Tennis News
At Chennai Open 2012, India

Qualifying Second Round
Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) bt Joao SOUSA (POR) 64 61
(8) Rik DE VOEST (RSA) bt Treat Conrad HUEY (PHI) 63 64
(2) Edouard ROGER-VASSELIN (FRA) bt Dusan LAJOVIC (SRB) 76(1) 62
(5) Go SOEDA (JPN) bt Rohan BOPANNA (IND) 76(2) 76(2)
(3) Izak VAN DER MERWE (RSA) bt Inigo CERVANTES-HUEGUN (ESP) 64 75
Thiemo DE BAKKER (NED) bt Juan Sebastian CABAL (COL) 61 63
(4) Vasek POSPISIL (CAN) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND) 63 62
(8) Rajeev RAM (USA) bt (WC) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) 63 76(3)

Qualifying First Round
Joao SOUSA (POR) bt (1) Stephane ROBERT (FRA) 46 62 76(8)
Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) bt Jimmy WANG (TPE) 64 36 63
Treat Conrad HUEY (PHI) bt (WC) Akash WAGH (IND) 62 64
(8) Rik DE VOEST (RSA) bt (WC) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 60 64
(2) Edouard ROGER-VASSELIN (FRA) bt Alexander KUDRYAVTSEV (RUS) 63 36 4-2 Retd
Dusan LAJOVIC (SRB) bt Sanam SINGH (IND) 46 64 63
Rohan BOPANNA (IND) bt N Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 63 Retd
(5) Go SOEDA (JPN) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 61 63
(3) Izak VAN DER MERWE (RSA) bt Jamie BAKER (GBR) 26 75 64
Inigo CERVANTES-HUEGUN (ESP) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 61 75
Juan Sebastian CABAL (COL) bt (WC) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND) 60 60
Thiemo DE BAKKER (NED) bt (7) Arnau BRUGUES-DAVI (ESP) 75 76(5)
(4) Vasek POSPISIL (CAN) bt Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 76(6) 76(7)
Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 62 62
(WC) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) bt Karan RASTOGI (IND) 61 63
(8) Rajeev RAM (USA) bt N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) 75 64

Though Jeevan lost 76(6) 76(7) still heartening fighting performance by him in this 2 and 1/2 hrs match against #119 ranked young Canadian big server Pospisil ... In the second set he saved 7 match points ... Other hand poor start of season for Karan and Ramkumar.
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At $220K ASB Classic, Auckland, New Zealand

[Q1] Sania Mirza (IND,104) l Coco Vandeweghe (USA,122) 61 57 36

Doubles
[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs (WC) Marina Erakovic (NZL)/ Rebecca Marino (CAN)


Sania should have won this qualifying match as after winning the first set, she was leading with break 4-3 and 40-30 on her serve before losing it ... This was her first match after injury break so she performed ok but another missed opportunities for her.

Good to see Sania and Vesnina is starting year together.

Tennis News
At $450K Chennai Open 2012 , India

Singles wild-crad went to Vishnu Vardhan and Yuki Bhambri, I think who r deserving candidates for wild-card so kudos to organizers foe selecting them ... Also in a way it is good for Karan that he is playing in qualies, will boost his confidence after winning these matches.

Last year David Goffin qualified for the tournament and defeated Sommy very easily, 62 64 ... In the second round he lost against Stanislas Wawrinka in 2 tie-breaks ... So fair enough that IMG decided to give their wild-card to him.

In doubles Jeevan and Balaji r receiving one of the doubles wild-card ... Hoping second will be given to Purav and Divij.

In singles this time Somdev Devvarman is having direct entry with his current ranking ... In doubles our new pairing Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna will start their 2012 season with this tournament ... Other hand Leander Paes is partnering Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the doubles draw but after that Lee is partnering Czech Radek Stepanek on the tour in season 2012.
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At the Asia/Oceania zone Group II, Shenzhen, China

Indian Fed Team - Sania Mirza, Rutuja Bhonsle, Isha Lakhani and Prerna Bhambri
Captain - Rohit Rajpal
Coach - Enrico Piperno

AITA announced Fed Cup team for the Asia/Oceania zone Group II which will be held in Shenzhen, China from January 30 to February 4, 2012 ... They removed Poojashree Venkatesha, Rushmi Chakravarthy and Aishwarya Srivastava from last year's team and included national champion Rutuja Bhonsle, Isha Lakhani and Prerna Bhambri in the four-member squad.

Surprised to see Isha's selection considering these days she is not regular on the tour and more having interest in coaching.

Squash News
At $16K Crocodile Challenge Cup 2011, Hong Kong

[F] (3) Dipika Pallikal (IND,17) bt (4) Joey Chan (HKG,20) 10-12 11-8 10-12 11-8 14-12 (60m)

[SF] (3) Dipika Pallikal (IND,17) bt (2) Sarah Kippax (ENG,16) 11-6 11-3 11-6 (29m)
[QF] (3) Dipika Pallikal (IND,17) bt (5) Siti Munirah Jusoh (MAS,42) 11-5 11-6 11-1 (21m)
[R1] (3) Dipika Pallikal (IND,17) bt Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG,68) 11-7 11-5 6-11 11-3 (35m)

Dipika won her 5th WISPA title and her third of the year winning Crocodile cup in Hong Kong ... In the final Dipika had a very close match with local WR #20 Joey ... Joey take 2-1 sets lead winning 2 sets in extra points ... Dipika won the fourth game but Joey had advantage in the fifth ... She take 7-4 lead before Dipika fought back and after saving match balls Dipika won this decider set in tie-break to complete memorable victory.

Dipika Pallikal - "I am so glad that I could end the year on a high. I think what made the difference is that I had my coach Sarah Fitz-Gerald with me during this tournament. Getting her to travel with me will help me a lot. I hope I get more sponsor support so that I have my coach traveling with me during tournaments."

"Beating Sarah on Saturday just got my confidence up cause she's a very experienced player. I had to use the front court a bit more because I felt I would get most of my points there and the plan worked. Playing Joey (Chan) in the final was always going to be tough. Playing front of home crowd gave her a lot of confidence. I am so happy to win this tournament and it will hopefully help me get up a few places in the rankings."

"I am confident of beginning the next season on a good note. As for now, it is holiday time and two weeks I will spend time with family and friends. The new season starts in the second week of January."

Badminton News
At $500K Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011, Liu Zhou, China

Final
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) l Yihan Wang (CHN,1) 21-18 13-21 13-21

Saina started positively and won well fought first game ... Yihan changed tactics from the second game and she pushed Saina back of the court ... Yihan also managed to keep shuttle backhand of Saina ... Saina made numerous errors from back of the court and from backhands which helped Yihan to completed victory in 71 minutes ... Last 2 games Yihan domianted with her smart and all court game.

