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Tennis: Swiss player Martina Hingis (right) has returned to top spot in the women’s doubles rankings more than 15 years since last reaching the pinnacle of the sport. Hingis and her Indian partner Sania Mirza won their 30th straight match on Friday to clinch the Apia International Sydney title, adding to their trophy from the Brisbane International earlier this month. Mirza had already soared to number one in early 2015 after the duo won the Charleston doubles title, while Hingis’s rise was confirmed yesterday – the Swiss last occupied that spot in March 2000 when partnering France’s Mary Pierce.
Ski Flying: Austrian ski jumper Lukas Mueller has been left partially paralysed after a crash during practice for the sky flying World Championships. The 23-year-old cannot move his legs and has suffered an “incomplete paraplegia” after the accident which happened during training on the Kulm hill in Tauplitz. “At the moment he cannot move his legs, although he has some sensitivity,” Franz-Josef Seibert, chief surgeon at the University Hospital in Graz, said. Sky flying is a version of the Olympic sport of ski jumping, but held on bigger hills and involving longer jumps.
Dakar Rally: French veteran Stephane Peterhansel won the Dakar Rally yesterday, his sixth victory in the car category after six on a motorcycle. The 50-year-old beat Qatar’s 2015 winner Nasser Al-Attiyah by 34 minutes and 58 seconds to secure Peugeot’s first victory in the endurance event – now held in the dunes and deserts of Argentina and Bolivia – since Ari Vatanen won in 1990. KTM rider Toby Price, from New South Wales, took the motorcycle category to become the first Australian winner in the Dakar’s history.
Snooker: Barry Hawkins progressed to his first Masters final as he produced a fine performance to secure a surprise 6-4 win over Judd Trump at London’s Alexandra Palace, yesterday. Trump, who on Friday had emerged victorious from a thrilling quarter-final clash against Neil Robertson having made the 2016 tournament’s highest break of 140, was widely regarded as favourite for this contest. However, world number eight Hawkins will now face the winner of last night’s other semi-final between Ronnie O’Sullivan and Stuart Bingham in today’s final.
Cricket: A venomous spell of fast bowling from Stuart Broad led England to an emphatic seven-wicket win over South Africa in the third test yesterday to clinch the series. Broad’s brilliant return of 6-17 on a lively wicket skittled the stunned Proteas for 83 in their second innings on the third day. England reached their modest victory target of 74 runs with relative ease as captain Alastair Cook (43) top-scored in guiding them to 77 for three from 22 overs under gloomy skies. The tourists now have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-match series, with the final game to be played in Pretoria.