TENNIS: Ireland and Egypt shared the singles after the first day of the Davis Cup at the Fitzwilliam club yesterday evening, writes Pat Roche.
The intensity of the second singles battle between Ireland's number one John Doran and the visiting number two Amro Ghoneim was indicated early on as Ghoniem - a less experienced player - produced excellent winners to put Doran under severe pressure.
Ghoniem was a convincing winner of the opening set 6-3 in just over an hour.
Doran responded well by taking the second set tie-break 7-5, and the talented Irishman raced away to a 6-1 win in the third.
Less than an hour later, the Dubliner had clinched a decisive three sets to one win.
A defiant Stephen Nugent proved a worthy Davis Cup debutant before going down with to a vastly higher-ranked player in Egypt's Mohamed Maamoun.
In this Euro-African Zone, Group Two first-round clash Nugent, 455 places behind Maamoun in the world rankings, battled against adversity, not least a severe attack of cramp in both legs as his opponent drove home his advantages, based on a superior service game, for an impressive 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 win.
"Maybe I tried too hard at the start but even now I feel a better player for the experience I gained over the past three hours," said Nugent.
Nugent will rue the numerous occasions he gifted his opponent with easy points. Maamoun broke serve in the third and seventh games of the first set to claim it in 42 minutes.
Nugent was seen to best effect, in terms of technique and and fitness in the second set, which he won after 72 minutes on the 11th point of a tie-break.
Nugent was badly affected by cramp in the third set and Maamoun took advantage to wrap it up in 32 minutes, 6-3.
BADMINTON: There was double disappointment for the Irish at the Finnish international championships in Helsinki yesterday.
After a first-round bye in the mixed doubles, Donal O'Halloran and Keelin Fox were beaten 11-5 7-11 11-7 by Charles Pyne and Nigella Saunders from Jamaica
Fox also lost out in the singles qualifiers, again taking a game before Sweden's Christine Pettersson won 6-11 11-9 11-6.
MOTORCYCLING: Jeremy McWilliams was left to rue a miserable 39th birthday after failing to qualify for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
The Ulsterman, who was already handicapped by having to ride last season's out-dated two-stroke bike, posted the slowest time of the wet qualifying session yesterday after a mechanical failure.
His lap of two minutes, 25.328 seconds was over 18 seconds slower than provisional pole sitter Valentino Rossi and not within the 107 per cent limit needed to make the grid.
But the Team KR Proton rider preferred to look to the future and keep his fingers crossed for a dry session today when he will get one last chance to post a quick time and start the first race of the MotoGP season.
"Not my best birthday when my number one bike seized after a couple of laps," McWilliams said.
"We then had to swap tyres on to my number two machine and by the time we had done that, the track was slippery and people were crashing, especially at the Spoon corner."
CRICKET: Pakistan notched up their second win in two days in the Sharjah Cup, being played in the UAE, by defeating Sri Lanka by seven wickets.
Yousuf Youhana and Younis Khan saw Pakistan through with unbeaten scores of 64 and 57 respectively in a total of 225 for three.
That middle-order partnership allowed Pakistan to overhaul Sri Lanka's total of 223 for six, in which Kumar Sangakkara hit an unbeaten century.
