Tennis News
At Davis Cup World Group Play-Off 2010, Chennai, India

India bt Brazil 3-2

Day 3
[R4] Somdev Devvarman (IND,113) bt Thomaz Bellucci (BRA,27) 76(3) 4-0
[R5] Rohan Bopanna (IND,479) bt Ricardo Mello (BRA,75) 63 76(2) 63

Bellucci was serving solidly from the start and holding his serve easily ... Other hand Somi served percentage serving and holding his serves without much problem ... In 9th game Somi had 4 break point chances but he failed to convert ... In tie-break Somi started with mini-break then Bellucci take mini-break back to 2-1 but Somi broke Bellucci's serve twice to to take 5-1 lead ... And comfortably won tie-break ... In second set Somi broke Bellucci's serve in 2nd game ... At 3-0 Bellucci take medical break for his left shoulder ... He played next game and Somi again broke him to take 4-0 lead ... Bellucci decided to retired from the match and gave tie to Somi.

Somi played excellent in this match ... He kept Bellucci on the baseline moving around him from one corner to another ... Bellucci tired playing running around the court and that affected his game ... Now this win give amazing opportunity to India to complete comeback win against Brazil.

Rohan take early break against Ricardo Mello and kept that break to won first set ... As usual Rohan's service was working in this set ... Ricardo Mello serving well after losing his serve early in the first set ... In second set Rohan was struggling with his first serve, he had couple of break points on Mello's serve but failed to convert it ... At 4-5 Rohan saved couple of set points from 15-40 down and then in tie-break he controlled from the start to take 2-0 lead ... In third set Rohan broke Mello's serve in 4th game with some nice shots and volley to take 3-1 lead ... Rohan saved couple of break points to keep his break ... On 8th game Rohan had couple of match points but he failed to convert it ... But he converted 3rd match point to complete victory for him and India ... And with that we qualify for World group again.

This is our first victory for coming down from 0-2 deficit ... All players gave their best in this victory and what one can say about Leander, after the match he carries Roahn all around the court at age of 37 yrs.

Rohan Bopanna - For his part Bopanna said that despite playing the decisive rubber, he felt no pressure. “I had decided that I would go ahead and play my game.”

Somdev Devvarman - Devvarman said that he “didn’t see it coming”, referring to Bellucci conceding the match. However, he admitted that he had tried to make the points as long as possible and it was a strategy that worked. Referring to the 11.30 start, Devvarman said it was, “a team decision and a good call to start the matches at this time. I was happy to see the sun out this morning.” The Indian ace confirmed that he had recovered fully from Friday’s five set match against Bellucci. “I ate well, slept well and had my massages and was feeling good. This is the best team effort I have been part of.”

Mahesh Bhupathi - “We are back where we belong.”
From Davis cup site
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $220K Guangzhou International Women's Open, Guangzhou, China

Doubles Final
Sania Mirza (IND)/ Edina Gallovits (ROU) bt Xinyun Han (CHN)/ Wanting Liu (CHN) 75 63

Sania and Edina won first set but were early break down in second set ... They were down 1-3 in second set but then won next 5 games to complete victory against local pair ... So after long time Sania lifting WTA doubles title ... Congrats Sania, she is truly coming back to her game which we missed for last couple of years.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $220K Tashkent Open, Uzbekistan

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,129) vs Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS,175)

Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Maria Elena Camerin (ITA) vs Lyudmyla Kichenok (UKR)/ Nadiya Kichenok (UKR)

In singles Sania climb inside top-130 and in doubles she is back inside top-70 after Guangzhou International Women's Open.

This week Sania is having Italian partner Maria Elena Camerin in doubles and they r facing 18 yrs old Kichenok twins in the first round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Izmir Cup 2010, Turkey

[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,113) vs (WC) Tuna Altuna (TUR,965)

Doubles
[R1] Sadik Kadir (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Theodoros Angelinos (GRE)

Somdev is not taking break this week, so less time to celebrate famous Davis cup play-off comeback victory against Brazil.

This week he is playingTurkish challenger ... He is 2nd seed and facing local wild-card opponent ... In doubles he is partnering Greece player but facing tough match against Purav and Sadik.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75k Trnava Challenger, Slovakia (clay)

[R1] (2) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Guillermo Olaso (ESP) vs (WC) Michal Konecny (CZE)/ Radim Urbanek (CZE)

This week Harsh is playing at Slovakian challenger and having good Spanish partner ... They r 2nd seed and facing local wild-card pair in the first round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K+H Bangkok-2 Challenger, Thailand

[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,526) bt (7) Ze Zhang (CHN,296) 76(8) 64

[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,526) l (4) Frederik Nielsen (DEN,269) 67(2) 26

Doubles
[SF] Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Thiago Alves (BRA) vs Alex Bogomolov Jr (USA)/ Evgeny Kirillov (RUS)

Good win against top-300 Chinese player ... But Yuki lost in the final qualifying, though Yuki managed to take experienced Frederik Nielsen to tie-break into first set but couldn't produce much fight in second set.

This week he is partnering Brazilian Thiago Alves, so he is getting good doubles partner in these challengers.-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K France F15 Futures, Plaisir

[R1] (4) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) vs Qualifier

Doubles
[R1] GRAMMARE (FRA)/ SINGH (IND) vs HAMARD (FRA)/ VENTURINO (FRA)
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K Australia F7 Futures, Alice Springs

[R1] (4) Karan Rastogi (IND,460) vs Andrew Thomas (AUS,1021)

This week also Karan is 4th seed and only playing in singles.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Uganda F1 Futures 2010, Kampala (clay)

[R1] Vijayant MALIK (IND,880) vs Mauricio ALVAREZ-GUZMAN (CHI,1095)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,1245) vs (Q) Mark FYNN (ZIM,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] MALIK (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) vs MELZER (AUT)/ SAFWAT (EGY)
[R1] ENOSOREGBE (NGR)/ MANUJA (IND) vs (3) FILENKOV (RUS)/ VOVK (RUS)

This week Rupesh must be decide to take care of the ear infection so missing from the action at Kampala.