England will travel to the USA this March to take part in the SheBelieves Cup, a new four-team tournament against the top three teams in the world, the hosts USA, Germany and France. It means England won't take part in the annual Cyprus Cup, which they have won three times including last year and have played every year since 2009. The tournament is set to run from 3rd to 9th March, with England's matches to be held at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, the Nissan Stadium in Nashville and FAU Stadium in Boca Raton.
0 Comments
Defending champion Heather Watson defeated Brazilian Teliana Pereira in the first round of the Hobart International. The British number two spent just one hour and thirteen minutes on court in Australia as she comfortably beat the world number forty-six 6-3 6-0. However Watson, who claimed the title in Hobart last year with a straight sets victory over American Madison Brengle, had a tougher match than the scoreline suggests. The world number 53 broke her opponents serve twice during the first set but faced ten break points of her own, of which Pereira converted one.
England women head coach, Mark Sampson, has agreed a new contract with The FA which sees him stay in charge of the national side until at least 2019. The Welshman, who was named manager in December 2013 after the sacking of Hope Powell, lead the team to a record performance at last summers Women's World Cup in Canada. Sampson's new deal is a two year extension on his current contract and means he will stay manager until after the 2019 World Cup in France as well as next summer's European Championship, which England currently have a 100% record in qualifying.
USA midfielder Carli Lloyd has today won the FIFA Player of the Year at the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in Zurich. On the night when Lionel Messi won the men's award for a fifth time, Lloyd collected her first after leading her team to the Women's World Cup title in Canada last summer. Germany's now retired striker Celia Sasic and Japan captain Aya Miyama finished second and third respectively after the vote by international captains, managers and media representatives from each FIFA nation.
American skier Lindsey Vonn equalled Annemarie Moser-Proell's record for most women's World Cup downhill wins after victory at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee in Austria. Vonn, who completed the difficult two legged course in a combined time of two minutes 11.17 seconds, now has 72 wins on the world circuit - with thirty-six coming in downhill. In a near perfect first run, the 31-year-old finished with a time of one minute 4.94 seconds, giving her a lead of 0.91 seconds over Canadian Larisa Yurkiw. She then followed it up with the fastest time of the competition, one minute 4.94 seconds, to complete victory.
After the top four WTA ranked players all had to withdraw from tournaments due to injury in the past week, there have now been further injuries to some of the worlds best female players. Czech Petra Kvitova and Pole Agnieszka Radwanska are the latest stars to pull out of warm-up tournaments ahead of the Australian Open, after withdrawing from the Sydney International. Last week Serena Williams retired from her singles match at the Hopman Cup with a recurring knee injury while Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sharapova all withdrew from the Brisbane International with various problems. Now world number five Radwanska and number six Kvitova have joined the long injury list.
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka has won her first title since 2013 by defeating German Angelique Kerber to win the Brisbane International. After being plagued by injury since her last tour trophy, at Cincinnati two years ago, the unseeded Belarusian won in straight sets 6-3 6-1. The tournament, which many players use as a warm-up for the Grand Slam of the year, has provided great match practice for Azarenka, who has won the Australian Open on two previous occasions, in 2012 and 2013. It was unseeded 26-year-old's third appearance in the final in Brisbane, after winning her first tour title there seven years ago before loosing to Serena Williams in 2014.
The British pairing of Heather Watson and Andy Murray missed out on the Hopman Cup final after Australia Green secured victory over France in Perth. Home favourites Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova will now play Ukraine in Sunday's final. After earlier completing a comprehensive victory over Germany, Watson and Murray needed French pair Kenny De Schepper and Caroline Garcia to beat the Australians in order to make it through to the final. It wasn't looking good for the Brits after Kyrgios rushed to a 6-4 6-4 singles win in just 56 minutes but the tie was even after Garcia beat Gavrilova 6-4 7-6 (9-7).
Equatorial Guinea international Jade Boho-Sayo has joined recently promoted FA WSL 1 side Reading for the new season. She joins from Bristol City Women where last season she scored eight goals in nine league games. It comes after a number of players have left Bristol City Women, previously known as Bristol Academy, following their relegation from the first tier of women's football in England. Other big names having left include captain Sophie Ingle, who joined Liverpool Ladies.
Heather Watson and Andy Murray put Great Britain in a good position to qualify for the Hopman Cup final following a comfortable 3-0 victory over Germany today. On a hot day in Perth, where temperatures soared to 36 degrees, both Watson and Murray registered straight sets singles wins before pairing up to beat Sabine Lisicki and Alexander Zverev in the mixed doubles. But Britain still need France pairing Kenny De Schepper and Caroline Garcia to beat the Australia Green duo of Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova to make Saturday's final.
|
Keep up to date with the latest news in the world of women's sport.
SELECT BY SPORT
All
NEWS ARCHIVE
October 2016
|