Peter Allott is an Australian prepared to travel far and wide to improve his ITF doubles ranking. However, money, rather than points, to fund his current European itinerary has brought him to Templeogue this week in search of the Irish Open title.
Early impressions of Allott suggest that he is also a useful singles player and he was not prepared to hang around when dealing with Cian O'Morain's challenge for the loss of only one game last evening.
The Leinster open women's championship, staged in conjunction with the main event, is likely to produce a repeat of the Irish Open final with Britain's Lucie Ahl, the holder, and South Africa's Mareze Joubert seeded one and two.
Motor Sport: Donegal's Damien Faulkner, championship leader of the European Formula Palmer Audi, achieved two victories at Oulton Park at the weekend.
In the first race Faulkner took the lead on lap 13 and finished ahead of Britain's Richard Tarling and France's Bruno Besson. The Donegalman became the first driver this year to take two victories in one weekend when, in the second race, he powered his way to the finish line with Denmark's Jesper Carlsen in second.
Faulkner now leads the championship by 25 points with four rounds remaining.
Motor Sport: Swiss Formula One team Sauber announced yesterday they had signed German driver Nick Heidfeld from Prost on a three-year contract. The 23-year-old will finish his debut season in Formula One with Prost before moving to Sauber at the end of the year.
"I am happy with the contract and the possibility to work with Sauber," said Heidfeld, who has yet to score a point in grand prix racing. "I believe that the team has the potential to make further progress and I will give my best to make a significant contribution."
Athletics: Former Olympic 1,500 metres champion Fermin Cacho pulled up injured in his first competitive race of the season on Sunday and is almost certain to miss the Sydney Games.
Spain's Cacho, gold medallist in Barcelona in 1992 and silver medallist in Atlanta, suffered a recurrence of an Achilles injury during Sunday's meeting in Padua and had to abandon the race after just 60 metres.
