Tennis: Wimbledon
Andy Murray and Roger Federer’s easy passages through Wimbledon 2015 end today, with the duo meeting on centre court in the men’s semi finals. The local hope against the greatest player in history.
Federer has won their last three matches and most recently, at the O2 Arena in London in November, handed Murray his biggest defeat, 6-0 6-1, on the tour for more than seven years. Nonetheless, Murray insists he's feeling quite calm about it all.
GAA: Championship
Dublin football manager Jim Gavin has said that the players want to move on from the incident last week's challenge match with Armagh in which county panellist Davey Byrne had his nose broken in an altercation with an opponent before the match started.
Gavin insists there’s no bad blood between the two players involved, nor the two set-ups, insisting a sporting contest followed the incident. Although on Newstalk’s Off The Ball last night the Dublin boss did not deny that the two teams were involved in a brawl of sorts directly afterwards.
Gavin also told the press on Thursday that Byrne’s injuries did not include a broken eye socket as previously reported, although speaking last night he didn’t deny that along with the broken nose the Ballymun Kickhams player had sustained several other facial injuries which required stitches.
Gavin also said that while the match had been recorded Dublin would not be passing a copy of the incident to the GAA.
Soccer: European qualifiers
UCD held out with 10 men last night to advance in the Europa League after a 2-1 defeat to F91 Dudelange saw them through on away goals.
The Students go through to meet Slovan Bratislava in the second round thanks to Ryan Swan’s away goal.
There was no such joy for Cork City though in Iceland, where despite taking the lead and playing with an extra man they lost 2-1 to KR Reykjavik (3-2 on aggregate).
Likewise it was the end of the road for St Pats at Richmond Park, losing 2-0 to Skonto Riga (4-1 on aggregate).
Cycling: Tour de France
Race leader Tony Martin has pulled out of the Tour de France after the yellow jersey crashed in bizarre circumstances just inside the closing kilometre of stage six. While his Etixx-Quick Step team-mate, Zdenek Stybar, was powering to victory in Le Havre, Martin appeared to veer violently right for no apparent reason, barging into another rider who in turn took out Vincenzo Nibali and Nairo Quintana in a domino effect.
Golf: Scottish Open
Graeme McDowell enjoyed a welcome return to form on the opening day of the Scottish Open on Thursday shooting an impressive 66 at Gullane. His round was marred only by bogeys at the last two holes.
“I drove the ball well and the putter was quite spicy the first 11 or 12 holes before cooling down, but I would have taken 66 before going out and I will take it now.”
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen had set the clubhouse target on seven under after a flawless 63.
What to watch out for:
It's day three of the opening test of the Ashes series between England and Australia.
Sky Sports 2 from 10am
The Gullane GC Scottish Open continues this morning, Shane Lowry is out at 8:30am.
Sky Sports 4, 10am-7pm
Wimbledon Day 11 includes the much anticipated men's semi-final meeting of Andy Murray and Roger Federer at 1pm.
BBC 2, 12.30pm-9pm
BBC 1, 1.45pm-6pm
Meanwhile in the Tour de France we're at Stage 7: To Fougeres.
Eurosport, 1.15pm-4.45pm
