India vs Australia, 4th ODI Live: Rohit, Dhawan get India off to steady start

• INDIA

87 / 1

OVERS10.4

R/R8.37

Fours7

Sixes5

Extras1

Play in Progress

Batsman	Status	R	B	4s	6s
Shikhar Dhawan	Batting	36	33	3	2
Virat Kohli	Batting	9	6	2	0

Extras : 1 (b - 0, w - 1, nb - 0, lb - 0, Penalty - 0)

Australian Open: Bhupathi starts with a win, Paes knocked out in the first round

Melbourne: Mahesh Bhupathi returned to Grand Slam action with a first-round win at the Australian Open but Leander Paes' bid fell flat at the first hurdle, in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Bhupathi, who is playing with Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, beat the Australian team of Alex Bolt and Andrew Whittington 7-6 (4) 3-6 6-4 in his tournament-opener at court seven.

Leander Paes with his partner Jeremy Charady at the Australian Open. AFP

In the two hour and 13 minute contest, Bhupathi and Muller managed to save 12 breakpoints out of 15 they faced.

It was Bhupathi's third competitive event since bowing out of 2015 Wimbledon championships. He had missed the entire second half of the last year as he was busy with the conduct of his ambitious International Premier Tennis League (IPTL).

He had played at the Chennai Open and then at a Challenger tournament in Thailand, where he reached the semifinals with compatriot Purav Raja.

The 42-year-old Paes made an exit with French partner Jeremy Charady after losing his first round 3-6 4-6 to Colombian 12th seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.

Their challenge was over in 72 minutes as they squandered five of the six break chances.

Australian Open: Federer, Serena, Sharapova win in straight sets, advance to third round

Melbourne: Serena Williams has had so much success for such a long time that even in a second-round match she can set a record at the season's first Grand Slam event.

The six-time and defending champion beat No. 90-ranked Hsieh Su-wei 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday at Rod Laver Arena, an all-time record 79th main draw match at the Australian Open.

She closed with an ace, her seventh, finishing in precisely an hour.

"It all started here — this is where I played my first Grand Slam right on this court and I'm still going, it's such an honor," said Williams, who has a 70-9 win-loss record at Melbourne Park since her debut in 1998. "I love it every time I come here."

Serena Williams in action in the second round of the Australian Open. Getty

She hit 26 winners, including one around the post that she thought may have been a first for her, at age 34.

"My first one I think," she said. "I was like, "Yay. Never too late."

Williams' next opponent will be 18-year-old Russian Daria Kasatkina, who beat Croatia's Ana Konjuh 6-4, 6-3, and she faces a potential quarterfinal match against Maria Sharapova, which would be a rematch of the 2015 final.

Sharapova reached the third round with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the first match completed on day three, when light rain caused an hour-long delay getting started on the outside courts.

Roger Federer extended his streak by reaching the third round for the 17th straight Australian Open.

Federer, playing his 65th consecutive major, advanced 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 over Alexandr Dolgopolov. He lost in the third round in his first two trips to Melbourne Park in 2000 and '01 and again last year — in between he won the title four times and lost one final during a run of reaching the semifinals or better in 11 straight years.

He didn't face a break point against Dolgopolov, his sometimes practice partner, and said "I thought I served great."

"Very happy, conditions are extremely quick," he said. "I had to serve well and as the match went on I started to feel better and better."

Seventh-seeded Kei Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open finalist, advanced with a 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 win over Austin Krajicek, No. 15 David Goffin beat Damir Dzumhur 6-4, 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 and No. 19 Dominic Thiem had a 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 win over Nicolas Almagro.

Sharapova, the 2008 champion and four-time finalist at Melbourne Park, dropped two service games in the first set, including once when serving at 5-1, but was otherwise consistent except for some over-hit ground strokes.

"To come back here and play my first match on Rod Laver is always very special as you always get those first little jitters out of the way."

Other seeded players advancing included No. 12 Belinda Bencic, who had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Timea Babos, and No. 13 Roberta Vinci, who beat Irina Falconi 6-2, 6-3.

The 92nd-ranked Kateryna Bondarenko earned one of her biggest wins since returning from retirement after having a baby in 2013, beating two-time major winner and No. 23-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 7-5.

'Heavy' match-fixing in lower levels of tennis, says anti-corruption official

Melbourne: Match-fixing is commonplace in tennis's lower levels and efforts to fight it are inadequate, a senior anti-corruption official told AFP after cheating claims rocked the sport during the Australian Open.

After an explosive report claimed match-fixing was repeatedly going unpunished, Chris Eaton of the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) criticised tennis's "opaque and secretive" anti-corruption body.

The controversy is just the latest to hit the tainted sports world after claims of a doping cover-up shook athletics and multiple scandals engulfed football's governing body, FIFA.

