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NBA | Page 5 Rockets romp past Nuggets, Pistons thwart Magic Saturday, March 30, 2019 FOOTBALL Rajab 23, 1440 AH Manchester City, GULF TIMES Liverpool resume title battle SPORT Page 7 SPOTLIGHT Two Qatar teams prep for Asian padel campaign with wins By Sports Reporter The winners will now face the day. before it spread to other Hispanic Doha Japanese-Spanish duo of Daisu- The six-member Qatar team countries and has found a lot of ke Shoyama and Gago Martinez travelled to the Japanese city, support in Spain off late. Many Asier in the quarter-fi nals today. around 30km from Tokyo, and media reports have put padel wo Qatar duos made it The other Qatari duo to make have hosts Japan, Australia, India right behind football in Spain in to the quarter-fi nals of it to the quarter-fi nals comprises and Thailand as other partici- terms of popularity. the 1st Nexus Cup Padel Abdulla al-Hijji and Khalid Saa- pants in the tournament. Given similarities between Championship in Chiba don al-Kuwari. Members of the Qatar team are padel and tennis, it isn’t exactly TCity, Japan, yesterday, even as the They opened their tourna- Abdulaziz Saadoun al-Kuwari, surprising that quite a few play- six-member contingent hoped to ment yesterday with a victory Jassim Kano, Jassim al-Mulla, ers, including all the Qatar team carry the momentum into the over Australia’s Tim Brown and Abdullah Hajji, Mohamed Saa- players, have played tennis at 3rd Asian Padel Championship, Spain’s Gustavo Oriol, before doun al-Kuwari and Khalid Saa- some level. which starts today at the same edging out the Japanese duo of doun al-Kuwari Mohamed Saadoun and Hajji venue. Kazuki Tomita and Shungo Ku- In the other tie today, Japan were among the top 300 players The Nexus Cup is an FIP (In- sakabe 6-4, 7-6 (4). will take on India. in the world in the youth category ternational Padel Federation) Al-Hijji and al-Kuwari will Padel is a unique racquet sport and played for Qatar in the Davis 125 category tournament, which face Australia’s Matthew Bar- typically played in doubles on an Cup. is being run alongside the Asian relle and Taylor Smith in today’s enclosed court, a third of the size In Qatar, the sport truly took championship to off er a chance quarter-fi nals. of a tennis court. Scoring is the roots in 2017, and Padel Qatar has for the travelling teams to bal- The third Qatari team of Jassim same as normal tennis and the ensured that a playing location is ance their outfi ts, giving maxi- Kano and Jassim al-Mulla suf- balls used are similar but with a not too far away from those in- mum opportunities to the play- fered an early defeat in the fi rst little less pressure. terested. ers. round. The main diff erences are that There are as many as 15 courts Abdulaziz Saadon al-Kuwari Like the Asian championship, the court has walls (methacrylate at six diff erent locations in Qatar, and Mohamed Saadon al-Kuwari the Nexus Cup is scheduled to usually), the balls can be played including Qatar Sports Club, Al notched a 6-2, 6-1 victory over conclude tomorrow. off these walls as in squash, and Arabi Sports Club, Qatar Wom- the Japanese duo of Naoya Ma- Qatar will open their campaign that players use solid, stringless en’s Sports Committee, Aspire eta and Yuta Ichikawa yesterday against Australia in the third racquets. Zone, Al Wakrah Sports Club and for a shot at a semi-fi nal spot. Asian Padel Championship to- The sport originated in Mexico Doha Sheraton. Qatar padel team players pose ahead of their Asian Padel Championship campaign. FOOTBALL Raja Casablanca end 19-year wait for second Super Cup Hafidi’s 20-yard strike and a neat close-range finish from Benoun seal victory for the Moroccan side against Esperance Qatar Football Association president Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani presents the winner’s trophy to Raja Casablanca. Raja Casablanca players and off icials pose with the trophy after beating Esperance de Tunis in the CAF Super Cup clash yesterday.PICTURES: Shemeer Rasheed AFP phy in 19 years. team in Africa by Carteron before Doha The Super Cup is an annual one-off the match, took until 36 minutes to match pitting the winner of the CAF threaten Raja’s goal, but should have Champions League and second-tier equalised when Taha Yassine Khnissi aja Casablanca of Morocco CAF Confederation Cup against each spurned an easy chance when through deservedly won the African other. on the goalkeeper. Super Cup yesterday, narrowly The victory was some consolation They did draw level early in the sec- beating Tunisia’s Esperance Raja’s French coach Patrice