Sports Digest

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Irish duo reach semi-final  Egan in squad

TENNIS: Irish duo Sam Barry and Daniel Glancy yesterday powered their way to the doubles semi-finals in the ITF Men’s Futures event in Tarsus, Turkey.

Limerick native Barry and Mayoman Glancy, the number four seeds, ended the title hopes of Switzerland’s Riccardo Maiga and Italy’s Roberto Marcora 7-5 6-0. Maiga and Marcora dropped their serve only once in the opening set, but Barry and Glancy put their opponents under constant pressure on their serve in the second set to ensure a spot in the last four.

The Irish pair face Spanish duo Carlos Calderon-Rodriguez and Marc Giner today for a place in the final of the outdoor clay court event.

In their quarter-final contest, Calderon-Rodriguez and Giner beat Norway’s Soma Kesthely and Germany’s Peter Steinberger.

O'Brien on double

HORSE RACING: Treasure Beach held off a late lunge by the favourite Nathaniel to lift the Chester Vase yesterday and continued the good run of form for Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore. Earlier O’Brien unveiled another smart Chester winner in the shape of Await The Dawn, who took the Betfair Huxley Stakes at his leisure.

The master of Ballydoyle had combined with Ryan Moore to lift Wednesday’s Cheshire Oaks.

Wozniacki knocked  out of Madrid Open

TENNIS: World number one Caroline Wozniacki suffered a third-round defeat to Julia Goerges at the Madrid Open yesterday when the unseeded German won 6-4 1-6 6-3 for her second victory over the Dane in two weeks.

The rangy, big-serving Goerges, who climbed to 27th in the rankings following her win against Wozniacki in the Stuttgart final last month, mixed up her game with looping shots and then pounced on any loose balls with some aggressive drives. Wozniacki (20) seemed frustrated by her 22-year-old opponent’s tactics and gifted her the decisive break in the eighth game of the third set when she sent the ball wide before Goerges confidently served out to love.

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy, the third seed, was another high-profile casualty, falling 7-6 6-3 to unseeded American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, while fifth seed Samantha Stosur also crashed out, upset by Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 6-3.

BOXING: Ken Egan has replaced World Youth champion Joe Ward on the Irish squad for next week’s training camp and round robin with Germany and Britain in Frankfurt Oder. Ward, who beat Egan in February’s Elite light- heavyweight final, has a stomach bug and won’t be going to Germany on Monday. Welter- weight champion Adam Nolan has withdrawn because of injury.

Large entry for Tattersalls trials

EQUESTRIAN: Nearly 300 entries have been received for this year’s Tattersalls international horse trials which take place at the sales company’s Co Meath complex at the end of the month (May 26th to 29th), writes Margie Mcloone.

This year the organisers are staging seven classes and the event, with its top-class facilities, has attracted some of the world’s leading riders. “We are delighted to have such a strong entry for this year’s event,” said Tattersalls Ireland managing director George Mernagh. “We appreciate how difficult it is for owners and competitors in these stringent times so it is fantastic to have so many coming to Tattersalls.”

This weekend the highlight of the equestrian action at home will be centred on Barnadown, Co Wexford, which hosts the second leg of Irish Sport Horse showjumping series for young horses tomorrow and the second leg of the national Grand Prix league on Sunday.