A round-up of other sports news in brief...
Kuznetsova ends Jankovic's two-year Italian reign
TENNIS: Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova ended Jelena Jankovic’s two-year reign as Italian Open champion when she beat the Serbian 6-1, 7-6 yesterday to earn a place in the semi-finals.
Former US Open champion Kuznetsova will now face sixth seeded Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, who won a scrappy affair against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi 7-6, 6-3.
Jankovic, who defeated Kuznetsova in the 2007 final for the first of her two Rome titles, could find no answer to the venom in her seventh seeded opponents forehands in the first set. She fared better in the second set, but Kuznetsova, who ended a title drought stretching back to 2007 at last week’s Stuttgart Grand Prix, sealed victory in the tiebreak with a backhand winner.
World number one Dinara Safina kept alive hopes of setting up an all-Russian final when she survived another scare to reach the last four with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
Mondello to host national event
MOTOR SPORT: Formula One needs Ferrari, drivers said yesterday in a rejection of FIA president Max Mosley’s suggestion that the sport could live without the Italian glamour team.
The head of the governing International Automobile Federation, whose plan for a €45 million budget cap next season is opposed by the current world champions, said last weekend that “the sport could survive without Ferrari”.
“I couldn’t imagine it,” McLaren’s world champion Lewis Hamilton told a Spanish Grand Prix news conference. “Impossible,” agreed Renault’s double champion Fernando Alonso. “Without Ferrari I don’t think it would be Formula One anymore,” said Force India’s Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella.
BMW-Saubers Nick Heidfeld said he had found Mosley’s comments hard to understand. “It was a bit strange hearing that from him,” he said.
F1 drivers reject Mosley's claims
MOTOR SPORT: Mondello Park will host a national championship event run by the Motor Enthusiasts Club on the international circuit.
The two-day 22-race programme will feature the UK Legends championship making its annual appearance this time bolstered by additional entries from the new Irish series.
The legends will have a championship round each day making six races for the exciting motorcycle engined cars over the weekend.
Almost all of the Irish championships will feature over the weekend with each class completing their races on a single day, giving two entirely different race programmes on the two days.
Saturday’s main Legends support will be the Formula Vee class where the usual 30-plus single seaters will line up for a qualifying race and a final.
Baldwin heads dressage table
EQUESTRIAN: British rider Emily Baldwin heads the table after yesterday’s first section of dressage at the 60th anniversary Mitsubishi Badminton horse trials, her Dutch warmblood gelding Driveime achieving a score of 42.3 penalties, reports Margie McLoone.
Elizabeth Power is currently lying in 11th place (54.0) with Dermot O’Rourke’s thoroughbred gelding Kilpatrick River while Sam Watson, riding Horseware Bushman for his parents John and Julia and Tom MacGuinness, is in 21st position. Today, a further 41 horses come before the ground jury.
Meanwhile, three Irish riders, Cian O’Connor, Jessica Kürten and Denis Lynch are competing at the five-star show in Valencia which starts this morning. The feature event, the Global Champions Tour Spanish Grand Prix, takes place tomorrow.
Ireland will be represented at two shows in Italy this weekend with Mark McAuley and Declan McEvoy jumping at Cervia and Anna Merveldt competing in a three-star dressage show at La Mandia.
