Sports World: Loh to face M'sia's Lee in q-finals in Jakarta

Singapore's Loh Kean Yew beat 26th-ranked Frenchman Toma Junior Popov 21-16, 21-9 in 37 minutes yesterday to advance to the Indonesia Open quarter-finals.

The badminton world champion, ranked ninth in the world, will today meet his childhood rival, Malaysian world No. 5 Lee Zii Jia, for a place in the semi-finals. Lee, the Asian champion, eased past India's world No. 30 Sameer Verma 21-10, 21-13.

He holds a superior 5-2 head-to-head record against Loh.

Singapore's world No. 7 Aloysius Yapp and 68th-ranked Toh Lian Han beat Qatar's world No. 107 Waleed Majid and 167th-ranked Ali Al Obaidli 7-3 in the first round of the World Cup of Pool in Essex, England, yesterday.

The duo are through to the last 16 where they will face Kuwait's world No. 17 Omar Al Shaheen and 28th-ranked Bader Al Awadhi at the Brentwood Centre.

MELBOURNE • Melbourne will host the Australian Grand Prix until 2035 in a new deal that will also see Formula Two and Formula Three added to the schedule for the first time next year, Formula One and local organisers announced yesterday.

The current contract for the race at Albert Park was due to expire in 2025 and Sydney had expressed an interest in taking it on. Melbourne joined the calendar in 1996, taking the place of Adelaide, and Formula One will have been there nearly 40 years by the time the latest deal ends.

REUTERS

BARCELONA • Barcelona right-back Dani Alves will leave the La Liga football club when his contract expires at the end of this month, bringing the curtains down on his second stint with the Catalan giants a little more than six months after his arrival as a free agent.

The 39-year-old Brazilian won six La Liga titles and three Champions League crowns in his first spell with Barca from 2008-16. He played 16 games in all competitions last season as Barcelona finished second in La Liga, 13 points behind champions Real Madrid.

REUTERS