Rugby Union: Rugby supporters hoping to purchase tickets for next year’s World Cup had to wait that little bit longer yesterday when the website selling tickets left many of them with a frozen screen. Tickets for the tournament in England went on sale at 9am and despite fans having until Sept. 29 to apply, the official website failed to cope with a mad rush of applications.
Motor Sport: Swiss private bank Julius Baer said it will be the exclusive global sponsor for the world’s first all-electric car racing series. While F1 relies heavily on the glamour of Ferrari and tracks in Monaco and Monza, Formula E is aimed at a younger audience, has women racers and will race in city centres, over shorter distances and with very different cars. The first race, or ‘ePrix’, will be held in Beijing today.
Tennis: Andy Murray has been given a wild card entry to the China Open. Britain’s number one – currently in the unfamiliar position of being ranked outside the world’s top 10 – will join the likes of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and newly-crowned US Open winner Marin Cilic in Beijing from September 27 onwards. Murray has not played in the event since 2010 and will be keen to accrue the points he needs to qualify for the season-ending ATP Finals in London.
Snooker: Mark Selby eased into the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters with a 5-0 defeat of Fergal O’Brien. Selby started and finished with a flourish. He won the first frame with a break of 75 and wrapped up with a 76, although there was little to separate the two in the middle three frames. He will play Mark Allen for a place in the final after the latter held his nerve to edge Michael White 5-4. Stuart Bingham plays Ding Junhui in the other semi-final today.
Baseball: A Miami man was charged on Thursday with alien smuggling for his suspected role in a conspiracy to bring Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig to the US from Cuba. Gilberto Suarez, 40, allegedly paid $250,000 to smugglers to bring Puig to America in exchange for a cut of his expected contract. In 2012, the now 23-year-old Puig signed a $42m contract with the Dodgers. Federal prosecutors are seeking to get back the money Suarez allegedly earned from the operation, according to an indictment.