ROWING: Ireland had a good first day yesterday at the World University Rowing Championships in Trakai, Lithuania, two of the three crews staying in the hunt for medals.
The men's four found their way directly through to tomorrow's A final after winning their heat impressively. The same crew - James Wall, Paul O'Brien, Dan Barry and Paul Murray - had also made the A final at the under-23 world championships last month.
Rory O'Connor (19) finished third in his heat of the single scull and competes in today's A/B semi-finals. Like Barry (19) and O'Brien (18), the Offaly man is part of the new generation of internationals.
The men's lightweight double of Danny O'Dowd and Eoghan Garvey must settle for competing in the B final in Trakai, however. They finished fourth in their heat and third in their repechage last evening.
TENNIS: Andy Murray advanced to the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup with a three-set victory over Jarkko Nieminen in Toronto yesterday.
In his first appearance in a Masters Series quarter-final, the 19-year-old Scot overcame a higher-ranked opponent and his own errors to set up a meeting with Richard Gasquet following a 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 victory.
Although he seemed to baulk at closing out the match, Murray eventually converted by sending a delicious lob over his game opponent.
Both players failed to capitalise on a number of break points in what became a close-fought battle marked by long rallies.
Murray went into a 3-1 lead in the final set and maintained it to serve for the game at 5-2. He eventually found himself with triple match point, which he converted at the first time of asking to move into the last four.
MOTOR SPORT: Sébastien Loeb dominated the first day of Rally Germany to leave the world champion closing in on his sixth win of the season.
Citroën driver Loeb had to wait 10 weeks for the chance to avenge his Acropolis defeat by Marcus Grönholm but he went about it brilliantly. Five stage wins from eight left him clear out front and odds-on to extend his 29-point championship lead.
Citroën were in a class of their own yesterday and won every stage, the youngster Dani Sordo winning when Loeb missed out. He was rewarded with second place at the end of the first day, 42.7 seconds adrift of Loeb.
Afternoon rain shook up the order and caught out Grönholm, Loeb's main threat in the title race. The Ford driver had overhauled Petter Solberg for third in the morning but lost ground with 12th place on stage six to drop to fourth, behind Toni Gardemeister's privateer Citroën.
Solberg, who crashed his Subaru in testing on Thursday, kept on the road yesterday but was only fifth by the end of stage eight. He was happy just to be racing after his heavy accident.
The Norwegian said: "I am so grateful to everybody who helped get the car ready. It is an incredible job and the car is going very well.
"Okay, we took some time on the first two stages to make some little adjustments here and there but in general it is pretty good."
Manfred Stohl was sixth in his OMV Peugeot. Mikko Hirvonen was seventh in the other Ford. Andreas Aigner's Red Bull Skoda completed the points positions.
English rookie Matthew Wilson, driving a Stobart Ford, ended up well outside the top 10, trailing Loeb by 11 minutes.
In the junior championship, Ulster's Kris Meeke threw away the lead, losing two minutes on stage four, and was down in 10th place after stage seven.
