Sports Brief

Kang secures Pirates’ win with two RBIs

Kang Jung-ho of the Pittsburgh Pirates hit his second home run of the season to help his team’s 4-3 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Kang, who batted second and started at third base, came out strong as he bashed a fastball from Cardinals starter Tyler Lyons to score in the first inning. It was his first home run in front of a home crowd.

The former Nexen Heroes player grounded out to the short stop in the third and struck out in the fifth, but delivered a game-wining single in the seventh to break the 3-3 deadlock.

With the 2-for-4 performance and 2 RBIs, Kang is now batting .333 with two home runs and nine RBIs this season.

Meanwhile, Texas Rangers outfielder Choo Shin-soo extended his hitting streak to 10 games against the Tampa Bay Rays.

As the Rangers leadoff man, the right fielder went 2-for-4 with two doubles, raising his average to .183. The Rangers won 2-1.

Top tennis prospect rises in ATP rankings

Korea’s top tennis prospect Chung Hyeon moved up to No. 69 in Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world rankings, announced Monday.

Chung, 18, won the ATP Busan Open Challenger on Sunday after beating Lukas Lacko of Slovenia 6-3, 6-1 in the men’s singles final.

It was also his third Challenger tour title, the most among any other players this season. The Samil Technical High School student also leads the Challenger circuit with 25 match wins this season.

With the victory, Chung added 110 ATP ranking points and has moved up to world No. 69 with total of 690 points.

He became the second Korean tennis player to be inside the top 100 last week after gaining to No. 88, but is climbing the rankings quickly. The highest world ranking ever reached by a Korean is No. 36, held by Lee Hyung-taek in 2007.

Chung will play in the Seoul Open Tennis competition this week before going to France to play in the French Open tournament.