* Lionel Messi scored from the penalty spot to salvage a 1-1 draw for Argentina against Paraguay in the Copa America on Wednesday as his side rode their luck to cling on to hope of reaching the quarter-finals.
* Seven-times champions Mexico sealed their spot in the knockout stage of the Gold Cup with a 3-1 victory over Canada in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday. Mexico will face Martinique, who earlier kept their hopes of advancing to the knockout stage alive by beating Cuba 3-0.
* Top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas avoided a slip-up at Queen's on Thursday (Jun 20) as he breezed past British Number one Kyle Edmund 6-3, 7-5 in their rain-delayed first round match.
* Top seed Angelique Kerber won the battle of the present and former Wimbledon champions as she beat Maria Sharapova 6-2 6-3 in a heavyweight second-round clash at the Mallorca Open on Thursday.
* Former world number one Andy Murray made a victorious return after what he described as "life-changing" hip surgery at a raucous Queen's Club on Thursday. The three-time Grand Slam champion partnered Spain's Feliciano Lopez to a 7-6 (7/5) 6-3 victory in his first competitive match in five months.
* Video Assistant Referees (VAR) will be used in the Premier League for the first time from next season but the Professional Game Match Officials Limited have decided that VAR will not intervene if the goalkeeper steps off the goalline to avoid unnecessary retakes.
* Team Ineos' Egan Bernal took the leader's yellow jersey as the Netherlands' Antwan Tolhoek claimed his first career victory by winning the sixth stage of the Tour de Suisse on Thursday.
* Team Sunweb's Tom Dumoulin will miss next month's Tour de France over concerns that he might not be in the best shape to compete following a knee injury and a physically challenging run-up to the race, the Dutchman said on Thursday.
* Kim Hyo-joo from the Republic of Korea grabbed a one-shot clubhouse lead at the Women's PGA Championship in Chaska, Minnesota on Thursday as Michelle Wie endured a rough return to competition.
* Manchester City defender Oleksandr Zinchenko has signed a three-year extension to his contract which will keep him at the club until 2024, the Premier League champions said on Thursday. The deal comes a day after City extended defender Kyle Walker's contract till the end of the 2023-24 season.
* Caster Semenya will race in the 800m at the Stanford Diamond League on June 30 in her first outing over the distance since she launched a legal battle against new rules targeting athletes with hyperandrogenism.
* Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven will attend an International Olympic Committee vote next week to back Stockholm's candidacy to land the 2026 Winter Olympics, bid officials said on Thursday.
