Sharapova's quarter-final defeat by Williams at the 2016 Australian Open was the last competitive match the Russian played for 15 months after she received a doping ban while American Williams was on a maternity break for most of 2017.
Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea scraped past Colombian duo of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in a tough three setter to reach the men's doubles quarterfinals of the Paris Masters on Thursday.
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis of Switzerland stormed into the semi-finals of the Rome Masters with a straight-set victory over Julia Goerges and Silvia Soler-Espinosa on Thursday.
Raul Oaida from Bucharest used his pocket money to build the first-of-its-kind engine in three years.
Holders Portugal must face Ukraine and Serbia in a tricky five-team Group B while world champions France drew Iceland and Turkey in Group H. The top two teams from each group qualify automatically. Unlike previous tournaments, the playoffs to decide the four other spots will be contested between the most successful teams from the four divisions of the Nations League who have not already qualified.
Germany's Angelique Kerber breezed past American Madison Keys in straight sets to enter the Australian Open semi-finals in Melbourne on Wednesday. The 2016 champion easily won 6-1, 6-2 in just 51 minutes.
IMAGES from the US Open matches played on Day 1 at the Flushing Meadows in New York on Monday.
Sania Mirza and Liezel Huber were made to work hard by Darija Jurak and Heather Watson before making the quarter-finals in the WTA Aegon International, in Eastbourne, on Tuesday.
India's Sania Mirza and her Swedish partner Robert Lindstedt lost in the first round of the mixed doubles at the French Open, suffering a shocking straight-set defeat at the hands of Cara Black and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, in Paris on Friday. The top seeded Indo-Swede combination was no match for their unseeded opponents and lost 2-6, 3-6 in a little under an hour.
Former US Open champion Del Potro fired down 11 aces and did not face a break point during the one hour, 33 minutes match.
The world number one has shrugged off jet-lag and is relishing Switzerland's Davis Cup clash against Romania.
Images from Day 1 of the French Open matches played at Roland Garros on Sunday
A round-up of Saturday's Euro 2020 qualification matches.
Police intervened to halt skirmishes involving British soccer fans and locals in the port city of Marseille overnight, just hours before the Euro 2016 championship opens in France.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea had to be content with a runners-up finish at the ATP Apia International after losing the summit clash to Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray in Sydney.
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were named men's and women's world champions for 2015 by the International Tennis Federation on Tuesday. The Serb ended the year as men's world number one for the fourth time after taking three majors - the Australian, Wimbledon and US Open, as well as finishing runner-up to Stan Wawrinka in the French. Williams also narrowly missed a calendar-year grand slam, winning the Australian, French and Wimbledon and reaching semi-final at US Open.
Spain's World No 5 Rafael Nadal has been ruled out of opening singles rubber against India in their Davis Cup World Group play-off in New Delhi on Friday.
Veteran Mahesh Bhupathi entered the men's doubles third round but it turned out to be a bitter-sweet outing for Rohan Bopanna at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Saturday.
Venus Williams said her sister Serena was a fighter and was determined to play on at the Australian Open, despite rolling her ankle in the first round, reports AFP.
India's Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea failed to cross the final hurdle at this year's Madrid Masters.
World No 3 Simona Halep turned up the aggression and rallied for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Carla Suarez.
Romanian fifth seed Simona Halep advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open with a 6-3 6-4 win over Lucie Safarova on Thursday in the first full match played under a closed roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The $150 million retractable roof was installed ahead of this year's tournament and guaranteed there would be at least some action on a muggy and overcast Day Four at the year's final grand slam.
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams were named men's and women's world champions for 2015 by the International Tennis Federation.
Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau waltzed into the mixed doubles final of the Australian Open after beating Australian duo Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden 2-6, 6-3, 10-2 at Melbourne Park on Friday.
Hima Das scripted history on Thursday by becoming the first Indian woman to win gold at the IAAF World Under-20 Athletics Championships. The 18-year-old, a pre-event favourite, won the women's 400 metres final on the third day of competition in Tempere, Finland, clocking 51.46 seconds.
The world champions now have 19 points while Poland, 8-1 winners over Gibraltar, are on 17.
Images from Day 8 of the 2021 French Open at Roland Garros in Paris on Sunday
India endured a medal-less outing at the Youth Olympics after the gold rush of the previous three days as the women's hockey team lost to Argentina and rising table tennis player Archana Kamath went down in the bronze medal match in Buenos Aires.
Images from Day 1 of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, on Monday.
The Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan upstaged the 15th-seeded Austrian-Croat combo of Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic to enter the men's doubles pre- quarterfinals of the French Open.
With last year's French Open, her first Grand Slam title, under her belt, Simona Halep decided that 2019 would be "a chill year". Then, on Saturday, she stepped on to Wimbledon's Centre Court and obliterated the great Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2 in 56 minutes to win the final.
Awesome images from the world of Sport 2018.
Seven years ago, Ravishankar Venkateswaran heard a story during a bus ride.
The Indo-Romanian pair won 6-3, 6-7(6), 10-7 over the second seeded Polish-Serbian combination win in the super tie-breaker in a battle that lasted just over one hour.
Brazil's Sarah Menezes took gold in the women's 48kg category on Saturday, defeating reigning Olympic champion Romania's Alina Dumitru.
Tennis already sets the bar with equal prize money paid to women and men at Grand Slam tournaments
Rediff.com encapsulates all the excitement through these breathtaking visuals from the Dakar Rally.
The United States survived a fright from little Latvia on Saturday before winning 3-2 in a Fed Cup qualifier as Serena Williams suffered her first career singles loss in the team event. Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, Russia and Belarus also moved through to the inaugural 12-nation showdown in Budapest.
The fourth-seeded Indo-Canadian pair got the better of second seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Romania's Horea Tecau 4-6, 7-6(9), 11-9 in a close semi-final.
