Sports Digest

BOXING: Wayne McCullough has rubbished talk of retirement and insisted he will fight on in search of another world title shot.

The Belfast 32-year-old was hospitalised following his comprehensive 12-round beating by Scott Harrison in a WBO featherweight title challenge in Glasgow in March.

But McCullough has no doubts that he still has what it takes to claim a second world crown to add to the WBC bantamweight belt he won in Japan eight years ago.

McCullough said: "I will retire on my own terms when I am good and ready. Right now I am concentrating on getting back into fight shape.

"The thought of retirement has never crossed by mind because as soon as you start thinking about retirement then you might as well do so.

"Many world champions have lost worse than I did and they have come back stronger, sometimes getting bigger purses along the way. No-one says they should retire." McCullough was treated overnight in Glasgow's Southern General Hospital for dehydration and exhaustion after his defeat.

"I may have been hit by big shots but my head was always clear. I remember after each round sitting in my corner and looking across the ring to where my wife was sitting.

"If she thought for one minute there was something wrong with me she would have come to my corner but she knew I was fine."

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ATHLETICS: Olympic 400 metre gold medallist Cathy Freeman will face a top-class field at two meetings in Britain this summer. Freeman will compete at the Norwich Union Super League meeting in Gateshead on July 13th and the Norwich Union London Grand Prix on August 8th.

The Australian, whose victory in Stadium Australia in 2000 was one of the highlights of the Sydney Olympics, said: "I have some great memories of racing in the UK and I'm really looking forward to competing at those venues against Katharine Merry, Lee McConnell and hopefully Donna Fraser."

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TENNIS: Switzerland's fourth-seed Roger Federer kept up his perfect record on clay this season when he swept away the challenge of Spain's Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Rome Masters yesterday.

The 21-year-old, who won the Munich title last weekend, stretched his record to 8-0 this year on the slow European surfaces to reinforce his position as a hot tip for the French Open which gets under way later this month.

The win also gave him a season record of 34-6 as he chases the second Masters title of his career to follow his win in Hamburg last year. "I felt good on the returns, tried to keep the rallies short on my own service games," said Federer. Australian Open runner-up Rainer Schuettler of Germany defeated eighth-seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) and Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic saw off Guillermo Coria of Argentina 6-4, 6-3 to also make the quarter-finals.

Third seed Carlos Moya became the latest high-ranking casualty beaten 6-4 7-6 by Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the third round.

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TENNIS: Top seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium battled her way through to the quarter-finals of the German Open with a 7-5 6-3 win over Colombia's Fabiola Zuluaga yesterday.

It was a good day for most of the other leading seeds and for Belgian tennis, with defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne crushing Switzerland's Patty Schnyder 6-2 6-3.

World number three Clijsters was made to work hard by Zuluaga, who opened up a 5-2 lead in the first set and later survived three match points before bowing out on the fourth.

Fourth seed Jennifer Capriati advanced to the last eight easily with a 6-2 6-3 win over France's Nathalie Dechy.Capriati reached the final in Berlin two years ago before losing to France's Amelie Mauresmo, who is seeded fifth this year and also progressed with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Israel's Anna Pistolesi.