World number one Dinara Safina was upset 7-5, 7-6 by local wild card Zhang Shuai in the second round of the $6.6 million China Open on Monday, leaving Serena Williams one victory away from reclaiming top spot in the rankings. Serena's sister Venus, the world number three, also had a bad day, losing to Russian teenager Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova for the second week in a row, this time 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.
IMAGES from Day 6 of the French Open, at Roland Garros, on Friday.
Since that moment, Maria Sharapova has looked virtually unbeatable
India woman's tennis ace, Sania Mirza continues to hold on to her be world number one ranking in doubles, thanks to her consistent performance.
India's tennis star Sania Mirza retained her numero uno status in women's doubles for the second consecutive year, despite failing to defend the WTA Finals Singapore title with partner Martina Hingis. Defending champions Sania and Hingis had lost to Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals Singapore on Saturday.
Germany's Angelique Kerber came from a set down to outmuscle Caroline Wozniacki 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Her doubles partner, Bethanie-Mattek Sands now wears the 'Miss World No.1 crown'
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.
Andrea Petkovic battled back to advance to the semi-finals at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday while Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka upset yet another seed with a victory over Sara Errani.
The Safin siblings surged through the Australian Open draw on Wednesday, women's third seed Dinara and men's former world No 1 Marat sliding into round three. Big brother Safin set up a mouth-watering showdown with second seed Roger Federer after he crushed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 6-2, 6-2, while Safina, chasing her maiden Grand Slam title, beat fellow-Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-7, 6-3, 6-0. Federer scored a 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 victory over Russia's Evgeny Korolev.
World number one Angelique Kerber is out to find a love for clay in Paris on the French Open courts, with the out-of-form German traditionally struggling on this surface.
In the women's draw, defending champion Garbine Muguruza will play 2010 French Open winner Francesca Schiavone
PV Sindhu will open her campaign against South Korea's Sung Ji Hyun, while Saina Nehwal takes on Scotland's Kristy Gilmour in the first round.
Saina Nehwal and reigning champion Sameer Verma were a step away from clinching the men's and women's singles titles respectively
Former tennis World No 1 Maria Sharapova will be holding a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday to make "a major announcement", though no other details were given by her manager on Sunday.
Six-time champion M C Mary Kom (51kg) was beaten by Turkey's Busenaz Cakiroglu in the semi-finals and had to settle for a bronze medal in the World Women's Boxing Championships, in Ulan-Ude, on Saturday.
Serena Williams beat France's Mathilde Johansson 6-2, 7-5 while Andy Murray disposed clay-specialist Jose Acasuso 6-4, 6-0, 6-4.
Sania Mirza lost in the first round of her doubles match on Wednesday.
World number one Novak Djokovic blasted past qualifier Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 6-2 to reach the second round of the Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo.
India's Sunitha Rao bowed out of the $ 170,000 WTA Pattaya Open in Thailand, going down in straight sets to Russian Ekaterina Bychkova in the second round on Thursday.
Serena Williams and friend Caroline Wozniacki arranged a get-together in the US Open women's final, winning their Friday semi-finals in contrasting fashion on a stifling hot, humid day at Flushing Meadows.
Top-seeded world number one Williams overpowered Russian left-hander Ekaterina Makarova 6-1 ,6-3, unleashing her daunting firepower against the 17th-seeded Russian. Wozniacki advanced when China's Peng Shuai broke down in scary distress due to heat illness and retired in the second set, while trailing 7-6(1), 4-3.
She beat Russian Ekaterina Afinogenova of Russia to enter the last four of the ITF World Ranking Tennis tournament.
Sania Mirza and Anabel Medina Garrigues beat Ekaterina Bychkova and Martina Muller 6-3, 6-4 in the second round.
When you are born with six toes on each foot like Indian heptathlete Swapna Barman, you cannot help being fussy about your footwear.
'The toughest is what's to come. I hope that I'll be able to take that and play even better'
Williams had little trouble against the 31-year-old German although the gusty breezes at Auckland Tennis Centre played havoc with her ball toss, especially when she was serving for the match at 5-3 in the second set.
Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis won their first ever title on red clay, capturing the Internazionali BNL d'Italia trophy.
He leads the men's seedings ahead of defending champ Roger Federer, with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov seeded third.
The defending women's champion was dumped out of the U.S. Open by fellow-Russian Ekaterina Bychkova.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated tennis star Sania Mirza for becoming the first Indian to win the Wimbledon women's doubles title.
A profligate P V Sindhu was, on Wednesday, knocked out of the All England Championship by an industrious Sung Ji Hyun of Korea in the women's singles opening round in Birmingham.
Grandmaster Koneru Humpy beat Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia in the second game to push the match into tie-breaker.
The 18-year-old Indian drew with top seeded Grandmaster Ferenc Berkes of Hungary in the final round to emerge champion.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
The Bulgarian drew the third game of the final match against Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia to lift the World Women's Chess Championship.
The Bulgarian GM won the first game of the women's World Chess Championship final against Ekaterina Kovalevskaya of Russia.
Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova stunned top seed Agniezka Radwanska and then trounced Monica Puig to reach the Aegon International at Eastbourne on Friday.
Sania Mirza and Jie Zheng moved into the semi-finals of the women's doubles with a straight sets win over Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng.
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