Barty and Dellacqua lose in Wimbledon women's doubles final

Ashleigh Barty, left, and Casey Dellacqua pose with their trophies after the women's doubles final. Photograph: Anja Niedringhaus/AP

Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua missed another chance to secure a first grand slam women's doubles title, losing in the final at Wimbledon.

The 13th seeds fell 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 to the eighth-seeded combination of Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh and China's Shuai Peng on Saturday.

Barty and Dellacqua, in just their fourth WTA tournament together, were bidding to become the first all-Australian duo in 35 years to win the women's doubles at the All England Club.

The pair also lost the final at the Australian Open in January.

The Australians started brightly on Centre Court and had a set point on serve up 5-4.

However Hsieh and Peng fought back to claim the first set in a tiebreaker.

The Asian duo carried the momentum into the second set and raced to a first grand slam doubles title.

It was Barty and Dellacqua first defeat on grass in 10 matches, having claimed their maiden WTA doubles title in Birmingham earlier this month.

Both players failed to secure spots in the singles draw at Wimbledon, with 17-year-old Barty a surprise first-round loser in qualifying after winning her first grand slam singles match at the French Open last month.

However she bounced back strongly from the disappointment, also reaching the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles event alongside compatriot John Peers.

The last all-Australian women's duo to win the Wimbledon title was Wendy Turnbull and Kerry Melville Reid in 1978.

Promising Australian juniors Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis reached Sunday's boys doubles final and will face Enzo Couacaud and Stefano Napolitano.

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What to look out for at Women's Euro 2013

Rachel Yankey, the most capped player in English football history, is part of the squad in Sweden. Photograph: Carl Recine/Action Images

Hope Powell's England team are in Sweden, ready to compete in Women's Euro 2013. Their preparations were going brilliantly, the English footballers on an 11-match run without a loss… until they got thrashed in a final warm-up match on Thursday. Might England still lift the trophy when the tournament concludes on 28 July? History, gut instinct and almost all informed punditry suggests not – but even so, there are plenty of reasons to tune in to the competition. Coverage of England's progress begins on BBC3 on Friday.

Rachel Yankey

Last month the 33-year-old Londoner became the most capped player in English football history. That includes the men's and women's game, Yankey surpassing Peter Shilton's long-held record of 125 caps. The modest midfielder was whooped and applauded on to her team bus after setting the new record. Patently mortified (see the footage on YouTube) she appeared to aim a cheerful F-word at her colleagues as she climbed aboard.

Spanish women's football team

What a novelty, in world football, to watch a Spanish side that are only OK. While Spain's men have dominated world football for years, the women are also-rans, not given a hope by bookmakers. Happily, England play their opening match against Spain. Germany and France, meanwhile, are the bookies' favourites to win it all.

Coach Pia Sundhage

Sundhage coached the US to an Olympic gold medal at the London Games last summer and afterwards sang a Bob Dylan song to her team to celebrate. It was not the first time that Sundhage – currently managing the Swedish team – has sought to mix music and football. She entertained journalists with a rendition of The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) by Simon and Garfunkel at a press conference in 2011 (to confused laughter and applause) and also interrupted her Euros preparations to release a single, last March, called Follow Me Through the Winter. Expect some sort of musical performance should her Swedish side win the trophy.

Jacqui Oatley

Is this a Corporation first? Match of the Day's Jacqui Oatley will helm BBC coverage, alongside Tina Daheley (a graduate of Chris Moyles and Nick Grimshaw's radio shows) and BBC Breakfast's Sally Nugent. It's an untested team, for sure, but one thing is guaranteed: there'll be no plodding football truisms from MOTD regular Alan Shearer. No funny-uncle jokes from his colleague Mark Lawrenson, or complacent, golf-club wisdom from Alan Hansen. And for this we should be thankful.

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France 0-2 Australia | Women's football match report

Australia forward Kyah Simon (right) and defender Alanna Kennedy fight to keep the ball during their victory over France Photograph: Alain Jocard/AFP

Australia's women's football team finished their European tour with a 2-0 win over a highly-fancied French side in Angers, France on Saturday.

Two stunning strikes from Brisbane Roar duo Tameka Butt and Katrina Gorry secured the Matilda's victory over the world No6 team in the friendly match at Stade Jean-Bouin.

Despite being ranked only four places behind France, Australia were considered heavy outsiders against a team that had finished fourth at the last FIFA Women's World Cup and Olympics.

But while the French appeared strong in the opening stages the Matildas' resolute defence soon nullified them.

