SPORTS DIGEST: TENNIS: Robin Soderling cruised to his first Masters Series title as he made light work of seeing off home favourite Gael Monfils to win the Paris Masters yesterday.
The Swedish world number five ran out a 6-1 7-6 (7/1) victor over Monfils, who was clearly feeling the effects of his hard-fought semi-final win over Roger Federer.
Soderling, who will now travel to London for the season-ending World Tour Finals, got on top of Monfils’ serve early on and eased to a comfortable first-set win inside 27 minutes.
Monfils looked more assured in the second set, especially as Soderling’s normally reliant first serve eluded him slightly, and the set edged into a tie-break.
As in the first set, though, Soderling was able to dominate his opponent and cantered to a 7-1 win to pick up the €447,652 prize.
“It feels great,” Soderling said afterwards. “I don’t have a very good record in finals, especially here in Paris. I’m really happy that I played well.”
South Africa in control in Dubai
CRICKET: South Africa took a grip on the first Test after Morne Morkel and Johan Botha skittled Pakistan for 248 on the third day at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium yesterday. The visitors will take a commanding 271-run lead into the fourth day after reaching 139 for two in their second innings.
Off-spinner Botha dismantled Pakistans middle order by picking up three quick wickets and Morkel completed a bad day for the designated hosts as he grabbed five for 54.
Meanwhile, Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh continued to torment New Zealand with the bat, hitting an unbeaten 85 to earn the hosts a first-innings lead of 86 on the third day of the second Test yesterday.
Queen's impress in London
ROWING: Queen’s University finished an impressive fifth at the Fours Head of the River in London yesterday, writes Liam Gorman. The Queen’s elite four of Colin Williamson, Abdulrahman Mohamed, Rory O’Connor and Jonathan Mitchell were competing for the first time together.
They were seeded 10th, but were faster than all but one of the crews seeded above them.
Queen’s coach Mark Fangen-Hall said the late running of the World Championships weakened the field, but this was good early-season form. The Queen’s coxed four were also competitive in their category.
In Coleraine on Saturday, Bann’s junior 18 eight were the fastest crew in the club’s head of the river. Liam Cox of Carrick-on-Shannon was the fastest single sculler.
Dominant Loeb wins Wales Rally
MOTOR SPORT: World champion Sebastien Loeb capped another dominant World Rally Championship campaign with a third straight Wales Rally GB victory.
The Frenchman had always looked in control of the event after regaining the lead from Petter Solberg during Saturday’s stages, and the Citroen factory driver was quicker than the Norwegian on all four of yesterday’s stages to win by a margin of 19.1 seconds. The win was the 36th Loeb has achieved in the C4 WRC, which goes into retirement ahead of the introduction of S2000 regulations from the start of next season. It was his 62nd career win. Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala took third place to secure second place in the drivers’ championship with his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen completing a disappointing season with a fourth-place finish after being overhauled by his Finnish compatriot to allow him to secure the runners-up spot.
Young retains jumps title in US
HORSE RACING: Banbridge-born Paddy Young retained his title as champion jumps jockey in the United States as the season concluded on Saturday, writes Margie McLoone.
Young finished the campaign on the 20-win mark, his final day haul at Springdale racecourse in Camden, South Carolina including the featured Grade One Colonial Cup on Slip Away. The Tom Voss-trained seven-year-old landed the 2¾ mile chase by a record-breaking 25 lengths.
EQUESTRIAN: Co Down’s Dermott Lennon was named leading international rider for the week at the Royal Fair in Toronto following Saturday night’s second place finish in the €54,000 Ricoh Big Ben Challenge with Woods Rosbotham’s Hallmark Elite. At home, yesterday’s round of the Kingsland Equestrian/ShowJumping Ireland autumn Grand Prix at Coilog was won by Malahide-based Conor Swail riding Norman Allen’s nine-year-old Touchdown stallion Cara Touche.
Kearney wins in Samoa
JUDO: Ireland’s Lisa Kearney has become the first Irish Judo player to win an Olympic Qualifying event.
Kearney, from the Yamakwai Judo Club in Belfast, won gold at the IJF World Cup in Apia, Samoa.
This latest performance follows an unprecedented run of successful results on the World Cup circuit since London 2012 qualification began back in May.
Kearney has finished in the top five in each of the last six World Cup events in Caracas, San Salvador, Miami, Birmingham, Rotterdam and Apia.
Including bronze, silver and now gold medals. Kearney will now travel directly to Abu Dhabi for her final competition of 2010.
The International Judo Federation World Cup circuit determines the world ranking list from which only the top 14 athletes in the world will qualify for the London Olympic Games.
Commodores' boats honoured
SAILING: The three boats of the winning Commodores Cup team were jointly awarded Boat of the Year in Cork on Saturday when the Irish Cruiser Racing Association held its annual conference, writes David Branigan.
Anthony O’Leary’s Antix with Dave Dwyer’s marinerscove.ie and Rob Davies Roxy 6 skippered by Andrew Creighton lifted the cup for the first time since the event’s inception in 1992 at Cowes in August.
Previously, Irish crews competed for the Admiral’s Cup since the early 1970s but without success despite several close results.
Campaigns led by Colm Barrington also vied for the Commodores’ Cup over the last 10 years but despite being regular pre-event favourites, it was only this year’s ICRA team that finally lifted the major prize for amateur cruiser-racer sailing.
