1) Bryan brothers pull out of Rio 2016 Olympics citing health concerns.
- Americans Bob and Mike Bryan, the most successful doubles team in men’s tennis history, have pulled out of the defence of their title at the Rio Games saying their family’s health is their top priority.
- Many athletes have withdrawn from the Olympics over concerns about the mosquito-borne Zika virus linked to birth defects in newborn babies and possible neurological problems in adults.
- The pair won Olympic gold at the London 2012 Games and won 112 titles together, including 16 grand slams.
2) Patna Pirates retain Pro Kabaddi crown by thrashing Jaipur.
- Patna Pirates beat Jaipur Pink Panthers in the final of season 4 in the Pro Kabaddi League.
- The Patna unit made history as they became the only team to lift the trophy twice in the tournament’s history of four editions.
- Puneri Paltan beat Telugu Titans to secure third spot in this year’s Pro Kabaddi League.
- The Women’s Kabaddi League competition was won by Storm Queens who beat Fire Birds in the final clash.
3) India to host Kabaddi World Cup in October.
- India will host 12 teams in the Kabaddi World Cup scheduled to take place in October, the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF).
- The United States, Canada, UK, Australia, Iran, Poland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Korea, Japan and Kenya, apart from hosts India, are set to take part in the competition for the top honours.
- Kabaddi became a part of Asian Games in the year 1990 and India has won all the gold medals since then.
4) Halep beats Keys in Rogers Cup Women`s singles final.
- Romania`s Simona Halep has clinched the Rogers Cup women`s singles title after beating American Madison Keys in the final.
- This win gave the 24-year-old her third title of the year. Halep, the No.5 seed was the finalist of the tournament last year.
- The Romanian also won the titles in Bucharest and Madrid earlier this season, and she now has 14 career titles.
- The Rogers Cup is one of the biggest hard-court tournaments on the WTA calendar and a key tune-up event for the US Open.
5) Novak Djokovic beats Kei Nishikori in Rogers Cup final.
- World number one Novak Djokovic beats Japan’s Kei Nishikori to capture the final of the Rogers Cup in Toronto.
- The latest victory was a 30th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title for Djokovic, who also has 12 grand slam titles, including this year’s French Open and Australian Open.
- Djokovic returned to his winning ways and became the first four-time winner of the Rogers Cup.
6) IOC gives nod to addition of five new sports in Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
- The International Olympic Committee had unanimously gave its nod to include five new sports for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 which include baseball and softball, karate, skateboard, sports climbing and surfing.
- The decision was taken by a show of hands at the 129th IOC session which was held at the sidelines of the Rio Olympics.
- The five new sports will see a total of 474 athletes compete at the Olympic Games.
7) Narsingh Yadav gets clean chit from NADA.
- The National Anti-Doping Association (NADA) gave clean chit to wrestler Narsingh Yadav in doping case and allowed him to participate in the Rio Olympics.
- The 74 kg freestyle wrestler was earlier tested positive for a banned steroid in an out-of-competition test conducted by NADA.
- The 26-year-old had maintained that the failed test was the result of a conspiracy by his opponents to stop him from participating in the Olympics.
8) IOA announces cash award for Rio Olympic Gold medallist.
- The Indian Olympic Association announced Rs. 50 lakh cash award for the gold medal winning athlete in the Rio Olympics.
- The National Olympic body for the first time would award Rs. 50 lakh for a gold medal, Rs. 30 lakh for silver and Rs. 20 lakh for bronze.
- In addition, the coaches will be awarded an equivalent of 50 per cent of the amount that the athletes receive. So, a gold-winning athlete would receive Rs. 50 lakh, while his or her coach would receive Rs. 25 lakh.
9) Abhijeet Gupta wins Commonwealth Chess Championship.
- Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta has added another feather to his cap by retaining the Commonwealth Chess championship crown in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
- While International Master Tania Sachdev also finished with a gold medal.
- Grandmasters S.L. Narayanan and Deep Chakkravarthy got the silver and bronze medals respectively in the open section.
10) Olympics 2016 opens with a glittering ceremony.
- Host Brazil, relying on its creativity and music to convey a message of sustainability to the world, conducted an impressive Olympics opening ceremony at the historic Maracana stadium.
- The lighting of the Olympic flame itself by marathon runner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima.
- The Olympic torch was relayed through to one of the greatest woman basketball players Hortencia Marcari, from the former World No. 1 tennis star Gustavo Kuerten who brought it into the stadium.
- Flag bearer Abhinav Bindra leads the Indian contingent during the opening ceremony.
11) Dipa Karmakar becomes first Indian to enter finals at an Olympics.
- India’s Dipa Karmakar created history after she became the first Indian to qualify for the apparatus finals of artistic Gymnastics at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
- Karmakar, who hails from Tripura, finished eighth in the qualification event of the Vaults and scored 14.850 to qualify.
- In a total of five subdivisions, the gymnasts tried to qualify by finishing in top eight.
12) Four South African cricketers banned for attempting to fix matches.
- Four South African cricketers, including former Test wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile, have been handed bans ranging from seven to 12 years for attempting to fix matches.
- Pumelela Matshikwe, Ethy Mbhalati and Jean Symes were also sanctioned for accepting money from ex-international Goolam Bodi who was banned for 20 years in January for attempting to fix matches in the Twenty20 tournament.