Snooker: BGC Masters semi-finals – Robertson bt Trump 6-3; Murphy bt Higgins 6-4.
Basketball, NBA: Orlando star Dwight Howard scored 21 points with 23 rebounds to lead the Magic to a 92-80 NBA victory over the struggling Los Angeles Lakers. Howard, who early in this lockout-shortened season made it clear he wanted to be traded, with the Lakers one of his possible destinations, delivered a solid performance to drop the Lakers to 1-6 on the road. “We’re a little raggedy right now,” Lakers coach Mike Brown said. “We’re a little tired.”
Boxing: Cuba’s Guillermo Rigondeaux stopped Rico Ramos in the sixth round Friday to claim the American’s WBA super bantam-weight title. Rigondeaux dom-inated throughout, starting with a knockdown after a punishing left to the head in the opening round of their scheduled 12-round fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. His left to the body sent Ramos down for the count at 1:29 of the sixth.
Athletics: Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown, winners of the 200m world titles last year in Daegu were named Jamaica’s top sportsman and sportswoman of 2011. Sprint superstar Bolt had been overlooked for the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Asso-ciation’s top athlete award, which went to 100m world champion Yohan Blake. Asafa Powell was given the People’s Choice Award, for his victory at Jamaica’s world championship trials in 2011.
Alpine Skiing: Swiss racer Didier Cuche notched up a record fifth downhill victory in Kitzbuehel yesterday, the perfect ending for his final descent of the World Cup’s most prestigious speed event. Cuche last week announced his intention to bow out of ski racing at the end of the season. “It feels really great,” said Cuche. “Being back here and winning this race again, it’s a great feeling.”
Rugby Union: Four-time champions Toulouse reached the European Cup quarter-finals on Friday despite losing 34-24 at Gloucester with their qualification assured when Connacht stunned Harlequins 9-8. Toulouse made the last eight for the 13th time in their history as Pool Six winners, finishing on 18 points. Harlequins have 17 points and now need an unlikely set of results in the weekend’s remaining group games to reach the last eight.
Cycling: Any doubts a two-year doping ban would blunt the racing skills of Alejandro Valverde were ended yesterday when the Spaniard made a victorious return to the peloton. In a thrilling end to the fifth and penultimate stage yesterday Valverde finished off the solid work of his Movistar team to pip Australian champion Simon Gerrans in a duel to the finish.
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Golf: Tiger Woods (picture), who snapped a two-year win drought last month, said Friday on his Twitter account that he is fit and practicing well ahead of his 2012 debut next week at Abu Dhabi. The 14-time major winner spent about 20 minutes answering questions from fans following a practice session before saying he had to stop to practice his putting. Woods said, “Yes! Ready to go,” when asked if he was fit and said he is practicing well with swing coach Sean Foley, tweeting, “Preparing like any other event, Sean and I working efficiently.”
Fed Cup: US Open champion Samantha Stosur will lead Australia’s team in their Fed Cup World Group II tie against Switzerland in Fribourg next month. Stosur, knocked out in the first round of the ongoing Australian Open by Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, will be joined by Jarmila Gajdosova, Jelena Dokic and Casey Dellacqua. Australia were relegated from the elite group last year after a 3-2 loss to Ukraine in the World Group play-offs in Melbourne. The tie takes place on February 4-5.