Indian tennis stars Leander Paes and Sania Mirza cruised into the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the French Open along with their respective partners in Paris on Thursday. While Paes and his Swiss Partner Martina Hingis, winners of three Grand Slam titles last season, beat German-Colombian pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah 6-4 6-4 in the opening round, second seeded Sania and Ivan Dodig of Croatia eased past French duo of Mathilde Johansson and Tristan Lamasine 6-4 6-3 in their opener later in the day. However, it was curtains for another Indian Purav Raja, who, along with Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, crashed out in the opening round of the men's doubles event. The duo lost 1-6 2-6 against ninth seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Alexander Peya.
Factbox on American Serena Williams, who plays sister Venus in the final of the Australian Open on Saturday.
Images from Day 1 of the 2020 French Open in Paris on Sunday.
Photos of the French Open women's final game between Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep
Five teenagers ended last year inside the world's top 50, led by number 12 Sloane Stephens, and the sight of 16-year-old Belinda Bencic pushing world number four Li Na hard at the Australian Open suggests big things for her future.
Rediff.com recaptures these and other exciting sporting moments from the week gone by....
World number one Serena Williams shows no sign of slowing down with age and should win more than 20 Grand Slam singles titles, former great Martina Navratilova has said.
Tattoo artists have reported a rapid increase in the number of women getting full-sleeve tattoos and dramatic thigh and calf designs.
Switzerland's former world number one Martina Hingis said her renewed hunger for competition inspired her forthcoming comeback in doubles but she has no plans to return in singles.
The Swiss outclassed American Lisa Raymond 6-2, 6-2 to reach the second round of the French Open.
Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna, who will represent India at the Rio Olympics as a team, may clash against each other at the Wimbledon pre-quarterfinals as they have been drawn in the top half of the draw at the men's doubles event. Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded sixth, open their campaign against Croatian pair of Marin Draganja and Nikola Mektic.
Veteran tennis star Leander Paes and his partner Martina Hingis, who won the Australian Open mixed doubles title last month, met India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday.
The 27-year-old Annu sent the iron spear to a distance of 62.43m in her second round throw, bettering her earlier national record of 62.34m, which she achieved in March, to book a place for Tuesday's final.
Indian captain Sania Mirza led from the front as the hosts registered a 2-1 victory over Philippines.
Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea breezed into the pre-quarter-finals of the men's doubles at the Australian Open, beating Lukas Dlouhy and Jiri Vesely, on Friday.
Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig held their nerves and saved two match points against Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski before pulling off a tense win to seal a place in the mixed doubles semi-finals of the Australian Open, in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Roger Federer's career-long association with Nike appeared to be over on Monday as the Wimbledon champion walked on to Centre Court to open the defence of his title wearing a Uniqlo branded outfit.
India's tennis star Leander Paes and his partner Jeremy Chardy suffered a straight-set loss in the opening round of men's doubles at the USD 404,780 Sydney International on Monday. Paes and his men's doubles partner Jeremy Chardy of France lost 4-6, 4-6 in an hour and eight minutes to Brazilian-Canadian third seeds Marcelo Melo and Daniel Nestor on Court No.3 of the NSW Tennis Centre
India's Sania Mirza continued to stay on top of the WTA women's doubles ranking following her recent victory in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.
Swiss former World No. 1 Martina Hingis, a winner of five Grand Slam singles titles, headlined the International Tennis Hall of Fame's list of inductees for the 2013 class.
Hingis bids farewell with doubles defeat in Singapore
Day 12 of the French Open witnessed the unveiling of a brand new pink clay court. The women's legends doubles semi-final match between American Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna of Czech Republic and Nathalie Tauziat and Sandrine Testud of France was the first match to be played on the freshly-laid surface.
Veteran basketball player Jason Collins announced on Monday that he was gay. He was quickly enveloped in a wave of support from the White House to tennis player Martina Navratilova, a pioneer for gay athletes in sport.
Spaniards Rafael Nadal and Garbine Muguruza were named as the International Tennis Federation (ITF) world champions on Friday - the first time in 19 years the awards have gone to players from the same country.
India's Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna progressed with their respective partners but Leander Paes' campaign ended after the veteran suffered a second-round defeat with Martina Hingis in the mixed doubles at the US Open.
Leander Paes, named a reserve in India's Davis Cup team for the Uzbekistan tie, is in line to win his first title of the season, albeit on the Challenger Tour, with Canadian partner Adil Shamasdin.
Serena Williams is third on the list of female Grand Slam title winners. She is one of only five women, after Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf, to hold all four Grand Slam titles at same time.
Two matches. Two full houses. Two losses. Martina Hingis proved she could still put backsides on seats in her return to the U.S. Open on Friday, even if her service game recalled more the struggles of the past than the triumphs.
Tennis ace Sania Mirza wins the Khel Ratna award. Last week, the Sports Ministry confirmed that Wimbledon doubles champion Sania Mirza had been recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna.
Playing with new partner Casey Dellacqua in the absence of Martina Hingis, India's Sania Mirza crashed out of the WTA Aegon Classic following a straight set defeat in Birmingham.
World No. 1 Serena Williams fought back from a set down to beat Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 and win the Sony Open for a record sixth time on Saturday as she continued her dominance over her closest rival.
Tennis stars descended on Kolkata when a prelude to the Indian Premier Tennis League had legends like Martina Navratilova, Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi play in the Tennis Masters on Tuesday.
Serena Williams is already assured a place in tennis history but her coach believes the 16-time Grand Slam champion will soon embroider her status among the greats.
Sania Mirza has expressed that she felt ' honoured' and ' humbled' after being conferred with India's third highest civilian honour, Padma Bhushan for her contribution in the sport of tennis.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Summary of all sports events and persons that made news on Thursday.
Veteran basketball player Jason Collins announced on Monday that he was gay, smashing through one of the final frontiers in US sports with a frank personal statement and winning warm praise as a groundbreaker.
It's a TV commercial that has gone viral in Pakistan and that's all thanks to Sania Mirza and Shoaib Akhtar.
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