TENNIS
Taiwan’s Chan makes final
Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico yesterday reached the final at the China Open. Chan and Olmos defeated Poland’s Magda Linette and Peyton Stearns of the US 7-5, 6-4 at the National Tennis Center in Beijing to book a place in today’s championship match against the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova and Sara Tormo of Spain, who beat Brazilian pair Luisa Stefani and Ingrid Martins 6-2, 6-2 in the other semi-final.
SOCCER
Nantes defeat Strasbourg
Two second-half goals on Friday helped Nantes earn a 2-1 win against RC Strasbourg Alsace in their Ligue 1 match. Both teams played cautiously during the opening 45 minutes. Nantes scored a goal in the 51st minute when Marcus Coco beat Matz Sels from close range. Samuel Moutoussamy then made it 2-0 from a rebound seven minutes later. Substitute Moise Sahi Dion pulled a goal back for Strasbourg in stoppage-time. Nantes moved to eighth place in the standings, one point above Strasbourg ahead of the rest of the weekend’s games.
SOCCER
Sancet scores for Bilbao
Oihan Sancet on Friday celebrated his first call-up to Spain’s national team by scoring in Athletic Bilbao’s 3-0 win over last-placed UD Almeria in La Liga. Gorka Guruzeta and Dani Garcia also scored for Athletic as they ended their brief winless run and moved into the top four in the standings with the victory at San Mames Stadium. The 23-year-old Sancet earlier on Friday was included in the squad by Spain coach Luis de la Fuente for their European Championship qualifiers. The midfielder sealed Athletic’s victory in the 81st minute after Guruzeta scored in the 10th minute and Garcia in the 63rd. The win moved Athletic two points behind third-placed Girona and one point ahead of fifth-place Atletico Madrid, who had two games in hand ahead of their game among the rest of the weekend’s games. Almeria, who had only one shot on target, are the only team without a win after nine rounds.
ROWING
Naked Australian rescued
A naked Australian adventurer was rescued on Friday by a cruise ship near Vanuatu after capsizing while attempting to row solo across the Pacific Ocean. Tom Robinson clung to the hull of his heavily modified rowing boat for almost 13 hours before he was plucked out of the water, a statement on the expedition’s Web site said. The 24-year-old was seeking to become the youngest person to row across the Pacific Ocean — a journey of about 8,000 nautical miles (14,800km) starting in Peru and ending in Australia. Robinson’s team said in the statement that the situation “was caused by an unexpectedly large wave that came through the main hatch and flooded the cabin.” After activating his emergency distress beacon, Robinson was spotted by a plane dispatched from the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia. A cruise ship that was diverted to rescue Robinson found him clinging naked to the overturned hull of his homemade boat, his team said, adding that he “sounded well after a precarious night.” Robinson set off from Peru in July last year and was aiming to make landfall on Australia’s eastern coast by December after stops in Tahiti, the Cook Islands and Vanuatu.
For the first time in almost 36 years, a Parisian derby will be played in French soccer’s top flight when reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain FC take on the nouveau riche Paris Football Club (PFC) today. Not one of the players involved in today’s match — PFC’s 38-year-old third-choice goalkeeper Remy Riou is almost certainly not going to be involved — was born the last time there was a Parisian derby in Ligue 1. That was on Feb. 25, 1990, when Moroccan midfielder Aziz Bouderbala scored a brace as Racing Paris 1 beat PSG 2-1 at the Parc des Princes home that
BOUNCING BACK: Antetokounmpo had just returned from an eight-game injury absence last month, leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their third win in four games Giannis Antetokounmpo threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.7 seconds remaining to lift the Milwaukee Bucks to a 122-121 victory over the Charlotte Hornets and grab a slice of NBA history on Friday. The Bucks trailed by as many as 16 on their home floor, but Antetokounmpo scored 12 of his 30 points in the final quarter to help seal the win in a frantic finish that saw five lead changes in the final 45.7 seconds. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) added 10 rebounds and five assists. It was his 158th regular-season game with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and
Stan Wawrinka’s 40-year-old legs did not let him down over three-plus hours in his first singles match of a farewell tour yesterday. Three-time Grand Slam singles champion Wawrinka beat Arthur Rinderknech of France, who is ranked 29th to Wawrinka’s 157th, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5). The match went 3 hours, 16 minutes. Wawrinka last month announced that this year would be his last on the ATP tour. “Today was a tough battle ... it’s amazing to come here for the first time, to have so much support,” Wawrinka said yesterday. “Twenty years on tour, you kind of always play in the same place
Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka yesterday got her season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after the UK’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue, while in Brisbane, Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Wu Fang-hsien crashed out of the women’s doubles. In Perth, despite Osaka’s win, the UK took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory. Osaka was too strong for reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines. “I’m proud of how I fought,” Osaka said. “I’d never played here, it was tough.” Britain
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