Tennis News -
French Open -

Sania won her doubles match easily ...
Janette Husarova (SVK)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Catalina Castano (COL)/C. Martinez Granados (ESP) 61 63

And Mahesh also won his first round match with new partner ...
[R1] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/Xavier Malisse (BEL) bt Gilles Muller (LUX)/ Christophe Rochus (BEL) 62 62
---------------------------------------------
Indonesia Masters Leg -

[R1] RAJAGOPALAN, Arun-Prakash (IND) l KATO, Toshiharu (JPN) 36 46
[R1] MURALI, Mithun (IND) bt SIRIBUTWONG, Kirati (THA) 76(7) 63

[R2] MURALI, Mithun (IND) l (7) THOMPSON, Nathan (USA) 62 64

Doubles -
[QF] SIMPATIAJI, Prima (INA)/ SINGH, Ashutosh (IND) l (1) SUGIYAMA, Norikazu (JPN)/ WILSON, Brian (USA) 76(5) 16 67(11)
[QF] (4) RAJAGOPALAN, Arun-Prakash (IND)/ PRASANTH, Vijay-Sundar (IND) bt MATOSEVIC, Marinko (AUS)/ ROBERTS, Andrew (AUS) 76(5) 61

[SF] (4) RAJAGOPALAN, Arun-Prakash (IND)/ PRASANTH, Vijay-Sundar (IND) vs (2) CHARROIN, Olivier (FRA)/ SADECKY, Alexander (SUI)
----------------------------------------------
At the grade-1 Astrid Bowl on clay at Charleroi, Belgium

[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,8) BYE
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND, 31) BYE
[R1] Sanaa Bhambri (IND) BYE

[R2] Sanaa Bhambri (IND) l Victoria Larriere (FRA) 67(3) 60 61

[R2] Sanam Singh (IND, 8) bt Alejandro Gonzales (COL,74) 36 64 75
[R2] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND, 31) bt Jean-Michel Durango (ECU,57) 16 63 62

[PQF] Sanam Singh (IND, 8) vs Greg Jones ( AUS,53)
[PQF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND, 31) vs Kellen Damico (USA,25)
----------------------------------------------------
$ 15K ITF Indian futures 2, Dehra Dun - 2nd round results -

(1)Henry ADJEI-DARKO (GHA) bt Vijay PAUL (USA) 62 64
Aqeel KHAN (PAK) bt (5)Vishal UPPAL (IND) 62 63
(4)Nick MONROE (USA) bt Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) 64 61
(8)Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) bt Purav RAJA (IND) 62 63
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Sumit-Prakash GUPTA (IND) 64 62
(4)Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt Nitin KIRTANE (IND) 46 60 60
(6)Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Yaoki ISHII (JPN) 64 67(4) 75
(2)Alexey KEDRIOUK (KAZ) bt Mustafa GHOUSE (IND) 75 64

Doubles Quarterfinals -
Vinod Sridhar (IND)/Vishaal Uppal (IND) bt Sandeep Kirtane (IND)/Varun Walia (IND) 63 61
Aditya Madkekar (IND)/Purav Raja (IND) bt Tushar Liberhan (IND)/Navdeep Singh (IND) 75 61
Punna Vishal (IND)/Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Sumit Prakash Gupta (IND)/Vivek Shokeen (IND) 26 76(5) 64
Mustafa Ghouse (IND)/Sunil Kumar (IND) bt Alon Moses (IND)/Vijit Sehgal (IND) 62 64

Tennis News - French Open

Sania lost her match in straight sets ... Her match was completed in 56 mins, where she made 37 UFEs and only 9 winners .. :( Definetly poor performance, I was expecting good fight from her.

(10) Anastasia Myskina (RUS) bt Sania Mirza (IND) 64 61

Sania's doubles draw is out ... Her partner is Slovakian Janette Husarova ... If they win 1st round then in 2nd they can face 3rd seed pair.
(3) Anna-Lena Groenefeld GER/ Meghann Shaughnessy USA vs Michaella Krajicek NED/ Agnes Szavay HUN
Janette Husarova SVK/ Sania Mirza IND vs Catalina Castano COL/ C. Martinez Granados ESP
-----------------------------------------------
At the Busan challenger

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,250) l (3) Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE,123) 67 46
-----------------------------------------------
$ 15K ITF Indian futures 2, Dehra Dun -
Complete Main draw Singles Result -

(1)Henry Adjei-Darko (GHA) bt (WC)Sriram Narayanaswami (IND) 60 62
Rahil Makharia (IND) l (q)Vijay Paul (USA) 57 06
(WC)Aqeel Khan (PAK) bt (q)Kamala Kannan (IND) 63 63
(5)Vishal Uppal (IND) bt (q) Michel Leong (SOL) 64 76(4)

(3)Nick Monroe (USA) bt Tai-Wei Liu (TPE) 64 61
Aditya Madkekar (IND) bt J. Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 61 64
Tushar Liberhan (IND) l Purav Raja (IND) 06 16
(8)Vinod Sridhar (IND) bt (q) Mathew Taylor (GBR) 64 64

(7)Navdeep Singh (IND) l Vivek Shokeen (IND) 26 76(4) 36
(WC)Sumit Prakash Gupta (IND) vs (q) Yannik Nelord ( IND) 16 61 76(3)
Nitin Kirtane (IND) bt Shivang Mishra (IND) 63 75
(4)Karan Rastogi (IND) bt Juan Langton ( SAM) 61 62

(6)Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND) bt (q) Sandeep Choudhary (IND) 64 76(4)
Yaoki Ishii (JPN) bt (q) Divyanshu Singh (IND) 62 61
Mustafa Ghouse (IND) bt (WC)Varun Walia (IND) 62 60
(2)Alexey Kedriouk (KAZ) bt Dmitriy Makeev (KAZ) 76(6) 76(5)

Remaing Doubles result -
Mustafa Ghouse (IND) /Sunil Kumar (IND) bt Tai-Wei Liu (Tpe)/Nitin Kirtane (IND) 36 61 76(0)
--------------------------------------------------------

Badminton News -

Saina Nehwal lost in the second qualifying round at Indonesian Open to 210th ranked Kartika Yuan of Indonesia 21-17 23-21... Fairytale endede mostly due to fatigue ... 16 year old had her spectacular peformance at the Philippines Open, where she played a series of marathon matches registering 4 upsets in as many rounds.

At NCAA national championship, Somdev Devvarman making big waves ... He become first Indian to reach final of NCAA national championship ... Devvarman is just the second Cavalier to reach the finals of the NCAA Tournament, joining Brian Vahaly, who reached the final in 2001.

[R1] (14) Somdev Devvarman, Virginia bt Matko Maravic, Michigan 64 60
[R2] (14) Somdev Devvarman, Virginia bt Martin Sayer, Radford 63 64
[PQF] (14) Somdev Devvarman, Virginia bt (5) Ludovic Walter, Duke 62 63
[QF] (14) Somdev Devvarman, Virginia bt Sheeva Parbhu, Omaha, NE 61 63
[SF] (14) Somdev Devvarman, Virginia bt (25) KC Corkery, Stanford 64 57 63

[F] (14) Somdev Devvarman, Virginia vs (1) Benjamin Kohlloeffel, UCLA

Go Somdev.
----------------------------------------------
At $15K ITF India futures F2 at Dehra Dun

The results (third and final qualifying round) -
Kamala Kannan bt Yuda Shieh (Tpe) 61 62
Juan Langton (Sam) bt P. C. Vignesh 64 62
Michael Leong (Sol) bt Dai-Chiao Lin (Tpe) 76 (5) 61
Divyanshu Singh bt Avinash Kunwar 62 63
Mathew Taylor (GBR) bt Praveen Henry (IND) 61 61
Vijay Paul (US) bt Vijit Sehgal (IND) 62 61
Sandeep Choudhary (IND) bt Fariz Mohammed (IND) 63 62
Yannick Nelord (IND) bt Gajapathy Pillai (IND) 76(4) 62

Only 3 of the 1st round singles matches were played today.

