Sports round-up

Tennis: France’s Gael Monfils, the number 15 in the world, will miss Wimbledon after failing to recover from a right knee injury in time. The 25-year-old’s absence from the Grand Slam which starts on Monday, was confirmed when his name was missing from the list of 32 seeded players published yesterday. The injury also forced Monfils to sit out of the French Open.

London 2012: Rafael Nadal will carry the Spanish flag at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London on July 27 . Nadal, the world number two and recently-crowned seven-time French Open champion, is the fourth top tennis player to be afforded the honour. World number one Novak Djokovic will carry the Serbia flag, Roger Federer will be responsible for the Swiss while Maria Sharapova will lead out the Russian delegation.

Awards: Miami Heat club president Pat Riley, who won five NBA titles as a head coach, was named the winner of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, the National Basketball Coaches Association said. Riley is widely recognised as one of the most influential coaches in the history of the NBA. His career has spanned 43 years as a player, assistant coach, team head coach, broadcaster and now team president of a club.

Cricket: Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori wants to return to the short form of the game at this year’s ICC World T20 tournament in Sri Lanka. The 33-year-old spinner announced last year that he was taking an indefinite break from one-dayers and Twenty20 cricket to concentrate on his Test career after representing New Zealand in all forms of the game since 1997.

Field Hockey: The Australian men’s field hockey team has won an appeal after the world’s number one side was handed three early morning starts in their group matches at the London Olympics. Kookaburras coach Ric Charlesworth was furious when the draw gave his team three 8.30 a.m. games, which he said would require players to wake up at 5.00 a.m. in a major disruption to their daily tournament routine. At the same time, main rivals Germany avoided the early timeslot altogether in the opposite group.

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Basket, NBA: A hobbled LeBron James (picture) hit the go-ahead three-pointer with 2:51 to play on Tuesday as Miami Heat beat Oklahoma City Thunder 104-98 to move within one victory of the NBA title. James had 26 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds, while Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers each scored 25 points for the Heat who took a 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven championship series.