Sunday, November 30, 2008

Football News
I-League 2008-09 - 29th November

Mohun Bagan bt Chirag United 2-0

Goal Scored - Jose Ramirez Barreto (MB) 16', Baichung Bhutia (MB) 30'
-------------------------------------------------

Vasco SC bt Air-India 1-0

Goal Scored - Ravshan Teshabaev (VSC) 65'
-------------------------------------------------
30th November

Sporting Clube de Goa bt JCT 2-1

Goal Scored - Elijah Obagbemiro Junior (ScG) 28' & 48', Jagpreet Singh (JCT) 58'
-------------------------------------------------
1st December

East Bengal l Churchill Brothers SC 1-2

Goal Scored - Chitrasen Chandam Singh (CB) 2' (own Goal) and Ogba Kalu Nnanna (CB) 32', Mehrajuddin Wadoo (EB) 65' (own goal)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tennis News
At $15K India F9 Futures, Kolkata (clay)

Singles Final
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt (3) David SAVIC (SRB) 63 64

Doubles Final
(4) Rupesh ROY (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt (2) David SAVIC (SRB)/ Nathan THOMPSON (USA) 76(5) 60

Singles Semi-Finals
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 3-0 Retd
(3) David SAVIC (SRB) bt (2) Nathan THOMPSON (USA) 61 67(2) 2-1 Retd

This week Rupesh and Sunil kept Indian challenge to win doubles title Vishnu also performed well in singles reaching semis in singles.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super Series 2008,

[QF] Arvind Bhat (IND,41) l Boonsak Ponsana (THA,17) 26-28 22-20 14-21

[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) l Chen Wang (HKG,8) 25-27 21-14 15-21

Arvind wasn't third time lucky ... Arvind produced valiant efforts against top-20 Thai player ... After losing marathon first game, he won second game ... But in third game he mostly went out of steam in this long 65 mins match ... Though good performance from him in this Super Series.

And Saina's challenge also got over in quarter-finals against local girl, who was WR #8 ... After losing closely fought first game Saina won second game easily but then lost this match in 52 mins.
Tennis News
At $15K India F9 Futures, Kolkata (clay)

Singles Quarter-Finals
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt Rupesh ROY (IND) 62 75
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Rohan GAJJAR (IND) 63 64
(3) David SAVIC (SRB) bt (6) Daniel LUSTIG (CZE) 63 Retd.
(2) Nathan THOMPSON (USA) bt (Q) Rifat BIKTYAKOV (UZB) 63 60

Doubles Semi-Finals
(4) Rupesh ROY (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt (1) Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Purav RAJA (IND) 36 61 10(5)
(2) David SAVIC (SRB)/ Nathan THOMPSON (USA) bt (3) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER)/ Marc-Andre STRATLING (GER) 36 75 10(6)

So Vishnu is keeping Indian interest alive in singles ... In doubles Rupesh and Sunil scored good win over op-ssed pair of Rohan and Purav.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super Series 2008,

[R2] Chetan Anand (IND,14) vs (3) Jin Chen (CHN,3) 11-21
[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,41) bt Yan Kit Chan (HKG,26) 21-14 21-19

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) bt (Q) Youn Joo Bae (KOR,78) 21-15 11-21 21-13

[QF] Arvind Bhat (IND,41) vs Boonsak Ponsana (THA,17)
[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs Chen Wang (HKG,8)

Surprisingly Saina lost 2nd game against Koream qualifier ... Mostly loss of concentration but then in third game Saina gave dominating performance to move into quarter-final ... With this win Saina assured her first-time entry into BWF top-10 ranking ... :-)

Arvind scored another upset win over top-30 local player in 32 mins .. He showed yesterday's win wasn't fluke in this straight games win to move into Super Series quarter finals.

Chetan had tough time in adjusting his game against WR # 3 Jin Chen lost first game in 13 mins ... In second game also he was doing catching game but in end lost match in 27 mins.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super Series 2008,

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,14) bt Petr Koukal (CZE,40) 21-18 17-21 21-13
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,41) bt (6) Joachim Persson (DEN,8) 21-17 21-17

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) bt Salakjit Ponsana (THA,30) 21-19 22-20

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) l Chiou Hwee Haw (MAS)/ Pek Siah Lim (MAS) 16-21 11-21

[R2] Chetan Anand (IND,14) vs (3) Jin Chen (CHN,3)
[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,41) vs Yan Kit Chan (HKG,26)

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs Youn Joo Bae (KOR,78)

These days our Indian players r playing exceptionally well ... This time Arvind produced stunning result beating Danish WR #8 Joachim Persson in 29 mins ... Very solid straight games victory in which he controlled match from the start, in second round he is facing local player ... Chetan also scored win in 3 games but having tough Chinese opponent, WR #3, in the next round ... Saina also started well finishing her match in tight 2 games, now she will face Korean qualifier in second round.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chess News
Chess Olympiad 2008 Dresden, Germany

Chess Olympiad 2008 ended yesterday, overall our both teams underperformed slightly than their rankings -
In Open Category - Indian Men ended on Rank 16 with 26 points (seeding 13th)
In Women Category - Indian Women ended on Rank 15 with 25 points (seeding 11)

In Women Board 5 category our Mary Ann Gomes won a Silver medal ... This is creditable performance by 19 yrs old Mary Ann Gomes ... She managed to score 6 pts from 8 games and that will help her to gain 21 ELO rating points.
Tennis News
At $15K India F9 Futures, Kolkata (clay)

Singles Second Round
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 64 63
Rupesh ROY (IND) bt Purav RAJA (IND) 62 76(1)
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (Q) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 46 76(5) 76(4)
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (WC) Vijayant MALIK (IND) 75 76(4)
(6) Daniel LUSTIG (CZE) bt (Q) Mario ECKARDT (GER) 61 57 62
(3) David SAVIC (SRB) bt (WC) Rohan GIDE (IND) 76(1) 60
(Q) Rifat BIKTYAKOV (UZB) bt (Q) Ronak MANUJA (IND) 62 60
(2) Nathan THOMPSON (USA) bt Navdeep SINGH (IND) 63 76(3)

Doubles Quarter-Finals
(1) Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Purav RAJA (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 63 3-3 ?
(4) Rupesh ROY (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt I-Ta CHEN (TPE)/ Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 62 64
(3) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER)/ Marc-Andre STRATLING (GER) Rifat BIKTYAKOV (UZB)/ Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 62 64
(2) David SAVIC (SRB)/ Nathan THOMPSON (USA) bt (WC) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Saurav PANJA (IND) 62 62

Somewhat expected results in singles ... Rupesh scored good win over Purav ... Vijayant Malik produced fighting performance against Rohan Gajjar ... Navdeep also produced decent performance against 2nd seed Nathan Thompson.

