Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Tennis News -
At Australian Open 2008,

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 63 57 76(5)

[SF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs (8) Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/
Andy Ram (ISR)

Mixed Doubles -
[QF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (7) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Martin Damm (CZE) Walkover

Junior Boys -
[R3] (8) Yuki Bhambri (IND,17) bt Tadayuki Longhi (JPN,45) 61 63

[QF] (8) Yuki Bhambri (IND,17) vs (3) Daniel Evans (GBR,10)

Terrific performance by 15 yrs Yuki to reach his first junior grandslam quarter-finals scoring straight sets victory over Japanese opponent ... Sania and Mahesh also got lucky break to move semis in MXD without playing match due to injury to their opponent.

Watched full match, 2 hrs 24 mins battle ... Everyone was sweating out ... And this was definitely best match of AO doubles tournament (even commentators were agree with me.) ... All players were playing with high intensity and showing quality tennis ... Not for a single minute I changed channel ...

This was Bryans first loss at AO from 2005 final against Zimbabweans
Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett ... In last 4 years they won 2 titles (2006, 2007) and 2 runner ups (2004, 2005) here ... Match was so close, it was hardly 1 pts different, Bhupathi & Knowles won 111 pts and Bryans won 110 pts.

These was some bad blood between Bryans and Bhupathi & Knowles ... Its started at 4-3 when Bryans did chest bump after breaking Knowles ... And suddenly all players started showing emotions ... And at 5-5 Bhupathi & Knowles had break point at that time Mike hit big serve on Mahesh's body, Mahesh returned awkwardly and Bob killed point with volley ... At same time Bhupathi & Knowles objected (they thought service was long) to umpire asking to use their 'challenge' about calls ... But umpire said "No' stating they were late in raising challenge, as per rule challenge should be raise before opponent finished next shot ... So as per rule challenge wasn't allowed ... Then Knowles tried to talk with Bryans but after Knowles calling they didn't come near to the net ... Then Mike hit 2 aces to win the game ... On 5-6 Knowles won love game and that was the first time in the match Knowles managed that, in that game Bhupathi was charged up showing his fists ... Then after winning tie-break Bhupathi & Knowles did huge 'chest bump' ... It was fun to watch this match.

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At $10K Great Britain F2 Futures, Sheffield

[R1] RAJA Purav (IND,864) bt KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE,901) 57 76(2) 64
[R1] (PR) MANKAD Harsh (IND,UNR) bt (Q) COUPLAND George (GBR,UNR) 63 67(4) 63

[R2] RAJA Purav (IND,864) l (3) NIEMINEN Timo (FIN,392) 26 26
[R2] (PR) MANKAD Harsh (IND,UNR) l (6) KRETSCHMER Gero (GER,594) 57 46

Doubles -
[R1] (1) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) bt KANEV Yordan (BUL)/ PAZICKY Michal (SVK) 64 61

[QF] (1) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) vs BERGMAN Carl (SWE)/ KUMLIN Daniel (SWE)

So this was the first victory for Harsh after playing 5 tournaments after coming out from around 9 months injury break.
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At $50K Waikoloa Challengers, HI, USA

Doubles -
[R1] UBEROI Neha (USA)/ ESPERON Soledad (ARG) bt CZINK Melinda (HUN)/ DITTY Julie (USA) 63 67(1) 10(7)

[QF] UBEROI Neha (USA)/ ESPERON Soledad (ARG) vs CHAN Chin-Wei (TPE)/ FUJIWARA Rika (JPN)
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At $15K China F2, Dong Guan

[R1] (Q) RASTOGI Karan (IND,469) l (Q) CHO Min-Hyoek (KOR,1079) 46 75 46
[R1] (5) AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND,278) bt WEINTRAUB Amir (ISR,331) 64 63

[R2] (5) AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND,278) vs Woong-Sun JUN (KOR,341)

Doubles -
(QF] SHOKEEN Vivek (IND)/ VEJMELKA Adam (CZE) bt (4) VAN DER DUIM Antal (NED)/ WEINTRAUB Amir (ISR) 61 64
[QF] KONDO Hiroki (JPN)/ RASTOGI Karan (IND) bt AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND)/ CHEN Ti (TPE) Walkover

[SF] SHOKEEN Vivek (IND)/ VEJMELKA Adam (CZE) vs LORENZI Paolo (ITA)/ PETRAZZUOLO Giancarlo (ITA)
[SF] KONDO Hiroki (JPN)/ RASTOGI Karan (IND) vs (2) NIELSEN Frederik (DEN)/ NORBY Rasmus (DEN)
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At $10K US F3, Boca Raton, FL, USA

[R1] INBAR Amit (ISR)/ ROY Rupesh (IND) bt KENT Ryan (USA)/ PEREPELOV Yevgeny (USA) 62 61

[QF] INBAR Amit (ISR)/ ROY Rupesh (IND) vs JENDELUND Robert (SWE)/ SILJESTROM Andreas (SWE)
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Chess News -
At Corus Chess 2008,

Round 9 - Tuesday the 22nd (grandmaster group A)
M. Adams - L. van Wely 1-0
L. Aronian - P. Eljanov ½-½
V. Ivanchuk - S. Mamedyarov ½-½
J. Polgar - T. Radjabov ½-½
V. Topalov - V. Kramnik 1-0
B. Gelfand - V. Anand ½-½
P. Leko - M. Carlsen 1-0

Round 9 - Tuesday the 22nd (grandmaster group B)
H. Koneru - P. Harikrishna ½-½

Anand managed draw against GM Boris Gelfand playing with blacks ... That helped him to move into standing for T3 with 5 pts and only ½ pts behind leaders GM Levon Aronian and GM Magnus Carlsen.

Humpy managed to hold Hari playing with whites ... So currently Hari is T4 with 5 pts and Humpy is on T10 with 4 pts.

In grandmaster group C event, Parimarjan Negi had disappointing draw against lowly rank GM John van der Wiel playing with blacks ... So Negi is T3 with 5½ and 1½ pts behind leader.

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