Close shave for paddlers in opener
HALMSTAD (Sweden) • Singapore's women's table tennis team eked out a 3-2 win over Sweden in their opening match of the World Team Table Tennis Championships last night.
Feng Tianwei beat Linda Bergstrom 3-1 to give the Republic the lead, but Matilda Ekholm levelled terms for the home side by beating Yu Mengyu 3-2.
Lin Ye beat Jennifer Jonsson 3-1 to give Singapore the advantage again, but Feng wasted the chance to win the tie when she lost 2-3 to Ekholm after leading 2-0. Yu scored the winning point in the best-of-five tie after she beat Bergstrom 3-1 in the rubber.
Marlins squeeze into netball s-finals
The Magic Marlins have made the Netball Super League semi-finals on Saturday, after they beat the Fier Orcas and SRC Barracudas last weekend.
Both the Marlins and Orcas have nine points after the round-robin phase, but the Marlins made the last four on better goal average.
The Marlins will play Sneakers Stingrays in the semi-finals, while Mission Mannas will face Blaze Dolphins in the other last-four tie on the same day.
Easy win for Nadal in Barcelona final
BARCELONA • World No. 1 Rafael Nadal routed Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-1 yesterday to claim a record-extending 11th Barcelona Open tennis title.
It was the Spaniard's 19th successive win on clay and 401st overall on the surface.
REUTERS
Momota stuns Chen Long for Asian crown
SHANGHAI • Japan's Kento Momota shocked China's Olympic champion Chen Long 21-17, 21-13 to win the Badminton Asia Championships men's singles title in Wuhan yesterday.
The world No. 17, making a comeback after serving a one-year ban for gambling in 2016, had never defeated Chen in four attempts.
In the women's singles final, Chinese Taipei's top seed Tai Tzu-ying beat China's Chen Yufei 21-19, 22-20.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Pliskova first Czech to win Stuttgart GP
STUTTGART (Germany) • Karolina Pliskova recovered from a slow start to defeat American CoCo Vandeweghe 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 to claim the Stuttgart Grand Prix title yesterday.
The Czech fifth seed earned the second clay trophy of her tennis career after Prague three years ago and was the first from her country to play in the German final.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Kisner-Brown lead in New Orleans
LOS ANGELES • Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown seized the third-round lead at golf's Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Saturday with a birdie at the last hole.
Brown rolled in a two-foot birdie putt at the par-five 18th to cap the team's eight-under 64 in the four-ball format third round. Their 20-under total of 196 put them one stroke in front of Tony Finau and Daniel Summerhays, who combined for a 63, and Michael Kim and Andrew Putnam who posted a 66.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