But match of the day was between Vishnu Vardhan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth ... From score it looks match was very close, losing some points here and there costed match for Vijay Sundar Prashanth ... But good result for Vishnu Vardhan, who able to scored comeback victory in this tight match.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tennis News
At $15K India F9 Futures, Kolkata (clay)

Singles First Round
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND) 60 60
Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (Q) Rahil MAKHARIA (IND) 60 63
Rupesh ROY (IND) bt Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) 64 64
Purav RAJA (IND) bt (5) Marc-Andre STRATLING (GER) 75 64
(Q) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt (4) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) 76(1) 60
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (WC) Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) 60 62
(WC) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (WC) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 62 67(4) 63
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (7) Syrym ABDUKHALIKOV (KAZ) 63 64
(6) Daniel LUSTIG (CZE) bt Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 61 64
(Q) Mario ECKARDT (GER) bt (Q) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) 46 63 76(2)
(WC) Rohan GIDE (IND) bt (Q) Jakhongir KHAYDAROV (UZB) 63 64
(3) David SAVIC (SRB) bt Pirmin HAENLE (GER) 62 64
(Q) Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt (8) Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 75 63
(Q) Rifat BIKTYAKOV (UZB) bt (Q) Igor PANIN (RUS) 75 61
Navdeep SINGH (IND) bt Tushar LIBERHAN (IND) 64 63
(2) Nathan THOMPSON (USA) bt I-Ta CHEN (TPE) 75 62

Doubles First Round
(1) Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Purav RAJA (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 60 63
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (WC) Kamala KANNAN (IND)/ Vishal PUNNA (IND) 63 60
(4) Rupesh ROY (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Mario ECKARDT (GER)/ Pirmin HAENLE (GER) 67(2) 62 10(6)
I-Ta CHEN (TPE)/ Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) bt Krishik DIVAKAR (IND)/ Nikunj SIWACH (IND) 60 61
Rifat BIKTYAKOV (UZB)/ Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) bt (ALT) Suresh KRISHNA (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 64 62
(3) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER)/ Marc-Andre STRATLING (GER) bt (WC) Aditya MADKEKAR (IND)/ Mithun MURALI (IND) 64 62
(WC) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Saurav PANJA (IND) bt Rohan GIDE (IND)/ Vikram B REDDY (IND) 16 63 11(9)
(2) David SAVIC (SRB)/ Nathan THOMPSON (USA) bt Tushar LIBERHAN (IND)/ Navdeep SINGH (IND) 63 62

Very good results for Indians ... With creditable few upsets win 10 players r in second round.

But something terribly wrong with Sunil's game .. He is losing to anybody and on any surface ... This time he lost on clay courts ... In break he needs to work on his basic and mental aspects of game ... Hopefully in 2009 we will see his comeback in company of Karan Rastogi, who will be ready in January to join tour again.
Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Super Series 2008,

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,14) vs Petr Koukal (CZE,40)
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,41) (6) Joachim Persson (DEN,8)

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs Salakjit Ponsana (THA,30)

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) vs Chiou Hwee Haw (MAS)/ Pek Siah Lim (MAS)

Saina having good opportunity to break into top 10 with good showing at Hong Kong Open ... She is facing Thai opponent in the first round.

Anup having tough match against world's top-10 Danish player ... Chetan facing Koukal in the first round.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Squash News
At $8K NSC Super Sat #4 2008, Malaysia

[R1] (1) Joshna Chinappa (IND,38) bt Rachel Goh (MAS,238) 11-6 11-4 11-2 (10m)
[QF] (1) Joshna Chinappa (IND,38) bt (8) Low Wee Nee (MAS,88) 11-6 13-11 11-5 (19m)
[SF] (1) Joshna Chinappa (IND,38) bt (4) Siti Munirah Jusoh (MAS,62) 9-11 11-3 11-2 11-7 (26m)

[F] (1) Joshna Chinappa (IND,38) bt (3) Low Wee Wern (MAS,46) 11-8 11-7 11-6 (22m)

Joshna celebrated her back-to-back second title in the Malaysian capital after winning the NSC Super Squash Satellite #4 trophies at the Bukit Jalil National Squash Centre in Kuala Lumpur ... It was the second WISPA title at KL triumph in seven days for Joshna.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News
At US$2.5 million UBS Hong Kong Open - Final Standing

T11 Jeev Milkha Singh 71 63 66 69 -11 $41,875.00
T19 Jyoti Randhawa 71 68 66 67 - 8 $29,150.00
T48 Gaurav Ghei 71 69 67 70 - 3 $11,250.00

No magic from Jeev this time around but very creditable finish for him ... But happy to see Jyoti was founding some form before Team World Cup at Mission Hills in China from November 27-30.
Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 23rd November

Mohammedan Sporting l Churchill Brothers 0-1

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 70'

------------------------------------------
Sporting clube de Goa bt Air India 2-1

Goal Scored - Joseph Pereira (ScG) 24', Nathaniel Amos (ScG) 43' and Singam Subash Singh (AI) 2'
------------------------------------------
24th November

Mohun Bagan AC bt Mahindra United 1-0

Goal Scored - Baichung Bhutia (MB) 46'

------------------------------------------
25th November

Chirag United SC bt Vasco Sports Club 3-1

Goal Scored - Fulganco Cardozo (CU) 45+' (OG), Snehasish Chakraborty (CU) 54', Subair Muritala Ali (CU) 89' and Sherzod Nazarov (VSC) 90+'
------------------------------------------
26th November
Mumbai FC bt JCT 3-2

Goal Scored - Abel Hammond (MFC) 58', Felix Aboagye (MFC) 64', Abhishek Yadav (MFC) 88' and Balwant Singh (JCT) 38', Eduardo de Silva (JCT) 50'

Mumbai FC produced superb comeback win after down 0-2 against JCT.
------------------------------------------

Dempo SC bt East Bengal 1-0

Goal Scored - Climax Lawrence (DSC) 80'
Tennis News

Somdev has withdrawn from next week's challanger in Mexico due to injury ... So this is the end of season for him ... Now he will get a one & half moths break before Chennai ATP ... Hopefully he will recover fully and come back strongly in 2009 season.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Kolkata Womens Challenger, India

Singles Final
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt Elora Dabija (ROU) 61 63

Doubles Final
(3) Laura Siegemund (GER)/ Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt (1) Jing-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) 75 63

Singles Semi-Finals
Elora Dabija (ROU) bt Sophie Ferguson (AUS) 62 76(4)
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt (Q) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) 61 63
--------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F8 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Final
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) 76(3) 46 60

Doubles Final
(1) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (2) David Savic (SRB)/ Nathan Thompson (USA) 62 76(4)

Singles Semi-Finals
(LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) bt (7) Daniel Lustig (CZE) 76(3) 63
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (8) Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ) 62 75

Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja won doubles title beating second seed pair ... Nathan continued his succesful run in Indian futures with singles title.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Open Super Series 2008,

[QF] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) l Kai Wen (CHN,170) 13-21 10-21

In quarters Arvind couldn't produced enough fight against lowly ranked Chinese opponent to lost match in only 28 mins.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Open Super Series 2008,

[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) bt Petr Koukal (CZE,38) 18-21 21-18 21-15

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) l (4) Jung Eun Ha (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR) 13-21 11-21

[QF] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) vs Kai Wen (CHN,170)

Arvind scored superb comeback victory over Petr ... After winning first game Petr was leading 18-15 but Arvind take next 6 poits to won second game ... In third game Arvind kept pressure on Petr from the start to won game and match in 62 mins.
Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,204) l (1) Vincent Spadea (USA,75) 67(7) Retd

Doubles -
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA) l (Q) Romano Frantzen (NED)/ Nick Van Der Meer (NED) w/o (due to Somi's injury)

[QF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) l (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) 36 36

Somi retired from the match due to (twisted) ankle injury ... He is already decided to skip doubles to give his ankle required rest ... Still not sure about his next week's participation in Cancun challenger at Mexico ... I m hoping nothing serious with this twisted ankle.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Kolkata Womens Challenger, India