Through creditable performance by Saina but she still need to learn how to change her game or plan as per match progression.

Badminton News
At $500K Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011, Liu Zhou, China

Semi Finals
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Tine Baun (DEN,5) 21-17 21-18
Yihan Wang (CHN,1) bt Xin Wang (CHN,3) 21-19 21-16

Final
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Yihan Wang (CHN,1)

Good win by Saina against experienced Tine, who had 3-1 win-loss record against Saina before this match and who defeated her in their last meeting ... In this match from the start Saina played very controlled game against Tine ... Other hand Tine was trying too many things on the court ... Surprisingly Tine made too many errors on service returns and on her forehands ... Saina played some excellent half-smashes and she was good near net ... Saina managed to pull errors from Tine's racquet from back of the court with her smart game ... Saina will play her first final of BWF World Superseries Finals ... In the final she will face WR #1 Yihan Wang, who defeated other Wang comfortably in the semis.

Badminton News
At $500K Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011, Liu Zhou, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Xin Wang (CHN,3) 21-17 22-20
Sayaka Sato (JPN,15) bt Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9) 18-21 21-17 21-15

Semi Finals
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Tine Baun (DEN,5)
Yihan Wang (CHN,1) vs Xin Wang (CHN,3)

Saina started with winning the first game ... In the second game Saina take early couple of points lead which she maintained until 19-16 but Wang won next 4 points to lead 20-19 ... Saina saved a game point and won next 2 points to complete straight games victory over Wang in 39 minutes ... With this win Saina topped the Group B and will face Tine in the semis.

Big moral boosting win for Saina against WR #3 Wang .. Also one non-Chinese finalist is assured, hopefully Saina ... :-)

Badminton News
At $500K Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011, Liu Zhou, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Sayaka Sato (JPN,15) 21-16 21-13
Xin Wang (CHN,3) bt Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9) 21-8 13-21 21-13

In the first game Sayaka take early leand and was leading 12-8 ... Saina fought back winning next 6 points and then won 5 points in a row from 16-all to won the first game ... In the second game Sania won 8 points in a row from 4-all to take commanding lead ... Sayaka saved 2 match points but in the end lead was too much for her ... Saina completed win in 37 minutes.

Good win considering this year Saina struggled against Japanese opponents ... So with this second win Saina confirm her place in the semis ... Now she will face local girl Xin Wang for final group standing.

Badminton News
At $500K Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011, Liu Zhou, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9) 21-14 17-21 21-14
Xin Wang (CHN,3) bt Sayaka Sato (JPN,15) 21-7 21-9

Saina needed 3 games to score win against Korean, who stretched her after losing the first game ... In other match of the group Wang demolished challenge of Sato very easily.

Badminton News
At $500K Li Ning BWF World Superseries Finals 2011, Liu Zhou, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9)

As expected Saina is qualified for World Superseries Finals ... She is in Group B with Xin Wang (CHN,3), Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9) and Sayaka Sato (JPN,15) ... So good opportunity of qualifying for semis and earn important ranking points in this year-end event.

At 2011 SAFF Championship, New Delhi, India

Final
India bt Afghanistan 4-0

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (IND) 71' P, Clifford Miranda (IND) 79', Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 80', SushilKumar Singh (IND) 90+'


In end comfortable win for defending champion but Afghans dominated first 70 minutes before Afghanistan’s goal-keeper Hameedullah Yousefzari was sent-off under questionable circumstances, when he pushed the refree ... Indians received penalty which Sunil Chhetri converted and goals from Clifford Miranda, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Sushil Singh sealed the victory for us.

Football News
At 2011 SAFF Championship, New Delhi, India

Semi Finals
India bt Maldives 3-1

Goal Scored - Syed Rahim Nabi (IND) 24′, Sunil Chhetri (IND) 70' P and 90+' and Shamweel Qasim (MDV) 60'

Afghanistan bt Nepal 1-0 ET (0-0)

India defeated Maldives after brace from Sunil Chhetri in the second half to entered their 8th SAFF champions final ... In the final they will face surprised package of the tournament, Afghanistan, who upset Nepal in extra-time.

Sunil’s spot-kick turned the tie in India's favor after Shamweel Qasim had cancelled out Syed Rahim Nabi’s first half goal ... In this match India played well ... They were positive on the field ... Syed Nabi scored opening goal on Clifford Miranda’s free-kick to gave 1-0 lead to India at half-time ... Maldives had couple of chance in late of the first half but failed to convert due to tight defending by Indians ... In the second half Maldives were attacking from the start and they managed to equalized through Qasim ... India were lucky to earned penalty as referee Timur Faizullin penalized Afghan when Mohamed Umair pulled down Chhetri in the box ... Sunil converted it confidently ... Sunil added another in injury time after receiving pass from Jeje to complete comfortable win.

Football News
At 2011 SAFF Championship, New Delhi, India

Group C
India bt Sri Lanka 3-0

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 50', Sunil Chhetri (IND) 70', A.B. Warakagoda (SRI) 90+' OG

Indians scored comfortable win after held goalless in the first half ... Our both strikers scored in the second half and third goal was own goal by Warakagoda on Clifford Miranda's cross.

But this win didn't give top spot for Indian team as this tournament's surprising package young Afghan side hammered Bhutan 8-1 to grab top spot ... In the semis India is facing Maldives anf Afghanistan is facing Nepal.

Football News
At 2011 SAFF Championship, New Delhi, India

Group C
India bt Bhutan 5-0

Goal Scored - Syed Rahim Nabi (IND) 29', Clifford Miranda (IND) 44' and 58', Sunil Chhetri (IND) 69' and 84'

Afghanistan bt Sri Lanka 3-1

Expected one-sided win for Indians against Bhutan ... Now in the final match against Sri Lanka they need to win to top this group.

Hockey News
At FIH Champions Challenge 1 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

Final
India l Belgium 3-4

Goal Scored - RV Raghunath (IND) 23' PC, Sandeep Singh (IND) 40' PC, Shivendra Singh (IND) 54' and Jerome Dekeyser (BEL) 44' and 57', Gauthier Boccard (BEL) 55', Tom Boon (BEL) 70'

Again Indian defense let down and India lost final against Belgium after leading 3-1 ... Indians started well and were attacking also defending well ... Raghunath converted 1st penalty corner to gave lead which we hold until half-time ... In the second half also we were controlling ... In 40th minute Sandeep Singh converted 4th penalty corner to nscored his 7th goal of the tournament ... Belgium scored through mistake from our defense in 44th minute but Shivendra Singh scored excellent solo goal in 54th minute to gave 3-1 lead ... Immediately Raghnuath did unnecessarily hard tackle and got yellow card ... Belgium take full advantage of the situation and scored 2 goal in 3 minutes to make it 3-all ... After that next few minutes we were living dangerously as our defense was non-existent ... In 68th minute Yuvraj failed to hit in open goal and when 40 seconds were remaining on the clock then Belgium scored 4th field goal due to another defense lapse by Indians ... That was enough for them to complete amazing comeback to win the title and book next edition's Champions trophy ticket.

