When this year's French Open draw was made just over a week ago, American Shelby Rogers was right near the back of the queue, just avoiding the qualifiers by scraping in on the direct entry list.
Victor Hanescu mercilessly crushed India's hopes to make the Davis Cup World Group as he knocked out Prakash Amritraj in the first reverse singles to give Romania an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match playoff tie in Bucharest on Sunday.
Prakash Amritraj will take on Adrian Cruciat in the opening rubber while the in-form Somdev Devvarman faces Romanian No 1 Victor Hanescu in the crucial World Group play-off tie, in Bucharest, which commences on Friday. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi meet Cruciat and Horia Tecau in the doubles.
Romania's CFR Cluj shocked AS Roma 2-1 on their Champions League debut on Tuesday but there were no surprises for Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona or Inter Milan who all won their opening group games.
Melbourne Park's first glimpses of Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal were brief on Tuesday but Serena and Venus Williams both gave full value at the Australian Open with their first round wins.
Melbourne Park's first glimpse of Andy Murray was a brief one on Tuesday as the bookmakers' favourite for the Australian Open zipped through to round two in double-quick time when his opponent retired injured.
Here are eight women to watch during the US Open which starts on Monday.
Holders Manchester United will face familiar foes Celtic in this season's Champions League group stage.
Indian ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy pulled off a hard-fought victory over the Romanian pair of Victor Hanescu and Gabriel Trifu to enter the second round of the US Open men's doubles at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday night. The fourth seeds won 7-6(13/11), 7-6(7/4) after an hour and 47 minutes.
India's Isha Lakhani bowed out in the first round of the $ 25,000 Greater Noida ITF women's circuit tournament in Noida on Monday.
India's Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis, on Thursday, rallied to win their 29th match in a row, to reach the Sydney International women's doubles final and break a 22-year-old world record en route.
Top seed Simona Halep came back from 4-1 down in the deciding set to beat Elina Svitolina 6-3 3-6 6-4 in the Qatar Open semi-final on Friday, marking her first victory over the Ukrainian in nearly two years.
Paris St Germain will play Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona were pitted against an unpredictable Napoli, while Chelsea were drawn against Bayern Munich. City, who will be at home in the second leg, have yet to beat the Spanish side with two draws and two defeats in their previous four meetings.
Girondins Bordeaux ended the unbeaten Champions League run of surprise package CFR Cluj with a 1-0 win over the Romanian side.
While Kapil is an academy member of the Laureus World Sports Awards along with Australian cricket legend Steve Waugh, Yuvraj has been invited in role of an ambassador.
The 27-year-old Romanian beat Sloane Stephens at Roland Garros to win her maiden Grand Slam title in June and will have spent 40 weeks at the top of the rankings by the end of the season.
Russia's familiar domination of the synchronised swimming programme at the European Championships continued on Saturday as they won their third successive title in two days of competition, despite problems with the pool water.
Angelique Kerber displayed her grit and vaunted fitness as she battled back to beat France's Pauline Parmentier 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in scorching heat on Monday to reach the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open.
Venus Williams's bid for a 50th WTA title ended when she fell to Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva in the Round of 16 at the Volvo Car Open on Thursday, while Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber breezed into the last eight.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova recovered from a slow start to beat Romanian teenager Sorana Cirstea 7-6, 6-1 to reach the third round of the U.S. Open on Wednesday.
Chennai City FC, whom Real Kashmir had beaten twice this season, are leading the table with 30 points from 14 matches.
Petra Kvitova was proud of her second-set fightback against Naomi Osaka in the Australian Open final, on Saturday, but was left ruing her inability to convert her chances in her loss to the Japanese.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup, credited with expanding foreign ministry's social media outreach and handling sensitive issues deftly, was on Thursday appointed India's High Commissioner to Canada.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Olympic gold medalist and world champion Gabriela Szabo said she is happy to find so many participants running this year in the Mumbai marathon, which has taken distance running to an all new level in a cricket-obsessed nation.
Former world number one Novak Djokovic suffered a surprise second-round exit at the Barcelona Open when the Serb was beaten 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 by world number 140 Martin Klizan on Wednesday.
The ninth seeded Indo-Romanian rallied to shock the three-time champions 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(9), 7-6(5) in their quarter-final match.
Top seed Simona Halep came back from a set down for the third time in the tournament to beat Kazakhstan's rising star Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) to win the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for the second time on Saturday. In a battle that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours, the match came down to a tiebreak where two shots that went agonisingly wide for Rybakina eventually decided the title in front of a noisy crowd that constantly chanted Halep's name.
Serena William powered her way to within two victories of a seventh US Open title on Tuesday and while she refused to look ahead there are many willing to do it for her, and what they see is a suddenly open path to a 24th Grand Slam.
Getafe scored a 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich on Thursday to improve their hopes of reaching the UEFA Cup semi-finals in their debut European season. Bayer Leverkusen were routed 4-1 at home by Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg, while Fiorentina were held to a 1-1 draw at home by PSV Eindhoven and a bad-tempered clash in Glasgow ended goalless between Rangers and Sporting.
Serena Williams breezed past Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-1, 6-2 while Justine Henin beat Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 6-2.
World No 1 Serena Williams was handed the best possible draw for her WTA Finals title defence with the 33-year-old American grouped with two injury doubts and avoiding the in-form players.
Five things to watch out for at the French Open on Tuesday.
Brazil's Bruno Soares, fuelled by numerous cups of coffee, produced a doubles double on Sunday when he and Russian partner Elena Vesnina won the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Rod Laver Arena.
The best was saved for the last. After a day of mundane action and lopsided contests, China's Zi Yan showed tremendous grit to save three match points and oust eighth seed Maria Kirilenko in the first round of the WTA Tier II Bangalore Open on Tuesday night.
A second-half goal by Robin van Persie gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory over Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday.
The Indo-American pair beat the Polish-Romanian duo of Ursula Radwansaka and Agnes Szatmari 6-3, 6-2 in Tokyo on Tuesday.
On a day when top seed Sloane Stephens survived a scare before beating Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, Sakkari showcased supreme court coverage skills throughout her almost two-hour match against Bertens.
Serena, a six-times champion in New York who is seeded 17th, will start her campaign against Polish world number 60 Magda Linette and could face Venus in the third round before a possible fourth-round showdown with Romanian top seed Halep.
