McIlroy on sidelines as end game begins
LOS Angeles Lakers fell to a 108-90 defeat by Houston Rockets in the NBA season opener at the Staples Center but the game was overshadowed after rookie Julius Randle broke his right leg in the fourth quarter. The 19-year-old forward collided with two Rockets players under the basket and collapsed to the court in agony before leaving in a wheelchair. Kobe Bryant returned for the Lakers for the first time in ten months but he was unable to stop the defeat by the Rockets, as James Harden scored 32 points and Dwight Howard added 13 points and 11 rebounds. Elsewhere, San Antonio Spurs edged out Dallas Mavericks 101-100 while New Orleans Pelicans saw off Orlando Magic 101-84. NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION: LA Lakers 90 Houston Rockets 108, New Orleans Pelicans 101 Orlando Magic 84, San Antonio Spurs 101 Dallas Mavericks 100. ELLIOT Saltman leads the Visit Egypt Tour Championship by a single stroke after the opening round of the HotelPlanner.com PGA EuroPro Tour season finale at El Gouna Golf Club. The Scot shot a five-under-par 67 on day one and is one clear of six players tied for second. With a £15,000 top prize from the £60,000 prize fund for the 54-hole event, the winner will add crucial money to his Race To El Gouna standings. The top five not otherwise exempt on the Race To El Gouna at the end of the event will earn a Challenge Tour card for 2015. Peter Tarver-Jones, currently second on the Race To El Gouna, is one of the six tied second on four under. James Robinson also carded a first-round 68 and moves from sixth to fifth place. A strong finish this week will should secure his Challenge Tour card for 2015. Alex Belt, Nick McCarthy, James Frazer and Paul Shields are also four under and could earn a promotion to Europe’s second-tier tour if they perform well this week. Saltman said: “I started off well with birdie, birdie which was nice. I then birdied the sixth – a par four which you can get quite close to. I managed to birdie nine so I turned four under. I bogeyed ten with a three putt but kept my wits about me and managed to birdie the par five at 13. I birdied the last as well and it was nice to finish with a birdie and get to five under.” PGA EUROPRO TOUR El Gouna Golf Club, (Red Sea, Egypt). Leading first-round scores (Par 72): 67 E Saltman (Archerfield Links); 68 A Belt (Snainton), N McCarthy (Moortown), J Frazer (Pennard), P Shields (Kirkhill), J Robinson (Southport and Ainsdale), P Tarver-Jones (Worthing). Other Scots: 72 N Fenwick (Dunbar) (T18); 73 R Kellett (Kingsfield) (T25). PAUL Lawrie beat his son Craig by a single shot to win the latest North-East Golfers’ Alliance event at Peterculter Golf Club. But for a double bogey 7 on the seventh, Craig would have beaten his Ryder Cupwinning dad. As it was Lawrie jnr took the £120 runner-up prize. Local member Tony Robertson, a reinstated amateur finished third with a 69. Lawrie snr, who cut his competitive teeth on the NE Alliance circuit as an assistant pro at Banchory, had six birdies - the fifth, sixth, seventh, 12th, 14th and 17th. His two bogeys came over the closing holes, at the 13th and 16th. Lawrie jnr made up for his double bogey with birdies at the sixth, ninth, 12th, 16th and 17th. BRAYDEN Schenn scored a breakaway in overtime as the Philadelphia Flyers earned a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings at the Wells Fargo Centre on Tuesday. Referees initially waved off the goal with two minutes and 24 seconds left in overtime before a review upheld the score. Schenn’s wrist shot was stopped by Kings goalkeeper Jonathan Quick but the Philadelphia centreman hit in the rebound. Elsewhere, Nikita Kucherov’s first career hat-trick led Tampa Bay Lightning to a 7-3 win over Arizona Coyotes while 22-year-old wing Vladimir Tarasenko scored three for St Louis Blues as they claimed a 4-3 overtime victory over Dallas Stars. The San Jose Sharks had 51 shots on goal but needed a shootout to beat Colorado Avalanche 3-2 while Minnesota Wild scored three in the third to defeat Boston Bruins 4-3. Andrew Ladd scored twice for Winnipeg Jets as they beat New York Islanders 4-3 and Toronto Maple Leafs enjoyed a 4-0 shutout of Buffalo Sabres. The Pittsburgh Penguins scored seven unanswered goals as they came from behind to beat New Jersey Devils 8-3 at the Consol Energy Center while Ottawa RORY McIlroy will be an interested spectator as the first event of the European Tour’s Final Series gets under way in China today. The Northern Irishman holds a commanding lead of more than three million points over Sergio Garcia as he looks to win the Race to Dubai and PGA Tour money list titles for the second time in three years.
