Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei produced a masterful performance in the final to reclaim the All England Open Championships with a straight games win over China’s Chen Long overnight. Lee prevailed 21-13, 21-18 against the defending champion despite battling an ongoing ankle injury to lift the trophy for the third time following his previous wins in 2010 and 2011.
It was better news for China in the women’s event with Wang Shixian downing compatriot Li Xuerui 21-19, 21-18, while Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli successfully defended their doubles title in an epic battle against Ma Jin and Tang Yuanting.
With only a handful of games in the English Premier League, much of the focus turned to the FA Cup quarter-finals where the big news was defending champions Wigan again upsetting Manchester City to progress to a semi-final showdown against Arsenal. Having prevailed in memorable fashion over City in last year’s final, Wigan stunned the home side again with Jordi Gomez firing home a 27th-minute penalty and James Perch making it 2-0 shortly after the break. Samir Nasri stole one back but Wigan held on to keep their dreams of another fairytale alive.
Arsenal are now firm favorites to lift the trophy after belting Everton 4-1, while the other semi-final will be fought out between Hull City – who smashed Sunderland 3-0 despite missing an early penalty – and Sheffield United who downed Charlton 2-0.
In Australia, the 2014 NRL season kicked off with some surprising results in the opening round. South Sydney showed defending premiers and old rivals the Sydney Roosters that this is a new season with a dominant 28-8 win and Ben Barba returned to haunt his old club as Brisbane downed Canterbury 18-12. Melbourne stole a memorable 23-22 win against Manly after trailing 20-0 while 2014 strugglers St George Illawarra and Parramatta scored crucial first-up wins over Wests Tigers and the Warriors respectively.
And Barcelona’s hopes of winning the La Liga title nosedived following a shock 1-0 loss to Valladolid on Saturday. With both Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid winning, Barca now sits in third place on the ladder – four points behind Real and a point behind Atletico.
