Konta, Sharapova fall at Rogers Cup in Toronto
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
The seventh seeded pair of Indian veteran Leander Paes and Austrian Alexander Peya advanced to the French Open second round after notching a three-set victory in their opening men's doubles match at the Roland Garros in Paris. Paes-Peya defeated Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 in a contest lasting a little over two hours.
Professional soccer leagues around Europe are gearing up for a return to action following the novel coronavirus stoppage, but some are more advanced than others.
The Indian pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza were down 5-7, 2-3 in their mixed doubles tennis quarter-final against the Belarusian pair of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka when play was suspended for the day because of bad light.
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza looked like regular partners on the circuit as they demolished the Serbian pair of Ana Ivanovic and Nenad Zimonjic in the first round of the mixed doubles at the London Olympics, on Thursday and Paes had big praise for his partner after the win.
Indian challenge ended at the Hong Kong Open World Tour Super 500 tournament after Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma lost their respective men's singles quarterfinal matches on Friday.
India had a relatively fruitful day on the tennis courts of Wimbledon, with the warring duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi advancing to the second round of the men's doubles with their respective partners, even as the country's singles challenge ended at the London Olympics with the defeat of Vishnu Vardhan.
Gold medal favourites Brazil became the first team to qualify for the quarter-finals as they came from behind to beat Belarus 3-1 at Old Trafford, thanks to an inspired performance from Neymar, who scored and set up the two other goals.
The 2021 men's and women's U-17 European Championships have been cancelled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, UEFA said on Friday.
After a series of poor results that have hurt their quarter-inal qualifying hopes, Venky's Mumbai Fighters have decided to field an all-foreign team of pugilists in their last home group tie against cellar outfit Bangkok Elephants in the World Series Boxing clash on Friday.
Unseeded American Lauren Davis secured the first big upset of the BNP Paribas Open when she ousted third seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the second round in Indian Wells on Friday.
Asian Games gold-medallist Sudha Singh ran a below par 9:53.94s to finish fifth in women's 3,000m steeplechase in the Bottrop Gala International Meet in Germany.
Serena Williams roared into a her seventh Wimbledon singles final with a 6-3, 7-6 victory over Victoria Azarenka on Thursday. She will face Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in Saturday's final.
Fifteenth seeds Samantha Stosur and Nenad Zimonjic claimed the mixed doubles title with a 6-4, 6-2 win against 14th seeds Chan Hao-Ching of Taiwan and Max Mirnyi of Belarus at Wimbledon on Sunday in the final match of the 2014 championships.
Leander Paes and Anderson failed to clear the second-round hurdle, going down to the Serbian pair of Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic at the AEGON Championships in London.
Olympics-bound Vikas Krishan (69kg) and Shiva Thapa (56kg) assured India of at least two bronze medals at the 43rd men's and women's Boxing Grand Prix after reaching the semi-finals of the event in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic.
World No 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus charged into the final of the Indian Wells WTA tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Germany's Angelique Kerber on Friday.
India's Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina of Russia fought their way to the mixed doubles semi-finals of the French Open with a thrilling 4-6, 7-5, 10-5 victory over Max Mirnyi of Belarus and American Liezel Huber.
The Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna upset top seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada's Daniel Nestor in a hard-fought battle to enter the men's doubles semi-finals of the Internazionali BNL D'Italia tennis tournament in Rome.
BNP Paribas Open chief executive and tournament director Raymond Moore provoked outrage with controversial comments he made before the women's and men's finals at Indian Wells, and later issued an official apology.
World No 1 Victoria Azarenka enjoyed another walk in the park against Agnieszka Radwanska on Saturday, beating the Pole for the fifth time this year to reach the Stuttgart Grand Prix final.
Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek upset second seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Max Mirnyi of Belarus to win the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Saturday. The newly-formed Indo-Czech pair needed 82 minutes to prevail 3-6, 6-1, 10-8.
