TENNIS
Taiwan’s Wu makes quarters
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and her Norwegian partner, Ulrikke Eikeri, yesterday beat seventh seeds Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 10-6 in their round-of-16 women’s doubles match at the Dubai Open. They next face Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the quarter-finals after they shocked top seeds Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and her Belgian partner, Elise Mertens, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 10-8.
CHESS
Eight-year-old takes record
An eight-year-old on Sunday became the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster in classical chess when Ashwath Kaushik beat Poland’s Jacek Stopa at the Burgdorfer Stadthaus Open in Switzerland. Indian-born Ashwath, who lives in Singapore, defeated 37-year-old Stopa to break the record set a month earlier by Leonid Ivanovic from Serbia when he beat grandmaster Milko Popchev, the Chess.com Web site said. Ivanovic is also aged eight, but was born five months before Ashwath. “It felt really exciting and amazing, and I felt proud of my game and how I played, especially since I was worse at one point, but managed to come back from that,” Ashwath told Chess.com. Ashwath learned to play the game at the age of four, and became a World Under-Eight Rapid Champion in 2022, the Web site said. “He picked it up on his own, playing with his grandparents,” his father Kaushik Sriram said. “It’s surreal as there isn’t really any sports tradition in our families. Every day is a new discovery.” Ashwath finished the tournament in 12th place after losing to International Master Harry Grieve.
SOCCER
Son, Lee ‘sorry’ for fight
Son Heung-min yesterday apologized for his role in a bust-up with South Korea teammate Lee Kang-in at the AFC Asian Cup and urged fans to forgive the Paris Saint-Germain player. “Kang-in has been going through a very difficult time after the incident,” Tottenham Hotspur’s Son wrote. South Korea were beaten 2-0 by Jordan at the tournament earlier this month and it later emerged that skipper Son had dislocated a finger in an altercation with Lee on the eve of the semi-final. Lee, who has been blamed by fans for the fracas and dumped by advertisers, said yesterday that he had traveled to London to apologize to Son in person. The incident at the Asian Cup reportedly happened after some younger players, including Lee, rushed through their meal so they could leave to play table tennis. This displeased Son and some of the older players, because meals on the eve of big games are seen as a time for bonding. Lee then tried to punch Son, local media reported.
CRICKET
Kohli has second child
Virat Kohli has announced the birth of his second child, ending speculation over the reason for his absence from India’s ongoing home Test series against England. Kohli said his wife, the Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma, delivered a baby boy on Thursday last week. The couple already have a daughter named Vamika. “With abundant happiness and our hearts full of love, we are pleased to inform everyone that on 15th February, we welcomed our baby boy Akaay and Vamika’s little brother into this world,” Kohli wrote on Instagram.
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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