Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Su-Wei Hsieh(TPE)/ Bruno Soares(BRA) 75 26 10-8

[QF] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ)/ Julian Knowle (AUT)

They lost second set with double break but were controlling super tie-break from the start ... Lee and Cara were up 9-4 but after that their opponents saved 4 match points before they converted 5th ... In quarters they r facing another unseeded pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $42.5K Nottingham Challenger, Great Britain

[Q2] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) bt Vacek Pospisi (CAN,305) 36 75 76()

Prakash scored tough comeback victory against Canadian ... After losing first set Prakash was on the edge all the time, he won close second set ... In decider match went to tie-break before Kash scored victory ... Hopefully he will be fresh enough for his final qualifying match which will be in couple of hours.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $25K Womens ITF Tournament, Bukhara , Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) BHAMBRI Prerna (IND,824) l (Q) GORGODZE Ekaterine (GEO,518) 06 16

Lost in first round against qualifier but still creditable performance by young Prerna to qualify here and earning 2 ranking points.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (15) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) 57 36

[R3] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/ Travis RettenMayer (USA) 63 64

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Su-Wei Hsieh(TPE)/ Bruno Soares(BRA) 75 0-2 (match postponed due to rain/darkness)

Leander and Lukas scored straight sets victory over unseeded pair to move into quarter-final at French Open ... This match was lot easier for them considering last 2 matches.

But other hand Rohan and Aisam lost against French seeded pair in second round ... In first set they fought until end but in second gave early break to lose match.
--------------------------------------------------------
At 125K+H Prostejov Challenger, Czech Republic (Red clay)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs Qualifier

Doubles
[[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) vs (WC) Marek Jaloviec (CZE)/ Michal Konecny (CZE)

Somdev playing on clay instead of playing at Nottingham Challenger on the grass ... In my view he should chosen to play on the grass in preparation of Queens and Wimbledon qualies.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Nottingham Challenger, Great Britain

[Q1] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) bt (WC) Timothy Bradshaw (GBR,982) 61 64

[Q2] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) vs Vacek Pospisi (CAN,305)

Expected winning start on the grass for kash against British wild-card player.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $25K Womens ITF Tournament, Bukhara , Uzbekistan

[R1] VENKATESHA Poojashree (IND,409) vs ABDURAIMOVA Nigina (UZ,478)
[R1] (Q) BHAMBRI Prerna (IND,824) vs (Q) GORGODZE Ekaterine (GEO,518)

Good to see Prerna qualify to maindraw with taking advantage of weak draw.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA)/ Michael Russell (USA) 62 63

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (15) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Michael Llodra (FRA)
[R2] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) l Marc Lopez (ESP)/ Pere Riba (ESP) 46 67(4)
[R2] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND)) bt Yves Allegro (SUI)/ Andreas Beck (GER) 64 36 63

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Eric Butorac (USA) 16 46

Very dominating win by Rohan and Aisam in 59 mins ... Only once they lost their serve when Rohan lost his serve when they were leading 4-2 in second set ... Next they r facing 15th seed local pair.

After winning first set Lee and Lukas lost second set ... Third set also they started on bad note losing first game but they broke back in 6th game to bring set on the serve ... Immediately Lee and Lukas broke opponent's serve in 8th game to take lead and then hold their serve easily to complete the win.

Mahesh and Max lost serve in 9th game to lose first set ... In second set they were early break down but they came back breaking Spanish pair's serve late in the set ... But Spanish pair comfortably won tie-break to won match in straight sets.

Mahesh challenge got over from French Open with his first round loss in mixed doubles ... His one-sided loss was surprising considering Mahesh and Liezel Huber were top-seeds ... Disappointing French open for Mahesh.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Pauline Parmentier (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA) 63 63

Leander and Cara started with comfortable win in their mixed doubles first round match.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[SF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) l (LL) Brian Battistone (USA)/ Nicholas Monroe (USA) 36 64 9-11

Hurting loss for Harsh as he was defending lot of points as defending champion.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[SF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) l (2) Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO) 76(5) 46 9-11

Good fighting performance by Purav and Sadik against Croatians on the clay.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round-up

Shillong Lajong (26 pts) needed win but they failed and relegated ... Last I-League's third place team Sporting Clube-de Goa (27 pts) started late to avoid relegation but failed by a single points.


Dempo deservedly won I-League with 54 pts, Churchill finished 2nd with 43 points, Pune FC finished 3rd with 42 pts and Mahindra, who is disbanding their team after this season, finished on 4th place with 41 pts.

Tennis News

Mahesh Bhupathi became first Indian tennis player to get inducted into the ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame ... He was included in Class of 2010 announced for ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.

Class of 2010 Announced for ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame
-----------------------------------------------------------
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) 63 67(6) 75

[R2] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Marc Lopez (ESP)/ Pere Riba (ESP)

Match was lot more closer than Lee and Lukas expectations ... After losing first set European pair made strong comeback but Lee and Lukas managed to survive winning close third set.

Rohan and Aisam first round match postponed to Saturday due to rain.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[QF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) bt Brett Joelson (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA) 63 64

[SF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs (LL) Brian Battistone (USA)/ Nicholas Monroe (USA)

Harsh scored comfortable win over American pair in company of Samuel Groth to moved into semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) bt Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)/ Yuichi Sugita (JPN) 46 62 10-8

[SF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) vs (2) Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO)

Good comeback win by Purav and Sadik ... They r giving very consistent performance in challengers.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Final Round

Dempo SC dw Pune FC 1-1

Goal Scored - Clifford Miranda (DSC) 6' and Arata Izumi (PFC) 26'

Pune FC hold I-League winner Dempo to 1-all draw and keep their hopes alive for finishing 2nd in the standing if Churchill fail to win their last league match.
-----------------------------------------

East Bengal dw Viva Kerala 1-1

Goal Scored - Budhiram Tudu (EB) 17' and Sabeeth C.S (VK) 10'

Viva hold East Bengal in their away match to keep their hope of avoiding relegation.
-----------------------------------------

Mahindra United bt JCT FC 2-1

Goal Scored - Sukhwinder Singh (MU) 32', Paresh Shivalkar (MU) 44' and Henry Ezeh (JCT) 48'

Mahindra United scored win in their last professional match.
-----------------------------------------

Churchill Brothers bt Air India 5-1

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 21' & 60', Felix (CB) 68' & 74', Jason Vales (CB) 80' and N.D.Opara (AI) 73'

Churchill scored thumping win over Airmen to secured 2nd place for I-League season 2009-10 ... Though Airmen lost this match still they able to retain their place in I-League as Shillong Lajong failed to win their match.
-----------------------------------------

Mumbai FC bt Mohun Bagan 2-0

Goal Scored - Abhishek Yadav (MFC) 11'P & 24'

Abhishek Yadav scored 2 goals in early of first-half to helped Mumbai FC to scored win in their last match.
-----------------------------------------

Salgaocar SC bt Shillong Lajong 3-1

Goal Scored - Milagres Gonsalves (SSC) 32', Ekene Ikenwa (SSC) 82 & 90+1' and Anil Gurung (SL) 90+3'

With this loss against Salgaocar in their last leaguematch Shillong Lajong relegated from I-League division one.
------------------------------------------

Chirag United l Sporting Clube-de Goa 0-1

Goal Scored - Anthony D'Souza (CU) 66'

Sporting Clube-de Goa's late run didn't help them to avoid relegation despite their victory in the last league match.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER) 63 62
[R1] (16) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) l Benjamin Becker (GER)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) 36 75 46

Mixed Doubles
[R1] Liezel Huber (USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Eric Butorac (USA)
[R1] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Pauline Parmentier (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA)

In first set Mahesh and Max broke opponent's serve in 8th game to won with a single break ... In second set they take early break and then scored comfortable victory ... Other hand Rajeev and Eric lost in first round.

In mixed doubles Mahesh and Lee r top 2 seeds with their respective partners.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[QF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs Brett Joelson (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA)
-----------------------------------------------------------
At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) vs Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)/ Yuichi Sugita (JPN)

Squash News
At $9K German Open, Saarbrucken

[R1] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (Q) Veronika Koukalova (CZE,143) 11-6 11-7 14-12 (21m)
[QF] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (7) Carrie Ramsey (ENG,103) 11-3 11-8 11-3 (13m)
[SF] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (Q) Melissa Alves (FRA,185) 11-5 11-5 11-6 (16m)

[F] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (8) Gaby Schmohl (SUI,95) 11-6 11-7 11-6 (23m)

Joshna Chinappa won the German Ladies Open title in Saarbrucken, this was her first WISPA title on European tour ... Before this she won titles in Malaysia ... This was a perfect performance by Chinappa, who didn't drop a single game during the whole event.