However, the world No 1 is missing both this week’s BMW Masters and next week’s WGC-HSBC Champions events in Shanghai in order to prepare for a court case with his former management company, increasing the admittedly slim possibility of being overhauled by the likes of Garcia and current European No 1 Henrik Stenson.
Garcia and Stenson will not be at Lake Malaren either this week, with the Spaniard opting to compete in the CIMB Classic in Malaysia on the PGA Tour instead, while Stenson withdrew following the birth of his third child on Sunday.
Each event in the Final Series has a prize pool of 10 million points with 1,666,600 going to the winner, while McIlroy is guaranteed to earn at least the 27,170 points on offer for last place in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. That will take McIlroy’s total to just over 5.4m, meaning his rivals will need to have reached at least 3.8m before Dubai to have a chance of overhauling the 25-year-old.
For Garcia, who has committed to play in the HSBC Champions and the Turkish Airlines Open, that equates to a runnerup and top-five finish, while Stenson will need even better results to keep his hopes alive.
With so many points on offer, Senators handed Columbus Blue Jackets their third straight defeat with a 5-2 result. To make matters worse for the Blue Jackets, defenseman James Wisniewski broke a finger and will be out for up to two weeks and centre Artem Anisimov suffered an upper body injury after being checked by Ottawa defenseman Eric Gryba. Anaheim Ducks goalkeeper John Gibson made 38 saves to shut out Chicago Blackhawks as the Ducks won 1-0 while in the other games Montreal Canadiens edged Calgary Flames 2-1 after a shootout and Vancouver Canucks defeated Carolina Hurricanes 4-1. NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE: Boston Bruins 3 Minnesota Wild 4, Calgary Flames 1 Montreal Canadiens 2, Chicago Blackhawks 0 Anaheim Ducks 1, Colorado Avalanche 2 San Jose Sharks 3, Columbus Blue Jackets 2 Ottawa Senators 5, Dallas Stars 3 St Louis Blues 4, New York Islanders 3 Winnipeg Jets 4, Philadelphia Flyers 3 Los Angeles Kings 2, Pittsburgh Penguins 8 New Jersey Devils 3, Tampa Bay Lightning 7 Arizona Coyotes 3, Toronto Maple Leafs 4 Buffalo Sabres 0, Vancouver Canucks 4 Carolina Hurricanes 1. MARK Allen ended the run of Stuart Bingham with a hard-fought 6-4 win and will face Wales’ Michael White, a 6-2 winner over Ian Burns. Robert Milkins beat Xiao Guodong 6-4, despite a 122 by the Chinese player in frame nine. The Gloucester player will take on Marco Fu, who beat Rod Lawler by the all of the top 20 players have a chance of being within striking distance of McIlroy with a first and second place finish over the next three weeks, but eighthplaced Justin Rose has other goals in mind.
The top 15 players after Dubai will share a bonus pool of $5m and Rose is also looking to move up from his current position of sixth in the world rankings.
“I’m not sure I can catch Rory but the bonus pool runs deep down to 15th and I want to strengthen my world ranking as much as possible,” the 2013 US Open champion said. “If I can play well and maybe win a couple of tournaments between now and the end of the season, I could probably get up to second in the world, which would be a personal best. So there’s always something to play for.”
Rose warmed up for the BMW Masters by beating Ryder Cup team-mate Ian Poulter in a match to mark the opening of a course they designed in Hainan, continuing his excellent match play form after being Europe’s top points scorer at Gleneagles last month.
Poulter is a lowly 64th on the money list after just one top-five finish on the European Tour this season, but is looking to continue his impressive record in the Far East. The 38-year-old was 15th at Lake Malaren last year and fourth in 2012, as well as having won in Shenzhen, Singapore and Hong Kong.
