Basketball, NBA: The Boston Celtics punched their ticket to the NBA Eastern Conference finals on Saturday with an 85-75 victory over Philadelphia behind a “triple-double” by Rajon Rondo. Rondo scored 18 points with 10 assists and 10 rebounds as the Celtics won the decisive game seven. The Celtics will open the best-of-seven Eastern conference finals in Miami against the Heat tonight. That winner will face San Antonio or Oklahoma City in the NBA finals.
Boxing: England’s Carl Froch stopped defending champion Lucian Bute, of Romania, in the fifth round to take the IBF super-middleweight title in Nottingham on Saturday. Froch, 34, was coming off a rare defeat to Andre Ward and went into the fight against Bute as the underdog. But he took command from the opening bell to take possession of IBF belt to go with the WBC belt he held twice in the past.
[attach id=197590 size="medium"][/attach]
Badminton: Superstar Lin Dan (picture) led hosts China to an emphatic victory over South Korea in the Thomas Cup final yesterday, sending a stark message he and his team-mates are in peak form for the London Olympics. Widely regarded as the best player of all time and a sporting hero in China, Lin threw his t-shirt into the Wuhan crowd after his side were far too good in seeing off the Koreans 3-0 – repeating the feat of the women’s team Saturday.
Athletics: Former world heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis gave her hopes of winning Olympic gold in London a timely boost yesterday by winning a combined events meeting in a new British record points tally. The 26-year-old recorded a new personal best of 6,906 points to replace in the record books Britain’s 2000 Olympic champion Denise Lewis whose previous best was at 6,831. Russia’s Tatyana Chernova was 132 points behind in second.
Volleyball: South Korea secured their place at the London Olympics after beating Peru in straight sets on the final day yesterday of the women’s volleyball qualifying tournament. With a 25-11, 25-18, 25-21 victory, the South Koreans finished with a 5-2 win-loss record for 15 points behind world champions Russia, 25-14, 25-17, 25-17 winners over Taiwan.