Coach Roberto Mancini has insisted that he never doubted his captain Mauro Icardi after the striker scored two goals in Inter Milan's 4-0 victory at Udinese in Serie A.
A back injury forced the Indian ace to withdraw from the doubles draw.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi went down in straight sets to the unseeded Croat-Austrian pair of Mario Ancic and Jurgen Melzer in the final of Ordina Open. The second seeded Indians, who were aiming for their first ATP title together in four years, went down 6-7 (5), 3-6.
The second seeds Indian pair beat the Argentine combine of Juan Martin Del Potro and Guillermo Canas 6-7, 6-3, 10-7 in an hour and 44 minutes in the semi-finals at 's-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.
A group of 12 elite sports stars including Muhammad Ali, Andre Agassi and Lance Armstrong on Wednesday launched a charitable organization aimed at helping athletes do philanthropic work.
Turkey coach Fatih Terim was left to rue a missed chance in the first half of their Euro 2016 Group D defeat by Croatia, which he believes would have changed the outcome of Sunday's match.
Hosts Russia have exceeded expectations after advancing to the World Cup quarter-finals with a win on penalties over Spain but they will need more firepower if they are to give Croatia a run for their money on Saturday.
Mercurial forward Ricardo Quaresma scored twice and set up three more goals in a sparkling individual performance as Portugal demolished Estonia 7-0 in their final friendly before Euro 2016 on Wednesday. The charismatic but erratic forward, given a chance to stake his place in the team for France when he replaced Nani in the starting line-up, even upstaged Cristiano Ronaldo who scored twice before being taken off at halftime. Quaresma, whom critics say has failed to make the most of his talent in a career punctuated by tantrums, produced his full repertoire of tricks in one of the best international performances of his topsy-turvy career. The 32-year-old opened the floodgates with two moments of brilliance just before halftime. This first was a stunning "trivela", an outswinging cross hit with the outside of his right foot, to pick out Ronaldo who got in front of his marker and scored with a bullet header at the far post in the 36th minute.
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The Indian ace and his Croatian partner rallied from a set down to stun third seeds Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Johansson and enter the second round.
Argentina beat India 2-1 in the final of the Azlan Shah hockey tournament on Sunday. Argentina's clinched the issue in extra-time. Mario Almada got both their goals.
