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Monday October 23, 2017

CHINA’S table tennis world champion Ma Long made into the ITTF Men’s World Cup semifi nals Saturday, but his young teammate Lin Gaoyuan felt hugely disappointed in a seven-game thriller against German veteran Timo Boll, something reminiscent of his loss to another Chinese paddler Xu Xin at the World Champion-ships four months ago.

After building a three-game lead into the fourth, top seed Ma wasted a 8-3 lead to fall at 11-9, but he managed to seal the victory at 11-8 in the fi fth against No. 5 seed Koki Niwa of Japan.

“We have played many times, and are quite familiar with each other. The most important thing is to do my best on every point,” said Ma.

“Leading 8-3 in the fourth game, I felt a bit distracted and suffered several errors. I hope that will not happen again in the next match,” he added.

Ma shrugged off any talk of his personal third World Cup, and focused on every match ahead.

“If you want to win the title, you need to play at your best,” he commented.

The 22-year-old Asian Cup winner Lin let slide a 3-1 lead and six match points in the decider to lose to Boll.

Lin sailed to a 11-5 victory in the opening game, before meet-ing strong resistance from the two-time winner in the second. Lin almost wasted two game points, before regrouping him-self to take away another game at 13-11. (Xinhua)

Ma enters last 4 at World Cup

China’s Ma Long in action against Koki Niwa of Japan during their match Satur-day. Xinhua

MANCHESTER United fi nally lost in the English Premier League, and not where anyone thought it would.

Promoted Huddersfi eld won 2-1 for its fi rst win over United in 65 years Saturday.

Huddersfi eld last beat United in March 1952, just a month after Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the throne.

First-half goals from Aaron Mooy and Laurent Depoitre, following defensive lapses by United, gave the home side con-trol. Marcus Rashford headed home 12 minutes from time to halve the defi cit but United couldn’t fi nd the equalizer and a remarkable roar greeted the fi nal whistle.

“This is a very special moment,” coach David Wagner said. “A huge result for small Huddersfi eld Town. I am aware about it and happy about it and proud about it.

“For sure it is one of the top three moments I personally have as a manager of this club. This is a very, very proud moment. We all know how huge this win is for us, that we have beaten Manchester United.”

United remained second, fi ve points below Manchester City, which was the only unbeaten side in the league.

“They beat us on attitude,” United coach Jose Mourinho said. “When I lose matches I like to lose because the opponent was better than us, had more quality than us. When you lose a football

Man U stunned by Huddersfi eld

match because of attitude, that is really bad.

“I heard Ander Herrera in the fl ash interviews saying the atti-tude and desire was poor ... Oh my god. When a player says that, when a player feels that, I think they should all go to the press conference and explain why because I cannot explain that. I don’t even remember a friendly match where our attitude was so poor.”

There was further bad news for United as it lost Phil Jones to injury midway through the

fi rst half. Huddersfi eld moved up to 10th after its fi rst win in seven matches.

Meanwhile, the Blues con-jured up three massive goals in the last 20 minutes to beat Watford 4-2.

The previous two losses, and a blown two-goal lead in the Champions League earlier last week, prompted talk of a crisis at the club.

The victory relieved some pressure from Antonio Conte, who admitted in the runup to the game that he felt it.

“My players showed me that we have the attitude to fi ght and change the situation and get a different result. It was very important. It is not simple because we are facing diffi cult situations but the spirit and commitment is right. I’m satis-fi ed for the performance.”

“I must be honest. I feel a lot of pressure but not this type of pressure if the club decide to sack me,” Conte told a news conference after Saturday’s win.

(SD-Agencies)

STEPH CURRY and Kevin Durant were both ejected late in the fourth quarter of the Golden State Warriors’ 111-101 loss to the Grizzlies and there may be some fi nes to pay as well.

With Golden State attempting a comeback down eight with less than a minute to play, Curry drove for a layup and knocked it down through contact. He thought he drew a foul on the play and became incensed when it wasn’t immediately called. So, naturally,

Curry threw his mouthguard in the direction of the referee. The refs wasted no time throw-ing Curry out of the game and the Warriors began to run their mouths a bit as their captain was told to leave the court.

It was during the fracas that followed that Durant also man-aged to draw the ref’s ire and found himself ejected as well. Durant made his way off the fl oor while fl ashing his ring fi nger toward the jeering crowd.

Curry will likely hear more about all this from the league than Durant. There’s no toler-ance for throwing your equip-ment toward a referee. A fi ne is likely. A suspension is not out of question.

This is not the start the War-riors were looking for at all. Golden State is 1-2 to open the year and will now have to answer questions about keeping their composure on the court.

(SD-Agencies)

BARCELONA regained a four-point cushion atop the Spanish league with a 2-0 win over visit-ing Malaga and surging Valencia dismissed Sevilla 4-0 at home Saturday.

Barcelona faced last-placed Malaga in the closing match of the day, with added pressure from second-placed Valencia, which has won fi ve in a row.

Barcelona is unbeaten after starting with seven straight wins and drawing with Atletico Madrid last week.

Seldom-used Gerard Deulofeu opened the scoring for Barcelona after just two minutes, and Andres Iniesta celebrated his fi rst of the season in the second half thanks to a brilliant assist by Lionel Messi.

“We lacked pace at the begin-ning of the game. It was our third in six days and mentally, it’s diffi cult,” coach Ernesto Valverde said.

Luis Suarez failed to score on clear chances once again, underlining his poor start to the season, but had his manager’s backing nonetheless.

“I don’t see a problem with him. What’s important is that he manufactures chances,” Val-verde said.

Barcelona benefi ted from a fl agrant referee misjudgment to get its go-ahead goal against Malaga. Left back Lucas Digne was allowed to center the ball after it clearly crossed the byline, and Deulofeu acrobati-

cally backfooted it inside the net.Despite the blow, the visitors

got back up and managed to neu-tralize Barcelona for most of the fi rst half, but lost striker Diego Rolan just before the second period. The Uruguayan import was forced off by injury.

Without Rolan, Malaga lacked bite in its pressure of the home backline, and Barcelona was able to polish ball circulation and fi nd Messi with more frequency.

Messi received a clean pass from defender Javier Mascher-ano, drew the defense, and dropped a perfect pass for Ini-esta, whose shot was defl ected by defender Roberto Rosales on its way to the upper left corner.

(SD-Agencies)

Curry, Durant ejected in loss to Memphis

Barca holds off Malaga, regains cushion atop La Liga

Manchester United’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan (C) in action with Huddersfi eld Town’s Aaron Mooy (R) and Jonathan Hogg in Huddersfi eld on Saturday. SD-Agencies

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (L) in action with Malaga’s Gonzalo Castro during their match in Barcelona on Saturday. SD-Agencies

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry reacts after being ejected from the game during the second half against the Memphis Grizzlies in Memphis on Satur-day. SD-Agencies