Singles Quarter-Finals
Elora Dabija (ROU) bt Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) 36 76(5) 75
Sophie Ferguson (AUS) bt (7) Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) 06 61 64
(Q) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt (8) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) 64 57 76(2)
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt (Q) Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) 62 62

Doubles Semi-Finals
(1) Jing-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) bt Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Alexis Prousis (USA) 63 63
(3) Laura Siegemund (GER)/ Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt (2) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Yi Chen (TPE) 46 63 10(6)
--------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F8 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Quarter-Finals
(7) Daniel Lustig (CZE) bt (1) Alexander Satschko (GER) 76(5) 76(6)
(LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) bt Vaja Uzakov (UZB) 64 64
(8) Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ) bt (3) David Savic (SRB) 61 62
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (Q) David Sodek (CZE) 76(1) 62

Doubles Semi-Finals
(1) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Mithun Murali (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 63 63
(2) David Savic (SRB)/ Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 36 61 10(8)

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Open Super Series 2008,

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,14) l Choong Hann Wong (MAS,15) 10-21 14-21
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) bt Wee Chung Pei (MAS,125) 21-9 21-13

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) l (5) Lin Zhu (CHN,5) 6-21 21-12 19-21

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) bt Ying Long (MAC)/ Ka lei Mak (MAC) 21-15 21-17

[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) vs Petr Koukal (CZE,38)

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) vs (4) Jung Eun Ha (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR)

Due to some withdrawals at mens side, including P. Kashyap's, Arvind received weaker opponent and he take full advantage of beating Malaysian player in 26 mins.

Saina played almost an hour long exceptional match against WR #5 ... After losing first game easily she made comeback in the match winning next game easily ... But in third game she lost crucial points to lose game and match ... IMO, knowing biased Chinese coaches and umpires chance of foul games r high in their local event, as Chinese coaches known for such type of manipulating in matches (giving debatable points to their players in close matches).

Saina and Anna had comfortable start in doubles but now they r facing 4th seed Koreans in 2nd round.
Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

Doubles -
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) l Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Nicolas Tourte (FRA) 36 67(2)
[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt Luka Gregorc (SLO)/ Fritz Wolmarans (RSA) 76(5) 76(4)

[QF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA)

Good to see Harsh and Ashutosh pulled off tie-breaks tight sets victory ... But sad to see Amritraj brothers losing in the first round.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Kolkata Womens Challenger, India

Singles Second Round
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) bt (1) Melanie South (GBR) 26 63 64
Elora Dabija (ROU) bt Leonie Mekel (NED) 26 64 64
Sophie Ferguson (AUS) bt (4) Agnes Szatmari (ROU) 76(5) 64
(7) Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) bt Julia Glushko (ISR) 75 75
(8) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) bt Suchanun Viratprasert (THA) 60 62
(Q) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt Chia-Jung Chuang (TPE) 63 63
(Q) Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (5) Sunitha Rao (IND) 62 61
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt (WC) Sanaa Bhambri (IND) 63 61

Doubles Quarter-Finals
(1) Jing-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) bt Sunitha Rao (IND)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) 46 75 10(5)
Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Alexis Prousis (USA) bt (4) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)/ I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) 36 76(4) 10(4)
(3) Laura Siegemund (GER)/ Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt Ankita Bhambri (IND)/ Sanaa Bhambri (IND) 61 46 11(9)
(2) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Yi Chen (TPE) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) 64 76(3)

Indian challenge got over in singles and doubles ... As per scoreline Sunitha received thrashing from British qualifier ... :-(

Sanaa couldn't produced much fight against 2nd seed Japanese in singles ... But Bhambri sisters had their chances in doubles against 3rd seed pair.

--------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F8 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Second Round
(1) Alexander Satschko (GER) bt (Q) Mario Eckardt (GER) 60 64
(7) Daniel Lustig (CZE) bt Purav Raja (IND) 63 67(3) 64
(LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) bt Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) 46 63 76(4)
Vaja Uzakov (UZB) bt (5) Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) 63 67(0) 63
(8) Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ) bt Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 76(4) 64
(3) David Savic (SRB) bt (Q) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) 57 60 62
(Q) David Sodek (CZE) bt (6) Divij Sharan (IND) 76(7) 36 64
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (Q) Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) 61 61

Doubles Quarter-Finals 
(1) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Daniel Lustig (CZE)/ David Sodek (CZE) 64 64
Mithun Murali (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt (3) Alexander Satschko (GER)/ Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) 57 60 10(4)
(4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Kamala Kannan (IND)/ Vishal Punna (IND) 63 62
(2) David Savic (SRB)/ Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (WC) Arjun Goutham (IND)/ Aditya Madkekar (IND) 64 61

And here also our all players lost in singles second round ... But as usual better performance in doubles as our 3 pairs in the semis.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 18th November 2008

Churchill Brothers dw Air India 1-1

Goal Scored - Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 38' and Michael Tayo (AI) 90+'

Dying minute equalizer from Air-men to managed away draw.
---------------------------------------------
19th November

Mahindra United dw Sporting clube de Goa 0-0
------------------------------------------
20th November
Mohammedan Sporting l Dempo SC 0-2

Goal Scored - Anthony Pereira (DSC) 9', Ranty Martins (DSC) 40'
------------------------------------------
Vasco SC l Mohun Bagan 1-2

Goal Scored - Lalnun Puia (VSC) 30' and Rakesh Masih (MB) 33', Lalkamal Bhowmik (MS) 53'
------------------------------------------
21st November
Chirag United dw Mumbai FC 1-1

Goal Scored - Shankar Oraon (CU) 12' and Riston Rodrigues (MFC) 60'
------------------------------------------
22nd November
JCT bt East Bengal 1-0

Goal Scored - Eduardo da Silva (JCT) 68'
Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,210) l (WC) John-Patrick Smith (AUS,1148) 64 46 36

So another lost opportunity for Kash, who lost against college top-10 player JP Smith ... JP Smith was runner-up to Somdev in the 2008 NCAA tournament in May.

Prakash Amritraj - "I wasn't terribly happy with my performance but I give him credit. It's good for him to come out in a pro event and get a win."
---------------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Kolkata Womens Challenger, India

Singles First Round
(1) Melanie South (GBR) bt Jing-Jing Lu (CHN) 75 63
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) bt Julia Parasyuk (RUS) 64 62
Elora Dabija (ROU) bt Angelika Roesch (GER) 67(5) 62 62
Leonie Mekel (NED) bt (6) Liana-Gabriela Ungur (ROU) 63 Retd.
(4) Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt (WC) Shivika Burman (IND) 61 61
Sophie Ferguson (AUS) bt Vivian Segnini (BRA) 64 75
Julia Glushko (ISR) bt (Q) Silvia Disderi (ITA) 62 63
(7) Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) bt (WC) Shikha Uberoi (IND) 62 63
(8) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) bt Ankita Bhambri (IND) 62 62
Suchanun Viratprasert (THA) bt (WC) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) 64 61
Chia-Jung Chuang (TPE) bt I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) 61 62
(Q) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt (3) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) 61 62
(5) Sunitha Rao (IND) bt Alexis Prousis (USA) 60 62
(Q) Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (Q) Florence Haring (FRA) 75 64
(WC) Sanaa Bhambri (IND) bt Isha Lakhani (IND) 64 75
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt Laura Siegemund (GER) 61 62

