O'Sullivan claims Masters title

Snooker: Ronnie O'Sullivan's golden start to the new season continued with a 9-6 defeat of Stephen Hendry to claim the Regal Masters title in Motherwell last night.

The 24-year-old, who won the Champions Cup in September and was runner-up in the Grand Prix a week ago, kept his head to scoop the £62,000 first prize despite Hendry making two centuries and three 80 breaks.

The victory, which gives O'Sullivan his 18th professional title, takes the world number four to £209,400 in prize money for the season.

Hendry, three times the Masters champion, began the final in superb fashion with a run of 120 - his first century of the week - but O'Sullivan limited him to only nine points as he went 2-1 ahead.

But in the final frame of the afternoon, O'Sullivan pounced with 54 to take a two-frame lead into the final session.

Windsurfing: As the final event in the calendar reaches its stormy conclusion this afternoon, Oisin Van Gelderen, the longstanding national champion is facing a threat from a young rival in the form of Maurice Owens. The pair are divided by half a point after 21 races although their standings in the overall Heineken Windsurfing Tour are unclear.

The pair are locked in a private duel at the front end of the fleet and are separated from third placed Jeff Cochrane by a comfortable 12 point advantage. The leading bunch also includes the Irish Windsurfing Association President Caroline O'Hara holding sixth place overall and best lady from a turnout of more than 10 women entrants in the 66 strong fleet.

While the Irish Sailing Association's Eagle Star Champion of Champions event was cancelled due the stormy weather, the Roundstone venue for the windsurfing finale produced high winds for the eighth consecutive year.

Darts: Phil Taylor won his third successive World Grand Prix title in Rosslare last night with a clinical 6-1 victory against Shayne Burgess.

The defending champion had to force his way back into the third set from two legs down before winning the deciding leg to move into a 2-1 lead.

The fourth set also went to a deciding leg, and it was Taylor who once again prevailed to put some daylight between himself and the third seed.

Taylor was being pushed all the way by Burgess, and in yet another set that went the distance a 104 outshot from the 40-yearold darts legend moved him 4-1 ahead.

Taylor raced through the next set - throwing a 126 checkout on the way - to leave him within touching distance of the Waterford Crystal vase and £11,500 winner's cheque.

Tennis: Top seeds Julie Halard-Decugis of France and Japan's Ai Sugiyama beat Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis 4-6 6-4 7-6 to win the Kremlin Cup women's doubles yesterday.

The defeat, only Hingis and Kournikova's second as a team this year, rubbed salt in the Russian's wounds after she was crushed by Hingis 6-3 6-1 in the singles final.

The Russian has now gone 78 tournaments without winning a singles title. Kournikova and Hingis also lost in the final of the French Open to the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

Cycling: Jens Lehmann of Germany and Frederic Magne of France maintained the domination of both countries in the world track championships on the final day in Manchester yesterday.

Both countries tied at the top of the table with four titles each. Lehmann won the men's individual pursuit title in an all-German final, with Magne taking keirin gold to score his third success after 1995 and 1997.

In other events Natalia Markovnishenko of Belarus won the women's sprint and Spain's Juan Llaneras claimed the men's points race.

Racing: Laffit Pincay became the first jockey in racing history to win 9,000 races on Saturday night.

The Panamanian-born rider reached the landmark when scoring on Chichim at Santa Anita in California.

He had gone to the brink of 9,000 with earlier victories on Shivareen Sky and Heightenedawareness.

And the 53-year-old went on to complete a memorable five-timer at the meeting with further wins on Road To Slew and Sky Jack, becoming the first jockey in Santa Anita history to win five stakes races on the same day.