Baseball

Matanzas will appear today at the Augusto César Sandino stadium in Santa Clara, looking for its final win in the 4th semifinal match against Villa Clara to ensure its advance to the discussion of Cuban Baseball title.

Matanzas' Los Cocodrilos shows 3 straight wins covered by a timely offensive and solid pitching performance, especially the closer Felix Fuentes, with 1 win and 2 saves while outfielder Yadiel Hernandez has stolen the limelight with offensive batting average of 444, 2 homers and 5 RBIs, 2 of which meant the tie or the lead.

Therefore, Villa Clara's Los Naranjas are on the brink due to lack of timely hitting, as they have already left 30 runners on bases, 10 per game, an incompatible symptom with the aspirations for winning.

Meanwhile, the Latinoamericano Stadium in Havana will host on Monday the 3rd cap between Pinar del Rio and the host Industriales, which is leveled to 1 win apiece.

Pinar overcame victorious 10-2 on Friday, led by the solid pitching of stellar Yosvani Torres, but the capital's took revenge on Saturday by a smashingly 13-2 knockout, with offensive highlight of 2 homers and 7 trailers for Alexander Malleta.

Chess

Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez was unchanged both in world rankings and his ELO, as the World Chess Federation published its 4th updating list 2014 on Monday.

The Caribbean, 30 years old, remains in 12th place in the world with 2757 ELO points, as for the 2nd consecutive month, the best player in Latin America did not participate in any world competition, but will reappear in the international arena on Sunday April 6th in the Russian region of Krasnodar at the local Team Championship defending the 3rd board of St. Petersburg team again.

Meanwhile, his compatriot Lázaro Bruzón rose to 70th place with 2678 Elo points, and continues as a 3rd player in Latin America, behind Leinier and Peruvian GM Julio Ernesto Granda, which peaked at the 61 with 2685 units.

The Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who did not play in March, continues to lead the standings with 2881 points, followed by the Armenian Levon Aronian (2812) and the Indian Viswanatan Anad, who just won the Candidates Tournament, and advanced to 3rd place with 2785 points.

Rounding out the list of the top 5 are Russian Vladimir Kramnik and Italian Fabiano Caruana, both with 2783 units.

Boxing

The World Series of Boxing (WSB) the Azerbaijan Baku Fires threw down the gauntlet to the other teams in this first Season IV quarter-final match-up, according to Cuban News Agency.

In an emphatic statement of intent, the Fires systematically picked the Season II Champions, Italian Thunder apart, leaving them in need of a miracle to salvage their season.

As it stands, the Fires will progress to the semi-finals unless the Thunder can win all five remaining bouts in the return leg, and even then they will have to win an additional tiebreaker. Italian fans fear that it will be almost impossible.

The Light Flyweights (46-49kg), Bantamweights (56kg), Light Welterweights (64kg), Middleweights (75kg) and Heavyweights (91kg) contested this match.

The match between Cuba and United States starts April 4th and the 2nd round is planed for April 12th in New Hampshire.

Badminton

Cuban Osleni Guerrero confronts today American Bjorn Seguin in the semifinals of the 15th International Badminton Tournament Giraldilla of Havana, based in the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum.

Guerrero, defending champion of the event and number 58th in the world ranking, beat in 2 partials 21-9, 21-17, Peruvian Andres Corpancho to achieve his ticket to the semifinals where he will face Seguin.

The American, number 86th in the universal list defeated Jamaican Gareth Henry 21-8 and 21-9, to secure their ticket to this stage.

Obviously the favoritism is for Guerrero, with local status and 3 hits over Seguin, the most recent 21-19 and 22-20 in the semifinals of the Open Santo Domingo and 21-11 and 21-18, in the 4th International of Mexico, both late last year; however, the U.S. has had an excellent competition and can give surprises.
In the other semifinal Guatemalan Kevin Cordon and Czech Jan Frohlich will be measured. Lace, monarch of Guadalajara 2011, back to skills after 11 months sidelined by injury to his knee, will have a tough opponent in Frohlich, second Giraldilla 2013.

In the women's singles semifinals are agreed between the Slovenian Maja Tvrdy and Belgian Marie Demy, while the other key will do the Italian and Dominican Jeanine Cicognini as Veronica Vibieca latter got the ticket after eliminating Friday 21-17 and 21-14 Cuban Taimara Oropeza.

The Tournament will be held today at the capital's Sports City Coliseum and awards 5 thousand dollars in prizes and 2 500 points for the world ranking for the winners of each specialty.