TENNIS
Taiwanese make semis
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals at the LTA Rothesay Classic Birmingham. Hsieh and Mertens defeated British pair Samantha Murray Sharan and Eden Silva 6-0, 6-4 in their quarter-final at the US$267,082 grass-court tournament at the Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham, England. Meanwhile, at the Am Rothenbaum Rot-Weiss Tennis Club in Berlin, Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova beat Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 10-8 to advance to the last four at the WTA Bett1Open.
CRICKET
Zimbabwe name new coach
Zimbabwe Cricket on Wednesday said that it had appointed South African Justin Sammons as its new men’s head coach. Sammons was a former batting coach with his home country’s national team, the Proteas. Dave Houghton resigned as Zimbabwe’s head coach last year after they failed to qualify for the ongoing T20 World Cup in the US and the West Indies. Sammons is to lead Zimbabwe for the first time in a five-match T20 series against India in Zimbabwe beginning on July 6 in Harare, where all the T20s are to be played. Dion Ebrahim, a former Zimbabwe batter, is Sammons’ assistant coach. Ebrahim represented Zimbabwe in 29 Tests and 82 ODIs between 2001 and 2005, and has been a part of the coaching staff with the New Zealand senior men’s team. “We are delighted to confirm Justin as head coach of the Zimbabwe senior men’s national team. He brings a wealth of coaching experience and a reputation of identifying, nurturing and developing some of the best young talent in South Africa,” Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani said in a statement.
RUGBY UNION
Jamie George expects tricks
England captain Jamie George yesterday said that he expects Eddie Jones to have a few more tricks up his sleeve when they face a much-changed Japan in Tokyo tomorrow. Former England head coach Jones is to lead Japan out against his old team in his first game in charge of the Brave Blossoms since returning to the job for a second stint at the start of the year. The Australian, who took England to the 2019 World Cup final, has named an inexperienced Japan lineup featuring four new caps — including a university fullback — for the game at Tokyo’s National Stadium. George said that England were used to Jones making “bold statements” and would not take Japan lightly before the visitors head to New Zealand for two Tests against the All Blacks. “Eddie wouldn’t have made that decision if he didn’t have every confidence that he was able to go out there and play the sort of game that he wanted to play,” George said. “We probably had an idea of the lineup that he might pick, but it’s not exactly what we thought. That’s probably Eddie’s way at times,” said George, who played under Jones. George said that there was “an element of the unknown” about Japan’s team, with only three starting players retained from their previous game, against Argentina at last year’s World Cup. Conditions are also likely to test England, with temperatures forecast to reach 30°C during the match.
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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