Tennis: Pete Sampras was struggling to maintain a positive outlook for next week's French Open, the only Grand Slam to elude him, after slumping to his third clay court defeat in four matches yesterday. He was outplayed 7-5, 6-2 by Tommy Haas as Germany claimed a 2-1 victory over the US in the round-robin stage of the World Team Cup.
Rainer Schuttler handed Vince Spadea his 17th straight defeat, winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-1, and in the doubles Alex O'Brien and Jared Palmer earned the Americans a consolation victory by beating Haas and David Prinosil 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (5/7), 6-3.
The German won several points with his powerful backhand and fired 11 aces, while Sampras misjudged many of his volleys and often failed to put his first serve into play.
Tennis: Martina Navratilova got off to a winning start on the comeback trail when she emerged victorious yesterday from her first doubles match after a five-and-half year absence from the WTA Tour. Partnered by South Africa's Mariaan De Swardt, the Czech-born American beat Japan's Rita Hiraki and American Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3 7-5 at the Madrid Open. Navratilova (43) is using the tournament to prepare for the French Open and Wimbledon doubles competitions.
Cycling: Italy's Ivan Quaranta, of the Mobilvetta team, won yesterday's 10th stage of the Tour of Italy in a sprint finish. His compatriot Francesco Casagrande, riding for the Vini Caldirola outfit, retains the leader's pink jersey after the 248-kilometre run. Ciaran Power finished 18th crossing the line in the same time as Quaranta. With the three-week race almost at the halfway point, Power is 144th overall going into today's 44-kilometre individual time trial to Bibione.
Tour Of Italy - 10th stage (248km from San Marcello Pistoiese to Padua) - 1, I Quaranta (Ita) Mobilvetta 6 hrs 48 mins 07 secs; 2, J Svorada (Cze); 3. M Cipollini (Ita); 4, M Zanotti (Ita); 5, J Blijlevens (Ned); 6, L Cei (Ita); 7, D Konyshev (Rus); 8, F Guidi (Ita); 9, G Trenti (US); 10, A Ferrigato (Ita); . . . . 18, C Power (Irl), all same time. Overall: 1. F Casagrande (Ita) Vini Caldirola 53 hrs 53 mins 38 secs; 2, D Di Luca (Ita) at 51 secs; 3, A Noe (Ita) 1:39; 4, S Garzelli (Ita) 1:39; 5, D Frigo (Ita) 1:40; 6, W Belli (Ita) 1:40; 7, P Tonkov (Rus) 1:47; 8, G Simoni (Ita) 1:53; 9, I Gotti (Ita) 1:55; 10, L Piepoli (Ita) 2:21.
Olympic Games: An elite police squad formed to protect the Sydney Olympics has arrested a man for possession of a large cache of explosive substances, police said yesterday. Police said the man (28) who has legally changed his name to Martin Bormann - one of Adolf Hitler's senior Nazi officials - kept some of the substances in an underground bunker in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.
Cricket: There was no play yesterday at Eglinton where Ireland were due to begin their annual three-day match against the MCC. Heavy rain overnight and early yesterday morning left an area around the square waterlogged and the decision to call off the day's play was taken long before the scheduled 11 a.m. start. By late afternoon, the trouble spot was still unplayable, and there is some doubt about the pitch for today. If play is possible, a decision about the format of the contest will be taken this morning. The options are to play two one-day matches, a 50-overs game today and one of 40 overs tomorrow, or one 60-overs game over the two days.
Ireland's former captain Stephen Warke, who is playing for the MCC, may get an unique close-up view the current national team; Warke is a national selector.
Cricket: The International Cricket Council (ICC) are to investigate copies of tapes allegedly implicating former Pakistan captain Salim Malik in match-fixing.
The ICC move follows a report in the British Sunday newspaper, News of the World, saying Malik had claimed his side and Australia had taken bribes to lose a game during Australia's 1994 tour.
An ICC statement yesterday said: "The ICC has asked its lawyers to contact the News of the World accepting the offer to provide copies of tapes in their possession allegedly implicating Salim Malik in match-fixing.
"When the tapes are made available to ICC, they will be passed to the chairman of the code of conduct commission, Lord Griffiths, pending the appointment of the anti-corruption investigation. It is anticipated that this appointment will be made in early June."
The Australian Cricket Board (ACB) said on Monday it would investigate the allegations.
