American Stephens stayed calm and saw off an increasingly agitated Angelique Kerber in the winner-takes-all night match to complete round-robin play with a spotless 3-0 record after she wrapped up a 6-3, 6-3 victory against the German.
The first Indian woman to clinch a silver medal at the World Championship in the 2015 edition at Jakarta, Saina has been struggling ever since, limping out of the Olympics last year with a knee injury.
Jitu Rai says he believed unflinchingly, unquestionably in his ability to stage a comeback and win the men's 10m air pistol gold
Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth won their respective singles matches, while Satwik Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa triumphed in the mixed doubles to help India outclass Malaysia in the final and clinch the gold medal in the Mixed Team badminton gold medal match at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
World number one Simona Halep pulled out of next week's WTA Finals due to a lower back injury.
World champion P V Sindhu remains India's best Olympic medal prospect but she has to give more attention to her recovery process between matches to achieve the feat at the Tokyo Olympic Games, said former India badminton coach Vimal Kumar.
Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova raced to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australian Daria Gavrilova to defend her Kremlin Cup title in Moscow on Saturday and secure a place at the season-ending WTA Finals.
International Cricket Council Chief Executive Manu Sawhney has been sent on 'leave' after his conduct came under the scanner during an internal investigation by audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and may resign before his term ends.
Spain's Garbine Muguruza moved to the brink of the WTA Finals last four with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Angelique Kerber on Wednesday after Petra Kvitova opened her account with a 7-5, 7-5 victory over fellow Czech Lucie Safarova.
India's shuttlers made it to the mixed team semi-finals after a resounding 3-0 victory over Mauritus at the Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Saturday.
A journalist obliged by asking Schooling how it felt to become "the go-to butterflier in the world right now", the 21-year-old hesitated and glanced to his left at Phelps.
Maria Sharapova continued her mastery of Romania's Simona Halep with a high quality 6-4, 6-4 victory filled with bruising baseline rallies to edge closer to a last four berth at the WTA Finals on Tuesday.
It will be the second consecutive final for Paes and Angel, who also reached the final at Montrrey Challenger last week, ending runners-up to Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Marcelo Arevalo.
An emotional Agnieszka Radwanska claimed her maiden WTA Finals title with a roller-coaster 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Czech Petra Kvitova in an absorbing encounter at a packed Singapore Indoor Stadium on Sunday.
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis defeated Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in straight sets to virtually seal a women's doubles semi-final spot in the WTA Tennis Finals in Singapore.
Saina Nehwal once again faltered at the semi-final stage as she suffered a straight game defeat at the hands of China's Wang Yihan in the women's singles at the Asia Badminton Championships, in Wuhan, China, on Saturday.
Reigning French Open champion Maria Sharapova, former world number one Venus Williams and Australian Samantha Stosur sailed into the second round of the China Open with straight set victories on Sunday.
Arsenal have a strong enough squad to challenge for a first Premier League title since 2004.
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on Thursday announced that they will join forces once again at the WTA Finals, which is scheduled to be held in Singapore later this year.
International Premier Tennis League founder Mahesh Bhupathi, one of India's most successful doubles player, confirmed the absence of the two star players.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
A day after suffering her heaviest defeat since she was a teenager, Serena Williams was back to her brilliant best as she swatted aside Eugenie Bouchard 6-1, 6-1 in her final round robin match at the WTA Finals on Thursday.
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis notched up their 38th straight win to reach the semi finals of the women's doubles event of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Saturday.
Ahana, a second grade student of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai, managed to finish in third position in the tournament last weekend.
F1 CEO and chairman Chase Carey reiterated that Asia is a "tremendously" important region for the sport and India figures in their scheme of things for the future, if not now, with the calendar already packed till next year.
Agnieszka Radwanska collected her 20th career WTA title after a dominant 6-4, 6-2 victory over Britain's Johanna Konta in the China Open final on Sunday.
Former world number one Karolina Pliskova is confident that splitting with coach David Kotyza will not be a hindrance as she attempts to go it alone over the home stretch of the season, leading up to the WTA Finals in Singapore next month.
Kashyap, who has been battling a series of injuries in the last few years, defeated Hao 21-7, 12-21, 21-18 in a match that lasted an hour and three minutes.
Indian shuttler HS Prannoy grabbed his career-best world number 12 spot.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino will be in Goa to attend the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Extraordinary Congress on September 27 to elect three additional AFC members to the FIFA council.
A fit-again P Kashyap of India resumed his journey in international badminton by notching up a comfortable win, while H S Prannoy and Ajay Jayaram also advanced to the second round of Indonesia Grand Prix Gold in Balikpapan, Indonesia on Wednesday.
Czech Lucie Safarova took the final qualifying spot for the end-of-season WTA Finals after Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro was knocked out of the Kremlin Cup quarter-finals on Thursday.
Olympic silver medallist weightlifter Mirabai Chanu will miss the World Championship and the Commonwealth Senior Championship slated to take place simultaneously between December 7 to 17 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Agnieszka Radwanska has added 18 time Grand Slam champion Martina Navratilova to her coach staff.
Novak Djokovic kept his juggernaut rolling at the China Open by improving to 26-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over local hope Zhang Ze on Thursday.
'Coaches have been trying to create match situations like when it is 18-all or 19-all. I am focusing on how I have to play and win those moments, so I hope it will help.'
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Indian athletes' performance on Day 9 of the Commonwealth Games.
The 38-year-old 2007 Formula One world champion announced this week that he was leaving Ferrari for the second time in his career and had signed a two-year contract with the modest Sauber team, where he started in the sport back in 2001.
Maria Sharapova had not completed a match since losing at Wimbledon in July, so the Russian was naturally thrilled to emerge with a victory at the WTA finals on Sunday after taking time to heal from a number of ailments.
