Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Vietnam is a growing market for sponsors such as brewer Heineken and would be a fifth Asian race on the calendar, making up for the departure of Malaysia.
Four times MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez drove a Formula One car for the first time at the Red Bull Ring in Austria on Tuesday but said his focus remains firmly on two wheels for the next few years at least.
Red Bull's Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen took the chequered flag in second place with Kimi Raikkonen completing the podium for Ferrari and Australian Daniel Ricciardo finishing fourth for Red Bull.
Switzerland won their third Hopman Cup on Saturday as Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic beat Germany's Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber 4-3(3), 4-2 in the deciding mixed doubles to secure a 2-1 victory in the final at the Perth Arena.
The year is coming to an end and overall, it's been one hell of a year! We have had our share of ups and downs and we look forward to a better 2020. While we count down the days to the new year, let's also reflect on those who gave us strength to stand up in what we believe, the courageous who didn't bow down and the ones with gumption who inspired us to be better. We, Rediff.com, have selected 26 personalities, who we think are worthy of the title -- HERO OF THE YEAR -- and we want you, dear readers, to choose your hero!
A round-up of Saturday's qualifying matches for the Euro 2020 Finals.
England manager Gareth Southgate's overly cautious approach and his team's hesitance in front of goal resulted in a nervy 2-1 World Cup win over Tunisia rather than the comfortable victory their early dominance deserved.
Shubhankar Sharma becomes the youngest Indian and the third overall to have played all four Majors in a single year after Jeev Milkha Singh (in 2007) and Anirban Lahiri (in 2015 and 2016).
England were sucker-punched by a typical British goal they should have known how to defend against, manager Roy Hodgson said on Thursday following their 2-1 World Cup Group D loss to Uruguay.
Sahara Force India claimed a historic fourth place finish, their best ever show, in the Formula One Championships this season after Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez finished seventh and eighth respectively at the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
Romelu Lukaku scored twice to earn Belgium a 2-1 victory over Switzerland in the Nations League on Friday, lifting the mood in the country after a week marred by match-fixing allegations.
Germany's Nico Rosberg celebrated his first Formula One world championship on Sunday after finishing runner-up in a tense Abu Dhabi Grand Prix won by Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton amid accusations of 'dirty tricks'.
Force India are now 99 points clear of fifth-placed Williams, and 165 behind third-placed Red Bull, with a maximum 86 remaining to be won.
Former Ferrari technical director and world championship-winning team principal Ross Brawn stepped back into the Formula One arena on Monday in the new role of managing director for motorsport.
Indian challenge ended at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective men's singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
India have the option of playing all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
Jehan's rookie year in F3 got off to a solid start in the previous weekend at Silverstone where the multiple Indian and Asian Karting champion earned himself two rookie podiums.
Fernando Alonso left the Brickyard on Sunday without a fairytale victory to cap his Indy 500 adventure but had no regrets as he prepared to return to his Formula One day job with McLaren.
As we prepare to cruise into the New Year, Rediff.com gives you a glance back, through photos, into all the sporting moments that made the last 12 months memorable.
Rafael Nadal swept into the quarter-finals of the Italian Open on Thursday with a ruthless 6-4, 6-1 victory over Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov. The top seed, who will reclaim the world number one ranking from Roger Federer if he wins his eighth title in Rome, turned in a near-flawless performance, losing only five service points as he honed in on victory in an hour and 22 minutes.
Factbox on Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who announced his retirement from international football on Friday.
Newly crowned Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton will compete with European Ryder Cup star Rory McIlroy and Real Madrid's Gareth Bale to clinch the BBC 2014 Sports Personality of the Year award.
England's football star David Beckham and his family stepped out in full force to cheer his son Romeo, who took part in the London Marathon.
On the sidelines of a promotional event in Mumbai, Hamilton talks to Rediff.com's Bikash Mohapatra about F1, his immediate goal and his future.
Mercedes F1 GP's Nico Rosberg won his first Formula One Championship after finishing 2nd in the tight race at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
One of the most decorated Olympians of all time, American swimming legend Michael Phelps has sent out a warning to his rivals, saying he still has "some unfinished business" left going into the Rio Olympic Games. "I have some unfinished business I'd like to take care of them before I hang up my suit. And I'm actually enjoying being back in the water again. That was pretty challenging for me going into 2012. But I just feel like a kid again and I love it," he said. The 31-year-old Phelps has 18 Olympic gold medals, 26 World Aquatics Championships gold, 1 World Swimming Championships gold medal and 16 Pan Pacific Championships gold.
Wheat is grown on more land area than any other commercial crop.
Real Madrid will welcome back the added firepower of talisman Cristiano Ronaldo and striker Karim Benzema when they entertain promoted Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday.
Seventh seed Wawrinka of Switzerland set up a third-round meeting with Bulgarian ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov after seeing off Argentine Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-1.
Former skipper Kapil Dev has criticised the Indian players for surrendering their No. 1 world Test rankings to England, saying the visitors were just not prepared to deal with the English attack.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored two stunning goals and took his international tally to 70 as he led Portugal to an emphatic 3-0 win over Hungary in a World Cup qualifier on Saturday.
Describing the year that's coming to an end as "fantastic" for her personally, Rio Olympic Games silver medal-winning shuttler Pusarla V Sindhu said she was now targeting the no.1 world ranking among women after reaching a career-best six at present. "It has been a fantastic year for me, because winning a medal at the Olympics is a big achievement. It's a dream come true. Also, I always had in mind that I wanted to win a Super Series title and that also was fulfilled (at the China Open)," Sindhu told reporters on the sidelines of a promotional event in Mumbai on Thursday.
If Fernando Alonso were to beat the odds and win the Indianapolis 500 on May 28, the double Formula One world champion will be one step away from the 'Triple Crown of Motorsport'.
My strongest emotion right now is deep gratitude to everybody who supported me to make that dream happen
If Williams is indeed 20 weeks into her term, that would mean she was approximately two months pregnant when she captured her record 23rd Grand Slam tournament singles title at the Australian Open in January.
Germany coach Joachim Loew hailed his young team's "magnificent" display in a 4-1 World Cup second-round demolition of England on Sunday before explaining exactly how they targeted a suspect English rearguard.
British slalom canoeist Fiona Pennie is leaving nothing to chance at this year's Rio Olympics where she will fit a mosquito net to her boat between races to minimise the threat of the Zika virus.
Karun Chandhok will test with GP2 teams in Abu Dhabi this weekend while still hoping for a return to Formula One next year in time for his country's first Grand Prix.
Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo failed to heed his father's warnings on Friday when he was sent off for recklessly stamping on Arjen Robben in their 2-1 World Cup quarter-final defeat by Netherlands.
