Monday, December 28, 2009

Year 2009 showing some promises for Indian tennis ... In singles rise of Somdev Devvarman, who will definitely enter in top-100 in next few months .. And Yuki Bhambri, who is also showing lots of promise after winning junior Australian Open 2009 title ... He is having game (need little work on his service motion to avoid back injury) to be inside top-50 on ATP tour in couple of years as he is only 17 yrs old ... Sanam Singh showing improvement in his game under UVa tennis coach Brian Boland and can be in mix in a yer or two ... Rohan Bopanna showing consistency in doubles and remain inside top-100 after injury hit year ... He helped India with Somi to be in world group of Davis Cup.

In doubles Leander had excellent 2009 as he won 2 grand slam titles, French Open and US Open, with his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy ... Mahesh Bhupathi also won mixed doubles Australian Open title with Sania Mirza ... Harsh Mankad is also on verge of entering in top-100 doubles title, so if he get some lucky breaks then we can see him joining our other 3 on ATP tours doubles tournaments.

In ladies Sania Mirza showing despite her injury she is good enough to remain around top-50 WTA ranking ... For her this year brought lot of good memories ... After coming out of injury she won her first grand slam title in company of Mahesh and in July 09 she got engaged ... But still no woman player is showing any promises to join Sania ... Poojashree showing improvement but for her still long road to be inside top-250.


ATP 2009 year-end Singles Ranking

126 Devvarman Somdev 441
212 Amritraj Prakash 222
335 Bhambri Yuki 120
390 Vardhan Vishnu 96
392 Bopanna Rohan 95
477 Gajjar Rohan 66
483 Virali-Murugesan Ranjeet 65
614 Roy Rupesh 38
762 Malik Vijayant 19
764 Sharan Divij 19
789 Singh Sanam 16

ATP 2009 year-end Doubles Ranking

7 Bhupathi Mahesh 6,260
8 Paes Leander 5,890
83 Bopanna Rohan 935
104 Mankad Harsh 678
160 Amritraj Prakash 427
211 Raja Purav 318
330 Vardhan Vishnu 180
360 Sharan Divij 158
404 Gajjar Rohan 131
412 Singh Ashutosh 124
507 Devvarman Somdev 95

WTA 2009 year-end Singles Ranking

57 Mirza Sania 1119
339 Venkatesha Poojashree 117
555 Bhambri Sanaa 47
572 Uberoi Shikha 45
632 Chakravarthi Rushmi 38
739 Lakhani Isha 24
760 Burman Shivika 22
800 Maloo Parija 18
801 Goutham Sheethal 18
820 Solanki Sweta 17
831 Bhambri Prerna 16
845 Bhambri Ankita 15

WTA 2009 year-end Doubles Ranking

37 Mirza Sania 2170
280 Uberoi Shikha 203
387 Venkatesha Poojashree 120
457 Bhambri Sanaa 90
488 Chakravarthi Rushmi 78
601 Lakhani Isha 51
604 Solanki Sweta 51
736 Sunkara Rishika 29
748 Burman Shivika 28
773 Bhattacharyya Treta 26
813 Rao Sunitha 22
824 Bhambri Prerna 21

Friday, December 25, 2009

Tennis News
At $450K Aircel Chennai Open 2010, India

Wild cards for Chennai Open r declared ... As expected Somdev Devvarman received wild card in singles, he is also receive wild card for doubles with his UVa team-mate Sanam Singh ... Organizers take good decision giving second wild card to Rohan Bopanna over Yuki Bhambri ... As next Davis Cup World group tie is coming near so Rohan getting more match practice is important ... Third wild card went to Carlos Moya as he is making comeback after injury ... Carlos also received doubles wild card with Yuki Bhambri.

So Yuki missed singles wild card, but also Harsh Mankad get ignored by organizers for doubles wild card.