Nobbs need to work on our defense and habit of receiving goals in dying moments ... There are lot of scope to improve before crucial Olympics qualifier in February ... In the final last 15 minutes after Raghunath's yellow card cost us match with very poor defending.

Hockey News
At FIH Champions Challenge 1 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

Semi Final
India bt South Africa 4-2

Goal Scored - RV Raghunath (IND) 14' PC, Sarvanjit Singh (IND) 40', Sandeep Singh (IND) 45' PC and 50' PC and Marvin Harper (RSA) 8', Thronton McDade (RSA) 22'

India entered into the final in this FIH Champions Challenge ... In the final they r facing Belgium, who defeated Argentina on penalty shoot-out, winner of the final will be qualify for next edition of Champions trophy.

India started slowly and South African take advantage of it ... Harper gave lead to Africanss with excellent field goal ... Raghunath made it 1-all through penalty corner but Indians were looking dull on the field ... South Africans again take lead through goal from McDade ... This half was belong to Africans, who were leading 2-1 ... But in the second half we were different team ... Our players were looking sharp and egar on the field ... Sarvanjit scored excellent field goal with showing excellent passing by our team ... Then Sandeep Singh converted 2 trade-mark penalty corners to gave lead to us ... In this half we displayed our best defensive skill in the tournament.

Tennis News
At $10K F12 India Futures, Kolkata (clay)

Singles Final
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,661) bt N. Sriram Balaji (IND,1016) 62 61

Jeevan lifted his 2nd ITF futures title in 4 weeks ... 2 weeks back he lifted $15K title in Pune and today he lifted this $10K title at Kolkata scoring very dominating win.

Balaji started positively, taking early break he take 2-0 lead but after that it was one-way traffic of Jeevan ... He won 12 games from next 13 games played and in that he won the first set winning 6 games in a row ... Jeevan gave very tough lesson to Balaji in this match.

With this win Jeevan will rise to around 550 in ATP ranking playing just 5 tournaments after his US college ... Good foundation for 2012 season.

Football News
At 2011 SAFF Championship, New Delhi, India

Group A – India (160), Sri Lanka (177), Afghanistan (184), Bhutan (199)
Group B – Bangladesh (141), Nepal (144), Maldives (162), Pakistan (173)

Group A
India dw Afghanistan 1-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (IND) 10' and Belal Arezou (AFG) 5'

Defending champion India have been grouped alongside last edition’s semi-finalist Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bhutan.

In another group, the highest ranked nation in the competition – Bangladesh have been grouped with last season’s finalists Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan.

Indians had disappointing start against lowly ranked Afghans ... Afghanistan take early lead through Arezou nut Chhetri managed to equalize through header ... After that game played in mid-field.

Tennis News
At $10K F12 India Futures, Kolkata

[SF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,661) bt (4) Karunuday Singh (IND,662) 64 61
[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,1016) bt (3) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,616) 62 61

Doubles Final
(2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 63 46 10-3

Balaji in the line of double after winning doubles title with Kaza ... In the singles final he is facing in-form Jeevan.

In the semis Balaji scored very dominating win over Vijay Sundar ... Jeevan also dominated against Karunuday ... Interesting match to watch.

Hockey News
At FIH Champions Challenge 1 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

Quarter Final
India bt Malaysia 5-4 (ET) (4-4)

Goal Scored - Sandeep Singh (IND) 6' PC and 24' PC, Yuvraj Walmiki (IND) 63', SV Sunil (IND) 67' PC, VR Raghunath (IND) 85' PC and Izwan Firdaus Ahmad Tajuddin (MAS) 33', Azlan Misron (MAS) 42' and 57' PC, Tengku Ahmad Tajuddin (MAS) 46'

Indians started well and they were attacking ... Sandeep Singh converted both penalty corners to gave India 2-0 lead after 25th minutes but Malaysians kept trying ... Indian defense cracked under their pressure in 33rd minute ... At half-time we were leading 2-1 but in the second-half Malaysians showed more commitment and urgency on the field ... They scored another field goal in 42nd to make it 2-all ... Poor defending cost India 3rd goal from Tengku and gave lead to Malaysia which they increased after converting in-direct penalty corner in 52nd minute ... Malaysians were controlling the match and Sreejesh did some excellent goal-keeping in that period ... Indians kept cool and kept pushing forward .... Yuvraj scored excellent opportunist field goal and then immediately Sunil scored goal on rebound on Sandeep Singh's penalty corner ... Match ended on 4-all.

In extra-time Malaysian started positively ... Malaysia wasted 2 goal scoring opportunities when they were one-on-one position with goalkeeper PR Sreejesh but failed to utilize that in the first half ... Malaysia wasted another goal scoring opportunity with penalty corner in the second half ... India earned penalty corner when 20 seconds were remaining and Raghunath converted it to complete Indian victory in golden goal ... India r in the semis.

Tomorrow in the semis India will play against host South Africa, who they defeated 7-4 in entertaining group match ... In other semis Argentina will play Belgium for place in the final.

Tennis News
At $10K F12 India Futures, Kolkata

[QF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,661) bt (1) Junn MItsuhashi (JPN,376) 5-1 Retd
[QF] (4) Karunuday Singh (IND,662) bt (7) Mate Pavic (CRO,909) 64 63
[QF] (3) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,616) bt (6) Jaime Pulgar-Garcia (ESP,883) 75 63
[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,1016) bt PC Vignesh (IND,1003) 61 64

Doubles
[QF] PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ WAGH (IND) bt (4) MANUJA (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 26 75 12-10

[SF] (3) NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ PRASHANTH (IND) bt (1) PAVIC (CRO)/ PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP) 61 75
[SF] (2) BALAJI (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) bt PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ WAGH (IND) 76(9) 62

Great, guaranteed another title for Indian ... :) This 4 weeks of futures turn into memorable one ... Kudos to Indian players for taking advantage of it.

Junn retired from his match after double break down against Jeevan ... Karunuday scored good straight sets win over Croatian ... Balaji scored comfortable win over Vignesh to book his match against Vijay Sundar, who scored straight sets win over Spanish player.

Interesting singles semi-finals ... The first between doubles partners and the second between Balaji and Vijay Sundar.

