Ukraines Elina Svitolina firmed as a strong contender for the Australian Open title with a ruthless 6-3 6-0 demolition of Czech qualifier Denisa Allertova in the early hours of Monday morning. The 23-year-old fourth seed, one of four players who could leave Melbourne Park as world number one, took to Rod Laver Arena shortly before midnight and needed only 57 minutes to book her place in the quarter-finals. ... Read More

Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller each struck twice to hand Bayern Munich a 4-2 win over Werder Bremen on Sunday and stretch their lead at the top of the Bundesliga to a staggering 16 points. Lewandowski, who had missed Bayerns last match with a knee injury, put Bayern 2-1 ahead with a powerful header in the 63rd minute. He then grabbed another in the 76th with yet another header after Bremen had levelled with a Niklas Suele own goal. ... Read More

Memphis Depays last-gasp goal earned Olympique Lyonnais a 2-1 home win against 10-man Paris St Germain, cutting the Ligue 1 pacesetter’s lead down to eight points on Sunday. Depay fired home four minutes into stoppage time to put Lyon on 48 points from 22 games with PSG, who were without the injured Neymar, on 56 after their second defeat of the season. Dani Alves was shown a straight red card in the 57th minute after a rough tackle on Tanguy Ndombele. Layvin Kurzawa had cancelled out Nabil Fekirs early opener. ... Read More

Veterans Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh dug deep into their reservoir of experience as star- studded Punjab held their nerves to pip Karnataka via eliminator in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy Super League round here today. In the days second match at the Jadavpur University second campus ground, Virat Singhs sterling 81 off 49 balls (3x6s, 6x4s) went in vain, as Jharkhand faltered while chasing 171 to pave the way for Mumbai’s 13-run win. ... Read More

Left arm spinner Jon Holland has been recalled to Australias Test squad for their tour of South Africa in March, while fast bowler Jhye Richardson has been named for the first time. With the exception of David Warner, captain Steve Smiths entire Test squad will miss the triangular Twenty20 series against England and New Zealand next month in order to prepare for the tour, Cricket Australia said on Monday. Holland, the second spinner behind Nathan Lyon in the squad, and Richardson, who played two Twenty20 internationals and the first game of the ongoing one-day series against England, are the ... Read More

Senior off-spinner Harbhajan Singh is of the opinion that India's home series against Sri Lanka served little purpose ahead of the gruelling tour of South Africa. India have already lost the series and are staring at a whitewash against the Proteas. Questions have been raised about Indias preparation for the tour and Harbhajan gave his perspective. Look I believe the last Sri Lanka series at home served little purpose. We hardly gained anything out of it. Rather a few players could have gone to South Africa early. If not Dharamsala could have been a great place for preparation, Harbhajan sa ... Read More