Main draw -
(1)Henry Adjei-Darko (GHA) vs (WC)Sriram Narayanaswami (IND)
Rahil Makharia (IND) vs (q)Vijay Paul (USA)
(WC)Aqeel Khan (PAK) bt (q)Kamala Kannan (IND) 63 63
(5)Vishal Uppal (IND) vs (q) Michel Leong (SOL)
(3)Nick Monroe (USA) vs Tai-Wei Liu (TPE)
Aditya Madkekar (IND) bt J. Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 61 64
Tushar Liberhan (IND) vs Purav Raja (IND)
(8)Vinod Sridhar (IND) vs (q) Mathew Taylor (GBR)
(7)Navdeep Singh (IND) vs Vivek Shokeen (IND)
(WC)Sumit Prakash Gupta (IND) vs (q) Yannik Nelord ( IND)
Nitin Kirtane (IND) bt Shivang Mishra (IND) 63 75
(4)Karan Rastogi (IND) vs Juan Langton ( SAM)
(6)Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND) vs (q) Sandeep Choudhary (IND)
Yaoki Ishii (JPN) vs (q) Divyanshu Singh (IND)
Mustafa Ghouse (IND) vs (WC)Varun Walia (IND)
(2)Alexey Kedriouk (KAZ) vs Dmitriy Makeev (KAZ)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals) -
Vinod Sridhar (IND)/Vishaal Uppal (IND) bt Vishal Gaur (IND)/Kavan Sejpal (IND) 61 60
Sandeep Kirtane (IND)/Varun Walia (IND) bt Aqeel Khan (Pak)/Arindam Datta (IND) 62 75
Tushar Liberhan (IND)/Navdeep Singh (IND) bt Sandeep Kumar (IND)/Honey Rana (IND) 61 60
Aditya Madkekar (IND)/Purav Raja (IND) bt P.C. Vignesh (IND)/Pavan Polavarapu (IND) 63 64
Sumit Prakash Gupta (IND)/Vivek Shokeen (IND) w/o Burnham Arlidge(GBR)/Mathew Taylor (GBR)
Punna Vishal (IND)/Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Alexey Kedriouk(Kaz)/Dmitri Makeyev (Kaz) 62 62
Alon Moses (IND)/Vijit Sehgal (IND) bt Vijay Paul (US)/Rahil Makharia (IND) 75 63

French Open -

I know that no Indian players were playing yesterday .. But couldn't resist to put comments about couple of matches.

Yesterday Roger Federer had tough time against qualifier Diego Hartfield ... He defeated him 75 76 (2) 62 ... Roger Federer wasn't pleased to be playing, although his attitude was more akin to someone called in to work when he expected to relax on a day off.... Maria Sharapova also had her reservation about playing on Sunday due to injury where she saved three match points to beat Mashona Washington ... Sharapova was struggling with her game and ankle injury ... In decider she fought back from 2-5 to won this match ... Final score was 62 57 75.

Juan Antonio Marin career mark at grandslams dropped to 0-17 on Sunday, when he lost 75 63 63 to 1998 champion Carlos Moya in the first round of the French Open ... No man has ever lost that many Grand Slam matches without winning one.

Also this week Rafa is ATP's official blogger .at French Open .. After reading Dima's funny posts, Rafa looks more serious ..
http://www.atptennis.com/en/blog/nadal.asp
--------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -

This week Jeev joined Jyoti on European tour for BMW Championship at Wentworth Club ... Jeev missed the cut with miserable +5 second round ... Jyoti had so so tournament to finished on tied 58th position.

BMW Championship, Wentworth Club - Final Standing
1 HOWELL David ENG -17 68 65 69 69 271 € 708330.00
2 KHAN Simon ENG -12 70 68 70 68 276 € 472220.00
3 JIMÉNEZ Miguel Angel ESP -11 71 69 65 72 277 € 266050.00
4 RUMFORD Brett AUS -9 72 73 69 65 279 € 212500.00
5 BLAND Richard ENG -8 73 68 71 68 280 € 180200.00

T58 RANDHAWA Jyoti IND +4 71 72 76 73 292 € 12112.50
---------------- Projected Cut +2 --------------
T99 SINGH Jeev Milkha 73 77 +6

--------------------------------------------------

Many players struggled on tough condition at The 90th Philippine Open on APGA tour ... Indian had mixed luck.

The 90th Philippine Open - Round 4
1 Scott STRANGE 68 70 72 70 -8
2 PARK Jun-won 75 74 69 67 -3
T3 LU Wei-lan 69 74 72 71 -2
T3 YEH Chang-ting 69 69 73 75 -2
T3 Chris RODGERS 70 69 75 72 -2

T12 S.S.P. CHOWRASIA 74 72 71 73 +2
T26 Uttam Singh MUNDY 75 74 69 76 +6
T31 Gurbaaz MANN 73 73 72 77 +7
T56 Digvijay SINGH 75 70 78 76 +11
T62 Harmeet KAHLON 75 73 75 78 +13
***** PROJECTED CUT +6 *****
T73 Jaiveer VIRK 75 76 +7
T73 Gaurav GHEI 76 75 +7
T87 Harinder GUPTA 75 77 +8
T87 Amritinder SINGH 79 73 +8
T138 Arjun SINGH 79 79 +14
Amandeep JOHL RETD
----------------------------------------
Chess News -

India had miserable round 7 where our men lost to Ukraine 1.5-2.5 with three draws and one loss (Hari) ... And our women lost to USA 0.5-2.5 with Harika picking up the half point with a draw on the top board.

Round 8: Our men play Bulgaria and our women play Armenia.
----------------------------------------

Badminton News -

Our Men and Women teams r participating in major Asian tournaments started with Philippines Open ... Saina Nehwal created history to become the first Indian woman to won a four star tournament.

