D Monday, January 18, 2010 SPORT 25 TENNIS stars including world No.1s Roger Federer and Serena WIlliams turned out on the eve of the Australian Open to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake. Rafael Nadal, pictured giving a ball-boy a fright, Kim Clijsters, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic also played in the exhibition match. I was following it on TV and saw the devastation and thought we should do something, said Federer, who was behind the idea. The event at a packed Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne raised more than 130,000. Aces chip in for Fundraiser Fed TENNIS Picture:EPA Counting down: The Rocket needed just three more frames Masterful Ronnie closes in on fifth Wembley title SNOOKER: Defending champion Ronnie OSullivan looked to be on target for his fifth Masters title last night as he established a 7-5 lead over Mark Selby at Wembley. The world No.1 recovered from losing the first frame by racking up breaks of 86, 122 and 101 before his opponent staged a mini- revival, winning the next two with runs of 83 and 112 without his opponent getting on the scoreboard. OSullivan steadied the ship to take the next frame, however, and held a 5-3 advantage at the end of the session. Selbys breaks of 59 and then a stunning century piled more pressure on OSullivan. But a 74-41 win in a tense 12th frame ensured the home favourite rebuilt his two- frame advantage at the mid-session interval. sportdigest Strauss takes the positives CRICKET: England captain Andrew Strauss insisted his team still have reason to be proud this winter, despite their heavy defeat in the final Test of their series in South Africa. The Proteas wrapped up a dominant innings and 74-run win yesterday to draw the series 1-1, and Strauss said: Thats a disappointing end to the tour. But you dont want to lose sight of the fact its been a very successful tour, and I think weve made some improvements over the course of the ten weeks. Weve shown a lot of resilience and character. Peel injury worries Wales RUGBY: Wales face a possible Six Nations scrum-half crisis after Dwayne Peel limped out of Sales 36-19 Heineken Cup defeat by Cardiff. Fellow Lions star Mike Phillips is not expected to recover from an ankle injury before Wales third fixture of the Championship. Wales boss Warren Gatland will await a fitness bulletin on Peel, who sustained a groin problem, before naming his squad today, with Scarlets No.9 Martin Roberts seemingly next in line for a call-up for the opening tie with England. Vikings vanquish Cowboys NFL: The Minnesota Vikings will visit New Orleans in the NFC title game this weekend after romping past the Dallas Cowboys last night. Veteran quarterback Brett Favre rolled back the years, throwing four touchdowns three to receiver Sidney Rice and the Vikes defence stifled the Cowboys attack en route to a 34-3 victory. They will now travel south to New Orleans where the top- seeded Saints await them following a resounding 45-14 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Saturday. England suffer Croft blow RUGBY: England flanker Tom Croft has been rocked by another knee injury which is set to rule him out of the first half of the Six Nations campaign. The Lions forward (pictured) was hurt in Leicesters 47-8 Heineken Cup win over Italian outfit Viadana on Saturday. And it means the blind-side, who started two out of three autumn Tests, is likely to miss the opening two Championship games against Wales and Italy next month. Leicester boss Richard Cockerill predicted the 24-year-old would miss five weeks after a similar injury kept him out for six weeks earlier in the season. RUGBY HEINEKEN CUP GOLF Leinster shake off the rust to seize initiative Running game: Sean OBrien tests Brives defence By Gareth Makim Darren Clarke claimed a joint second placed finish and a cheque for 119,730 at the Joburg Open in Johannesburg yesterday after a superb eagle on his final hole. Clarke chipped in at the last to finish the tournament on 17 under par, sharing second with South african keith Horne but coming in a massive six shots behind home winner Charl Schwartzel, who followed up last weeks triumph at the africa Open. Schwartzel said: Its been a fantastic two weeks for me. Im leading the Order of Merit, but its still early days and I think this will get me into The Masters. Im very excited about that. Eagle earns Clarke tie for second MICHAEL CHEIKA admitted he needed to rouse his Leinster side during half-time of Saturdays vic- tory over Brive as stout French re- sistance and the rust from a three- week lay-off threatened to derail their Heineken Cup defence. Leinster claimed the expected bo- nus point when Brian ODriscoll finished off a flowing move in the dying seconds to add to earlier scores from Isa Nacewa, Gordon DArcy and a first-half penalty try. But they only led 7-0 at the break, and it was a frustrating 40 minutes of hard slog that left the home dressing- room at the RDS at a low ebb. At half-time, when the guys came in they were down, said Cheika. We said, This is the European Cup. Nothings easy. You have to earn anything you get. And it wasnt going well for us. But we were able to stick through it. We showed good belief. We proba- bly played a little bit like that against Castres in Dublin [last year] and we didnt get the bonus point. Its a good learning opportunity for us and a good physical battle that we needed before next weekend. London Irishs defeat at Llanelli yesterday means a losing bonus point at Twickenham will be enough for Leinster to win Pool 6, but there is still the carrot of a home quarter- final to play for. I still havent delivered a home quarter-final to the club and our fans and were really committed to try- ing to deliver that and if we win next week well get one, added Cheika. lOnDOn Irish suffered a demoralising defeat at Parc-y- Scarlets that hands the initiative to leinster ahead of the sides Twickenham clash this weekend. The exiles led llanelli 22-10 going into the final 20 minutes, but two tries each from rob McCusker and Jonathan Davies gave the Welsh side a shock win and means Irish need a bonus- point win over leinster to deny the champions victory in Pool 6. index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html