Tennis News
At $10K F12 India Futures, Kolkata

[R2] (1) Junn MItsuhashi (JPN,376) bt Chandril Sood (IND,1743) 63 46 61
[R2] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,661) bt (5) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,810) 62 61
[R2] (4) Karunuday Singh (IND,662) bt Akash Wagh (IND,1338) 16 61 62
[R2] (7) Mate Pavic (CRO,909) bt (WC) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1460) 61 26 64
[R2] (6) Jaime Pulgar-Garcia (ESP,883) bt (Q) Hasier Pastor (ESP,UNR) 62 60
[R2] (3) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,616) bt (Q) Andre Gaspar Murta (POR,UNR) 64 61
[R2] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,1016) bt (8) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,930) 61 36 62
[R2] PC Vignesh (IND,1003) bt (2) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,535) 76(5) 26 60

Doubles Quarter Finals
(1) PAVIC (CRO)/ PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP) bt MAHESHWARI (IND)/ TIWARI (IND) 75 60
(3) NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ PRASHANTH (IND) bt JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ SIPAEYA (IND) 64 62
PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ WAGH (IND) bt (4) MANUJA (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 62 4-4 (match abandoned)
(2) BALAJI (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) bt ANAND (IND)/ THAKKAR (IND) 67(5) 63 10-7

Superb dominated win by Jeevan which was expected ... Vignesh scored huge upset beating 2nd seed Ranjeet but I think some fitness issue with Ranjeet as he struggled with fitness in Pune also ... Balaji scored another win over young Ramkumar and having good chance to go deep in this futures.

Hockey News
At FIH Champions Challenge 1 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

India bt Poland 7-0
Goal Scored - Yuvraj Walmiki (IND) 18', Shivendra Singh (IND) 24' and 33', SV Sunil (IND) 43', Birendra Lakra (IND) 53', Tushar Khandker (IND) 55' and 70'

I would say today Poland played poorly rather than we played well ... Poland played with lack of enthusiasm, they didn't intercept Indian passing and defended poorly ... They failed to take couple of chances ... Other hand we had numerous chances, our forward line missed too many, mainly Yuvraj ... But today we were lucky to play against Polish team otherwise this scoreline wasn't the same.

As usual our defending was poor but I surprised by Polish side ... Generally they play decent hockey but here they r looking mess, who r not doing single basic thing correctly ... May be Polish team is here with their youngsters and giving chance to them before Olympics qualifier but avoid giving any their strategy which they will use in qualifier.

With this big win we topped the group as Belgium managed only 2-1 victory against South Africa ... In quarters we r going to face our recent nemesis young Malaysian side, who r struggling in this tournament.

Football News
At FIFA International Friendly 2011, Goa, India

India vs Zambia 0-5
Goal Scored - Jimmy Chisenga (ZAM) 14', Sitali Mushumba (ZAM) 55', Musakanya Bwalya (ZAM) 69', 72' and 90'

Today Indians played without their regular strikers Sunil Chhetri and Jeje Lalpekhlua, as they are currently attending their trials with Rangers FC in Glasgow.

Zambians scored a goal in 14th minute through solo effort from Jimmy Chisenga to lead at half-time ... They scored second goal immediately in the second half when Sitali Mushumba scored in 55th minute with pass from Kangwa Evans ... After that Zambian side was playing in our half only ... Musakanya Bwalya scored 2 more goals in 4 minutes, first scored header on corner kick in 69 minutes and second scored after mistake from Gouramangi Singh in 72 minutes ... Musakanya Bwalya completed his hat-trick after scoring another goal in 90th minute when received cross from Sitali Mushumba.

Frankly turned out one-sided match where nothing positive to take from this match ... Though our players had couple of good chances of scoring but usual poor defending by our defenders and goal-keeper Karanjit Singh.

At $10K F12 India Futures, Kolkata

[R1] (1) Junn MItsuhashi (JPN,376) bt (Q) Rajat Maheswari (IND,UNR) 63 61
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND,1743) bt (Q) Abilash Srivastava (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,661) bt Vignesh Veerabhadran (IND,1625) 61 63
[R1] (5) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,810) bt (WC) Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) 64 46 64
[R1] (4) Karunuday Singh (IND,662) bt (Q) Arpit Sharma (IND,UNR) 76(3) 61
[R1] Akash Wagh (IND,1338) bt (Q) Yokesh Pagat (IND,UNR) 57 64 60
[R1] (WC) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1460) bt Keita Koyama (JPN,1344) 61 63
[R1] (7) Mate Pavic (CRO,909) bt Saurabh Patil (IND,1625) 61 61
[R1] (6) Jaime Pulgar-Garcia (ESP,883) bt (WC) Kunal Anand (IND,1866) 76(3) 46 63
[R1] (Q) Hasier Pastor (ESP,UNR) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1327) 63 62
[R1] (Q) Andre Gaspar Murta (POR,UNR) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1414) 26 60 62
[R1] (3) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,616) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,1159) 36 63 63
[R1] (8) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,930) bt (LL) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1625) 62 63
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,1016) bt (WC) Ajai Selvaraj (IND,UNR) 62 36 60
[R1] PC Vignesh (IND,1003) bt (Q) Ronak Manuja (IND,UNR) 26 64 62
[R1] (2) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,535) bt (Q) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) 63 62

Doubles First Round
(1) PAVIC (CRO)/ PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP) bt ANTONY (IND)/ ELANGOVAN (IND) 64 60
MAHESHWARI (IND)/ TIWARI (IND) bt (WC) PHOGAT (IND)/ RAJPUT (IND) 61 63
(3) NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ PRASHANTH (IND) bt GASPAR MURTA (POR)/ GROTEMEYER (USA) 61 46 10-5
JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ SIPAEYA (IND) bt RAMANATHAN (IND)/ RUIZ-CADENAS (ESP) 61 64
PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ WAGH (IND) bt PATIL (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) 63 62
(4) MANUJA (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt KHAN (IND)/ VEERABADRAN (IND) 63 62
ANAND (IND)/ THAKKAR (IND) bt (WC) MOHAMMED (IND)/ SELVARAJ (IND) 76(4) 62
(2) BALAJI (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) bt (WC) SOOD (IND)/ SOOD (IND) 64 63

Happy to see Ramkumar and Sunil earned their first point of the Indian futures ... Interesting match on clay for Ramkumar and Balaji in the second round.

Mohit Mayur lost opportunity of upsetting Vijay Sundar ... In decider he was up 3-1 before losing 5 games in a row.

Abhijeet Tiwari and Neeraj Elangovan lost against un-ranked European qualifiers ... But good to see Akash managed to grab a point beating qualifier ... Otherwise expected results.

