The Big Four were always going to come into the year's first Grand Slam knowing fully well that their days of dominance are drawing to a close, if not already a thing of the past, says Dhruv Munjal.

Images from Day 5 of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.

Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday

Take a look at six of the up-and-comers who could upset the top names at the year's first Grand Slam.

'Remarkable discipline for training, competition, sacrifice, perfection, a little crazy but a legend of a bloke. Bravo Andy'.

Change might be afoot though, according to American great John McEnroe

Novak Djokovic and Rogerer Federer loom over Melbourne Park for the year's opening Grand Slam as favourites for the Australian Open as questions remain as to whether one of Generation Next could finally end their stranglehold.

Serbian Djokovic, 31, needed elbow surgery in February to cure a problem that surfaced in 2017, but after some jarring defeats he returned to the kind of domination he achieved in 2015, winning Wimbledon and the US Open.

The US president is facing off against a series of accusations put together by a team of investigators.

'Many tourists are keen to break the law and see the tribals. But what difference would it make? They are humans like us. We do not like intruders, neither do they. Very little of their homes is left, so we might as well let them be,' says Chintan Purohit.

Just as against Swiss 20-time Grand Slam champion Federer in Saturday's semi-final, the 21-year-old produced a dashing display of power and guile to stun the in-form Djokovic 6-4, 6-3.

Earning his fourth straight win over a top-10 player this week, Khachanov, whose muscular game resembles that of his childhood hero Marat Safin, a Russian three-times winner in Paris, picked up the biggest title of his burgeoning career.

The 22-year-old, 6ft 6in Russian, already the owner of two indoor hard court titles this year, moved one step away from the biggest title of his career at the Bercy indoor arena, crushing his Austrian friend in 70 one-sided minutes.

Djokovic had his personal best winning sequence of 30 consecutive sets ended as Cilic played almost flawlessly aggressive tennis to draw first blood in a magnificent duel.

To face Dominic Thiem in semis

Roger Federer made a comfortable start to his quest for a 100th title, despatching Fabio Fognini in straight sets to ease into the quarter-finals at the Paris Masters on Thursday.

Shapovalov made a brisk start and raced to a 3-0 lead before Gasquet responded with a mix of aggressive backhands and clever drop shots to reel off five consecutive games.

Coric, who had failed to win a match in his last two appearances in Beijing and Shenzhen, saved two break points at 3-3 in the second set and clinched the first four games of the decider to record his 32nd match win of the season.

A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday

Former world number one Garbine Muguruza was beaten 7-5, 6-4 by Aryna Sabalenka in the China Open second round on Tuesday while an ailing Jelena Ostapenko lost 6-0, 6-0 to Wang Qiang.

Robbed of prey as people fled, Omar Perez came marching back and shot bullet after bullet into Prudhvi Raj Kandepi's head, thus ensuring that a man he had never met before, known nothing of, would never get up again.

Will it be Rafa versus Djoko in Sunday's final?

USA Gymnastics said on Tuesday that its chief executive, Kerry Perry has left the sport's national governing body as the organization tries to recover from a scandal in which one of its team doctor sexually abused hundreds of female athletes.

IMAGES from Day 7 of the US Open on Sunday

Images from Day 5 of the US Open in New York on Friday

Serena Williams crushed older sister Venus 6-1, 6-2 in a shockingly subdued third round clash at the US Open on Friday to stay on track for a record equalling 24th Grand Slam title.

Tournament officials said there was no heat rule in effect on Friday for the first time in three days, with cloud cover expected to bring cooler temperatures.

A summary of the action on Day 3 at the US Open.

A summary of Friday's tennis action from around the world.

Halep through but Stephens exits in Cincinnati

Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas slayed another tennis giant on Saturday, saving a match point as he toppled big-serving Kevin Anderson 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(7) in a thriller to set up a Rogers Cup final against top seed Rafael Nadal.

Greek tyro Stefanos Tsitsipas' dream run at the Rogers Cup continued on Friday as the teenager toppled defending champion Alexander Zverev 3-6, 7-6(11), 6-4 to reach the semi-finals in Toronto.

Rafael Nadal was made to wait before his second-round Rogers Cup match due to several rain delays but did his part to put the schedule back on track with a speedy 6-2 6-3 win over Frenchman Benoit Paire on Wednesday.

A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday

The return of the US servicemen's remains was part of a deal that was agreed to by Trump and Kim back in their summit in June.

Second seed Sloane Stephens was shocked 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 by Germany's Andrea Petkovic in the second round of the Citi Open on Wednesday, disrupting the American's buildup to her US Open title defence.

'It is the time for Sanju Baba, why speak of another Baba?' Director Pahlaj Nihalani tells Subhash K Jha.

List of Wimbledon women's singles champions:

German 11th seed Angelique Kerber became the highest-ranked player to reach the women's quarter-finals after she outclassed Switzerland's Belinda Bencic 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) at Wimbledon on Monday.

Novak Djokovic criticised the Centre Court crowd after he rediscovered his old fire to knock British hope Kyle Edmund out of Wimbledon in a red hot third-round clash on Saturday.