Melbourne, Jan 26 : Defending champion Stanislas Wawrinka exhibited a power packed performance to overcome his Spanish opponent Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in tight four sets to advance to the quarter-finals of Australian Open in Melbourne.

Avenging last year's French Open loss, the fourth seeded trounced Lopez 7-6(2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(8) to book his place in the last eight.

Moreover, fifth seeded Kei Nishikori cruised into the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory over his Spanish opponent David Ferrer.

Wawrinka will now face his U. S Open nemesis Kei Nishikori to book a semifinal berth. (ANI)

London, Jan 12 : 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer beat big-hitting Canadian Milos Raonic to secure his 1,000th career win as he bagged the Brisbane International title.

Federer beat Raonic 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4 on Pat Rafter Arena to clinch his 83rd career title and the Swiss becomes the third man, after Jimmy Connors and Ivan Lendl, to secure 1,000 ATP wins.

The world number two said that he has played a lot of tennis over the years so to get to 1,000 wins means a lot to him, adding that it is a special moment undoubtedly, and insisting that he would never forget this match, the BBC reported.

Melbourne, Dec 30 : Indian cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has announced his retirement from Test Cricket citing the strain of playing all formats of Cricket.

Dhoni, who led India to the number one position in the Test rankings, has chosen to retire from Test Cricket with immediate effect in order to concentrate on ODI and T20 formats.

Releasing a statement, BCCI thanked Dhoni for his enormous contribution to Test Cricket and the laurels that he has brought to India.

Virat Kohli will be the captain of the Indian Team for the Fourth and Final Test against Australia to be played in Sydney from the 6th of January 2015. (ANI)

Melbourne, Dec 27 : India trail Australia by 422 runs with nine wickets remaining at the draw of stumps on the second day of the fiercely competed third Test in Melbourne.

Resuming batting on the second day, skipper Steve Smith played an impressive knock of 192 runs to guide Australia's total 530.

Returning pace all rounder Ryan Harris contributed vital 74 runs, with wicketkeeper-batsman Brad Haddin scoring an impressive half century in the hosts' massive first innings total.

As India went into bat after rounding off the Australian batting line-up for 530 , they amassed 108 runs for the loss of opener Shikhar Dhawan's wicket at the draw of stumps on day two of the Boxing Day Test.

London, Dec 25 : Portugal football team captain Cristiano Ronaldo has been voted as the number one footballer in the world overtaking Argentina skipper Lionel Messi for the top spot.

The Guardian reportedly revealed it's top 100 footballers' list in the world 2014 in its entirety and the battle for the top spot was once again between Ronaldo and Messi.

It turned in Ronaldo's favour as 74 percent of 73 judges drawn from 28 countries, which included Hernan Crespo, Didi Hamann, Slaven Bilic and Gilberto Silva among the expert panel, voted for the Real Madrid star.

Sydney, December 09 : Australian opening batsman David Warner has dedicated his splendid ton amassed against India to late cricketer Phillip Hughes, in order to honour his memories.

Amassing a blistering 145 runs, Warner rated the innings as his best in Test Cricket, adding that he dedicates this ton to Hughes. He further said that Hughes was there with him when he scored his first century and also at the other end, News. com. au reported.

According to him, he shed a tear when he reached 63- the score when Hughes was hit on the neck. He believes that the number is special for all of them and it would remain special for the years to come. (ANI)

London, Nov 27 : Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton is set to overtake former England football captain David Beckham as the richest ever British sportsman.

Hamilton would see his earnings smash through the 500 million pounds barrier after bagging his second Formula One championship title, which means the Briton would leave Beckham and wife Victoria's combined 210 million pounds fortune way behind.

Hamilton's second world championship, secured in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, means he would net a 100 million pounds, five-year contract with his team Mercedes, The Daily Star reported.

Wellington, Nov 25 : The mascot for the 2016 Rio Olympics has been revealed and it is a bright yellow smiley-faced cat-like figure that represents the animal life of Brazil.

The mascot for the Paralympics has also been unveiled, which is a mopped-headed doll with leafy hair, meant to represent the vast diversity of the flora in Brazil.

The mascots made their first official appearance on Monday. A public poll would be conducted to give names to the two from a shortlist of possibilities, Stuff. co. nz reported.

Johannesburg, Nov 19 : Former world number one Rafael Nadal has said that he would return to playing tennis at the start of next year.

The 14-time Grand Slam champion hasn't played since having his appendix removed this month, which forced him to miss the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals, Sport24 reported.

Nadal said that he would play in Abu Dhabi in January, and after that he would play his first official tournament in Doha.

The Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament is scheduled for January 1-3, with the Doha tournament to be played the following week, the report added. (ANI)

Abu Dhabi, Nov 03 : Pakistan soared to their biggest Test win as they defeated Australia by a whooping 356 runs in their second match and claimed the two match series as well.

