Hong Kong, China's table tennis athletes on Tuesday had a strong showing at the Asian Para Games in Nagoya, earning a handful of bronze with two gold or silver medals still up for grabs. With no third-place play-off in individual table tennis events, the SAR's paddlers were guaranteed of at least bronze going into the day's semi-final matches at Sky Hall Toyota. Wong Yue-ching added to Hong Kong's medal tally first despite falling 3-0 to the national team's Wang Rui in the semi-finals of the women's singles Class 7 event. China's Wang will battle for gold later Tuesday against Hong Kong's Chiu Kan-shan, who beat South Korea's Kim Seongok 3-1 in the other women's single Class 7 semi-final. Wong dropped the first game 8-11, though fought to keep it close against the 2022 Asian Para Games gold medallist in the opening game of the best-of-five contest. But she was ultimately unable to hang on, dropping the next two games 6-11, 6-11 to lose the contest in straight games. Over in the women’s singles Class 11 event, Wong Ting-ting will also compete for gold on Tuesday when she takes on Japan's Miya Yamaguchi. Meanwhile, Pang Wing-ka saw the podium after falling in straight games to China's Liu Xiaowu in her last four meeting of the women's singles Class 6 category. Lam Yan-yu also earned a spot on the podium after a slim 3-2 loss to Chinese Taipei's Lin Tzu-yu in the semis of the Class 10 category. On the men's side, Wong Chi-yin bagged bronze after narrowly defeating Japan's Koyo Iwabuchi 3-2 in the last four of the Class 9 event. Wong Hon-lam sealed bronze after falling to China's Zhao Yiqing 3-1 in the other Class 9 semi-final. Edited by Tony Sabine

The Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 to reach baseball's World Series for the third time on Monday. Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz both crushed decisive two-run home runs and starting pitcher Freddy Peralta delivered a gem to send the Rays into a Fall Classic showdown with the Milwaukee Brewers. Tampa Bay's victory means Major League Baseball will have a new champion this season: neither the Rays or the Brewers have ever won a World Series. Tampa Bay lost in the Fall Classic in 2008 and 2020, while the Brewers were beaten in their only previous appearance in the 1982 World Series. Milwaukee will head into the World Series as top seeds and favorites after sweeping the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series last week. But Tampa Bay advance brimming with confidence after recovering from a 2-1 deficit to complete a 4-2 American League Championship Series victory at Tropicana Field in Florida. Richie Palacios had driven Tampa Bay into the lead in the bottom of the second inning, with a two-out, two-strike double that brought home Chandler Simpson and Victor Mesa Jr for a 2-0 lead. Tampa Bay tacked on another run in the third inning when Caminero scored after Jonny DeLuca's sacrifice fly to left field. Peralta, who gave up one run across five and one-third innings, continued to cruise but Cleveland finally broke through in the sixth inning with Nathaniel Lowe's single allowing Chase DeLauter to score to the deficit to 3-1. Tampa Bay looked to have put one foot in the World Series in the seventh inning when Caminero launched a 346-foot two-run blast into left field off Cade Smith that left the Rays 5-1 up. But a nervy eighth inning display by Rays reliever Ian Seymour gave Cleveland hope. After walking Travis Bazzana to load the bases, Seymour walked Patrick Bailey to gift Cleveland a run at 5-2. Seymour followed that by hitting Angel Martinez with his first pitch to give Cleveland another run at 5-3. Rays reliever Kevin Kelly staunched the bleeding after Seymour was replaced to leave it at 5-3, and then in the bottom of the inning Tampa Bay made the game safe. Diaz pounced on a 75mph change-up from Hunter Gaddis, sweeping a home run into left field to restore Tampa Bay's four-run cushion and effectively seal victory. (AFP) Edited by Tony Sabine