Chess News
At the World Youth Chess Championship 2011, Caldas Novas, Brazil

India won a gold, a silver and three bronze medals to finish third behind Russia (three golds and four silver) and Kazakhstan (two gold and a bronze) in the World Youth chess championship at Caldas Novas, Brazil.

Karthikeyan became the u-12 world champion on the basis of his superior tie-break score after being tied at 7.5 points with Hungry's Benjamin Gledura.

Ram Aravind claimed the silver in the u-8 section ... The Indian bronze medal winners were, Debashis Das in u-18, V.S. Rathanvel in u-10 and Saina Salonika u-8 girls.

Hockey News
At the Champions Challenge Hockey Tournament 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

India bt South Africa 7-4
Goal Scored - Sandeep Singh (IND) 14' PC and 35' PC, Saravanjit Singh (IND) 29', Tushar Khandekar (IND) 41', SV Sunil (IND) 55' and 66' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 65' PS and Justin Reid-Ross (RSA) 6', Marvin Harper (RSA) 38', Miguel de Garcia (RSA) 46, Tim Drummond (RSA) 48'

India scored exciting win over South Africa in fast paced match ... South Africa take early lead but Indian fought back scoring 3 goals in that 2 from Sandeep Singh through penalty corners to lead 3-1 at half-time ... But due to poor defending and marking with some sloppy goal-keeping Sreejesh South Africa came back into the match and managed to equalized 4-all ... After that Indians played really excellent hockey with good help from Sreejesh's superb goal-keeping ... Indians scored 3 goals in 12 minutes to scored their first victory in 2 matches ... Indians need to improve marking and avoid stupid defensive errors against better teams.

Tennis News
At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

[SF] (4) Leander Peas (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l (8) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 46 64 6-10

In the first set Polish pair take crucial break in 10th game breaking Mahesh's serve converting 2nd break point to won the first set ... In the second set Poles started positively and broke Lee in 2nd game to take 2-0 lead ... Immediately Lee and Hesh responded breaking Poles twice to take 3-2 lead ... Again both pairs traded break but Indians take crucial break in 9th game breaking Matkowski before Lee hold his serve to won the second set ... In super tie-break Lee and Hesh take 3-0 lead but after that Poles won 9 points from 11 points played to take control and winning this semi-final.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

Singles Final
(2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,394) bt (8) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,578) 64 46 64

Vishnu scored hard fought win over Rohan in 3 hrs match despite groin pain ... Both players played good tennis in patches but gave their all in this match ... Vishnu take crucial break in 10th game to won the first set ... After losing the first set Rohan fought back breaking Vishnu in 7th game and then saved 3 break point on his serve in next game to won that ... In desider despite injury Vishnu fought hard ... He saved 4 break points in 7th game before breaking Rohan in 10th game to complete victory.

Hockey News
At the Champions Challenge Hockey Tournament 2011, Johannesburg, South Africa

India dw Belgium 3-3
Goal Scored - Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 45', Chingelnsana Singh (IND) 48', Vokkaliga Raghunath (IND) 57' PC and Alexandre de Paeuw (BEL) 31' Tom Boon (BEL) 55', Xavier Rekinger (BEL) 69' PC

Again Indian side conceded late equaliser in dying minutes ... Belgium take lead in the first half but Indians fought back scoring 2 goals but again Belgium side equalised before Raghunath gave lead back to Indian side but late lapse in concentration cost us full points.

Chess News
At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 9 - Friday, November 25, 2011
Hikaru Nakamura 0-1 Magnus Carlsen
Boris Gelfand ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Peter Svidler 1-0 Vladimir Kramnik
Ian Nepomniachtchi ½-½ Levon Aronian

Don't know if this is the sign of worry or not but very poor result for Anand in this strong field ... In the last round Carlsen scored win with Black over Nakamura which helped him to tie for the top spot with Aronian in points but Carlsen lifted title in tie-break ... Other hand Anand had another draw and he finished on 7th in the standing.

Final Standing
1 Magnus Carlsen 5½ pts
2 Levon Aronian 5½ pts
3 Vassily Ivanchuk 5 pts
4 Sergey Karjakin 5 pts
5 Ian Nepomniachtchi 5 pts
6 Peter Svidler 4½ pts
7 Viswanathan Anand 4½ pts
8 Vladimir Kramnik 3½ pts
9 Boris Gelfand 3½ pts
10 Hikaru Nakamura 3 pts

Badminton News
At $350K Li Ning China Open 2011, Shanghai (Superseries Premier)

[QF] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (3) Mizuki Fujii (JPN)/ Reika Kakiiwa (JPN) 20-22 11-21

In the first game Japanese pair opened small lead of 13-10 but Jwala and Ashwini won next 6 points to take a lead ... Japanese pair made it 17-all ... Our pair wasted a game point at 20-19 but Japanese pair converted their first game point to won this game ... After winning the first game 3rd seed Japanese pair proved too strong for Jwala and Ashwini ... They won the second game very authoritatively.

Tennis News
At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Group B
(4) Leander Peas (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (1) Mike Bryan (USA)/ Bob Bryan (USA) 64 62

In their final tournament before another split, Indian Express delivered ... They defeated top-seed Bryans showing authority in 58 minutes ... Our pair take only break of the first set in 3rd game on Mike's serve when he double faulted ... In the second set Lee and Hesh broke Bob's serve twice in 1st and 5th game to won this match comfortably ... With this win Lee and Hesh evened their career record against the best doubles pair in history (on record) at 3-3.

With this win they qualified for the semis topping the Group A with 2-1 (W-L) record ... In the semis they will face challenge of Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.

Really sad to think this is their last tournament before split ... Please guys think over ur decision.
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At $35K+H Toyota Challenger, Japan

[QF] Yuki BHambri (IND,384) l (3) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,201) 26 16

Yuki received beating from 3rd seed Yuichi Sugita in one-sided match ... Still good show by Yuki reaching in the quarters as unseeded player in this Japanese challenger.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

[SF] (8) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,578) bt (7) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,563) 76(3) 62
[SF] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,394) bt (4) Daniel COX (GBR,422) 63 64

Doubles Final
(1) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) 61 63

Vishnu won comfortably with a break in both sets against Cox ... Rohan also scored straight sets win over Ranjeet to enter in his second $15K futures final.

Karan and Vishnu lifted doubles title with convincing win.