Joshna Chinappa - "I tried to avoid any mistakes and I was quite successful."

Tennis News
At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[R1] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) bt (WC) Marcos Giron (USA)/ Daniel Kosakowski (USA) 63 76(4)

Winning start for this new pair ... Groth's big serving came handy in this match.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[R1] (3) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Sadik KADIR (AUS) bt Diego ALVAREZ (ARG)/ Alejandro GONZALEZ (COL) 62 57 10-7

Good winning start on clay for Purav and Sadik against South Americans

Badminton News

From next year India is going to host Super Series tournament ... They defeated Switzerland 10-7 to win Super Series bid for next 3 years, i.e. 2011 - 2013 ... First time India going to host Super Series tournament.

Also in 2011 BWF host their first ever million dollar prize money tournament, Korea Open will offering US$1.2 million prize money.

Golf News
At HP Byron Nelson Championship, Irving, Texas - Final Standing (PGA Tour)

T7 Arjun Atwal 69 71 64 70 -6 $ 189,150.00
T32 Jeev Milkha Singh 72 67 68 72 -1 $ 35,316.66

Under par round can earned Arjun top 5 finish ... But still creditable to finish inside top 10 ... Jeev must be disappointed with his last round, instead of finishing inside top-20 he found himself outside top30.

This is Arjun's first top 10 finish after 3 years, so he is showing rediscovery of the form.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO)
[R1] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Fabio Fognini (ITA)/ Michael Russell (USA)

Doubles draw is out ... Lee is in top draw with top-seed Bryans ... Mahesh and Rohan r in bottom draw.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[R1] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs (WC) Marcos Giron (USA)/ Daniel Kosakowski (USA)

This week Harsh is trying new partnership with Australian Samuel Groth.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[R1] (3) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Sadik KADIR (AUS) vs ALVAREZ Diego (ARG)/ GONZALEZ Alejandro (COL)

Tricky match for seeded pair on the clay.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris


[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) l Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,65) 36 63 36 63 36

Marco started with his big serves, still Somi had break point on 3rd game but Marco saved with his big serving ... Marco broke Somi's serve in 6th game to take 2-4 lead ... After thatboth players hold their service games and Marco won first set with single break, 3-6 ... In second set also Marco started with big serves ... But Somi was patient and he got opportunity in 6th game ... He had 2 break points at 15-40 and he converted second point to break Marco's serve to lead 4-2 ... Then both players hold their respective serves and Somi won second set, 6-3 ... In second set Somi served one ace with 206 kmph speed ... Bravo ... Other hand though Marco lost second set he was still servinf big ... Somi played a loose 4th game giving chance to Marco ... And Marco broke it to take 1-3 lead ... Somi had a break point on Marco's serve in 7th game but Marco saved that ... Both players hold their serve as Marco won third set, 3-6 ... In fourth set Somi broke Marco in 2nd game after converting 2nd break point after duece ... But Marco immediately broke back in next game ... Somi also decided to didn't give up without fight and he again broke Marco in 4th game to take 3-1 lead ... Then both players hold their serves, in 9th game Marco saved 2 set points before Somi converted 3rd after duece to won 4th set, 6-3 ... In 4th set Marco take early break in 2nd game to lead 0-3 ... Somi tried to break back but Marco hold his serve with intelligent and powerful service ... So with that single break Marco won decider and match after 3 hours and 38 minutes.

Though Somi loss I m not disappointed as he also tried hard ... Today he served well, his 1st serve average was 176 kmph ... He also had 13 aces in the match ... So this performance will moved Somi in between 102 to 105 in ATP ranking.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India

Churchill Brothers dw East Bengal 2-2

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 36', Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 57'P and Mehtab Hossain (EB) 57', Sanju Pradhan (EB) 68'P

Churchill lost opportunity of moving to 2nd place before final round as East Bengal side hold them.

From I-League second league ONGC confirmed their maiden entry in next I-League season.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) vs Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,65)

Somi is facing Swiss Marco Chiudinelli in first round ... This is a good draw considering Somi had win against Marco Chiudinelli at 2010 Dubai Open ... Also Marco Chiudinelli having poor record in major ... If he wins first round then he can face his old NCAA rival John Isner in second round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $498K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, France (Red clay)

[F] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (3) Marcelo Melo (BRA)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 61 36 5-10

After winning first set easily against seeded Brazilian pair they lost in super tie-break ... I feel it's lot better performance from them to reached in the final at tour tournament ... Will be in good frame of mind for French Open, if get good draw they can go deep at French Open.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

[Q3] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA,289) 64 61

Somi scored huge win to qualify for main-draw of French Open ... This win was huge considering with this win mostly he will first-time enter into top-100 ATP ranking when ranking will be updated after the French Open, i.e. on 7th June 2010.

In this match in the begining both players were keeping pressure on eachother's serve ... But Somi managed to create more chances than Mannarino, Mannarino converted both chances he got other hand Somi converted 3 from 5 chances ... Crucial break of the set taken by Somi in 10th game to won first set when Mannarino was serving to remain in the set, Somi won this set in 58 mins ... But second set was having different story as Somi was controlling the points from the start ... He broke Mannarino's serve in 4th and 6th game to won second set easily in just 27 mins.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India

Pune FC bt Churchill Brothers SC 4-1

Goal Scored - Arata Izumi (PFC) 26', Edmar Figueira (PFC) 31' & 73', Subrata Paul (PFC) 90+' and Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 57'

Pune FC continued their awesome run into their first I League season ... They handed big defeat to 2nd place Churchill Brothers, 39 pts and now captured 2nd place with 41 pts ... May be for the short period as 2 matches r remaining of Churchill and Pune FC having away last match againstt I League champion Dempo ... But terrific performance by the team who promoted this year to finish inside top 3.

Yesterday Odafe Onyeka Okolie didn't play as he red-carded in their last match against Mumbai FC ... Without him Churchill wasn't looking the same team as only Felix was looking threatening ... Pune FC team take full advantage of it scoring thumping victory.

Tennis News
At $498K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, France (Red clay)

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Dusan Vemic (SRB)/ Leos Friedl (CZE) 76(5) 36 10-8

Rohan and Aisam scored exciting victory in semi-final to reached their 3rd ATP tour final as a pair ... Match was close as Rohan and Aisam won 68 points and their opponents 70 in this match ... After losing first set Vemic and Friedl came back strongly in the match ... They won second set and were up 8-4 in super tie-break ... But Rohan and Aisam kept their cool and won last 6 points to won this match.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

[Q2] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) bt Daniel King-Turner (NZL,248) 61 62

[Q3] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) vs Adrian Mannarino (FRA,289)

Somi broke Daniel's serve twice in both set to won his second qualifying round ... First set Somi dominated but in second set score was one-sided still games were very close ... In the match Somi saved 6 break points and converted 4 points from 9.

In end convincing win over Kiwi player by Somi as he needed only 72 mins to complete it ... Hopefully he will cross last hurdle to qualify for grand slam maindraw.

He is having tough final qualifying round against local player, who was WR #88 in September 2009 (he was out for 6 months due to injury) ... Somi need to play solid tennis to overcome Mannarino.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $498K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, France (Red clay)

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) l Andreas Seppi (ITA)/ Potito Starace (ITA) 36 36
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR) 63 62

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Dusan Vemic (SRB)/ Leos Friedl (CZE)

Another very comfortable win over higher ranked British pair by Rohan and Aisam to moved into semis.

Very tame loss for top-seed, with this early loss they will be less prepared for French Open.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K+H Fergana Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,362) l (5) Andrej Martin (SVK,273) 61 46 26

Doubles
[QF] (3) Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 26 46

Vishnu started with bang winning first set convincingly but then in next 2 sets his challenge was fizzle out ... But good fighting performance against top-300 player that also in abroad challenger from Vishnu.

In doubles Purav and Sadik lost easily against Chinese pair in quarter-finals.

Tennis News
At French Open 2010, Roland Garros, France

[Q1] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) bt Jiri Vanek (CZE,220) 26 62 64
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,270) l (17) Joao Souza (BRA,128) 64 26 6-8

[Q2] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) vs Daniel King-Turner (NZL,248)

Jiri Vanek broke Somi's serve twice from 2 chances he got to won first set, other hand Somi failed to convert any break points ... But in second set Somi didn't give a single break point to Jiri but broke his serve twice in 5th and 7th games to won second set ... In third set in 2nd game Somi saved a break point and then he take important and only break of third set in 5th game ... After that both players hold their serve easily and that was enough for Somi to scored win ... Next he is facing Kiwi opponent who upset Australian Chris Guccione with easy victory.

