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Motor Sport: Tony Stewart (picture) received a rapturous welcome and made a fast start before making a premature exit on his return to competitive racing on Sunday, three weeks after he struck and killed a young racer at a dirt track in New York. The three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion twice hit the wall at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second collision occurring after his right front tyre blew out on the 172nd lap, forcing him to quit the 325-lap race. Stewart, who had missed three NASCAR races since the Aug. 9 accident in which he killed 20-year-old Kevin Ward Jr. during a non-NASCAR sprint car race, declined to speak to reporters after driving his battered No. 14 car off the track.

Cricket: Australia’s shock one-day international defeat to minnows Zimbabwe has raised alarm bells five months before the country co-hosts the World Cup. Coming off a long break following test series wins against England and South Africa, Australia arrived in Harare for the triangular one-day tournament with South Africa refreshed and optimistic, but the three-wicket loss to Zimbabwe will have done little for the team’s confidence after defeat to the Proteas and an injury to captain Michael Clarke. Sunday’s loss was Australia’s first in 30 years to Zimbabwe.

Badminton: A crestfallen Lee Chong Wei and the Malaysian Badminton Association (BAM) were left apologising to the nation after their independence day celebrations were soured by the much-loved shuttler’s defeat in the World Championship final. World number one Lee had been tipped to land his first major title in the absence of great adversary Lin Dan but it was the double Olympic champion’s Chinese compatriot Chen Long who dished out the punishment in Sunday’s final in Denmark. “I am disappointed with the way I played. I guess my fans are also disappointed. I am sorry. I wanted so much to win it but Chen Long was too aggressive,” Lee was quoted as saying by Malaysian media after the 21-19 21-19 loss.

Snooker: Pankaj Advani will make a decision this week on whether to remain a pro. Advani played on the World Snooker Tour in 2013/14 and became the first Indian to reach the quarter-finals of a ranking event at the Welsh Open. The 29-year-old reached the same stage of the inaugural Indian Open last year. The ace cueman, who has won multiple World Billiards titles, has not played on snooker’s pro circuit this season and must now decide whether to retain his WPBSA membership and play in the Indian Open, with the entry deadline on September 10. Alternatively he could resign his membership and attempt to gain a place in the tournament as a wild card, but would have to win through qualifying rounds in India.

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