Chess News
At 2011 Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana, Albania

Game 8 - Thursday, November 24, 2011
Humpy Koneru (IND) ½-½ Hou Yifan (CHN) (Final score 2½-5½)

In this game Humpy neded victory to stay in the match but Hou Yifan played perfect game to draw match with Black ... And Hou Yifan (China) remains the World Champion defeating Humpy with 5½-2½ score.
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At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 8 - Thursday, November 24, 2011
Magnus Carlsen ½ ½ Ian Nepomniachtchi
Levon Aronian 1-0 Peter Svidler
Vladimir Kramnik ½ ½ Sergey Karjakin
Vassily Ivanchuk ½ ½ Boris Gelfand
Viswanathan Anand ½ ½ Hikaru Nakamura

Continuous 8th draw for Anand but this time Anand missed chance of taking upperhand ... Levon Aronian scored victory over Svidler to take sole lead ... Now in the final round Aronian need draw to grab the title ... In the last round next Anand is facing Boris Gelfand, his opponent from World Championship match.

Tennis News

It is official now that Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will split at the end of this season ... And new pairing of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna will participate in season opener Chennai Open ... Sad to see orginal Indian Express is breaking before 2012 London Olympics.

Leander Paes is thinking of partnering Radek Štěpánek in Chennai Open but personally I feel Lee should give a try with Somdev Devvarman here ... If that clicks then this can be good pairing for London Olympics.
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At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Group A
(5) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (8) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 26 16

Aisam and Rohan received thrashing from Polish team in totally one-sided match ... Polish pair won this match in 49 minutes ... In the first set they lost only 5 points on their serve ... Our pair had 3 break points in 4th game, 15-40, but they failed to convert ... Other hand Polish pair broke them in 3rd and 7th to won the first set ... In the second set they take 4-0 lead without losing a single point on their serve ... They broke Bops 3rd time in the match in 7th game to complete humiliation ... So with that Aisam and Bops ended their debute 0-3 at ATP Tour Finals.
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At $35K+H Toyota Challenger, Japan

[R2] Yuki BHambri (IND,384) bt (8) Jimmy Wang (TPE,287) 57 64 62

[QF] Yuki BHambri (IND,384) vs (3) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,201)

Terrific comeback win by Yuki over former top 100 player ... Jimmy Wang was world-class junior as in 2001 he lost the AO junior singles final to Tipsarevic and the US Open junior final to Giles Muller at that time he was 16 yrs old ... In 2006 he entered into top 100 but last 2 year he was out due to injury and made comeback in 2011 ... So really good win for Yuki against this experienced player in the challenger.

Next he is having tough match against 3rd seed Sugita, who defeated Somdev in our Davis cup tie.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

[QF] (7) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,563) bt (1) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,388) 26 61 63
[QF] (8) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,578) bt (WC) Saketh MYNENI (IND,UNR) 36 76(5) 75
[QF] (4) Daniel COX (GBR,422) bt (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1006) 63 60
[QF] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,394) bt (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,490) 61 60

Doubles
[SF] (1) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Richard BECKER (GER)/ Nikolaus MOSER (AUT) 61 61
[SF] N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (4) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ Kirati SIRIBUTWONG (THA) 64 16 10-4

Ranjit scored huge upset beating top-seed in comeback win ... Saketh stretched Rohan but failed to win match in the second set ... In end terrific fighting win for Rohan against in-form Saketh.

Cox won easily against Balaji in the quarters and Vishnu toyed Vijayant in one-sided match.

All Indians final in doubles as Balaji and Vijayant defeated 4th seed Thai pair in the semis.

Badminton News
At $350K Li Ning China Open 2011, Shanghai (Superseries Premier)

[R2] Diju V (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (3) Joachim Fischer Nielsen (DEN)/ Christinna Pedersen (DEN) 14-21 14-21
[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Iris Wang (MAS)/ Rena Wang (MAS) 21-9 21-12

[QF] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (3) Mizuki Fujii (JPN)/ Reika Kakiiwa (JPN)

Jwala and Ashwin take full advantage of unranked Malaysian pair to score dominating win in 23 minutes, big boost for their bid of qualifying for London Olympics ... Next they r facing tough challenge of WR #3 Japanese pair.

Danish apir scored straight games win over Diju and Jwala in 34 minutes.

Chess News
At 2011 Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana, Albania

Game 7 - Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Hou Yifan (CHN) 1-0 Humpy Koneru (IND)

In the 7th game Hou Yifan had white pieces ... Third time in the match they played Ruy Lopez ... After falling 2 points behinf Humpy take too many risks in the middle game ... She gave her opponent a chance to win a pawn that was immediately grabbed by Hou Yifan ... Then in the endgame the Chinese player took another pawn to secure her victory.

After 7 games the World champion is leading 5-2, only ½ point from defending her title and now only a miracle can help Koneru to win all of the remaining three games.
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At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 7 - Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Peter Svidler ½-½ Jan Nepomniachtchi
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Levon Aronian
Boris Gelfand ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura 0-1 Vassily Ivanchuk
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

Another draw for Anand in 7th round, this time against Magnus Carlsen ... Vassily Ivanchuk joined leaders scoring win against Nakamura with Black ... Now 5 players r leading the pack with 4 points; Aronian, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi ... Anand and Svidler r tied 6th with 3½ points.

Tennis News
At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Group A
(4) Leander Peas (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER)

After disappointing first 3 days at last Mahesh and Lee managed to score victory in ATP Tour Finals ... After their one sided loss against Lindstedt and Tecau this was much needed victory for them ... Now for qualifying for the semis they still have herculean task to beat Bryans in their last match.

Indians broke Petzschner in 4th game but Petzschner and Melzer fought back breaking Mahesh's serve in next game ... In 12th game Lee and Mahesh had 4 set points at 0-40 but Petzschner saved 3 of those with big serves but our pair won next on sudden death deuce to win this set ... In the second set Mahesh saved break points in 5th game and then broke Petzschner when hit 2 double faults from 30/30 in 8th game ... Then Mahesh hold her serve to love and completed the victory ... Now Mahesh and Lee having 1-1 (W-L) record in the ATP Tour Finals.
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At $35K+H Toyota Challenger, Japan

[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Peng Gao (CHN)/ Wan Gao (CHN) 76(1) 67(5) 5-10

Very close but tough loss for 2nd seed Purav and Divij against futures level Chinese pair ... They lost super tie-break easily but before that both pairs shared a set in tie-breaks.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

[R2] (1) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,388) bt James MARSALEK (GBR,795) 26 76(1) 76(1)
[R2] (7) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,563) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1317) 64 62
[R2] (WC) Saketh MYNENI (IND,UNR) bt (SE) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,1511) 46 62 62
[R2] (8) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,578) bt Richard BECKER (GER,594) 61 75
[R2] (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1006) bt (6) Nikolaus MOSER (AUT,523) 76(7) 63
[R2] (4) Daniel COX (GBR,422) bt (Q) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA,1326) 63 75
[R1] (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,490) bt Mate PAVIC (CRO,892) 16 62 63
[R2] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,394) bt (WC) Kunal ANAND (IND,1802) 64 61

Doubles
[QF] (1) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) 64 46 10-6
[QF] Richard BECKER (GER)/ Nikolaus MOSER (AUT) bt (3) Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) 64 63
[QF] (4) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ Kirati SIRIBUTWONG (THA) bt Ronak MANUJA (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 64 63
[QF] N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) 63 60

After losing the first set Saketh comfortably won next two against last week's $15K futures title winner Jeevan ... Superb upset win by Balaji over Austrian seeded Moser in straight sets ... So 6 Indians r in singles quarters but in doubles only 2 Indian pair in the semis.

