Sports Digest/Tennis: Top seed Rafael Nadal overcame Romania's Victor Hanescu 7-6, 6-3 to book a place in the third round of the Madrid Masters yesterday.

Nadal started slowly, perhaps showing the effects of the tendinitis he has been suffering in his knees, and Hanescu broke his serve in the first game. The Spaniard broke back in the sixth game and then recovered from 3-0 down to win the tie-break 7-5.

Two breaks of serve in the second set brought Nadal victory.

Gaston Gaudio's miserable run of form continued after he became the first seed to tumble out of the tournament following a 7-6, 6-2 second-round loss to Jose Acasuso.

WOMEN'S SOCCER: The Republic of Ireland under-19 team have been drawn with Germany, Scotland and Slovenia in Group Five for next year's European Championship second-round qualifying phase.

Manager Sue Ronan said her team feared nobody after their fantastic start to the competition, beating Latvia, Estonia and Norway in the first qualifying round.

The second round runs from April 25th to 29th, the finals to be held in Switzerland from July 11th.

ATHLETICS: European marathon record holder Benoit Zwierzchiewski of France has been remanded in custody after illegal substances were found at his home in Marseille, judicial sources said yesterday. The sources said Zwierzchiewski was put in custody in the Marseille drug squad headquarters on Tuesday.

Zwierzchiewski (29) equalled Antonio Pinto's European record in 2003 with a time of two hours six minutes 36 seconds.

RACING: Irish jockey Robert Winston has been rebailed until March after spending yesterday being questioned in connection with a London police investigation into alleged race-fixing.

Winston is one of five jockeys to have been arrested and bailed. All deny any wrongdoing.

The rider, who was odds-on to land a first jockeys' championship before breaking his jaw in a fall at Ayr in August, was arrested in February.