Sports round-up

Badminton: Malaysia’s world number one Lee Chong Wei sustained a serious ankle injury at the Thomas Cup yesterday, hobbling off in tears to leave his Olympic dreams hanging in the balance. “He will not take part in any more matches at the Thomas Cup,” said Malaysia singles coach Rashid Sidek. “We do not know the extent of the injury. We must focus on getting him fit for the Olympics.”

Basket, NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder punched their ticket to the Western Conference finals, eliminating Los Angeles Lakers in five games with a dominating 106-90 victory Monday night. Russell Westbrook scored 28 points and Kevin Durant had 25 for the Thunder who took a play-off series from the Lakers for the first time since 1979. The Thunder, four years after relocating to the Oklahoma capital, now face the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs for a place in the NBA finals.

Doping: Bulgarian sprinter Inna Eftimova will miss the 2012 Olympics after being banned for two years for doping, Bulgaria Athletics chief Dobromir Karamarinov said. Eftinova, 23, tested positive for the growth hormone somatotropin at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, last August. She had been set to compete over 100m and 200m, meaning the ban could also jeopardise the hopes of Bulgaria’s 4x100m relay team to qualify for the Games.

Golf: Cheyenne Woods, the 21-year-old niece of Tiger Woods, has signed with her uncle’s agent, Mark Steinberg, and is set to start playing in LPGA Tour events this year. In a statement, Cheyenne Woods said she plans to play in LPGA events this year on sponsor exemptions and seek a full-time spot on the women’s golf tour through the qualifying tournament.

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Tennis: Former French Open champions Monica Seles (picture) and Sweden’s Mats Wilander will present the trophies to the women’s and men’s singles champions at this year’s renewal, the organisers an-nounced yesterday. Yugoslavia-born naturalised American Seles, 38, won the women’s singles title three times (1990-92) and will present the ladies trophy on June 9 and fellow triple French Open champion (1982, 85, 88) Wilander, 47, the men’s the following day.

Olympic Games: Members of the Russian team and delegation attending the 2012 London Olympics are to be banned from drinking alcohol during the competition. The decision was taken as a result of the “disastrous results” of the Russian team at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver where they achieved just 14 medals out of a predicted tally of up to 50. Alcohol abuse kills an estimated 500,000 people annually in Russia.

Giro d’Italia: Spaniard Jon Izagirre’s solo break paid off as the Euskaltel rider won the 16th stage of the tour of Italy yesterday. Fellow Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez, of the Katusha team, retained the overall leader’s pink jersey a day before the race heads to the northern Dolomite mountains. Izagirre pulled ahead of a group of nine fellow escapees in a climb just 4km from the line, to claimed his first success for the Euskaltel team. The 23-year-old, who turned pro last year, finished 15sec ahead of Italy’s Alessandro De Marchi and Dutch rider Stef Clement.