A brief look at today's sport
Perry returns to best form
SQUASH:Irish number one player Madeline Perry showed a welcome return to form when she beat sixth-seed Shelley Kitchen of New Zealand in the opening round of the CIMB Singapore Masters.
The unseeded Irish champion, returning to full fitness after an injury lay-off, stormed to a 12-10, 11-9, 11-5 victory to set up a quarter-final clash with Rebecca Chiu of Hong Kong.
Nadal says ATP not heeding hard courts' toll on players
TENNIS:World number two Rafael Nadal criticised the ATP yesterday for promoting a court surface he said was the toughest on the bodies of the players.
The Wimbledon and French Open champion claimed his fifth successive title and seventh of the year when he won the Toronto hardcourt tournament last week.
But the Spaniard said the sport's governing body was not paying enough attention to the effect of hard courts on injuries.
"The top management of the ATP are . . . always thinking about playing more and more tournaments on this kind of surface," Nadal told a news conference.
"It's not good because if you look at the locker room and the trainers' room, everybody has problems. It's the hardest surface on the body for sure."
Messi gains his Beijing release
OLYMPIC GAMES:Lionel Messi will leave for Beijing later today to join up with Argentina's Olympic squad after Fifa ordered Barcelona to release their forward.
Fifa rules say clubs must allow players aged 23 or under to take part in the Games despite claims from Barcelona and German teams Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 they are under no obligation to do so for an event outside Fifa's international match calendar.
Barcelona said yesterday that Messi, 21, would be accompanied on the trip by a member of the coaching staff.
The club have said they will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decision of world soccer's governing body and will oblige the player to return to Spain if CAS rule in their favour.
Barcelona want the influential forward to play in their Champions League third-round qualifier in the second week of August.
Leaney lowers junior 100m record
SWIMMING:Belfast swimmer Conor Leaney lowered his own Irish junior record in the heats of the 100m freestyle at the Junior European Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, yesterday.
His time of 51.39 was one hundredth of a second quicker than his mark set earlier this year.
His time also qualifies him to compete at the European Short Course Championships in December this year and is under the qualification standard for Swim Ireland's Team 2012.
In the semi-final he swam a time of 51.71, missing out on a place in the final.
Also in action in Belgrade was the High Performance swimmer Grainne Murphy, who went in the 400m freestyle and finished 15th in the heats in 4:25.99.
Andrew Meegan swam in the 1,500m freestyle, which he finished in a time of 16:12.70.
US track chief questions relay record
ATHLETICS:USA Track and Field (USATF) chief executive Doug Logan yesterday asked for the American men's 4x400-metres record, which is also the world record, to be re-examined in light of recent doping revelations.
The relay team of Jerome Young, Antonio Pettigrew, Tyree Washington and Michael Johnson ran 2:54.20 on July 22nd, 1998, in Uniondale but Pettigrew in May admitted to engaging in doping activities dating back to 1997.
Logan has written to the USATF Men's Track and Field chairman, John Chaplin, to request that the record be brought up for reconsideration at the domestic governing body's 2008 annual meeting scheduled for December in Reno, Nevada.