“I’ve got a decent record here in Asia,” Poulter said. “I played very strong the back end of last year. I’ve played well on this golf course in the past, so I’m looking forward to getting going. I’ve been close here. I like the layout, and if the weather holds off for us and is kind then it’s going to be a great week.”
Meanwhile, Lee Westwood will look to complete a unique same scoreline. Ricky Walden saw off Neil Robertson’s conqueror Joe Swail 6-4 to set up a clash with Jamie Burnett, who finally saw off the dogged Peter Ebdon 6-2 to add to the second-round scalp of Judd Trump. INTERNATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (Chengdu, China). 3rd rd: Mark Williams (Wal) bt Sam Baird (Eng) 6-4, Robert Milkins (Eng) bt Xiao Guodong (Chn) 6-4, Marco Fu (Hkg) bt Rod Lawler (Eng) 6-4, Ricky Walden (Eng) bt Joe Swail (NIrl) 6-4, Ronnie O’Sullivan (Eng) bt Li Hang (Chn) 6-1, Michael White (Wal) bt Ian Burns (Eng) 6-2, Mark Allen (NIrl) bt Stuart Bingham (Eng) 6-4, Jamie Burnett (Eng) bt Peter Ebdon (Eng) 6-2. FRAN Halsall continued her fine form by picking up a gold and a silver on day two of the FINA Swimming World Cup event in Tokyo. The Southport-born 24-year-old, victorious in the 50-metres freestyle and backstroke on Tuesday, won gold in the 100 metres freestyle and followed that up with silver – in a new British record of 25.29 seconds – in the 50-metre butterfly. There was further British medal success for Georgia Davies, who lowered the Welsh record to 57.06secs in securing 100m backstroke silver, and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, who took bronze in the 100m individual medley. FINA WORLD CUP (Tokyo) Men (selected) 50m Backstroke Final: 1 Miguel Ortiz (Spa) 23.30secs, 2 Eugene Godsoe (USA) 23.36, 3 Christian Diener (Ger) 23.42, 4 double at Kuala Lumpur and Country Club.
Westwood is part of a 78-strong field for the CIMB Classic, which is co-sanctioned by the PGA Tour and Asian Tour and is being held on the same course where he won the Maybank Malaysian Open on the European Tour in April.
“I’m playing nicely at the moment,” said the Englishman. “I played well in Napa [finishing 12th at the Frys.com Open] a couple of weeks ago and it’s nice for me that it’s a nice setting here.”
Westwood won his 13th tournament in Asia the week after finishing seventh in the Masters and added: “I played it at 18-under-par and won by seven so you’d have to say it suits my game. I’m the most recent Mitchell Larkin (Aus) 23.64, 5 Christopher Walker-Hebborn (Gbr) 23.83, 6 Yuusuke Kudou (Club) 24.03, 7 Masaki Kaneko (Club) 24.05, 8 Takeshi Kawamoto (Club) 24.34. 100m Butterfly Final: 1 Chad Le Clos (Rsa) 48.95secs, 2 Steffen Deibler (Ger) 50.24, 3 Takeshi Kawamoto (Club) 50.40, 4 Giles Smith (USA) 50.69, 5 Kouhei Kawamoto (Club) 50.81, 6 Ranmaru Harada (Club) 51.29, 7 Yuuki Shirai (Club) 51.57, 8 Adam Barrett (Gbr) 51.69. 100m Breaststroke Final: 1 Daniel Gyurta (Hun) 57.23secs, 2 Yasuhiro Koseki (Club) 57.24, 3 Ippei Watanabe (Club) 58.30, 4 Ryouta Nomura (Club) 58.66, 5 Kazuki Kohinata (Club) 58.90, 6 Akihiro Yamaguchi (Club) 58.93, 7 Yoshiki Yamanaka (Club) 59.08, 8 Naoki Taguchi (Club) 59.18. 200m Freestyle Final: 1 Kousuke Hagino (Club) 1min 42.62secs, 2 Myles Brown (Rsa) 1:42.78, 3 Thomas Fraser-Holmes (Aus) 1:43.01, 4 James Guy (Gbr) 1:44.48, 5 Yuuki Kobori (Club) 1:44.77, 6 Velimir Stjepanovic (Srb) 1:45.47, 7 Naito Ehara (Club) 1:46.06, 8 Chiaki Ishibashi (Club) 1:46.32. Women (selected) 50m Butterfly Final: 1 Inge Dekker (Ned) 25.18secs, 2 Francesca Halsall (Gbr) 25.29, 3 Marieke D’Cruz (Aus) 25.76, 4 Felicia Lee (USA) 25.94, 5 Rikako Ikee (Club) 26.25, 6 Rino Hosoda (Club) 26.36, 7 Daynara De Paula (Bra) 26.52, 8 Katinka Hosszu (Hun) 26.95. 100m Freestyle Final: 1 Francesca Halsall (Gbr) 51.96secs, 2 Emma McKeon (Aus) 52.21, 3 Miki Uchida (Club) 52.69, 4 Inge Dekker (Ned) 52.85, 5 Marieke D’Cruz (Aus) 53.60, 6 Siobhan Marie O’Connor (Gbr) 53.65, 7 Rikako Ikee (Club) 53.86, 8 Tomomi Aoki (Club) 54.21.
