GOLF: Dundalk professional Leslie Walker and Newlands-based David Mortimer continued their impressive challenge during yesterday's second round of the first stage of the European Tour qualifying school at St Annes Old Links.
The Irish pair are in joint third position on three-under-par 141 after Mortimer fired a 68 and Walker added a 70 to be three shots behind leader Oliver Whiteley of England. After today's final round, 28 players will qualify from the venue for stage two of the tour school.
Eamonn Brady is tied for 13th after a 71, while Portmarnock's Noel Fox recovered well with a 70 yesterday to be just outside the cut.
At the Golf-Und Land-Club outside Cologne, Germany, Ciarán McMonagle also held his form to lie in tied-14th place on one-under 143 after a 71. The top 29 golfers there will qualify.
At Carden Park, former tour professional Raymond Burns is in joint seventh place on one-under-par 143 after a second round 70, while Justin Kehoe (72) and Michael Collins (76) are also well placed.
BASKETBALL: Irish coach Gerry Fitzpatrick expressed satisfaction with his team's display as Ireland maintained their 100 per cent record at competitive level with a 79-68 win over Switzerland at the ESB arena last night.
Ireland, boosted by the return of former MBA forward Pat Burke, had struggled to put away a physical Swiss team who up until the last quarter were still in contention.
However, Burkemade a telling contribution, particularly in defence with five excellent rebounds. The Dublin-born player, having moved to Real Madrid after a successful stint with Orlando Magic, also pitched in with some vital baskets in the final quarter as the Irish finally made their move for home.
After comfortably beating Malta in their opening fixture last Saturday, this was always going to be a tricky task for the home side and in the early stages the Swiss were able to pick off their opponents with some consistent long throwing.
Indeed, at half-time Ireland were only able to enjoy a 39-35 lead despite the introduction of Jimmy Moyne who proved Ireland's most productive player in the second quarter.
The Swiss, though, were struggling to make their presence felt under the Irish baskets and were mostly reliant on scores from the free-throw line where they enjoyed a 74 per cent strike rate.
Ireland began to find the basket more easily as the game wore on, with captain Jay Larranaga finishing top scorer with 18 points.
Scorers - Ireland: J Larranga 18, D Callahan 16, J Moran 13, P Burke 10. Switzerland: V Buscaglia 21, S Bachmann 11, K Sefolosha 10.
TENNIS: Asian number one Ai Sugiyama and last year's runner-up Chanda Rubin slumped to first-round defeats at the Wismilak International in Bali yesterday.
Third seed Sugiyama was beaten 6-4 7-6 by Aiko Nakamura, who was playing her first match in the main draw of a WTA Tour event, while fifth seed Rubin was outplayed by Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-1 6-4.
US Open quarter-finalist Nadia Petrova survived the cull but eighth seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia also fell by the wayside, beaten 4-6 6-2 6-2 by Indonesia's Angelique Widjaja.
TENNIS: Top seed Carlos Moya got blown off court by a French teenager playing his first ATP Tour match at the rain-hit China Open yesterday.
The former world number one was stunned 6-3 6-3 by 19-year-old qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round of the $500,000 tournament.
Fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero showed glimpses of his old form, however, thrashing American Justin Gimelstob 6-4 6-1 to reach the second round.
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