Rocket soars to even money

RONNIE O’SULLIVAN went into today’s play in the World Snooker Championship as a red-hot favourite to retain his title.

Despite a self-imposed 12-month exile from competitive snooker, the Rocket has returned as good as ever.

He has been untroubled in matches against Marcus Campbell, Alistair Carter and Stuart Bingham (so far) and has wracked up a string of big breaks.

Not surprisingly, the bookies were offering no more than even money this morning.

Judd Trump was 4-1 second favourite for the title followed by Ding Junhui (7-1).



SIR Bradley Wiggins gets back on his bike on Saturday for the start of the 22-day Giro D’Italia.

The Tour De France and Olympic hero is 11-10 to win the race, which start in Naples and ends in Brescia on May 26.



THERE were some controversial selections in the Lions squad for their tour of Australia.

But the bookies reckon the Sam Warburton-captained British RU outfit will be too good for the Aussies.

The Lions are 8-11 to prevail in the three-Test series and 15-8 shots to win 2-1.