Andy Murray secures himself a Miami Open final berth, while double London 2012 medallist Louis Smith is named in the Great Britain squad for the European Gymnastics Championships. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Andy Murray admitted he managed to rein in the threat of Tomas Berdych early on last night after he reached his fourth Miami Open final – and set up another meeting with World No.1 Novak Djokovic in the process.
The Olympic champion broke Berdych’s serve four times on the way to a slick 6-4 6-4 victory over the Czech and he will now bid to win the final for the third time in his career.
“I did most things well, there’s not a whole lot I can complain about,” he said. “(The conditions) were OK for first serves, but when you were tossing the ball a little bit behind you for second serves it was extremely tough to see from one end of the court.
“Second serve was much better in the second set and I felt I dictated a lot of the points from the baseline as soon as I got myself in a neutral position off the return. I made him move and that was very important.”
Triple Commonwealth Games gold medallist Max Whitlock will aim to add to his impressive medal collection after being named among the Great Britain team for this month’s European Gymnastics Championships in Montpellier.
Louis Smith, winner of team gold and pommel horse bronze in Glasgow, returns to the Great Britain team for the first time since his historic achievements at the London 2012 Olympic Games where he won silver and bronze.
Kristian Thomas and Sam Oldham – also members of the gold medal winning team at Glasgow – are also included, as double European Junior champion Courtney Tulloch and Scotland’s Daniel Purvis.
Meanwhile, European and Commonwealth bars champion Becky Downie is the most experienced of the women’s four-strong squad.
The Beijing Olympian is joined by four-time Commonwealth Games champion Claudia Fragapane and 2015 British all-around champion Amy Tinkler who makes her senior international debut, as does Downie’s younger sister Ellie.
The European Championships are followed by the first European Games held in Baku in June and then the build-up starts for the 2015 World Championship in Glasgow in the Autumn which act as qualification for Rio 2016.
Giles Scott extended his lead at the top of the Finn fleet in Palma on Good Friday, with four other British Olympic class crews poised in medal positions heading in to the final day of the Princess Sofia Trophy.
470 duo Luke Patience-Elliot Willis, Nacra 17 pairing John Gimson-Hannah Diamond and Alison Young in the Laser Radial are in silver medal position going in to the final day, with Hannah Mills-Saskia Clark improving to third overall in the 470 Women’s event.
“If you’d offered me an 11 point lead going in to the medal race when I had the crash with my boat on Tuesday, then I would have taken it for sure,” Scott said.
© Sportsbeat 2015