TENNIS:Andy Murray says he is not concerned about dropping nine places to 22nd in the world rankings after his second-round defeat by Mario Ancic in Miami last weekend - his lowest position for nearly two years.
The Scot is confident the forthcoming clay-court season will boost his ranking.
"I missed the next four months last year because of injury so I haven't got any ranking points to defend and each week my ranking is going to move up for the next four months, so it doesn't really worry me too much," he said.
Apology after factory error leads to positive drug test
WEIGHTLIFTING:A mistake at a Chinese factory was to blame for 11 members of the Greek national weightlifting team testing positive for banned substances, a Greek Weightlifting Federation official said yesterday.
The federation had announced on Friday that 11 of the 14 team members had tested positive with their A samples and the squad could face expulsion from the Beijing Olympics in August if their B samples also proved positive.
Yesterday, a federation official said on condition of anonymity the Chinese factory, which had been supplying Greek athletes with nutritional supplements for months, had sent a letter apologising for a mix-up in the ingredients.
"A letter was sent to us and it says that a mistake in the ingredients of the supplements had caused the problem," the official said. "They are apologising for their mistake."
The Chinese company said in the letter a number of banned toxic and cancer-causing substances had been accidentally added in the latest batch of supplements.
The lawyer for suspended head coach Christos Iacovou said he, too, had received the letter of apology.
"I have the letter from one of China's biggest pharmaceutical companies with which they apologise for the tragic mistake of sending nutritional supplements which included some banned substances," lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said.
"Iacovou never imagined giving his athletes banned substances and he never gave drugs to his athletes," he said.
Under the current World Anti-Doping Agency code, the athletes face a two-year ban if they are first-time offenders.
The case has triggered a judicial investigation, led by an Athens prosecutor.
"We want to win medals in Beijing but we want to win them on our own merit," sports minister Yannis Ioannidis said.
Contador takes first stage
CYCLING: Tour de France champion Alberto Contador made a lone break to victory in yesterday's first stage of the Tour of the Basque Country.
The Astana team leader finished around three seconds ahead of fellow Spaniard Ezequiel Mosquera.
Spaniard David Herrero led in the bunch of chasers for third.
"I took some risks on the descent leading to the finish but it was worth taking a chance," Contador said, referring to the dangerous, rain-soaked terrain.
"I've come here to win overall and this is just the start I needed."
Contador and Mosquera took off on the final climb of the stage, the Alto de Descarga. Contador then attacked two kilometres from the line for a lone win.
Gavaskar slams India players
CRICKET:Former captain Sunil Gavaskar has questioned the commitment of some players in the India squad following the side's crushing second Test defeat to South Africa in Ahmedabad. The hosts were skittled out for 76 on the first morning and went on to lose by an innings and 90 runs, leaving Gavaskar to suggest some players were distracted by the build-up to the Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) beginning on April 18th.
"Disappointing as the performance is, the question that is being asked is whether the Indian team was prepared for the second Test," he said yesterday.
The first Test in Chennai ended in a high-scoring draw and featured four centuries, led by opener Virender Sehwag's Indian Test best of 319.
"Even after considering that the teams spent five hot and humid days in Chennai, the absence of some players for two whole days out of the three rest days between the two Tests was strange, to say the least," Gavaskar added.
Sutherland and Ahern record victories in Athens
BOXING:Irish boxers Darren Sutherland and Conor Ahern yesterday recorded preliminary-round victories at the all-important final Olympic qualifier for Europeans in Athens, Greece, writes Bernard O'Neill.
But Donegal's Willie McLoughlin is out of the tournament after he lost his 69Kg bout 13-11 to the Bosnian welterweight Velibor Vidic at the Olympic Centre of Nikaia.
Sutherland, from the St Saviour's club in Dublin, got Ireland's campaign off to a winning start with a 5-0 win over the Finnish middleweight Niko Jokinen.
And Ahern, of the Baldoyle club in Dublin, followed that up with a 14-8 victory over Salomo N'Tune of Sweden to set up tomorrow's quarter-final clash with Batomunko Vankeyeu from Belarus.
However, the 24-year-old is facing an anxious wait to see if he will be fit for tomorrow's last-eight showdown after he suffered a cut over his left eye against a dogged N'Tune.
Irish boxers reaching the finals in their weight categories in Athens will automatically qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.
But Sutherland could have two bites of the cherry, because if he reaches the semi-finals and loses, he will go into a box-off with the other beaten semi-finalist for an Olympic place.
Sutherland, Ireland captain Ken Egan, David Oliver Joyce, John Joe Joyce, Ross Hickey, Tom Sheahan and Cathal McMonagle will all be involved in last-16 bouts today.
