DIGEST/Tennis: Ireland narrowly lost to Britain in their first round Federation Cup match in Estoril, Portugal, when England's Jane O'Donoghue beat Yvonne Doyle 6-3, 7-6 before Ireland's Kelly Liggan equalled the match with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 win over Anne Keothavong.
Britain went on to take the match in the doubles when Elena Balatacha, who lost to Venus Williams in the first week at Wimbledon last year, teamed up with Julie Pullin to beat Claire Curran and Liggan 6-3, 6-2.
The event, which was originally scheduled for Antalya, Turkey, but was relocated when the war with Iraq broke out, has 17 countries participating with Ireland due to face Poland today then Hungary and Holland later in the week.
Boxing: World heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis of Britain and former champion Mike Tyson will climb into the same boxing ring in Los Angeles on June 21st, but not to fight against each other.
The two fighters have reached agreement on a deal to fight on June 21st at the Staples Centre, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.
Tyson will fight Oleg Maskaev of Kazakhstan while World Boxing Council champion Lewis is expected to face Canada's Kirk Johnson even though it might cost him the crown.
The WBC has threatened to strip the crown from Lewis if he does not fight top-ranked contender Vitali Klitschko, a Ukrainian who still might be the man to face Lewis in June.
Lewis, who has not fought since knocking out Tyson last June in Memphis, is looking at legal options to keep the WBC from stripping him of the title for not facing Klitschko.
He lost two other crowns for not facing mandatory rivals.
The double-fight deal with Tyson was finalised on Monday after a majority of the six-member California State Athletic Commission agreed to give Tyson a licence to fight in the state, something New Jersey declined to do a week ago.
Tyson was rejected in a licence bid last year in Nevada after a brawl with Lewis at a news conference, the latest of many incidents that have made it difficult for Tyson to win approval to fight in several states.
"Against Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson conducted himself with graciousness in defeat," commission chairman Van Gordon Sauter said.
"This fight could be a big financial contribution to the city of Los Angeles and a tremendous boost to the sport in California."
Tyson (36), knocked out Clifford Etienne in 49 seconds last February in his first fight since losing to Lewis (37).
Golf: Former US Open champions Tom Watson, Hale Irwin and Tom Kite have accepted special exemptions to compete in this year's event, the US Golf Association announced yesterday.
The over-50 Americans will not have to qualify for a spot in this year's second major championship, to be played between June 12th-15th at Olympia Fields in suburban Chicago.
Watson played his first professional event at Olympia Fields, making the cut as an amateur at the PGA Western Open. He won 39 PGA events from 1974 to 1998, including eight major crowns.
Irwin has the longest active streak of US Open starts, dating to 1971. He won 13 years ago aged 45, becoming the only player on a special exemption to capture the US Open crown.
Kite, who made his debut on the over-50 tour in 2000, will make his 30th consecutive US Open start. The 1992 US Open winner shared fifth just two years ago.
Cycling: France's Laurent Brochard, of the AG2R team, collected the token prize of a giant Camembert cheese following his victory in the Paris-Camembert semi-classic race at Vimoutiers yesterday.
Former world champion Brochard, who also won the French Cup event in 2001, crossed the line after 200km of riding with a 40-second lead over a small group of pursuers.
Spaniard Carlos Torrent came second with French champion Nicolas Vogondy placing third.
Meanwhile, Australia's Cadel Evans of the Telekom team, who fell in the weekend's Amstel Gold World Cup race, will be out of action for up to six weeks.
Evans is set to have an operation after breaking his left collar bone in two places.
The revelation of last year's Tour of Italy, when he wore the leader's pink jersey, is expected to be back on rollers, which allow a cyclist to train while the bike is in a fixed position, in a couple of weeks.
The 25-year-old Evans, who came to road cycling after winning a horde of mountain bike World Cup titles, is considered as a future contender for the Tour de France which was won last year by Lance Armstrong for the fourth time in a row. Evans won the 2002 Commonwealth Games time-trial in Manchester.
