Intermediate Listening Practice

Hi, this is Larry Watson here with the evening sports news.

In tennis, the Brazilian Diego Garcia reached the semi finals of the French Open. The 26-year-old from São Paulo, knocked out in the first round last year in Paris, managed to overcome the Swiss player Heinz Gruller in four sets. Garcia said he was delighted with his victory and put it down to having changed his coach last winter. The two Americans Rod Langer and Brad Wilson will play in the second semi-final tomorrow to decide who will play Garcia.

We stay in France where today the fifth stage of the Tour De France took place. The 74 cyclists have already entered the mountains and the Italian Gianfranco Baresi took first place after a long, steep climb up to finishing line after 184 miles in the hot sun. Baresi now leads the Tour by over six minutes and it will take something special to take the yellow jersey off him.

Golf - and today was the first day's play in the IBM Open in Tennessee. Stormy weather played its part and the players didn't tee off until around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Once play did get underway, the Australian Mark Chappel played some superb shots and finished the day on five under par 67, two shots clear of Mark McGonnagal from Scotland and the local boy Chav Connor. Shot of the day, however, went to the unknown Canadian Ross Whirter who made an unbelievable hole-in-one on the short 12th hole. Whirter held his head in his hands as his wayward shot seemed to be heading for the lake but it miraculously hit a wooden post, bounced back onto the green and into the hole to the delight of the capacity crowd.

In Tokyo today, the final qualification for tomorrow's Japanese Grand Prix took place in rainy conditions. Gert Kruger, driving for Ferrari, finished the day in pole position and looks in a great position to consolidate his lead in the world championship standings. The Jaguar driver, Eddie Cochrane, was the early leader in the qualifying sessions held in heavy rain and gusting winds but Kruger showed his best form as the racetrack dried out a little later on.

Finally, tonight's baseball scores:

Pittsburgh were beaten 10-2 by a strong Milwaukee side. Boston overcame the Yankees by 7-3. The Chicago White Sox shaded a close game 4-3 against Cleveland. Tampa Bay came out on top 8-5 in Toronto and Houston saw off St Louis by 4-1.

That concludes this evening's sports round up. My name is Larry Watson and I'll be back at midnight.