Men's Team - Chetan Anand, Anup Sridhar, Arvind Bhatt, Sanave Thomas, Anand Pawar, Rupesh Kumar, V Diju Jaseel Ismail, P Kashyap and Rohan Castelino

Women's Team - Saina Nehwal, Aditi Mutatkar, Sayali Gokhale and Ruth Misa

Philippines Open badminton championship
Women - Singles -
[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,86) bt Sutheaswari Mudukasan (MAL,31) 21-16 21-19
[R1] Sayali Gokhale (IND,?) bt Ana Rice (CAN,29) 16-21 22-20 21-16
[R1] Ruth Misa (IND) l Anita Raj Kaur (MAL) 15-21 14-21
[R1] Aditi Mutatkar l (5) Julia Xian Pei Wong (MAL) 13-21 11-21

[PQF] Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Imai Sachiyo (JPN) 21-15 21-14
[PQF] Sayali Gokhale (IND) l Ai Goto (JPN) 14-21 13-21

[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,86) bt (1) Xu Huaiwen (GER,4) 12-21 21-17 21-17

[SF] Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Ai Goto (JPN) 21-19 20-22 21-14

[F] Saina Nehwal (IND) bt (5) Pei Xian Julia Wong (MAS) 21-15 22-20

Doubles -
[R1] Aditi Mutatkar (IND)/Sayali Gokhale (IND) l Yasuyo Imabeppu (JPN)/Imai Sachiyo (JPN) 8-21 9-21
[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/Ruth Misa (IND) l Lim Siah Pek (MAL)/Joanna Swe Ling (MAL) 17-21 12-21

Men - Singles -
[R1] Chetan Anand (IND) bt Jun Takemura (JPN) 21-19 21-13
[R1] Anup Sridhar (IND) bt Rodel Bartolome (PHI) -21 21-8 22-20
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND) bt Chung Wei Pei (MAL) 22-20 21-17
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND) bt Arolas Amahit Jr (PHI) 23-25 21-14 21-8
[R1] P Kashyap (IND) bt Alfredo Mailon (PHI) 21-13 21-12
[R1] Rohan Castelino (IND) l Poompat Sapkulchananart (THA) 5-21 14-21

[R2] Chetan Anand (IND) bt Ismail Saman (MAL) 19-21 21-7 21-17
[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND) bt Junio Jamie (PHI) 21-3 21-4
[R2] Anup Sridhar (IND) l Lee Yen Hui Kendrick (SIN) 22-20 19-21 19-21
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND) l (3) Boonsak Ponsana (THA) 15-21 20-22
[R2] P Kashyap (IND) l Beng Hong Kuan (MAL) 11-21 16-21

[PQF] Chetan Anand (IND) l M. Roslin Hashim (MAL) 9-21 21-18 15-21
[PQF] Arvind Bhat (IND) l Wei Ng (HKG) 13-21 11-21

Doubles -
[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bye

[PQF] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Anukritayawan Songpol (THA)/ Nakatong Nattapon (THA) 21-17 21-18

[QF] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Hendra A GUNAWAN (INA) /Joko RIYADI (INA) 9-21 21-12 11-21

Sorry for missing from the scene for 15 days.

Last few weeks some good results I missed to post ... Here r some of them.

Chess -

Vishy had very so so MTEL Masters chess tournament, where he finished 3rd.

Mtel Masters Sofia BUL (BUL), 11-21 v 2006 cat. XX (2745)
-------------------------------------------------------------
1 2 3 4 5 6
-------------------------------------------------------------
1 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2804 ** 11 01 =0 =1 =1 6.5 2842
2 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2671 00 ** 1= 1= 1= =1 6.0 2831
3 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2803 10 0= ** == 1= 1= 5.5 2768
4 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2743 =1 0= == ** == 10
5.0 2744 5 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2708 =0 0= 0= == ** == 3.5 2641
6 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2738 =0 =0 0= 01 == ** 3.5 2635
-------------------------------------------------------------

In Chess olympid our 2nd seed men's team started poorly, they lost against 74th rank Morocco 1-3 and then in midways split points with lowly ranked Chinese team (2-2) ... After 6 rounds our team is at position 8th with 16.5 pts.

Other hand our Women team performing well ... After 6 rounds they r on 6th position with 13 pts.

7th round pairing -

Men - India Vs Ukrain
Women - India Vs USA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tennis News -

This week Sania participated in 3 tier Istanbul Cup, where she was participating after long injury break.

Singles -
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,38) bt Ipek Senoglu (TUR, 889) 63 61
[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,38) l Michaela Krajicek (HOL,54) 64 16 26

Doubles -
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Alicia Molik (AUS) bt (1) Anna-lena Groenefeld (GER)/Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) w/o (Shaughnessy: right ankle sprain)
[QF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Alicia Molik (AUS) bt Jelena Kostanic (CRO)/Angelique Widjaja (INA) 63 63
[SF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Alicia Molik (AUS) bt Yuliana Fedak (UKR)/ Eva Hrdinova (CZE) 36 63 76 (3)
[F] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Alicia Molik (AUS) l Alyona Bondarenko (UKR)/Anastasia Yakimova (BLR) 26 46
---------------------------------------------
At French Open Qualies -
Men -
[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,266) l Michael Lammer (SUI,244) 46 67(0)

Women -
[Q1] Shikha Uberoi (IND) bt Maria Jose Argeri (ARG) 26 62 61
[Q1] Sunitha Rao (USA) bt Claudine Schaul (LUX) 63 63

[Q2] Shikha Uberoi (IND) l (14) Galina Voskoboeva (RUS) 57 26
[Q2] Sunitha Rao (USA) l (24) Edina Gallovits (ROM) 46 64 46

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,38) vs (10) Anastasia Myskina (RUS,12)
--------------------------------------------------
And at $ 15 K ITF Indian Futures 1, Delhi , Indians had good outing ... Karan and Vivek played exceptionally well ... Karan won his 1st futures title to become India's #3 player.

1st round results -
(1) Henry ADJEI-DARKO (GHA) defeated Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 76(4) 57 75
Mustafa GHOUSE (IND) defeated Nitin KIRTANE (IND) 63 16 61
Vijay PAUL (USA) defeated Purav RAJA (IND) 36 61 63
(7)Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) defeated Tushar LIBERHAN (IND) 64 63
(3)Karan RASTOGI (IND) defeated Tai-Wei LIU (TPE) 76(7) 64
Amir WEINTRAUB (ISR) defeated Kamala KANNAN (IND) 75 67(2) 62
Yaoki ISHII (JPN) defeated Divij SHARAN (IND) 64 36 63
Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) defeated (5) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) 63 67(4) 61
(8) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) defeated Rishi BEHL (IND) 64 63
Dmitri MAKEYEV (KAZ) defeated Nishank MISHRA (IND) 63 64
Navdeep SINGH (IND) defeated Varun WALIA (IND) 62 64
(4) Nick MONROE (USA) defeated Yu-Da SHIEH (TPE) 62 63
(6)Vishal UPPAL (IND) defeated Shivang MISHRA (IND) 46 64 76(8)
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) defeated Sumit-Prakash GUPTA (IND) 64 61
Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) defeated Rohan GIDE (IND) 75 63
Aqeel KHAN (PAK) defeated (2) Alexey KEDRIOUK (KAZ) 76(5) 16 63

Second round results -
(1) Henry ADJEI-DARKO (GHA) bt Mustafa GHOUSE (IND) 75 62
(7)Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Vijay PAUL (USA) 63 61
(3)Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt Amir WEINTRAUB (ISR) 61 64
Yaoki ISHII (JPN) bt Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) 61 61
Dmitri MAKEYEV (KAZ) bt (8) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) 75 61
(4) Nick MONROE (USA) bt Navdeep SINGH (IND) 60 75
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt (6)Vishal UPPAL (IND) 61 61
(WC) Aqeel KHAN (PAK) bt Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) 36 62 61

Quarterfinals -
(1)Henry ADJEI-DARKO (GHA) defeated (7)Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) 64 75
(3)Karan RASTOGI (IND) defeated Yaoki ISHII (JPN) 63 57 64
(4)Nick MONROE (USA) defeated Dmitri MAKEYEV (KAZ) 06 63 62
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) defeated Aqeel KHAN (PAK) 64 36 63

Semifinals -
(3)Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt (1)Henry ADJEI-DARKO (GHA) 46 76(6) 64
(4)Nick MONROE (USA) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 75 46 62

Final -
(3)Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt (4)Nick MONROE (USA) 26 62 61

Doubles final -
Henry Adjei-Darko (GHA) / Sunil Kumar (IND) bt Mustafa Ghouse (IND)/ Kamala Kannan (IND) 76(5) 64

Golf News -

On JPGA Tour at PGA Championship 2006,

Jeev lost opportunity move ahead and reducing the gap between him and leaders ... Today he scored PAR round which had 3 birdies and 3 bogeys ... Other hand Dinesh Chand had wonderful round of -4 to moved ahead in standing.