Australia took the lead in the 35th minute through Butt who hit a brilliant volley into the top right corner of the net.

Gorry and Butt also proved crucial in defence, both clearing the ball off the line within moments of each other as the French ramped up their attack in the second half.

France were given a perfect opportunity to equalise just shy of the hour mark when they were awarded a spot-kick.

However, a brilliant diving save from goalkeeper Lydia Williams, who was brought on by Matildas coach Hesterine de Reus as a second-half substitute for Brianna Davey, denied France's Camille Abily.

Against the run of play, Australia doubled their advantage in the 70th minute with a powerful right-footed strike from Gorry.

After disappointing losses to the Netherlands (3-1) and Dutch club Ado den Haag (1-0) the Matildas managed to end the tour on a winning note.

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Wimbledon Women's Final: As one smile fades, the crowd hails an eccentric new champion

Marion Bartoli hoists the championship trophy as she celebrates her victory over Sabine Lisicki. Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPA

One of the defining features of Wimbledon 2013 had been Sabine Lisicki's smile. But the final of the women's singles on Saturday will be remembered for her tears. They started during the second set, temporarily abated during a brief comeback, and then flowed unstoppably at the end as she was overwhelmed 6-1, 6-4 by France's Marion Bartoli.

On a brutally hot afternoon at Wimbledon – not a sentence one has to write too often – it was a strange, anticlimactic end to two weeks of a women's competition that has thrown up surprises, controversy and consistently excellent tennis. The 28-year-old Bartoli won her first major title in her 47th grand slam appearance, breaking the record for late development.

Lisicki may have been the crowd favourite, but Bartoli is an eccentric and popular champion. Her family hails from Corsica, and she looks like a tennis player created by Asterix's Goscinny and Uderzo. She is a frenzy of compulsive tics on the court and an endearing oddball off it. She has an IQ score of 175, higher than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

The match-up against Lisicki, a grass-court specialist who is mildly allergic to grass, appeared to be an intriguing one. But the 23-year-old German – known as "Boom Boom Bina" for her aggressive, uncompromising playing style – appeared to melt under the heat and the pressure. "Boom" rather quickly turned to "Bust". Nevertheless, the presence of two wild outsiders in the Wimbledon final – Bartoli was seeded 15, Lisicki 23 – is a welcome reminder of the depth of talent in women's tennis. In the previous 15 months, all the major prizes in the sport had been claimed by three players: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka. Williams, in particular, had been so dominant that opponents were said to start matches against her aiming not to lose 6-0, 6-0: a game-within-a-game called "bagel avoidance".

Wimbledon turned all the form on its head. Sharapova lost to a 5ft 5in, 20-year-old Portuguese qualifier called Michelle Larcher de Brito. Azarenka pulled out minutes before the start of the second round with an injury. Williams was brought crashing down by Lisicki in three electric sets.

Bartoli collected prize money of £1.6m, the same as Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are playing for on Sunday. Today's female stars clearly owe a debt to Billie Jean King, who brought the top female players together and founded the Women's Tennis Association in 1973. At that time, women received a fraction of the rewards of their male counterparts: in 1968, for example, King won £750 for winning Wimbledon, while Rod Laver received £2,000. Full parity was not achieved until 2007.

Last Sunday, to celebrate 40 years of the WTA, 17 former world number ones came together for an event at Wimbledon called 40 Love. Several of them – including King, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis – returned to the royal box on Saturday.

It is a testament to the quality of the tennis that equal pay has not been an issue during the Wimbledon fortnight. The match between Lisicki and Williams was an instant classic, while Lisicki's semi-final against Agnieszka Radwanska, which ended 9-7 in the third set, was even better. It was a crushing disappointment that she could not summon any of that form in the final. "I think I was overwhelmed by the whole situation," said Lisicki afterwards.

A further sign of the health of the women's game is that the debate has shifted on to whether men should play the best of three sets, instead of women playing five. "It's really becoming so taxing that I believe one day we will have two out of three sets in the grand slams," said Navratilova recently. "Otherwise they're going to be taking people out on stretchers."

Early on in the tournament, there was a minor kerfuffle when Andy Murray challenged Serena Williams to a match in Las Vegas – a throwback to King's "Battle of the Sexes" contest against Bobby Riggs in 1973. Williams seemed hesitant when the subject was brought up: "I doubt I'd win a point, but that would be fun," she replied unconvincingly.

No one was in any doubt that this match was unlikely to happen any time soon. Women's tennis does not need the publicity or the validation these days.

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