1) Argentina retain top spot in FIFA rankings.
- India has dropped a place in the latest FIFA rankings with the Blue Tigers ranked 163 in the FIFA rankings.
- Argentina (1st) and Belgium (2nd) continue to hold on to the top two spots in the latest FIFA rankings, with Colombia rounding up the top three.
- World champions Germany are fourth in the table with European Championship holders Spain now sixth.
- Traditional European powerhouses like Italy, France and the Netherlands rose significantly in the table after a couple of months with poor results.
- Northern Ireland created history by rising to 25th in the rankings, their best-ever position, ahead of the ‘Green and White Army’s’ debut in the Euros in the summer.
2) Five new sports in running for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
- Five new sports baseball, skateboarding, surfing, sports climbing and karate are set to feature at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
- Under new rules, Olympic host cities can hand-pick sports they want in the Games to join the existing 28 core sports.
- A total of 474 athletes are expected to compete in the five sports in Tokyo.
- As part of reforms initiated in 2014, Olympic hosts can bring in sports popular in their countries to boost ratings, attract greater sponsorship and a younger generation of fans.
3) Indian Boxing Council gets affiliation from Commonwealth Boxing Council.
- The Indian Boxing Council (IBC), a licensing body for professional boxers in the country which has Vijender Singh among others on its roster, has been granted affiliation by the Commonwealth Boxing Council (CBC).
- The CBC will now formally register Raja as a Director in its Annual General Meeting scheduled.
- Indian Boxing Council is a National Boxing Governing body that sanctions professional boxing matches and awards national and subordinate championship titles.
- It is the first time in India where there is an opportunity for the Boxers to be professional.
- It also aims to promote and serve the sport of boxing, to implement fair, scientific and objective computerised systems and also to establish uniform safety measures and uniform procedures for the protection of professional boxers as well as the conduct of championship match.
4) Indian athlete Avtar Singh qualifies for Rio 2016 Olympics in judo.
- South Asian Games (SAG) gold medallist judoka Avtar Singh has qualified for the Rio Olympics in the under 90kg weight category.
- His current world Ranking is 79 with 182 points.
- Avtar Singh hails from Gurdaspur, Punjab. He had won a gold in South Asian Games held in Shillong in February 2o16.
- He also had won bronze medal in Asian Junior Judo Championships in 2011. He also had won two gold medals in Senior National Judo Championships in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
5) Garbine Muguruza beats Serena Williams to win French Open 2016.
- Garbine Muguruza of Spain has won the French Open Women’s Singles tennis title at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France.
- For the 22-year-old Muguruza, this was her first Grand Slam title.
- With this win, she also became the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Sanchez-Vicario in Paris in 1998.
- It was Muguruza’s second major final. She was defeated by Serena Williams at Wimbledon finals in 2015 in which Serena won the 21st Grand Slam singles title.
6) Novak Djokovic beats Andy Murray to win first French Open title.
- Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray to win his maiden French Open title 2016.
- He has finally completed his career Grand Slam and adds another title to the 11 already collected Grand Slam trophies.
- Djokovic is only the third man after Don Budge and Rod Laver to hold the four majors at the same time, and the eighth man to triumph at Wimbledon and the French, U.S. and Australian Opens.
- Novak Djokovic is a Serbian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in men`s singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
- Novak Djokovic has won 12 Grand Slam singles titles, a total which is ranked fourth in history (tied with Roy Emerson), and has held the No. 1 spot in the ATP rankings for a total of 200 weeks.
French open title 2016 winners of all categories:
- Women’s singles Garbine Muguruza (Spain) won the Women’s singles title of 2016 French Open. In the final she defeated Serena Williams (United States).
- Men’s doubles Spanish pair of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez won the Men’s doubles title of 2016 French Open. In the final, they defeated Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan pair from US.
- Women’s doubles French pair of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic won the Women’s doubles title of 2016 French Open. In the final, they defeated Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.
- Mixed doubles Leander Paes (India) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland) pair won the mixed doubles title of 2016 French Open. In the final, they defeated Sania Mirza (India) and Ivan Dodig (Croatia) pair.
7) Serena overtakes Sharapova as world`s top paid sportswoman.
- Serena Williams has overtaken Maria Sharapova as the world`s highest-paid sportswoman.
- She earned USD 28.9 million over the past 12 months. While, Sharapova earned USD 21.9 million over the past 12 months.
- The 34 year old, Williams`s career prize money of USD 77.6 million amounts to more than twice as much as any other sportswoman`s.
- American mixed martial arts star Ronda Rousey was third on the list with $14 million.
8) India to host Junior Men`s hockey World Cup.
- The International Hockey Federation (FIH ) announced that the city of Lucknow will host the junior men`s hockey World Cup from December 8 to 18.
- The event will feature 16 teams - defending champions Germany, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, England, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and Spain.
- The women`s Hockey Junior World Cup will take place before the men`s competition, starting from 24th November and will end on 4th of December in Santiago, Chile.
9) Maria Sharapova banned for two years by International Tennis Federation for positive meldonium test.
- Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova has been banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) after failing a drug test.
- The ban was imposed on her Independent Tribunal of ITF appointed under Tennis Anti-Doping Programme found that she had committed an Anti-Doping Rule Violation.
- The Australian Open 2016 she was tested positive for banned drug meldonium (medical drug), a substance that has been added in the forbidden list by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
- Since then she was provisionally banned. So far in her career, Maria Sharapova has won total 35 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles, two at the French Open and one each title at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open.
10) Eden Gardens to host India`s first day-night Test against New Zealand.
- A senior Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) official confirmed that the Eden Gardens (Kolkata) will play host to the first ever day-night Test in the country when India take on New Zealand.
- The Tour Programme and Fixtures Committee of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the fixture stating that New Zealand will play three Test matches and five ODIs.
- The venues for the Test matches are Indore, Kanpur and Kolkata.
11) IM Visakh becomes first Indian to win Mayor`s chess.
- International Master Visakh N.R. of Tamil Nadu broke a nine-year jinx to lead an Indian sweep in the 9th Mumbai Mayor International Open Chess Tournament 2016.
- The 17-year-old International Master drew his final round match with fellow-Indian Diptayan Ghosh.
- The arbiters declared Visakh (ELO 2400) as the champion on a better tie-break as he reached a draw with Ghosh in 16 moves.
- Visakh thus emerged as the first Indian to capture the title in its nine-year history and won 3 lakh rupees.
12) Abhinav Bindra Chosen As India’s Flagbearer At Rio 2016 Olympics.
- Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra was chosen as the flagbearer of the indian contingent at the rio games’ opening ceremony.
- Bindra is India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist, having clinched Gold in 10m Air Rifle at Beijing Olympics in 2008.
- Bindra will be making his fifth Olympic appearance in Olympic Games.
- Notably, India will be sending its largest ever contingent to the Olympics games as many as 96 athletes.