Hockey: If Pembroke Wanderers want to realise their ambition of retaining the Irish Senior Cup, they must eliminate Glenanne - the team they have failed to conquer in the last two seasons in Leinster competitions - in the quarter-finals on February 10th, writes Dermot Ashmore.
Having snatched the lead from Pembroke last March, All Ireland champions Glenanne have since beaten their strongest rivals three times: 2-1, 3-0 on strokes after a 2-2 draw and 3-2 in the current campaign. Pembroke (who will also meet Glenanne in the Mills Cup semi-finals) have been drawn at home.
Avoca and YMCA will also have home advantage against Trinity and Aer Lingus, respectively, in the other all-local ties, while, with Cork Harlequins travelling to Newry, there will be one non-Leinster team in the semi-finals.
Tennis: Jennifer Capriati has risen to seventh in the world rankings, her highest position since 1993, after her shock win in the Australian Open final.
Martina Hingis, who was beaten by Capriati in the Melbourne final, leads the rankings with 6,248 points. She has stretched her lead over secondplaced Lindsay Davenport (4,468) in the 12-month rankings after the American, last year's Australian Open champion, lost to Capriati in the semi-finals.
Venus Williams is third, only 374 points behind Davenport.
Tennis: Conor Niland, the youngster in Ireland's touring tennis squad in Australia, has made quite an impact already with a hat-trick of wins en route to the main draw in the first week on the Sydney ITF circuit.
Niland beat Michael Tebbutt 7-5 6-4 after two demanding sets. The Australian was ranked 60 in the world a few years ago and made the fourth round of the US open. Earlier Niland had beaten another Australian, Anthony Guccione 6-1 6-1 and LH Moon (Korea) 6-0 6-2. The Limerickman faces Anton Klaric of Australia today.
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