Boxing: Ireland’s Andy Lee became the WBO middleweight champion on a memorable night in Las Vegas. Underdog Lee knocked out the undefeated Matt Korobov at the Cosmopolitan Hotel on Saturday. The 30-year-old, who formerly worked under famous trainer Emanuel Steward, stunned his opponent with a right hand and then moved in to finish the job in the sixth round. It is a remarkable achievement for Lee and his new trainer, Adam Booth, and one that is sure to earn him bigger fights and recognition in Great Britain and Ireland.
Formula One: Formula One team principals have snubbed Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg in a best driver poll, rating the German only fifth in a list headed by his title-winning team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Rosberg ended the season runner-up after winning five grands prix and outqualifying Hamilton to take the inaugural pole position trophy with 11 poles in 19 races. Fernando Alonso, the double world champion who has now left Ferrari for McLaren, came second in the poll conducted by Autosport magazine even though the Italian team failed to win a race for the first time since 1993. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was third, ahead of Williams driver Valtteri Bottas in fourth. French driver Jules Bianchi, who is still critical in hospital after a crash in Japan, was in eighth place.
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Snooker: Jimmy White (picture) against Ken Doherty will be the pick of the first round ties when snooker’s World Seniors Championship takes place in Blackpool next March. The random draw for the opening round of the 16-man event was made last week and it pitched White against former world champion Doherty. Steve Davis, John Parrott, Dennis Taylor, Cliff Thorburn, Joe Johnson and – for the first time – Mark Williams will be among the other legends of the sport competing for the £18,000 top prize. The qualifying rounds will take place in Wigan next weekend with players aged 40 and over contesting the five spots at the final venue. Tony Knowles, Tony Drago and Alan McManus are among the crowd favourites in action.
Golf: Greg Chalmers won the Australian PGA Championship for the second time yesterday after a dramatic three-way play-off with Adam Scott and Wade Ormsby. Chalmers clinched the title when he safely parred the seventh extra hole when Scott three-putted for bogey after the trio had finished the fourth round tied at 11-under-par. Scott squandered a handful of chances to clinch the title with his errant putting while Ormsby missed a routine four-footer on the second extra hole that would have given him the championship. All the while, Chalmers kept scrambling away. The left-hander shot a flawless final round of eight-under-par 64 just to get into the play-off then kept his nerve to win the longest ever play-off in an Australasian PGA Tour event.
Cricket: Kumar Sangakkara has been fined 15 per cent of his match fee from Sri Lanka’s win over England on Saturday. The International Cricket Council has announced the penalty as a result on Sangakkara “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”. The disagreement came at the start of the 34th over when the veteran batsman disputed umpire Bruce Oxenford’s decision not to sanction a batting power play, with a further exchange two balls later.
Tennis: Prize money on the men’s tennis tour will reach $100 million for the first time in 2015, the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) said. ATP World Tour purses will then climb even higher, to $135 million by 2018. The figures do not include grand slam events, which are not run by the ATP. The biggest increases will be in the ATP Masters events, a series of nine tournaments which are next in terms of prestige to the four grand slams, with prize money rising 14 per cent annually through 2018.