Already without the likes of Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils for the final against Croatia, Noah decided to leave out Lucas Pouille, the top-ranked player in his squad.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Dark horse Croatia take on spirited Nigeria in a World Cup opener on Saturday that could leave one side fighting for their tournament lives in the Group of Death.
All 112 matches of the 'NZ Premier League' will be played in Auckland without spectators but broadcast live on Sky Sport or the Youtube channel, Sky Sport Next, Tennis New Zealand said on Monday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Jeswin Aldrin, who had already qualified for the championships, however missed the cut.
Sourabh kept moving ahead despite a spirited fight from Heo and eventually pocketed the match.
Ankita Raina and Karman Kaur Thandi will have to punch above their weight when the battle to qualify for Fed Cup tennis tournament's World Group II,
Talismanic captain Sunil Chhetri scored in his milestone appearance but India lost 1-3 to higher-ranked Curacao in their opening match of the King's Cup football tournament in Igor Stimac's first game in charge, in Burirasm, Thailand, on Wednesday.
"It's the other end of the spectrum now ... You can't wait just to get out there on the cricket field and running around with your mates, getting stuck into training and playing games."
In a bid to keep herself fit for the packed international schedule this year, Indian shuttler P V Sindhu will not be defending her women's singles title at the $120,000 Malaysia Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament to be held at Johor Bahru from March 25-30.
Sloane Stephens said she is ready to turn the page on a disappointing 2019 and shift her focus to climbing the world tennis rankings to qualify for next year's Tokyo Olympics.
India's chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand admitted to crammed BWF itinerary causing a problem but at the same time believes that onus is on a player of PV Sindhu's calibre to adapt to the calendar instead of complaining about it. Apart from the World Championships gold, Sindhu failed to win any other tournament last year.
Jerome Barson, who was a passenger in a sedan that collided with the SUV that Venus Williams was driving, died 13 days after the accident.
Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu's Indian Wells triumph was not shown on television in her home country but that did not dampen the excitement across a nation where the future of women's tennis is suddenly looking as bright as ever.
Defending champions India, with several experienced players in their ranks, have the upper hand in their opening encounter against Japan in the sixth men's Junior Asia Cup hockey tournament, starting in Hyderabad on Friday. India had beaten arch-rivals Pakistan to clinch the title in the last edition of the event at Karachi four years ago.
The focus will be on K L Rahul and Vijay Shankar, contenders for the number four slot, in the World Cup warm up match against New Zealand, in London, on Saturday.
Russian fans and politicians joined in an outpouring of jubilation on Thursday as the host nation unexpectedly routed Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the opening match of the World Cup.
India were held by a lower-ranked Malaysia to a 1-1 draw the Lal Bahadur Shastri four-nation women's hockey.
China shrugged off badminton's biggest Olympic scandal to sweep all five titles at London four years ago but the Asian super-power is trying to keep a lid on expectations of another bumper gold medal haul at the Rio de Janeiro Games. The peerless team that set up the 'Great Haul of China' in London will line up almost unchanged at Rio, anchored by men's singles great Lin Dan and women's champion Li Xuerui. So strong were the Chinese in 2012 that they swept the titles without the reigning world champion women's doubles pairing of Wang Xiaoli and Yu Yang, who were expelled from the tournament in disgrace.
'Saina and Sindhu are top contenders, but they will have to beat players who are playing solid badminton at this juncture.'
A look at how India's players fared at the T20 World Cup.
PV Sindhu finally fetched India its first ever World Championships gold in the sport but spent rest of the year struggling for form.
World champions Germany are to meet Ukraine, Poland and Northern Ireland in Group C.
For India to send two shuttlers in Tokyo Olympics women's singles, both of them will have to be inside top 16 in the world rankings which will be released after the end of qualification period, on April 30, 2020.
Saina Nehwal has gained a place to be fifth in the latest Badminton World Federation women's singles rankings released on Thursday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
In other India-related news, Manish Kaurav (KL3 men 200m) and Manjeet Singh (VL2 men 200m) made it to the finals of their respective events for the first time in the history of the tournament.
Sumit Nagal lived a dream when he took on one of the greatest players of all time at a packed Arthur Ashe stadium in a US Open first-rounder.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
The Indian womens team failed to qualify for the finals and went down fighting to South Africa in a crucial round-robin match of the four-nation Hockey Tournament in Parana, Argentina.
The Indian ace upset eighth seed Petya Nedeltcheva of Bulgaria in the Swiss Open badminton tournament.
Winger Mohammed Alzeno scored a goal and set up two more to earn Syria their second win in the five-nation Nehru Cup.
For the first time in 11 years, opening practice at the Masters was suspended and the merchandise shop can expect a run on umbrellas with more rain forecast for later in the week.
With Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting calling Ravichandran Ashwin "one of the most successful spinners in IPL history", the 33-year-old feels he has started understanding his role better.
Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Ramkumar Ramanathan will lead the singles challenge, while Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan will make the doubles pair for the grass court tie.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
Having slumped in the rankings, champion shuttler Parupalli Kashyap tells Aruneel Sadadekar/Rediff.com how he plans to qualify for the Rio Olympics.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi insists that his consistent presence on the pro circuit should not be considered preparations for the Rio Olympics.
