A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
Third seeds Leander Paes and Andre Begemann secured a close 4-6,6-4,10-8 win over Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan and Denys Molchanov of Ukraine to enter the semifinals of the doubles event at the ninth edition of the Tashkent ATP Challenger at the Olympic Tennis School in Tashkent. Paes and Begemann came back from being 2-4 down in the Match tiebreak to wrap the issue after Leander's splendid court craft to level scores.
Somdev Devvarman suffered a second successive defeat against Serbia's Janko Tipsaveric to crash out of the ATP Farmers Classic.
Rohan Bopanna and his British partner Colin Fleming fought their way to the semifinals of the ATP Open 13, edging past James Cerretani and Adil Shamasdin, in Marseille.
Roger Federer ended Grigor Dimitrov's seven-match winning streak and showed the Bulgarian he has some way to go to live up to his 'Baby Federer' tag with a 6-3 7-6 (2) quarter-final victory at the Basel Open on Friday.
Somdev Devvarman gave a huge scare to world number 29 Jergen Melzer before bowing out in the second round of the ATP Zagreb Indoor championships on Thursday.
The ATP will scrap the third set for doubles and replace it with a tiebreak to speed up play
India's singles challenge ended at the 425,000 ATP Challenger event IN Bergamo with the first round defeat of Prakash Amritraj.
Davis Cup: Ramkumar to lead Indian challenge against Pakistan on grass courts
Chess great Magnus Carlsen is launching a world Freestyle Chess tour as the variant of the game, also known as Chess960, is gaining in popularity, the world number one announced on Friday.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna saved a match point to breeze into the title clash of the ATP World Tour finale after defeating Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek via Super tie-breaker, in London on Sunday.
Belgian Goffin, thrashed by Grigor Dimitrov two days ago, appeared to be feeling the effects of that mauling as he went 3-0 down with a whimper, but came alive to win 15 points in a row during a first-set comeback.
The seventh seed Indian overcame stiff resistance from American Daniel Nguyen before prevailing 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(5) in the rain-hit final that lasted three hours and 31 minutes, turning out to be the longest summit clash in the ATP Challenger Tour history.
Indian tennis star Somdev Devvarman climbed six places in the latest ATP rankings to touch a career-best 62nd position in the singles list.
It is time for the men's and women's professional tennis bodies to merge says former world number one Kim Clijsters.
The 20-year-old German, ranked three in the world, was hot and cold against Croatia's Marin Cilic but, when it mattered most, he produced his best tennis to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
The Spaniard's main rival, Roger Federer, picked the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship prize for a record fifth successive year.
Rafael Nadal to play for Spain in new Davis Cup Finals while World No 1 Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, have already said they would support the ATP Cup -- seen as a rival team event to the Davis Cup -- when it begins in Australia just a few weeks after the ITF's flagship event.
Indian Davis Cupper Somdev Devvarman squandered a set lead en route to a first-round loss in the ATP Challenger Series' tournament in Calabasas, US. He went down 6-4, 4-6, 3-6 to local favourite Alex Bogomolov.
The Dutchman Martin soared up the ATP Tour rankings to 15th from 46th place after reaching the French Open final. \n\n
The International Tennis Federation (ITF) named Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka as its 'world champions' of 2023 after their performances at this year's Grand Slams.
The Russian beat Germany's Dieter Kindlmannin the final.\n\n
Russian Andrey Rublev beat Norwegian top seed Casper Ruud
The Aussie wants a public apology from the ATP, admitting wrongdoing in levying a fine against him.
India's Sanam Singh lost to Peter Polanski for the second time in two months and crashed out of the ATP Knoxville Challenger event in the United States.
Still wearing a compression sleeve after a recent forearm issue, Carlos Alcaraz produced a stellar show in a rematch of the duo's 2022 encounter to firmly put himself back in the conversation as the favourite to lift the title in Paris and a third major.
Japanese teenager Kei Nishikori reached his first ATP semi-final with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Bobby Reynolds.
The 23-year-old Davis Cupper rallied to beat qualifier Fred Hemmes Jr.
Dimitrov has enjoyed the best season of his career in 2017, clinching four titles overall, including his first Masters title in Cincinnati.
His dream of being inside the global top-100 has been realised but Sumit Nagal is nowhere close to being a content man as the Indian tennis ace says he now faces the challenge of improving or holding on to his standing for direct entry into Grand Slams and the Paris Olympics.
It was the 31-year-old Serb's second comfortable win in the Gustavo Kuerten group and combined with Marin Cilic's 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4 defeat of American John Isner later in the day, he sealed his place in the semi-finals at the year-ender for the eighth time.
World No 4 Del Potro is still sidelined with a right knee injury sustained in Shanghai last month.
Novak Djokovic has formally withdrawn from the draw for the Indian Wells tournament, organisers said on Sunday in an indication that the world number one's application for a COVID-19 vaccine waiver to enter the US might have failed.
Alexander Zverev became the first German to reach the last four at the ATP Finals for 15 years as he beat American John Isner 7-6(5), 6-3 at the O2 Arena on Friday.
Britain's Cameron Norrie fought back from a set down to beat world number two Carlos Alcaraz 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 in the Rio Open final on Sunday.
Britain's Andy Murray joined world number one Novak Djokovic and newly-crowned US Open champion Rafa Nadal as definite qualifiers for the ATP World Tour finals on Tuesday, but Roger Federer faces an uphill task to make the eight-man field.
Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis and Frenchman Jo Wilfried Tsonga joined the list of high-profile pull-outs from the ATP tournament, to be played at the CCI, Mumbai, from September 24 to 30.
Novak Djokovic steered Serbia into the Davis Cup semi-finals with a straightforward 6-4 6-4 win over Britain's Cameron Norrie to give his team a winning 2-0 lead on Thursday.
Fresh from winning the Chennai leg, Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round, even as the other two Indians Saketh Myneni and Vishnu Vardhan made quiet exits in the $50,000 ATP Challenger at BTA Courts in Kolkata.