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At "Glam Slam Showdown of Champions" 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Russia bt Asia 3-0

Elena Dementieva/ Maria Kirilenko bt Sania Mirza/Jie Zheng 64 57 10(8)
Maria Kirilenko bt Jie Zheng 63 46 64
Elena Dementieva bt Sania Mirza 64 76(0)

Though Sania lost her both matches but as from onlooker all players played high quality tennis ... So good fighting performance by Sania in her year end matches.
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At $75K ITF Women's Tournament, Dubai, UAE

[Q1] (6) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND,330) bt Ekaterina DRANETS (RUS,881) 64 62
[Q2] (6) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND,330) bt Viktoria YEMIALYANAVA (BLR,587) 76(4) 63
[Q3] (6) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND,330) l (2) Natalia ORLOVA (RUS,267) 62 26 16

Last week Poojashree played $75K qualifying tournament and performed as per her ranking ... Good to see she is able to stretched top-250 type player to 3 sets.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Hockey News
At 2010 Hockey World Cup, New Delhi, India

India find themselves in tricky pool with Australia and Spain ... More pver arch-rival Pakistan and England also in their group.

Pool A: Germany, the Netherlands, Korea, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina
Pool B: Australia, Spain, England, Pakistan, India and South Africa

Monday, December 14, 2009

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

For 3rd position
India bt Argentina 3-2

Goal Scored - Vokkaliga Raghunath (IND) 35' PC, Gurbaj Singh (IND) 54', Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 69' PC and Facundo Callioni (ARG) 22' & 27'

Final
New Zealand bt Pakistan 4-2

After semi-final loss against Pakistan I was thinking mostly Argentina will crush us considering our previous record of these matches ... But while watching this match I had pleasant surprise ... In first half Argentina looks dominating and had good ball possession ... But our defenders and goal keeper Sreejesh were good to holding them ... But Argentina take control through Callioni's 2 field goals in few minutes ... Surprisingly from 0-2 down we started spirited comeback in last minutes of first half ... We received our first penalty corner on hooter of first half and Raghunath scored on that with powerful hit on left side of goal keeper ... In second half our team started positively but couldn't penetrate Argentina defense ... Good move from Tushar Khandekar created chance for Gurbaj and he scored on that ... After that our players kept attacking on Argentinian goal and got penalty corner in dying minutes ... This time Dhananjay Mahadik scored goal to give lead to India ... Argentina also got penalty corner in 70th minute but our players defended well to score good victory and top 3 finish.

New Zealand secured place in next year's Champions Trophy with victory over Pakistan, they were 2-all after first half.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009, Bangladesh

U23 INDIAN TEAM WINS SAFF CUP 2009 !!!

Final
India u23 bt Maldives 3-1 in penalty shoot-out (0-0 after FT)

Our u-23 boys did unthinkable to lift SAFF title beating full-side Maldives ... In the final Maldives were better on the field but our defenders and goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya were exceptional ... In end deserving winner with their fighting performance.

In begining our boys matching their game with Maldives national team and were 0-0 after end of first half ... After little boring first half more action happened in second half but Maldives created more chances than us ... Jewel Rana got injured in second half and that cost us in mid-field ... But goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya and our defenders managed to hold Maldives ... Sushil Kumar Singh missed only clear chance we had.

In extra-times also Sushil Kumar Singh missed few chances (where he needed to beat opponent's goal keeper) in front of the goal, other hand our goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya was very busy handling Maldives attack ... So match ended 0-0 after extra times.

Our goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya declared Player of the tournament and also man of the match for the final.


Penalty Shoot-out (Indians taking first kick)

Khangebam Jeevan Singh (IND) 1-0
Ibrahim Fazeel (MDV) 1-1
Denzil Franco (IND) 2-1
Ahmed Thoriq (MDV) 2-1 (Arindam saved to diving his left side)
Nirmal Chetri (IND) 2-1 (hit wide)
Mukhthar Naseer (MDV) 2-1 (Arindam saved to diving his right side)
Subodh Kumar (IND) 3-1
Ali Ashfaq (MDV) 3-1 (hit over the cross bar)
Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Semi-Final - Saturday - 12 Dec 2009
New Zealand bt Argentina 3-2
India l Pakistan 3-6

Goal Scored - Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 8' PC & 62' PC, Diwakar Ram (IND) 67' PC and Rehan Butt (PAK) 2' 29' & 64', Sohail Abbas (PAK) 32' PC & 70' PS, Haseem Khan (PAK) 58'

Disappointing result for us ... Again we failed to click against our arch-rival Pakistan, mainly due to our mental block ... Match was fast paced as expected but Pakistan got a start which they were hoping but we equalised through penalty corner ... After that we missed too many chances to score and other hand Pakistan converted most of chances they got ... At half time Pakistan was up 3-1 ... In second half also we missed penalty corners and field goal chances ... Pakistan increased lead through Haseem Khan ... Both teams were trying too hard and that brought 4 goals in last 8 minutes.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010,

At Australian Open Sania Mirza will be pairing with former doubles number one Spanish Virginia Ruano Pascual ... Pascual having huge success in doubles winning 10 grand slam titles ... So good pairing for Sania, they will decide further on their pairing after evaluating their performance at Australian Open.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009, Bangladesh

Semi-Finals
Maldives bt Sri Lanka 5-1
India u23 bt Bangladesh 1-0

Goal Scored - Sushil Kumar Singh (IND) 63'

Our u23 boys scored deserving victory over local Bangladesh nantional side ... Our boys played better than them in all department ... We missed many chances but important goal scored by captain Sushil Kumar Singh on free-kick by Robert Lalthalma in second half ... In the final we r facing Maldives, who defeated us in group match ... This is 3rd time we r facing them in the SAFF cup final, until now it's 1-all.
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Boxing News
At President's Cup 2009, Baku, Azerbaijan

Flyweight (49-51 kg) Final
Suranjoy Singh (IND) bt Nordine Oubaali (FRA) 8-1

[QF] Suranjoy Singh (IND) bt Vincenzo Picardi (ITA) 6-4
[SF] Suranjoy Singh (IND) bt Braulio Avila (MEX) 10-4

Indian Suranjoy Singh won his flyweight final bout easily against French boxer Nordine Oubaali to lift title at President's Cup 2009 ... This was the only title Asia 1 team won in this event.
Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Group A - Thrusday - 10 Dec 2009
New Zealand dw China 2-2
India bt Belgium 4-2

Goal Scored - Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 19' PC, Shivendra Singh (IND) 32', Tushar Khandker (IND) 48', Prabhjot Singh (IND) 70' and Jerome Dekeyser (BEL) PS, Renaud Pangrazio (BEL)

Congrats to Brasa and our team for reaching semis ... But still job is half done, we need to win next 2 matches to qualify for Champions trophy ... From report it looks we won very hard fought match which our team was dominated ... We were up 1-0 after 19th mins then Belgium fought back scoring 2 goals in a minute to take a lead but Indians kept pushing and scored equaliser through Shivendra Singh's deflection who was unmarked in Belgium circle ... In second half both teams started aggressively but Indians kept their upper hand with properly build attacks and they defended also very well ... So with this win they topped Group A as in other match

On Saturday we r facing Pakistan in semis ... Hopefully we keep our this spirited performance against them.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009 - Group A, Bangladesh

India u23 l Maldives 0-2

Goal Scored - Goal Scored - Ahmed Thoriq (MDV) 16', Ibrahim Fazeel (MDV) 84'

Today we were having big test against Maldives but our young side failed to rise on this occassion ... We conceded early goal in first 15 mins and we never recovered from that ... Also our striker Balwant Singh recieved red card for stupid mistakes, he handled ball inside the box for first yellow card and recieved second yellow card for unnecessary diving inside Maldives penalty box.

In semis on 11th December we r facing tough challenge of local team, Bangladesh, who topped Group B.
Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Group A - Tuesday - 08 Dec 2009
New Zealand bt Belgium 4-1
India bt China 4-1

Goal Scored - Prabhjot Singh (IND) 7' PC, Rajpal Singh (IND) 35', Sarwanjit Singh (IND) 56' PC, Shivendra Singh (IND) 70' and Xishang Jiang (CHN) 41' PS

Good win over Chinese team, with whom we struggled in recent past ... From start we kept attacking on Chinese goal, Prabhjot scored on rebound to give early lead ... After that though we had control over the match still we gave them some chances due to erratic and physical play from our players but we were lucky ... In this match also we showed our age old problem of individual game and long passes ... Hopefully we will take care of that in next game.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Squash News
At $152K Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2009, Mumbai, India

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,32) l (2) Amr Shabana (EGY,3) 6-11 11-6 5-11 10-12 (48m)

Creditable performance by Saurav against former WR #1 Amr Shabana ... Where he stretched Amr to 4 games in this 48 mins match.
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Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009 - Group A, Bangladesh

India u-23 bt Nepal 1-0

Goal Scored - Khangebam Jeevan Singh (IND) 18'

Our boys started well knowing winning this match will secure their place in semi finals ... Khangebam Jeevan Singh scored goal on heading after receiving ball from crossbar on free kick by Joaquim Abranches ... After that Nepalese tried hard to equalise but out defense stood tall ... With this win our boys secured their place in semis.

Monday, December 07, 2009

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Group A - New Zealand (8), Belgium (9), India (12), China (13)
Group B - Pakistan (7), Argentina (10), Canada (11), South Africa (15)

Group A - Sunday - 06 Dec 2009
Belgium bt China 4-3
India dw New Zealand 2-2

Goal Scored - Tushar Khandekar (IND) 30', Shivendra Singh (IND) 51' and Dean Couzins (NZL) 47' PS, Andrew Hayward (NZL) 58' PC

New Zealand hold India in very closely contested match ... Blacks sticks were attacking from the start but Indian defence defended well under Sardara Singh ... Indians managed to take lead before half time ... In second half also Black Stickskept attacking ... They managed to earn Penalty stroke which they converted to make it 1-all ... Again we take lead through field goal but again Black sticks converted penalty corner to make it 2-all ... In this match both teams performed well.
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Squash News
At $152K Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2009, Mumbai, India

[R1] (WC) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,148) l (10) Alister Walker (ENG,13) 4-11 5-11 3-11 (29m)

Easy loss against British player.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Mixed Doubles Final
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Joachim Fischer Nielsen (DEN)/ Christinna Pedersen (DEN) 14-21 18-21

In first game Danish pair take early lead wining 5 points from 1-2 and those lead was enough for them to grab first game ... Second game was lot closer than first one ... Danish pair take early lead 4-6 but Diju and Jwala managed to catch them at 8-all ... But again Danish pair take lead to 9-12, this time also Diju and Jwala caught them and take lead at 13-12 ... Then first time our pair take lead and were leading 16-14 but Danish pair made it 16-all and then won 3 points from 18-all to captured title in 37 mins.

Still creditable performance by Diju and Jwala. who reached final in their first appearance at World Super Series Masters.

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Golf News
At Golf Nippon Series JT Cup 2009, Japan - Final Standing

6 Jeev Milkha Singh 71 69 65 70 -5 ¥4,768,291

Shigeki Maruyama won in extra hole with 9 under score ... But today Jeev had so-so day, on front-9 he scored birdie on 5th hole ... On back-9 he started with back to back bogeys on 10th and 11th holes ... Then managed to birdie on 16th hole to finished on sole 6th position.

Jeev must be disappointed with his performance where he had chance of finishing in top 3 ... After excellent 5 under third round Jeev was in contention for the title but last PAR round let down for Jeev ... He was expecting much here as he won 2 titles here and another title win could help him to re-enter in top 50 GWR.
Squash News
At $152K Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2009, Mumbai, India

[R1] Saurav Ghosal (IND,32) bt (15) Cameron Pilley (AUS,15) 11-8 11-2 10-12 11-8 (77m)
[R1] (WC) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,148) vs (10) Alister Walker (ENG,13)

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,32) vs (2) Amr Shabana (EGY,3)

Saurav scored big win over top-15 Aussie player in this big PSA Masters tournament ... Good to see he scored win in long match at home tournament ... Next he is facing WR #3 and former WR # 1 Amr Shabana.
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Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009 - Group A, Bangladesh

India u-23 bt Afghanistan 1-0

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 86'

4 times champion Indian side started well in SAFF championship when they defeated Afghanistan 1-0 ... India’s second half substitute Jeje scored the goal just four minutes from time.

Saturday, December 05, 2009

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles Semi Finals
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) l Juliane Schenk (GER,9) 18-21 18-21

Mixed Doubles Semi Finals
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Robert Mateusiak (POL)/ Nadiezda Kostiuczyk (POL) 21-19 21-11

In Final,
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Joachim Fischer Nielsen (DEN)/ Christinna Pedersen (DEN)

Diju and Jwala created history becoming first Indian pair to reached final at World Super Series Masters beating Polish team ... In first game Diju and Jwala take lead winning 5 points from 2-3 and they managed to kept lead most of the game ... But Polish pair caught them at 19-all still Diju and Jwala kept their cool and win next 2 points to grab first game ... Second game was total different story, our pair won first 7 points to take huge early lead ... From their Polish pair were never in this game, nearest they came to 4 points difference ... Diju and Jwala ended in style to won 6 points on a row from 15-11 to win match in 30 mins ... In the final they will face top-seed Danish pair.

Schenk taken early lead in first game Saina won 3 points on a row to make it 6-all but Schenk won 5 points on row from 8-all to open lead ... Saina tried to reduce margin but Schenk kept required lead to grab first game ... Second game was also repeat of first game where Schenk opened early lead and Saina made it 7-all winning 3 points on a row but from here Schenk opened up a lead and maintained that until winning match in 41 mins ... So Saina lost big opportunity of winning this tournament but at least she managed to repeat her last year performance.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles - Group A Match 3
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) bt Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,37) 21-13 21-19

Mixed Doubles - Group B Match 3
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Songphon Anugritayawon (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 21-12 21-8

Saina scored straight games victory over Porntip in 33 mins to secure place in semis ... In first game Saina was in control from the start to win it easily ... second game was lot more closer where Saina take early lead 9-6 but Porntip fought back wining next 4 points and then she take lead over Saina after winning 3 points on a row from 10-all ... This time Saina fought back to make it 13-all and from 15-16 she won next 3 points to take control of the game ... Porntip saved couple of game points but Saina converted 3rd match point to won this match.

With Saina Indian mixed doubles pair Diju and Jwala also joined her in semis with very easy victory over Thai pair in just 20 mins ... They dominated match from start and didn't give any chance to their opponents to fight back.

In semis Saina mostly will face German WR #9 Juliane Schenk, who is in chance of winning Group B.

Diju and Jwala will face Polish pair Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk, who won Group A easily winning all matches without dropping any games.
Tennis News
At $10K Malaysia F6 Futures, Kuala Lumpur

[SF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) l Marin BRADARIC (CRO,723) 75 26 46

Rohan also lost against Croatian and with that I think Indian tennis players will take year-end break before next season.

Somi is currently doing physical training at Austin, Texas mostly with Roddick.

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles - Group A Match 2
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) bt Charmaine Reid (CAN,55) 21-14 21-9

Mixed Doubles - Group B Match 2
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Hendra Aprida Gunawan (INA)/ Vita Marissa (INA) 21-18 21-17

Much better performance today as Saina and our MXD team scored win in straight games ... Today Saina produced thumping win against Reid in 32 mins ... She dominated match from the start and never lose control over it.

Diju and Jwala also played well to beat Indonesian pair in straight games.
Tennis News
At $10K Malaysia F6 Futures, Kuala Lumpur

[QF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) bt (8) David RICE (GBR,521) 60 36 61

[SF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) vs Marin BRADARIC (CRO,723)

Doubles
[SF] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) l (3) Sergei Betov (BLR)/ Dmitri Zhyrmont (BLR) 63 36 (7)10
[SF] (2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) l Jesse Huta Galung (NED)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED) 26 26

Rohan Gajjar won to moved into semis and facing Croatian ... Hopefully he will take out him to move into the final ... Our challenge got over in doubles.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles - Group A Match 1
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) l Mew Choo Wong (MAS,20) 13-21 21-13 14-21

Mixed Doubles - Group B Match 1
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Anthony Clark (ENG)/ Donna Kellogg (ENG) 15-21 16-21

Saina having good chance of winning this BWF World Super Series Masters Finals ... As all top ladies shuttlers decided to skip this so Saina is highest seeded.