PGA Championship - After second round
T1 Norihiko Nakata -8
T1 Toru Taniguchi -8
3 Keng-Chi Lin -7

T15 Dinesh Chand -4
T46 Jeev Milkha Singh -1
---------------------------------------------------
On APGA Tour event at Aamby Valley -

I know its early to write about Aamby Valley Asian Masters, but Ashok Kumar poised to grab opportunity to seal APGA tour card with victory here ... Today he scored superb and best round of the day -6 on this tough course, which consisted 7 birdies and a bogey ... That helped him to take healthy 4 strokes lead over his nearest oppenent.

Total 20 Indians make cut ... But in missing cut r Harmeet Kahlon and Arjun Singh, who r regular on Asian tour events .

Aamby Valley Asian Masters - Round 2
1 Ashok KUMAR 67 66 -11
2 Simon HURD 67 70 -7
T3 Firoz ALI 67 73 -4
T3 Simon GRIFFITHS 68 72 -4

T9 Rahil GANGJEE 73 69 -2 (142)
T14 Gaurav GHEI 74 69 -1 (143)
T14 Rahul GANAPATHY 74 69 -1 (143)*
T14 Mukesh KUMAR 69 74 -1 (143)
T27 Ranjit SINGH 72 72 E (144)*
T27 S.S.P. CHOWRASIA 70 74 E (144)*
T27 Uttam Singh MUNDY 69 75 E (144)*
T37 JUMMAN 74 71 +1 (145)
T37 Ali SHER 72 73 +1 (145)
T37 Gurbaaz MANN 71 74 +1 (145)
T42 Harinder GUPTA 74 72 +2 (146)
T42 Amandeep JOHL 71 75 +2 (146)
T47 D.S. RAGHUVANSHI 79 68 +3 (147)
T47 Vikrant CHOPRA 76 71 +3 (147)*
T54 Binod PANDEY 75 73 +4 (148)
T54 C. MUNIYAPPA 72 76 +4 (148)*
T54 Shiv PRAKASH 74 74 +4 (148)*
T54 Digvijay SINGH 73 75 +4 (148)*
---------- Projected Cut ------------------------
T68 PAPPAN 72 77 +5 (149)
T68 Dinesh KUMAR 70 79 +5 (149)*
T68 Vivek BHANDARI 74 75 +5 (149)*
T76 Amardip MALIK 74 76 +6 (150)*
T76 Jaiveer VIRK 76 74 +6 (150)*
T76 Rafiq ALI 73 77 +6 (150)
T76 Shamim KHAN 76 74 +6 (150)
T76 Arjun SINGH 76 74 +6 (150)
T76 Amritinder SINGH 74 76 +6 (150)*
T90 Amit DUBE 76 75 +7 (151)
T92 Suleman ALI 76 76 +8 (152)*
T92 Sujjan SINGH 79 73 +8 (152)
T92 Ajai GUPTA 79 73 +8 (152)
T92 Naman DAWER 80 72 +8 (152)*
T92 Harmeet KAHLON 77 75 +8 (152)*
T102 Vinod KUMAR 79 74 +9 (153)
T102 Mohd ISLAM 76 77 +9 (153)*
T111 Vijay KUMAR 77 77 +10 (154)
T111 A.S. LEHAL 76 78 +10 (154)*
T115 Gast RAM 77 78 +11 (155)
T115 Mohd SALIM 78 77 +11 (155)
T115 G.S. SETHI 76 79 +11 (155)*
T120 Mandaar SADDI 80 76 +12 (156)
T126 Nabin MONDAL 75 82 +13 (157)
T127 Roop SINGH 81 77 +14 (158)
T127 Rohtas SINGH 82 76 +14 (158)*
T130 Vishal SINGH 83 77 +16 (160)
T130 Rajiv Niranjan DATAR 81 79 +16 (160)
T132 Sanjay KUMAR 80 81 +17 (161)*
T132 Randhir GHOTRA 80 81 +17 (161)
T134 Mohd NAWAB 76 88 +20 (164)*
T135 P.S. GULERIA 86 85 +27 (171)*
T136 Bhoop SINGH 82 91 +29 (173)

86 S. MADAIAH 76 RETD
133 Yusuf ALI 82 DQ
112 Sandeep SYAL 78 +4 WDRW 6
133 Gurki SHERGILL 82 WDRW
141 Basad ALI 85 WDRW
Jaideep Patwardhan WDRW
--------------------------------------------------
On EPGA Tour - British Masters

Very rocky round by Shiv ... Who scored 4 birdies, 4 bogeys and a double bogey ... 16th hole double bogey, 17th hole birdie and 18th hole a bogey ... Jyoti also had 3 birdies and equal number of bogeys in his round.

It looks Shiv will managed to squeeze in for remaining rounds.

Current positon -
T23 RANDHAWA, Jyoti IND 70 72 -2
T53 KAPUR, Shiv * IND 70 74 Even

Shooting News -

Manavjit Singh Sandhu earned himself an Olympic quota place when he shot 144 to win the silver in the men's trap event on the last day of the World Cup at Kerrville, United States ... Today in final day in qualifying round he shot 23 in hist 1st of the day, but 3rd of the tournament ... And then he secured place in final with last 2 rounds of perfect 25 .

In final he scored 23 to win silver and grab Olympic quota place, becoz Alexey Alipov of Russia already won quota place for himself at the last year's World Cup in Americana, Brazil.

Our other shooters diappointed with their performance ... Anwer Sultan finishing 46th with a score of 109 (21, 22, 20, 22, 24) and Bireendeep Sodhi finishing 53rd with 107 (22, 19, 19, 23, 24)
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At the ISSF World Cup at Kerrville, USA, Manavjit Singh Sandhu shot a score of 48 to be placed sixth on the first day of the qualification rounds in men's trap event ... Our other two participants r struggling and r way behind, Anwer Sultan shot 43 (21+22) for 50th position while Birendeep Sodhi scored 41 (22+19) to be placed 64th.

Today three more rounds of 25 targets each will be shot before final.

Tennis News -

At the Rome Masters
[R2] Leander Paes/Radek Stepanek l B.Bryan/ M.Bryan 16 57
[R2] Fernando GONZALEZ/Nicolas MASSU (CHI) bt (8)Mahesh BHUPATHI/Wesley MOODIE (IND/RSA) 63 62
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In the Indonesian satellite leg 1 singles -

[R2] (7) Ashutosh Singh (IND) l Toshiharu Kato (JPN) 26 64 26
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Uzbek Futures -

In the doubles semi finals
[SF] Sunil Kumar Sipaeya/Dmitri Sitak (IND/RUS) bt Pavel Ivanov/Mikhail Ledovskikh (RUS) 64 76

In the finals, they meet the third seeds.
[F] Sunil Kumar Sipaeya/Dmitri Sitak (IND/RUS) vs. Elgin/Inoyatov (RUS/UZB)
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$10K ITF Futures at Delhi

In doubles Rushmi having big task to stop Chinese duo in the final.

