Novak Djokovic has denied an Italian media report he deliberately lost a match in 2007 that has been linked to a wider scandal involving alleged corruption in tennis. The 28-year-old world number one, who easily beat French teenager Quentin Halys on Wednesday to advance to the Australian Open third round, was asked about a report in Italian newspaper Tuttosport that he had deliberately lost to now-retired French player Fabrice Santoro at the Paris Masters. "It's not true," the Serb said with a shrug and shake of his head. "What it is to say? I've lost that match. "Anybody can create a story about that match or for that matter any of the matches of the top players losing in the early rounds, I think it's just absurd." "You can pick any match that you like that the top player lost and just create a story out of it."
England's soccer journalists left their readers with no illusions on Tuesday after their side's Euro 2016 hopes were crushed by Iceland, describing the 2-1 loss as the worst in their history.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The corruption scandal that has rocked athletics is worse than the one that has plunged soccer body FIFA into crisis because it punished clean athletes, four-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson said on Tuesday. "With athletics, if you think about the victims, it is absolutely worse," the 400 metres world record holder told BBC radio. "The victims here are those (clean) athletes. They never had the opportunity to stand on the podium and they should have," added the American sprinter. An independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has stated in a damning report that "corruption was embedded" at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
Olivier Giroud's rush of blood almost ruined Arsene Wenger's Christmas on Friday as the France forward's red card left Arsenal sweating towards the end of their 2-1 defeat of Queens Park Rangers.
Second seed Novak Djokovic complained of a "hole" on Centre Court at Wimbledon after beating Adrian Mannarino in his delayed fourth-round match on Tuesday.
'The best thing that Modi can hope for in this visit is that he is able to mobilise Indians in America to vote Republican and try and help Trump return to power,' argues Aakar Patel.
"For now, there is no proof (gas was used). This is based solely on their personal conviction as they had stomach aches when they woke up," he said.
The IAAF ruling body of athletics is proactive in tackling doping and not protective of drug cheats, according to president Sebastian Coe.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Italy will even be back to four teams in the Champions League group stage this season -- although that is thanks to a controversial re-formulation of the competition by UEFA rather than a significant improvement in performances by Serie A clubs.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
On a day of frenetic spending that took the Premier League total to a record far above one billion pounds ($1.29 billion), Antonio Conte's side also missed out on two of their other targets - Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Fernando Llorente.
Spaniard Herrera finished off a fine move with a precise header from Pogba's cross just past the half-hour and United's French midfielder scored himself when he nodded powerfully home from a Marcus Rashford delivery before the break.
'Outsiders are the ones who have to make the biggest journey to realise themselves, to come back to some sense of normality.' Director Jacques Audiard and actor Jesuthasan Antonythasan discuss the human landscape behind the award-winning film, Dheepan, with Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Victoria Azarenka withstood some early pressure from Britain's Johanna Konta to continue her quest for a third Miami Open title with a 6-4, 6-2 quarter-final victory on Wednesday.
Andy Murray's dedication to the Davis Cup has proved invaluable to the British team, but it may also rob the ATP Tour Finals of one of it's biggest draws this year.
We should all bow before the legend that is Leander, says Rahul Jacob.
The magazine's controversial cartoons took a below-the-belt jab at every religion, more so against the Islamic faith in the recent decade.
Attackers' efforts to hire the bigger truck failed when his payment was declined.
At least 35 people have been killed and dozens injured in Brussels after a series of terror attacks struck the city's airport and a metro station near the European Union headquarters.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Title contenders Germany will come face to face with their ultimate tournament nightmare when they take on Italy in their Euro 2016 quarter-final in Bordeaux on Saturday.
The EU has asked its representatives in Pakistan to investigate the comments made by Sanaullah questioning 'how can you prosecute a group with whom the state itself has been involved with?'
The election to replace outgoing Sepp Blatter will take place at an extraordinary congress on February 26 in Zurich.
The Welsh, who reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals, finished runners-up on 14 points from eight games, three behind Croatia who sealed their berth on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Slovakia.
'Our grandparents' generation knew one another.' 'In our generation, you could go a lifetime without meeting someone from the other country,' British Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie tells Rahul Jacob.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack. According to US monitor SITE Intelligence Group, the extremist group's propaganda outlet AMAQ claimed that the executors of the attack were soldiers of the Islamic State.
Ecstatic Wales coach Chris Coleman praised his "soldiers" after a shock 3-1 win over Belgium at Euro 2016 took the country to their first major tournament semi-final, and said they could match anyone if they were not afraid to fail.
'If you take me back to 1995, when doping was completely pervasive, I would probably do it again' 'When I made the decision (to dope in 1995), when my team made that decision, when the whole peloton made that decision, it was a bad decision and an imperfect time'
Formula One is as safe as it has ever been but danger will always be part of the sport.
The threat was 'escalating' as cyber experts warned that another attack was imminent in coming days.
Lance Armstrong's promise to come clean about doping is "a little late", the head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) said on Thursday, accusing the disgraced cyclist of trying to use events to "gain advantage".
Seven-time champion Serena Williams endured an unlikely scrap in her Wimbledon opener and will look to shake off more rust in the second round on Thursday when she faces another qualifier in 18-year-old Kaja Juvan.
A summary of sportspersons in the news on Sunday.
Federer said the rate of dropouts would fall if the slams switched to best-of-three-sets rather than best-of-five as it would mean matches were more like "a sprint to the finish line" rather than being "a marathon" but the people he really felt sorry for on Tuesday were the fans.
Tottenham Hotspur boss Andre Villas-Boas has been criticised for allowing France international goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to play on despite briefly losing consciousness against Everton on Sunday.
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