Sports Digest/BASKETBALL: This weekend's Cup action didn't produce any major shocks, although a few eyebrows were raised, none more so than at Belfield where Limerick overcame UCD 94-84, writes Gavin Cummiskey.
The Killarney Lakers rediscovered the winning formula in impressive fashion with a two-point victory against Star of the Sea in Belfast. The release of Clyde Ellis this week was offset by the arrival of Charron Watson, and along with Kenny Gamble they look well set to turn a poor campaign around.
In reality, it should never have been so close as the Lakers led by 22 points at one stage. Despite the Belfast club's resurgence, the Kerry team held on to travel home with their first win of the season.
Elsewhere, Ballina continued to self-destruct after they were on the wrong end of a heavy defeat to Tralee Tigers, 120-89. Having Josh Lewis and Ronan McGarrity fouled out in the final quarter didn't help the cause as the Tigers killed off the game, scoring an impressive 14 three-pointers on their way into the quarter-finals.
Yesterday, St Vincent's beat Waterford to complete the first round games.
Those defeated are not out of the competition, as a back door system has been introduced this year that enables two teams to qualify for the last eight.
Six losers go into round two and are joined by two Division One teams. Games will be decided by open draw with matches to be played before December 13th.
The four winners play round three, which will take place between December 13th and 31st. Games will be decided again by open draw. These two clubs progress to the quarters.
An open draw will take place then, with teams who have already met in the first round not allowed to play against each other again until the semi-finals.
These matches will be played over the weekend of January 1st 2005 with the semi-finals and final being the last weekend in January.
TENNIS: World number one Roger Federer won the longest tiebreak in Masters tournament history going back to 1970 as he defeated Marat Safin 6-3 7-6 (20/18) to reach the final of the Masters Cup in Houston.
The tiebreak was the longest in men's tennis since the 1993 US Open match between Goran Ivanisevic and Daniel Nestor, which Ivanisevic won 6-4 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (20/18). The only other 20/18 singles tiebreak was at Wimbledon in 1973 when Premjit Lall defeated Bjorn Borg 6-3 6-4 9-8 (20/18).
SNOOKER: Stephen Hendry and Mark Williams were added to the cull of seeds as the shocks continued at the UK Championship in York yesterday.
Their defeats mean six of the world's top eight players have failed to reach the last 16 - and Paul Hunter, at number four, is now the highest-ranked contender left in the tournament.
Williams produced an abject display as he was trounced 9-3 by Mark King, and he admitted he had wanted to be anywhere except the arena during the closing stages of the match.
But Hendry's loss was the bigger shock, because the seven-time world champion held a 5-3 lead over Barry Hawkins, only for the world number 43 to claim six of the next eight frames to pull off a stunning 9-7 upset.
It was an inexplicably sloppy performance by the Scot, and his opponent took full advantage - knocking in breaks of 100, 84, 55 and 48.
"This is by far my best win," said Hawkins, the 25-year-old from Kent. "To beat Stephen in a long-distance match is a great result, and it gives me a lot of confidence and belief in myself."
UK CHAMPIONSHIP (at York) - Second round (prefix denotes seeding): Mark King (Eng) bt (3) Mark Williams (Wal) 9-3, Barry Hawkins (Eng) bt (4) Stephen Hendry (Sco) 9-7.
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