Snooker: The first match to go the distance in this year's Embassy World Championship saw 16th seed Joe Swail dig himself out of a huge hole to pip Crucible debutant Sean Storey 10-9.
Swail, a semi-finalist last year, looked well on his way to booking a second-round date with defending champion Mark Williams today when he led 6-3 at the end of the first session.
But world number 99 Storey produced a spirited recovery and won six of the next seven frames, putting the Ulsterman in real trouble at 9-7 down.
Swail, however, never gives in, and he battled as tenaciously as he did in his memorable fightback against John Parrott in the second round 12 months ago to claim the last three frames and sneak through.
"I'm very surprised to still be in the tournament," said Manchester-based Swail. "Sean outplayed me all the way up to when he led 9-7.
"I had to use my experience because he was running away with it so I kept things tight and tried to make the most of my chances."
Meanwhile John Higgins was a convincing 10-4 win over Graeme Dott in the first round, which contained some impressive break-building, indicated 25-year-old Higgins is on course for a fifth successive appearance in the last four at least.
Higgins' fellow Scot Stephen Hendry was less impressive as he built a 6-3 lead over world number 77 Mark Davis of Sussex, the scoreline disguising the fact the seven-time former champion produced some loose play.
First Round: (16) J Swail (NIrl) bt S Storey (Eng) 10-9. Frame scores (Swail first): 1-79 6350 69-49 54-74 80-28 12-79 81-71 107-0 67-37 079 12-98 85-0 33-81 36-68 17-66 57-66 75-4 6837 92-0. (2) J Higgins (Sco) bt G Dott (Sco) 10-4. Frame scores (Higgins 1st): 86-28 30-71 92-28 73-1 77-46 42-65 71-35 0-67 139-0 (139 break) 77-8 140-0 (136 break) 55-58 80-0 69-52.
Motor Sport: Italian former Formula One driver Michele Alboreto (44) died yesterday following an accident during tests for the 24-hour Le Mans race.
Alboreto was driving an Audi R8 on the Eurospeedway circuit in Lausitz near Dresden at the time of the accident.
Boxing: Hasim Rahman was last night at the centre of a car crash mystery as his promoter Cedric Kushner revealed the new WBC and IBF heavyweight world champion may have been injured during a victory parade in Baltimore.
"I'm not perfectly sure how seriously injured in a car crash Hasim Rahman is," Kushner said. However the drama was later played down by a spokesman for Kushner speaking in New York, who said: "It was a very minor accident and no-one was hurt. Hasim is fine."
