New York: Serena Williams has withdrawn from next week’s Qatar Open because of illness, the WTA said on Thursday.
Williams has not played competitively for nearly eight months after undergoing a knee operation but had hoped to make her comeback at the $600,000 event in Doha.
“I am really disappointed that I won’t be playing Doha...I have been battling the flu for several days and am not quite 100 per cent well yet,” the American said in a statement.
“The good news is that the knee is feeling great and I feel I am back in championship form.”
‘Burnt out’ Szabo to skip Athens
London: Olympic 5,000 metres champion Gabriela Szabo will not defend her title in Athens this year after doctors advised her to take a long rest.
The Romanian said on Friday she felt “burnt out” and would take the rest of 2004 off after failing to complete her first race of the season in Birmingham last week.
Szabo’s decision means she will also be absent from the world indoor championships in Budapest which start next Friday.
“I felt burnt out and over-trained after the world championships in Paris last year,” Szabo told the IAAF website.
“This means that I will not compete in the Olympic Games. I hope to come back to the top level in the future.”
Nyon: Jacques Georges, the former head of European and French soccer, has died at 87.
Georges died on Wednesday at his home in Saint-Maurice-sur-Moselle, a ski resort town in northern France, Uefa said.Georges was president of the French Football Federation from 1969 to 1972 before becoming involved in Uefa.
He served as Uefa’s president from 1984 to 1990. He was also Fifa vice-president from 1983 to 1994.
Asuncion: Striker Gabriel “Loco” Gonzalez will make a comeback with Olimpia at the age of 42 after serving more than two years of a life suspension for punching a referee. “I spoke to (Olimpia) president Osvaldo Dominguez Dibb and it’s all been resolved,” Gonzalez said. Gonzalez was suspended for life in September 2001 for punching referee Benito Lugo twice after being sent off in a Paraguayan league.
Beijing: David Beckham may be one of China’s most idolised football stars, but his ponytail hairstyle, and other “weird” cuts, have been banned among China’s under-17 team who must learn how to become “true men”. According to a ruling by the China Football Association, weird hairstyles also include shaved heads like Ronaldo. “Dyed hair, long hair and weird hairstyles are all strictly prohibited in the training camp and all players must cut hair short,” said the ruling body.
Buenos Aires: Argentina’s record goal-scorer Gabriel Batistuta hopes to be named in his country’s soccer team for the Athens Olympic Games. “It would be a dream to play in the national team (in Greece) but I’d need to get invited by the coach,” Batistuta told an Argentine radio station.
“I’m in good shape after an ankle injury and I’d like to come back,” he said. “But I would not take this lightly, I’d have to see how I feel at that moment.”
Sydney: An Australian court ruled on Friday that former Australian swimming coach Greg Hodge was defamed by a TV network that claimed he stalked a former pupil.
In a report aired in October the Channel Nine Network also claimed Hodge was unfit to lead the country’s Olympic team to Athens.
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