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.

New Delhi, July 7 : Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has entered the top-five for the first time in her career as the new WTA doubles chart was released on Monday.

Sania, who turned a professional tennis player in 2003 and overcame a career-threatening wrist injury in between, has achieved her career-best rank of number five in the world.

Sania and her partner Cara Black from Zimbabwe could not go deep in the recently concluded Wimbledon championships, but a second round appearance provided the Indian tennis ace with her crucial 130 ranking points that were enough to push her in the top five.

London, June 16 : Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov won a dramatic Queen's Club final as he defeated Feliciano Lopez 6-7 (8-10), 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (8-6) at the Aegon Championships.

Dimitrov won his fourth career title and has become the first man this year to win titles on three different surfaces.

According to the BBC, Dimitrov said that the Aegon Championships in particular has been the tournament where he always wanted to win, adding that he remembers playing as a teenager there and ever since he has dreamt about the moment he won the tournament.

Paris, May 30 : Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska was knocked out of the French Open by unseeded Croat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-4, 6-4 in the third round Friday.

The 25-year-old Pole is the latest casualty following the exit of top seeds Serena Williams and Li Na this week, reports Xinhua.

Fourth seed Simona Halep of Romania is now the highest-ranked player left in the women's draw.

Sam Stosur beat Australian Open finalist and ninth seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-4 to show that she is also a serious candidate for the title.

London, May 25 : Spanish giants Real Madrid have defeated their compatriots Atletico Madrid 4-1 in a compelling Champions League final in Lisbon on Saturday to win their tenth European Cup.

The fitness of striker Diego Costa and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was a central topic of debate in the build-up, with Costa using horse placenta as part of his treatment for a hamstring injury while Ronaldo had also been an injury doubt with the same problem.

Rome, May 19 " Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal for the fourth straight time to capture his third Italian Open title with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win here.

In their 41st-career meeting, the most between two ATP players in the Open Era, Djokovic, the second seed, overcame a slow start to dominate the remaining two sets of the match here Sunday, reports Xinhua.

The precision of his hitting kept top-ranked Nadal on the defensive for much of the match, and he finished with 46 winners to just 15 for Nadal.

Rome, May 16 : Andy Murray beat Austria's Jurgen Melzer in the Rome Masters to set up a quarterfinal clash with world No. 1 Rafael Nadal of Spain.

Murray produced a determined display to win 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 Thursday, reports Xinhua.

Nadal overcame a slow start to ease to victory over Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, 6-1.

Andy Murray, who turned 27 Thursday, won 15 points from 16 to win the first set tie-break and raced to a 2-0 lead in the second set.

"To be honest it's not a bad thing for me to play Nadal because I haven't played him for a long time," said Murray.

Madrdi, May 8 : Chinese tennis star Li Na was forced to dig deep in order to defeat No. 16 seed Sloane Stephens 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and move into the quarterfinals of the WTA Madrid Open here Thursday.

Despite her progress, Li Na was not satisfied with her performance in which she made over 40 unforced errors, reports Xinhua.

The first set saw Li Na play her worst tennis since arriving at Madrid. Perhaps unhappy at her third consecutive early start, the World No. 2 was never able to find her rhythm on court and while struggling with her own serve, she also failed to deal with that of her rival.

Dubai, May 1 : India have dropped two places to No. 5 in the latest Test rankings released by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Thursday.

This is the biggest change in the rankings table with India dropping 10 points, currently sitting on 102.

India's 2010-11 victories against Australia, New Zealand and West Indies (away) as well as a drawn series against South Africa no longer count in the rankings. Similarly, their 2011-12 victory against the West Indies and 2012-13 victories against New Zealand and Australia are now weighted at 50 percent.

New Delhi, April 10 : A first round exit from the India Open last week means P. V. Sindhu drops a place to No. 11 in the latest Badminton World Federation (BWF) women’s singles rankings released Thursday.

Spain’s Carolina Marin jumped three places to No. 10, overtaking the Indian. Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal retained her No. 8 spot.

Parupalli Kashyap's semi-final appearance at the Swiss Open and the quarter-final performance at the India Open bore fruit as he re-entered the top-20 of men’s singles in 19th position.

The Hyderabadi has leapt four places while reigning national champion Kidambi Srikanth remains stagnant at No. 25.

