Fakir flies home for Ascot win

RACING

FAKIR D’OUDAIRIES won yesterday’s Grade One Ascot Chase after another successful Irish raid on british soil.

The tempo of the two-mile-and five-furlong event was more than adequate for the conditions and Mark Walsh gave the Joseph O’Brien-trained seven-year-old a peach of a ride.

Though he got in close and had his momentum slightly slowed at the penultimate fence, he picked up and found a determination that saw him overhaul the game Two For Gold and gain a third top-level success.

Fakir D’Oudairies has had the misfortune to have come up against crack chaser Allaho and has been beaten by him in their last three clashes. They could lock horns again in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, although connections hinted that Aintree might be the preferred plan.

TENNIS

FELIX AUGER-ALIASSIME will lock horns with Andrey Rublev in today’s South of France Championship final in Marseille today.

Canada’s Auger-Aliassime defeated Russian Roman Safiullin 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5). Rublev had to work harder to defeat France’s Benjamin Bonzi but prevailed in a three-setter. The Russian won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

In Doha, Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut won the title in Qatar, beating Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 6-3, 6-4.