timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Watch: Serena Williams bids a tearful adieu to Canada after defeat against Belinda Bencic

Watch: Serena Williams bids a tearful adieu to Canada after defeat against Belinda Bencic

Serena Williams, who said this week she will soon call time on her storied tennis career, departed the WTA Toronto Masters for the last time on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Belinda Bencic. The second-round defeat by Switzerland's reigning Olympic gold medallist was hardly unexpected, with the 40-year-old Williams competing in only her third match of 2022. Bencic fired eight aces and broke Williams twice in the first set and once in the second, advancing on her first match point after 78 minutes. But as Bencic herself said in the post-match interview on court: "tonight is about her." Williams's farewell on-court interview was threaded with emotion.

Rafael Nadal confirms he will compete at Cincinnati

Rafael Nadal confirmed on Wednesday that he will compete at next week's Cincinnati Open after being forced to withdraw from the ongoing Canadian Open due to an abdominal injury. The world number three opted out of the U.S. Open tune-up event in Montreal with the same strain that has limited his service motion and forced him to forfeit his Wimbledon semifinal last month. "(Flying) tomorrow to Cincinnati," the Spaniard posted alongside a photo of himself shirtless and smiling. "Very happy to play again in Cincy."

Nick Kyrgios stuns top-ranked Daniil Medvedev in Montreal, Carlos Alcaraz ousted

Australia's Wimbledon finalist beat Medvedev 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-2 to produce his second career upset of a reigning number one after ambushing Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014. Kyrgios produced his usual on-court antics, complaining about a high bounce, hitting a ball into the stands to draw a warning and bickering with his player box in moments of tension. But after gathering his formidable resources, the 27-year-old ranked 37th finished off the match in exactly two hours. "This is our fourth meeting and we know each other well," Kyrgios said. "I don't go in looking at the rankings, just the guy in front of me. "I had a clean objective today -- play a lot of serve and volley and execute better. "Hopefully I can keep this rolling and keep on winning. Medvedev is a machine -- he's number one for a reason."

Mitchell Santner stars as New Zealand beat West Indies in T20 series opener

West Indies' season of white-ball woe continued on Wednesday when New Zealand completed a 13-run win in the first T20 International of a three-match series at Sabina Park in Jamaica. Fresh from a successful European sojourn, the Black Caps posted a formidable 185 for five batting first in a rain-interrupted innings before their premier bowlers combined to limit the Caribbean side to 172 for seven in reply. Since getting the better of Bangladesh 2-0 in a T20I duel, the West Indies have been swept 3-0 by the Bangladeshis and India in successive One-Day International series before going down 4-1 to the Indians in another T20I campaign immediately preceding this assignment. New Zealand almost paid for a period of complacency towards the end of the match as an explosive unbroken 58-run eighth-wicket partnership between Romario Shepherd (31 not out) and Odean Smith (27 not out) gave the hosts a glimmer of hope after they had crashed to 114 for seven in the 16th over. But they were left with too much to do as "Man of the Match" Mitchell Santner's haul of three for 19 ripped the heart of the West Indies batting as he claimed the wickets of captain Nicholas Pooran first ball before adding Shimron Hetmyer and top-scorer Shamarh Brooks (42) to his list of victims.

Chess Olympiad: Post euphoria, time to make next move

Despite the 2 bronze in Chess Olympiad, there are issues that need to be addressed to take the game to the next level in India. TOI takes a look...With a bronze medal in each section, the Chess Olympiad for first-time hosts India was a success. But even the medals warrant some stock-taking and post mortem. In a somewhat justified euphoria following the big festival, Indian chess would do well in processing the underlying messages. Hosting the Olympiad is not particularly in demand due to the costs involved. The USA and China have won gold medals without ever hosting the event. And when India play in Budapest 2024, they will have just one team in each section and won't have a cushion of three. More than Rs 90 crore was committed by the Tamil Nadu government for the biennial extravaganza. On the other hand, India still can't don't have an elite classical round-robin event or a strong GM norm tournament for home-grown players in the regular chess calendar. Accepting a higher number of entries for more corpus through entry fees, playing two or more rounds in a day to save an extra day's rent for the playing hall, absence of playing tiebreak, lack of dynamic tournament format and huge base of lower rated players (below Elo 2200) are realities that Indian chess is grappling with.

Break before Commonwealth Games helped: Lakshya Sen

I could stretch Yong in final as I was fresher than him, says championBENGALURU: After conquering the pressure of expectations to win the men's singles badminton gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, young Lakshya Sen is getting ready to celebrate his 21st birthday next Tuesday before he takes off for the World Championships in Tokyo (August 22-28). The Almora boy, who trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy here, returned to a warm reception by the trainees and staff led by Prakash Padukone and PPBA director and chief coach U Vimal Kumar. Speaking to reporters at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence, Sen said the six-week break he took by skipping tournaments in Malaysia and Singapore helped him to do well at the Birmingham Games.

Gukesh’s show at Chess Olympiad was just breathless: Viswanathan Anand

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, the team’s mentor, heaped praise on Gukesh’s run at the Olympiad. The Indian legend revealed how he found it difficult to keep pace with the youngster’s progress in the last few months. “It was just a breathless performance (by him) and we couldn’t keep up with it.

CAF set to back Gianni Infantino for new term as FIFA president

Patrice Motsepe says the continent will throw its weight behind incumbent FIFA president Gianni Infantino as the latter seeks a third term in office at the 73rd FIFA congress next year. Motsepe confirmed all 54 member associations of CAF have resolved to vote for Infantino, despite the fact that the identity of any potential challenger is not yet known.

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Timesofindia.indiatimes.com Sport News

Watch: Serena Williams bids a tearful adieu to Canada after defeat against Belinda Bencic

Rafael Nadal confirms he will compete at Cincinnati

Nick Kyrgios stuns top-ranked Daniil Medvedev in Montreal, Carlos Alcaraz ousted

Mitchell Santner stars as New Zealand beat West Indies in T20 series opener

Chess Olympiad: Post euphoria, time to make next move

Break before Commonwealth Games helped: Lakshya Sen

Gukesh’s show at Chess Olympiad was just breathless: Viswanathan Anand

CAF set to back Gianni Infantino for new term as FIFA president