Golf winner around this golf course so I’m pretty confident as far as this week’s tournament is concerned.”
Westwood has won in Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Macau and Malaysia and knows exactly what is needed to succeed in the testing conditions.
“You’re not going to function if you get dehydrated out there and lose energy,” the 41-year-old added. “Your brain is going to stop working and then you need to use your common sense and have good course-management skills.”
Westwood will play alongside Ryder Cup team-mate Sergio Garcia and Gleneagles opponent Patrick Reed in the first two rounds. The tournament winner will claim $1.2m. 100m Backstroke Final: 1 Katinka Hosszu (Hun) 56.07secs, 2 Georgia Davies (Gbr) 57.06, 3 Madison Wilson (Aus) 57.34, 4 Felicia Lee (USA) 57.36, 5 Sayaka Akase (Club) 57.65, 6 Kathleen Baker (USA) 57.79, 7 Emi Moronuki (Club) 57.89, 8 Masumi Takaba (Club) 58.33. 100m Individual Medley Final: 1 Katinka Hosszu (Hun) 57.74secs, 2 Alia Atkinson (Jam) 58.47, 3 Siobhan Marie O’Connor (Gbr) 58.56, 4 Ruta Meilutyte (Ltu) 59.23, 5 Kanado Watanabe (Club) 59.57, 6 Catherine Meili (USA) 59.73, 7 Tomoyo Fukuda (Club) 1:00.45, 8 Felicia Lee (USA) 1:00.74. ATP BNP PARIBAS MASTERS (Paris). 2nd rd: (3) Stanislas Wawrinka (Swi) bt Dominic Thiem (Aut) 6-4 7-6 (8-6), (7) Milos Raonic (Can) bt Jack Sock (USA) 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-4), (11) Roberto Bautista-Agut (Spa) bt Richard Gasquet (Fra) 6-4 6-2, (4) David Ferrer (Spa) bt David Goffin (Bel) 6-3 2-6 6-3, (8) Andy Murray (Gbr) bt Julien Benneteau (Fra) 6-3 6-4, (12) Feliciano Lopez (Spa) bt Sam Querrey (USA) 6-4 6-4, (9) Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) bt Martin Cuevas (Uru) 6-0 6-3, (2) Roger Federer (Swi) bt Jeremy Chardy (Fra) 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 6-4, Lucas Pouille (Fra) bt (16) Fabio Fognini (Ita) 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (9-7). WTA GARANTI KOZA TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS (Sofia). Womens Singles Group B: (4) Andrea Petkovic (Ger) bt (8) Tsvetana Pironkova (Bul) 7-5 6-2. Group A: (7) Garbine Muguruza (Spa) bt (1) Ekaterina Makarova (Rus) 6-2 6-1. n which city will Scotland play their Euro 2016 qualifier away to Gibraltar next year?
did Roger Federer defeat in the final of the Shanghai Masters this month? Which former Test batsman got a surprise call-up for England’s second string Lions?
Kirsty Gilmour competes in which sport?
are the world’s top ranked ODI cricket nation? How many golds did GB swimmer Fran Halsall win at the Fina World Cup in Tokyo this week?
did the England RL team beat in their Four Nations opener in Australia?
is F1’s US Grand Prix being held this weekend? Who was appointed as the new head coach by Kelso Rugby Club this summer? How many league games have Premiership leaders Hamilton lost this season?