A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Bowtell triumphs in all-Irish clash
TENNIS:THE all-Irish clash in the ITF Women's Circuit event in Portugal marked another stage in the rise on the pro circuit of 17-year-old Amy Bowtell.
Bowtell, who broke into the WTA singles world rankings for the first time on Monday, at 905, yesterday clinched a quarter-final place in the outdoor hardcourt tournament in Coimbra, near Porto.
But the Greystones native had to battle back from from losing the first set before eliminating her Fed Cup team-mate Julia Moriarty 2-6 6-3 6-1.
Australian-born Moriarty, ranked at 761, broke her opponent twice in the opening set. But Bowtell, playing more aggressively, subsequently turned up the heat, breaking once in the second set and twice in the decider en route to nailing down her last-eight spot.
Bowtell faces Germany’s 767-ranked Kim-Alice Grajdek who beat the number five seed, Norway’s 615-ranked Ulrike Eikeri, 6-3 6-0.
Swail advances in Germany
SNOOKER:World number 11 Mark Allen was a high-profile early casualty in the German Masters in Berlin yesterday after crashing out to fellow Northern Irishman Joe Swail.
Swail has shown signs of getting back to his best and missed the final red of a 147 attempt in his 5-0 final qualifying round win over Belgium’s Hans Blanckaert.
He completed a 5-3 win yesterday, taking the eighth frame after Allen tried in vain to get the one snooker he required to keep himself in the match.
Mark Selby comfortably progressed to the last 16 with a 5-1 win over Snooker Shoot-Out champion and fellow English cueman Nigel Bond, while Scotland’s Graeme Dott beat Thai teenager Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon by the same scoreline. Former world champion Peter Ebdon beat Andrew Higginson 5-3.
Decision on cricketers due
CRICKET:THREE Pakistani cricketers will learn today if they are to face prosecution over claims that they accepted cash bribes to fix matches.
Senior lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have been considering evidence that the men conspired to defraud bookmakers.
A fourth man, businessman Mazhar Majeed, could also be charged over allegations that he accepted €177,000 to fix the actions of players during a Test match against England at Lord’s.
Captain Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir have all been interviewed under caution by Metropolitan Police officers. Majeed was arrested.
Majeed is accused of accepting cash to ask players to deliberately bowl no-balls during their tour of England. Butt, Asif and Amir were provisionally suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) pending a hearing which took place last month. The verdicts in the case are expected to be announced tomorrow.
Murphy to miss Limerick meet due to illness
SWIMMING:GRÁINNE Murphy has had to pull out of the Dave McCullough Memorial meet at the University of Limerick today due to a stomach complaint picked up while on a three-week training camp in Brisbane, Australia.
The 17-year-old, voted the Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year in 2010, collected two bronze medals in the European Short Course championships in Eindhoven at the end of November and plunged back into her heavy training programme which included a trip Down Under with the UL performance squad.
Murphy, along with seven others from UL, travelled with coach Ronald Claes to work with Australia’s legendary coach Dennis Cottrell, the inspiration behind the great Grant Hackett, three times Olympic gold medallist and holder of 10 world swimming championship titles.
Hackett’s two individual Olympic gold came in the demanding men’s 1,500 freestyle, thus Cottrell was in a good position to advise Murphy who is also a distance swimmer.
Competing at the three-day meet in Limerick are Karl Burdis and Niamh O’Sullivan, who competed for Ireland at the 2009 world championships in Rome, along with 16-year-old Belfast swimmer Sycerika McMahon, who holds four Irish junior records including the 100 metres, 200 metres and 400 metres Freestyle.
The Dave McCullough event which is spread over Friday, Saturday and Sunday gets under way at 5.30pm this evening.
Inter haven’t given up on title charge
SOCCER:Inter Milan reignited their Italian Serie A title charge thanks to Morocco midfielder Houssine Kharja setting up a
3-0 win at bottom side Bari last night.
The victory lifts the defending champions to seven points behind leaders AC Milan, who drew 0-0 with Lazio on Tuesday, while a game in hand for Leonardo’s third-placed side makes the scudetto run-in even more interesting.
Kharja, signed on loan from Genoa last week to boost Inter’s injured ranks, broke the deadlock on 70 minutes when he finished off some good interplay with Samuel Eto’o.
Giampaolo Pazzini then netted his third goal in two games for his new club on the counter attack deep into stoppage time before substitute Wesley Sneijder marked his return from over a month out injured with the final goal.
Massa’s car on fire during testing
MOTOR SPORT:FELIPE Massa found his new Ferrari Formula One car too hot to handle yesterday when it caught fire after he had completed only a few laps of the Valencia circuit in eastern Spain.
The Brazilian was testing for the first time this year after Spanish team-mate Fernando Alonso had spent Tuesday and Wednesday in the F150. The Italian team said that Massa pulled over when the car suffered an oil leak caused by a broken clamp. “Unfortunately the lubricant ended up on the exhausts which led to a small fire breaking out and that caused some damage to the car,” they said in a statement.
Massa was sixth overall last season and under pressure to improve after enduring continuing speculation about his future with the team.