Doubles First Round
(1) Jing-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) bt Ksenia Palkina (KGZ)/ Julia Parasiyuk (RUS) 62 63
Sunitha Rao (IND)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) bt Julia Glushko (ISR)/ Florence Haring (FRA) 64 62
(4) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)/ I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) bt (Q) Prerana-Mythri Appineni (IND)/ Patrycja Sanduska (POL) 64 60
Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Alexis Prousis (USA) bt (Q) Iuliia Kiriienko (UKR)/ Inna Kuzmenko (RUS) 63 76(7)
Ankita Bhambri (IND)/ Sanaa Bhambri (IND) bt (WC) Treta Bhattacharya (IND)/ Shalini Sahoo (IND) 62 62
(3) Laura Siegemund (GER)/ Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt (wc) Parul Goswami (IND)/ Parija Maloo (IND) 60 61
Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) bt Leonie Mekel(NED)/ Varatchay Wongteanchai (THA) 64 26 10(6)
(2) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Yi Chen (TPE) bt (WC) Shivika Burman (IND)/ Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (IND/THA) 64 60

Only Sanaa managed to upset senior Isha ... Sunitha having promising start.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F8 Futures, Mumbai

Singles First Round
(1) Alexander Satschko (GER) bt Navdeep Singh (IND) 62 61
(Q) Mario Eckardt (GER) bt Rifat Biktyakov (UZB) 75 64
Purav Raja (IND) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) 63 61
(7) Daniel Lustig (CZE) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 62 64
Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) bt (4) Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND) 67(4) 63 62
(LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) bt (WC) Akash Wagh (IND) 63 62
Vaja Uzakov (UZB) bt Perakiat Siruluethaiwatana (THA) 63 75
(5) Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) bt (WC) Ronak Manuja (IND) 62 61
(8) Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ) bt (Q) Mithun Murali (IND) 61 62
Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (Q) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND) 67(4) 62 61
(Q) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) bt (WC) Rohan Gide (IND) 63 76(1)
(3) David Savic (SRB) bt (Q) Aditya Madkekar (IND) 61 63
(6) Divij Sharan (IND) bt (Q) Vishal Punna (IND) 63 36 76(3)
(Q) David Sodek (CZE) bt Rohan Gajjar (IND) 76(7) 75
(Q) Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) bt Maniel Bains (GBR) 64 60
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (WC) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 62 62

Doubles First Round 
(1) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Mario Eckardt (GER)/ Pirmin Haenle (GER) 62 62
Daniel Lustig (CZE)/ David Sodek (CZE) bt (WC) Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) 62 63
(3) Alexander Satschko (GER)/ Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) bt Maniel Bains (GBR)/ Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND) 75 64
Mithun Murali (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Perakiat Siruluethaiwatana (THA) 64 62
(WC) Kamala Kannan (IND)/ Vishal Punna (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) 67(6) 75 10(6)
(4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Rohan Gide (IND)/ Nikunj Siwach (IND) 61 63
(WC) Arjun Goutham (IND)/ Aditya Madkekar (IND) bt Rifat Biktyakov (UZB)/ Vaja Uzakov (UZB) 76(4) 76(0)
(2) David Savic (SRB)/ Nathan Thompson (USA) bt Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ)/ Igor Panin (RUS) 64 64

Good win by Ranjeet but Sunil's awful form continued in singles ... Akash lost chance of utilising opportunity of facing lucky-loser in the first round ... Divij and Punna had terrific match in-between ... Otherwise expected results.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Badminton News

Good to see our 5 men's players r in top-50 World Badminton Ranking and 2 women's players r in top-50.

#11 Saina Nehwal
#38 Aditi Mutatkar

#14 Chetan Anand
#39 Arvind Bhat
#40 Anup Sridhar
#42 P. Kashyap
#49 Anand Pawar


At $200K Li Ning China Open Super Series 2008,

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,14) vs Choong Hann Wong (MAS,15)
[R1] P. Kashyap (IND,42) vs Hong Chen (CHN,72)
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) vs Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS,29)

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs (5) Lin Zhu (CHN,5)

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) vs Ying Long (MAC)/ Ka lei Mak (MAC)

Saina having tough match against WR #5 local girl ... Saina was playing last month in Commonwealth Youth Games and after that World Junior Championship but in that period she missed playing matches against top-10/20 players ... But as we know anything possible when Saina's play so go Saina ... Chetan also having tricky match against similar ranked Malaysian opponent.
Golf News

As expected Jeev re-enters into top-50 at #46 ... But otherwise hardly other 3 players (including Daniel) in top-200 ... Shiv is now outside top-400 with his dismal form.

Official World Golf Ranking on 16th November 2008 (Top 10 Indians)

46 Jeev Milkha Singh
121 Daniel Chopra
144 Jyoti Randhawa
192 Arjun Atwal
305 SSP Chowrasia
404 Shiv Kapur
447 Gaurav Ghei
650 Digvijay Singh
666 Rahil Gangjee
688 Gaganjeet Bhullar

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[Q2] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) l (3) Nick Van Der Meer (NED,551) 57 67

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,204) vs (1) Vincent Spadea (USA,75)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,210) vs (WC) John-Patrick Smith (AUS,1148)

Doubles -
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA) vs (Q) Romano Frantzen (NED)/ Nick Van Der Meer (NED)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) vs Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Nicolas Tourte (FRA)
[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs Luka Gregorc (SLO)/ Fritz Wolmarans (RSA)

Ashutosh against lost close match ... Doubles draw is out and our all players facing unseeded pair in the first round.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Golf News
At US$5 million Barclays Singapore Open - Final Standing

1 Jeev Milkha Singh 73 68 67 69 - 7 $792,500.00
T22 Gaurav Ghei 74 71 66 76 + 3 $ 50,250.00
31 Shiv Kapur 74 72 73 70 + 5 $ 42,000.00
T32 Jyoti Randhawa 75 69 72 74 + 6 $ 37,000.00
T41 S S P Chowrasia 70 76 75 70 + 7 $ 30,500.00
T58 Digvijay Singh 70 72 76 76 +10 $ 16,500.00
T68 Gaganjeet Bhullar 73 71 76 77 +13 $ 12,250.00

Jeev won richest tournament on Asian tour with Singapore Open title by 1 stroke ... This is Jeev's sixth Asian Tour victory, worth US$792,500, raised his Asian Tour season's tally to US$1.4 million ... Jeev also made history by becoming the first player to surpass US$1 million in earnings in a single season of Asian tour.

Jeev started final round 5 strokes behind leader Chapchai Nirat of Thailand ... But today everyone were struggling on course to scored under par round ... Jeev managed best round of the day 2 under ... Padraig Harrington was with him but on 16th hole he scored double bogey to give lead to Jeev ... Ernie Els missed a 15-foot birdie chance by couple of inches to play-off at the last hole.

With this win Jeev will re-enter into the world's top-50 with his third win of the season, which will come with an invitation for the US Masters and World Championships ... Jeev is already exempt in the other three Majors through his finish in Europe (12th on 2008 European Tour Order of Merit) ... Jeev is in position to win the Asian Tour's Order of Merit second time in 3 years where he leads Mark Brown by US$655,000.


Jeev Milkha Singh - "I could not have asked for more honestly - I think I am a very fortunate man to win, those boys put a good effort out there, Ernie and Padraig. The golfing gods are on my side so I am breathing much better now.

