Other sports news in brief
Federer beaten in Monte Carlo
TENNIS: Roger Federer suffered an embarrassing third-round exit at the Monte Carlo Masters yesterday when he went down 6-4, 7-5 to fellow Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka.
The duo are close friends and captured the Olympic doubles title together in Beijing but Wawrinka was in no mood to be charitable towards his more celebrated countryman.
However, once the 13th seed had sealed his first career win over Federer, his celebrations were rather muted.
“It was not an easy match but of course I am happy to have won it,” Wawrinka said in a courtside interview after completing the match that had been delayed by more than five hours due to rain.
Wawrinka will face Andreas Beck for a place in the last four.
Irish team chasing medals
BOXING:World lightweight champ Katie Taylor is honing in on the medals again as Ireland advanced five boxers into the quarter-finals of the men's and women's Ahmet Comert Cup following last 16 wins in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday. Taylor, 2008 Olympians John Joe Nevin and John Joe Joyce, and Irish senior champs Eric Donovan and Carl Frampton join Beijing bronze medalist Paddy Barnes in today's quarter-finals.
Taylor, the AIBA 2008 women’s boxer of the year, chalked up an impressive 12-2 victory over Alexandra Siderenko of the Ukraine and will now face Czech lightweight fighter Danus Dilhofova this afternoon.
And Donovan produced a display which Irish head coach Billy Walsh hailed as “world class” to demolish Elvin Aliyev of Azerbaijan 16-0.
John Joe Nevin, meanwhile, ensured that Ireland did an Ukrainian double following his 6-0 verdict over Ivan Kabanchuk.
Dennis fears title already out of Hamilton's reach
MOTOR SPORT:Ron Dennis yesterday all but wrote off Lewis Hamilton's chances of mounting a successful defence of his world title only two races into the new formula one season.
McLaren has suffered what its former team principal described as a “torrid” first two grands prix, with Hamilton disqualified in Australia and picking up only a single championship point in Malaysia’s truncated race.
His team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, has yet to complete a circuit.
That has led Dennis, who yesterday confirmed he had stepped down from motor sport altogether, to believe his team is suffering for its efforts in landing the title last year, a tussle with Ferrari that went to the last lap of the final race.
The new Brawn Racing team has taken advantage of this year’s rule changes, with Jenson Button winning the first two races.
Now Dennis, who stood down as team principal in favour of Martin Whitmarsh earlier this year, fears the title is already out of Hamilton’s reach.
“After all that’s happened this season people seem to be forgetting that we’ve got the numbers one and two on our cars,” Dennis said.
“They might not be next year, but we will do everything we can to make it happen again in two years.”
Even though reports linked Hamilton with a move to Ferrari, Dennis yesterday backed the 24-year-old to win more world titles with McLaren despite frustrations with the team’s performance.
Armstrong set for Giro d'Italia
CYCLING:Lance Armstrong will almost certainly take part in May's Giro d'Italia. The seven-times Tour de France winner broke his collarbone in a race in Spain last month and has been training in the United States in a bid to be fit for what would be his first Giro.
Organisers said yesterday that they had been informed that Armstrong would almost certainly be in Venice for the start of the centenary race on May 9th.
Records fall at championships
SWIMMING:The Irish Long Course National Swimming Championships got off to a flying start today at the National Aquatic Centre in Dublin with many new Irish records set and more qualifiers for the World Championships in Rome this July.
Grainne Murphy broke the Irish junior record twice in the 200m butterfly. In the heats she posted a time of 2:17.49 and in the final she took three seconds of this with a time of 2:14.95. City of Belfast swimmer Conor Leaney became the 10th qualifier for the World Championships posting a time of 1:51.05 in the final of the men’s 200m freestyle.
Michael Dawson from Ards Swimming Club broke the Irish Junior Record in the 50m Breaststroke final with a time of 29.14. The men’s 400m freestyle relay went to NUI, Maynooth, in a new Irish record time of 3:29.24.
