A round-up of today's other Sports news in breif...
Nadal made to battle for victory
TENNIS:Spain took a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup semi-final against the United States yesterday after world number one Rafael Nadal survived a spirited attack from rookie Sam Querrey and David Ferrer beat Andy Roddick.
With Spain needing just one more point to reach the final, the Americans have a mountain to climb to retain their title starting with today's doubles match.
Only once in 32 ties have they come back from a 2-0 deficit and US captain Patrick McEnroe will be rueing their missed chances.
Nadal struggled in the first set against world number 39 Querrey as the Americans booming serves drove the tired-looking Spaniard deep behind the baseline before the French Open and Wimbledon champion finally won 6-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.
World number five Ferrer won the first set on a tiebreak, collapsed under a barrage of blistering serves from eight-ranked Roddick in the second and third, only to roar back and steal the match 7-6, 2-6, 1-6, 6-4, 8-6 in a nail-biting finale.
In Buenos Aires in the other semi-final, teenager Juan Martin del Potro, making his Davis Cup home debut, demolished a listless Nikolay Davydenko to put Argentina 2-0.
David Nalbandian drew first blood for Argentina with a straight sets win over Igor Andreev before Del Potro (19) strolled on to the court for a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win over the world number six.
Roche stays in 13th place as Contador retains lead
The 24-year-old Irish rider finished 22nd in yesterday's race to Segovia, crossing the line as part of a 22-man group sprinting for third. David Arroyo Duran (Caisse d'Epargne) won the stage, outsprinting breakaway companion Vasili Kiryienka (Tinkoff Credit Systems) to the line. Roche's group finished 11 seconds behind Arroyo Duran. Yesterday's stage featured two first category mountains and saw a hectic pace being set by the teams of the race favourites. Roche finished with the overall contenders and thus retained his high place in the general classification. He is 11 minutes 42 seconds behind overall leader Alberto Contador. With just two days left before the finish in Madrid, Contador has an overall lead of one minute and 17 seconds over American Levi Leipheimer with Carlos Sastre of Spain in third place, three minutes and 41 seconds behind. Already the winner of the Tour de France and the Tour of Italy, overall victory in Spain would make Contador the first rider to take a hat-trick of major Tours since Frances Bernard Hinault.
Leinster Under 20s in control
RUGBY:Leinster's Under 20s had a comfortable 16-3 victory over their Munster counterparts in Donnybrook last night. Early pressure saw Leinster take the lead with a try from centre Shane Gahan, which was converted by Ian Madigan, after 15 minutes. In injury time Madigan added a penalty to give Leinster a 10-0 lead at the break. Munster scrumhalf Conor Murray kicked a penalty on 51 minutes but Leinster's Ian McKinley kicked a 78th-minute drop goal. Madigan added a late penalty, to give Leinster the win.
LEINSTER UNDER-20:Ian Madigan (Gary Foley, 70); David Kearney, Rory Pratt (Eamonn Sheridan, 3), Shane Gahan, Michael Keating; Ian McKinley, Matt Healy; Jack McGrath, Tom Sexton, Jack O'Connell, Shane Grennell (John Dever, 57), Mark Flanagan, Steve Mahony (Capt), Dominic Ryan (Eoin Cremen, 44), Michael Noone. Replacements not used: Andrew Pollard, Ronan Donnelly, John Cooney.
CYCLING:At the end of a very active stage in the Vuelta a Espana, Nicolas Roche held on to his 13th place overall, reports Shane Stokes.