"I saw that I had a one-shot lead coming to the last. I was not hitting my driver that well so I took a three wood - at least confirm a five and if you make a four great. I was fortunate the other guys did not make a four. I am happy."
Tennis News

Rohan Bopanna is decided to play with Jarkko Nieminen in 2009 ... They are likely to skip Chennai open & play at Brisbane ATP in the same week.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[SF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) l (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) 62 16 10(3)

Somi and Izak's fin run ended in semis against top-seed pair of Rajeev and Bobby.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[Q1] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) bt Bryan Swartz (USA,UNR) 61 63

[Q2] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) vs (3) Nick Van Der Meer (NED,551)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,201) vs (1) Vincent Spadea (USA,77)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs (WC) John-Patrick Smith (AUS,1148)

Somi having very tough first round match against top-seed and top-80 Vincent Spadea.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Squash News
At $8k NSC Super Satellite #3 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (10-14 November 2008)
[R1] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt Nessrine Ariffin (MAS,92) w/o
[QF] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt (7) Chinatsu Matsui (JPN,56) 11-8 11-7 11-7 (25m)
[SF] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt (1) Sharon Wee (MAS,24) 11-9 11-9 12-14 11-2 (35m)

[F] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt (6) Low Wee Wern (MAS,46) 11-8 11-5 11-3 (22m)

Joshna Chinappa became the first Indian player to win the WISPA (Women's International Squash Professioal Association) tournament ... Congrats Joshna for excellent achievements.

Joshna Chinappa - "I wanted to win this title which has been eluding me for the past 4 yeras. I wish Nicole The World Nr. 1 was here. I always want to meet her in a final like this one, may be in the days to come I will meet her.

It is different feeling and with Commonwealth Games in India this victory will give morale support when I converge in the year 2010."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 14th November

Mohammedan Sporting bt Vasco SC 1-0

Goal Scored - Vimal Pariyar (MS) 86'

------------------------------------------
15th November
Churchill Brothers dw Mumbai FC 2-2

Goal Scored - Odafe Okolie (CB) 21', Reisangmi Vashum (CB) 70' and Abhishek Yadav (MFC) 10', Kulothungan K (MFC) 75'
------------------------------------------
East Bengal bt Sporting clube de Goa 3-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (EB) 14', Syed Rahim Nabi (EB) 27' & 32' and Harmanjot Khabra (ScG) 54'
------------------------------------------
16th November
Dempo SC bt Chirag United 4-0

Goal Scored - Ranty Martins (DSC) 7' & 71', Jaquim Abranches (DSC) 45', Roberto Mendes D’Silva (DSC) 61'
------------------------------------------
Mohun Bagan bt JCT 2-0

Goal Scored - Ishfaq Ahmed (MB) 15', Jose Ramirez Barreto (MB) 30'
Tennis News
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[QF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (4) Ilia Bozoljac (SRB)/ Chris Haggard (RSA) 76(6) 64

[SF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) vs (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA)

Somi's good run continued with his South African partner ... They scored straight sets victory over 4th seed but facing more tougher challenge in semis against formidable top-seed American pair.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $35,000+H Jersey challanger , Great Britain

[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Joseph Sirianni (AUS) bt Dusan Karol (CZE)/ Dawid Olejniczak (POL) 63 75
[QF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Joseph Sirianni (AUS) bt (1) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Philipp Marx (GER) 63 36 10(6)

[SF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Joseph Sirianni (IND/AUS) l Chris Guccione (AUS)/ Marcio Torres (BRA) 36 36

Good run for Purav in doubles scoring upset win over top-seed pair.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[Q1] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) vs Bryan Swartz (USA,UNR)
---------------------------------------------------------
At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Final -
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt (1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) 63 61

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Tennis News
At $450K Chennai Open ATP Tennis Tournament, India (5 - 11 Jan 2009)

In the 14th edition of Chennai Open, our all players r participating ... Mahesh is participating with his Bahamas partner Mark Knowle ... Other hand Lee is participating with Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy ... WR #1 pair Bryans r also participating first-time.

In singles, Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj r receiving singles wildcards with Rohan and Aisam getting doubles wildcard.

Carlos Moya confirmed his participation in his 'second home' tournament ... Russian Nikolay Davydenko also confirmed his participation.


Lee - "It's always great be a part of the Chennai Open. I am glad to return to the city where I have grown up and to play in front of a crowd that's always been of great support to me. Lukas and I have had a phenomenal year and we hope to have a great start to the New Year. A fifth Chennai Open title would be a dream start for 2009."

Mahesh - "I am excited to be back playing at home after a few years. Mark and myself have had a great year and we look forward to kick- starting 2009 with a big week at the Chennai Open."

Mike Bryan - “We were always looking forward to visiting India and what better way than to play at the first tournament of the year in Chennai. The tournament has grown in stature over the years so we decided to participate this year. We hope we can make a winning start to 2009.”
---------------------------------------------------------
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

GOLD GROUP

Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 16 46
Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) bt Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 62 16 10(6)

Very disappointing end of the season for Lee and Lukas.

In second match Polish pair defeated Bjorkman and Ullyett ... With this loss great career of Bjorkman ended, who had career won/lost record of 709 - 306 in doubles ... Bjorkman won 9 Grand slam doubles titles ... And qualified 8 times at the prestigious circuit finale with five different partner ... He won the 1994 title with Jan Apell (beating Woodbridge-Woodforde) and in 2006 with Max Mirnyi (beating Knowles-Nestor).

---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[R2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) l Carsten Ball (AUS,202) 57 36

So Kash's inconsistent performance continued ... With this he lost chance of entering into top-200 next week.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Semi-Finals-
(1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) bt (4) Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) 64 64
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt (Q) Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) 75 63

Doubles Final -
(2) CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) bt DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) 57 62 10(7)
Tennis News
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

On 13th November, 2008
RED GROUP

Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas 76(3) 67(4) (5)10
Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 62 26 (10)12

With this loss season 2008 is over for our both pair ... :-(
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) bt (Q) Izak Van der Merwe (RSA,280) 67(4) 64 76(4)

[R2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs Carsten Ball (AUS,202)

Doubles -
[R1] (LL) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) l Brian Battistone (USA)/ Dann Battistone (USA) 76(6) 67(6) 10(6)
[R1] Stephen Amritraj (IND)/ Frederik Nielsen (DEN) l (WC) Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Ryan Sweeting (USA) 57 16
[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (ALT) GD Jones (NZL) / Connor Roth (USA) 61 36 10(8)

Harsh and Ashutosh entered as luckyloser but lost in closely fought against Battistone bros ... Also as per schedule Somi and Izak match is against GD Jones & Connor Roth, whom Harsh and Ashutosh defeated in first qualifying round ... So that means Kash is also out of doubles.

Good to see Kash won this tight match, so next match against similar ranked opponent against him Kash is having good record.

---------------------------------------------------------
At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Quarter-Finals -
(1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) bt (Q) Shalini SAHOO (IND) 62 62
(4) Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) bt (6) Kai-Chen CHANG (TPE) 63 64
(Q) Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt I-Hsuan HWANG (TPE) 62 62
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt (2) Ye-Ra LEE (KOR) 5-2 Retd.

