Mark Cavendish strengthened his grip on the Tour de France sprints when he won the 11th stage Wednesday to equal Barry Hoban's British record of eight victories in the world's greatest race.
European champions Spain beat Belgium 2-1 while England overcame Belarus 3-1 to maintain their undefeated record in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
Michael Owen was overlooked again on Sunday when England coach Fabio Capello named his squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Belarus. Portsmouth forward Peter Crouch and Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips return to the squad for the Group Six fixtures after good form for their clubs.
A tortured and tormented Venus Williams whimpered out of the French Open on Friday while a Portuguese teenage upstart made a very noisy departure. Four-times champion Nadal barely broke into a sweat as he overcame potential banana skin Lleyton Hewitt to extend his Paris record to 31-0.
Holder Ana Ivanovic underlined her credentials for a second French Open title with a 6-0, 6-2 demolition of Czech Iveta Benesova in the third round on Friday. The Serbian eighth seed needed just over an hour to set up a meeting with either ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded 22nd.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said striker Diego Costa will start against Liverpool in the Premier League at Anfield on Saturday despite being left out of the Spain squad for this month's international matches because of persistent injuries.
Sania Mirza and her partner Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei have upset second seeded Spanish pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual to enter the women's doubles quarterfinal of the Madrid Open event.
India will fight it out with South Africa to re-claim a berth in the Davis Cup World Group in an away play-off tie in September. India advanced to the play-off stage after Australia forfeited the Asia/Oceania Group I tie, to be held in Chennai, due to security concerns.
The 2021 men's and women's U-17 European Championships have been cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, UEFA said on Friday.
It was mixed fortunes for Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna in the men's doubles at the Wimbledon on Monday.
Olympian Sumit Sangwan (81kg) and Vikash Malik (60kg) fought through intense bouts to enter the pre-quarterfinals but Mandeep Jangra (69kg) bowed out after a stiff second-round contest on a mixed day for India in the World Boxing Championships in Almaty on Sunday.
Americans Bob and Mike Bryan beat Max Mirnyi and Andy Ram 7-6, 6-3 on Sunday to win the doubles title at the ATP World Tour Finals and regain the end-of-season number one ranking.
Belarus midfielder Aleksandr Hleb signed a four-year contract with Barcelona to complete his move from Arsenal, the Spanish Primera Liga club said on Wednesday. The 27-year-old, a long-term target for Barcelona, flew to Spain on Wednesday to take his medical, arriving just after the club had agreed to sell Brazilian Ronaldinho to AC Milan.
Champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Russian Vera Zvonareva completed crushing victories on Friday to set up a title clash in the final of the WTA event at Indian Wells. Top seed Ivanovic pummelled 17-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavyluchenkova 6-2, 6-3 in the evening semi-final after fourth-seeded Zvonareva had swept aside her doubles partner Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 6-3.
A thrilling draw away to Salzburg enabled Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade to reach the Champions League group stage for the first time where they will be joined by Portugal's Benfica and Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. Red Star, who won the European Cup in 1991, came back from two goals down in an electrifying second leg in Austria to draw 2-2 and go through on away goals.
England defender Rio Ferdinand said the national team set-up was like a circus until the arrival of Italian Fabio Capello as manager.
Thirty-two countries, ranging from Finland and Sweden to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Macedonia and Kazakhstan, have declared interest in hosting matches at Euro 2020 which will be staged across the continent.
Jelena Jankovic won a fierce scrap with Venus Williams 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to set up a Stuttgart Grand Prix final against Nadia Petrova. Unseeded Russian Petrova's 6-4, 6-4 victory over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the opening semi-final was straightforward by comparison.
What happened on Day 3 of the French Open was more surprising. Two of the top five seeded women exited.
Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza posted first-round victories on opening day of the US Open to become the first man and woman from India to reach the second round of the same grand slam event.
Netherlands' dream run in the Fed Cup ended agonisingly short of the final when they lost the deciding doubles rubber of a thrilling semi-final against France in Trelaze.
Russia's Nadia Petrova muscled her way into the final of the Stuttgart Grand Prix with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus on Saturday.
'Washington senses that the anchor sheet of India's strategic autonomy lies in its longstanding partnership with Russia, which remains firm and immutable despite the changes in world politics in the post-Cold War era,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.<
Newcomers BATE Borisov got away lightly with a 2-0 defeat against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in their Champions League debut in Group H on Wednesday. Sergio Ramos gave the nine-times European champions an early lead and they threatened an avalanche of goals but BATE held firm until early in the second half. Ruud van Nistelrooy doubled the advantage with his 54th goal in the competition.
It was a repeat of the 34-year-old's straight sets victory over Andy Murray in the second round of the US Open in August.
Second seed Jelena Jankovic came through another bruising battle at the U.S. Open on Friday, edging past Zheng Jie 7-5 7-5 to reach the fourth round. The Serbian, chasing her first grand slam title, scrambled into the last 16 after two hours nine minutes and will meet 14th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or Caroline Wozniacki, the Danish 21st seed.
The seventh seeds beat Tatiana Poutchek and Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 to enter the doubles quarterfinals at Indian Wells.
The Indian bounced back to joint lead after splitting a point with Eduard Gorovykh of Russia in the ninth round.
Former world number one Lindsay Davenport claimed her 55th career title by cruising to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over teenager Olga Govortsova of Belarus in the Memphis Championship on Saturday. The 31-year-old fourth seed needed just 60 minutes to beat the fifth-seeded Govortsova in their first career meeting.
Sushil struggled at the Jakarta Asian Games leading to questions on whether he was good enough to go any further at 36.
Top ranked women's doubles pair Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza had their 41-match winning streak halted on Thursday after they were beaten in the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open.
Top-seeded Serb Ana Ivanovic withdrew from the Qatar Open on Thursday after injuring her left ankle beating Olga Govortsova of Belarus the previous day.
Israel's Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram won their first grand slam title with a 7-5, 7-6 victory over Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in the Australian Open men's doubles final on Saturday.
Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko came from a set down to win their first women's doubles title at the Australian Open.
Maria Sharapova became a goodwill ambassador for the UN Development Fund and donated $100,000 to the Chernobyl victims.
Spain's Garbine Muguruza successfully defended her Monterrey Open title on Sunday when Victoria Azarenka retired injured from her first WTA singles final in three years.
World champions Italy were drawn against Bulgaria and England were up against Croatia, who knocked them out of the Euro 2008 tournament, following the draw for 2010 World Cup qualifying made in Durban on Sunday
As the curtains fall on another year, Rediff.com brings you all the action from the sports field that defined 2019.
In the crucial ninth game Suarez Navarro seemingly held but Sabalenka challenged an ace at 40-15 and won the discussion.
Serena, a six-times champion in New York who is seeded 17th, will start her campaign against Polish world number 60 Magda Linette and could face Venus in the third round before a possible fourth-round showdown with Romanian top seed Halep.
