Victory eluded Viswanathan Anand yet again and the World Champion was held to a draw by Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the seventh round to remain joint second in the fourth Final Masters' second leg, in Bilbao, Spain.
Having dug in early on to stay with Federer, Nishikori ended up running away with the match to inflict a first straight sets defeat in the ATP Finals round-robin stages on the 20-time Grand Slam champion.
India's chances of advancing to the final suffered a blow after they went down 1-2 to defending champions New Zealand in their penultimate round-robin league match of the 25th Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at Ipoh in Malaysia. Goals from Ken Russell (28th minute) and Nick Wilson (41st) clinched victory for defending champions New Zealand, who managed to weather the hot and humid conditions better than the Indians, whose only goal came from Mandeep Singh in the 36th minute. Wilson's match-winner resulted from a defensive error committed by the Indians as they failed to clear the ball properly in their own striking circle. New Zealand benefitted from the loose ball in the Indian circle in the 41st minute, when a reverse shot from the goal-line was padded by the Indian goalkeeper and deflected to the middle. Defender Harmanpreet failed to connect in his reflex attempt to push the ball out and Wilson had the easiest task of shooting into the goal for what turned out to be the match-winner for the Black Sticks
With professional tennis tours closed down until mid July at the earliest because of the coronavirus pandemic, an esports version of the claycourt event is being staged online. Nadal showed impressive fingerwork to beat young Canadian Denis Shapovalov in his opening round-robin match on a digital representation of the Spanish capital's Manolo Santana Stadium.
Indian cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar feels BCCI president Sourav Ganguly should initiate a revamp of the Duleep Trophy as players competing in the event seem more focussed on individual performances than their teams.
Caroline Wozniacki overcame a mid-match wobble and withstood a barrage of big hitting to get her WTA Finals title defence back on track with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Petra Kvitova at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Canada's dream of playing in the London Games came to a screeching halt on Friday as France held them to a 1-1 draw in their must-win last round-robin match of the men's Olympics hockey qualifier in Delhi.
Australia's new squad member Peter Handscomb will be thrust into the cauldron of Thursday's World Cup semi-final against England as replacement for Usman Khawaja, coach Justin Langer has said. Langer also confirmed that all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had passed a fitness test and was ready for Edgbaston while refusing to guarantee the mercurial Glenn Maxwell a place in the team.
India earned the opportunity to get promotion to Asia/Oceania Group I of the Fed Cup after qualifying for the play-off tie, following a 2-1 win over Phillipines in the last round-robin tie in Shenzhen on Friday.
It was on move 21 that Giri thought he was out of trouble and proposed a draw.
Australia captain Aaron Finch is relishing a "blockbuster" Cricket World Cup semi-final against England at Edgbaston on Thursday but injury concerns threaten to derail the plans of the defending champions.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Wang Yue of China in the first round of Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess tournament on Wednesday.
Skipper Saba Anjum led from the front, scoring three goals, as India thrashed Azerbaijan 6-1 and advanced to the quarter-finals of the FIH Women's Champions Challenge I hockey tournament in Dublin, Ireland.
The day produced four decisive games and it was again the youngsters who provided most of the entertainment.
India's medal hopes in the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament went up in smoke as New Zealand rode on a penalty-corner hat-trick by Andrew Hayward to humiliate the title holders 7-3 in their last round-robin league match in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Thursday.
Fifteen year old Mumbai youngster Sarfaraz Khan smashed 101 off only 66 balls to help India colts record a four-wicket victory over South Africa in their round robin league encounter of the U-19 Quadrangular tournament in Visakhapatnam.
World champions Australia showed their class with a 5-1 thrashing of Pakistan to maintain their unbeaten streak in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament in Ipoh on Monday.
India suffered a 0-3 drubbing at the hands of sixth seeds China to slump to their second consecutive defeat in the Junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania qualifying round on Tuesday.
Novak Djokovic was left sweating on a place in the semi-finals of the ATP World Tour Finals on Friday after losing for the first time in his career to fellow-Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
World champion Viswanathan Anand tried his best but could not penetrate the solid defences of Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the opening round of the London Chess Classic in London, on Thursday.
Varun Kumar converted a penalty corner in the 24th minute to hand India the lead before Simranjeet Singh (55th) scored a diving field goal from skipper Manpreet Singh's brilliant pass to secure full three points for the five-time champions.
World No 2 Federer became the first player to book his place in the semi-finals of the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals by seeing off a spirited challenge from 20-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-1 in a thrilling round robin clash that lasted two hours and 11 minutes on Tuesday.
Angelique Kerber produced a polished display to claim her second straight win at the WTA Finals with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Simona Halep on Tuesday, the world number one virtually booking a spot in the semi-finals of the elite eight-woman event.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan in the ninth and penultimate round of the Pearl Spring Chess tournament Nanjing on Friday.
'An India-Pakistan hockey match still attracts a lot of excitement, but the pressure thing is gone nowadays' 'We rallied after conceding an early goal and took the lead, but could not win due to a very high level of performance by India'
World Champion Viswanathan Anand split the point with leader Vladimir Kramnik of Russia to remain second after the end of the fifth and penultimate round of Bilbao Final Masters chess tournament.
India have been drawn with Spain, Azerbaijan and hosts Ireland in Group B of the Women's Champion Challenge to be held in Dublin from June 18 to 26.
With Mahindra United disbanding their team, Vasco Sports Club, who finished third behind HAL and ONGC in the second division, should be promoted to the elite first division of the I-League for the coming season, says Goa Football Association secretary Savio Messais.
World number two Grandmaster Koneru Humpy will represent India in the FIDE Women's world blitz chess championship finals to be held in Moscow, Russia on September 17 and 18.
The Ultimate Tennis Showdown will be held at Patrick Mouratoglou's academy in Nice with 10 matches every weekend for a total of 50 matches and prize money on offer for each clash.
Jack Sock became the first American to reach the last four of the ATP Finals in 10 years when he stunned world number three Alexander Zverev in a firecracker of a match on Thursday.
South Africa will play Friday's vital World Twenty20 Group 1 match against West Indies without all-rounder JP Duminy who has been ruled out with a hamstring strain.
World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Michael Adams of England in the sixth and penultimate round but the Indian ace continued to hold joint lead at the London Chess Classic.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi booked a semi-final berth in the World Tour finals for the first time in their careers after beating Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman 6-4, 6-4 to grab the last available spot.
Handed the chance to put another dent in Roger Federer's armour on Tuesday, Andy Murray was swiped to one side as their eagerly anticipated round robin clash at the ATP World Tour Finals turned into a Swiss romp.
It took a while, but Rafael Nadal finally showed up at the ATP's end-of-year fiesta on Monday when he lit up the second day of the World Tour Finals with a compelling round robin victory against Andy Roddick.
The winner of 11 ATP World Tour doubles titles, Poles Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg were off to a great start with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Indo-Czech duo of Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy at the opening day Round Robin match at the 2010 World Tour Finals in London on Sunday.
Having Lendl, as I said, can only serve him as an incentive for an improvement, says Djokovic
The tournament, with eight players in both the men's and women's draw, will resemble regular tennis as much as possible.
World champion Viswanathan Anand salvaged a draw from a losing position against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the seventh round to occupy joint-second spot in the Pearl Spring Chess tournament in Nanjing, China.
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