In brief: Moore seeks Irish wild card
Boxing
IRISH coach Jim Moore would like to see Ireland receive a wild-card entry for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August.
The Irish boxing squad returned from the AIBA World Youth Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan yesterday following gold and silver medal wins for Joe Ward and Ryan Burnett.
Ward, who won AIBA World Junior gold in Armenia last May, and Burnett qualified for the Youth Olympics by virtue of reaching the middleweight and light flyweight semi-finals.
Moore said: "Joe and Ryan won the right to compete at the Youth Olympics outright, but it would be nice to get one of the wild-card entries for Singapore in August. That will be another big tournament for us this year."
Tennis
Serena Williams reached the second round of the Italian Open with a straight-sets defeat of Timea Bacsinszky in Rome.
The world No 1 was returning from injury to play her first game since January and she made hard work of the first set, winning it 7-6 (7/2), before taking the second 6-1.
Belgium's former world No 1 Kim Clijsters remains a doubt for the French Open after pulling out of next week's Madrid Open with a foot injury. The 26-year-old, currently ranked 11th, has two small tears in the muscles of her left foot.
IRELAND'S Conor Niland faces a former Australian Open runner-up in the second round of the ATP Challenger Tour event in Israel today, writes Paddy Hickey.
Germany's Rainer Schuettler, who squared up to Andre Agassi in the 2003 Melbourne Park final, yesterday sealed a clash against Niland when he romped to a 6-3 6-2 win over countryman Simon Stadler.
Limerickman Niland ensured his place in the second round when he defeated Israeli wild card Noam Okun 6-4 4-6 6-3 in his first-round contest on Monday.
Cycling
The Liquigas team said yesterday that scientific evidence does not appear to show that Franco Pellizotti resorted to doping.
Pellizotti was banned from the Giro d'Italia on Monday after the International Cycling Union announced that he had failed its biological passport program.
"Right now the evidence presented does not appear able to show with certainty, at a scientific level, illicit behaviour by the athlete," Liquigas said in a statement.
Irish Independent
