Naomi Osaka ended Victoria Azarenka's dream run to claim her second US Open title in three years with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 comeback win on Saturday which cemented her status as the sport's leading light both on and off the court.
Victoria Azarenka will carry her World No 1 ranking with pride in the defence of her Australian Open title, but knows she faces a grim task preventing Serena Williams seizing both.
Australian Open champion and top seed Victoria Azarenka recovered from a sluggish start to beat Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-1 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Saturday.
American Serena Williams reached the semi-finals at the WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul on Thursday with what is fast becoming a routine defeat of World No 1 Victoria Azarenka.
World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova stayed on track for a mouth-watering showdown in the final of the Indian Wells WTA tournament while defending champion Caroline Wozniacki was beaten by Ana Ivanovic on Tuesday.
Images from Day 9 of the 2021 US Open in New York on Wednesday.
The Indian pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza were down 5-7, 2-3 in their mixed doubles tennis quarter-final against the Belarusian pair of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka when play was suspended for the day because of bad light.
American Michelle Carter stunned champion Valerie Adams with a throw of 20.63 meters on her final attempt to win Olympic shot put gold and deny the New Zealander a third successive title on Friday.
A number of football leagues around the globe will resume after the COVID-19 stoppage in the coming weeks but the matches will be played without fans.
Top seed Victoria Azarenka charged ominously into the fourth round of the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Sunday while third-seeded Petra Kvitova made an unexpected early exit.
India's Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina of Russia fought their way to the mixed doubles semi-finals of the French Open with a thrilling 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 victory over Max Mirnyi of Belarus and American Liezel Huber.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna sealed a place in the semi-finals at the ATP World Tour Finals after getting the better of the second-ranked Belarusian-Canadian pair of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor at the O2 Arena in London on Friday. In a tense Group B match that could have gone either way, the world No 5 Indian duo prevailed 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 10-5 in an hour and 55 minutes.
Former world number one Victoria Azarenka took advantage of an error-prone display by Serena Williams to win her second BNP Paribas Open title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the final at Indian Wells in California.
IMAGES from Australian Open matches played at Melbourne Park on Friday
Victoria Azarenka became the first Belarusian to win a Grand Slam singles title when she claimed the Australian Open title with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Russia's Maria Sharapova on Saturday.
World number one Victoria Azarenka's 26-match winning streak finally came to an end on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to France's Marion Bartoli at the Sony Ericsson Open.
World number one Victoria Azarenka stretched her unbeaten run to 24 matches this year while Venus Williams ousted Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Friday.
Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has played down this weekend's 'clasico' match at Real Madrid by saying a European Union summit meeting on Friday and moves to save the Euro were much more significant.
A summary of Wednesday's action at the US Open.
Fourth seed Maria Sharapova overcame a second set rally by Petra Kvitova to advance to her third Australian Open final with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory on Thursday. She will now meet third seed Victoria Azarenka in the final on Saturday after the Belarusian earlier beat 2011 champion Kim Clijsters 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina advanced to mixed doubles quarter-finals of the Wimbledon championships after quelling a late challenge from Eric Butorac and Olga Govortsova in London on Wednesday.
Images from Day 4 of the 2021 French Open in Paris on Wednesday.
Both will play their second-round singles matches on Thursday.
The fluorescent yellow outfit Victoria Azarenka wore as she dismantled Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open on Thursday was a one-word fashion statement -- loud.
Serena Williams was forced to dig deep to secure a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 US Open quarter-final victory over unseeded Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova on Wednesday, keeping alive her latest bid for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam singles title.
The Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the ATP Madrid Masters after getting a first-round bye.
Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi are one step away from winning their third ATP title of the season as they stormed into the final of the Paris Masters after edging past Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor, in Paris, on Saturday.
Wimbledon's Centre Court crowd is famed for its lowest common denominator sense of humour but they were fully justified in giggling their way through Victoria Azarenka's third-round win over Daniela Hantuchova on Friday.
Asian Games gold medallist long distance runner Preeja Sreedharan, who is yet to secure a berth for next year's Olympics, on Saturday said that the exit of Belarusian coach Nikolai Snesarev affected her performance.
Johnson to meet Medvedev in Winston-Salem final
Visitors Ajax had looked comfortable after former Southampton winger Tadic set up the first goal with a swerving cross before drilling home the second himself.
The 30-year-old Indian shuttler had an impressive run in the $75,000 BWF Tour Super 100 tournament before caving in tamely 14-21, 10-21 to Shesar in 28 minutes.
Adding to the joy of India's World Cup triumph, tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second title of the season by clinching the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to become number one in the ATP World Tour Doubles Team Rankings.
Two-times Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka advanced to the US Open final for the second time in her career with a 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-3 victory over big-hitting Jennifer Brady.
World Number one Simona Halep and Japan's Naomi Osaka are among the players nominated for the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Player of the Year award.
Striving hard to secure a place in the season-ending World Tour Finals, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna have got a first round bye in the Paris Masters event along with their respective partners.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi stunned top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Oliver Marach in straight sets to storm into the doubles final of the Valencia Open.
Canada's Milos Raonic pounded 17 aces to end the winning run of second seeded and Commonwealth gold medallist Somdev Devvarman and create the biggest upset of the day in the $1,25,000 Tashkent Challenger, on Thursday. The 155-ranked Raonic beat the 95th ranked Somdev 6-4, 7-6(3) in an hour and 18 minutes.
Forgot what happened in the week gone by? Here's a quick recap of what took place in 10 images.
Images from Day 8 of the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros in Paris on Sunday
