If Serena Williams wanted to sound like someone who did not really care whether she won another Wimbledon or not, telling the world she just wanted to have fun, nobody was fooled on Thursday.
Tournament favourite Novak Djokovic beat Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 on Tuesday, kicking off his quest for a first ever Paris trophy to add to his eight other Grand Slams.
The fifth-seeded Ukrainian reached her second straight Grand Slam semi-final after also making the last four at Wimbledon in July.
Bookmakers William Hill have the Briton as 15/8 favourite for the 2018 drivers championship, with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel at 3/1 and Red Bull's Max Verstappen at 10/3.
Following her US Open quarter-final win over elder sister Venus, the 21-year-old tennis player said that she did not want to answer any media queries, according to E! Online.
Seven-time champion Williams had been bidding to claim a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam crown but made too many errors as Kerber ran out a comfortable winner in the final.
We bring you five achievers who are proof that 35 is the new 25.
Here is a player profile, a look at the form and records of American Madison Keys and compatriot Sloane Stephens ahead of Saturday's US Open final (prefix number denotes seeding)
15-year-old Cori Gauff, the youngest at this year's Wimbledon will play her opening round match against the oldest player at the Championships - Venus Williams. The duel is billed as 'clash of the generations'.
Nadal set to face Kyrgios clash in second round
Images from Day 1 of the 2020 French Open, in Paris, on Sunday.
World No 1 Serena Williams comfortably beat 15-year-old CiCi Bellis.
The German fifth seed kicks off her campaign against compatriot Tatjana Maria on Tuesday, but could potentially face three former champions in Serena Williams, Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sharapova if she goes deep into the tournament.
World No 1 Serena Williams suffered one of the heaviest defeats of her long and illustrious career as she was humbled 6-0, 6-2 by Romanian Simona Halep at the WTA Finals on Wednesday.
Sahara Force India recorded a double points finish at the home British Grand Prix with Sergio Perez finishing a creditable sixth, just ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg, at Silverstone on Sunday.
Gauff has been already touted as a long-term successor to Serena Williams at the top of US women's tennis and while she said she was getting used to people viewing her as a role model she did not like being compared to Serena or her sister Venus.
Captain William Porterfield has refused to write off Ireland's chances of qualifying for the World Twenty20 Super 10 stage in India after Wednesday's shock loss to Oman left them needing to win both their remaining Group A games. Ireland were unable to defend 154 for five as Oman marked their debut in a major International Cricket Council (ICC) event by sealing victory with two balls to spare after needing 14 runs off the last over. "It's very disappointing and hard to take but to a large extent, it's still in our own hands," Porterfield told British media. Ireland face full-member nation Bangladesh in Dharamsala on Friday before they take on the Netherlands at the same venue two days later. Only the group winners will progress to the Super 10 stage.
Serena Williams is intent on defending her Olympic titles in Rio and finds it sad that several athletes will miss out on an 'amazing' experience because of worries about the Zika virus.
William Porterfield will captain Ireland at this year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, his third appearance in the sport's showpiece One-day tournament.
The 19-year-old's triumph, which came in her US Open main draw debut and against the undisputed queen of the sport, was the latest step in a meteoric rise for Andreescu and it dominated front pages across the country.
Serena Williams added to one of the longest resumes in sports by collecting the Sportsperson of the Year award from Sports Illustrated, becoming only the third individual woman to claim the honour since its 1956 inception. Williams, 34, won the first three grand slam singles titles of 2015 after taking last year's U.S. Open to hold all four crowns at once for her second career 'Serena Slam'.
His great rival Roger Federer had already maintained his regal progress earlier on the showcourt and Serena Williams then followed with another thumping win.
Serena Williams returned to the top of the WTA world rankings on Monday and immediately shared the news with her unborn baby.
Tennis sensation Maria Sharapova yet again rules the Forbes' list of highest-paid female athletes.
Images from Day 2 of the Wimbledon tennis championships in London, on Tuesday.
Madison Keys continued to ride her wave of success, fuelled in part by celebratory chocolate biscuits, as she advanced to her first Grand Slam semi-final with a gutsy 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Venus Williams on Wednesday.
Serena Williams played with fire at the French Open on Thursday but the world number one pulled through to the third round with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 win against unheralded German Anna-Lena Friedsam.
Venus Williams' return to Indian Wells lasted just one match but sister Serena looked poised for a long run after a dominant win at the BNP Paribas Open on Friday. Venus returned to the event for the first time since 2001, having boycotted it after being booed and heckled by fans during her previous trip, but made a quick exit after a 6-4 6-3 defeat to Japanese qualifier Kurumi Nara in the second round. The 15-year-old incident had occurred when Venus withdrew from a semi-final match with Serena, drawing ire from the crowd aimed at the Williams family. This time, though, Venus was greeted warmly by the crowd before her match and throughout it, a consolation for her poor performance. "It was enough of a fairytale to come here and play," Venus told reporters. "A win would have been nice, but that means I have to come back, play next year."
Maria Sharapova must be driving herself crazy every time she steps on court to face Serena Williams.
Federer, Nadal and Djokovic had made it near impossible for their peers to live, and thrive, amongst them. But the coming generation, which hasn't been as scarred by defeat at the hands of the Big 3, may make tennis unpredictable again.
Mandy Minella of Luxembourg played at Wimbledon while four and a half months pregnant.
On July 1, 2021, Britain's Princess Diana would have turned 60 and two decades after her tragic death in a car accident near the end of summer 1997, she still holds an exalted place on the altar of the most admired people in the world, her status secure as a style icon -- as is her legacy of having forever changed the British monarchy.
The veteran American set up a showdown with Romanian former world number one Simona Halep in Saturday's final.
Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final.
US Open has over the years seen an increase in celebrity attendance. Rediff.com takes a look at a few known names seen in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York.
With Serena bidding to become just the fourth woman to win all four grand slams in the same year, the US Open hype machine that already had been in top gear is now set to crank into overdrive.
The imposter who did turn up got dragged into a two hour 11 minute tussle in which she failed to convert 11 of the 12 break points that fell her way.
Ashley Williams powered home a towering header in the 86th minute as Everton fought back to claim a 2-1 win over Arsenal as the title hopefuls blew the chance to return to the Premier League summit.
It would be perfectly safe for Serena Williams to continue with rigorous training throughout pregnancy, but how quickly the 35-year-old would return to tournament tennis is uncertain.
Petra Kvitova, who missed part of the 2017 season after a home invasion left her with a badly cut left hand, continues her remarkable comeback when she faces American Venus Williams.
