■BOXING
Klitschko retains titles
Ukraine’s Vladimir Klitschko knocked out American Tony Thompson in the 11th round to retain his WBO and IBF world heavyweight titles on Saturday. Klitschko, who has held the IBF belt since April 2006, was fighting for the first time since taking the WBO crown off Russia’s Ruslan Ibragimov in February in New York. The 32-year-old took control of Saturday’s fight from the fourth round, before going on to inflict Thompson’s second defeat in 33 fights. Klitschko now has a record of 51 wins and three defeats. Saturday’s fight was his first in his adopted home of Hamburg, Germany, in eight years. He and brother Vitali moved there in 1996 following his Olympic Games victory. “It was a tough fight and Thompson put on a great defensive effort,” Klitschko said. “It is not so easy to defend all the titles and it has been a while since I last had a black eye, so today I really look like a boxer. I did not expect the victory to come that hard. You could see that he really wanted to win.”
■RUGBY UNION
Du Plessis receives ban
Springbok hooker Bismarck du Plessis has been banned for three weeks for careless conduct during Saturday’s 30-28 Tri-Nations victory over New Zealand. Du Plessis was cited by match officials after he appeared to make contact with the eye area of All Blacks flanker Adam Thomson in the 11th minute of the first half. However, he was cleared of charges that he eye gouged Thomson, with judicial officer Kim Garling ruling the contact was careless and not deliberate. Garling viewed video footage of the incident, heard evidence from du Plessis and received reports from the match referee and assistant referees. Du Plessis admitted his fist had come into contact with Thomson’s lower cheek, but did not come into contact with the eye itself. Television footage confirmed that there was no visible mark to the face of Thomson as a result of the contact. Garling concluded that the contact was careless and not deliberate and therefore the punishment should be at the lower end of the scale. Du Plessis will miss only one Test during his suspension, against Australia in Perth on Saturday.
■TENNIS
Chang enters Hall of Fame
Michael Chang, who captured the French Open title at the age of 17 to end a 34-year Roland Garros drought by US men, was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Saturday. Chang won the 1989 French Open just three months after his 17th birthday, defeating Sweden’s Stefan Edberg in the final, to become the event’s youngest men’s winner after having earlier toppled top seed Ivan Lendl. “It is truly an honor,” Chang said. “I will always cherish and forever remember my experiences on tour with my family, friends and fans.” Also enshrined on Saturday were sports marketing pioneer Mark McCormack and Tennis Week publisher Gene Scott, both posthumous inductees as contributors. The Hall now has 207 members. Chang went 662-312 in a 16-year career, winning 34 titles and spending seven years ranked in the top 10, peaking when he became world No. 2 in September 1996. Chang, who also reached three other Grand Slam singles finals.
■BASEBALL
Matsui resumes practice
New York Yankees outfielder-designated hitter Hideki Matsui resumed on-field batting practice on Saturday, taking 55 swings as he continues to rehab a sore left knee. Matsui, who went on the 15-day disabled list on June 27, also hit off a tee and took part in a soft-toss session for the fourth consecutive day. Matsui is batting .323 with seven homers and 34 RBIs.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
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