Badminton News
At $350K Li Ning China Open 2011, Shanghai (Superseries Premier)

[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,26) l Kenichi Tago (JPN,16) 17-21 16-21
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,34) l Wing Ki Wong (HKG,24) 18-21 19-21
[R1] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Youn Joo Bae (KOR,10) 21-15 22-24

[R1] Rupesh Kumar KT (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (5) Kien Keat Koo (MAS)/ Boon Heong Tan (MAS) 12-21 14-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Leanne Choo (AUS)/ Renuga Veeran (AUS) 21-15 21-16
[R1] Diju V (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Muhammad Rijal (INA)/ Debby Susanto (INA) 21-17 21-16

[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Iris Wang (MAS)/ Rena Wang (MAS)
[R2] Diju V (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (3) Joachim Fischer Nielsen (DEN)/ Christinna Pedersen (DEN)

Saina take early 6-2 lead against Youn and kept that to win the first game comfortably ... The second game was very close, Youn take couple of times 2 points lead but Saina managed to keep pace with her ... But from 18-all Youn won 2 points to gave herself game points ... Again Saina saved those 2 points to make it 20-all ... Youn saved couple of match points, 22-all ... Youn converted 3rd game point to won this game ... In the third game Saina take early 7-5 lead which she increased to 11-7 but Youn won 9 points in a row from 12-15 down to completed upset win in 61 minutes ... May be fitness issue?

Year 2011 turning into disastorous for Saina, who lost against many different players from top 20 ... Not a great preparation for London Olympics.

Ajay fought against Wong but failed to win crucial points which cost him the match ... In the first game Wong was leading 12-8 but Ajay take lead winning 4 poits from 13-15 ... Wong made it 17-all and won 3 points in a row from 18-all to win the first game ... In the second game Ajay take 9-7 lead ... Wong won next 7 points to take 14-9 lead but Ajay responded winning next 6 points ... Wong managed to open 17-15 and 19-16 lead but again Ajay made it 19-all ... Wong won last 2 points to comple victory.

Tago scored lot easier win against Kashyap though in both game Kashyap produced fight in early stages.

Expected win for Jwala and Ashwini against Aussie pair ... Next they r facing unseeded Malaysian pair, who upset 5th seed Taiwani pair in the first round ... Good chance for Jwala and Ashini to enter into quarters and give big boost to their chances of qualifying for London Olympics.

Other hand one-sided loss for Rupesh and Sanave against seeded Malaysian pair.

Jwala also had winning start in mixed doubles with Diju against Indonesian pair ... Next they r facing WR #3 Danish pair.

Chess News
At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 6 - Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Magnus Carlsen ½ ½ Peter Svidler
Ian Nepomniachtchi ½ ½ Sergey Karjakin
Levon Aronian ½ ½ Boris Gelfand
Vladimir Kramnik ½ ½ Hikaru Nakamura
Vassily Ivanchuk ½ ½ Viswanathan Anand

Third straight round with all draws ... Anand is still ½ point behind 4 leaders.

Tennis News
At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Group B
(5) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (2) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 67(6) 36

In the first set both pairs traded a single break .. In tie-break our pair was up with mini-break at 4-2 and 6-3 but they failed to push advantage and lost the first set ... In the second set our pair lost serve twice to lose this match and with that their chances of reaching semis ended.
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At $35K+H Toyota Challenger, Japan

[R1] Yuki BHambri (IND,384) bt (LL) Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,764) 75 76(1)

[R2] Yuki BHambri (IND,384) vs (8) Jimmy Wang (TPE,287)

Good win by Yuki against local lucky loser on tricky Japanese court ... Next he is having match against experienced Wang.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

[R1] (1) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,388) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,909) 62 64
[R1] James MARSALEK (GBR,795) bt Ivan ARENAS-GUALDA (ESP,670) 57 63 61
[R1] (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1317) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,820) 63 75
[R1] (7) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,563) bt Jaime PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP,868) 61 1-0 Retd
[R1] (WC) Saketh MYNENI (IND,UNR) bt (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND,400) 57 64 75
[R1] (SE) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,1511) bt (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1374) 57 62 60
[R1] Richard BECKER (GER,594) bt (Q) Lakshit SOOD (IND,UNR) 63 63
[R1] (8) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,578) bt (Q) Abdulla Maqdas (KUW,973) 64 63
[R1] (6) Nikolaus MOSER (AUT,523) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,992) 64 62
[R1] (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1006) bt (Q) Keita KOYAMA (JPN,1334) 60 60
[R1] (Q) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA,1326) bt (Q) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,1802) 64 64
[R1] (4) Daniel COX (GBR,422) bt Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA,777) 62 61
[R1] (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,490) bt (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R1] Mate PAVIC (CRO,892) bt (LL) Chandril SOOD (IND,1625) 62 61
[R1] (WC) Kunal ANAND (IND,1802) bt (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND,UNR) 62 76(5)
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,394) bt Alexander SATSCHKO (GER,785) 62 63

Doubles
[R1] (1) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 57 64 10-7
[R1] (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Saurabh PATIL (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 60 62
[R1] (3) Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt (WC) Rishabdev RAMAN (IND)/ Saurabh SINGH (IND) 61 75
[R1] Richard BECKER (GER)/ Nikolaus MOSER (AUT) bt Keita KOYAMA (JPN)/ Mate PAVIC (CRO) 63 76(5)
[R1] Ronak MANUJA (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt (WC) Chandril SOOD (IND)/ Lakshit SOOD (IND) 64 36 10-7
[R1] (4) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ Kirati SIRIBUTWONG (THA) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 76(5) 64
[R1] Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ankit SACHDEVA (IND) 75 64
[R1] N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (2) Ivan ARENAS-GUALDA (ESP)/ Jaime PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP) 62 62

Expected win by Saketh after he missed the chance of winning in Pune futures ... Interesting match-up between 2 ex-college players, Jeevan and Saketh ... Both will play this second round match with huge confidence after their first title wins in last 2 weeks ... Saketh having advantage with his huge serve and better court coverage but Jeevan can produce surprise with his powerful forehands and smart play .

