Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder fired Netherlands into the quarter-finals of the World Cup after a comfortable 2-1 win over Slovakia in the second round on Monday.
Defending world champions Italy were knocked out of the World Cup on Thursday when they lost 3-2 to Slovakia, for whom Robert Vittek scored twice.
With the American men experiencing their longest US Open title drought in the Open era, Venus Williams led the American charge into round two on Monday with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia.
Paraguay beat a lacklustre Slovakia 2-0 to move top of Group F on Sunday and close in on a World Cup second round place.
Paraguay aim to extend the South American dominance gripping the World Cup when they face Slovakia on Sunday looking for goals but are wary of being caught out on the counter-attack.
A lack of experience cost Slovakia the chance to lead their World Cup group and the last-minute equaliser they conceded against New Zealand means they will need to cause two big upsets to progress.
A last gasp goal by Winston Reid gave New Zealand a 1-1 draw with Slovakia in a World Cup Group F match on Tuesday.
Former world number one Novak Djokovic suffered a surprise second-round exit at the Barcelona Open when the Serb was beaten 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 by world number 140 Martin Klizan 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.
Members of Ireland's women's soccer team threatened on Tuesday to boycott their next international match unless the country's football association tackles what they described as "humiliating" working conditions.
Serena Williams stayed on track for an eighth Wimbledon title as she fought back to beat Italian Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a fiercely contested quarter-final.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
Russian sixth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova claimed her third title of the year by beating seventh-seeded Australian Daria Gavrilova in the final of the Hong Kong Tennis Open on Sunday.
Holders Spain suffered their first defeat in qualifying for a major tournament in eight years when Miroslav Stoch nodded a late goal to earn Slovakia a shock 2-1 victory in Euro 2016 Group C on Thursday.
It was his first tournament win since January and has left the world number four confident of mounting a challenge at Wimbledon, where he has been drawn against Slovakia's Martin Klizan in the first round.
Russia's Elena Vesnina ousted German second seed Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, California on Tuesday.
Dominika Cibulkova completed a remarkable debut at the WTA Finals when the Slovakian world number eight stormed to victory with an unlikely 6-3 6-4 triumph over top seed and world number one Angelique Kerber in the title showdown on Sunday. Cibulkova lost her first two round robin matches before beating Simona Halep to squeeze into the semi-finals and her victory on Sunday matches the feat of 2015 winner Agnieszka Radwanska, who captured the title with a 1-2 pool record.
Title-contenders Saina Nehwal and B Sai Praneeth advanced to prequarter-finals of the Thailand Open after notching up straight-game wins in the women's and men's singles competition respectively.
Third seeds Leander Paes and Andre Begemann secured a close 4-6,6-4,10-8 win over Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan and Denys Molchanov of Ukraine to enter the semifinals of the doubles event at the ninth edition of the Tashkent ATP Challenger at the Olympic Tennis School in Tashkent. Paes and Begemann came back from being 2-4 down in the Match tiebreak to wrap the issue after Leander's splendid court craft to level scores.
Slovakia face the mighty Dutch on Monday hoping to keep their giantkilling run alive and join Germany and Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals. Having already accounted for holders Italy in the group stage, the World Cup debutants will need to be at their very best in Durban against a Netherlands team that have a perfect record so far.
Andy Murray embarks on his first Grand Slam campaign as world number one with much stronger title credentials, even if he has lost five finals at Melbourne Park.
France substitute Kylian Mbappe engineered two late goals to rescue a 2-2 draw against Iceland and spare the blushes of the world champions in their friendly.
Korean qualifier Hyeon Chung produced the first upset of the ATP Chennai Open by ousting last year's finalist Borna Coric with a straight-set win in the opening round of the $505730 hard court event in Chennai on Monday.
England brushed aside Slovakia 4-0 in a friendly at Wembley on Saturday, a victory notable mainly for David Beckham's 109th cap and a rare international goal for striker Emile Heskey. The 33-year-old Beckham, who replaced Aaron Lennon at halftime to move past the late Bobby Moore as England's most capped outfield player, marked his milestone by setting up Wayne Rooney for England's second 20 minutes from time.
Yuki Bhambri, making a comeback from an elbow injury, on Sunday qualified for the singles main draw of the Chennai Open.
Yuki Bhambri breezed past Italy's Marco Cecchinato in the opening round of the qualifiers in the Chennai Open on Saturday.
A smartly executed reform-recap will be the best booster for the economy, says Ajay Chhibber.
Wayne Rooney's Everton homecoming ended in a 1-0 win over Slovak side Ruzomberok with the former Manchester United striker having a quiet return to Goodison Park in the Europa League, third qualifying round, first-leg on Thursday.
Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty ripped up the form book to win the Hopman Cup with victory over Russia in Perth on Friday.
Russia spared Hopman Cup organisers from consulting their calculators on Thursday by downing France 2-1 and booking a place in the Perth final against Slovakia. It gave Russia a 3-0 record in the round robin stage of the mixed team event and they will be favourites to beat unheralded Slovakia in Friday's final.
Germany's Nicolas Kiefer had his Australian Open preparations thrown into disarray after injuring his ankle during his Hopman Cup clash against Slovakia's Dominik Hrbaty in Perth on Thursday.
Tennis star Maria Sharapova said on Tuesday she is excited about her return to competition next month, feeling vindicated by the reduction of her doping suspension and empowered by her time away.
IMAGES from Day 8 of the US Open on Monday
Federer said the rate of dropouts would fall if the slams switched to best-of-three-sets rather than best-of-five as it would mean matches were more like "a sprint to the finish line" rather than being "a marathon" but the people he really felt sorry for on Tuesday were the fans.
The absence of expectant mother Serena Williams and a failure by any of the other top women to produce the kind of dominance the American seven-times champion has consistently delivered makes this year's Wimbledon the most open in years.
New Zealand defender Winston Reid, who almost chose Denmark before agreeing to play for the All Whites, headed a last-gasp goal to secure a 1-1 draw against Slovakia on Tuesday and secure their first ever World Cup point.
Fourth seed Angelique Kerber's bid for consecutive Grand Slam titles ended when 29th seed Dominika Cibulkova defeated the German 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the US Open third round on Saturday.
Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova raced to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australian Daria Gavrilova to defend her Kremlin Cup title in Moscow on Saturday and secure a place at the season-ending WTA Finals.
Nick Kyrgios shelved the on-court histrionics and let his tennis do the talking to win an enthralling battle against rising Belgian David Goffin 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and clinch the Japan Open on Sunday.
'As a group we need to stick together and concentrate on the football. The other side is not our issue'
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