Sports Shorts: Czech police end investigation into Kvitova stabbing case

A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday

Czech police have ended their investigation into a knife attack on twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova last year that forced her off the court for five months this season.

Kvitova, who lifted the Wimbledon trophy in 2011 and 2014, required four hours of surgery in December after protecting herself from a man wielding a knife who had gained access to her apartment by posing as a utility worker.

The police received a number of clues from the public but could not identify the attacker.

"It was not possible to find facts that would warrant launching prosecution (of any specific person)," police spokeswoman Jitka Dolejsova said in a statement.

Kvitova, 27, was ranked 11th in the world at the time of the attack, in which she sustained injuries to tendons in all four fingers and the thumb on her left hand.

She returned to competitive tennis in May, getting knocked out in the second round at the French Open. The left-hander won the Aegon Classic in Birmingham in June before exiting Wimbledon in the second round.

Kvitova made it to the US Open quarter-finals and is now ranked 29th in the world.

WADA rules Russia 'non-compliant' in Winter Games blow

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Thursday that Russia remains "non-compliant" with its Code, dealing a major blow to its hopes of being cleared to compete at February's Winter Olympics.

Russia's anti-doping agency (RUSADA) has been suspended since a 2015 WADA report found evidence of state-sponsored doping and accused it of systematically violating anti-doping regulations.

WADA set out a roadmap for Russia to regain its status but at a meeting of its Foundation Board in Seoul on Thursday decided that key criteria had not been met.

WADA President Craig Reedie said the Board approved the recommendation by the Independent Compliance Review Committee that RUSADA remain non-compliant as two key requirements for reinstatement had still not been fulfilled.

"Having set a road map for compliance, there are two issues that have to be fulfilled and we can't walk away from the commitments," Reedie told reporters, adding that the RUSADA has made improvements.

Kuwait, Equatorial Guinea and Mauritius had also been found non-compliant by the Board, it added.

The decision is likely to add more pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian athletes from the 2018 Winter Games.

Russia escaped a blanket ban at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but remains barred from competing in international athletics events.

Yuri Ganus, director general of RUSADA, said the agency had done everything it could to be reinstated apart from two criteria that had not been met and were out of its control.