India's Olympic aspirations failed to blossom in the face of personal egos of star tennis players even as the legend of Sania Mirza continued to grow and an ageless Leander Paes basked in personal glory in 2016.
Jana Novotna was a true winner but it was the misfortune of the brilliant Czech, who died on Monday aged 49, to always be recalled for one of sport's most famous and heart-rending meltdowns despite her collection of 100 tennis titles.
Rohan Bopanna, along with his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, crashed out of the quarter-finals of the men's doubles at the US Open. The Indo-Romanian combine, semi-finalists at Wimbledon this year, lost 6-7 (2), 3-6 to Dominic Inglot of Great Britain and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.
India's doubles tennis ace Mahesh Bhupathi on Sunday said 2013 will be his last year on tour as he has retirement in mind.
Following his maiden appearance at the US Open, Saketh Myneni achieved a career-high rank of 137 in singles in the latest list, issued by the ATP.
Rohan Bopanna's campaign at the last Grand Slam of the season ended with defeat in the mixed doubles along with Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrwoski while India's juniors also fizzled out in the singles in the US Open in New York.
World No 1 Novak Djokovic and defending champion Andy Murray produced contrasting performances to secure their berths in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Masters on Thursday.
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.
Sania Mirza has enjoyed a dream run in the history Indian tennis this year. With two Grand Slam titles, 10 ATP crowns, in the WTA rankings, the Hyderabadi star continues to be World No 1.
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza received a confidence booster ahead of the US Open Grand Slam tournament beginning, on Monday, with a doubles title victory at the Connecticut Open with Monica Niculescu of Romania, in New Haven, USA.
Indian tennis ace Leander Paes is set to partner Spanish legend Rafael Nadal in the men's doubles event at the 3,288,530 euro Paris Masters to be played on the indoor hard courts of the Palais Omnisports in Bercy next week.
She has always found her stupendous success on court go hand-in-hand with controversies off it and that is precisely the reason why Sania Mirza is hardly bothered about what a few people have to say about her.
The 15-year-old's popularity has soared off the charts in a memorable week at the All England Club, with organisers also recognising her potential to grab attention and giving her a Centre Court match-up in the third round.
Rediff.com takes a look at players who tested positive for use of banned substances over the years.
Switzerland's Belinda Bencic became the first teenager in seven years to reach the top 10 of the WTA rankings after she climbed to ninth in the world on Monday.
Multiple Grand Slam winner Sania Mirza is only 29 but the iconic sportswomen has put together the story of beating incredible odds to get to the top of the tennis world in a new book. Sania, who turned an instant sensation after she won the Wimbledon Championships girls' doubles title at the age of 16 and went on to register 41 consecutive wins with her doubles partner Martina Hingis, talks about her journey and its hardships to become the Tennis World Number One.
Indian tennis stars Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna made a rampaging start to their campaign at US Open as they advanced to the second round of the US Open along with their respective partners after notching up contrasting wins at Flushing Meadows, in New York.
For all their success together, the red dirt isn't Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis' most favourite surface.
Indo-Australian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Nick Kyrgios failed to cross the opening hurdle of the men's doubles event, suffering a straight-set defeat against Lucas Pouille and Thanasi Kokkinakis in the French Open.
Rediff.com recaptures these and other exciting sporting moments from the week gone by....
Sania Mirza officially became the first Indian woman tennis player to be ranked World No 1.
Capping off a great day for India, Sania Mirza advanced to the third round of both the women's and mixed doubles events, while Rohan Bopanna and Purav Raja also won their respective mixed doubles matches at the Wimbledon in London.
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.
Her doubles partner, Bethanie-Mattek Sands now wears the 'Miss World No.1 crown'
The 42-year-old Leander Paes's dream of appearing in a record seventh Olympics may remain just that if Rohan Bopanna decides to play with a player ranked lower than the world No 46.
Following is a list of Serena Williams' 23 grand slam singles titles after the American surpassed Steffi Graf's professional era record with victory at the Australian Open on Saturday:
Leander Paes... Sania Mirza... Pankaj Advani.. Saina Nehwal... Ravichandran Ashwin... Anirban Lahiri... Vijender Singh... Who is India's Sportsperson of 2015?
Impressive wins by world number six Agnieszka Radwanska and seasoned Marcos Baghdatis paved the way for Pune Marathas's close 26-25 victory over Hyderabad Aces in the Champions Tennis League (CTL) at the LB Stadium on Tuesday.
Rediff.com gives you a flashback of these events in pictures snapped right here...
Indian tennis star Leander Paes feels blessed to have such a long career, having won 18 Grand Slam doubles titles and accumulated close to 1000 racquets.
Rohan Bopanna gained three places to be world number 21, and is now country's top ranked player in the ATP doubles chart.
Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli will play in the Kolkata Open next month.
Following is a list of biggest shocks in women's tennis after Italian outsider Roberta Vinci, ranked 43rd, beat world number one Serena Williams in the US Open semi-finals on Friday to deny the American a chance to complete a calendar year Grand Slam.
India's Sania Mirza and her partner Cara Black of Zimbabwe could not make it to the US Open women's doubles finals after going down in straight sets to Swiss-Italian pair of Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta at the Flushing Meadows.
Sania Mirza has lent her support to the cause of animal welfare, calling for adoption of homeless dogs and cats.
Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna's challenge at the Australian Open ended, on Wednesday, with a shock defeat in the mixed doubles quarterfinals with partner Yung-Jan Chan.
Leander Paes has experimented with 100 different players.
Having annoyed Nadal with an underarm serve at Acapulco, Nick Kyrgios doubled down with the tactic to win two points against hapless Serb Dusan Lajovic at the Miami Open and fire up a timeworn debate between modern fans and purists.
India's Sania Mirza put herself in contention for a seventh Grand Slam title as she breezed into the Australian Open mixed doubles final with Ivan Dodig, beating local favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth in Melbourne on Friday.