Singles

East Bengal win 29th Shield title

Barasat (wb): East Bengal showed a lot of character in tough conditions and bounced back from a goal down to pip arch-rivals Mohun Bagan on penalties and annexe the U-19 IFA Shield here on Thursday. Sourav Das put Mohun Bagan ahead in the 47th minute while Dip Saha levelled in the 84th minute and the stalemate prevailed in the extra time before East Bengal sealed the issue 4-2 in the penalty shootout to annexe their 29th Shield. It was an unusual matron's weather with scorching heat and the 2.30pm kick-off at the Barasat Stadium artificial turf added to the misery, and the referee had to give four drinks breaks during the regulation time.

 ATP hall of fame Open: Paes returns with win

New delhi: Veteran Indian star Leander Paes, who missed the entire clay and the grass court season, made a winning return to competitive tennis with American partner Jamie Cerretani at the ATP Hall of Fame Open in Newport. Paes, playing his first match since creating the Davis Cup world record in February for most number of wins in doubles, and Cerretani, defeated Luke Bambridge and Jonny O'Mara 6-4, 6-3 in their opening round of the $623,710 hard court event. Paes and his partner are now up against giant-killers Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Austin Crajicek, who toppled top seeds Nicholas Monroe and John-Patrick Smith 5-7, 6-1, 10-8. Jeevan has a good record playing against Paes, winning twice against the Indian legend this season — at Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune and at Dallas Challenger. Also advancing to the quarterfinals was in-form Divij Sharan, who along with partner   Jackson Withrow, seeded second, beat Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu 6-3, 6-3. Third seeds Purav Raja and Ken Skupski also moved to the last-eight with  a 7-5, 6-4 win over Ruben Bemelmans and Denis Kudla.

Deschamps stays as france coach until 2020

Paris: The French Football Federation on Thursday confirmed that Didier Deschamps would continue as the coach of the national team until 2020, when his contract expires.  "Yes, he'll still be there for the first match in Germany," said FFF President Noel Le Graet, referring to the UEFA Euro 2020 Championship, after being asked if Deschamps would stay on after the team's World Cup victory in Russia. "We had a contract until 2020 -- even when things were going less well —I said that he would be in his position until that date. Now, he has won, and what a way to do it!" he added. "He really is someone who works enormously hard, because without hard work we would have nothing. The work done by Didier and his team is significant," Le Graet said.

7 medal events added to 2022 Winter Games

Lausanne: Planning for its next three Olympic Games on Wednesday, the IOC added seven medal events to the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, published a 2020 Tokyo Olympics schedule with no agreement on when to race swimming finals, and set a timetable to add new sports to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The next Winter Olympics will now include: women's monobob, Big Air freestyle skiing for men and women, plus mixed team events in short track speed skating, ski jumping, ski aerials and snowboardcross. The addition of Gold medals to a 109-event program was combined with a reduction in how many athletes will compete. In an attempt to cut organizing costs, amid recent failures of potential bidders in Europe for the 2026 Winter Games, there should be no additional venues required and 41 fewer athletes in Beijing than the 2,933 competitors at Pyeongchang last February.