A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
On a largely disappointing day for Indian tennis players, Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza lost their respective doubles matches in the second round of the Australian Open, leaving the country's challenge restricted to the mixed doubles competition.
Shaik Abdullah and Fatehdeep Singh came a cropper in the decisive doubles rubber as India lost the opening tie on the junior Davis Cup Asia/Oceania qualifying round 1-2 to fourth seed Chinese Taipei in Delhi on Monday.
Indian women spikers suffered their third successive defeat in the Asian Games, going down 0-3 to Chinese Taipei in their last preliminary Group B match at the Guangwai Gymnasium in Guangzhou on Monday.
On an extremely bad for India at the Denmark Open, top seed Saina Nehwal suffered a shock second round defeat while Kidambi Srikanth also failed to clear the second round in men's singles of the $650,000 Super Series Premier event, in Odense on Thursday.
News reports cited police as saying they suspected blast in the capital of Taipei had been caused by some kind of explosive in the train carriage.
Indian shuttlers Ajay Jayaram and B Sai Praneeth advanced to the semi-finals of the $55,000 Canada Open Grand Prix badminton tournament after notching up contrasting victories in the men's singles competition in Calgary, Canada.
Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu celebrated her 23rd birthday with a straight-game win over Japan's Aya Ohori to enter the quarter-finals of the $1,250,000 Indonesia Open BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.
Sindhu, who is currently competing at the French Open in Paris, jumped one rung to stay one spot behind Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu Ying, who continues to dominate the rankings.
Here's a glimpse of how the world welcomed 2016.
Sania Mirza earned herself a shot at another WTA title by reaching the summit clash of the WTA Wuhan Open with Czech partner Barbora Strycova, in Wuhan, on Friday.
A goalless draw against Chinese Taipei gave India the top spot in Group A.
31 passengers are confirmed dead while 12 are still missing, said officials.
Saina Nehwal scripted a remarkable victory over reigning World Champion Carolina Marin to turn around her campaign at the BWF Super Series Finals even as Srikanth faced exit after suffering his second straight loss in the men's singles in Dubai.
The Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare settled for a bronze after losing their women's doubles semi-final to Chinese Taipei's Chin Wei Chan and Su Wei Hsiehin in the Asian Games, in Incheon on Sunday.
Top seed South Korea blanked unseeded Chinese Taipei 3-0 to win the Uber Cup Asian Zone\nQualifiers.
Elina Svitolina won the women's singles at the Italian Open final to claim her fourth title of the season on Sunday after her opponent Simona Halep sunk without trace in the final set.
The prestigious awards recognise the achievements of the elite badminton players
Saina Mirza and Saketh Myneni proved too strong for the Chinese Taipei combination of Hsien Yin Peng and Hao Ching Chan to win the gold in the mixed doubles final at the Asian Games.
Sanjivani Jadhav, one of the rising stars of Indian athletics, clinched the silver medal in the women's 10,000 metres at the 29th World University Games in Taipei City.
Star Indian shuttlers P V Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth fought their hearts out before suffering close defeats in their respective group 'B' openers at the US$ 1.5 million HSBC BWF World Tour Finals, in Bangkok, on Wednesday.
Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal crashed out of the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton tournament in Basel.
'But one of the important things to remember is that what we are seeing today in India -- the destruction of the forests, the opening up of the forests to mining companies.' 'It's a horrifying thing that's going on.' 'Yet, if you look at who owns the mining companies, you will see that almost always they are vegetarians!' 'They are people, who in their own lives would probably not even hurt an insect, but yet have no qualms about destroying an entire ecosystem.'
The third-seeded Indian defeated World No. 39 Saena Kawakami of Japan 21-15, 21-13 in the opening round at the Olympic Sports Center Xincheng Gymnasium.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
Fourth seeded Sindhu took 39 minutes to get the better of World No 22 Mia 21-13, 21-19, her second straight win over the Dane.
Sania Mirza bowed out of the Aegon Classic when she and her Chinese Taipei partner Chuang Chia-Jung lost in straight sets in the semi-finals in Birmingham on Saturday night. The third-seeded Indo-Taipei pair lost 5-7, 3-6 to the top seeded Zimbabwean-American pair of Cara Black and Liezel Huber.
In what seems to be a mouth-watering clash for Indian tennis fans, Rohan Bopanna set up a semi-final clash with veteran Leander Paes after the two players won their respective mixed doubles matches on Day 8 of the US Open in New York, on Monday.
Pilot Liao Chien-Tsung was still clutching the joystick when his body was found in the cockpit.
India's campaign came to an end at the Western and Southern Open after Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis crashed out.
The 20-year-old's top prize, however, did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in last year's World Championships.
India's leading players Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Sumit Nagal lost in the pre-quarter-finals, ending India's challenge in the men's singles, of the Bengaluru Open, in Bengaluru, on Thursday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Sania Mirza conceded her first round singles match of the qualifying event of the USD 600,000 Aegon International in Eastbourne after suffering a hip-strain.
Brimming with confidence after becoming the first Indian mixed doubles pair to win a Grand Prix Gold title in Chinese Taipei, Jwala Gutta and V Diju have now set their eyes on cracking the top-five of world ranking by the year end.
Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Monday said the government will not have any say on whether India should participate in next month's Davis Cup tie in Pakistan as the event is not a bilateral engagement.
After losing the first game, the 24-year-old Indian rebounded strongly to clinch a 15-21, 21-13, 21-13 win over Wan Ho in a gruelling second-round clash that lasted almost an hour.
India clinched one gold and one bronze in the recurve section to finish second behind Korea with six medals in the Asian Archery Championship that concluded in Chinese Taipei on Saturday.
Saina squandered a game advantage to lose 21-16, 11-21, 14-21 against Takahashi
