Snooker: Ronnie O’Sullivan will begin the defence of his World Cham-pionship title against Scotland’s Marcus Campbell. O’Sullivan was initially slated to miss the com-petition at the Crucible in Shef-field, pulling out of the rest of the 2012-13 season last November due to “personal issues”, but he ended his sabbatical in February. He will be chasing a fifth world title and, despite a significant time away from the game, the 37-year-old will be confident of defeating Campbell, whose best result came when he beat Stephen Hendry 9-0 in the 1998 UK Championship. The tournament gets under way on Saturday, with the final to be played on May 5 and 6.
Canoeing: Great Britain’s most successful Olympic canoeist Tim Brabants has retired from the sport. The 36-year-old appeared at the Games four times, becoming the first British canoeist to win gold at Beijing in 2008 as he claimed the K1 1000m title. He also took bronze in the K1 500m in Beijing and had opened his Olympic account with bronze in Sydney 12 years previously in the K1 1000m. Brabants was part of Team GB at London 2012 but finished last in the K1 1000m final.
Golf: Having traded his racquet for a set of clubs, former tennis player Paradorn Srichaphan is planning on moving into the ranks of professional golf despite the Thai only taking up the sport two years ago. The 33-year-old was forced to quit tennis in 2010 after failing to recover from a wrist injury. “My goal is to be the first Asian athlete to change from another sport to professional golf,” Paradorn said in a statement yesterday.
Athletics: Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa and Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo won the men’s and women’s Boston Marathon yesterday, continuing African runners’ dominance in the sport. Desisa finished in an official two hours, 10 minutes and 22 seconds, besting country-man Gebregziabher Gebre-mariam and Kenya’s Micah Kogo in a finishing sprint. Jeptoo closed up in an official two hours, 26 minutes and 25 seconds, crossing the finish line more than 30 seconds ahead of her nearest challenger, Meseret Hailu of Ethiopia.
Tennis: Last year’s semi-finalist Gilles Simon suffered a shock 6-3 7-6 loss to Spaniard Roberto Bautista Agut in the Monte Carlo Masters first round yesterday. Roared on by the crowd, the 11th-seeded Frenchman saved five match points in the tiebreak before handing his opponent victory with a netted backhand. Simon has struggled on clay this year, also losing the decisive match when France lost to Argentina in the Davis Cup quarter-finals last weekend.