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Perry maintains good form

NEWS ROUND-UP: DEFENDING AUSTRALIAN Open squash champion Madeline Perry recovered from a second game blip to defeat Hong Kong…

Fri Aug 12 2011 - 01:00

NEWS ROUND-UP:DEFENDING AUSTRALIAN Open squash champion Madeline Perry recovered from a second game blip to defeat Hong Kong's Joey Chan 11-8, 6-11, 11-3, 11-2 yesterday.

Perry won the Singapore Masters in the lead-up to the Open and said she had probably relaxed too much during the early stages of her match against Chan.

“Coming off a big win like I had in Singapore, it’s hard to focus sometimes,” Perry said. “Instead of thinking about winning points, I was thinking about winning the match. At the start of the third I concentrated on what I had to do and it all clicked into place.”

She now takes on 2009 champion Joelle King of New Zealand in the quarter-finals today following King’s 11-5, 13-11, 11-9 win over young Malaysian Delia Arnold.

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* CRICKET: ICC Europe regional development manager Richard Holdsworth has been named as Ireland's new performance director, taking up the role vacated by Mark Garaway, who announced his resignation last month for personal reasons, writes Emmet Riordan.

The 42-year-old has had a close relationship with Ireland during his eight years in his present post and was also the author of a report in 2009 on the future of Irish domestic cricket. Holdsworth, who is also a Level 3 ECB coach, will take up the position in November.

Meanwhile, Ireland have been drawn with hosts Australia as well as England and Nepal in the group stages of next year’s Under-19 World Cup.

* SOCCER:THE REPUBLIC of Ireland under-19s registered an encouraging encouraging 1-0 win against Serbia in Belgrade last night. Southend United winger George Smith crossed for Reading striker David Murphy who nodded home after 32 minutes. Paul Doolin will recall some of his first-choice players for the final warm-up matches in Slovenia on September 3 and 5 for the upcoming Uefa qualifiers.

* REP OF IRELAND: Smith (Glasgow Rangers); Keane (Manchester United), Byrne (Notts Forest), Hoban (Watford), Garmston (West Brom); Glasgow (Arsenal), Dillon (Derby), S Byrne (Leicester City), G. Smith (Southend Utd), Markey (Notts Forest); Murphy (Reading). Subs: McGinty (Manchester United) for Markey (52 mins), O' Brien (Millwall) for Murphy (64 mins), George (Celtic) for Glasgow (76 mins).