Weekly Sports Wrap: Naomi Osaka withdraws from French Open and more

This week witnessed a lot of action in the world of sports.

The 2020-21 footballing season has finally come to a close. Fans have now turned to the international circuit for their daily dose of football. India are among the many teams that are taking part in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers. While there are uncertainties regarding the Copa America, the Euro Cup looks set to happen as planned. A lot of other developments also took place in the world of sports in general.

Here's a look back, courtesy of Khel Now's Weekly Wrap:

Indian Football

FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers

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This week began with us highlighting how India head coach Igor Stimac needs to change his perception of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Croatian recently said that fans consider the Blue Tigers to be very superior to their neighbours and that it is not the case. However, we have our opinion - they are indeed superior and there should not be any excuses while facing them.

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We also listed out the five lessons that India can learn from Qatar to become a football success story, while Brandon Fernandes said to FIFA that the Blue Tigers are doing well under Stimac. Meanwhile, the Croatian said that he is focused on building a team for the next qualifiers, before losing 1-0 to Qatar.

Up next, Bangladesh who boasts of an impressive squad will face the Indian football team. The match will kick-off at Doha on Monday.

Indian Football Transfers

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Indian clubs were very busy this week. ATK Mohun Bagan announced the signing of Amrinder Singh after he left Mumbai City. The Islanders fans soon forgot the exit of their former skipper, with Rowllin Borges agreeing to a multi-year extension.

TP Rehenesh and Sandeep Singh also got multi-year extensions, at Jamshedpur FC and Kerala Blasters respectively. The Yellow Army made another blockbuster signing in Ivan Vukomanovic, who will replace Kibu Vicuna as the head coach. A few days after Jeakson Singh announced their intentions to aim for the ISL 2020-21 title and nothing else, Lalruatthara left the club and joined Odisha FC.

Finally, Bengaluru FC also made their first new signing of the season - Bidyashagar Singh from TRAU FC.

World Football

European football

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Here's our in-depth report on why Portugal are one of the favourites to win Euro 2020. Similarly, we have also assessed the best forwards and goalkeepers to look forward to the upcoming competition.

Copa America 2021

Meanwhile, Copa America 2021 is in doubt after the competition got shifted from Argentina to Brazil. This was caused by the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country which have affected many other sports too. However, Brazilian players are also unwilling to play the tournament in their own backyard due to the same reasons. Readers of Khel Now can spend their time browsing through our reports on the top players to watch out for at Copa America, and on the senior stars in the competition (including Claudio Bravo and Dani Alves).

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Olympic Sports

The world of Olympics sports also witnessed several important developments. Manpreet Kaur spoke in great length about her upcoming chance to perform in the Tokyo Olympics, while PV Sindhu opened up on her thoughts about Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth missing out on the all-important sports competition.

Meanwhile, Naomi Osaka announced that she is withdrawing from the French Open due to personal reasons, while Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic among others qualified to the round-of-16. As a bonus, here's also a quick look at five stars who were forced to retire from the event due to injuries.

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