Venus Williams's bid for a 50th WTA title ended when she fell to Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva in the Round of 16 at the Volvo Car Open on Thursday, while Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber breezed into the last eight.
IMAGES from the matches played at the Miami Open on Thursday
Chelsea, last season's beaten finalists, are taking nothing for granted in their first match against Romanian opposition despite Cluj's lack of European experience.
Victor Hanescu mercilessly crushed India's hopes to make the Davis Cup World Group as he knocked out Prakash Amritraj in the first reverse singles to give Romania an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match playoff tie in Bucharest on Sunday.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup, credited with expanding foreign ministry's social media outreach and handling sensitive issues deftly, was on Thursday appointed India's High Commissioner to Canada.
Serena, a six-times champion in New York who is seeded 17th, will start her campaign against Polish world number 60 Magda Linette and could face Venus in the third round before a possible fourth-round showdown with Romanian top seed Halep.
Prakash Amritraj will take on Adrian Cruciat in the opening rubber while the in-form Somdev Devvarman faces Romanian No 1 Victor Hanescu in the crucial World Group play-off tie, in Bucharest, which commences on Friday. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi meet Cruciat and Horia Tecau in the doubles.
Romania's CFR Cluj shocked AS Roma 2-1 on their Champions League debut on Tuesday but there were no surprises for Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona or Inter Milan who all won their opening group games.
Melbourne Park's first glimpses of Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal were brief on Tuesday but Serena and Venus Williams both gave full value at the Australian Open with their first round wins.
Melbourne Park's first glimpse of Andy Murray was a brief one on Tuesday as the bookmakers' favourite for the Australian Open zipped through to round two in double-quick time when his opponent retired injured.
Indian ace Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy pulled off a hard-fought victory over the Romanian pair of Victor Hanescu and Gabriel Trifu to enter the second round of the US Open men's doubles at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday night. The fourth seeds won 7-6(13/11), 7-6(7/4) after an hour and 47 minutes.
Holders Manchester United will face familiar foes Celtic in this season's Champions League group stage.
India's Isha Lakhani bowed out in the first round of the $ 25,000 Greater Noida ITF women's circuit tournament in Noida on Monday.
Five things to watch out for at the French Open on Tuesday.
Girondins Bordeaux ended the unbeaten Champions League run of surprise package CFR Cluj with a 1-0 win over the Romanian side.
For someone who took to shooting just a little over two years ago, winning two gold medals at a global event of this magnitude would easily qualify as some achievement.
The ninth seeded Indo-Romanian rallied to shock the three-time champions 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(9), 7-6(5) in their quarter-final match.
World number one Naomi Osaka was beaten in her opening match at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday, losing to France's Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-3 on her return to competitive action after winning last month's Australian Open.
Novak Djokovic destroyed a woeful Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-1, 6-2 to book his place in the semi-finals of the Paris Masters.
Former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova recovered from a slow start to beat Romanian teenager Sorana Cirstea 7-6, 6-1 to reach the third round of the U.S. Open on Wednesday.
Brazil's Bruno Soares, fuelled by numerous cups of coffee, produced a doubles double on Sunday when he and Russian partner Elena Vesnina won the Australian Open mixed doubles title on Rod Laver Arena.
World No 1 Serena Williams was handed the best possible draw for her WTA Finals title defence with the 33-year-old American grouped with two injury doubts and avoiding the in-form players.
Sania Mirza remained the only Indian surviving in the French Open by cruising to the quarter-finals with partner Martina Hingis while seasoned Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna bowed out after third round defeats in Paris.
Olympic gold medalist and world champion Gabriela Szabo said she is happy to find so many participants running this year in the Mumbai marathon, which has taken distance running to an all new level in a cricket-obsessed nation.
Can World No. 1 Simona Halep thrive at the All England Club? Or will Serena Williams add to her seven Wimbledon titles?
A calm Sloane Stephens picked her shots to perfection to overcome Japan's Naomi Osaka in a battle between the last two US Open champions at the WTA Finals on Monday before top seed Angelique Kerber was upset by Kiki Bertens.
Petra Kvitova takes on Naomi Osaka in Saturday's Australian Open final with one of them set to emerge as a fresh champion at Melbourne Park as well as the new world number one.
Images from Day 1 of the 2020 French Open, in Paris, on Sunday.
2010 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner Diego Forlan struck a brilliant hat-trick, the first of the season, to power Mumbai City FC to the top of the Indian Super League table with a 5-0 demolition of Kerala Blasters in Mumbai on Saturday.
'I was aggressive. I had this in my mind, and I wanted to finish the points quicker, but was not that easy with her. She's moving very well. She was returning every single ball'
The Romanian broke Williams's serve in the first game but that was the only one she managed for the rest of the opening set as the American bulldozed her way through the set in 20 minutes, serving it out with an ace.
Getafe scored a 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich on Thursday to improve their hopes of reaching the UEFA Cup semi-finals in their debut European season. Bayer Leverkusen were routed 4-1 at home by Russian champions Zenit St Petersburg, while Fiorentina were held to a 1-1 draw at home by PSV Eindhoven and a bad-tempered clash in Glasgow ended goalless between Rangers and Sporting.
Serena Williams breezed past Romanian Edina Gallovits 6-1, 6-2 while Justine Henin beat Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 6-2.
The best was saved for the last. After a day of mundane action and lopsided contests, China's Zi Yan showed tremendous grit to save three match points and oust eighth seed Maria Kirilenko in the first round of the WTA Tier II Bangalore Open on Tuesday night.
A second-half goal by Robin van Persie gave Arsenal a 1-0 victory over Steaua Bucharest on Tuesday.
The Indo-American pair beat the Polish-Romanian duo of Ursula Radwansaka and Agnes Szatmari 6-3, 6-2 in Tokyo on Tuesday.
'I will put everything I have Saturday on the court'
The draw for the first Grand Slam of the season was made on Thursday and the top seeds could face some early tests of their credentials when play gets underway in Melbourne on Monday.
Former men's champion Mats Wilander believes third seed Muguruza now looks like the most likely champion, having not dropped a set and thrashing Maria Sharapova on Wednesday.
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