Digest

SOCCER

CFA: No plans to move qualifiers from Wuhan

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) has no plans to move the upcoming 2020 Olympic women's qualifiers out of Wuhan, where coronavirus-related pneumonia cases have been reported, a CFA source said on Monday.

Australia, China, Thailand and Chinese Taipei are set to play a series of qualifying matches in Wuhan from Feb 3 to 9.

"For the time being, there are no plans to hold the qualifiers at different places or on different dates," the source said. "If any decision is made, it will be announced soon."

The central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first case of novel coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV) was identified, confirmed a fourth death on Tuesday.

As of Jan 19, 198 cases had been reported in Wuhan, of which 25 had been cured and discharged from hospital.

TENNIS

Djokovic indebted to ace tutor Ivanisevic

Defending champion Novak Djokovic said he had been taking tips from serving maestro Goran Ivanisevic after he hammered down a series of aces in his first-round win at the Australian Open.

Djokovic smacked 14 aces and had a first-serve percentage of 65 percent in his grinding 7-6(5), 6-2, 2-6,6-1 win over Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff.

The Serb credited his work with Croatian Ivanisevic, who served up more than 10,000 aces in his career and joined the 16-time Grand Slam winner's team last year.

"Throughout my career my serve was maybe a little bit underestimated because of the quality of the returns and the baseline play," he told reporters late on Monday.

"There were times I was struggling with an elbow injury and I had to change the technique of my serve and a lot of things were happening, but in the last year and a half I feel great serving.

"Obviously I pray to have serving days like I had today all of the time. I know it's not possible but I can back up my serving game from the back of the court."

Irritated Osaka unloads on booing Twitter 'hater'

Naomi Osaka wasted no time striking back after a Twitter user named "Dianne Porrello" reacted to a tweet about the defending Australian Open champion by writing: "Boooooooooooo."

"U big mad or little mad Dianne?" the 22-year-old Japanese shot back on the social media platform.

Asked about the tetchy exchange after winning her opening Melbourne match in straight sets against Czech Marie Bouzkova, Osaka said: "She was hating. What would her children think?

"You're just going to come on the internet and boo me for no reason. I didn't do anything to you.

"I also wonder, people like this, if they see you in person, I wonder what they would do?"

World No 4 Osaka will next face China's Zheng Saisai, who beat Russia's Anna Kalinskaya 6-3,6-2 in her opener.

Player pilloried for banana-peel request

Asking a ballkid to peel your banana is a big no-no at the Australian Open, as Elliot Benchetrit quickly found out.

The Frenchman, dubbed 'Bananaman' by Australian media, handed a piece of fruit to a young ballgirl during a qualifying match at Melbourne Park after apparently struggling to get the skin off with his bandaged hands.

But umpire John Blom wasn't impressed and told him to do it himself, a decision applauded by tennis great Martina Navratilova on Twitter.

"What's next－grapes? #entitlement," she said. "John did the right thing, that's for sure."

BASKETBALL

Kemba ends LeBron hoodoo in Celtics win

Kemba Walker scored 20 points to end a career-long personal losing streak against LeBron James, and Jayson Tatum scored 27 to lead the Boston Celtics past the Los Angeles Lakers 139-107 on Monday night and send the top team in the Western Conference to its biggest loss of the season.

Jaylen Brown scored 20 points and Enes Kanter had 18 points and 11 rebounds for Boston, which snapped a three-game losing streak. The Celtics gave up the first eight points of the game but turned things around when Anthony Davis went to the bench with a pair of fouls 49 seconds apart early in the first quarter.

James had 15 points and 13 assists for the Lakers, who had won 10 of their previous 11 games. But the Celtics made 13 of their first 22 3-point attempts to open 103-75 lead in the third quarter－the biggest against Los Angeles all season until Boston made it a 34-point game in the fourth.

Walker had gone 0-28 in his career against James－second in NBA history only to Sherman Douglas' 0-30 head-to-head record against Michael Jordan.

Xinhua - Agencies