespread criticism over his plan to sell a stake in the World Cup to private investors. He quashed the idea late last month after all of the outrage, but the plan has nonetheless cost him support for his re-election bid next year. Among those who have voiced their displeasure with Infantino or announced their refusal to back his reelection are UEFA, CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation, plus the football federations of England, Wales, the Republic of Ireland and New Zealand. Giuliani said politics and pettiness are the true reasons behind the outcry. “It’s politics. I’ve seen this before,” Giuliani said. “I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted [US] President Donald Trump from a political perspective. I’ve seen it before when they’ve targeted other people,” he said. “People are jealous when people are very high achievers — and what Gianni Infantino has done for FIFA is he’s taken them to a whole new level that probably they didn’t think was possible. Look, we are all human beings, and I think it’s one of those things where sport has become monetized and commercialized,” Giuliani added.
ON TILT: Four time Grand Slam winner Aryna Sabalenka dropped the first set in a tiebreak against Russian player Ekaterina Alexandrova, who won five of the last six points Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) on Saturday advanced to the women’s doubles quarter-finals of the Toronto Masters with Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko, while in the women’s singles world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula were upset in fourth-round matches. Hsieh and Ostapenko defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Quinn Gleason of the US in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (7/1), while Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien (吳芳嫺) and Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) were knocked out in the round of 16. Hsieh and Ostapenko are scheduled to play Ann Li of the US and Denmark’s Clara Tauson today. Four-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka suffered a blow to her
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Sunday advanced to the women’s doubles semi-finals at the WTA 1000 Toronto Masters, edging past an unseeded pair in straight sets. The fifth-seeded duo of Hsieh and Ostapenko rallied from an early deficit in the opening set before prevailing 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in their quarter-final against Ann Li of the US and Clara Tauson of Denmark in more than 90 minutes on hard court. Hsieh and Ostapenko were playing together for the first time in six months as a warm-up for the US Open later this month. They had
Freddie Freeman apparently avoided serious injury on Wednesday when the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first baseman took a frightening tumble down the stairs and into the visitors’ dugout while trying to catch a foul popup in the eighth inning. Freeman was not sure whether he would play when the Dodgers begin an important four-game series with the MLB-leading Milwaukee Brewers, but he is grateful his freefall to the dugout floor was not worse. “I didn’t hit my head, so that was the key part there,” Freeman said. “I am sore. Kneecaps are sore. Shoulder is sore. Hand sore. Wrist sore. I mean, I
Surfing’s 11-time world champion Kelly Slater showed he still has what it takes to foot it with the best at the Tahiti Pro on Saturday, scoring the highest heat total of the first day in huge and wild waves. The 54-year-old, who retired from full-time competition in 2024, clocked up an excellent two-wave total of 16.23 out of 20 to advance to the second round and into a mouth-watering match-up with Brazil’s three-time uworld champion, Gabriel Medina. “It’s sort of like riding a bike, but you forget how gnarly Teahupo’o is,” said Slater, who has won the event five times in 20
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