Volleyball: China’s Zhu Ting helps Vakifbank to CL win
Zhu Ting of VakifBank Istanbul in action during the women's Volleyball European Champions League in Treviso, Italy on April 22, 2017. /CFP Photo
Chinese spiker Zhu Ting led her VakifBank Istanbul team to victory in the women's volleyball Champions League final on Sunday in Treviso, Italy. The Turkish team beat Italian side Conegliano in three straight sets 25-19, 25-13, 25-23, with Olympic champion Zhu contributing 22 points. This is the third Champions League trophy for VakifBank after 2011 and 2013, and the first for Zhu, who moved to Europe at the beginning of the season.
Football: 500th goal for Messi as he sinks Real
Lionel Messi of Barcelona FC celebrates his first goal during a La Liga match against Real Madrid at Estadio Bernabeu on April 23, 2017 in Madrid, Spain. /CFP Photo
Lionel Messi scored his 500th goal for FC Barcelona on Sunday as he helped his team beat rivals Real Madrid 3-2. The win brought Barca level with Real at the top of the Spanish La Liga table with 75 points, keeping the race for the title going, with one month left. Real’s Sergio Ramos was sent off in the second half after a challenge on Messi, leaving the Madrid team down one man. Messi, who had already scored earlier in the game, then pounced in stoppage time to snatch the win, prompting Barca coach Luis Enrique to call him “the best player in history.”
Athletics: US win men’s 4x100, China takes two bronze
Andre De Grasse of Canada and Justin Gatlin of the USA run to the finish line in heat two of the men's 4x100m relay during the IAAF World Relays on April 22, 2017 in Nassau, Bahamas. /CFP Photo
The US men’s relay team nabbed gold at the two-day IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas on Saturday, with China taking a surprising bronze. Justin Gatlin, Leshon Collins, Mike Rodgers and Ronnie Baker claimed victory in the 4x100m in 38.43 seconds as rivals Jamaica and Canada dropped their batons. Barbados was second. It was a good weekend for China, which also won bronze in the women’s 4x100m relay to qualify for the world championships in August.
Tennis: Nadal makes it perfect 10 in Monte Carlo
Spain's Rafael Nadal poses with the trophy after winning the Monte-Carlo Masters tournament in Monaco on April 23, 2017. /CFP Photo
Tennis star Rafael Nadal lifted the Monte-Carlo Masters trophy for a historic 10th time on Sunday after a straight two-set win against compatriot Albert Ramos-Vinolas, 6-1, 6-3. No other male tennis player has ever won a singles tournament 10 times since the start of the Open Era in 1968. The 30-year-old Spaniard came back from injury in January but just missed out on his 15th Grand Slam, losing to Switzerland’s Roger Federer at the Australian Open. Nadal's win in Monte Carlo is his 50th on clay and brings his number of ATP Masters titles to 29, one shy of Novak Djokovic’s record 30.
Golf: Austria’s Wiesberger wins in Shenzhen
Bernd Wiesberger of Austria plays a shot during the final round of the Shenzhen International at Genzon Golf Club on April 23, 2017 in Shenzhen, China. /CFP Photo
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger won China’s Shenzhen International on Sunday, beating British golfer and world No. 29 Tommy Fleetwood in a rain-drenched playoff. The 31-year-old Wiesberger is the first European to win the 2.8-million-US-dollar tournament in China’s southern Guangdong Province. This is also his fourth European Tour title after two in 2012 and one in 2015, and bumps him up to 30th in the world golf rankings.
