Tennis

Halep, the highest seed left following Naomi Osaka's exit on Saturday, has now won her last four meetings with Williams, their previous encounter before clashing at Hard Rock Stadium coming earlier this year at the Australian Open.

Nishikori will on Friday meet Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, who defeated Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 7-6 (7/1), 6-1, for a place in the semi-finals.

The fourth seed and US Open champion made it two Grand Slam titles in a row after a see-sawing 2hr 27min match.

The top two players in the world have 31 Grand Slam titles between them and each can claim another slice of history with victory.

The Spanish 17-time Grand Slam winner dismissed the unseeded Czech 6-0, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) to tear into the last eight without dropping a tournament set.

World number one Novak Djokovic blasted past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 at the Australian Open on Thursday in a repeat of their 2008 Melbourne final, also won by the Serb.

Roger Federer, winner of 20 Slams, says the new Japanese-made Dunlop balls behave differently in cooler night conditions and do not allow players to "out-spin" rivals.

The ageless 20-time Grand Slam champion, who is gunning for a record seventh Melbourne Park title and third in a row, had breezed past Denis Istomin in the first round, but was given a much tougher examination by the world number 189.

The Spaniard lost a tight three-setter 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and subsequently withdrew from his third-place play-off match so as not to push his body too far too soon.

British number one Johanna Konta withdrew from the final U.S. Open tune-up event in Connecticut with a viral illness, tournament organisers said on Tuesday.

The split leaves Djokovic's coaching staff down to Czech Radek Stepanek, who joined on a part-time basis after eight times grand slam winner Agassi came on board ahead of last year's French Open.

Roger Federer shed tears of joy as the Swiss star hailed his record eighth Wimbledon title as one of the most magical moments of his astounding career.

Roger Federer won a record eighth Wimbledon title and became the tournament's oldest champion Sunday with a straight-sets victory over injury-hit Marin Cilic who dramatically broke down in tears midway through the final.

Garbine Muguruza stormed to her first Wimbledon title and shattered Venus Williams' history bid with a majestic 7-5, 6-0 victory in Saturday's final.

Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski went down fighting to Henri Kontinen and Heather Watson in the mixed doubles quarterfinals, bringing an end to India's challenge at the Wimbledon.

Top seed Roger Federer beat Germany's Mischa Zverev 7-6(4) 6-4 to advance to the last eight of the Halle Open on Thursday as the 18-times grand slam champion sharpens his grasscourt game ahead of Wimbledon.