Andy Murray celebrates his first title on clay after winning the Munich Open, while a handful of triathletes throw their name into the ring for the Rio test event. Here’s our review of the last 24 hours.
Andy Murray admits he had to call upon all his reserves of strength to clinch a maiden clay-court title by beating Philipp Kohlschreiber in the final of the Munich Open.
Rain caused the match to be postponed after just five games on Sunday, but upon Monday morning’s resumption, Murray battled his way to a 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) victory.
It was the 32nd title of the top seed’s career and he became the first Brit to win an ATP tournament on clay since Buster Mottram in 1976.
Home favourite Kohlschreiber triumphed at the event in both 2007 and 2012 but after a hard-fought opening set went to a tie-break, it was Murray who ultimately earned the decisive mini-break.
The German responded and soon levelled the match at one set apiece by breaking the world No.3’s serve in the 11th game of set two.
But Murray, with his wedding ring attached to his left shoe following his marriage last month, secured victory on his second match point when Kohlschrieber hit a backhand long.
The pair could meet again in the second round of the Madrid Masters on Wednesday but Murray was happy with a tricky job well done in Germany.
“It was a really tough match, he served very close to the line and I was getting frustrated,” said the 27-year-old.
“The rain made things really tough, but as a Scot I'm used to that.
“It's been a hard couple of days, so I am very happy to have won, especially on clay.
“I didn't realise I was the first Brit to win on clay for so long, so that's obviously an honour.”
Triathletes India Lee, Mark Buckingham and Adam Bowden put their names in the hat for selection to the Great Britain team for the Rio test event in August.
The selection policy opened the door to the top British medal winners at Antalya ETU European Cup in Turkey.
The standard distance race in Antalya featured 13 British athletes who were faced with a rough sea swim that influenced the results in both the men and women's races.
The women were first to start and the small field of just 22 athletes soon broke up into small groups and individual athletes. Hannah Drewitt had the best of starts amongst the British women but it was Lee who made the best of the bike and run course and claimed the third spot on the podium behind Russians Elena Danilova and Alexandra Razarenova.
Emma Pallant was the next best Briton in sixth, while Hannah Drewitt was eighth.
Tom Bishop led the British charge out of the men's swim and went on to have one of his best bike rides ever, but a foot injury halted his progress after that. Matt Sharp had an excellent run but an infringement on the bike mount line meant he got a fifteen second penalty.
Sharp went on to win the race with Buckingham, Bowden and Grant Sheldon the next finishers behind him. However, an infringement during the swim cost Sharp the win as he was disqualified.
With Rio places on the line, the disqualification hands the selection to Bowden rather than Sharp, with confirmation to come at the end of the week.
© Sportsbeat 2015