CRICKET
Hat-trick first for women
Australia’s Alana King claimed the first hat-trick in the history of the women’s competition at Old Trafford on Saturday, a fortnight after the feat narrowly eluded her in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The leg-spinner claimed 4-15 to fire the Trent Rockets to a 43-run victory against the Manchester Originals who, chasing 120 for victory, were bundled out for 76. King dismissed Cordelia Griffith, Sophie Ecclestone and Kate Cross in successive deliveries to claim the hat-trick. The 26-year-old paid tribute to her idol and deceased Australia spin great Shane Warne after her stellar debut in the 100-ball competition. “I hope he’s looking down and pretty proud that I’ve spun a few today, it’s just a special place Old Trafford, and I’m glad I could take some poles here,” King said.
SOCCER
Zheng to coach Guangzhou
Former Asian Player of the Year Zheng Zhi has been appointed head coach of eight-time Chinese Super League champions Guangzhou, the club announced on social media. Zheng, who spent 11-and-a-half seasons with the club as a player, replaces Liu Zhiyu at the helm. Guangzhou are third from bottom of the league standings after winning just once in 12 games so far this season. The role would be Zheng’s first as a head coach, although he has previously led Guangzhou on an interim basis. The former midfielder was named Asian Player of the Year in 2013 after helping the club to the first of two Asian Champions League titles that year. Zheng ended his playing career with Guangzhou at the end of last season, having joined in 2011. Former Guangzhou midfielders Huang Bowen and Mei Fang have been named his assistant coaches.
TENNIS
Halep into Toronto final
Two-time champion Simona Halep of Romania on Saturday advanced to the National Bank Open final in Toronto, beating Jessica Pegula of the US 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Halep is to face Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, a 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) winner over 14th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the night semi-final. Halep smashed a racket on the hard court at Sobeys Stadium after she missed a return late in the third set. “The fire is back,” she said. “It’s a good sign if I do that. It looks like I’m fighting. It helps me sometimes. I don’t know if it’s always good or not, but it helps me.” Haddad Maia reached her first WTA Masters event final. “I try to calm down and think about what I need to do and not what I’m experiencing,” Haddad Maia said. “I try to play every point and think about the next shot.”
TENNIS
Hurkacz ousts Ruud in semis
Eighth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland on Saturday beat fourth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the National Bank Open semi-finals in Montreal. Hurkacz is to face Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, a 7-5, 6-7 (7/9), 6-2, who beat Britain’s Daniel Evans in the night semi-final. Hurkacz had 18 aces and came to the net regularly. “I think I found a good rhythm and I was making the right decisions,” he said. Carreno Busta advanced to his first Masters 1000 final. “It’s probably one of the most important matches of my career, fighting for a title, fighting for a Masters 1000 title,” he said. “I made two semi-finals before, four and five years ago. It’s very important to my confidence ... to again be in a final.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier