World number one Simona Halep swatted aside American Nicole Gibbs while Maria Sharapova was flawless in her straight sets victory over Romania's Mihaela Buzarnescu in the opening round of the Shenzhen Open on Monday.
Serbia's Aleksandra Krunic added her name to a list of anonymous figures to emerge from the Flushing Meadows shadows and step into the US Open spotlight with a shock 6-4, 6-4 win over Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova on Saturday.
Karolina Pliskova lost her cool over a line call and bashed a hole into the umpire's chair with her racket after suffering a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat by Maria Sakkari in the Italian Open second round on Wednesday.
The Serena Williams show continued at the US Open as the world number one moved a step closer to a calendar Grand Slam on Wednesday, while Mardy Fish took a final Flushing Meadows bow as the curtain came down on the American's career.
The Australian Open has seen many unheralded players punching above their weight. Rediff.com takes a look at a few such unseeded players who went the distance in the new millennium.
Nadal, who got a first-round bye, defeated Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-4 to advance.
Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska's title defence at the Sydney International lasted just 92 minutes when she was dumped out of the second round by Bethanie Mattek-Sands on Tuesday.
Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Andy Murray were the big names to win on Monday and advance to the quarter-final of the Wimbledon.
India's Leander Paes and his German partner Alexander Zverev went down to the Spanish duo of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez in a men's doubles first round match to bow out of the Cincinnati Open.
Maria Sharapova's contentious and captivating US Open run came to an end on Sunday when Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova beat her 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the Flushing Meadows quarter-finals.
Croatian ninth seed Marin Cilic reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the third year running after Kei Nishikori quit with a rib injury midway through their fourth round match on Monday.
Images from matches played on Day 4 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Thursday
Former world number one Andy Murray withdrew from the Brisbane International with a hip problem on Tuesday, further putting in doubt the Briton's prospects of being fit in time for the Australian Open later this month.
Dani Alves has blamed the media for Brazil's unsuccessful World Cup campaign but conceded that the team did not prepare properly ahead of the humiliating 7-1 defeat by Germany in the semi-final.
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