The Pakistani spinners ripped apart the Australian batting line up quickly after lunch claiming five quick wickets and letting the batsmen contribute 46 more runs.

This is the first time since 1994 that Pakistan has won a Test series against Australia.

Pakistan had put up a massive first innings total of 570-6 declared while Australia managed to score only 261 before they were all out.

Johannesburg, Oct 14 : 17-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer triumphed in the Shanghai Masters on Sunday and grabbed the second place in the ATP world rankings for the first time since May, 2013.

The Swiss tennis ace is more than 3,000 points behind top-ranked Novak Djokovic, but he did have the satisfaction of recording a straight sets win over the world number one Serb in the Shanghai semifinals, Sport24 reported.

Spanish tennis ace Rafael Nadal moved down to third in the rankings with Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka staying at fourth despite an early exit in China to Gilles Simon.

The top 10 ATP world rankings are:

1. Novak Djokovic

London, Sep 21 : Real Madrid thrashed Deportivo La Coruna 8-2 in their La Liga clash, thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo's hattrick and winger Gareth Bale's support.

Real were 3-0 up at halftime as Portugal forward Ronaldo found the net either side of James Rodriguez's stunning goal. Midfielder Haris Medunjanin scored a penalty for Deportivo six minutes into the second half before Bale scored twice.

Ronaldo then completed his hattrick, and there was still time for Deportivo's Jose Verdu Toche to score before Javier Hernandez's late double sealed Real's 8-2 victory over the hosts, The BBC reported.

London, Sep 17 : Steven Gerrard's late penalty got Liverpool back into the Champions League football by defeating Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad.

According to the BBC, after a low-key first half, the Reds took the lead in the 82nd minute when Mario Balotelli held off two defenders and poked home his first goal for the club.

Meanwhile, substitute Dani Abalo ensured a point for Razgrad after he rounded Simon Mignolet and scored a goal.

Milan Borjan, the debutant goalkeeper of Razgrad ended up giving Liverpool a spot-kick after he fouled Javier Manquillo in the second minute of stoppage time.

New Delhi: Veteran star Leander Paes dropped out of top-10 after losing a place in the doubles ranking, while Rohan Bopanna slid to 29 following a steep loss of eight places in the new chart issued on Monday.

Paes, who lost in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters with partner Radek Stepanek, is now placed 11th and continues to be India`s top-ranked player.

Paes and Bopanna are the only top-30 players from the country in the world rankings while left-handed Divij Sharan, who is unchanged this week, is the next best at 111.

London, Aug 17 : Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray has been left frustrated by his inconsistency after losing to 17 Grand Slam titles holder Roger Federer in the Western and Southern Open quarterfinals in Cincinnati.

Murray, who will head to the US Open, which starts on 25 August, without a title since winning Wimbledon in 2013, recently squandered a double-break in the second set to lose 6-3, 7-5 to Federer.

Murray said that there is no excuse for that, and added that he has played enough matches now for that not to be the case, The BBC reported.

London, Aug 14 : Former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray advanced to the last 16 of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati after beating Portugal's Joao Sousa in straight sets.

Murray, who defeated the Portuguese 6-3, 6-3, broke Sousa in his opening service game and wrapped up victory in an hour and 11 minutes. Murray will now face American John Isner, last year's runner-up, in the next round.

Meanwhile, British number two James Ward lost 6-2 6-2 to France's Julien Benneteau in the second round.

Southampton: A listless India crashed to a humiliating 266-run defeat against England in the third cricket Test after an abject batting surrender allowed the hosts to level the five-match series 1-1 here on Thursday.

London, July 24 : Andy Murray is reportedly set to retain French former Wimbledon champion Amelie Mauresmo as his new coach.

Murray had announced the link-up with Mauresmo shortly before the grass-court season. The coach-player duo held talks after Murray lost in the Wimbledon quarterfinals to Grigor Dimitrov , which saw him drop to 10th in the world rankings.

Photographs of Mauresmo at Murray's training camp in Miami have suggested the partnership will continue, with an announcement expected in the next week, The BBC reported.

London, July 17 : India has lost the wicket of opener Shikhar Dhawan on the first day of the second Test against England being played at Lord's.

England bowler James Anderson claimed Dhawan's wicket in the second over of the match caught in the slips by Gary Ballance for his individual score of seven.

Earlier, England won the toss and decided to bowl first on a pitch with a decent covering of grass.

With the first Test ending in a draw, both sides are fighting for an advantage in the five-match Test series.

Johannesburg, July 10 : The US Open prize pool is slated to get richer following a record 11 percent hike which will allow the singles' winners to walk away with three million dollars as reward.

According to the Sport24, in an announcement made by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) on Wednesday, USTA Chairman Dave Haggerty said that the total US Open purse will now be 38.3 million dollars.

The total prize pool for the US singles, doubles and mixed doubles alone has seen an increase of 12.5 percent over last year and exceeds two of the other three grand slam tournaments.