Roger Federer called for a merger between the two governing bodies last month, with both Simon and ATP Tour Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi welcoming the suggestion. But some top WTA players have said they want an equal standing for the women players in a combined body.

Drawing confidence from Saurabh Chaudhary's Zen-like calm and lethal efficiency with pistol, shooting coach Amit Sheoran says his most famous ward will be well-placed both mentally and skill-wise whenever the Tokyo Olympics are held. It doesn't matter to the world-beater if the next Summer Games are held tomorrow, after a year or even after 10 years, according to the coach.

Germany's Bundesliga can restart games from the second half of May following the coronavirus stoppage, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday. Merkel's announcement had been widely expected as part of measures to begin easing the country's lockdown aimed at halting the spread of the virus.

Stranded in Srinagar for more than a month due to the coronavirus-forced national lockdown, Real Kashmir FC head coach David Robertson and his family will finally return to Scotland on Thursday, ending an anxious wait to attend to his sick mother. Robertson, his wife Kim, son Mason, who plays for the club, and three support staff reached Jammu on Wednesday by an official bus of RKFC which left Srinagar early in the morning. They will fly back home in a British Airways flight from Amritsar on Thursday afternoon.

Resumption of professional and local sport within days, says the country's sports and recreation minister.

Serie A teams have been allowed to start practice this week but only with players training individually and respecting social distancing. Full team practice is due to begin on May 18, but only if the medical protocol is approved.

The Bundesliga season will restart on May 16 after a suspension of more than two months, the German Football League (DFL) said on Thursday, becoming the first European league to resume amid the coronavirus pandemic. The DFL said the season would restart under the terms of a strict health protocol that bans fans from the stadium, with six games on Saturday, including the high-profile Ruhr valley derby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04.

Pistol ace Manu Bhaker has got a new electronic target installed at the makeshift shooting range at her home in Haryana in place of an archaic manual machine that was breaking down frequently and hampering her Olympics preparation. The old machine was causing her "immense irritation".

Taiwan reopened baseball games to a limited number of fans on Friday for the first time since controls were imposed to limit the spread of the coronavirus, part of government efforts to slowly allow normal life to resume. Taiwan has been relatively successful at controlling the virus, with 440 cases to date and 6 deaths, with only 85 active infections, thanks to early prevention and detection efforts.

Senior international Olympics official John Coates said on Saturday the delayed Tokyo Olympics could end up being the greatest Games ever, coming next year as the world emerges from COVID-19 crisis. Coates, Australia's Olympic chief and head of the International Olympic Committee's inspectorate for the Games, cited the examples of positive Summer Games that followed the two world wars of the 20th century. The Tokyo Games were postponed for a year to 2021 in the aftermath of the new coronavirus outbreak.