Doubles semifinals -
Song Shan-Shan (CHN)/Zhao Yi-Jing (CHN) bt Tegan Edwards (RSA)/Sonal Phadke (IND) 61 63
Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/Archana Venkataraman (IND) bt Paarul Goswami (IND)/Geeta Manohar (IND) 64 62

In $10 K Delhi futures -

QF Results -
(Q)Asha Nandakumar bt (7)Archana Venkataraman 63 61
(4)Yi-Jing Zhao bt (8)Geeta Manohar 62 61
(6)Sonal Phadke bt (3)Parul Goswami 63 62
(5)Sandhya Nagaraj bt (2)Shan-Shan Song 64 63

Good win by Asha .. She showed that her yesterday's win wasn't fluke ... Otherhand Sandhya produced big upset beating 2nd seed chinese ... Sandhya's three weeks training session with her Australian Coach and Akhtar Ali at Delhi is paying off.
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Uzbek Futures

In doubles QF -

Sunil Kumar Sipaeya/Dmitri Sitak (IND/RUS) bt (1)Nick Monroe/Jean-Julien Rojer (USA/AHO) 64 60
Pavel Ivanov/Mikhail Ledovskikh (RUS) bt (4)Mustafa Ghouse/Andrei Stoliarov (IND/RUS) 46 63 62

In SF
Sunil Kumar Sipaeya/Dmitri Sitak (IND/RUS) vs Pavel Ivanov/Mikhail Ledovskikh (RUS)

$10K ITF women Delhi
Singles 2nd Round

(Q)Asha Nandakumar d. (1)Rushmi Chakravarthi 64 64
(7)Archana Venkataraman d. (Q)Gangothri Sandri 64 63
(4)Yi-Jing Zhao d. (Q)Shalini Sahoo 62 61
(8)Geeta Manohar d. (Q)Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 62 62
(6)Sonal Phadke d. Karishma Patel 62 60
(3)Parul Goswami d. (wc)Vishakha Sheoran 60 46 61
(5)Sandhya Nagaraj d. Elizaveta Zaytseva 62 61
(2)Shan-Shan Song d. Oormila Ram 62 63

Asha Nandakumar produced terrific result beating Rushmi in straight sets ... Feeling happy for Asha, but also feeling sad for Rushmi, who was so dominating on Indian circuit for years is now fading away.

Doubles quarterfinals -
Song Shan-Shan (CHN)/Zhao Yi-Jing (Chn) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND)/ Parija Maloo (IND) 62 60
Tegan Edwards (RSA) and Sonal Phadke (IND) bt Vandana Murali (IND)/ Madura Ranganathan (IND) 63 75
Paarul Goswami (IND)/ Geeta Manohar (IND) bt Asha Nandakumar (IND)/ Varsha Shivshankar (IND) 63 62
Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Archana Venkataraman (IND) bt Sagarika Phadke (IND)/ Chirashanthi Rajur (IND) 64 61
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In the Indonesian satellite leg 1 singles -

[R1] (7)Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 67 64 62
[R1] Gurmehar Singh (IND) l Toshiharu Kato (JPN) 62 61

So in the next round
[R2] (7) Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs Toshiharu Kato (JPN)

In the doubles draw -
[R1] (1) Ashutosh Singh (IND) / Norikazu Sugiyama (JPN) bt Thomas Greenland (GBR) / Gurmehar Singh (IND) 62 26 64

So in the next round
[QF] (1) Ashutosh Singh (IND) / Norikazu Sugiyama (JPN) vs John Patrick Tierro (PHI) / Hie Tung Yu (HKG)
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At the $10K Greece F2 in Syros

Singles -
[R2] Navdeep Singh (IND,721) bt (WC) Dimitris Loucarias ( Gre, unr) 64 52 (rtd)

Doubles - [QF] (3) Navdeep Singh (IND)/ James Cerretani (USA) bt Grassi/ Hasin 63 63

[QF] Navdeep Singh (IND,721) vs James Cerretani (USA,846)

This match is tougher than ranking suggest ... As James is Navdeep's doubles and hitting partner.

Golf News -

At Aamby Valley Indians r taking home advantage and our couple of players in top 2 ... Ashok Kumar and Firoz Ali scored identical -5 to share 2nd spot with others .. Still many golfers on the course.

Aamby Valley Asian Masters - Round 1
1 Hendrik BUHRMANN (RSA) 66 -6
T2 Ashok KUMAR 67 -5
T2 Adam GROOM (AUS) 67 -5
T2 Firoz ALI 67 -5
T2 Simon HURD (ENG) 67 -5

T8 Mukesh KUMAR 69 -3
T8 Uttam Singh MUNDY 69 -3
T15 Dinesh KUMAR 70 -2
T15 S.S.P. CHOWRASIA 70 -2
T15 Rahul GANAPATHY -2 15
T21 Gurbaaz MANN 71 -1
T21 Amandeep JOHL 71 -1

Many other Indians r ready to making cut ... It would be great if one of Indian capture the victory and qualify for APGA full card.
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In JPGA tour
At PGA Championship 2006, Jeev scored average round of 1 under and currently 5 strokes behind leader ... Jeev scored 4 birdies and a bogey in the round ... But double bogey on 18th hole costed him dearly ... Dinesh Chand having even round.

PGA Championship - After first round
1 Norihiko Nakata -6
T33 Jeev Milkha Singh -1
T48 Dinesh Chand 0

Squash News -

Indian junior squash players won three gold medals at the German Open Junior Squash Championship ... Mahesh Mangaonkar and Aditya Jagtap of Mumbai won the under-13 and u-15 (B tournament) titles of the tournament held near Stuttgart .. And Chennai’s Dipika Pallikal clinched the girls’ under-15 title.

Result - Under-13 Boys German Open Championship (B tournament) -
Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) bt Samuel Roche (FRA) 3-0

Under-15 Boys German Open Championship (B tournament) -
Aditya Jagtap (IND) bt Ricky Penders (NED) 9-1 9-7 10-9

And in Under-15 Girls German Open Championship -
Dipika Pallikal (IND) bt Millie Tomlinson (ENG) 9-1 9-3 9-3

Dipika Pallikal won this tournament three times in last four years ... She just signed up with Mittal Trust ... And her next tournament is Malaysian Open later this month.

ECM Prague Open

Doubles -
[R1] Shika Uberoi (IND) / Neha Uberoi (USA) l (2) Shahar Peer (ISR) / Marion Bartoli (FRA) 46 46
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At Rome Masters -

[R1] Leander PAES (IND)/ Radek STEPANEK (CZE) d. Marat SAFIN (RUS)/ Dmitry TURSUNOV (RUS) 75 63

In second round they will play against top seeds Bryans.

