GOLF
Taiwan’s Chien slips
Windy conditions at the LPGA Thailand yesterday gave Chien Pei-yun trouble as the Taiwanese carded a 72 to slip from first to a share of seventh after her opening-round 64. Kim Sei-young, Madelene Sagstrom and Patty Tavatanakit shared the lead at 10-under after two rounds at Siam Country Club Pattaya.
Photo: EPA-EFE
TABLE TENNIS
Taiwan beat Germany
Taiwan yesterday beat Germany at the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals at the Busan Exhibition and Convention Center in South Korea. In the first game of their quarter-final series, Chuang Chih-yuan defeated Qiu Dang 3-2 (11-8, 6-11, 11-1, 8-11, 11-9) before Lin Yun-ju came back from 2-0 down to defeat Dimitrij Ovtcharov 3-2 (9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9) and Kao Cheng-jui beat Patrick Franziska 3-1 (9-11, 16-14, 11-9, 11-9) to earn a semi against France today.
Photo: EPA-EFE
TENNIS
Wu Fang-hsien exits
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien on Thursday exited in the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Dubai Championships at Aviation Club Tennis Center in the United Arab Emirates. Laura Siegemund of Germany and Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich defeated Wu and partner Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway 3-6, 6-2, 10-4. The winners in the women’s singles were: Jasmine Paolini, Sorana Cirstea, Iga Swiatek and Anna Kalinskaya.
Photo: Reuters
TENNIS
Norrie, Fonseca advance
Defending champion Cameron Norrie beat Tomas Barrios Vera of Chile 6-1, 6-1 on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Rio Open. Later, 17-year-old Joao Fonseca became the first player born in 2006 to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP Tour tournament. He beat Cristian Garin of Chile 6-4, 6-4 and was to play Argentina’s Mariano Navone, who came from qualifying, for a place in the semi-finals.
FOOTBALL
Chiefs sign Araiza
Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs have signed punter Matt Araiza, bringing him back to the NFL two months after he was dismissed from a gang-rape lawsuit filed in 2022. “We are proud to announce that our client Matt Araiza has signed with the Chiefs,” JL Sports, Araiza’s agency, wrote on social media on Thursday, adding that it was “grateful” to Kansas City general manager Brett Veach and coach Andy Reid “for giving Matt this opportunity.” The Buffalo Bills released Araiza in August of 2022, two days after a civil lawsuit was filed alleging he was among those who gang-raped a 17-year-old girl in 2021 when he was a player at San Diego State University. The San Diego District Attorney’s Office announced in December of 2022 that no criminal charges would be filed in the case. Araiza was dropped from the civil lawsuit in December and he dropped the defamation countersuit he had filed in July 2023.
SOCCER
Lazio defeat Torino
SS Lazio on Thursday moved back into contention for Europe with a 2-0 win against Torino in Serie A. Matteo Guendouzi and Danilo Cataldi scored second-half goals for the Roman club. Lazio moved up to seventh place, one point behind city rivals AS Roma.
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
RSS