Sports Digest/Boxing: Irish light-heavyweight Ken Egan came from behind to win a gold medal at the EU Championships in Sardinia last night. Egan (23) from the Neilstown club in Dublin recorded a 48-37 81kg four-round victory over Croatia's Mario Sivolija.
The 2004 Olympian Sivolija, who won a European silver medal in 2004, led by five points at the end of round one. IABA elite high performance director Gary Keegan said Egan staged a brilliant fight back to make up for the disappointment of losing the 2003 EU final in Strasbourg.
"Last night's victory was Ken's fourth fight in five days and he totally deserves this gold medal as he has been performing brilliantly all week. He was behind by five points at the end of the first round but he put in a brilliant second round display and built on his lead from there. He beat two Athens Olympians out here this week and he has really done Irish boxing proud."
Egan said: "It has been a tough five days . . . I am delighted to have won a gold medal particularly as I lost in the 2003 final in Strasbourg. It was a hard contest against Sivolija especially as he had a great first round but I won the remaining three rounds and I'm thrilled."
WOMEN'S TENNIS: Defending champion Maria Sharapova overcame an injury scare to reach the semi-finals of the Birmingham Classic with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 win over Greece's Eleni Daniilidou yesterday.
Top seed Sharapova, who used this tournament last year as a springboard to launch her glorious Wimbledon campaign, dropped the second set after receiving treatment on her right thigh. But the 18-year-old recovered well to convincingly run through the decider and set up a semi-final against Tatiana Golovin of France.
Fifth seed Golovin came through against Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-4, 7-6. The two Americans left in the draw had contrasting fortunes in their quarter-final matches. Unseeded Laura Granville beat Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4, 6-3 but unseeded Mashona Washington was beaten by third seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montengero 6-2 6-4.
MEN'S TENNIS: Lleyton Hewitt cursed his misfortune after his bid for a record fourth Stella Artois title was ended by Croatian nemesis Ivo Karlovic yesterday. Two huge slices of luck helped the unseeded Karlovic, who memorably knocked Hewitt out of the first round at Wimbledon when the Australian was defending champion in 2003, to record a 7-6, 6-3 quarter-final win at Queen's Club.
"It was like having a lucky door (lottery) prize," top-seed Hewitt said. "That's what happened in the tiebreak. There was one mini-break and instead of me getting a net-cord and popping it over his racket, it sat up for him. Then even to break me (in the second set) he got a dead net-cord.
MEN'S TENNIS: World number one Roger Federer breezed through to the Halle Open semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber yesterday. He was joined in the last four by Russian second seed Marat Safin, who beat Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-4, 7-6, and German Tommy Haas, who defeated Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-2, 7-5.
Guillermo Canas of Argentina also went through after ousting local favourite Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-4.
CYCLING: Belgium's Axel Merckx won the fifth stage of the Dauphine Libere race after a long solo ride yesterday. Merckx, the son of Eddy Merckx, broke away in the second climb of the day's 219-km stage from Vaison-La-Romaine to Grenoble, at the foot of the French Alps.
The Davitamon-Lotto rider built a lead of more than 14 minutes at one stage over the main bunch which featured all the pre-race favourites.
Spaniard Inigo Landaluze finished second to take over the overall race leader's jersey. Benjamin Noval, also of Spain, came third. American Levi Leipheimer, who started the day as the overall leader, fell in the day's final descent.
He came in with the pack, more than nine minutes back, as did fellow American Lance Armstrong, the six-times Tour de France winner warming up for his final Tour next month.
