Brazil's stuttering performance stemmed from anxiety at playing their first World Cup game, coach Tite said after their 1-1 draw with Switzerland.
Veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi and debutants Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi were, on Tuesday, placed in different groups for the season-ending ATP World Tour finals, starting, in London, on Sunday.
Barca captain Messi opened the scoring with a "Panenka" penalty chipped straight down the middle in the 17th minute after Luis Suarez was fouled in the area, putting the home side ahead in the tie after a goalless first leg in France.
The top-seeded Serb, who had not dropped a set in four matches since the round of 16 at the Australian Open in January, looked out-of-sorts throughout the 98-minute contest.
Thiem, the fourth seed, was leading 3-1 in the third set on Friday when the semi-final was interrupted by rain and then surprisingly abandoned for the day.
Philippe Coutinho thumped home a second-half winner as Liverpool broke the resistance of Championship Blackburn Rovers to reach the FA Cup semi-finals with a gritty 1-0 replay victory on Wednesday.
World No 1 Novak Djokovic began his Paris Masters title defence with a routine 6-3, 6-4 win over German Philipp Kohlschreiber in the second round on Tuesday.
Modi will arrive in France on Thursday evening and straightaway head for talks with Macron, who will also host a working dinner for the visiting leader.
Roger Federer staked his claim as one of the favourites for the Australian Open title later this month by romping into the second round of the Qatar Open, while rival Rafa Nadal survived a scare in windswept Doha on Tuesday.
India can get information on secret bank accounts from Swiss authorities for cases dating from January 2011, once the revised taxation treaty between the two countries is ratified by the Switzerland Parliament.
Liverpool, who are fifth in the table and have won just one league game since the turn of the year, host fourth-placed Arsenal on Saturday looking to bounce back immediately from one of their worst performances of the season.
Bayern Munich go into their Champions League last-16 second leg at home to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday knowing the game will make or break their season.
How Bajaj, Colgate, Raymonds, Zee lost out.. Strategic errors have hurt many companies, says adguru Sandeep Goyal.
Images from day two of the 2011 French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, on Monday.
Persistent rain showers accompanied by a flood warning washed out the entire day's play at the French Open on Monday for the first time since 2000.
IMAGES from matches on Day 8 at the French Open
Venkatesan has decided to pursue opportunities outside Microsoft, Microsoft said in a statement.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter will not see out his latest term of office following his re-election on Friday because he will be forced to resign, English Football Association chairman Greg Dyke told reporters on Saturday.
Mourad Laachraoui, the brother of one of the Brussels suicide bombers, has won gold at the European Taekwondo Championships and is now set to compete for Belgium at the Olympic Games in Brazil.
There was only a scattering of fans inside the stadium as Sharapova took to the court on Wednesday, but after getting into her stride she overpowered the 91st-ranked Diatchenko.
Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho helped Liverpool reach the FA Cup fifth round.
In their first match since manager Claudio Ranieri was sacked after five successive defeats in which they failed to score a goal, Leicester produced the kind of vibrant display that carried them to glory last May.
Rampant Germany hammered Portugal 4-0, with four players sharing the goals, to progress to the semi-finals of the Rio Games football tournament on Saturday.
Barcelona's fourth defeat of the season left them seventh in the standings on 14 points after 10 games, 12 points behind leaders Atletico.
Rediff.com brings a preview of the main matches coming up this weekend in the English Premier League.
Under the new system, half the votes would belong to the players and coaches of the world's 211 national teams and half to the public, who will take part via an online ballot, and selected media representatives.
Sarri was without Cristiano Ronaldo for the trip to the Gewiss Stadium as the Portuguese forward recovers from a knee problem ahead of Tuesday's Champions League meeting with Atletico Madrid in Turin.
Clearstream and Deutsche Borse are targeting a two-fold jump in Asia-based investor trade.
Levante claim that Barcelona's teenage defender Chumi Brandariz, who played in the first leg, was ineligible to take part in the match because he was suspended.
Aiming to win their third French Open crown together, Indian veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have been seeded third in the clay-court Grand Slam. They open their campaign against the German pair of Tommy Haas and Philipp Petzschner.
Novak Djokovic will begin his French Open quest feeling "invincible" on Monday, according to former world number one Boris Becker.
An angry and frustrated Andy Roddick crashed out of the Cincinnati Open in the first round on Monday after suffering a three-set loss to 47th-ranked German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Jules Bianchi, who went into a coma after suffering brain injuries in a horrific crash in Japan last October, recorded his first points for Marussia at the Monaco GP last season.
The twice Wimbledon champion, a semi-finalist at Roland Garros in 2012, looked poised and focused, treating the sparse Court Philippe Chatrier crowd to a few exquisite drop shots and lightning-quick forehands.
Brazil comfortably reached the World Cup last 16 after Paulinho and Thiago Silva scored in each half to give them a 2-0 win over Serbia who were eliminated on Wednesday.
Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi warded off late resistance from the German-American pair of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Rajeev Ram to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.
Company will take a call after Assembly polls.
Cech's solid 'keeping and Liverpool's staunch defence ensured the match ended in a goalless stalemate
Brazil have shown all the signs they can rule the world yet again in Russia but they must make their excellent preparations count in their World Cup Group E opener against a resilient Switzerland side on Sunday in Rostov.
Rafa Nadal said he was not playing well enough to lift the French Open title despite breezing past Ivan Ljubicic in their fourth-round match on Monday.
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