But today bad day for Indians as Saina lost her match in 50 mins against local girl ... Other hand Diju and Jwala's struggled against English pair continued in this 27 mins match.
Tennis News
At $10K Malaysia F6 Futures, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt Adam JAYA (MAS,1439) 62 63
[R1] Divij SHARAN (IND,785) bt Manuel SANCHEZ (MEX,1327) 64 46 64
[R1] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) bt Yew-Ming SI (MAS,1482) 62 64
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,375) bt Mohammed FETOV (SUI,1177) 16 62 30 Retired

[R2] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) l Colin O'BRIEN (IRL,628) 16 0-2 Retd
[R2] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) bt Divij SHARAN (IND,785) 61 64
[R2] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,375) l Marin BRADARIC (CRO,723) 63 67(5) 46

[QF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) vs (8) David RICE (GBR,521)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (ALT) Burnham Arlidge (GBR)/ Andrew Fitzpatrick (GBR) 75 76(5)
[R1] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (ALT) Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Tomislav Brkic (BIH) 46 63 10(7)
[R1] David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) 60 64
[R1] (2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) bt (WC) Manuel Sanchez (MEX)/ Muhammad Ashaari Bin Zainal Abidin (MAS) 61 61

[QF] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 76(5) 57 10(8)
[QF] (2)Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) bt Peerakit Siributwong (THA)/ Peraklat Siriluethaittana (THA) 36 62 10(4)

[SF] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) vs (3) Sergei Betov (BLR)/ Dmitri Zhyrmont (BLR)
[SF] (2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) vs Jesse Huta Galung (NED)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED)

And again Vishnu lost against Croatian ... He had chance of finishing in 2 but failed to capitalised on that ... Ranjeet retired from his match so now only Rohan is in singles quarter finals after easy win over Divij.
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Australia F11 Futures 2009,

[R1] Karan RASTOGI (IND,1062) l (8) James LEMKE (AUS,490) 67(1) 26

After stretching Aussie opponent to tie-break Karan lost in straight sets.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Football News

For SAFF Cup our 20 members U23 squad is announced.

India Under-23
Goalkeepers - Arindam Bhattacharya (Churchill Brothers SC), Laxmikant Kattimani (Dempo SC)

Defenders - Nirmal Chetri (East Bengal Club), Denzil Franco (Mahindra United), Robert Lalthalma (Churchill Brothers SC), Dharmaraj Ravanan (Mahindra United), Rowilson Rodrigues (Churchill Brothers SC), Ravinder Singh (Air India), Thokchom Naoba Singh (Churchill Brothers SC)

Midfielders - Joaquim Abranches (Dempo SC), Manish Maithani (Mohun Bagan AC), Sheikh Jewel Raja (Dempo SC), Baldeep Singh Jr (JCT), Jagpreet Singh (JCT), Khangebam Jeevan Singh (East Bengal Club)

Forwards - Jeje Lalpeklua (Pune FC), Balwant Singh (JCT), Jagtar Singh (Tata Football Academy), Sushil Kumar Singh (Mahindra United)

Coach - Sukhvinder Singh (Coach)
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Draw of the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup to be played in Sri Lanka next February was held at Colombo ... Defending champions India r in 'Group of Death' ... They r in Group B with World Cup qualifiers North Korea, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan ... Other hand Group A looks weaker with teams Tajikistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and hosts Sri Lanka.

Tournament winner will gain a place in the 2011 Asian Cup, India is already qualified by winning the tournament last year ... So if we able to defend title then the runners-up will qualify for the continental championships in Qatar ... As we r already qualified so we r sending our U-23 team for exposure before Asiad.

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,...