Doubles Quarter-Finals -
DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt KHAN (GBR)/ WINDLEY (GBR) 64 60
PARASYUK (RUS)/ PERKOVIC (GER) bt (WC) MALOO (IND)/ VENKATESHA (IND) 64 60
CURTIS (GBR)/ WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) bt (3) LU (CHN)/ WONGTEANCHAI (THA) 76(6) 46 11(9)
(2) CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) bt BHAMBRI (IND)/ CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) 64 64

Semi-Finals -
DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt PARASYUK (RUS)/ PERKOVIC (GER) 36 61 10(4)
(2) CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) bt CURTIS (GBR)/ WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) 64 62

Shalini Sahoo's fine run ended against top-seed but very satisfactory performance from her.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tennis News
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

GOLD GROUP

On 12th November, 2008

Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 67(2) 36
Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bt Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 61 64

With this loss Lee and Lukas become first pair to eliminate from this season ending event.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs (Q) Izak Van der Merwe (RSA,280)

Doubles -
[Q2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs 63 62

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Amer Delic (USA) vs (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA)

Carsten Ball opened draw for Kash beating top-seed Vince Spadea ... So Kash is facing South African Izak Van der Merwe in Singles and Doubles first round.

But surprising easy loss for Harsh and Ashutosh.

---------------------------------------------------------
At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Second Round -
(1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) bt (WC) Ankita BHAMBRI (IND) 62 75
(Q) Shalini SAHOO (IND) bt (WC) Alexandra KOLESNICHENKO (UZB) 63 62
(4) Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) bt Leonie MEKEL (NED) 61 36 61
(6) Kai-Chen CHANG (TPE) bt Korina PERKOVIC (GER) 62 63
I-Hsuan HWANG (TPE) bt (Q) Natasha KHAN (GBR) 62 63
(Q) Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt (Q) Patrycja SANDUSKA (POL) 64 61
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt Isha LAKHANI (IND) 63 75
(2) Ye-Ra LEE (KOR) bt Suchanun VIRATPRASERT (THA) 75 64

Shalini Sahoo's terrific run continued with win over Uzbek wild-card player ... But Ankita and Isha lost their matches against top=seed and 8th seed respectively ... Now in quarters Shalini having big task of facing British top-seed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 11th November

Mumbai FC dw Dempo SC 0-0

Yesterday Dempo only managed draw against Mumbai FC ... Dempo is struggling in new season, in last 3 matches they only garnered 2 points.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Tennis News
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

RED GROUP

Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 57 63 (4)10
Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas bt Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) 62 67(2) 11(9)

I really hate ATP's stupid decision of using super tie-break in season ending tournament.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

Doubles -
[Q1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (WC) Gd Jones (NZL)/ Connor Roth (USA) 64 26 10(6)
[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt Ramon Delgado (PAR)/ Ivan Miranda (PER) 61 62

[Q2] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA)

[R1] Stephen Amritraj (IND)/ Frederik Nielsen (DEN) vs (WC) Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Ryan Sweeting (USA)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Amer Delic (USA) vs Qualifier

Surprising to see same pair playing for final qualifying spot in doubles maindraw and their also they r facing another Indian player pairing.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Melanie SOUTH (GBR) (1) bt Jade WINDLEY (GBR) 6-2 6-4
Ankita BHAMBRI (IND) bt Varatchaya WONGTEANCHAI (THA) 6-3 6-4
Alexandra KOLESNICHENKO (UZB) bt Hae-Sung KIM (KOR) 7-6(1) 6-2
Shalini SAHOO (IND) bt Nicole THYSSEN (NED) (7) 7-5 2-6 6-2
Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) (4) bt Rashmi TELTUMBDE (IND) 6-3 7-5
Leonie MEKEL (NED) bt Kyra SHROFF (IND) 6-7(3) 6-2 6-3
Korina PERKOVIC (GER) bt Sophie FERGUSON (AUS) 7-5 6-7(6) 6-3
Kai-Chen CHANG (TPE) (6) bt Julia PARASYUK (RUS) 6-4 6-7(4) 6-2
I-Hsuan HWANG (TPE) bt Liana-Gabriela UNGUR (ROU) (5) 6-2 7-5
Natasha KHAN (GBR) bt Florence HARING (FRA) 6-1 2-6 7-6(4)
Patrycja SANDUSKA (POL) bt Silvia DISDERI (ITA) 6-4 6-2
Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt Agnes SZATMARI (ROU) (3) 6-3 6-4
Jing-Jing LU (CHN) (8) bt Jade CURTIS (GBR) 6-3 6-1
Isha LAKHANI (IND) bt Julia GLUSHKO (ISR) 6-3 6-1
Suchanun VIRATPRASERT (THA) bt Vivian SEGNINI (BRA) 6-4 6-2
Ye-Ra LEE (KOR) (2) bt Elora DABIJA (ROU) 6-3 6-3

Doubles -
DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt SZATMARI (ROU)/ THYSSEN (NED) (1) 62 63
KHAN (GBR)/ WINDLEY (GBR) bt LERTCHEEWAKARN (THA)/ SHROFF (IND) 75 60
PARASYUK (RUS)/ PERKOVIC (GER) bt LEE (KOR)/ PALKINA (KGZ) (4) 64 62
MALOO (IND)/ VENKATESHA (IND) bt APPINENI (IND)/ BURMAN (IND) 64 62
CURTIS (GBR)/ WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) bt DISDERI (ITA)/ FERGUSON (AUS) W/O
LU (CHN)/ WONGTEANCHAI (THA) (3) bt HARING (FRA)/ MEKEL (NED) 46 60 10(6)
BHAMBRI (IND)/ CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) bt LAKHANI (IND)/ SEGNINI (BRA) 62 62
CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) (2) bt MANOHAR (IND)/ VENKATARAMAN (IND) 61 61

Excellent victory by qualifier Shalini Sahoo against last week's future winner in 3 sets ... She is having good chance to move in to quarters against Uzbek ... Other hand Ankita having tough match against top-seed but we can expect some magic from her considering recent good form ... Isha facing 8th seed Chinese, she need to go deep in this tournament as Isha is defending heap of points as last year's finalist at same venue.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Tennis News

After reaching final at $75K Nashville Challenger as expected Somdev Devvarman become India's No. 1 singles player with his best ranking of #201, Prakash Amritraj is on 2nd position with #214 ranking.

Ashutosh with Harsh reached doubles final in Nashville Challenger, that helps Ashutosh Singh to climb on his personal best doubles ranking of #169 and after long time Harsh is back inside top-200 doubles ranking, #200 ... Reaching doubles semi-final at Rimouski Challenger also helped Stephen and Prkarsh Amritraj ... Stephen Amritraj first-time enter into top-200 doubles ranking at #192 and Prkash is on #206.
---------------------------------------------------------
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

On Monday, November 10, 2008
GOLD GROUP

Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 36 57
Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bt Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 76(4) 57 10(4)

Bjorkman and Ullyett converted all 2 break point chances they recieved and managed to save all 3 break point opportunities on their own serves.

On Sunday, November 9, 2008
RED GROUP 

Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) 62 63
Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) bt Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas (URU) 61 76(4)

In this match Hesh and Mark converted all 3 break point opportunities to score easy victory ... Bryans also started positively in same group.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,201) l Lester Cook (USA,) 36 46

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs Qualifier

Somi lost due to poor planning from Champaign organisers ... He traveled 6+ hours (375 miles) from Nashville to reach Champaign and play almost immediately.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[F] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) l (4) Robert Kendrick (USA,91) 36 57

Doubles -
[F] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) l Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA) 46 57

After poor recent runs this week Buji was back on winning track ... So becoming runner-up at this big $75K Challenger is creditable ... But I m surprised to see his name in this week's Champaign Challenger qualifying, I was expecting SE (special exemption) after he reached final here ... Other hand Kendrick has been in top form in last few weeks though. He has gone 15-2 in 4 US challangers in last 4 weeks & is on 10 match unbeaten streak after winning back to back titles at the Louisville challanger and Nashville Challenger.

