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Wednesday July 5, 2017

STAN WAWRINKA’S Wimble-don hopes were shredded in the fi rst round Monday as the fi fth seed, hobbled by a niggling knee injury, came up against one of tennis’s new generation of heavy hitters in the shape of Russian Daniil Medvedev.

The Swiss three-time Grand Slam champion was out-gunned by 21-year-old Medvedev, who had the Center Court crowd on their feet as he pulled off a daz-zling array of winners to wrap up a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory on his fi rst Wimbledon appearance.

Yet how much of the stunning upset was down to Medvedev’s ability to fi re freely from both fl anks and how much of it was down to Wawrinka’s discomfort was hard to tell.

The Russian, making only his third Grand Slam appearance and who is ranked 46 places below the world number three, was full of energy as he hauled his giant frame around the court.

After wrapping up a memo-rable victory in two hours and 12 minutes, he bent down and kissed the turf. “I have no words to describe this. I guess this memory will be with me forever,” he told reporters.

FORMER long-serving Chelsea captain John Terry signed a one-year contract on a free transfer for second-tier side Aston Villa on Monday.

Terry, 36, who left champion Chelsea after 22 trophy-laden years at the end of last season having lifted the Premier League title, is reported to have agreed a salary of 60,000 pounds (US$77,700) with the club that is owned by Chinese businessman Tony Xia Jiantong.

Terry, whose fi nal appearance for Chelsea was mired in contro-versy with several fans winning money on betting on him being substituted in the 26th minute — the same number as his shirt, said he was very happy to have plumped for Villa.

Terry is expected to fl y out to Portugal to join his teammates at the club’s preseason training, before the new season, which begins at home to Hull City on Aug. 5. (SD-Agencies)

SOUTH KOREAN President Moon Jae-in on Monday urged the International Olympic Com-mittee (IOC) to help North Korea participate in next year’s Winter Games, saying it would contrib-ute to regional and world peace.

Moon, who has advocated engagement with the neighbor, has suggested that two Koreas form a joint team for the 2018 Winter Games, which the South is hosting in Pyeongchang.

The South and the North are separated by one of the world’s most heavily armed borders and remain technically at war after the Korean War ended in 1953. Pyongyang boycotted the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Organizers of Pyeongchang 2018 have urged Pyongyang to take part to make them a “peace Olympics.” But no North Korean athletes have so far qualifi ed for the Games, raising the prospect that none will attend.

An inter-Korea unifi ed team could allow North Koreans to take part in team events such as ice hockey, while “wildcards” could enable them to bypass the qualifi cation rules. (SD-Agencies)

KEVIN DURANT and the War-riors have agreed upon a two-year deal worth approximately US$53 million, sources at ESPN said Monday.

While Durant is a top player in the league, and the 2017 NBA Finals MVP, he took a pay cut to stay with Golden State and will be making US$9.5 million below the league maximum. Durant is set to make around US$25 million this season, while the league maximum would have been US$34.5 million

The pay-cut is admirable, and it showcases Durant’s desire to win, as he sacrifi ced a large amount of money to remain with the Warriors.

The deal also includes a player option after the fi rst year, giving Durant the ability to opt out after the 2017-18 season.

Durant averaged 25.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.6 blocks in his fi rst season for the Warriors while leading them to the their second NBA Finals victory in three years. And now, he’s helping them again contrac-tually.

It is expected for months that if all went well with Golden State’s title bid, Durant would be coming back for the 2017-18 season at a relative discount.

That was the cost of keeping a great team together; because Durant had only been on the Warriors for a single season (and thus didn’t have his Bird rights), any push for a long-term, big-money deal would have required that the Warriors actually clear enough room under the cap to make that contract fi t.

Andre Iguodala would be gone. Shaun Livingston would be gone. Had Durant demanded the max, Stephen Curry wouldn’t be able to sign his own fi ve-year, US$201 million deal. One of Draymond Green or Klay Thompson would be gone. The only way for the Warriors to remain the War-riors was for Durant to take less than he could.

Specifi cally, Durant had to accept a deal starting within 120 percent of his previous season’s salary (US$26.5 mil-lion) to qualify for a non-Bird cap exception.

Not only did Durant do that (sacrifi cing millions in the pro-cess), but he forewent another US$7 million or so in agreeing to the deal.

Durant will make US$26 mil-lion this season — half a million less than he made last year and US$1.7 million less than the player option he declined. And according to Sam Amick of USA Today, Durant was prepared to leave even more money on the table in the event that Iguodala signed elsewhere and the War-riors had to replace him.

It may have been Durant’s concessions that allowed the Warriors to bump up their offer to Iguodala. It could have been the millions he left on the table and the tens of millions more it saved that prevented the Warriors from even having to consider choosing between Iguodala and Livingston.

It saves the billionaire owners of the Warriors millions more, though those savings do apply a certain political pressure. Durant

Durant to sign new deal with Warriors

Kevin Durant

taking so much less than he could is unselfi sh. It also amplifi es the pressure on ownership to pay the hefty tax bills necessary to keep the Warriors together. The mil-lions that Durant gave up are a sort of equity.

This decision also speaks to how quickly Durant has

integrated himself into Golden State’s cultural fabric. Stephen Curry, who turned out to be grossly underpaid on his last contract, needed to be made whole. Iguodala and Livingston — utterly essential Warriors — deserved to get theirs.

(SD-Agencies)

THE Houston Rockets reached an agreement with Chinese player Zhou Qi on a multi-year contract and Zhou will join the Rockets for the 2017-18 season.

The details of the deal were not released but Zhou will sign a four-year contract, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.

Zhou was selected No.43 over-all in the 2016 draft by the Rock-ets, but decided to remain in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league for a year.

He will come to the Rockets 15 years after the franchise drafted Chinese legend Yao Ming as the No.1 overall pick.

Zhou, 21, led the Xinjiang Flying Tigers to the CBA title last season and was honored as the CBA Defensive Player of the Year. (Xinhua)

Moon wants IOC to bring North to Olympics

Wawrinka stunned by debutant Medvedev

Wawrinka, who only last month reached the French Open fi nal, will no doubt hope the memory of his sixth fi rst-round Wimbledon exit will not linger.

He had struggled to fi nd any sort of rhythm and was clearly bothered by the niggling knee problem he said had been dog-ging him since the end of last year.

“I wasn’t feeling the way I wanted to feel,” he said. “But I played against a great player who I think was confi dent today, was playing well, was playing

faster. It was a tough loss.”Having never got past the

quarterfi nals at the All England Club, Wimbledon is Wawrinka’s least successful Grand Slam and his hopes of ever completing his collection of majors look forlorn unless he can master the slick lawns.

The Swiss had looked unruf-fl ed as he held his opening two service games, dropping just two points, but it was not long before Medvedev found his range and started to put Wawrinka under pressure.

(SD-Agencies)

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev (L) and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka during their fi rst round match at Wimbledon on Monday. SD-Agencies

John Terry

Terry signs for Villa

Zhou to join Rockets

Zhou Qi