SNOOKER: Ken Doherty lost out on a semi-final place in the year's first ranking tournament when he was beaten 5-2 by England's Paul Hunter in the Welsh Open at the Cardiff National Arena yesterday.
Doherty recovered from the loss of the first two frames to enter the mid-session interval at 2-2.
But, in with a chance in frame five, Doherty potted a black but failed to take the cue-ball into the cluster of reds and left himself in trouble.
Hunter stepped in with a run of 37 to regain the advantage at 3-2, swiftly took the sixth frame with a 56 break and controlled the seventh for outright victory.
CYCLING: Irish national champion Mark Scanlon continues to shine in his debut pro race, yesterday placing eighth at the end of the fourth stage of the Tour Down Under in Australia.
The 22-year-old took his second top-10 placing in two days in the bunch sprint which decided the race to Goolwa, with top honours going to Australian Baden Cooke of the FDJeux.com team.
Italian rider Fabio Sacchi continues to lead overall by eight seconds. Scanlon is inching up the leaderboard and is now up to 21st overall, 33 seconds off Sacchi's time. His strong performances have helped ensure that his AG2r team maintain their lead in the teams classification.
MOTORSPORT: Reigning world champion Marcus Gronholm of Finland took the opening day honours of the Rally of Monte Carlo yesterday.
The Peugeot driver, who swept to his second career world title last year, was in complete command at the end of the day's six stages having built up a 20.6-second lead over Citroen's Sebastien Loeb after winning three of the specials.
Scotland's Colin McRae, in his first race as a Citroen driver, trailed the leader by one minute 16.6. Tommi Makinen of Finland, crashed out on the fifth stage.
GAELIC GAMES: A stoppage time point from a free by Galway's Nicky Joyce gave Sligo IT their first win in the FBD Connacht Football league at Ballinode last night, beating Mayo 0-11 to 0-10.
The home side opened the scoring with a Nicky Joyce point from a free after five minutes and IT went on to dominate the half as Mayo were struggling to find the target.
Declan Sweeney opened the visitors' first half account but IT led by 07-0-3 at half-time.
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