Praksh had excellent match against higher ranked Brazilian ... He won first set with a single break but lost second set cheaply ... In third set he saved 3 break points at 3-all but Souza broke him in 13th game and then hold to won this match ... Still fighting performance by Prakash.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $498K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, France (Red clay)

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Simon Greul (GER)/ Rogier Wassen (NED) 75 67(6) 10-4

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Andreas Seppi (ITA)/ Potito Starace (ITA)
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR)

Rohan and Aisam scored first round win in well contested match ... After winning first set closely in second set Rohan and Aisam saved 2 break points before taking set into tie-break ... In tie-break they were 1-5 down but after saving set points they managed to make it 6-all ... Then lost next 2 points to take match in super tie-break ... In super tie-break also they were mini-break down at 1-2 but from here they lost only 2 points and winning 9 points for comfortable super tie-break win ... In quarter-finals they r facing British pair, whom they defeated couple of weeks ago.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K+H Fergana Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,362) bt (WC) Tomas Cakl (CZE,UNR) 75 63

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,362) vs (5) Andrej Martin (SVK,273)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) 63 64

[QF] (3) Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN)

Though former top-150 player Tomas Cakl was inactive but still good win by Vishnu in abroad challenger ... I m hoping upset win over Andrej Martin in next round.

Tennis News
At French Open 2010, Roland Garros, France

[Q1] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) vs Jiri Vanek (CZE,220)
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,270) vs (17) Joao Souza (BRA,128)

Though Somi is 6th seed but he is having tough match against experienced Czech player Jiri Vanek ... Prakash facing much more tougher opponent seeded Brazilian in first round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $500K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur,, France (Red clay)

[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) bt Ross Hutchins (GBR)/ Jordan Kerr (AUS) 61 75

Good straight sets victory for top-seed.

Tennis News
At $500K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur,, France (Red clay)

[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Ross Hutchins (GBR)/ Jordan Kerr (AUS)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Simon Greul (GER)/ Rogier Wassen (NED)

Mahesh is testing his fitness after injury at this new ATP tour tournament ... Nice to see Rohan and Aisam getting chance to play one more ATp tournament on the clay before French Open.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K+H Fergana Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,362) vs (WC) Tomas Cakl (CZE,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] () Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND)

So Cruel draw in doubles for our players ... In singles Vishnu is playing against former top-150 player, who may be making comeback on the tour.

Golf News
At Valero Texas Open, San Antonio, Texas - Final Standing

T17 Arjun Atwal 69 72 70 70 -7 $ 85,400.00

Arjun finished on T17 position ... Lot better than his past few months performance

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Sunday 16th May 2010
India vs Korea

India and Korea shared 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament trophy as match was cancelled after 6 mins due to heavy rain ... Before that final was postponed by 30 mins due to rain, they started final in drizzles but match stopped after rain get havier ... After waiting for sufficient time they announced India and Korea as a winner, at 10 pm local time.

Sardara Singh declared Player of the Tournament.

Formula1 News
At Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2010,

Both Force India's drivers finished in the points at Monaco ... Sutil finished on 8th and Liuzzi on 9 after stewards demoted Schumacher for chicky ovetaking on Alonso on last lap when safety car was running.


Jarno Trulli tried to overtke Karun Chandhok and ended in scary accident on 74th lap ... But luckily both drivers were uninjured.


Webber and Vettel finished 1-2 for RBR-Renault.

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Saturday 15th May 2010
India bt Egypt 7-1

Goal Scored - Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 33' PC, 39' PC & 42' PC, Rajpal Singh (IND) 44' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 46' PC, Tushar Khandekar (IND) 49', Sarwanjit Singh (IND) 70' and Hakim Ahmad (EGY) 67'

Indians played excellent second half to scored comfortable win over Egyptian side to booked place in the final against Koreans ... After missing many chances in first half our players played almost perfect hockey to scored big win ... They converted 5 penalty corners from 10, Dhananjay scored hat-trick in that.

Tennis News
At € 2.835M Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, Spain

[QF] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP)/ Marc Lopez (ESP) 26 75 10-3

[SF] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (1) Daniel Nestor (CAN) / Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 36 46

Produced good comeback victory in super tie-break in quarter-final against Spanish pair ... But in semis Nestor and Zimo were strong ... But this was Lee and Lukas's best performance on the clay in 2010.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Sarasota Challenger, Florida, USA (Clay)

[SF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) l (4) Brian Battistone (USA)/ Ryler DeHeart (USA) 36 75 5-10

Consecutive 3rd match in super tie-break but this time Harsh and treat lost ... They started well winning first set but Battistone and DeHeart came back to won second set and then match in super tie-break ... So another disappointing week for Harsh and Treat.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Busab Challenger, Korea

[SF] (4) Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) 61 36 5-10

Purav and Sadik started strongly against 2nd seed winning first set easily but then Junaid and Peya take control of the match to won it in super tie-break.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Zagreb Challenger, Croatia (Red clay)

[SF] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ryan Harrison (USA) l (1) Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP)/ Santiago Ventura (ESP) 36 57

Top-seed Spanish team turned strong for Somi and Ryan but they gave creditable performance.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Raleigh Challanger,

[SF] Dominika Dieskova (SVK)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) l Kristie Ahn (USA)/ Nicole Gibbs (USA) 16 36

Shikha's good run ended in doubles semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F5, New Delhi

Singles Final
(1) Rik de Voest (RSA) bt (7) Karan Rastogi (IND) 75 62

Singles Semi Finals
(1) Rik de Voest (RSA) bt (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) 61 60
(7) Karan Rastogi (IND) bt Chang Yu (CHN) 63 64

Doubles Final
(4) Xin-Yuan Yu (Chn)/ V.M. Ranjeet (IND) bt (3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA) 36 61 11-9

Back to back final for Karan but again he settled for runner-up ... He performed lot better against Rik, due to bad service game Karan lost first game of the match but he kept pressure on Rik's serve and managed to broke him in 6th game ... In first set Karan was matching Rik with his all court game but Rik take crucial break in 11th game and hold his serve to won first set ... After that Rik played aggressive tennis and won second set with 2 breaks.

But positive performance from Karan, who is showing that he is coming back to the level of game before his injury.

Tennis News
At € 2.835M Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, Spain

[R2] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (ALT) Juan Ignacio Chela (ARG)/ Eduardo Schwank (ARG) 64 62

[QF] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Nicolas Almagro (ESP)/ Marc Lopez (ESP)

Easy win against Argentine pair but in quarters facing Spanish pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $100K+H Bordeaux Challenger, France (Red clay)

[QF] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Karol Beck (SVK)/ Leos Friedl (CZE) 67(4) 26

They were up with break in the first set 4-2 but from there they lost meekly ... Rohan was struggling to hold his serves.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Sarasota Challenger, Florida, USA (Clay)

[QF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Victor Estrella (DOM)/ Bruno Rodriguez (MEX) 63 26 15-13

[SF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs (4) Brian Battistone (USA)/ Ryler DeHeart (USA)

Another very tight win for Harsh and Treat ... Today also they survived against unseeded pair ... Still not able to find the form they r looking.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Zagreb Challenger, Croatia (Red clay)

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ryan Harrison (USA) bt (3) Nicolas Massu (CHI)/ Lukas Rosol (CZE) 61 60

[SF] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ryan Harrison (USA) vs (1) Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP)/ Santiago Ventura (ESP)

Surprisingly very easy and dominating victory over 3rd seed clay court specialists by Somi and his partner ... In semis they r facing top-seed Spanish pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Raleigh Challanger,

[R2] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) l (8) Carly Gullickson (USA,180) 67(3) 26

Doubles
[QF] Dominika Dieskova (SVK)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) bt (2) Alina Jidkova (RUS)/ Tetiana Luzhanska (UKR) 16 64 10-4

[SF] Dominika Dieskova (SVK)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) vs Kristie Ahn (USA)/ Nicole Gibbs (USA)

Shikha gave fighting performance against top-200 player in singles and in doubles she upset 2nd seed pair with her partner to moved in to semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F5, New Delhi

Singles Quarter Finals
(1) Rik de Voest (RSA) bt (6) Murad Inoyatov (UZB) 61 60
(3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) bt (5) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA) 63 75
Chang Yu (CHN) bt (Q) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) 36 61 61
(7) Karan Rastogi (IND) bt (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND) 63 0-3

Doubles Semi Finals
(3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA) bt Liang Chi Huang (CHN)/ Ouyang Bowen (CHN) 64 62
(4) Xin-Yuan Yu (Chn)/ V.M. Ranjeet (IND) bt (2) Vivek Shokeen (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) 64 36 10-4

Much anticipated match between Karan and Yuki ended when Yuki twisted his right ankle, he was leading with the break in second set after losing first set ... Ranjeet also joined Karan in the semis but facing top-seed Rik de Voest in the semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At u14 World Junior Tennis (Girl) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Anqing, China

Quarter Finals
(4) India l (3) China 0-2

Rutuja Bhosale l Qiuyu Ye 16 57
Sneha Devi Reddy l Yihong Li 62 67(3) 36

Indian girls lost their match against higher ranked Chinese team ... Rutuja lost her singles match easily but Sneha had a chance to make it 1-all but after winning first set she lost control of the match in second set tie-break and then lost match after more than 2 1/2 hrs ... So with this loss India's chances of reaching World group of u-14 World Junior Tennis Championship got over.