Representational image. Reuters

Eaton, directory of integrity at the ICSS, said professional betting analysis showed "nil manipulation" of matches at the top levels of tennis, where players are highly paid and less susceptible to bribery.

"However in the second and lower levels, manipulation indicators are heavy and regularly occurring," the former FIFA security chief said via email.

"We are not the only sport integrity organisation to observe this."

Eaton's comments follow the BBC and BuzzFeed report that said 16 players who had reached the top 50 over the past decade had repeatedly been suspected of fixing matches, but never punished.

Three matches at Wimbledon had fallen under suspicion and at least eight of the "core group" of players on the fixing radar were at the Australian Open Grand Slam tournament, which began on Monday, it said.

Tennis authorities rejected any suggestion that evidence was suppressed and defended the workings of the Tennis Integrity Unit, which was set up in 2008 and has landed 18 convictions, including six life bans.

The BBC and BuzzFeed report's claims are backed up by anecdotal evidence including from Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic, who said he was once offered $200,000 to fix a match in Russia.

Retired American player Andy Roddick said a fellow former professional had told him he could probably name "at least 8-9" of the 16 suspected of repeatedly fixing matches.

'Operating in the shadows'

Eaton said hundreds of thousands of dollars can be made by gamblers using accumulators to bet on the outcomes of multiple matches, a practice that is especially popular in eastern Europe and Russia.

It creates a powerful incentive to fix matches -- something which is particularly easy to do in tennis, which has many poorly paid players and where it only takes one bribe to secure the desired outcome.

Eaton said tennis was the third most popular sport, behind football and cricket, for betting worldwide "and as a direct consequence it is third in the magnitude of identified suspicious matches".

"Tennis is not as lucrative for fixing as football or cricket. But it takes less corruptive effort to fix individual outcomes in a tennis match, so the frequency of winning on a single match can be vastly higher than in cricket and football," he said.

Eaton also hit out at the "poor choice of structure and process" for the Tennis Integrity Unit, saying it needs to be more open and relies too much on betting analysis, rather than field investigations.

"Integrity is by definition open and transparent. The TIU is neither... by operating in the shadows they fail to practice what they preach," he said, calling for a "new independent and integrated integrity model.

"If not, then tennis will continue to be targeted at its most vulnerable levels, and as intimidated or compromised players and others advance they bring that vulnerability with them."

His comments chime with top players Roger Federer and Andy Murray, who both said they were glad to see the issue of match-fixing brought to light and would like to see more details.

HIL: Whetton's early goal helps Punjab Warriors beat defending champions Ranchi Rays

Chandigarh: Australian Jacob Whetton scored an early field goal to hand Jaypee Punjab Warriors a 2-0 victory over defending champions Ranchi Rays in their opening match of the Hockey India League (HIL), in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

Under the newly introduced scoring system, a field goal is counted as two and the hosts did enough to defend their early strike to pocket full points from the encounter.

Whetton found the opposition net as early as in the second minute of the match to give the early lead to Punjab Warriors which they stoutly defended for the remaining 68 minutes of the match to stun the title holders.

Whetton slotted home a fine fiel goal from a counter-attack after he was brilliantly assisted by Punjab Warriors skipper Sardar Singh, who switched base from Delhi Waveriders this season.

Sardar Singh in action. Image Credit: Twitter @HockeyIndiaLeag

Punjab Warriors caught Ranchi, partly co-owned by India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, napping in a counter-attack when Sardar set it up for Whetton from the right with a brilliant pass and the Australian did enough to dodge past an onrushing Ranchi goalkeeper Tyler Lovell to shot home the goal.

Punjab Warriors looked more orgainsed than their opponents.

After Whetton's early strike, Ranchi got a golden opportunity to draw level in the 18th minute but skipper Ashley Jackson's flick from a penalty corner was blocked by Punjab Warriors goalkeeper Tristian Clemons. Ranchi had another scoring chance after in the opening half but Jackson's slap shot did not trouble Punjab Warriors custodian.

After the cross-over, Punjab Warriors came out with more purpose and attacked Ranchi goal at ease and in the process earned three penalty corners but the chances went in vain.

While Whetton's try from the first penalty corner hit the right post, the effort from the second set piece went wide.

Punjab Warriors had another scoring opportunity in the final quarter, but Christopher Ciriello's effort did not yield result.

Ranchi came out all guns blazing in the final quarter but their forwardline failed to get the final touch which could have earned them atleast a draw.

Punjab Warriors will meet last year's bronze medallist Delhi Waveriders in their next match in Chandigarh on Thursday, while Ranchi will play Uttar Pradesh Wizards in Lucknow on Friday.

After the match, Whetton thanked Sardar for the fine assist and also lauded his team's backline to hold on to the lead.

"It was good that Sardar provided the ball in time and I was there at the right place for the goal. Also, we put up a very good defensive performance as well, so it was a good win," Whetton, was adjudged player-of-the-match said at the post-match presentation.