Sports News 12:30
BULLETIN SPORTS NEWS 20 February 12:30 pm
Good day, let’s look at the latest sports news and scores:
# We kick off with Rugby: The Blitzboks are grouped with the All Blacks, Great Britain and Ireland in this weekend’s world series sevens tournament in Vancouver, Canada. South Africa is currently fourth on the table after winning the first tournament in Dubai, but not doing very well in Cape Town and Perth. Argentina tops the log after winning in the Mother City and Australia, with Fiji second and Australia third. Vancouver will be followed by the tournament in Los Angeles in the United States next weekend.
# Tennis: South Africa has five players in the draw for the WIP-HOLD International women’s tournaments, which get underway in Pretoria today. The week-long tournament is one of two back-to-back International Tennis Federation W-50 events, which are both offering prize money of 760-thousand-rand. The draw features 17 players who are ranked among the top 500 in the world. The South African contingent features four wildcard entries, Isabella Kruger, Zoë Kruger, Kaitlyn Ramduth and Danielle Dai Chapman, while teenager, Lilitha Ndungane, progressed through the qualifying rounds.
And in more Tennis news, American Taylor Fritz successfully defended his Delray Beach Open title to claim his seventh career title. The world number ten beat compatriot, Tommy Paul, 6-2, 6-3, to become just the second player in the tournament’s history to win the event two years in a row. Fritz says he had a long list of things he needed to do well, but a lot of that went out the window when he realised the conditions for the match:
# Cricket: England coach Brendon McCullum has backed Jonny Bairstow, saying he has no plans to drop him for the fourth Test against India. The 34-year-old has come under some criticism for his batting, scoring just 102 runs in the first three Test matches. He scored only four runs in England’s 434-run thrashing in the third test in Rajkot. McCullum has acknowledged that Bairstow has underperformed in this series but says they have to keep on giving him confidence and block out a lot of the external noise.
# And finally: Motorsport: The new Formula One season gets going in Bahrain tomorrow where the cars will be tested until Friday. Red Bull dominated the previous season when Dutch driver Max Verstappen cruised to his third consecutive drivers’ championship, winning a record 19 out of 22 races. His team won its sixth constructors’ championship. The season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix will take place next weekend, and Verstappen hopes for another good season:
Stay tuned for more news………….