Tennis News
At $50K Zagreb Challenger, Croatia (Red clay)

[R1] (5) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) l Yuri Schukin (KAZ,221) 67(3) 61 16

Somi's struggle on the clay continued ... Last 2 months he is struggling with bad planning, some injury issues and performance ... Not a right preparation for French Open qualifying.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Raleigh Challanger,

[R1] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) bt (Q) Chieh-Yu Hsu (USA,455) 64 60

[R2] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) vs (8) Carly Gullickson (USA,180)

Doubles
[R1] Dieskova (SVK)/ Uberoi (IND) bt (wc) Kandinata (INA)/ Kay (USA) 62 61

[QF] Dieskova (SVK)/ Uberoi (IND) vs (2) Jidkova (RUS)/ Luzhanska (UKR)

Remarkable win by Shikha, after long time she scored main-draw win that also with such ease.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Sarasota Challenger, Florida, USA (Clay)

[R1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Daniel Garza (MEX)/ Vasek Pospisil (CAN) 26 75 10-8

[QF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Victor Estrella (DOM)/ Bruno Rodriguez (MEX)

Another closs call for harsh and Treat ... This year they r still searching the form which they had in last season.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Busab Challenger, Korea

[QF] (4) Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Jae-Sung An (KOR)/ Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR) 62 63

Good to see Purav and Sadik reached in semis of this big challenger with easy win over local wild-card pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At u14 World Junior Tennis (Girl) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Anqing, China

Group 2 - 10th May
(4) India l (6) Thailand 1-2

Rutuja BHOSALE bt Apiramon NAKHORANKAN 64 61
Sneha Devi REDDY l Praewpisuti CHINSAKCHAI 16 26
Rutuja BHOSALE/ Iska TEERTHA l Apiramon NAKHORANKAN/ Praewpisuti CHINSAKCHAI 76 16 57

They r still not learning from the mistakes wrong combination ... These girls had good opportunity to become group leader ... Instead of playing Rutuja against Thai #1, we played Sneha ... Now tough match against #3 China in quarter-finals.

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Wednesday 12th May 2010
India l Malaysia 2-5

Goal Scored - Danish Mujtaba (IND) 43', Ravi Pal Singh (IND) 68' and Amin Rahim (MAS) 27' PC & 46', Tenghu Ahmad Tajuddin (MAS) 39', Abd Rahim Muhammad Razie (MAS) 40', Nasir Azreen Rizal (MAS) 60'

After excellent wins in last 3 matches against solid opponents today we played like newbie ... Made lots of mistakes on field, very hard tackle and gave unnecessary penalty corners .. We conceded 5 and earned 7 ... Our players mostly relaxed after last 3 wins, so hopefully this will turned to be wake up call for them.

This is our one of worst loss against Malaysian side and first of this year's tournament.

Badminton News
At BWF Thomas Uber Cup Finals 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Thomas Cup - Quarter Finals
India l Indonesia 0-3

Kashyap Parupalli (IND,33) l Taufik Hidayat (INA,5) 12-21 21-10 17-21
Sanave Thomas (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l Markis Kido (INA)/ Hendra Setiawan (INA) 16-21 17-21
Arvind Bhat (IND,36) l Simon Santoso (INA,12) 8-21 10-21

Uber Cup - Quarter Finals
India l China 0-3

Saina Nehwal (IND,6) l Yihan Wang (CHN,1) 21-14 11-21 18-21
Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Jin Ma (CHN)/ Xiaoli Wang (CHN) 8-21 11-21
Sayali Ghokale (IND,58) l Xin Wang (CHN,2) 10-21 14-21

Don't know how draw made for quarter-finals, in Thomas Cup quarter-final we again faced Indonesia ... This time also Kashyap stretched Hidayat to 3 games ... That was only notable performance from our player in that tie.

Saina started well against WR #1 Yihan Wang, she won first game but Yihan came back strongly to won second ... In third game Saina was fighting neck to neck but Yihan kept slimmer lead to won this match ... So Chinese women won next 2 matches easily to moved into semis.

Tennis News
At $75K+H Busab Challenger, Korea

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,382) l Rameez Junaid (IND,378) 36 67(3)

Expecting better performance from Vishnu against similar ranked opponent.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Raleigh Challanger,

[Q1] (8) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) bt Tori Kinard (USA,1057) 64 75
[Q2] (8) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) bt Gabriela dabrowski (CAN,881) 61 63
[Q3] (8) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) bt Aleksandrina Naydenova (BUL,839) 61 62

[R1] (Q) Shikha Uberoi (IND,626) vs (Q) Chieh-Yu Hsu (USA,455)

Doubles
[R1] Dieskova (SVK)/ Uberoi (IND) v (wc) Kandinata (INA)/ Kay (USA)

Shikha is showing some improvent in her performance last few weeks.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F5, New Delhi

Singles Second Round
(1) Rik DE VOEST (RSA) bt Xin-Yuan YU (CHN) 61 62
(6) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) bt Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA) 64 62
(3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (Q) Peng GAO (CHN) 64 62
(5) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) bt (LL) Akash WAGH (IND) 62 64
(Q) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE) bt Yannick NELORD (IND) 76(4) 64
Yu CHANG (CHN) bt (Q) Bowen OUYANG (CHN) 61 63
(7) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND) 63 63
(2) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (Q) Wan GAO (CHN) 63 61

Doubles Quarter Finals
HUANG (TPE)/ OUYANG (CHN) bt (1) GAJJAR (IND)/ INOYATOV (UZB) 26 75 10-6
(3) DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) bt (WC) ATHARE (IND)/ RAWAT (IND) 61 63
(4) VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ YU (CHN) bt MALIK (IND)/ NELORD (IND) 75 62
(2) SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt TIWARI (IND)/ WAGH (IND) 61 75

So Nelord couldn't continue with his good run against qualifier ... So tomorrow Yuki against Karan in quarter-final.

Chess News
At World Championship Match 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand defeated Bulgarian Grandmaster Veselin Topalov playing with Black in 12th game to successfully defending the World Chess Championship title!!!

Viswanathan Anand (2787) bt Veselin Topalov (2805) 6½-5½

Game Twelve - 11th May
Veselin Topalov (2805) - Viswanathan Anand (2787) 1-0

GM Viswanathan Anand (India,2787) 0 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 - 6½
GM Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria,2805) 1 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 - 5½

Anand used Queen's Gambit declined for the first time in this championship match ... This is supposed to safe opening for Black ... Match was moving as per text book moves until 27 moves, Anand played interesting 28 move, Ba8 ... Topalov made bad moves on 31 and 32, those were exf5 and fxe4 ... He walked into Anand's trap ... After that Topalov had no practical chances to hold but he kept fighting on because this was the final game of the world championship ... After 56 moves Topalov resigned and Anand scripted memorable victory.

Game 12 moves
1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 O-O 7. e3 Ne4 8. Bxe7 Qxe7 9. Rc1 c6 10. Be2 Nxc3 11. Rxc3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 Nd7 13. 0-0 b6 14. Bd3 c5 15. Be4 Rb8 16. Qc2 Nf6 17. dxc5 Nxe4 18. Qxe4 bxc5 19. Qc2 Bb7 20. Nd2 Rfd8 21. f3 Ba6 22. Rf2 Rd7 23. g3 Rbd8 24. Kg2 Bd3 25. Qc1 Ba6 26. Ra3 Bb7 27. Nb3 Rc7 28. Na5 Ba8 29. Nc4 e5 30. e4 f5 31. exf5 e4 32. fxe4 Qxe4 33. Kh3 Rd4 34. Ne3 Qe8 35. g4 h5 36. Kh4 g5+ 37. fxg6 Qxg6 38. Qf1 Rxg4+ 39. Kh3 Re7 40. Rf8+ Kg7 41. Nf5+ Kh7 42. Rg3 Rxg3+ 43. hxg3 Qg4+ 44. Kh2 Re2+ 45. Kg1 Rg2+ 46. Qxg2 Bxg2 47. Kxg2 Qe2+ 48. Kh3 c4 49. a4 a5 50. Rf6 Kg8 51. Nh6+ Kg7 52. Rb6 Qe4 53. Kh2 Kh7 54. Rd6 Qe5 55. Nf7 Qxb2+ 56. Kh3 Qg7 = 0-1