This week they missed winning the title but this week performance definitely help them to achieve more on tour in future.
Snooker News
At 2008 IBSF World Snooker Championships, Wels, Austria

Masters' Championship (40+)

[F] Geet Sethi (IND) l Dene O'Kane (NZL) 1-5 (14-98, 41-50, 55-75, 47-78, 59-29, 13-61)

Geet couldn't produced his form which he showed previously in this World Snooker Championships ... But creditable to reached the final.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 5th November

Churchill Brothers dw Dempo SC 3-3

Goal Scored - Felix Chimaokwu Felix (CB) 15' ,19', Okolie Odafe Onyeke (CB) 31' and Mboyo Iyomi (DSC) 37', 47' & 76'

------------------------------------------
7th November
East Bengal dw Mahindra United 1-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (EB) 61' and Paresh Shivalkar (MU) 59'
------------------------------------------
8th November
Mumbai FC dw Vasco SC 1-1

Goal Scored - K Kulothungan (MFC) 25' and Abhishek Yadav (VSC) 70'
------------------------------------------
Dempo SC l Sporting clube de Goa 0-1

Goal Scored - Obagbemiro Junior (ScG) 82 '
------------------------------------------
Chirag United bt Mohammedan Sporting 1-0

Goal Scored - Gouranga Dutta (CU) 62'
------------------------------------------
9th November
Mohun Bagan bt Churchill Brothers 1-0

Goal Scored - Lalwampuia (MB) 14'
------------------------------------------
Air India bt JCT 1-0

Goal Scored - Samson Singh (AI) 85'

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[SF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) bt (2) Bobby Reynolds (USA,86) 64 36 63

[F] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs (4) Robert Kendrick (USA,91)

Doubles -
[SF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (WC) Scott Oudsema (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA) 62 26 10(6)

[F] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA)

Excellent win by Somi against Bobby Reynolds ... So back to back top-100 wins for him ... Now we can safely say he is back in August form which was missing in Romanian tour and after ... In the final he is facing Robert Kendrick, who is also licking his wounds given by Somi in the past ... So he will give his best but with coming back in form this week Somi will not miss chance of winning another challenger title.

This week Frenchman Laurent Recouderc is on #200 with 205 pts ... So calculative guess is Somi having chance to enter into top-200 with (164+42) 206 pts.

So with this win this qualifier pair in their first final of $75K Challenger event ... In the final they r facing American-Aussie pair ... This win can help Harsh to re-enter into top-200 doubles ranking ... Argentine Alejandro Fabbri is on #200 with 292 pts, so Harsh having chance of entering into top 200 doubles ranking with this win (252+42 = 294 pts).

---------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Rimouski Challenger, Canada

[SF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) l (WC) Vasek Pospisil (CAN)/ Milos Raonic (CAN) 57 63 (8)10

Amritraj bro lost against local wild-card pair in the super tie-break.
Snooker News
At 2008 IBSF World Snooker Championships, Wels, Austria

Masters' Championship (40+)

[SF] Geet Sethi (IND) bt John Welsh (ENG) 4-0 (80-38, 63-54, 68-13, 70-68)

[F] Geet Sethi (IND) vs Dene O'Kane (NZL)

Geet moved into the final easily defeating Englishman John Welsh ... Now facing New Zealander Dene O'Kane for the title.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) bt (3) Jesse Levine (USA,94) 76(5) 62

[SF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs (2) Bobby Reynolds (USA,86)

Doubles -
[QF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (2) Ashley Fisher (AUS)/ Jim Thomas (USA) 63 64

[SF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (WC) Scott Oudsema (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA)

Excellent straight sets win by Somi against Jesse Levine ... Somi is coming back to his form which we experienced in July/August ... Somi will be India's No. 1 with this win (164+27= 191) as Kash will remain on 190 pts and Somi is in chance of adding more points this week with another top-100 win over Bobby Reynolds.

Harsh and Ashutosh showing impressive performance in this $75K Challenger ... In quarters they defeated 2nd seed pair easily to move into semis.
Snooker News
At 2008 IBSF World Snooker Championships, Wels, Austria

Pankaj and Manan Chandra topped their respective groups to qualify for knockout stage, Sourav Kothari finished 2nd in his group.

In Masters event Geet Sethi and Alok Kumar qualified to knockout stage as group winners.

In womens section, Anuja Chandra and Vidya Pillai qualified for knockout stage finishing 2nd in their respective groups.

In knockout stage, Sourav lost in round of 64, Manan also failed to produce his good form and lost in round of 32 ... Pankaj also surprisingly lost against Chinese opponent in the quarters.

Our both girls also lost in the quarters ... In Masters event, Alok Kumar lost against Robby Foldvari in round of 16 but Geet is in the semis where he will face John Welsh of England.


Men's Championship - Knock Out
[R64] Pankaj Advani (IND) Bye
[R64] Manan Chandra (IND) Bye
[R64] Sourav Kothari (IND) l Ben Judge (AUS) 2-4 (31-92, 60-46 57-67 72-24 31-62 47-58)

[R32] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Craig Steadman (ENG) 5-3 (10-77, 79-68 60-76 63-61 30-67 72-0 60-20 74-16)
[R32] Manan Chandra (IND) l Soheil Vahedi (IRN) 1-5 (11-88, 43-70, 50-66 55-57 72-20 28-68)

[R16] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Ben Hancorn (ENG) 5-1 (80-9, 65-17, 0-79(55), 78-0, 71-58, 78-19)

[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND) l Xiao Guodong (CHN) 2-6 (43-57, 62-25, 64-55, 5-89(89), 33-67, 63(63)-72, 1-86, 36-76)

Women's Championship - Knock Out
[R16] Anuja Chandra (IND) bt Linda Lucas (AUS) 3-2 (24-65, 73(36)-41, 48-59, 82-10, 65(32)-14)
[R16] Vidya Pillai (IND) bt Hannah Mergies (POL) 3-0 (55-28, 57-7, 68-22)

[QF] Anuja Chandra (IND) l Ching Ching Yu (HKG) 3-4 (50-64, 43-47, 68-27, 76(54)-5, 49-65, 53-31, 35-67)
[QF] Vidya Pillai (IND) l Emma Bonney (ENG) 0-4 (41-51, 20-56, 20-76, 49-54)

Masters' Championship - Knock Out
[R32] Geet Sethi (IND) Bye
[R32] Alok Kumar (IND) Bye

[R16] Geet Sethi (IND) bt Joe Minici (AUS) 4-3 (28-52, 4-83, 64-43, 74-21, 64-9, 38-69, 62-6)
[R16] Alok Kumar (IND) l Robby Foldvari (AUS) 3-4 (9-74, 83-25, 47-78, 61-30, 12-64, 76-38, 43-52)

[QF] Geet Sethi (IND) bt Yam Shui Ng (HKG) 4-1 (53-18, 85-32, 1-59, 75-47, 73-31)

[SF] Geet Sethi (IND) vs John Welsh (ENG)

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) bt Sam Warburg (USA,161) 76(1) 76(3)

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs (3) Jesse Levine (USA,94)

Doubles -
[R1] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (WC) Colt Gaston (USA)/ Scoville Jenjins (USA) 76(5) 61

[QF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (2) Ashley Fisher (AUS)/ Jim Thomas (USA)

Somi has got back to some decent form as he defeated Warburg in 2 tie-breaks to face Jesse Levine in quarters ... Now time to get one more top 100 win.

