Top seeded Ash Barty overcame a slow start to defeat Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-1, while Simona Halep battled past Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6 7-5 6-4 in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters on Wednesday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
Star Indian shuttler H S Prannoy produced a gallant fight before going down narrowly to China's Huang Yuxiang in the men singles quarter-finals of the All England Championship in Birmingham.
Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu continued their winning run at the Malaysia Open notching up contrasting victories to reach the quarter-finals of the women's singles competition at the USD 550,000 Super Series Premier tournament.
Frenchman Benoit lost his temper in the third game of the second set when top seed Tsitsipas halted the match to attend to a broken shoe lace.
On Tuesday, the 20-year-old Woman Grandmaster was among the quickest finishers in Round 2 of the World Junior Chess Championships at the Hotel Hyatt, in Pune.
Rio Olympic silver-medallist P V Sindhu entered the semi-finals of the Hong Kong Super Series after posting a hard-fought victory over Singapore's Xiaoyu Liang even as Saina Nehwal bowed of the competition on Friday, ending all hopes of a Saina-Sindhu semi-final battle.
Kidambi Srikanth is against any drastic changes in the scoring system being contemplated by the world body.
Jitu Rai became the first Indian shooter to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics after bagging a quota place with an impressive silver medal-finish at the 51st Shooting World Championships, in Granada.
The fixtures of the inaugural edition of the Indian Badminton League which kicks-off on August 14.
Saina Nehwal eschews the 'natural talent' tag thrust upon her by Indian media and says only hard graft and good coaching have given her the chance to turn the Olympic badminton bronze she won four years ago in London into gold at the Rio Games.
Rising Indian midfielder Manpreet Singh was named the 'Junior Player of the Year' by the Asian Hockey Federation in its Congress held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
A summary of Day Three's matches at the Wimbledon Championships.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal inched closer to retaining her women's singles title, while other top Indian shuttlers, including P V Sindhu, also made it to the semi-finals of the $120,000 Syed Modi International Badminton tournament.
Sania and her American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands shocked second seeds Martina Hingis and Flavia Penneta, winning 6-3, 6-3 in the quarter-finals of Apia International. Rohan Bopanna and Daniel Nestor beat the Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.
eander Paes will make yet another attempt to set a Davis Cup record for the most doubles victories when India takes on China in a new two-day format for a place in the World Group Play-offs, in Tianjin, China, on Friday.
National badminton coach, Pullela Gopichand, on Wednesday expressed happiness at the performance this year of Indian shuttlers and termed Kidambi Srikanth's feat of winning four Super Series titles as 'phenomenal'.
Saina Nehwal guided the Indian women's team to a crushing 5-0 win over Canada to launch their Uber Cup campaign in style but their men's counterpart came a cropper against former champions Malaysia as they suffered a crushing 1-4 defeat in Thomas Cup in New Delhi.
Hima Das shattered the 400m national record for a second time in two days for a silver while Dutee Chand grabbed the second place in 100m dash on another good day for India's track and field athletes at the Asian Games.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza on winning the season-ending WTA Finals women's doubles title, calling it a 'proud accomplishment'.
It was double bonanza for India at the Canada Open as B Sai Praneeth and Rio-bound men's doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy clinched twin crowns after winning their respective title clash at the $ 55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, in Calgary, Canada.
Indian Army's reported plan to set up think-tanks focussing on China has evoked mixed reactions among scholars in Beijing with some calling it a positive move and others saying it showed that Indian security forces have identified the PLA as a "real strategic rival".
Kidambi Srikanth might be inching towards the coveted World No 1 ranking after his record-equalling Super Series win in Paris but he says he does not want to lose sleep over chasing it.
Revising India's GDP upwards by 0.3 per cent to 6.3 per cent in 2015, Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said the economy shows a new promise of turnaround after the election brought a stable government in May.
Images from matches played on Day 4 of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Thursday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
World champion Chen Long avoided a potential first-round exit at the All-England Championships on Wednesday and blamed an uncomfortable pillow for a sluggish start to his campaign.
Images from Day 3 of the 2016 Australian Open in Melbourne, on Wednesday
Saina Nehwal will lead India's charge in the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament which begins in Macau on Tuesday after three-time champion P V Sindhu pulled out of the event to prepare herself for the Dubai Super Series Finals.
'The military officers at China's National People's Congress reflect Xi Jinping's preference for elevating politically reliable, younger, officers with good professional qualifications,' says former RAW officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
India's Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe's Cara Black entered the final of the WTA China Open, shocking top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-4 on Friday. In doing do they extended their unbeaten run to eight matches, and Sania put herself in line for her fifth title of the season.
China is training Buddhist monks and nuns in Tibet to carry out anti-espionage operations along the remote Sino-Indian border.
It has been rated second after Cambodia's Angkor Wat.
Three-time champion Lee Chong Wei was sensationally beaten by India's B Sai Praneeth in the first round of the All-England Championships on Wednesday, putting a firm dent into his preparations ahead of the Rio Olympics . The Malaysian second seed was beaten 24-22 22-20, which ended a promising few months where he had won his last four events. "I can't believe I lost in the first round," Lee told reporters. "I had pressure to win but I made mistakes and I'm shocked at how well he played. "This is a real learning curve for me." Lee, the former world number one, was playing his first All-England since 2014 following his eight-month drug suspension ended last year. Praneeth, however, clawed his way back from 11-3 and 15-7 deficits in the first game to take control of the match and hailed the win as his best result. "It is a big shock for me too and after the last rally I cannot believe that I won," said Praneeth, who set up a last 16 clash with Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus.
HS Prannoy notched up a thrilling three-game win over Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap in an all-Indian final to clinch the $ 120,000 US Open Grand Prix Gold in Anaheim, California.
Top seed Dominic Thiem was knocked out the Rio Open in the first round on Tuesday, going down 6-3, 6-3 to Laslo Djere.
Awadhe Warriors brother-sister pair of Markis Kido and Pia Bernadeth held their nerves in a close encounter to win the crucial fifth match and the tie 3-2 against Mumbai Masters in the second semi-final to set up the summit clash with Hyderabad Hotshots in the Indian Badminton League on Thursday.
Saina Nehwal guided the Indian women's team to a dominating 5-0 win over Germany to stay on course for a knockout berth in Uber Cup, but the men's team suffered a narrow 2-3 defeat against Hong Kong, staring at an early exit in Thomas Cup badminton tournament in Kunshan, China.
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