Badminton News
At BWF Thomas Uber Cup Finals 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Thomas Cup - Group D
India bt Australia 4-1

Kashyap Parupalli (IND,33) bt Jeff Tho (AUS,169) 21-8 21-10
Arvind Bhat (IND,36) bt Chad Whitehead (AUS,348) 21-6 21-12
Gurusaidutt R.M.V (IND,58) bt Stuart Gomez (AUS,UNR) 21-15 21-13
Sanave Thomas (IND)/ Rupesh Kumar (IND) l Glenn Warfe (AUS)/ Ross Smith (AUS) 20-22 18-21
Diju Viliyaveetil (IND) / Akshay Dewalkar (IND) bt Raj Veeran (AUS)/ Chad Whitehead (AUS) 21-12 21-17

Uber Cup - Group D
India l South Korea 1-4

Saina Nehwal (IND,6) bt Seung Hee Bae (KOR,16) 20-22 21-18 21-17
Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Hyo Jung Lee (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR) 11-21 13-21
Aditi Mutatkar (IND,38) l Ji Hyun Sung (KOR,26) 23-21 11-21 14-21
Shruti Kurian (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l Kyung Won Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR) 13-21 11-21
Sayali Ghokale (IND,58) l Yun Hwa Lee (KOR,196) 10-21 21-19 12-21

Expected win against Australia to moved into quarter-final but shocking defeat of our WR #18 pair, Rupesh and Sanave, against WR #100 pair, Glenn Warfe and Ross Smith.

Crucial match to decide group winner and little weaker opponent in the semis ... Saina needed to play her best game to beat Korean after losing first game ... Match duration was 67 mins, so it also showing improvement in Saina's physical condition ... Koreans showed their dominance in doubles dismissing Jwala/Ashwini in 21 mins ... Aditi won first game after saving 1 game point ... Aditi was up 10-6 in second game but Korean won 13 points in a row to won second game easily ... In decider Aditi tried her best, after down early in the game she caught up with Korean at 13-all but again Korean show her superiority winning next 7 points ... Aditi saved 1 match point before losing in 54 mins ... Another comfortable win by Korean pair in second doubles rubber to secured the tie.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup World Group Playoffs - Sept 2010

Draw is out we r having home tie against Brazil.

Here is complete draw of World Group Playoffs in September -
India vs Brazil
Colombia vs USA
Israel vs Austria
Germany vs South Africa
Sweden vs Italy
Australia vs Belgium
Kazakhstan vs Switzerland
Romania vs Ecuador
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $100K+H Bordeaux Challenger, France (Red clay)

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (WC) Adrian Mannarino (FRA)/ Xavier Pujo (FRA) 76(4) 62

Rohan and Aisam started with win against wild-card pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Busab Challenger, Korea

Doubles
[R1] SHARAN Divij (IND)/ VARDHAN Vishnu (IND) l (WC) JEONG Suk-Young (KOR)/ NAM Ji Sung (KOR) 46 46
[R1] (4) KADIR Sadik (AUS)/ RAJA Purav (IND) bt ITO Tatsuma (JPN)/ IWAMI Tasuku (JPN) 46 63 10-3

Surprising loss for Vishnu and Divij against unheard Koreans ... Purav and Sadik won their first round match in super tie-break against tricky Japanese pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Zagreb Challenger, Croatia (Red clay)

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,266) l (6) Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP,120) 36 16

Doubles
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Roko Karanusic (CRO) l Attila Balazs (HUN)/ David Savic (SRB) 46 63 8-10
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ryan Harrison (USA) bt (WC) Ilija Cuic (CRO)/ Kresimir Ritz (CRO) 76(3) 62

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ryan Harrison (USA) vs (3) Nicolas Massu (CHI)/ Lukas Rosol (CZE)

Good start in doubles for Somi but Prakash lost in super tie-break with his Croatian partner.

Early end of week for Kash with one-sided loss in singles against Spanish player.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At u14 World Junior Tennis (Girl) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Anqing, China

Group 2 - 11th May
(4) India bt New Zeland 3-0

Rutuja BHOSALE bt Paige HOURIGAN 64 61
Sneha Devi REDDY bt Pang SUWANAPOSEE 60 62
Rutuja BHOSALE/ Iska TEERTHA bt Pang SUWANAPOSEE/ Claudia WILLIAMS 63 63

Group 2 - 10th May
(4) India bt Singapore 3-0

Rutuja BHOSALE bt Geraldine ANG 61 62
Sneha Devi REDDY bt Ming Ming Joy CHIA 60 63
Rutuja BHOSALE/ Iska TEERTHA bt Geraldine ANG/ Sabrina Hui Ling TAN 61 61

Good solid start for Indian girls ... Now tomorrow match against 6th seed Thai girls to decide group winner.

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Monday 10th May 2010
India bt Australia 4-3

Goal Scored - Tushar Khandekar (IND) 19' and 32', Rajpal Singh (IND) 21', Shivendra Singh (IND) 61' and Trent Mitton (AUS) 36', Christopher Ciriello (AUS) 37' PC, Mark Paterson (AUS) 70'

In the beginning Australia penetrated Indian circle few times , India were lucky as once ball hit the post but our defenders and goalie were not giving much space for Australians in the circle ... Then Indians started with counter-attacks and were controlling the pace of the match ... We scored 2 goals in 3 minutes to take control then Tushar scored another opportunist goal in dying minutes of first half ... Sarwanjit Singh missed couple of sitter otherwise we would take much bigger lead ... But after long time we take 3-0 lead at end of the first half ... In second half Australians started attack from first minute ... Mitton scored field goal in second minute and on next minute Australians earned their first penalty corner and scored their 2nd goal through Ciriello ... After that Australians were continuously attacking Indian goal ... How much they were controlling the match at that time simply show from stats that we first-time managed to penetrate Australian circle in second half after 21 mins ... We scored fourth field goal from Tushar and Shivendra combination in 61 mins ... Australians kept attacking and scored last goal when 33 seconds were remaining.

This is our first win over Australia in last seven year ... Tushar Khandkar declared Man of the match but Sreejesh was also very good at goal-line ... Spirited performance from us to beat Aussies ... We need to improve on controlling the game/ ball after taking big lead ... We almost awarded match to Australia in first 20-25 mins of second half ... Both teams earned 3 penalty corners each, we still struggling with variations but good to see our players scoring lots of opportunist goals.

Badminton News
At BWF Thomas Uber Cup Finals 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Thomas Cup - Group D
India l Indonesia 1-4

Kashyap Parupalli (IND,33) l Taufik Hidayat (INA,5) 21-14 19-21 18-21
Sanave Thomas (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l Markis Kido (INA)/ Hendra Setiawan (INA) 11-21 13-21
Arvind Bhat (IND,36) bt Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,11) 19-21 21-9 Retd.
Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Diju Viliyaveetil (IND) l Alvent Yulianto Chandra (INA)/ Hendra Aprida Gunawan (INA) 21-14 13-21 11-21
Anup Sridhar (IND,42) l Simon Santoso (INA,12) 8-21 17-21

Uber Cup - Group D
India bt South Africa 5-0

Saina Nehwal (IND,6) bt Kerry-Lee Harrington (RSA,179) 21-8 21-8
Adit Mutatkar (IND,38) bt Stacey Doubell (RSA,198) 21-5 21-6
Trupti Murgunde (IND,60) bt Jade Morgan (RSA,296) 21-10 21-9
Shruti Kurian (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) bt Stacey Doubell (RSA)/ Kerry-Lee Harrington (RSA) 21-13 21-10
Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Michelle Edwards (RSA)/ Jade Morgan (RSA) 21-8 21-12

Wasn't surprised by this loss against this solid Indonesian team ... But good fighting performance by Kashyap against WR #5.

Now tomorrow our men has to win their match against Australia to qualify for quarter-finals.

Indian women scored expected dominating win over South African women ... So with this win they secured their place in quarter-final ... Tomorrow their match against Korea will decide group winner.

