In today's sports news: What you need to know

Latest - The Wellington Phoenix men are through to the quarter-finals of the Australia Cup after beating Melbourne City 2-1 in their round of 16 game in Melbourne.

All Whites strikers Kosta Barbarouses and Ben Waine scored first half goals for the visitors.

Mathew Leckie scored late in the game for City.

Bulgarian Bozhidar Kraev started his first game for the Phoenix, while another new signing Yan Sasse came on late in the game.

The Phoenix also beat City on their way to the semi-finals of the knockout competition last season.

The Phoenix will meet Macarthur FC in the last eight.

No bazball today at Lord's

Anrich Nortje took three wickets as South Africa's seamers tore through England's top order to leave the home side teetering on 116 for six before rain brought a premature close to day one of the first test at Lord's.

England looked as though they would be bowled out for a low total before the weather intervened just six overs after the lunch interval and no more play was possible.

Ollie Pope produced a lone resistance to the visitors' relentless onslaught and is unbeaten on 61. He will resume the innings on the second morning with Stuart Broad, who has yet to score.

The tale of the first day has been South Africa's aggressive and accurate fast bowling rather than England's swashbuckling 'Bazball' style that had brought the home side four excellent test wins in a row earlier in the summer.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl under overcast skies, with England captain Ben Stokes conceding he would have done the same.

The match is the first of three tests in the series, with fixtures also to be played at Old Trafford and The Oval.

-Reuters

Serena suffers early exit in Cincinnati

Serena Williams' farewell tour suffered another bump in the road with a 6-4 6-0 opening round loss to Emma Raducanu at the Cincinnati Open, one of the last tune-up events before the final Grand Slam of the American great's career.

Williams has just one professional tournament remaining before the U.S. Open, where she will have one last chance to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam titles.

Meanwhile former U.S. Open champions Venus Williams and Dominic Thiem have been handed wildcard entries into this year's final Grand Slam tournament.

Other Americans, along with Williams, getting Flushing Meadows wildcards were former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, CoCo Vandeweghe, Elizabeth Mandlik, Peyton Stearns and 17-year-old Eleana Yu.

American men gaining direct entry into the main draw via wildcards include Sam Querrey, Emilio Nava, JJ Wolf, Ben Shelton and Learner Tien.

Austrian Thiem, who rallied from two sets down against Alexander Zverev to win the 2020 U.S. Open, is also returning from a long injury layoff that has seen his world ranking drop to 228.

However world number 22 Gael Monfils has been ruled out of the Open due to a foot injury the Frenchman suffered last week in Montreal.

-Reuters

Otago pip the Bay

Otago have beaten Hawke's Bay 18-13 in their NPC rugby game in Dunedin.

Josh Ioane celebrated his 50th game for Otago by scoring an impressive individual try for the homeside.

It was 10-10 at half time.

Otago have two wins from three games and Hawke's Bay one win from three games.

Counties Manukau play Waikato in Pukekohe tonight with All Blacks Nepo Laulala, Dalton Papalii and Hoskins Soututu all starting for the Steelers.

Another good knock by Bates

White Ferns batter Suzie Bates has guided the Oval Invincibles to their second win of The Hundred in England.

The Invincibles have beaten the Trent Rockets by five wickets in Nottingham.

Bates, the Invincibles captain, top scored with 40 as they chased down their target of 113 with a ball to spare.

The Invincibles over take the Rockets into third place on the table.

Germany interested in another Olympics

Germany is considering bidding for the Olympic Games building on the success of an international event in Munich featuring nine sports and using many of the venues built for the 1972 summer Olympics.

The Bavarian capital is hosting the European Championships from Aug 11 to Aug 21, with large crowds flocking to, among other sites, the Olympic stadium, the Rudi-Sedlmayer hall and the Olympic regatta centre, to see sports including Olympic maintstays athletics, cycling, gymnastics and rowing.

"I think you can organise Olympic Games without everything being on a massive scale," German Olympic Committee president Thomas Weikert said. "Here is a very good event with nine sports and you can see that you can build on that."

Summer Games up to and including 2032 have been allocated to host cities.

The DOSB has repeatedly failed to bring the Olympics - summer or winter - back to Germany since 1972.

Paris will host the 2024 summer Olympics while Los Angeles will stage the 2028 edition and Brisbane in Australia the 2032 Games.

-Reuters