Tennis News -

$10K futures at Delhi -Singles first round -

(4) Zhao Yi-Jing (Chn) bt (Q) Janaki Gunuganti 60 63
(6) Sonal Phadke bt Madhura Ranganathan 62 67(3) 62
Karishma Patel bt Vishika Chhetri 46 61 75
(WC) Vishakha Sheoran bt Tegan Edwards (RSA) 63 62
(5) Sandhya Nagaraj bt Krushmi Chheda 60 61
Elizaaveta Zaytseva (Rus) bt (WC) Shivika Burman 63 61
Oormila Ram bt (Q) Sagarika Phadke 64 76(4)(2)
Song Shan-Shan (Chn) bt Vandana Murali 61 76(0)

Doubles pre-quarterfinals -
Song Shan-Shan (Chn)/Zhao Yi-Jing (Chn) bt Vishika Chhetri/Vishakha Sheoran 60 60
Ashmitha Easwaramurthi/Parija Maloo bt Akshitha Basavaraju/Sandri Gangothri 64 63
Tegan Edwards (RSA)/Sonal Phadke bt Janaki Gunuganti/Sushrutha Reddy 61 60
Vandana Murali/Madhura Ranganathan bt Krushmi Chheda/Karishma Patel 63 63
Asha Andakumar/Varsha Shivshankar bt Jilke Nelord/Shalini Sahoo 64 60
Paarul Goswami/Geeta Manohar bt Sanjan Kapur/Neha Rana 61 61
Sagarika Phadke/Chirashanthi Rajur bt Renuka Keshwani/Priyanka Tohan 63 60
Rushmi Chakravarthi/Archana Venkataraman bt Anupama Rajur/Oormila Ram 61 61
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At the $15K UZB F4 futures in Andijan

In the singles qualifiers
[Q2] (9) Divij Sharan (IND,907) l (7) Shai Xuan Zeng (CHN,791) 06 36
[Q2] (14) Mustafa Ghouse (IND,1193) l. (1) Daniel King-Turner (NZL,630) 46 06

Main Draw -
[R1] (7) Karan Rastogi (IND,384) l Jean-Francois Bachelot (FRA,449) 36 46
[R1] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND,553) l (1) Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO,240) 26 26
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At the $10K Greece F2 in Syros

[R1] (3) James Cerretani (USA)/ Navdeep Singh (IND) bt Remko DeRijke (NED)/ Yoav Schab (ISR) 63 61

[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND,721) bt Rabie Chaki (MAR,715) 76 (5) 16 64

Very good win by Navdeep, helost against same opponent last week ... So he takes revenge this time.
[R2] Navdeep Singh (IND,721) vs WC) Dimitris Loucarias ( Gre, unr)

Golf News -

Jeev Milha Singh improves his ranking after an excellent performance ... He moves to 168 in world ranking ... So now four Indians r into top 175 of the world ranking list ... Of them 3 are in top 150.

Jyoti(WR 119) continues to lead the Indians in world ranking ... But this week Shiv Kapur(WR 143) for the first time becomes 2nd best Indin player as he gets ahead of Arjun Atwal(WR 144).
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Shooting News -

Rajyavaradhan Singh Rathore finished sixth in the men's double trap event at the World Cup at Kerrville in the United States ... Rathore shot a score of 136 (47, 44 and 45) in the qualifications but could not improve on his ranking any further as he had the lowest final score of 43 among the top six finalists.

The gold in this event was won by Vasiliy Mosin of Russia with a total of 189 (145 + 44), which were 10 points more than Rathore's final score.

Tennis News -

At $10K ITF women Delhi -

Singles Main Draw Results

(1)Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) v Arthi Venkataraman (IND) 60 61
(Q)Asha Nandakumar (IND) d. Grace Hannah (IND) 61 64
(Q)Gangothri Sandri (IND) v (wc)Akshitra Basavaraju (IND) 36 62 63
(7)Archana Venkataraman (IND) v (Q)Varsha Shivashankar (IND) 62 62
(4)Yi-Jing Zhao (CHN) v (Q)Janaki Gunuganti (IND)
(Q)Shalini Sahoo (IND) d. Anupama Rajur (IND) 64 60
(Q)Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND) v (Q)Sanjana Kapur (IND) 63 63
(8)Geeta Manohar (IND) v Parija Maloo (IND) 46 64 64
(6)Sonal Phadke (IND) v Madura Ranganathan (IND)
Karishma Patel (IND) v Vishika Chhetri (IND)
Tegan Edwards (RSA) v (wc)Vishakha Sheoran (IND)
(3)Parul Goswami (IND) v (wc)Renuka Keshwani (IND) 63 60
(5)Sandhya Nagaraj (IND) v Krushmi Chheda (IND)
Elizaveta Zaytseva (RUS) v (wc)Shivika Burman (IND)
Oormila Ram (IND) v (Q)Sagarika Phadke (IND)
(2)Shan-Shan Song (CHN) v Vandana Murali (IND)
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At the $15K UZB F4 futures in Andijan -

In Qualifying
[Q1] (9) Divij Sharan (IND,907) bt Dmitry Frumkin (RUS,1256) 61 60
[Q2] (9) Divij Sharan (IND,907) vs (7) Shai Xuan Zeng (CHN,791)

[Q1] (14) Mustafa Ghouse (IND,1193) bt (wc) Alexander Prokherov (RUS,NR) 06 76(7) 60
[Q2] (14) Mustafa Ghouse (IND,1193) l (1) Daniel King-Turner (NZL,630)

In Maindraw
[R1] (7) Karan Rastogi (IND,384) vs Jean-Francois Bachelot (FRA,449)
[R1] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND,553) vs (1) Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO,240)

In doubles
[R1](4) Mustafa Ghouse (IND)/ Andrei Stoliarov (RUS) bt Denis Matsukevich (RUS)/ Oleksander Nedovyesov (UKR) 36 76(2) 63
[R1]Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (OND)/ Dmitri Sitak (RUS) bt Yu Wang Jr (CHN)/ Shao Xuan Zheng (CHN) 46 64 63
[R1](1)Nick Monroe/Jean-Julien Rojer (USA/AHO) bt (ALT)Dmitriy Makeev/Divij Sharan (KAZ/IND) 63 63

[QF](4) Mustafa Ghouse (IND)/ Andrei Stoliarov (RUS) vs (WC)Sarvar Ikramov (UZB)/ Akmal Sharipov (UZB)
[QF]Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (OND)/ Dmitri Sitak (RUS) vs (1) Nick Monroe (USA)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO)
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At $75,000 Jounieh (LEB) challanger

[Q3] (7) Isha Lakhani IND l (4) Evgeniya Rodina RUS 26 75 36

This tournament was on clay ... So good exposure for Isha ... But unfortunately she could not make it thru to main draw ... Still she manages to grab 2 ranking points.
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At the $10K Greece F2 in Syros

[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND,721) vs Rabie Chaki (MAR,715)

In Doubles
[R1] (3) James Cerretani (USA)/ Navdeep Singh (IND) vs Remko DeRijke (NED)/ Yoav Schab (ISR)

Ches News -

Sasi is participating in Bosnia 2006 International Grandmasters Chess tournament ... He is 2nd seeded behind top seeded GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania ... The event is being played on a double round basis between six players under Fide’s time control of 90 minutes for the entire game with a 30 seconds increment after every move is made.

But in first round, match between top two seeds, Nisipeanu defeated Sasi and gave a big setback to Sasikiran’s quest to cross the 2700 Elo barrier.

