A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Indian challenge ended at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective men's singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
Yuki Bhambri's maiden appearance at the French Open ended with a first round defeat as he lost his opening men's singles match to Belgium's Ruben Bemelmans in straight sets, in Paris, on Tuesday.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
Ramkumar to play opening singles tie against Schnur, Yuki takes on Shapovalov on day 1
A look at the records of Spain's Rafael Nadal and Serbia's Novak Djokovic before their title clash at the Australian Open on Sunday (prefix number denotes seeding):
Reaping rewards of his consistent performance, Prajnesh Gunneswaran, on Monday, broke into men's singles top-100 for the first time in his career with a jump of six places that took him to 97.
India ended its campaign at the Fed Cup with a fourth place finish after losing the classification tie 1-2 to Korea as the team badly missed injured Karman Kaur Thandi, who did not play on Saturday, in Astana, Kazakhstan.
India's Davis Cup tie against Finland was on Friday postponed to 2021 as the International Tennis Federation pushed back all the matches, including the Finals, to next year owing to COVID-19 pandemic. India were scheduled to travel to Finland for the World Group I tie in September.
While Federer and Nadal will look to reignite the flair and fight they showed to reach last year's final, 2018 could have a different script at play.
While tennis is a lucrative sport for those at the top -- the 2020 Australian Open singles champions each took home A$4.12 million ($2.52 million) -- those in the lower echelons often struggle to make ends meet.
There is no one more unbeatable in men's tennis than Novak Djokovic when the Serb is at his best, former world number four American Todd Martin said. Reigning world number one Djokovic has already established himself as one of the best ever to play the game and the Serb's Grand Slam haul of 17 is just three behind the 20 that Roger Federer has amassed. The Swiss player will be 39 in August.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday.'
Former world number two Tommy Haas officially announced his retirement from tennis at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells on Thursday, ending a career that spanned more than two decades.
British No 1 Cameron Norrie overcame a slow start to beat Frenchman Hugo Gaston 6-3, 7-5.
Penpix of the top men's contenders at the 2017 French Open:
The extended lockdown of tennis will help Andy Murray's return from injury but it will be "a big ask" for him to add to his three Grand Slam titles, according to former British number one Greg Rusedski. Murray underwent hip re-surfacing surgery at the start of 2019 and resumed playing doubles in June before returning to singles action in August.
But for the first time, that golden trio will be having an anxious glance over their shoulders. The past week in London has revealed a new fearlessness in the generation of 20 somethings expected to fill the void when they call it a day.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Take part in the unique ATP contest, where you pick the winners of every match in every round and stand a chance of winning prizes.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan will lead the singles challenge, while Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will make the doubles pair for the grass court tie.
'If it is a World Cup then yes, doing away with home and away format, is okay'
World No.4 Stan Wawrinka will look to win his third successive Chennai Open title, while the Indian challenge will be spearheaded by rising star Yuki Bhambri
Sania Mirza kept the Indian hopes alive by progressing to the women's doubles quarter-finals of ATP-WTA Sony Open in Miami.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Halep sustained the injury last month while training for the Wuhan Open, where she lost in the second round. She then retired midway through her opener in Shanghai.
With Sunday's win, the world number one took his Grand Slam tally to 18, just two shy of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's men's record of 20.
World No. 16 Marco Cecchinato will spearhead Italy's challenge, while they also have the experienced world No. 37 Andreas Seppi as they look to continue their good record against India.
Leander Paes and Purav Raja, who are trying to establish as a pair on the ATP World Tour, progressed to the quarterfinals of the St Petersburg Open with a straight-set win over Fabio Fognini and James Cerretani.
He went on to lift the US Open title in 1994 and, after shaving his head on the advice of his then actress girlfriend Brooke Shields, the Australian Open crown in 1995 before adding an Olympic gold at Atlanta 1996.
Roger Federer has fallen outside the world's top 10 for the first time since 2002 but he could still win another grand slam title, according to former great Stefan Edberg. While Andy Murray's rise to world number one was the main talking point of Monday's new ATP rankings, 17-times major champion Federer's slide to 16th was largely overlooked. The Swiss ended his season in July in a bid to recover fully from knee surgery, although he is aiming to be fit for the Australian Open in January.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Zverev has not lost to Wawrinka in two previous meetings but is not taking the 2014 Melbourne Park champion lightly.
World number one Novak Djokovic turned the page on his contentious US Open exit and began his claycourt season with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory over wildcard Salvatore Caruso in the second round of the Italian Open.
ATP says 'no evidence' against Harrison's racist remarks
The fast rising Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja clinched its first ever ATP tour level title with a hard-fought win over Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Igor Sijsling in the summit clash of the Claro Open, in Bogota.
India's top singles player Somdev Devvarman returned to top-100 after nearly two years as he jumped three places to 98 in the latest ATP singles rankings, issued on Monday.
Paula Badosa survived a stiff challenge from Victoria Azarenka in the Indian Wells final, while Cameron Norrie battled back to defeat Nikoloz Basilashvili.
The 'Big Three' of tennis world -- Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic -- won't lose much due to the suspension of professional tours since they have already created their own legacies but the real struggle is for lower-ranked players, including the Indians, says legendary Vijay Amritraj. Amritraj said the trio of Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, who have a tight grip over Grand Slam tournaments, won't feel any financial stress or the pressure of progress.
The 14-time Grand Slam winner said he is happy and proud to have reached the summit of the game for a fourth separate spell.
