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.

New Delhi, Dec 26 : For Indian sport, 2013 was a year of controversies and low-key performances, the country's image globally taking a beating with the suspension of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) by the apex body of world sport. Amid the gloom, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu provided some cheer.

It could have been worse as the IOA came perilously close to getting expelled from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In this brinkmanship, the athletes were the biggest losers as the fight for the control of the country's top sports body heated up.

New Delhi, Dec 19 : Saina Nehwal’s poor form this season has also started showing in her rankings as the Olympic bronze medallist dropped two places to No. 8 in the women’s singles rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Thursday.

Saina dropped two places and was overtaken by South Korean Yeon Ju Bae and Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying. However, P. V. Sindhu maintained her position at No. 11.

In men’s singles, Parupalli Kashyap retained the 14th position while Ajay Jayaram moved up a place to 24th.

No Indian figures in the top 25 of the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles rankings.(IANS)

Salvador (Brazil), Dec 6 : The 2014 World Cup champions will receive $35 million in prize money, world football's governing body FIFA announced here Thursday.

The value represents a 17 percent increase in the prize money handed to Spain for winning the 2010 tournament in South Africa, reports Xinhua.

FIFA will award the second placed side $25 million while the third will receive $22 million.

Each of the tournament's 32 teams will receive $1.5 million before the tournament begins to help cover their preparation costs.

Shanghai, Oct 12 : Defending champion and top seed Novak Djokovic reached the final of the Shanghai Rolex Masters with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over seventh seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France here Saturday.

The Serb will take on either World No. 1 Rafael Nadal or sixth seed Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, who play their semifinal later Saturday, reports Xinhua.

If the Spaniard wins, the final will be the 39th meeting of the Nadal-Djokovic rivalry, which is the most in the Open Era. The two last met in last week's China Open title match, which Djokovic won 6-3, 6-4.

Beijing, Oct 5 : Rafael Nadal of Spain was guaranteed of returning to the World No. 1 spot for the first time since July 2011 after his opponent Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic retired from their semifinal clash at the China Open here Saturday.

Current No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia will take on Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the other semifinal and no matter the result of the match, he will lose the top spot to Nadal.

Nadal had two breaks while Berdych had one in the first six games and the Czech seemed to twist his back hitting the ball while trailing at 2-4. And after five minutes' medical time, the Czech opted to quit.

London, Oct 5 - Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere was reportedly approached by an electronic cigarette company to become the face of their brand after he was photographed outside a nightclub smoking a cigarette.

Wilshere has defended himself against the pictures by tweeting pictures of Zinedine Zidane smoking, although Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has publicly criticised the England international.

Berlin, Sep 28 : German swimmer Britta Steffen announced her retirement from swimming.

The 29-year-old Steffen is one of the most successful German swimmers with 23 medals, reports Xinhua.

"I conclude my career in the knowledge that I belong to the best in the world. My health and the support of my family, friends, partners and companions made it possible to stretch my body to the limit," Steffen said Friday.

Madrid, Sep 26 : Spanish Primera Liga football club Valencia has decided to temporarily suspend the club's French international defender Adil Rami.

Until the club reaches a decision over what to do with Rami, the 27-year-old will not train or receive his salary from the club, reports Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Rami was sent back to Valencia from Granada, where he was with the team to play the local side Wednesday night.

The central defender slept in a different hotel to his team-mates and left the city in the early hours of the morning, arriving back in Valencia at 11:00 am.

Sydney, Sep 24 - Australian cyclist Damien Howson has won the world under-23 time-trial title at the UCI Road Cycling World Championships in Italy.

Howson blitzed the 43km course in 49 minutes 97 seconds, 57 seconds faster than Frenchman Yoann Paillot and won the gold medal in Florence Monday, while Danish top seed Lasse Norman Hansen finished third, reports Xinhua.

"I'm obviously really happy to take away the win," Howson said.

Belfast, Sep 7 : Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick as Portugal fought back from behind to beat Northern Ireland 4-2 in their World Cup Group F qualifier at Windsor Park here.

Bruno Alves put the visitors ahead after 21 minutes with a volley following Joao Moutinho's corner but Gareth McAuley headed Northern Ireland's leveller 15 minutes later from a Shane Ferguson corner Friday, reports Xinhua.

Barcelona, Aug 29 : Barcelona won the Spanish Super Cup after a tough goalless match at Camp Nou.

The first leg held last week at the Vicente Calderon finished on a 1-1 draw with Barcelona's Neymar and former Barcelona player David Villa scoring.

Barcelona won their 11th title thanks to the away goal rule.

The fourth-time world player, Lionel Messi, played Wednesday evening, having been recovering from a thigh bruise that prevented him from the Malaga game Sunday.

Messi was withdrawn at halftime in the Supercup first leg. (IANS)

Cincinnati (Ohio), Aug 19 : Second seed Victoria Azarenka defeated World No. 1 Serena Williams to win her first Western and Southern Open tennis title.

Having lost 12 of their 14 previous meetings, Victoria edged out Serena in a third set breaker, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) here Sunday.

"Obviously a big win. It was a great match. I'm really, really pleased with the way I pulled it out. It was a great battle. Nothing was given away. It was pure fight. I'm really happy," Victoria was quoted as saying by the tournament website.

Toronto, Aug 12 : Serena Williams cruised to victory in the Rogers Cup final beating Sorana Cirstea to capture her third title here.

Williams won 6-2, 6-0 in a match that lasted only 65 minutes on Sunday, reports Xinhua.

With three career Rogers Cup titles, Williams sits second behind Monica Seles and Chris Evert, who both have four Rogers Cup titles in the modern era. Her previous victories were in 2011 and 2001.

"For me, this is a big tournament. This is one of the big stops of the year," said Williams after the match.

Guangzhou, Aug 9 : P. V. Sindhu assured India of at least a bronze medal in the World Badminton Championships Friday defeating former World No. 1 Shixian Wang in the women's singles quarterfinals event here.

The World No. 12 beat the seventh seeded Chinese 21-18, 21-17 in 55 minutes at Tianhe Indoor Stadium.

This will be only the third instance that an Indian will bring home a medal at the Worlds.

Prakash Padukone won the men's singles bronze in 1983 at Copenhagen while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won another bronze in the women's doubles event in the last edition at London in 2011. (IANS)