Sports round-up

RALLYING: Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala will miss the Rally of Argentina at the end of this month after breaking his collarbone. Latvala, who has already won the Rally of Sweden this year, suffered the injury while skiing in his native Finland. “He fell heavily while skiing during training,” a Ford spokesman said. The 27-year-old underwent surgery on Thursday and is making good progress in his recovery.

CRICKET: A match in Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 competition last month is under scrutiny over allegations of foul play and under-performance by some players, an official said. Karachi Zebras lost the Super Eight tournament game by 31 runs against a weakened Peshawar Panthers side missing injured star Pakistan paceman Umar Gul. The win lifted Peshawar to the semi-final and relegated Karachi.

SNOOKER: China’s Liu Chuang sent English crowd favourite Jimmy White crashing out of the world championship qualifying competition late Thursday. White, who lost six World Championship finals, five consecutively from 1990-1994, lost 10-8 to Liu.

WRESTLING: Kurt Angle, who won Olympic gold in Atlanta, said his bid for an Olympic comeback in London has been halted by injury. Angle, 43, announced on Twitter that he was pulling out of next week’s US Olympic trials with hamstring and knee injuries. Angle won the freestyle heavyweight gold at the 1996 Games.

TENNIS: Qualifier Michael Russell stunned top seed Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-1, thrilling his hometown fans as he booked a quarter-final berth at the ATP Tour US Men’s Clay Court Championship. Russell, a 33-year-old who lives in Houston, converted five of his break point chances against the world number nine to triumph in 74 minutes. It was Russell’s first victory over a top-10 opponent in 13 attempts.

BASKETBALL: With NBA Most Valuable Player Derrick Rose struggling, C.J. Watson and the rest of the Bulls stepped yesterday to lead Chicago to a 96-86 overtime victory over Eastern Conference rivals Miami. Chicago clinched the Eastern Conference Central Division title and moved four games ahead of Miami for the top play-off seed.

FRENCH OPEN: The French Open will boast total prize money of £18.718 million this year, an increase of seven per cent, with more cash targeted at early round losers. The second tennis Grand Slam event of the season is boosting prize money for losers in the second qualifying round up to the fourth round main draw by between 10 and 20 per cent, organisers said.