After first round at Bosnia 2006 International Grandmasters Chess tournament-

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM) - 1 pt
Magnus Carlsen (Nor) - 0.5 pts
Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) 0.5 pts
Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger) 0.5 pts
Borki Predojevic (Bih) 0.5 pts
K. Sasikiran (Ind) 0 pts

Tennis News -

At the Rome Masters

[R1] Leander Paes(IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) vs Marat Safin (RUS)/ Dimtry Tursunov (RUS)

[R1] (8) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Wessely Moodie (RSA) BYE

[R2] vs Fernando Gonzalez (Chile)/ Nicolas Massu (Chile) or (wc) Daniele Bracciali (ITA)/ Giorgio Galimberti (ITA)
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At $75,000 Jounieh (LEB) challanger

[Q1] (7) Isha Lakhani IND bt Christine Sperling GER 36 75 64
[Q2] (7) Isha Lakhani IND bt (wc) Freya Younes BEL 62 62

[Q3] (7) Isha Lakhani IND vs (4) Evgeniya Rodina RUS
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In the Tier-IV ECM Prague Open qualies

[Q1] Neha Uberoi (USA,248) bt Katerina Kramperova (CZE,799) 61 75
[Q2] Neha Uberoi (USA,248) l Yaroslava Shvedova (RUS,158) 67(3) 26

[Q1] Sandra Zahlavova (CZE,195) bt Shika Uberoi (IND,182) 63 64

They r in doubles maindraw, but having tough amtch against 2nd seed.

[R1] Shika Uberoi (IND) / Neha Uberoi (USA) vs (2) Shahar Peer (ISR) / Marion Bartoli (FRA)
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Golf News -
After winning $53,134 in his last tournament, Jeev extends his lead over 2nd placed Charlie Wi by more than $100,000.

APGA Tour's Order of Merit

1 Jeev Milkha SINGH (IND) $442,526.00
2 Charlie WI (KOR) $329,758.00
3 Andrew BUCKLE (AUS) $280,212.00
4 Simon DYSON (ENG) $269,265.00
5 Thongchai JAIDEE (THA) $217,222.00
6 Prom MEESAWAT (THA) $206,192.00
7 Prayad MARKSAENG (THA) $177,777.00
8 Mardan MAMAT (SIN) $174,382.00
9 Tadahiro TAKAYAMA (JPN) $173,460.00
10 WANG Ter-chang (TPE) $141,788.00 8


13 Shiv KAPUR (IND) $130,407.00
17 Amandeep JOHL (IND) $97,885.00
24 Gaurav GHEI (IND) $73,336.00
40 Jyoti RANDHAWA (IND) $37,875.00
43 Rahil GANGJEE (IND) $34,821.00
76 Harmeet KAHLON (IND) $10,062.00
83 Arjun SINGH (IND) $7,726.00
90 Ashok KUMAR (IND) $5,420.00
101 Digvijay SINGH (IND) $2,480.00
114 Harinder GUPTA (IND) $1,400.00
114 S.S.P. CHOWRASIA (IND) $1,400.00
126 Amit DUBE (IND) $764.00
126 Amritinder SINGH (IND) $764.00
126 Gurbaaz MANN (IND) $764.00
135 P.S. GULERIA (IND) $420.00

Prom Meesawat produced superb -4 round to win title at rain shortened SK Telecom Open ... Jeev played steady -2 round to tied for 2nd place ... Michelle Wie couldn't managed to produced first 2 round magic and struggled to score 2 over round to slipped from top 20.

SK Telecom Open: Final Leaderboard
1 Prom MEESAWAT (THA) 69 64 68 -15 $127,523.00
T2 LEE Seong-ho (KOR) 67 67 70 -12 $53,134.00
T2 Jeev Milkha SINGH (IND) 68 66 70 -12 $53,134.00

T35 Michelle WIE (USA) 70 69 74 -3 $4,303.00
T43 Harmeet KAHLON (IND) 70 69 75 -2 $3,772.00
T47 Amandeep JOHL (IND) 74 70 71 -1 $3,340.00

[SF] T.Li/T.Sun d. S.Uberoi/N.Uberoi : 46 62 61

Great week for Uberoi sisters ... Must be very nice learning against this good chinese pair ... Lets hope they continue this good performance in coming week at Prague.

Golf News -

Yes Michelle Wie made a cut after eight tries on men's tour ... She is tied 17th.

Today Jeev played excellent round of 6 under, but best round of the day scored by Thai Prom Meesawat who scored 8 under to tied for half way lead ... Amandeep managed to squeeze in making the cut.

SK Telecom Open: Round 2 Leaderboard

T1 Prom MEESAWAT (THA) 69 64 -11
T1 Iain STEEL (MAS) 67 66 -11
T3 Jeev Milkha SINGH (IND) 68 66 -10
T3 LEE Seong-ho (KOR) 67 67 -10

T17 Michelle WIE (USA) 70 69 -5
T17 Harmeet KAHLON (IND) 70 69 -5
T64 Amandeep JOHL (IND) 74 70 Even

Cricket News -

Sachin Tendulkar has signed a three years commercial deal with Saatchi and Saatchi, whose Indian firm ICONIX signed the contract worth a $40 million (Rs 180 cr) ... This is a huge jump from his five-year endorsement deal worth $17 million, which ended late last year.

BCCI has awarded Group C (Rs. 2,000,000 per year) contract to batsman Suresh Raina and bowler S. Sreesanth, who played more than 15 one-days from October 1, 2005.
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Motor Sports -

In the Formula Asia Renault V6 series Karun will drive for the Korean based E-Rain Racing team ... This series kicks off at the Sepang F1 circuit in Malaysia on May 13 and 14 ... In the first official test session held at Sepang, Karun finished the day as the fastest driver.
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Chess Oscar -

Veselin Topalov has won the Chess Oscar for 2005 ... He beat Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand by 881 points to clinch the honour ... Topalov pooled 4376 votes to Anand’s 3495 in a poll ... This is Topalov’s first Oscar. Garry Kasparov has won the Oscar five times with Anand taking the honour four times ... Vladimir Kramnik (once) is the only other winner of the title ... Topalov had 219 first choice votes to Anand’s 19.

Golf News -

APGA SK Telecom Open: Round 1 Results 1

Adam LE VESCONTE (AUS) 65 -7
T2 LEE Seong-ho (KOR) 67 -5
T2 Iain STEEL (MAS) 67 -5
T2 Brad KENNEDY (AUS) 67 -5

T5 Jeev Milkha SINGH (IND) 68 -4
T28 Harmeet KAHLON (IND) 70 -2
T89 Amandeep JOHL (IND) 74 +2

T28 Michelle WIE (USA) 70 -2

Michelle Wie again produced good first round ... Hoefully she will continue this good performance in second round and become second girl to making cut in Korea.
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Tennis News - Estoril Open

[QF] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND)/Neha Uberoi (USA) bt (4) Eleni Daniilidou (GRE)/ Jasmin Woehr (GER) 46 64 63

Another 1 hr. 53 mins. marathon ...Wow simply terrific win ... In this match also very close point scoring, Uberoi sis won 88 pts and their 4th seed opponents won 85 pts ... Nice to see that our gals r raising their game when needed ... Last year they were producing such superb results ... But this year they were struggling until now (or togather taking less part in doubles?) ... But in this tournament Shikha looked a like coming back to her form in singles and hopefully soon we will see her back in top 150 ... And Neha giving good performance last few weeks ... So this strong play in singles definetly help them to perform better in doubles .. Go gals.

[SF] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND)/Neha Uberoi (USA) vs (2) Ting Li (Sr) (CHN)/Tiantian Sun (CHN)

Badminton -

No fairytale this time ... :) We lost 0-3 against strong Danish side.

