Some players whirl away on exercise bikes before a match, others practise until they are called by the referee and some listen to music. Marion Bartoli likes to fall asleep.
An improbable scenario that would have prompted a polite chuckle among tennis fans two weeks ago is set to play out on Thursday when Marion Bartoli, Kirsten Flipkens, Sabine Lisicki and Agnieska Radwanska do battle in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
Former India coach Gary Kirsten always had the belief that the immensely-talented Virat Kohli will grow into a 'great cricketer'. The South African considers himself fortunate to have been a part of that process.
The South African Football Association (SAFA) has reinstated its chief and four other leading officials suspended over a match fixing scandal involving the national team, saying they were improperly removed from office.
JP Duminy was named in South Africa's Champions Trophy squad on Thursday but veteran all-rounder Jacques Kallis will miss the tournament due to personal reasons.
Replacing a coach like Gary Kirsten, who was a massive success with Team India, was never going to be easy for Duncan Fletcher. Rediff.com's Bikash Mohapatra points out that Fletcher doesn't have a report card that makes for great reading but he still enjoys the backing of captain MS Dhoni.
Indian cricket team's former mental conditioning coach, Paddy Upton has been appointed as the head coach of Rajasthan Royals.
Indian Aces suffered a 20-27 defeat at the hands of a determined Japan Warriors in the crucial Singapore leg but continue to sit on top of the points table of the IPTL, in Singapore on Wednesday.
Former captain Gundappa Viswanath feels that Sourav Ganguly is ideal candidate to replace Duncan Fletcher as the coach of the Indian team.
Duncan Fletcher has the worst record in Tests among all his predecessors. Under him India also suffered the ignominy of back-to-back whitewashes in England Australia in 2011. Yet, he was given a year's extension by the BCCI.
In a throwback to the Gary Kirsten days when the then India coach would always help Sachin Tendulkar with throwdowns, the Nondescripts Cricket Club (NCC) ground, in Colombo, on Tuesday, witnessed Yuvraj Singh going through the same routine with fielding coach Trevor Penney.
Ankur Pathak brings the weekend roundup from the 65th locarno film festival.
India Test captain Virat Kohli has suggested Daniel Vettori's name for the position of the coach.
Indian Aces continued their dominance in IPTL 2 with a 25-18 win over Japan Warriors on the opening day of tournament's Dubai leg on Monday.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will be out to complete unfinished business at Wimbledon on Thursday after both were denied a chance to savour match-point glory in their first-round matches.
Key facts and records of American Serena Williams and Canada's Bianca Andreescu
Indian Aces, already assured of a place in the title clash, suffered a 20-24 defeat against UAE Royals in the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), in Hyderabad on Sunday.
Shreyas Iyer however said he's flexible to bat at any position as per the team's requirement.
Indian Aces suffered their second successive loss in the inaugural International Premier Tennis League as they went down fighting 20-25 to Manila Mavericks in the last match of the Singapore leg on Thursday.
The Delhi Daredevils team management, comprising of skipper Kevin Pietersen and coach Gary Kirsten, will have some selection dilemma ahead of the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), if Ross Taylor is to be believed.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be the best Democratic Party candidate to run for presidency in 2016, a top US Senator has said.
South African all-rounder JP Duminy will lead Delhi Daredevils in the eighth edition of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, starting next month.
Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh backed the under-fire Rishabh Pant, saying the youngster doesn't deserve the criticism coming his way and needs the support of captain Virat Kohli to overcome the slump.
Delhi Daredevils have no option but to go all out when they take on Kings XI Punjab.
Star pacer Dale Steyn feels he is fortunate to be part of a strong South African side, which has enabled him to produce his best in the past few years.
India will play three ODIs in New Zealand beginning January 24 as part of the ICC Women's Championship before playing three T20 Internationals.
Despite having a bad start as Team India coach, the experienced Duncan Fletcher will bounce back and put India on the winning track soon enough, writes Bikash Mohapatra.
Sania Mirza reached her first Grand Slam semi-final of the year with China's Shuai Peng after outclassing Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova in the women's doubles, at the US Open, in New York.
Indian Aces lost all but one match as they suffered their first defeat of the 2016 IPTL season, losing 20-30 to Singapore Slammers, in Tokyo.
South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis will not play in all the five ODIs against visitors Sri Lanka as he plans in advance to participate in what could be his sixth and last World Cup for the country in 2015.
Rajneesh Gupta salutes Tamim Iqbal's courage in the Asia Cup's opening game on Saturday and lists instances where cricketers braved injuries to battle it out for their teams.
The United States survived a fright from little Latvia on Saturday before winning 3-2 in a Fed Cup qualifier as Serena Williams suffered her first career singles loss in the team event. Switzerland, Spain, Belgium, Slovakia, Germany, Russia and Belarus also moved through to the inaugural 12-nation showdown in Budapest.
Patel wasn't expecting a marauding Dhoni to miss Umesh Yadav's slower delivery before his direct throw sealed it for the home team on Sunday night.
Former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic suffered a shock 6-7(4), 1-6 loss against Denisa Allertova of Czech Republic in the women's singles first round at the 2016 US Open on Tuesday. Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open winner, started off well but failed to maintain her momentum. With the scored tied 6-6, the first set went into tie-break and the Serbian star failed to keep her nerves.
Amid speculation that he would take over as South Africa's assistant cricket coach, former pacer Allan Donald has withdrawn from his verbal commitment to be New Zealand's pace bowling coach.
Wednesday saw the commencement of India's short pre-World Cup camp at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and the Indian team management seemed extra cautious about the players who are returning from injuries, especially after Praveen Kumar's exit from the mega tournament due to elbow injury.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is least excited at the selection of Duncan Fletcher as thr coach of Team India and said someone like Mohinder Amarnath would have been a better choice.
Dravid recently coached the Indian team at the Under-19 World Cup. He was mentor of Rajasthan Royals in the last two seasons of the IPL before the franchise was suspended from the T20 tournament for two years by the Justice Lodha Committee in the aftermath of the spot-fixing scandal that rocked the sixth edition of the T20 tournament in 2013.
New Zealand have named Australian Damien Wright as their new bowling coach, the country's cricket board said on Friday. The Victorian, who replaces South African Allan Donald, played first-class cricket for 15 years, taking 406 first-class wickets in 123 matches before retiring this year. He will begin his new role on September 5.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances