Around the world, it's an almost endless cycle. While Germany's win at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil is still fresh in the memories of football fans, qualifying is set to begin for the 2018 edition, with Asia's 12 lowest-ranked teams set to play their opening matches this week.

For teams such as tiny Bhutan, which is in last place in FIFA's rankings at No. 209, and India, considered a potential sleeping giant in the game, failure in the first-round qualifiers would spell the end of their World Cup aspirations for another four years. None of the teams in action in the first round has ever qualified for the final stage.

Playing without stars Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, defending champion Switzerland slumped to a first-round loss to Belgium in the Davis Cup on Sunday, while Andy Murray scored the decisive point to lift Britain past the United States and Novak Djokovic led Serbia to victory over Croatia.

After Federer and Wawrinka led Switzerland to its first Davis Cup title last year, the two top-10 players decided not to play Davis Cup this year, leaving Switzerland with a diminished team — and chances — against Belgium.

Russell Westbrook had his fifth triple-double in six games to help the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Toronto Raptors 108-104 in the NBA on Sunday.

The NBA scoring leader had 30 points, matched a career high with 17 assists and added 11 rebounds for his seventh triple-double of the season and 15th overall.

Lance Armstrong welcomed an investigative report into the murky past of cycling's governing body and said he hopes it can help the sport move on from an era that will always be remembered for the doping by himself and others.

The report turned up no evidence to sustain previous allegations that Armstrong paid the UCI to cover up a positive doping test back in his heyday, yet it explains in great detail how the UCI acted favorably toward Armstrong — a rider dubbed "cycling's pop star."

Lionel Messi is back to upstaging Cristiano Ronaldo again.

Messi broke Ronaldo's record for hat tricks in the Spanish league with his 24th treble — and 32nd in all competitions — in Barcelona's 6-1 thrashing of Rayo Vallecano on Sunday. That also meant Barcelona overtook Ronaldo's Real Madrid at the top of the league by one point, and put him level with his rival on 30 goals for the season in the competition — having trailed 25-13 in the scoring race through 15 rounds.

Newcastle United striker Papiss Cisse and Manchester United defender Jonny Evans have been banned for seven and six matches respectively for spitting at each other, the Football Association announced on Saturday.

The punishments follow an incident that occurred between the pair during the first half of United's 1-0 win over Newcastle at St. James' Park in the Premier League on Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Galaxy launched their quest to defend their Major League Soccer title with a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Fire on Friday.

The Galaxy controlled the majority of the first regular-season match, but didn't break through for a goal until Jose Villarreal's 65th-minute strike.

James Harden posted his third triple-double of the season on Friday, scoring 38 points with 12 assists and 12 rebounds to lift Houston to a 103-93 NBA victory over Detroit.

Harden's feat helped Houston snap a two-game losing streak and his three triple-doubles this season are the most in a single campaign for a Rocket since Clyde Drexler had three in 1996-97.

Serbia's world number one Novak Djokovic and Great Britain's Andy Murray breezed to comfortable wins as Davis Cup World Group first round action began in dramatic style on Friday.

Djokovic dispatched Mate Delic in three sets and Viktor Troicki came through in five against Borna Coric to put 2010 champions Serbia 2-0 up against a Croatia team struggling without U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has challenged his players to turn their scintillating current form into silverware ahead of Sunday's FA Cup quarter-final at home to second-tier Blackburn Rovers.

After a poor start to the campaign, Liverpool have rediscovered their swagger in 2015, winning seven of their last eight Premier League games to revitalize their push for Champions League qualification.