India l Denmark 0-3

Chetan Anand l Peter Gade 14-21 8-21
Anup Sridhar l Kenneth Jonassen 12-21 11-21
Rupesh Kumar/V Diju l Jons Erikson/Martin Hansen 14-21 19-21

But still Indians achieve their primary goal of qualifying for quarterfinals.
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Tennis News -

Estoril WTA Tournament -

[R1] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND)/Neha Uberoi (USA) bt Natalie Grandin (RSA)/ Barbara Schwartz (AUT) 46 62 75

Match's duration was 2 hrs and 7 mins ... Uberoi sis won 108 points to their opponent's 95 ... Uberoi sisters managed to pull this win, but patchy game from them ... In end their 'never die attitude' helped them to move into QF ... Their they r pitted against 4th seed pair.

[QF] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND)/Neha Uberoi (USA) vs (4) Eleni Daniilidou (GRE)/ Jasmin Woehr (GER)

Sports News -

Hockey -

IHF announced probables for the 2006 Azlan Shah tournament - June 18 to 25 2006 -

Goalkeepers: Bharat Chetri, Baljit Singh and Adrian D'Souza
Full-backs: Dilip Tirkey, Kanwalpreet Singh, Sandeep Singh, Jugraj Singh, Harpal Singh and William Xalxo
Midfielders: Prabodh Tirkey, Ajmer Singh, Vikram Pillay, Ignace Tirkey, V.S. Vinay, Bimal Lakra, Sunil Ekka, Nitin Kumar and Viren Rasquinha
Forwards: Gagan Ajit Singh, Rajpal Singh, Tushkar Khandekar, Arjun Halappa, Adam Sinclair, Shivendra Singh, Birender Lakra, Hari Prasad, Gurvinder Singh, Sardar Singh, Didar Singh, Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh and Tejbeer Singh.

Nice to see return of Deepak Thakur, Viren Rasquinha and Prabodh Tirkey.

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Badminton -

So today India would try to do unthinkable ... They achieved first goal of qualifying for quarterfinals, but against formidable Denmark, which has the World No. 3 Peter Gade, No. 7 Kenneth Jonassen and No. 10 Christian Neils in singles and in doubles also Denmark has a formidable line-up with the top-ranked pair of Jons Erikson and Martin Hansen along with Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen, the World No. 4, they r having big task ... And they will definetly give thier 100% on court.
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Athletics -

Neelam Jaswant Singh, who found guilty of doping during the World Athletics Championships last year, will appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the verdict ... She needs to made appeal within 15 days of the decision being communicated.
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Tennis -

Estoril WTA Tournament

[R1] Shikha Uberoi (IND,183) l Maret Ani (EST,67) 64 46 36

At the $10K Greece F1

[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND,720) l (8) Rabie Chaki (MAR,712) 26 26

[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND)/ Jeremiah Fuller (USA) l (4) James Cerretani (USA)/ Stephen Moros (USA) 46 16

Tennis News -

Estroil Open - Tier IV Tournament

[Q3] Shikha Uberoi (IND,182) bt A Vrljic (CRO,252) 64 42 (Ret)

Now in maindraw Shikha will be playing against Maret Ani.
[R1] Shikha Uberoi (IND,182) vs Maret Ani (EST,67)

Shikha with sister Neha also qualified for doubles maindraw.
Doubles -
[R1] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND)/Neha Uberoi (USA) vs Natalie Grandin (RSA)/ Barbara Schwartz (AUT)
------------------------------------
Navdeep Singh is in Greece for two $10K futures ..

[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND,720) vs (8) Rabie Chaki (MAR,712)

Doubles -
[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND)/ Jeremiah Fuller (USA) vs (4) James Cerretani (USA)/ Stephen Moros (USA)
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Badminton News - Thomas Cup

Chetan Anand skipped this tie due to injury .. But in his absence Anup Sridhar stand up to challenge and defeated world no. 24 ... And in third rubber Chetan's replacement Nikhil Kanetkar defeated formidable opponent, who was higher ranked than him.

India bt New Zeland 3-0
Anup Sridhar bt John Moody 21-15 21-9
Arvind Bhat bt Henry Tam 21-17 21-5
Nikhil Kanetkar bt Craig Cooper 21-13 18-21 21-10

IN QF India will face formidable Denmark ... Even Indian coach Vimal Kumar giving 30% chances against them.
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Table Tennis News - World Cup

India strugglred to beat Slovenia 3-2 and secured 35th position in team event ... But this win also managed to help India to stay in division two ... Achanta Sharath Kamal was the star of this win.

India bt Slovenia 3-2
Soumyadeep Roy l Lasan Sas 7-11 4-11 4-11
Sharath Kamal bt Roposa Bojan 11-7 11-5 11-6
Jitendra Kumar l Horvat Mitja 6-11 5-11 11-9 9-11
Sharath Kamal bt Lasan Sas 11-4 11-8 8-11 11-6
Soumyadeep Roy bt Roposa Bojan 8-11 11-5 11-5 11-9

China won the men's and women's world team table tennis championship beating South Korea and Hong Kong respectively.

Indian Sports Update -

Table Tennis -
Indian men's team performed poorly ... Really disappointed performance from our team ... First they loose to young English side in pre-quarterfinals and squandered the chance to qualify for the Division I.

India l England 2-3
Soumyadeep Roy bt Paul Drinkhall 11-3 9-11 11-9 11-9
Sharath Kamal l Darius Knight 6-11 11-6 10-12 10-12
Shubhajit Saha l Andrew Baggely 11-7 7-11 8-11 12-14
Sharath Kamal bt Paul Drinkhall 8-11 8-11 11-7 11-9 11-4
Soumyadeep Roy l Darius Knight 6-11 11-7 4-11 11-13

After loosing match against England, our boys continued poor performance in play-offs ... They began disastrously against Argentina with Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha losing the first two matches against their Argentine opponents.

India l Argentina 2-3
Achanta Sharath Kamal l Liu Song 11-9 5-11 5-11 4-11
Subhajit Saha l Tabachnik Pablo 9-11 11-13 6-11
Pathik Mehta bt Alto Gaston Diego 13-11 11-3 11-6
Achanta Sharath Kamal bt Tabachnik Pablo 13-11 11-5 12-14 12-10
Subhajit Sahl a Liu Song bt 11-6 9-11 11-4 9-11 2-11

India will now play Slovenia for the 35th place.
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Shooting News -

Anjali Bhagwat earned an Olympic quota place in women's 50 m rifle three position event at the ISSF World Cup at Resende in Brazil ... Bhagwat finished fourth in the event on Saturday but was awarded the berth since the top three finishers had already qualified for Olympics to be held in Beijing, China in 2008.
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Golf News -

Final standing with earning after Korean APGA tournament
T3 Amandeep JOHL (IND) 69 69 70 66 -14 $34,375.00
T25 Gaurav GHEI (IND) 72 70 69 72 -5 $6,171.00
T69 Rahil GANGJEE (IND) 71 70 76 75 +4 $1,182.00

Amandeep played flawlwss round to finished in top 3 ... But more liked Gaurav's fight back after horrible 4th hole.
With this top 3 finish Amandeep moved to 15th position in UBS Order Merit Asia Tour 2006.

And Jeev finished his day on even round and remianed tied 10 at JPGA tour event.
T10 Jeev Milkha Singh 64 69 69 70 -8 ￥3,024,000
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Tennis News -

Estoril Open ( Tier IV) :-
[Q1] Shikha Uberoi (IND,183) bt (4) Maria Emilia Salerni(ARG.) (118) 60 75
[Q2] Shikha Uberoi (IND,183) bt Mathilde Johansson(170, FRA) 60 62

[Q3] Shikha Uberoi (IND,183) vs Ana Vrljic (CRO,251)