A round-up of today's other stories in brief...
Williams closes in on Doha place
TENNIS:Venus Williams defeated unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6 6-2 in yesterday's Zurich Open final to all but guarantee the American a place at the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha.
Third seed Williams, who had lost her last three meetings with Pennetta, took full control of their latest encounter after rampaging through the first set tiebreak 7-1.
Victory lifts Williams clear of rivals Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska in the race for the last two Doha qualifying spots.
Radwanska, in the worst position of the trio, has to win both the remaining tournaments in Linz and Quebec, where she is not currently entered, to deny Williams a place at the finale.
"I haven't managed to play at the Championships since 2002 so obviously I'm excited to be healthy enough to play there this year," Williams said.
Murray wins fourth title with victory in Madrid
TENNIS:Scotland's Andy Murray won the Madrid Masters title yesterday with a 6-4 7-6 (8/6) victory over French outsider Gilles Simon. The victory earned Murray his fourth ATP title of a hugely successful season, having already won in Cincinnati, Marseille and Doha.
The world number four also reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open last month.
He took the opening set against Simon after making the crucial break in the fifth game of the final.
The British number one will have been wary of getting too complacent, however, as surprise package Simon has proven himself a tough opponent throughout this tournament.
He went the full three-set distance in all five of his previous matches, and also successfully rallied from a set down in four of those.
On top of that, Simon knocked out three seeds along the way, including Saturday's stunning semi-final win over home favourite Rafael Nadal.
Perry gets boost in Manchester
SQUASH:Madeline Perry had her best run in a major tournament at the World Championships in Manchester over the weekend, reaching the semi-finals of the event where she lost out to the world number one, Nicole David from Malaysia, writes Mary Hannigan.
Perry's world ranking has dropped to 16 after a spell out of the sport following head injuries she sustained in a mugging in Milan a year ago.
In the second round she beat Shelley Kitchen, the sixth seed from New Zealand, 11-5, 11-6, 11-2, before fighting back from two games and 9-7 down to defeat another New Zealander, Jaclyn Hawkes, in the quarter-finals.
"It's only over the last couple of months that I've started to feel back to normal - it all went pretty well," she said. "What happened last year was pretty traumatic, I nearly died then, and I was told I'd never be able to concentrate. Getting up the rankings again is probably more difficult than it was the first time, but this is a fantastic boost."
Rossi has ninth win
MOTOR CYCLING:World champion Valentino Rossi won yesterday's Malaysia MotoGP to register his ninth win of the season. Spain's Dani Pedrosa (Honda) finished second while Italian Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) earned his first career podium finish with third place.
Australian Casey Stoner, the 2007 world champion, finished sixth to secure second place in the championship with only next week's Valencia MotoGP to come.
Trip to Brazil pays off for Kuerten
EQUESTRIAN SPORT:Jessica Kuerten enjoyed a very successful trip to Brazil this weekend, winning Saturday's Global Champions' Tour final, and its €300,000 first prize, on Lady Georgina Forbes's Castle Forbes Libertina, writes Margie Mcloone.
Second in Thursday's first qualifying round at the five-star Sao Paulo show, Kuerten was one of 18 riders to make it to the final and one of just four to compete in the jump-off. Germany's Ludger Beerbaum was first to pit himself against the clock with All Inclusive NRW and set the standard in 37.06.
His sister-in-law Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum was next in and she bettered that time by over two seconds with Shutterfly. With the advantage of being last to go, Kuerten pulled out all the stops with Castle Forbes Libertina who went clear in 34.25.
Yesterday, Kuerten added a further €36,000 to her haul when finishing fifth on the 12-year-old mare behind France's Michel Robert and Mme Pompadour M, the only combination to go clear in the 1.55m class.
Killorglin star wins bronze
ROWING:Monika Dukarska of Killorglin Rowing Club in Kerry took a bronze medal at the World Coastal Rowing Championships in San Remo, Italy, on Saturday, writes Liam Gorman.
Killorglin, who also compete in sliding-seat rowing, have a fine record in coastal rowing. Their women's coxed four took bronze in the World Championships in France last year.
The medal was a fine birthday present for Dukarska, a student at the Tralee IT, who turned 18 on Saturday. Her family have lived in Kerry for years, but Dukarska has not got an Irish passport.
She represented Poland at the Coupe de la Jeunesse, a European championships for juniors, in Cork in June.
