Sports digest

A roundup of today's other sports news in brief:

Niland through to semi-final

TENNIS: Conor Niland yesterday battled his way to the semi-finals of the ITF Futures event in Saint Dizier, France, with a three sets victory over Lithuania's Laurynas Grigelis.

Number four seed Niland took the opener thanks to one break of serve, but his unseeded 18-year-old opponentlevelled the contest in similar fashion.

But Niland turned up the heat in the decider, and his more aggressive approach enabled him to prevail on a 6-4 4-6 6-2 margin.

RadioShack granted ProTour licence

CYCLING: Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team has been granted a ProTour licence that guarantees the American outfit entry into next year's Tour de France, the International Cycling Union (UCI) said yesterday.

“Following the examination of a request received, the Licence Commission has awarded a four-year UCI ProTour licence for the period 2010 to 2013 to Team RadioShack (USA),” the UCI said in a statement.

Seven times champion Armstrong, announced the creation of RadioShack during July’s Tour de France, which he finished in third place overall.

The 38-year-old returned to the sport in January, riding for the Astana team, after three and a half years in retirement.

For next season, Armstrong, will be able to rely on experienced riders, notably American Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloeden of Germany.

 McCann poised for top-15 finish

CYCLING: Belfast rider David McCann looks set to finish 13th overall in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour today, writes Shane Stokes, following a solid ride in yesterday's 10 kilometre time trial in Geelong.

Guesting with the Prime Estate team, McCann didn’t show quite the same form as in the recent world championship time trial, netting 13th in the race against the clock.

As expected, British Tour de France star Bradley Wiggins won, beating Garmin Slipstream team-mate Svein Tuft by 14 seconds.

A third Garmin rider, Chris Sutton was sixth in the test, conceding 48 seconds. He led going into the stage and has now dropped to second overall.

He is five seconds behind Wiggins heading into today’s final stage, a circuit race in Melbourne. Either could win the race, according to team director Matt White, and a decision is likely to be made prior to the start as to which rider the team will back.

Sutton’s father Gary won the race 25 years ago.

Kavanagh answers Harte's claim

GAA: Seán Cavanagh has responded to Mickey Harte's claim that the pressures of being Footballer of the Year had affected him negatively, by revealing that he found out he wouldn't be playing in Tyrone's semi-final against Cork from his replacement Tommy McGuigan.

The Moy clubman admits that he did not get “a single minute” of sleep the night before the game due to a “flu that left him “zombified” but says that an early morning discussion with Harte had not concluded with any decision being made.

"I got up at around 11.30am and went for the players' meeting" he explains in Gaelic Life.

“On the way I met Tommy McGuigan in the corridor and he told me that he was sorry to hear that I wasn’t well, that he was starting for me . . . that’s how it was broken to me.”

Cavanagh admits his form had been patchy during the championship, with a very serious injury incurred in the Ulster final the reason for it. An operation after the Cork game discovered that the ligaments had become detached completely from the bone.

Munster A win with late surge

RUGBY: A magnificent second-half performance by the Munster "A" pack paved the way for victory over Leinster "A" at Clonmel last night 21-15. Second half tries from captain James Coughlan and flanker Billy Holland swung a tight match in favour of the home side.

Munster trailed at the break 7-6, with Leinster’s try from Eoin Sheriff after 18 minutes poor reward for the visitors’ dominance. Declan Cusack kept Munster in touch with two penalties.

However Munster took charge after the break. A breakaway try from Michael Keating in the 77th minute raised Leinsters hopes and brought them within a converted try of Munster, but superb defence from the home side secured victory before a large crowd.

Nadal goes through after Ljubicic retires injured

TENNIS: Top seed Rafael Nadal was given a scare before being handed a place in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters.

Ivan Ljubicic took the first set of their quarter-final before the Spaniard advanced when his opponent had to withdraw because of a thigh injury with the score at 3-6 6-3.

A single break, courtesy of a Nadal forehand error, was enough for Ljubicic to claim the first set.

Nadal held his nerve to claim the second set, but by then Ljubicic’s discomfort had become obvious and he was unable to continue.

Second seed Novak Djokovic also had an uncomfortable day, needing three sets to seal a 6-3 2-6 6-2 win over Gilles Simon.

Djokovic now meets Russian sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko, who beat Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-1 4-6 6-1.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, who beat Robin Soderling of Sweden 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 awaits Nadal.

Top seed Flavia Pennetta clinically took her chances to defeat Ioana Raluca Olaru 7-5 6-2 and book a semi-final place at the Generali Ladies tournament in Linz.

Pennetta will meet third seed Yanina Wickmayer in the last four after the Belgian defeated Sara Errani 7-5 6-3. Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, the second seed, also won through with a 6-3 7-6 (11/9) victory over Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova. Radwanska will meet another Czech in the last four after Petra Kvitova upset fourth seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5 6-4.