Top seed Robin Soderling powered into the Marseille Open final with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Dmitry Tursunov on Saturday and Marin Cilic joined him after a much sterner test.
All the gold medallists from Saturday's action at the Tokyo Olympics.
Pro-Russia candidate Viktor Yanukovych has emerged the clear winner in Ukraine's keenly fought Presidential elections after the counting of over 99 percent votes polled in the polls.
The road ahead will be long and winding and much resistance can be expected from the high-flying 'hawks' in our skies. But that should not deter the policymakers from planning a road map with the 'big picture' in mind, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Defending champion Andy Murray and ATP finals hopefuls Mikhail Youzhny and Fernando Verdasco all made surprise early exits from the Valencia Open on Wednesday. World number four and top seed Murray fell 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to Argentine Juan Monaco in the second round, while world number 10 Youzhny pulled out at the start of the day with a back problem.
We bring you a presentation of the best photos in the last 24 hours from around the world.
A Moscow court has rejected a libel suit filed against a newspaper, by the grandson of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, to protect his grandfather's name.In his plea, Stalin's grandson Evgeny Jugashvili had demanded that the liberal Novaya Gazeta, co-owned by last Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, should retract parts of an article that said Stalin personally signed death warrants.Novaya Gazeta spokesperson said the article was based on recently declassified documents.
World number one Rafa Nadal advanced to the semi-finals of the Thailand Open with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Kazakhstan's Mikhail Kukushkin on Friday.
Spain's Rafa Nadal charged into his first US Open final after beating Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in Saturday's first semi-final at Flushing Meadows.
Mikhail Youzhny of Russia wore down marathon man Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in five sets on Thursday and advanced to the US Open semi-finals. The 12th-seeded Russian trailed two sets to one before coming back to claim a 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory in a gruelling groundstroke battle on another cool, blustery day on Arthur Ashe centre court.
The court had rejected Indrani's plea for interim bail to visit her hometown Guwahati.
Playing his first match since injuring his knee at Indian Wells last month, Nadal showed no signs of rust as he raced into a 5-0 lead in the first set on Court Rainier III.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal faced some stiff resistance before getting the better of Mikhail Gladyshev 4-1 and stormed into the men's singles quarter-finals of the Egypt Open table tennis championships while all his compatriots crashed out in Cairo on Saturday.
Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal, Soumyadeep Roy and A Amalraj entered the men's singles second round but it was curtains for their women counterparts in the opening round itself as India made a mixed start at the Egypt Open table tennis tournament in Cairo.
Somdev Devvarman learnt a good tennis lesson from Mikhail Youzhny and was outclassed 2-6, 1-6, 3-6 in the first reverse singles, resulting in India's ouster from the elite World Group of the Davis Cup tournament in Moscow on Sunday.
As splendid it is to behold, A Suitable Boy cannot match in soul and falls short of being memorable, feels Sukanya Verma.
Swedish third seed Robin Soderling clinched the World Indoor Tournament title when opponent Mikhail Youzhny withdrew injured when trailing 6-4, 2-0 in the final on Sunday.
Tennis ace Leander Paes said Russia would be a tough opponent in next month's Davis Cup World Group tie but India are capable of defeating any side in the world in the prestigious team competition.
Breakdancing, considered one of the pillars of hip-hop culture, will also make its Asian Games bow in 2022, two years before it features in the Olympics for the first time in Paris.
World pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has been named Russia's Athlete of the Year in a nationwide poll conducted by sports journalists.
'Russia is the only country that can act as facilitator for any eventual Chinese-Indian rapprochement,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi progressed to the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Open after a hard-earned win over Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny. The 'Indo-Pak Express', aiming to make the ATP World Tour finals, beat their unseeded opponents 6-2, 2-6, 10-3 in the first round of the US $663,750 hard court event.
Indian Air Force officials have held talks with Director General of Sukhoi Mikhail Pogosyan to develop and manufacture the fifth generation fighter aircraft. The Russian delegation included representatives of Rosoboronexport state-run weapons trading company ARMS-TASS reported quoting the Sukhoi press service.
David Ferrer crushed Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 to fire depleted champions Spain into the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup on Sunday and set up a clash away to nine-times winners France.
Disappointed with Somdev Devvarman's tame defeat against Mikhail Youzhny, India's Davis Cup captain S P Misra advised the youngster to add some more weapons to his game, saying mere a baseline approach would not win him matches against top players.
Returning to the elite World Group of Davis Cup after 11 years, an acid test awaits India when they take on formidable Russia in their first round tie in Moscow on Friday.
World No 2 Novak Djokovic overcame a racket-smashing tantrum and a day-long rain delay to retain his Dubai Championships crown by beating Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 on Sunday.
Third seed and home favourite Mikhail Youzhny beat Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic 6-7, 6-0, 6-4 in a see-saw Kremlin Cup final on Sunday to win his fifth ATP title.
Russian Mikhail Youzhny upset top seed Novak Djokovic 7-6, 7-6 on Saturday to reach the final of the World Indoor Tournament. Sixth seed Youzhny, the 2007 champion, next faces Swede Robin Soderling who overcame Nikolay Davydenko of Russia 7-6, 6-4.
Images from the second day at the US Open, the final Grand Slam tournament of the year.
A relieved Rafael Nadal felt the confidence come flooding back in a first-round romp at the Australian Open on Monday.
Prakash Amritraj advanced to the doubles quarter-finals of the Italy ATP Challenger event along with his partner but curtains were drawn on the campaign of Harsh Mankad in Bergamo in Italy.
World number two and top seed Caroline Wozniacki, runner-up at the south coast event last year, cruised into the semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Australia's Ashleigh Barty.
Images from Day VII of the US Open tennis championships at Flushing Meadows, New York on Sunday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the tennis courts
Naomi Osaka, winner of the past two Grand Slam tournaments, has parted ways with her coach Sascha Bajin.
Top seed Andy Murray battled past Fernando Verdasco in the semi-finals of the Valencia Open on Saturday, beating the fourth-seeded Spaniard 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to set up a final against Mikhail Youzhny.
Fourth seeds Paes and Lukas Dlouhy rallied to a three-set win against Yves Allegro of Switzerland and Fabrice Santoro of France.
Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outgunned Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-3 to win the Japan Open with a dazzling mix of guile and brute force on Sunday.
Australia eased ahead of Bosnia 2-0 as John Millman thumped Damir Dzumhur 6-3, 6-2 while Alex de Minaur overcame Mirza Basic 6-3, 7-6(0), before Millman revealed the team's larger goal under captain Lleyton Hewitt.
