France, who were 2-0 up courtesy of Arthur Rinderknech and Adrian Mannarino, faced little resistance from Ecuador as wins for Benjamin Bonzi and the doubles pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicholas Mahut secured victory for the 10-times champions.
Eugenie Bouchard's mid-season nosedive continued on Tuesday as the Canadian was swept aside 6-3 6-4 by Croatian qualifier Donna Vekic despite having home advantage and the backing of an excited crowd in a first round clash at the Rogers Cup.
Veteran Canada batsman John Davison will bow out of international cricket after his side's last World Cup match against Australia at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Spain are the first nation to join exempted France, Australia, Czech Republic and hosts Hungary in the revamped finals taking place in April.
Punjab Cricket Association has requested former India all-rounder Yuvraj Singh to come out of retirement and become a player-cum-mentor of the Punjab team in domestic cricket.
American World Cup champion Alex Morgan will be one of two women football players to score a first by featuring on the front cover of FIFA, the world's most popular football video game.
Britain's world number one Andy Murray will play against France in the Davis Cup quarter-finals in April after missing the first-round victory against Canada last weekend.
USA have played three ODIs, including two at the 2004 Champions Trophy, and lost all of them.
FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has dismissed allegations of gender discrimination over the decision to play the women's World Cup on artificial turf, saying the surface could also be used for the men's tournament in the future.
Mexico's national team has launched a campaign to discourage fans from shouting homophobic slurs during football matches.
Creating a nationwide buzz, India's music icon A R Rahman on Thursday shared the teaser video which features Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and him doing the 'Hockey Hook Step'.
Former world number one Andy Murray is in line to play Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round of the inaugural ATP Cup, with Bulgaria qualifying among the final six teams in the nation-based tournament.
Vice-captain Sanjay scored a brilliant hat-trick but it was not enough as defending champions India were stunned by unfancied France in their opening Pool B match of the FIH Junior Hockey World Cup, in Bhubaneswar, on Wednesday.
Infantino travelled to Washington to discuss the establishment of a FIFA headquarters in the US
Global television audiences for the Women's World Cup in Canada bounced sharply higher in the opening days of the tournament and merchandise flew off the shelves, underscoring the growing popularity of the beautiful game.
Top singles player Yuki Bhambri on Monday returned to the Indian Davis Cup team along with Saketh Myneni even as veteran Leander Paes was expectedly dropped from the squad for the tie against Canada next month.
Marin Cilic completed a dream week by steering Croatia into the Davis Cup World Group on Sunday but Spain found themselves out in the wilderness after crashing to defeat in Brazil.
India now play Chile in the summit clash. Chile had beaten Uruguay 2-1 in the second semi-final.
Andreescu's win over Bencic also meant she became the first Canadian woman to make the US Open final, where she faces Serena Williams, who is chasing a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam single title.
A round-up of all tennis action on Friday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football fieLd
The minnows may be heartbroken following ICC's decision to dump them out of the next two World Cups but Cricket Australia has no problem in hosting the big event without non-Test nations.
Statistical highlights of the Australia vs Canada Group A match of the World Cup in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Led by Elton Chigumbura, Zimbabwe's World Cup squad arrived in Chennai on Wednesday evening to play in a warm-up match against South Africa on Feb 12, as part of their preparations for the upcoming World Cup.
Players at this year's women's World Cup, trying to settle a lawsuit against FIFA, will play on artificial turf as long as the final matches are on natural grass, their lawyer said.
Venus Williams has pulled out of the upcoming Brisbane International after suffering a 'setback' in training
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Coming into the do-or-die match, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes, with a combined age of 86, won 6-3, 6-7(9), 7-5 after two hours and 21 minutes against Pavic and Skugor, ranked 15 and 32 respectively.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The 12 winners of the Qualifiers on March 6-7 next year will compete alongside the six nations that have automatically qualified for the 2020 Finals.
Summary of World Cup qualifiers played across the world on Thursday
India caused a stir in Zagreb where veteran duo Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna edged Mate Pavic and Franko Skugor in Saturday's doubles to keep alive the tie but Marin Cilic quickly doused Indian hopes with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Sumit Nagal.
America's chances of hosting the 2026 World Cup are not likely to be hurt by a US led corruption investigation that has ensnared key figures in FIFA, world soccer's governing body, analysts said on Thursday.
One of the reasons Yuvraj retired was that he wanted to play in leagues around the world and have "some fun". At the moment, the BCCI doesn't allow an active cricketer to take part in a foreign league.
Aseem Chhabra rates the movies he's watched in 2023, and tells you where you can watch them!
Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil subdued Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoljac 6-7(6), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8 in a rip-roaring doubles on Saturday to give Canada a 2-1 lead against 2010 winners Serbia in their Davis Cup semi-final.
The struggle of Indian women shuttlers on the BWF circuit is quite apparent, but Saina Nehwal backs her colleagues by saying that even the strong Chinese players are finding it difficult to dish out strong performances on a consistent basis and expressed hope that the lean patch of the singles players will end soon.
It ended a woeful few days for reigning champions Croatia. They left with two losses.
The selection committee has picked World No. 246 Prajnesh as Yuki's replacement as he is the next best singles ranked player.