Tennis News
At $75K+H Busab Challenger, Korea

[R1] VARDHAN Vishnu (IND,370) bt (WC) NAM Ji Sung (KOR,UNR) 63 62

Expected easy start against 16 yrs unseedd Korean for Vishnu to moved into second round.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Sarasota Challenger, Florida, USA (Clay)

[R1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Daniel Garza (MEX)/ Vasek Pospisil (CAN)

This week also Harsh and Treat r top-seed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F5, New Delhi

Singles First Round
(1) Rik DE VOEST (RSA) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 61 36 61
Xin-Yuan YU (CHN) bt (WC) Vaidik MUNSHAW (IND) 62 64
Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA) bt (WC) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) 63 67(5) 61
(6) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND) 62 61
(3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (WC) Sai Kartik NAKIREDDI (IND) 60 64
(Q) Peng GAO (CHN) bt (Q) Ronak MANUJA (IND) 76(5) 61
(LL) Akash WAGH (IND) bt Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 63 75
(5) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) bt Peerakit SIRIBUTWONG (THA) 62 63
Yannick NELORD (IND) bt (8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE) 60 46 63
(Q) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 64 61
(Q) Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 63 64
Yu CHANG (CHN) bt (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) 76(4) 26 63
(7) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt (Q) Sudanwa SITARAM (IND) 62 76(3)
Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 62 76(6)
(Q) Wan GAO (CHN) bt (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND) 62 75
(2) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) 62 60

Doubles First Round
(1) GAJJAR (IND)/ INOYATOV (UZB) bt (WC) BISHT (IND)/ NAKIREDDI (IND) 63 64
HUANG (TPE)/ OUYANG (CHN) bt CHANG (CHN)/ ZHOU (CHN) 62 67(5) 12-10
(3) DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) bt KANNAN (IND)/ PRASHANTH (IND) 64 64
(WC) ATHARE (IND)/ RAWAT (IND) bt MANUJA (IND)/ SITARAM (IND) 63 63
MALIK (IND)/ NELORD (IND) bt PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) 61 63
(4) VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ YU (CHN) bt SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 63 64
TIWARI (IND)/ WAGH (IND) bt (WC) ANAND (IND)/ SINGH (IND) 61 62
(2) SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt GAO (CHN)/ GAO (CHN) 64 62

Nelord scored upset win over 8th ranked Taiwani ... Vijayant Malik also scored good win over Uzbek Vaja Uzakov.

Not so good second day for Indians as only Akash Wagh scored upset win as lucky-loser ... Other hand 4th seed Gajjar lost against Chinese player and Vivek lost against Taiwanese qualifier.

Chess News
At World Championship Match 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

Viswanathan Anand (2787) - Veselin Topalov (2805) 5½-5½

Game Eleven - 9th May
Viswanathan Anand (2787) - Veselin Topalov (2805) ½-½

So this time Anand used different opening, 1. c4 e5, English for the first time in this World championship match ... But both players played very cautiously and in middle of the game match was heading towards boring draw ... But suddenly Anand played gutsy move on 49th move, Rd2 with giving a pawn ... Then game became complicated but Topalov smartly avoided falling into the trap and hold Anand to draw after 65 moves.

I was hoping more attacking game from Anand as playing with White, so now Topalov having advantage of playing last game with White ... Now last game will be played after a day rest on Tuesday.

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Sunday 9th May 2010
India bt Korea 3-2

Goal Scored - Arjun Halappa (IND) 9', Tushar Khandekar (IND) 45', Shivender Singh (IND) 60' and Nam Hyun Woo (KOR) 12' PC & 70' PC

India and Korea played excellent attacking game ... Both were continuously attacked eachother goals ... Indians defended really well at goal-line ... We were lucky to survive as today we conceded 11 penalty corners but Korean managed to score from two ... Korean earned 5 penalty corners in last 8 minutes ... Other hand we earned 7 but couldn't score from single penalty corner.

Very creditable performance by our forwards ... Today Shivendra Singh declared man of the match with his performance ... Important win for us against one of top team ... Tomorrow again important match against Australia.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round XXV

Mumbai FC dw Churchill Brother 0-0

Mumbai FC hold mighty Churchill goal-less draw and moved out of relegation zone on goal difference.

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

Viva Kerala dw Mohun Bagan 1-1

Goal Scored - Karma T. (VK) 22', Jose Ramirez Barreto (MB) 53'

Viva hold Mohun Bagan to earned important point in their battle of avoiding relegation zone, I think which will help them to remain in I-League for 2010-11 season.
-----------------------------------------

Mahindra United l Salgaocar SC 1-2

Goal Scored - Muritala Ali (MU) 28' and Ekene Ikenwa (SSC) 15', Manjit Singh 90+'

Manjit Singh's injury time strike helped Salgaocar to score victory over Mahindra to come out of relegation zone.
-----------------------------------------

Shillong Lajong FC l Dempo SC 0-1

Goal Scored - Anthony Pereira (DSC) 37'

Dempo scored away win against Shillong to officially lifting 2009-10 I League title ... Congratulation to Dempo.
-----------------------------------------

Pune FC bt Sporting Clube de Goa 4-0

Goal Scored - Edmar Figueira (PFC) 17' & 64, Arata Izumi (PFC) 46', Douhou Pierre (PFC) 65'

Pune FC scored huge win to guranteed their top 4 finish but this loss hurt Sporting Clube de Goa's chances to avoid relegation.
-----------------------------------------

Air India bt Chirag United 3-1

Goal Scored - Vijith Sheety (AI) 18' & 45+', N.D.Opara (AI) 54' and Edmilson Marques (CU) 26'

Air men scored importnt win to lift themselves outside relegation zone.
------------------------------------------

JCT FC dw East Bengal 1-1

Goal Scored - Penn Orji (JCT) 74' and Abel Hammond (EB) 65'

East Bengal earned important point.

Tennis News
At € 2.835M Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, Spain

[R1] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bye

Lee and Lukas r in top draw ... They will face winner between Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP)/ Albert Montanes (ESP) and Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) in second round.

Mahesh (or Max) looks injured as they r skipping this Madrid Master.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $100K+H Bordeaux Challenger, France (Red clay)

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (WC) Adrian Mannarino (FRA)/ Xavier Pujo (FRA)

This week Rohan and Aisam r playing in big Bordeaux Challenger in preparation for French Open.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Busab Challenger, Korea

[Q1] SHARAN Divij (IND,848) Walkover
[Q1] RAJA Purav (IND,961) bt LEE Chul-Hee (KOR,1089) 57 62 76(3)

[Q2] SHARAN Divij (IND,848) l NA Jung-Woong (KOR,UNR) 64 36 36
[Q2] RAJA Purav (IND,961) l (7) TAKEUCHI Kento (JPN,522) 46 64 26

[R1] VARDHAN Vishnu (IND,370) vs (WC) NAM Ji Sung (KOR,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] SHARAN Divij (IND)/ VARDHAN Vishnu (IND) vs (WC) JEONG Suk-Young (KOR)/ NAM Ji Sung (KOR)
[R1] (4) KADIR Sadik (AUS)/ RAJA Purav (IND) vs ITO Tatsuma (JPN)/ IWAMI Tasuku (JPN)

So good first round draw for Vishnu in singles and doubles as he is facing wild card local players.
--------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Zagreb Challenger, Croatia (Red clay)

[R1](5) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) vs Yuri Schukin (KAZ,197)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,255) vs Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP,119)

Doubles
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Roko Karanusic (CRO) vs Attila Balazs (HUN)/ David Savic (SRB)
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ryan Harrison (USA) vs (WC) Ilija Cuic (CRO)/ Kresimir Ritz (CRO)

Prakash having tough mtch and Somi having tricky match against Kazak player, who likes to play on the clay.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F5, New Delhi

Singles First Round
(1) Rik DE VOEST (RSA) Vs N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)
Xin-Yuan YU (CHN) VS (WC) Vaidik MUNSHAW (IND)
Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA) Vs (WC) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND)
(6) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) VS Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)
(3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) Vs (WC) Sai Kartik NAKIREDDI (IND)
(Q) Peng GAO (CHN) Vs (Q) Ronak MANUJA (IND)
(LL) Akash WAGH (IND) Vs Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA)
(5) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) VS Peerakit SIRIBUTWONG (THA)
(8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE) Vs Yannick NELORD (IND)
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) Vs (Q) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE)
(Q) Bowen OUYANG (CHN) VS (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND)
(4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) VS Yu CHANG (CHN)
(7) Karan RASTOGI (IND) Vs (Q) Sudanwa SITARAM (IND)
Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) Vs Vijayant MALIK (IND)
(Q) Wan GAO (CHN) Vs (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND)
(2) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) VS (Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND)

Doubles First Round
(1) GAJJAR (IND)/ INOYATOV (UZB) vs (WC) BISHT (IND)/ NAKIREDDI (IND)
CHANG (CHN)/ ZHOU (CHN) vs HUANG (TPE)/ OUYANG (CHN)
(3) DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) vs KANNAN (IND)/ PRASHANTH (IND)
MANUJA (IND)/ SITARAM (IND) vs (WC) ATHARE (IND)/ RAWAT (IND)
PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) vs MALIK (IND)/ NELORD (IND)
(4) VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ YU (CHN) vs SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA)
TIWARI (IND)/ WAGH (IND) vs (WC) ANAND (IND)/ SINGH (IND)
(2) SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) vs GAO (CHN)/ GAO (CHN)