Still not sure about their score but Harsh and Ashutosh had winning start against wild-card pair ... In quarters they r facing 2nd seed pair.

---------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Rimouski Challenger, Canada

[QF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) bt Erik Chvojka (CAN)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 64 36 10(7)

[SF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) vs (WC) Vasek Pospisil (CAN)/ Milos Raonic (CAN)

Kash and Stephen scored super tie-break victory over local pair ... Now they will face another wild-card local pair in the semis.
----------------------------------------------------------
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

This year Mahesh and Leander qualified for season ending Masters Cup with their respective partners ... Mahesh and Mark showed decent performance in indoor events but other hand Lee and Lukas struggled ... Hopefully both pair perform well ... Last year Lee reached semis with Damm ... And Mahesh was out due to shoulder operation.

RED GROUP 
Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)
Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)
Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA)
Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas (URU)

GOLD GROUP 
Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)
Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM)
Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND)
Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)

On Sunday, November 9, 2008
Bhupathi/Knowles vs Coetzee/Moodie

On Monday, November 10, 2008
Bjorkman/Ullyett vs Dlouhy/Paes

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Shooting News 
At ISSF World Cup Final Bangkok 2008, Thailand


1 NARANG Gagan IND (600 + 103.5) 703.5 WR
2 EMMONS Matthew USA (598 + 104.5) 702.5
3 ZHU Qinan CHN (599 + 103.3) 702.3

Gagan shot a perfect 600 to Equalled World Record in the qualifying stage and 103.5 in the final for a Final World Record score of 703.5 points ... Gagan broke the record (703.1 points) of Austrian Farnik Thomas set in 2006 World Cup Final in Granada, Spain.
Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) bt (Q) Travis Rettenmaier (USA,508) 63 62

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs Sam Warburg (USA,161)

Another good solid start for Somi against qualifier ... Now he will face in form Sam in the second round.
---------------------------------------------------------
At €106,500+H Bratislava Challenger, Slovak Republic

[R1] BOPANNA Rohan (IND)/ QURESHI Aisam-Ul-Haq (PAK) l (3) BUTORAC Eric (USA)/ HUTCHINS Ross (GBR) 67(5) 36

And they lost in the first round against solid pairing of Butorac and Hutchins.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Rimouski Challenger, Canada

[R1] (3) Prakash Amritraj (IND,213) l James Ward (GBR,322) 16 2-4 Retd

Doubles -
[R1] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) bt Luigi D'Agord (ITA)/ Nima Roshan (USA) 64 76(6)

[QF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) vs Erik Chvojka (CAN)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN)

Another lost opportunity ... Kash retired from singles but surprisingly played doubles match.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

Doubles -
[Q2] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) 76(3) 46 10(2)

[R1] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (WC) Colt Gaston (USA)/ Scoville Jenjins (USA)

Good win by Harsh and Ashutosh against Somi and his South African partner ... Now they should utilise opportunity of facing wild-card pair to move deep into this tournament.
---------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Rimouski Challenger, Canada

[R1] (3) Prakash Amritraj (IND,) vs James Ward (GBR,)

Doubles -
[R1] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) vs Luigi D'Agord (ITA)/ Nima Roshan (USA)

Kash having good chance to garner important ranking points in quest of breaking into top-200 of singles and doubles.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $10k Malaysia F1, Kuala Lumpur

[Q1] PUNNA Vishal (IND,UNR) bt DONG Qiu Shi (CHN,UNR) 60 60
[Q2] PUNNA Vishal (IND,UNR) bt(3) MAHER Jarryd (AUS,1158) 46 64 64
[Q3] PUNNA Vishal (IND,UNR) bt MA Ya-Nan (CHN,UNR) 64 62

[R1] (Q) PUNNA Vishal (IND,UNR) l KARATCHENIA Andrei (BLR,597) 64 36 26

Doubles -
[R1] (WC) PUNNA Vishal (IND)/ ZAINAL Ashaari (MAS) l (1) STATHAM Jose (NZL)/ YU Xin-Yuan (CHN) 46 26

Vishal is coming back from more than a year injury break ... Creditable performance from Vishal to qualify for maindraw and produced decent fight against top-600 player.

Monday, November 03, 2008

Tennis News
At $50K+H Louisville Challenger, KY, USA

[F] AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND)/ LEVINE Jesse (USA) bt DANCEVIC Frank (CAN)/ VEMIC Dusan (SRB) 63 76(10)

Prakash grabbed doubles $50K+H challenger title with Jesse Levine.

This title win helped Kash to back inside top-225 doubles ranking, he is #224 in newly updated ranking.

---------------------------------------------------------
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs (Q) Travis Rettenmaier (USA,508)

Doubles -
[Q1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (ALT) Romano Frantzen (NED)/ Nick Van der Meer (NED) 63 64
[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (WC) Charlie Jones (USA)/ Bryant Salcedo (USA) 61 63

[Q2] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA)

Somi facing qualifier in the first round ... In doubles he and Van der Merwe won their first qualifying round and will face Harsh and Ashutosh in the final qualifying match.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Boxing News
At World Youth Boxing Championships, Mexico

India's Thokchom Nanao Singh created history when he bacame the first Indian boxer ever to win a gold at world World Youth Boxing Championships defeating Russian Cadet World Championship bronze medallist Grigoriy Nikolaychuk 15-5 in the final.

Here r summary of our boxers -

48 KG - Thokchom Nanao Singh (IND)
[R1] bt Wright Robert (SCO) on pts 11-6
[R2] bt European cadet champion Mikoya Butsenko (UKR) by RSC in Round 3
[QF} bt Latipov Jasurbek (UZB) on pts 17-6
[SF] bt Beccu Jeremy (FRA) on pts 14-4
[F] Grigoriy Nikolaychuk (RUS) on pts 15-5

51 KG - Sunil Kumar (IND)
[R1] bt Dong Hyeon Sung (KOR) on pts 11-3
[R2] l Perez Zapata Orlando (Dominican Republic) on pts 5-16

54 KG - Bajrang (IND)
[R1] bt Palicte Aston Francis (PHI) 27-8
[R2] l Dueliz De La Cruz (Dominican Republic)

57 KG - Kangkham Roshan Singh (IND)
[R1] Stankovic Branimir (SRB) on pts 12-8
[R2] l Oleg Shefer {UKR) on pts 6-14

60 KG - Goyat Neeraj (IND)
[R1] Faileaso Toefuataina (ASA) on pts 16-4
[R2] l Sarukhan Vage (RUS) on pts 7-13

64 KG - Virothu Santhosh Kumar (IND)
[R1] Martirosyan Aram (ARM) on pts 12-5
[R2] l Salazar Mendoza (CRO) walkover (due to injury)

69 KG - Balwinder Beniwal (IND)
[R1] Hryhorchyk Aliaksandr (BLR) on pts 16-4
[R2] Tapia Jonuel (Puerto Rico) on pts 23-6
[QF] l Abdulai Satula (GER)on pts 5-16

Table Tennis News

At $70K ITTF Challenge Plus Oman Open 2020 , Muscat, Oman [R32] Harmeet Desai (IND,87) bt Jeremy Hazin (CAN,164) 4-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-4,...