Carteron. ond half though through Youcef and R2-1 to lift the trophy for the second time. He was the manager of the Egyp- at that stage appeared the most likely Goals from Abdelilah Hafi di, a su- tian team, Al Ahly, who lost to Espe- to win. perb fi rst half strike from 20 yards, and rance in the Champions League fi nal But Raja quickly reasserted their a neat close-range fi nish from captain last November, which led to him being dominance when Benoun fl icked in a Badr Benoun in the 65th minute sealed sacked. winner from close range following a victory for Raja. But there was little chance of him corner. Those goals came either side of losing again yesterday as they domi- Raja could have also had a penalty a wonderful equaliser from Esper- nated for long stretches of the fi nal. in the closing stages after an appar- ance’s Mohamed Youcef who smashed Mahmoud Benhalib, and Soufi ane ent handball was missed by the referee home an unstoppable shot in the 57th Rahimi went close in the fi rst half and Rahimi also had a goal ruled out minute to give the Tunisian side brief before Hafi di’s fi ne fi nish in the 22nd for off side in the 75th minute. hope. minute. Yesterday’s match was played in But they could not come back a Rahimi also spurned a chance just 2022 World Cup host nation, Qatar, second time and there were deliri- six minutes later to double Raja’s ad- the fi rst time it has been played out- ous scenes at the end as Raja’s players vantage. side Africa. It attracted a near capacity celebrated their fi rst Super Cup tro- Esperance, described as the best crowd of 18,378. Raja Casablanca’s Abdelilah Hafidi (second from right) celebrates his goal with his teammates yesterday. Gulf Times 2 Saturday, March 30, 2019 SPORT GOLF / WGC-DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY SPOTLIGHT Late birdie burst lift s Choi to LPGA Kia Woods on thin ice Classic lead AFP Nine of the top 10 players in Los Angeles the world are in the fi eld for the last tournament before the fi rst major of the year — the ANA In- outh Korea’s Chella spiration. aft er loss, McIlroy Choi birdied her last Only sixth-ranked Nelly Korda three holes on the way is taking the week off . to a seven-under-par World number one Park Sung- McIlroy continues his rich form S65 on Thursday and a two-shot hyun, No. 2 Ariya Jutanugarn, lead in the LGPA Kia Classic in No. 3 Minjee Lee, No. 4 Ko Jin- with second emphatic victory in Carlsbad, California. young Ko and No. 8 Park In-bee Choi took a little while to warm were in a big group sharing third as many days, beating Harding up on a chilly morning at Aviara on 68. wins again Golf Club, but she fi nished with Park Sung-hyun won last seven birdies and no bogeys. month in Singapore and Ko is “My putter really helped me, coming off a victory on Sunday so I really enjoyed it today,” said in the Founders Cup in Phoenix, Choi, who won her lone LPGA Arizona. Tour title at the 2015 Marathon “Just play now,” Ko said of her Classic. approach, not thinking about the “I like this golf course,” Choi past or the future. “Just think said. “I have really good memo- about now.” ries here. Defending champion Ji Eun- “The fairways are easy and hee headed another big group on the greens are small — If I hit the 69. fairways and greens a lot of birdie American Cristie Kerr, the chances out there.” 2015 winner, had a hole-in-one She was two strokes in front on the 143-yard 14th in a two- of Northern Ireland’s Stephanie over 74. Meadow, who had fi ve birdies “I played so bad today and without a bogey in her 67. that was like — I don’t know?” “Really consistent day,” Mead- Kerr said. “Finally got a birdie on ow said. “Just hit a bunch of fair- 10 and 13, and just was trying to ways and a bunch of greens and somehow bring it back close to rolled some putts in, so pretty par and get out in the morning stress-free golf.” and have some better greens.” FORMULA 1 Vettel leads Ferrari Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland in action during his match against Justin Harding (not pictured) of South Africa during the second round of the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play in Austin, Texas, on Thursday. (AFP) 1-2 in Friday practice Reuters Agencies Cary, North Carolina Suri surges into sole lead at Indian Open Manama iger Woods faces an up- AFP tage over South Africa’s George “I hit it really well the whole Australia’s Daniel Nisbet and ebastian Vettel clocked hill battle to advance to Gurgaon, India Coetzee and veteran Robert day and I just tried to free it up Om Prakash Chouhan of India the fastest lap as he and the knockout phase of Karlsson of Sweden.