Qualifying Final Round
(1) Peng GAO (CHN) bt Mansingh ATHARE (IND) 75 61
(2) Wan GAO (CHN) bt Kunal ANAND (IND) 63 62
(3) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND) 63 60
(4) Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt Cheng-Peng HSIEH (TPE) 57 62 63
(5) Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Shahbaaz KHAN (IND) 67(3) 60 63
(6) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Akash WAGH (IND) 63 62
(9) Sudanwa SITARAM (IND) bt (7) Zhuo-Qing ZHOU (CHN) 64 63
(8) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt (11) Kamala KANNAN (IND) 57 63 60

Qualifying First Round
(1) Peng GAO (CHN) bt Prateek GHOSH (IND) 60 60
Mansingh ATHARE (IND) bt Maninder SINGH (IND) 60 63
(2) Wan GAO (CHN) bt Prashant SAWANT (IND) 60 60
Kunal ANAND (IND) bt Vedant KAPOOR (IND) 63 64
(3) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE) bt Maxim KHOMUTOV (RUS) 60 61
Sidharth RAWAT (IND) bt Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA) 36 63 Retd
(4) Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt Dinesh Chandra SUYAL (IND) 60 60
Cheng-Peng HSIEH (TPE) bt I-Ta CHEN (TPE) 60 63
(5) Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Kelsey STEVENSON (CAN) 63 64
Shahbaaz KHAN (IND) bt Rakshay THAKKAR (IND) 76(5) 36 75
(6) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 62 76(3)
(10) Akash WAGH (IND) bt Aaditya TEWARI (IND) 60 62
(7) Zhuo-Qing ZHOU (CHN) bt Jitin BISHNOI (IND) 61 61
(9) Sudanwa SITARAM (IND) bt Bharat BHARDWAJ (IND) 62 61
(8) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Muddappa APPANERVANDA (IND) 61 61
(11) Kamala KANNAN (IND) bt Chetan PANDITI (IND) 75 62

Good decision by organisers to give wild cards to youngsters ... Also heartening to see our promising players qualified to maindraw ... I m thinking little ahead but mouth watering quarter-final between Yuki and Karan.

Formula One News
At Spanish GP, Barcelona

Adrian Sutil drove a great race for Force India to claim seventh after resisting huge pressure from Renault’s Robert Kubica after qualifying on eleventh position.

Karun was unlucky after mistake from Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari which ended his race.

As per report
Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari claimed a point at home despite a drive-through penalty for clobbering Karun Chandhok’s HRT in an odd accident in which the Spaniard passed the Indian but turned in well before he’d cleared his car. Chandhok subsequently lost his front wing but retired with associated damage after pitting for a replacement. With HRT’s Bruno Senna crashing in Turn Four on the opening lap, it wasn’t a great outing for the Spanish team.

Tennis News
At At $50K Savannah Challenger, GA, USA

[SF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) l Jamie Baker (GBR)/ James Ward (GBR) 64 67(5) 4-10

Another disappointing loss for Harsh and Treat in super tie-break after winning first set.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F4, Kolkata

Singles Final
(6) Karan RASTOGI (IND) l (5) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) 46 46

In first set Murad won on single break ... Karan had few break point chances but he failed to take ... In second set Murad was tired and Karan had 4-1 lead with break ... But Karan played very casual seventh game to lose it and in 9th game he started with 2 double faults to gave match on platter to Murad.

Karan was playing well but on important points he was making errors mostly from forehand side ... Other hand Murad was looking very solid with deep powerful shots but after he tired Karan lost the plot due to his casual game in last few games.

Chess News
At World Championship Match 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

Viswanathan Anand (2787) - Veselin Topalov (2805) 5-5

Game Ten - 7th May
Veselin Topalov (2805) - Viswanathan Anand (2787) ½-½

This time Anand chosen the Gruenfeld playing with the Black ... And had relatively easy draw after 60 moves considering last few games ... Anand would be happy with this result before rest day.

Topalov was also played cautiously as nobody wanted to make any mistake with three games r remaining ... Still he was pressing with White but Anand defended calmly without giving any chance to Topalov.

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Friday 7 May 2010
India bt Pakistan 4-2

Goal Scored - Sardar Singh (IND) 25' PC, Mandeep Antil (IND) 46', Gurbaj Singh (IND) 53', Tushar Khandekar (IND) 55' and Imran Muhammad (PAK) 37' PS, Kasif Ali (PAK) 67' PC

In this match also we had 6 penalty corners but scored from one on rebound, other hand Pakistan got 3 penalty corners ... As per report today we were excellent on passing and managed to penetrate Pakistan goal circle many times ... Overall improved performance but we need to score goals on penalty corners against top teams.

Tennis News
At $50K Savannah Challenger, GA, USA

[QF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Greg Jones (AUS)/ Jose (rubin) Statham (NZL) 26 64 10-7

[SF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Jamie Baker (GBR)/ James Ward (GBR)

Good comeback win by Harsh and Treat after losing first set easily.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $100K Ramat Hasharon Challenger, Israel

[QF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Harel Levy (ISR) l Amir Hadad (ISR)/ Stefan Koubek (AUT) 36 26

Surprising easy loss in quarters.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F4, Kolkata

Singles Semi Finals
(1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) l (5) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) 64 16 57
(6) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA) 63 62

Doubles Final
(2) SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt INOYATOV (UZB)/ NELORD (IND) 64 76(3)

Doubles Semi Finals
INOYATOV (UZB)/ NELORD (IND) bt CHANG (CHN)/ ZHOU (CHN) 63 36 10-6
(2) SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt (3) DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 64 67(2) 11-9

Karan scored comfortable win beating unseeded Thai player but Yuki got shocking defeat from Uzbek Davis cupper ... After winning first set Yuki lost focus and lost second set ... In third he was a break down but he broke back to make it 5-all ... Again Inoyatov broke him in 11th game and hold his service to win this match ... Disappointing performance by top-seed Yuki, may be lack of match practice can be the reason.

I m rooting for Karan to lift his first title after coming out of career threatening injury.

In doubles Vivek and Ashtosh lifted title.

Chess News
At World Championship Match 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

Viswanathan Anand (2787) - Veselin Topalov (2805) 4½-4½

Game Nine - 6th May
Viswanathan Anand (2787) - Veselin Topalov (2805) ½-½

Atlast some novelty in the game ... Today they started with the Nimzo!!!

They played safe game without any surprising move till 17 moves ... But Anand surprised with his 18 mives, Nh3 ... Topalov matched Anand's game making more complicated but he did mistake on 46th move with gxh5 ... But Anand missed opportunity on 62 move, he played Rc5+ instead of Rdd7 and Topalov take that small opportunity to draw this game ... In end 9 checks from Topalov to 3 repeat moves to offer draw.

Hurting draw for Anand, so now Topalov is in driving seat with 2 games he will start with white of 3 remaining games.

Game 9 moves
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 0-0 5. Bd3 c5 6. Nf3 d5 7. 0-0 cxd4 8. exd4 dxc4 9. Bxc4 b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11. Re1 Nbd7 12. Rc1 Rc8 13. Bd3 Re8 14. Qe2 Bxc3 15. bxc3 Qc7 16. Bh4 Nh5 17. Ng5 g6 18. Nh3 e5 19. f3 Qd6 20. Bf2 exd4 21. Qxe8+ Rxe8 22. Rxe8+ Nf8 23. cxd4 Nf6 24. Ree1 Ne6 25. Bc4 Bd5 26. Bg3 Qb4 27. Be5 Nd7 28. a3 Qa4 29. Bxd5 Nxe5 1 Rh7+30. Bxe6 Qxd4+ 31. Kh1 fxe6 32. Ng5 Qd6 33. Ne4 Qxa3 34. Rc3 Qb2 35. h4 b5 36. Rc8+ Kg7 37. Rc7+ Kf8 38. Ng5 Ke8 39. Rxh7 Qc3 40 Rh8+ Kd7 41. Rh7+ Kc6 42. Re4 b4 43. Nxe6 Kb6 44. Nf4 Qa1+ 45. Kh2 a5 46. h5 gxh5 47. Rxh5 Nc6 48 Nd5+ kb7 49. Rh7+ Ka6 50. Re6 Kb5 51. Rh5 Nd4 52. Nb6+ Ka6 53. Rd6 Kb7 54. Nc4 Nxf3+ 55. gxf3 Qa2+ 56. Nd2 Kc7 57. Rhd5 b3 58. Rd7+ Kc8 59. Rd8+ Kc7 60. R8d7+ Kc8 61. Rg7 a4 62. Rc5+ Kb8 63. Rd5 Kc8 64. Kg3 Qa1 65. Rg4 b2 66. Rc4+ Kb7 67. Kf2 b1=Q 68. Nxb1 Qxb1 69. Rdd4 Qa2+ 70. Kg3 a3 71. Rc3 Qa1 72. Rb4+ Ka6 73. Ra4+ Kb5 74. Rcxa3 Qg1+ 75. Kf4 Qc1+ 76. Kf5 Qc5+ 77. Ke4 Qc2+ 78. Ke3 Qc1+ 79. Kf2 Qd2+ 80. Kg3 Qe1+ 81. Kf4 Qc1+ 82. Kg3 Qg1+ 83. Kf4

