Sports Digest

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

Princess re-elected as president

EQUESTRIAN: Princess Haya Al Hussein of Jordan was yesterday re-elected for a four-year term as president of the Federation Equestre Internationale at the organisation's general assembly in Taipei, writes Margie Mcloone.

The result was reached in the first round of voting where, out of a possible 124 valid votes, Princess Haya received the support of 90 national federations giving her a landslide victory over her rivals for the office. Twenty-three federations supported Sweden’s Sven Holmberg while 11 favoured The Netherlands’ Henk Rottinghuis.

Ireland’s national federation, Horse Sport Ireland, was represented by the chairman of its rules committee, Charles Powell. On learning the outcome of the vote, HSI’s chairman Joe Walsh, welcomed the re-election of Princess Haya. “Princess Haya has a great affinity with Ireland and we look forward to working with her in her second term,” he concluded.

Soderling in superb form

TENNIS:Second seed Robin Soderling set up a possible semi-final against local favourite David Ferrer when he brushed aside Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2 to reach the last four of the Valencia Open yesterday.

The Swedish world number five did not face a single break point against the Frenchman, who won a tournament in Montpellier last week, and converted three of his four opportunities to break the Monfils serve.

Fernandez selects untried teenager

TENNIS: United States captain Mary Joe Fernandez sprang a surprise yesterday when she selected untried teenager Coco Vandeweghe for the opening singles in this weekend's Fed Cup final against holders Italy.

The 18-year-old will become only the second American to make her debut in the final of the women’s showpiece team event when she takes on Italian number one Francesca Schiavone in the first match today.

Chanda Rubin was the first to achieve the feat in the 1995 final against Spain in Valencia where she lost her opening singles to Conchita Martinez but went on to win her reverse match against Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.

In today’s second match on the indoor hardcourt surface at the San Diego Sports Arena, American Bethanie Mattek-Sands will play against Italy’s Flavia Pennetta.

Edinburgh and Glasgow enjoy home wins

RUGBY:Edinburgh secured a third straight Magners League home 21-9 victory against Benetton Treviso last night at Murrayfield.

Netani Talei scored a first-half try and Kyle Traynor touched down in the second period for Edinburgh, while David Blair added three penalties and one conversion. Tobias Botes kicked three penalties in reply for Treviso as Edinburgh Italian opposition were vanquished in the capital.

Edinburgh were forced into two late changes to their line-up with Scott Newlands replacing the ill Alan MacDonald at flanker and Lee Jones coming in for wing Tim Visser, who was injured in the warm-up.

After Botes cancelled out Blair’s early penalty, the visitors camped in the hosts’ half, spreading the ball wide only for the wet conditions to contribute to numerous mistakes. Botes added another penalty after 28 minutes, but Edinburgh responded and John Houston sliced through the visitors’ defence with a 40-metre run before the ball was recycled and Talei shrugged off the challenge of two would-be tacklers to score. Blair converted to hand the hosts a four-point interval lead.

Meanwhile captain Al Kellock celebrated his return to action at Firhill Arena by leading the Glasgow young guns to a comfortable 33-8 win over an Aironi side who have still to register a league win.

SCORERS: Edinburgh: Tries: Talei, Traynor. Cons: D. Blair. Pens: D. Blair 3. Benetton Treviso: Pens: Botes 3.

Glasgow: Tries: Aramburu 2, van der Merwe, Murchie. Cons: Weir 2. Pens: Weir 3. Aironi Rugby: Tries: Ferraro. Pens: Mercier.

O'Brien and Barry make their finals

TENNIS:Irish duo Colin O'Brien and Sam Barry yesterday powered their way to the respective singles and doubles finals in the ITF Men's Futures event in Heraklion, Crete.

Dublin left-hander O’Brien, the number eight seed, took his second British scalp on the trot, comfortably dispatching number three seed Seán Thornley on a 6-4, 6-3 scoreline.

And Limerick right-hander Barry teamed up with Latvia’s Mikelis Libietis to record a 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (4/7), 10-5 win over Spain’s Carlos Gomez-Herrera and Monaco’s Marc Stillitano in the doubles semi-final.

O’Brien faces Greece’s number five seed Alexandros Jakupovic in today’s final.

It will be the Malahide man’s first tournament final since January 2009 when he lost to Austria’s Nicolas Reissig in Austria.

Unseeded Barry and fellow 18-year-old Libieitis, who knocked out the top seeds in the opening round, face unseeded Slovenian pair Rok Jarc and Tom Kocevar-Desman in the final.

Sri Lanka triumph in Australia

CRICKET:Sri Lanka beat Australia by 29 runs in the second of three one-day internationals in Sydney yesterday to claim their first series victory on Australian soil and condemn the hosts to a seventh straight defeat in all forms of the game.

Australia never looked like reaching their initial victory target of 244 in 39 overs or the 240 in 38 overs they were handed under the Duckworth-Lewis method after rain stopped play for a third time.

Opener Upul Tharanga contributed an unbeaten 86 to Sri Lanka’s 213 for three, which they achieved in 41.1 overs as showers interrupted the action for a total of nearly three hours. Shane Watson (40), Cameron White (35) and Steven Smith (33) offered hope for Australia but it was always going to be an uphill battle.