New Delhi, March 20 : India's Parupalli Kashyap arrested his slide in the latest Badminton World Federation rankings released Thursday, by rising a place to No. 24 in men's singles.

Kashyap, who reached a career high of World No. 6 last year, had been out of form for quite some time until his semifinal performance last week at the Swiss Open which helped him gain vital points.

Meanwhile, first round exits at both All England Open and Swiss Open have led Kidambi Srikanth to drop two places to 22nd.

Madrid, March 19 : Real Madrid paid a heavy price for their qualification to the last 8 of the Champions League football against Schalke 04 when striker Jese Rodriguez was taken to hospital with what looked like a knee ligament injury.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored twice and Alvaro Morata, gave Madrid a 3-1 win Tuesday night on the night and a 9-2 aggregate win, but perhaps Jese will be the player who takes the headlines, reports Xinhua.

Wellington, Mar 16 : Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer has reached the finals of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells in California on Saturday, closing on the title which he had won four times in the past.

The 17-time Major winner, who won at Indian Wells from 2004-06 and again in 2012, has defeated Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 6-1 and will meet world number two Novak Djokovic in the final after the Serbian player dispatched American John Isner 5-7 7-6 6-1 in the other semifinal.

Basel, March 12 : World No. 9 shuttler P. V. Sindhu won her women's singles opener at the $125,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold at St. Jakobshalle here Wednesday.

In their first ever match, the seventh seed overcame Malaysian World No. 127 Sannatasah Saniru 21-18, 21-15 in 32 minutes to proceed to the second round.

However, World No. 3 and third seed Shixian Wang of China thrashed Saili Rane 21-8, 21-9 in 31 minutes also in their first match.

Johannesburg, Feb 25 : American tennis ace, Serena Williams, continues to dominate the world rankings leading currently ranked world No. 2, China's Li Na, with a massive 5865-points despite losing to France's Alize Cornet in Dubai's semi-final last week.

According to Sport24, the world No 1's sister Venus Williams stands at 29 in the world rankings following her title win in Dubai, which helped her gain 15 places.

This was reportedly Venus's first tournament victory in 16months.

Dubai, Feb 18 : India retained their second position in the Reliance ICC Test Team Rankings following the Wellington Test, which Tuesday ended in a draw to give New Zealand a 1-0 series win.

But the series result has made Australia's task of finishing ahead of India on the table before the April 1 cut-off date slightly easier.

Australia, who lead 1-0, need to draw the ongoing three-Test series with South Africa to leapfrog India.

India have slipped from 117 ratings points to 112 ratings points, and are ahead of Australia by just one ratings point.

Melbourne, Jan 25 : China's third-seeded Li Na beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 7-6(7-3), 6-0 to win her first Australian Open women's singles title here Saturday.

Both players broke each other's service twice and forced a tiebreak in the first set. Mini-breaks were exchanged in the tiebreak before Li served out to win the first set.

Cibulkova failed to hold her serve in the second set and Li took only 27 minutes to win the set and match.

It was Li's second Grand Slam title after she won the 2011 French Open.(IANS)

Sydney, Jan 22 : Swiss tennis ace Roger Federer is reportedly the highest paid athlete in the game, with estimated earnings of 71.5 million dollars in 2013.

According to News. com. au, the list of the world's richest players in descending order includes Federer, Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams, Li Na, Victoria Azarenka, Andy Murray, Caroline Wozniacki and Kei Nishikori.

Sydney, Jan 4 : India's top singles tennis player Somdev Devvarman advanced to the second round of the ATP Apia International Qualifiers here Saturday by edging past Belgium's Niel Desein.

Somdev, World No. 90, put behind his shock defeat to compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan in the ongoing Chennai Open by beating the Belgian 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in an hour and 43 minutes.

The Indian ace will next face Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany.

The German, who is ranked 107 in the world shocked top seed Mikhail Kukushkin 7-6 (6) 6-2.(IANS)

Melbourne, Jan 2 : Maria Sharapova outlasted Estonian Kaia Kanepi 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in Brisbane International tennis quarter-finals.

Kanepi, at one stage appeared to silence Sharapova, but the four-time grand slam champion regained her composure to book a likely semi-final showdown with world No. 1 Serena Williams.

According to The Age, Sharapova launched into her trademark screams on each point but little else resembled the world No. 4 as she struggled to find her serving groove against the hard-hitting Kanepi.