Snooker: A clinical Ken Doherty showed no mercy to first-round giant-killer Ali Carter as he reached the Masters quarter-finals at Wembley last night.

Doherty ensured Carter came down to earth with a bump after his 6-5 upset of veteran Steve Davis by whitewashing the inexperienced Tiptree player 6-0.

It was the most one-sided match of the week so far - and every bit as emphatic as the score-line suggests. At one stage the 1997 world champion from Dublin scored 389 points without Carter potting a ball.

However, that total was still 98 short of Stephen Hendry's all-time record of 487 against Jimmy White in the same tournament four years ago. That was of little consolation to Carter, who could only sit and watch the drubbing unfold.

Doherty is now assured a £28,000 cheque and a place in the quarter-finals. He faces Hendry, who beat Mark King 6-3 last night, tomorrow evening.

Cricket: England qualified for Saturday's final of the international triangular series against South Africa in Johannesburg, when their final league match against Zimbabwe at Centurion Park was abandoned because of rain yesterday.

England went through to the final because of a superior run rate. Both England and Zimbabwe had four points from five matches and they both won one match in the two encounters between the sides in the current series.

With 73 millimetres of rain having fallen since Sunday, the ground was almost saturated although the pitch was kept dry, covered by a marquee with industrial hot-air dryers operating inside. Umpires delayed a decision until almost 5.00 p.m. before finally abandoning play.

Athletics: Diane Modahl tried to commit suicide after she failed a drugs test in 1994, her husband Vicente revealed yesterday.

The middle-distance runner was subsequently cleared of all charges but only after a lengthy bid to clear her name.

Vicente, who is also her coach, said: "Her case was very serious. It was life-threatening. On two occasions Diane took an overdose of tablets and on another she used a knife on herself. I managed to stop her in time."

He added that she once fainted in front of athletics officials who thought she had died.

The news comes after Mark Richardson admitted his drugs test had shown traces of the anabolic steroid nandrolone.