A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Clijsters's winning streak comes to an end in Paris
TENNIS: New world number one Kim Clijsters refused to blame a slight neck injury for a 6-4 6-3 defeat by Czech fourth seed Petra Kvitova in the Paris Open final yesterday.
Top seed Clijsters, who retained her US Open title in September and won the Australian Open last month before helping Belgium into the Fed Cup last four, secured her place as the new number one by reaching the semi-finals at the Stade Coubertin.
However, her winning streak came to a sudden halt as the tall, ponytailed Kvitova took her third career title thanks to sheer power and superb returns on the fast hardcourt.
"It's nice to win today against Kim because she is world number one, I think it's my biggest achievement,"said Kvitova. "It's not logical, I lost my last two matches against Kim so I'm glad I won today."
Clijsters said: "I'm not surprised. I know she can play like that," Clijsters said. "I had a little bit of a neck problem but it's not an excuse. She deserved to win."
Proper takes jump title in Sheffield
ATHLETICS: Kelly Proper yesterday secured the British AAA long jump title with a best of 6.35 metres, reports Ian O'Riordan.
One of the several Irish athletes competing at the championships in Sheffield, which doubled at the UK trials for next month's European Indoors in Paris, the Waterford athlete topped the field ahead of Dominique Blaize, who jumped 6.25.
Orla Drumm finished second in the 1,500 metres in a season best of 4.25.12, with Irish team-mate Sarah Treacy third in a personal best of 4.25.31, with victory there going to Britain's Stacey Smith in 4.22.96.
Michelle Carey finished fourth in the 400 metres in an indoor best of 54.15, while Niamh Whelan was also fourth in the women's 200 metres, clocking 24.25.
SKIING: Elisabeth Goergl stunned favourites Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch for the second time at the world Alpine ski championships winning the downhill to add to her super-G title.
French Open to stay at Roland Garos
TENNIS: Tradition won the day yesterday when the French federation decided to keep the French Open at a renovated Roland Garros and rejected plans to move the tournament to the Paris suburbs from 2016.
A federation (FFT) statement said delegates had opted for the "enlargement and modernisation of the historic site at Porte d'Auteuil for the new Roland Garros".
Versailles, Gonesse and a site in Marne-la-Vallee close to Disneyland Paris had bid to take the only clay court grand slam out of the French capital and offer more space.
However, in a federation ballot yesterday, Gonesse lost in the first round, Versailles in the second with Paris then taking 70 per cent of the vote in the final round against Marne-la-Vallee. "It's a historic choice, probably the most important for our federation since its creation," said FFT president Jean Gachassin.
Batsmen shine in Ireland defeat
CRICKET: Ireland suffered a third straight defeat in their World Cup warm-up matches in Nagpur, India on Saturday, but in going down by 32 runs to New Zealand they showed signs that things are taking shape ahead of the event proper, writes Emmet Riordan.
It was Ireland's batsmen that excelled on the day, making 279 as they chased the Black Caps impressive total of 311 for six.
A quick-fire opening stand of 93 between skipper William Porterfield and Paul Stirling was ended when New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori had Stirling trapped leg-before for 39 and Porterfield would depart for 72 in the 23rd over.
Ireland were well up to the rate at that stage with 130 runs on the board, but Ed Joyce (41) and Niall O'Brien (32) failed to push on after promising starts, with left-arm spinner Vettori finishing with four for 42.
Opening batsman Martin Guptill impressed for New Zealand, making 130, with Trent Johnston (two for 62) the pick of the Irish attack.
Hirvonen holds off Ostberg in Sweden
RALLYING: Finland's Mikko Hirvonen held off a determined challenge from Norway's Mads Ostberg to win the Rally of Sweden yesterday. Only 4.9 seconds separated the pair heading into the final power stage and Hirvonen kept his nerve to win by 6.5 seconds overall. France's Sebastien Ogier, who was fourth overall, won the inaugural power stage to claim three extra championship points.
TENNIS: Swede Robin Soderling retained his World Indoor Tournament title by outlasting Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3 3-6 6-3 in Rotterdam.
In a serve-dominated final, Tsonga boomed down 20 aces to Soderling's 12 but the Swede produced the greater consistency. Soderling is the fourth player to retain the title after Arthur Ashe, Stefan Edberg and Nicolas Escude.
Hantuchova has it easy in final
TENNIS: Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova clinched her first title in almost four years by trouncing Italian Sara Errani 6-0 6-2 in an anti-climactic Pattaya Open final in Thailand.
Errani posed little challenge for the former Australian Open semi-finalist and the result appeared clear from the opening exchanges with Hantuchova dictating the play through solid serves and powerful groundstrokes.
Indian spinners leave Australia dazed
CRICKET: A four-wicket haul from spinner Piyush Chawla sparked an Australian batting collapse as India won their World Cup warm-up match by 38 runs in Bangalore yesterday.
Chasing a modest 215 for victory, World Cup holders Australia had a flying start and were cruising at 118 for one with Ricky Ponting (57) well set, before the Indian spinners ran through the middle order.
Leg-spinner Chawla, a surprise inclusion in India's World Cup squad, and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh took seven wickets between them to bowl out Australia for 176.
Chawla made a strong case for a regular place after taking four for 31, while Harbhjan took three for 15 and Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuvraj Singh took one wicket each.
Earlier Virender Sehwag showed no signs of the shoulder injury that kept him sidelined for the past few months and scored 54 at almost a run a ball.