Hockey News
At 2010 Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament, Ipoh, Malaysia

Thursday 6 May 2010
India dw China 1-1

Goal Scored - Ravi Pal Singh (IND) 70' and Sun Tianjun (CHN) 13'

In the start we were tentative and Chinese team take advatage of that scoring goal through their forward Sun Tianjun ... After that Indians started to play well but again poor finishing and not scoring on penalty corners hurt our side ... We had 5 penalty corners chances and only 2 conceded ... In end only 17 seconds were remaining when Ravi Pal Singh scored goal in chaose near Chinese post and helped his side to avoid defeat ... But not promising start from this young team.

Tennis News
At € 450,000 Estoril Open, Portugal

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (WC) Pedro Sousa (POR)/ Leonardo Tavares (POR) 46 67(2)

Lost against local wild-card pair .. In second set they were early break down but made mini comeback to take set in tie-break ... Local pair was too strong in tie-break.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Savannah Challenger, GA, USA

[QF] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Greg Jones (AUS)/ Jose (rubin) Statham (NZL)
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $100K Ramat Hasharon Challenger, Israel

[R1] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Harel Levy (ISR) bt Dudi Sela (ISR)/ Saar Steele (ISR) 63 62

[QF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Harel Levy (ISR) vs Amir Hadad (ISR)/ Stefan Koubek (AUT)

Nice easy victory for Kash and Levy.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F4, Kolkata

Singles Quarter Finals
(1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Xin-Yuan YU (CHN) 62 64
(5) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) bt (4) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 64 60
(6) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt (3) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) 61 75
Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA) bt (8) Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 63 63

Three times in a row Karan defeated Rohan in their last 3 meetings ... So good win for Karan and Yuki, they can make all Indian final.

Tennis News
At € 450,000 Estoril Open, Portugal

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (4) Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR) 26 63 10-5

Good comeback victory by Rohan and Aisam against seeded British pair and also nice to see small revenge by Rohan of his loss in singles qualifying against Colin Fleming.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F4, Kolkata

Singles Second Round
(1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 62 64
Xin-Yuan YU (CHN) bt (7) Yu CHANG (CHN) 63 61
(4) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) bt (WC) Akash WAGH (IND) 63 61
(5) Murad INOYATOV (UZB) bt (Q) Kamala KANNAN (IND) 61 60
(6) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt (Q) Sudanwa SITARAM (IND) 63 62
(3) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 63 75
(8) Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) bt Peng GAO (CHN) 76(1) 16 63
Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA) bt (Q) Wan GAO (CHN) 62 63

Doubles Quarter Finals
CHANG (CHN)/ ZHOU (CHN) bt GAO (CHN)/ YU (CHN) 64 63
INOYATOV (UZB)/ NELORD (IND) bt REDDY B (IND)/ SITARAM (IND) 61 64
(3) DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) bt PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) 62 64
(2) SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) Walkover

So only our 3 seeded players in semis ... Karan and Rohan r facing each other in quarters ... In doubles also our only one pair in semis and Nelord with his Uzbek partner ... So our other players failed to take advantage of weaker draw.

Hockey News
At 2010 Women's Hockey World Cup, Rosario, Argentina

Grouping is declared for 2010 women's hockey World Cup to be held in Argentina from Aug 29 to Sep 11 ... Indian women r in tough group with Olympic champions Netherlands, 2006 finalists Australia, Germany, New Zealand and Japan.

Pool A
The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, India

Pool B
Argentina, China, Spain, England, South Korea, South Africa

Chess News
At World Championship Match 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

Viswanathan Anand (2787) - Veselin Topalov (2805) 4-4

Game Eight - 4th May
Veselin Topalov (2805) - Viswanathan Anand (2787) 1-0

Again both side decided to play the Slav ... But Topalov was looking more prepared than Anand and played attacking chess with complication ... He kept Anand under pressure from middle of the game ... Anand needed to play with precision and hope Topalov made mistake somewhere but that never happened ... Topalov kept pressing and Anand resigned after 56 move.

Now advantage is clear with Topalov in this World Championship match ... After game 4, Topalov was under pressure mentally and emotionally ... As he lost 2 matches with Black after winning opening game ... But after holding the first Black game (in game 6) with ease, he went all out for the win with Black in game 7 ... So even though Topalov is down by 1 point, he was slowly gaining momentum and most importantly, his self confidence ... Now tough situation for Anand as he knows that Topalov having ability of finishing strong.

Boxing News
At AIBA Youth World Championships 2010, Baku, Azerbaijan

Krishan Vikas created history winning Gold medal at Youth World Championships beating Lithuanian boxer in closely fought final bout ... He recently won Asian Youth Championship so showed his performance there wasn't fluke ... Shiva Thapa also reached the final but Cuban boxer was too strong for him in the final ... So good result for Indians as they won one Gold and one Silver.


After reaching in semi-finals both boxers already secured place in first-ever Youth Olympics which be held in Singapore in August.

Lightweight (57–60 kgs)
[R1] Krishan VIKAS (IND) bt Hamidreza ROOMIANI (IRI) 8-0
[R2] Krishan VIKAS (IND) bt Patrik RAJCSANYI (SVK) 7-0
[R3] Krishan VIKAS (IND) bt Eduards GUTMANS (LAT) 8-3
[QF] Krishan VIKAS (IND) bt Michael O' REILLY (IRL) 8-0
[SF] Krishan VIKAS (IND) bt Thomas VAHRENHOLT(GER) 8-0
[F] Krishan VIKAS (IND) bt Evaldas PETRAUSKAS (LTU) 4-3

Bantamweight (52-54 kgs)
[R1] Shiva THAPA (IND) bt Qais Dad ASHFAQ (ENG) 4-1
[R2] Shiva THAPA (IND) bt Rejen Raza ABDULRAHMAN (SWE)11-0
[QF] Shiva THAPA (IND) bt Vadim SEMIN (RUS) 13-3
[SF] Shiva THAPA (IND) bt Alexandru MARIN (ROU) 10-3
[F] Shiva THAPA (IND) l Robeisy Eloy RAMIREZ CARRAZANA (CUB) 1-14

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round XXIV

Churchill Brothers bt Mohun Bagan 4-0

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 20' & 52', Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 26', Obga Kalu Nanna (CB) 32'

Churchill thrashed Mohun Bagan giving solid performance.
------------------------------------------

Salgaocar SC bt Mumbai FC 1-0

Goal Scored - Ekene Ikenwa (SSC) 15'

Salgaocar scored huge victory in their bid of avoiding relegation.
-----------------------------------------

Dempo SC bt Air India 2-0

Goal Scored - Joaquim Abranches (DSC) 63', Ranty Martins (DSC) 67'P

Dempo scored win over Air men and now only a point away from officially getting declare winner of 2009-10 I-League Champion.
-----------------------------------------

Sporting Clube de Goa bt Mahindra United 3-2

Goal Scored - Nathaniel Amos (SCG) 37', Elijah Junior (SCG) 75', Adil Khan (SCG) 81' and Sushil Kumar Singh (MU) 22'P, Mohammed Rafi (MU) 43'

Sporting Clube de Goa is in scintillating form in last period of I-League, today they scored upset win over Mahindra United, whose players must be low of confidence after hearing closure of club at end of the season.
-----------------------------------------

East Bengal bt Chirag United 2-1

Goal Scored - Beingaichho Beokhokhai (EB) 31' & 67' and Jisimar Da Silva Martins (CU) 69'

East Bengal also scored much needed victory.
-----------------------------------------

Viva Kerala bt Shillong Lajong FC 2-1

Goal Scored - Rahul. P (VK) 35', Sabeeth CS (VK) 53' and James Giblee (SL) 55'

Viva scored important win over Shillong.
-----------------------------------------

Pune FC bt JCT Mills FC 2-0

Goal Scored - Edmar Figueira (PFC) 10', Arata Izumi (PFC) 45'

Pune FC scored two goals in the first-half to scored victory and moved to 4th position on the standing.