World No 8 Robin Soderling, the highest-ranked player left in the Barcelona Open after a slew of withdrawals, sprinted into the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Spain's Feliciano Lopez on Thursday.
Argentina captain Lionel Messi pulled his side level in the 57th minute after a handball by Paraguay's Ivan Peris which no-one on the pitch appealed for but was spotted by a VAR review.
The first player to win a Grand Slam, the ATP World Tour Finals, the men's singles at the Olympic Games and a Masters title in the same calendar year.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal is just one step away from retaining her women's singles title of the $ 120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament.
The final was a festival of yellow cards and it would have been worse for the Oranje players if the British referee had not been so kind.
Aseem Chhabra lists the best non-Hindi language films he watched in 2020, with the hope that they will have a wider reach in the new year.
Claude Arpi captures the fan's passion for football in these entertaining e-mails to Ivan Crasto,Rediff.com's Sports Editor.
Claude Arpi captures the fan's passion for football in these entertaining e-mails to Ivan Crasto,Rediff.com's Sports Editor.
A round-up Wednesday's football news on and off the field.
Images from the men's singles quarter-finals at Wimbledon, on Wednesday.
Tomas Berdych became the first player to make it to the quarter-finals of the Chennai Open after winning his second match inside a day, on Wednesday. The top seed scored a 6-2, 6-4 win over Ivan Dodig of Croatia to keep alive hopes of a first ATP title since May 2009, when he won in Munich.
Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane made up for the absence of Sergio Ramos by scoring one goal and making another to help his side to a hard-fought 3-0 win at Getafe. La Liga leaders Barcelona were held to a 2-2 draw at struggling Espanyol on Saturday as China striker Wu Lei came off the bench to grab a late equaliser in a pulsating city derby.
Marco Asensio's strike earned Real Madrid a 1-0 win over Espanyol to send them top of La Liga and Thomas Lemar scored his first goal for Atletico Madrid in a 2-0 victory at Getafe on Saturday.
Champion Andy Murray and Andy Roddick whacked away the clay from their tennis shoes and began their build up to Wimbledon by beating little-known opponents on a rain-blighted day at Queen's Club on Tuesday.
Ivan Saponjic scored from a header in extra-time to give Serbia a 2-1 victory over Mali in the under-20 World Cup on Wednesday and set up a final against Brazil, who demolished a 10-man Senegal 5-0, two of those goals coming from Marcos Guilherme.
Images from the 2020 Euro Championships qualifiers played on Saturday
Roger Federer was given a fright before reaching the semi-final of the inaugural Istanbul Open.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy moved to the quarter-finals of the ATP Rome Masters after getting a walk-over from Croat Ivan Ljubicic and Michael Llodra of France in the second round.
European football was given good and bad reminders of its past on Thursday with an impressive 2-0 win for once-mighty Ajax Amsterdam over Schalke 04 in one Europa League game but ugly scenes in the crowd at Lyon delaying another.
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans bid farewell to late communist leader Fidel Castro on Tuesday night
World number three Novak Djokovic and US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro kicked off their Australian Open preparations with easy first-round wins at the Kooyong Classic in Melbourne on Wednesday. Del Potro cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, before Serbian Djokovic made light work of experienced German Tommy Haas 6-2, 6-3 at the eight-man invitational event.
Croatia will be ready for both versions of Russia, says Perisic
Tennis great Serena Williams on Wednesday said she would consider coaching after calling it quits.
Andy Murray has what it takes to ruin Novak Djokovic's dreams of sweeping to a 'golden slam', coach Ivan Lendl has said as the Scot prepares for another tilt at the Wimbledon title.
Images from the football matches played across Europe on Sunday.
Croatia came back after conceding in the opening minute to defeat Denmark 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out and earn a World Cup quarter-final berth, after the two sides drew 1-1 in the Round of 16 match on Sunday.
American Andy Roddick defeated the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-4 to win the Sony Ericsson Open on Sunday after an enthralling final.
'Can Tendulkar recreate the magic of his youth?', asks advertising guru Sandeep Goyal.
Croat Ivan Ljubicic celebrated his first Masters 1000 title after upsetting seventh-seeded American Andy Roddick 7-6, 7-6 in the final of the Indian Wells ATP tournament on Sunday.
Ivan Ljubicic played the match of his life to upset third seed and holder Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 on Saturday and reach the final of the Indian Wells ATP tournament.
Rafa Nadal stayed on track for a successful title defence at the Indian Wells ATP tournament with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Czech Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Novak Djokovic tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP tournament on Wednesday, upset 7-5, 6-3 by big-serving Croat Ivan Ljubicic in the fourth round.
Barcelona's Neymar struck twice to put the Spanish side in the Champions League final despite a 3-2 loss at Bayern Munich on Tuesday as they progressed 5-3 on aggregate and will face Real Madrid or Juventus next month.
Get your low down on what's happening in the Malayalam film industry, right here!
David Cameron, who became Britain's youngest prime minister since 1812 when he won elections in 2010, on Friday surprised everyone by securing a majority for the Conservatives against all odds to allow his party to govern alone for the first time in more than two decades.
Substitute Ricardo Quaresma turned in three minutes from the end of extra time as Portugal edged a tense encounter to book a UEFA Euro 2016 quarter-final date with Poland. After 116 minutes in which the teams failed to muster a single shot on target, Ivan Perisic headed against the upright.
Novak Djokovic recovered from a set down to defeat fellow Serb Viktor Troicki 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday, while India's Somdev Devvarman lost to Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
The Argentina captain turns 31 in a few days and may be playing his last World Cup. He would need to win it to rival fellow great Diego Maradona for the eternal love of his compatriots.
Ivan Lendl says it is the ability to deal with distractions and overcome obstacles such as a lack of playing time that sets the top players in the world apart from the rest.
Dark horse Croatia take on spirited Nigeria in a World Cup opener on Saturday that could leave one side fighting for their tournament lives in the Group of Death.
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