Four Olympic weightlifting champions from Kazakhstan, including the sport's most celebrated figure Ilya Ilyin, are among 10 lifters to have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs at the London 2012 Olympics after their samples were reanalysed.
Seventh seeds Leander Paes-Radek Stepanek caused a major upset, beating formidable top seeds Mike and Bob Bryan 6-4, 6-4, but Mahesh Bhupathi-Rohan Bopanna went down 2-6, 4-6 to second seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canada's Daniel Nestor.
Asian Games gold medalist and youth Olympics bronze medalist Vikas Krishan (69 kgs) stunned seventh seeded Nurudzinov Mahamed of Belarus to storm into the pre-quarter finals of the AIBA World Boxing Championships in progress at Baku.
Wins deciding set shootout after premature celebration. The Briton, who overcame dual Grand Slam semi-finalist Ekaterina Makarova, thought she had won the first round match after reaching seven points in the third set tiebreak and celebrated accordingly.
Leander Paes had a great day at the Australian Open as he reached the final of the men's doubles event pairing Radek Stepanek and also made it to the mixed doubles semifinals with Elena Vesnina in Melbourne on Thursday.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had disqualified weightlifting gold medallists Cao Lei (75kg), Chen Xiexia (48 kg) and Liu Chunhong (69kg) from the Beijing Games after they tested positive for prohibited substances.
Barcelona and AC Milan can effectively seal their expected places in the Champions League knockout stage with three games remaining when they play rank outsiders Viktoria Plzen and BATE Borisov respectively in their Group H matches on Wednesday.
A summary of Tuesday's qualification matches next year's FIFA World Cup.
Local youngster Prasanna Rao, an International Master, surprisingly held top seed Aleksandrov Aleksey of Belarus to a draw in the fourth round of the 4th Mayor's Cup International Chess Tournament on Sunday.
The Indian pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi bowed out of the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals after losing to eighth-seeded Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski via the super tie-break in the semi-finals in London on Saturday. Fyrstenberg and Matkowski needed an hour and 39 minutes to prevail over the fourth seeds and three-time former finalists 6-4, 4-6, 10-6 and reach their 31st tour-level doubles final.
Maps showing density of hospital beds and doctors per 10,000 population across the world.
'Washington senses that the anchor sheet of India's strategic autonomy lies in its longstanding partnership with Russia, which remains firm and immutable despite the changes in world politics in the post-Cold War era,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.<
Sania Mirza won her third WTA doubles title of the season, and 12th overall, when she and Yaroslava Shvedova pipped Olga Govortsova of Belarus and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia in the final of the Citi Open at College Park on Sunday. Defending their top billing, the Indo-Kazakh pair overcame the second seeds 6-3, 6-3 after an hour and five minutes' struggle.
Serena Williams may have been second best at the French Open on Saturday but the American has moved ahead of fellow tennis player Maria Sharapova to top the women's earnings list in sports, according to Forbes Magazine. Williams ended the Russian's 11-year reign as the world number one women's money earner in sports by hauling in $28.9 million in combined prize money and off-field earnings over the past 12 months, the magazine said on Monday. Sharapova, who lost some sponsorship money after announcing she had tested positive for the recently banned substance meldonium at the Australian Open in January and is provisionally suspended, holds second spot at $21.9 million.
Former Arsenal star Alexander Hleb says he made a mistake by leaving the Emirates to join Barcelona in 2008, and expressed regret at turning his back on managerial 'great' Arsene Wenger.
Former European champions Red Star Belgrade, Ajax Amsterdam and Celtic all made it comfortably through to the third qualifying round of the Champions League on Wednesday after surviving away legs.
Fourth seed Vera Zvonareva bundled Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova out of the Pan Pacific Open with a 7-6, 6-0 victory on Friday to book a place in the Tokyo finals. The Russian faces Agnieszka Radwanska for the title on Saturday after the Pole beat Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 under a setting sun in the second semi-final.
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