TABLE TENNIS
Taiwan’s Li, Cheng advance
Taiwan’s Li Yu-jhun and Cheng I-ching yesterday won their quarter-final in the doubles at the WTT Finals Women Nagoya. Li and Cheng defeated Doo Hoi Kem and Zhu Chengzhu of Hong Kong 3-0 (11-9, 11-8, 11-2) in 22 minutes at the Nagoya Kinjo-Futo Arena in Japan to earn a semi-final against Miyuu Kihara and Miyu Nagasaki of Japan, who beat South Korea’s Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee 3-2 (11-6, 6-11, 2-11, 11-7, 11-3) at the US$340,000 event.
Photo: AFP
SOCCER
Messi to play in Tokyo
Lionel Messi’s world tour with Inter Miami next year on Friday added Tokyo as a stop, with the Major League Soccer club announcing plans to face Japan League champions Vissel Kobe. The Argentine superstar is to lead Inter Miami into the match at the 60,000-seat Japan National Stadium on Feb. 7 as part of an MLS pre-season tour that also features matches in Hong Kong and Riyadh. “Tokyo is an inspiring destination with a fervent football community that we’re looking forward to getting acquainted with,” Inter Miami chief business officer Xavier Asensi said.
SOCCER
MLS teams shun Cup
Major League Soccer teams will not compete in next year’s US Open Cup, the league instead sending second-tier development clubs to the nation’s oldest soccer tournament, MLS announced on Friday. The single-elimination competition, which dates to 1914, is open to all US clubs, but MLS teams have dominated the event since the league’s 1996 debut. MLS said its club owners voted to have MLS Next teams compete in the Cup, adding in a statement that “MLS will coordinate with US Soccer regarding participation in the tournament.”
MOTORSPORTS
Button to race in Porsche
Former Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button is to drive a Jota Porsche 963 in the World Endurance Championship next year. Button, 43, is set to race in the world’s top hypercar category, which includes the Le Mans 24 Hours race. “I’m still at the top of my game. I’ve got a pass from my wife,” Button told the BBC, adding that the machinery is “more technologically advanced than F1 cars.”
RUGBY UNION
Black Lion beat Scarlets
Newcomers Black Lion of Georgia on Friday beat Welsh side Scarlets 23-7 in Llanelli to claim their first-ever victory in the Challenge Cup. Lion’s fly-half Luka Matkava kicked 13 points, while Miriani Modebadze and Beka Mamrikashvili scored tries on either side of halftime to cap off a dream result for Lion, who were founded just two years ago. “I thought we were poor, to be honest, in certain elements of the game,” Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel said. “We were taught a lesson at scrum time and got penalized at almost every one.”
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
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
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
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
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