A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Nadal and Murray in same half of draw
TENNIS: Andy Murray has landed in the same half of the draw as Rafael Nadal at the US Open.
It is the fourth grand slam in succession that the pair have been seeded to meet in the semi-finals.
Robin Soderling is Murrays scheduled quarter-final opponent in New York, but Juan Martin Del Potro is also lurking in the section. On the other side of the draw, top seed Novak Djokovic is set for a last-four meeting with Roger Federer.
In the women’s draw Serena Williams will face Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia in the first round. Williams, who is seeded number 28 this year, could face fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka in the third round.
Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark will face Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain in the first round, and could play French Open winner Li Na of China in the quarter-finals.
Murphy set to take over in Wicklow
GAELIC FOOTBALL: Rathnew’s Harry Murphy is expected to be ratified as the new manager of Wicklow’s footballers at a County GAA Board meeting on Monday night.
He will take over from Mick O’Dwyer who had been at the helm for the last five years, winning the Tommy Murphy Cup in 2008 and taking Wicklow to marvellous runs in the All-Ireland qualifiers this year and in 2009.
Following this year’s defeat to Armagh, O’Dwyer confirmed that it was his last game in charge of Wicklow and County Chairman Mick O’Hagan set up a committee to source a new manager.
Harry Murphy will come to the job with the experience of being Rathnew’s most successful manager over the last 12 years, during which time he guided them to four senior titles in a row in 2000, 01, 02 and 03, and he also steered them to a further three championship crowns in 05, 09 and last year.
Five bronze guaranteed for Ireland
BOXING: Ireland’s boxers are guaranteed at least five bronze medals at the 2011 European Youth Championships in Dublin following quarter-final wins at the Citywest Convention Centre yesterday.
Michael O’Reilly, Stephen Broadhurst, Joe Fitzpatrick, Jack Morrissey and Gary Sweeney are through to the last-four and will be in action today and tonight fighting for places in tomorrow’s finals at the 38-nation tournament.
But team captain Michael McDonagh, Evan Metcalfe and Kieran Forde – on a double countback – all bowed out following last-eight reversals.
O’Reilly beat Damon Jones 18-5, the English welterweight not helping his cause after receiving a public warning for dropping his head in the first. However, the final verdict spoke for itself in this 69Kg clash as the Portlaoise BC prospect romped home to a landslide victory.
Powell pulls out of World Championships with injury
ATHLETICS: Usain Bolt’s bid to retain his 100 metres title at the World Championships in Daegu received another massive boost when fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell was forced to withdraw through injury.
Powell, the fastest man in the world this year, had been expected to be the main challenger to defending champion and triple Olympic gold medallist Bolt in South Korea.
But a groin injury which also forced the 28-year-old to pull out of the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace earlier this month means Powell will definitely miss the individual event, which gets under way tomorrow.
That means four of the five athletes ranked above Bolt in the 2011 world rankings are now absent – Powell and Tyson Gay through injury and Steve Mullings and Mike Rodgers after failing drugs tests.
Trinidad’s Richard Thompson is now the fastest man in the field after setting a new national record of 9.85 earlier this month.
