TENNIS
Hsieh Su-wei advances
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic defeated sisters Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching at the Madrid Open yesterday. Hsieh and Strycova won 1-6, 6-2, 10-3 against their Taiwanese opponents, setting up a round-of-16 match on Wednesday against Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi and Miyu Kato of Japan, who advanced after Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australian Ellen Perez retired with the score at 6-2, 4-1. In the women’s singles, world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka booked her place in the fourth round with an entertaining 6-4, 7-5 win over Camila Osorio. Sabalenka, who beat Osorio comfortably at Wimbledon in 2021 in their only other meeting, struggled early, but regained her composure to take the first set and the match.
BASEBALL
Giants manager gets lost
San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler got lost on the way to training in Mexico City on Friday ahead of their two-day series against the San Diego Padres. He took the subway from the team’s hotel in the Polanco, an upscale part of Mexico City, to Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium ahead of the series opener, but got lost on the way. He had some tacos and coffee at about 2pm, then got directions to the ballpark from his iPad, he said. “Obviously there [were] no other English speakers on the train, but there’s some sort of notification and everybody spilled off the train like six stops before I needed to get off,” Kapler said. Apparently, subway maintenance meant the rail service stopped there. “I figured that that was some sort of normal procedure, but I wasn’t ready for it. So I kind of followed the herd and then ended up in a line for buses. And then I ended up on a bus,” Kapler said. He was the last member of the Giants to arrive to the stadium.
CYCLING
Trek-Segafredo cut Tiberi
The Trek-Segafredo team have “parted ways” with Italian Antonio Tiberi a couple of months after suspending the former junior world champion for allegedly killing his neighbor’s cat by shooting it with an air rifle. The team suspended Tiberi in February for 20 days over the incident and on Friday they cut ties with the 21-year-old altogether. “Trek-Segafredo and Antonio Tiberi have mutually agreed to part ways, effective immediately, after the rider’s actions during his suspension did not meet our criteria for a return to competition,” the team said in a statement. The cat had belonged Federico Pedini Amati, a minister in the San Marino government and a former head of state. Tiberi last month apologized for the incident in an Instagram post.
SOCCER
Dortmund’s hopes dented
Borussia Dortmund’s Bundesliga title hopes were dealt a blow on Friday against VfL Bochum 1848 after a 1-1 draw. Bochum goalkeeper Manuel Riemann helped gain his team an important point in their battle against relegation, but Dortmund missed the chance to build a four-point lead before Bayern Munich play today. Bayern can reclaim the lead with four games remaining if they beat last-placed Hertha BSC in Munich.
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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