Badminton News
At $350K Li Ning China Open 2011, Shanghai (Superseries Premier)

[Q1] Sourabh Varma (IND,66) l (1) Yan Kit Chan (HKG,36) W/O
[Q1] Gurusaidutt RMV (IND,51) bt (4) Choong Hann Wong (MAS,43) 22-20 19-21 21-13
[Q1] Arvind Bhat (IND,57) l Kai Wen (CHN,144) 13-21 14-21
[Q1] (4) Sindhu PV (IND,46) bye

[Q2] Gurusaidutt RMV (IND,51) l Yi Lu (CHN,134) 21-13 16-21 21-23
[Q2] (4) Sindhu PV (IND,46) l Xue Yao (CHN,201) 9-21 12-21

[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,26) vs Kenichi Tago (JPN,16)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,34) vs Wing Ki Wong (HKG,24)
[R1] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Youn Joo Bae (KOR,10)

[R1] Rupesh Kumar KT (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs (5) Kien Keat Koo (MAS)/ Boon Heong Tan (MAS)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Leanne Choo (AUS)/ Renuga Veeran (AUS)
[R1] Diju V (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Muhammad Rijal (INA)/ Debby Susanto (INA)

As expected lot more tougher draw in this Superseries premier event.

In qualifying Guru started with hard fought win against higher ranked Malaysian but he wasted 2 match points in the third game in his final qualifying round to lose match against his Chinese opponent.

Chess News
At 2011 Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana, Albania

Game 6 - Monday, November 21, 2011
Humpy Koneru (IND) 0-1 Hou Yifan (CHN)

The World champion won the sixth game and is now 2 points ahead of the challenger Humpy Koneru ... This will be decesive lead ... This result was even more surprising knowing that Hou Yifan spent several hours in the hospital the previous night, she experienced severe pains in her stomach.

In the begining Humpy with White got an edge but Hou managed to equalize and break the position in the time trouble to come out as a winner in 38 moves ... Hou is leading 4-2 after six games.

Tennis News
At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Group A
[R1] (4) Leander Peas (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l (6) Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) 67(6) 16

Worst possible start for our pair ... There were 4 breaks of serve in the first set, which Lindstedt and Tecau could have won the set 6-4, but Lindstedt hit a double fault on sudden death deuce ... Lee and Mahesh converted only 2 of 11 break points in this set ... In tie-break our pair had 2 set points at 6-4 but they failed to covert it ... In the second set Mahesh lost his serve twice to and our pair lost this set easily.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

[R1] (1) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,388) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,909) 62 64
[R1] James MARSALEK (GBR,795) bt Ivan ARENAS-GUALDA (ESP,670) 57 63 61
[R1] (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1317) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,820) 63 75
[R1] Richard BECKER (GER,594) bt (Q) Lakshit SOOD (IND,UNR) 63 63
[R1] (6) Nikolaus MOSER (AUT,523) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,992) 64 62
[R1] (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1006) bt (Q) Keita KOYAMA (JPN,1334) 60 60
[R1] (Q) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA,1326) bt (Q) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,1802) 64 64
[R1] (WC) Kunal ANAND (IND,1802) bt (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND,UNR) 62 76(5)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 57 64 10-7
[R1] (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Saurabh PATIL (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 60 62
[R1] (3) Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) bt (WC) Rishabdev RAMAN (IND)/ Saurabh SINGH (IND) 61 75
[R1] (4) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ Kirati SIRIBUTWONG (THA) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 76(5) 64

Disappointing loss of Sunil against fellow Thai qualifier ... Ramkumar is struggling on Indian futures though he was facing top-seed ... Abhijeet scored upset win over Kaza and Kunal earned his first ATP point of Indian futures ... Balaji double bagel Japanese qualifier.

Bad day for Kaza as he lost in doubles first round with Vivek against 4th seed Thai pair ... Jeevan and Ranjeet stretched top-seed Karan and Vishnu in their match but dominated start for Saketh and Mohit Mayur in doubles.

Chess News
At 2011 Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana, Albania

Game 5 - Sunday, November 20, 2011
Yifan Hou (CHN) ½-½ Humpy Koneru (IND)

In the 5th game World champion Yifan had white pieces as in the previous game ... The players continued with the same line they already played in the 4th game ... They accepted draw after 43rd move.
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At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 5 - Sunday, November 20, 2011
Vassily Ivanchuk ½ ½ Magnus Carlsen
Viswanathan Anand ½ ½ Vladimir Kramnik
Hikaru Nakamura ½ ½ Levon Aronian
Boris Gelfand ½ ½ Ian Nepomniachtchi
Sergey Karjakin ½ ½ Peter Svidler

In this round also it seemed that the black pieces would again dominate a round ... Nepomniatchtchi, Aronian and Carlsen had a significant edge but they failed to convert in a win ... So again 5 draws.

Tennis News
At Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Group B
[R1] (5) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (3) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) 67(2) 6-4 9-11

Mirnyi and Nestor take 2-0 and 4-2 leads but both time Bops and Aisam fought back breaking Nestor's serve ... Bops and Aisam wasted a sudden death set point on Mirnyi's serve at 5-4 ... After that Mirnyi and Nestor take control of tie-break to won the first set ... In the second set Bops and Aisam saved 3 break points from 0-40 on Aisam's serve in 2nd game ... They broke Nestor's serve in 5th game and then kept this advantage to win the second set ... In super tie-break Bops and Aisam take early lead with mini-break, 3-1 ... But when they were leading 6-3 Mirnyi and Nestor came back taking mini-break to level 6-all ... Bops and Aisam again take lead with mini-break, 8-6, but again Mirnyi and Nestor broke back ... Bops and Aisam saved a match point at 8-9 but Mirnyi and Nestor take crucial mini-break on 19th point on Aisam's serve ... Nestor served ace to complete the victory.
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At $35K+H Toyota Challenger, Japan

[R1] Yuki BHambri (IND,384) vs Catalin Gard (ROU,516)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Peng Gao (CHN)/ Wan Gao (CHN)

Yuki is in singles and getting favorable draw ... Purav and Divij r 2nd seed in doubles and facing tricky Chinese pair in the first round.
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At $15K F11 India Futures, New Delhi

[R1] (1) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,388) vs Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,909)
[R1] Ivan ARENAS-GUALDA (ESP,670) vs James MARSALEK (GBR,795)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,820) vs (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1317)
[R1] (7) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,563) vs Jaime PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP,868
[R1] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND,400) vs (WC) Saketh MYNENI (IND,UNR)
[R1] (SE) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,1511) vs (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1374)
[R1] Richard BECKER (GER,594) vs (Q) Lakshit SOOD (IND,UNR)
[R1] (8) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,578) vs (Q) Abdulla Maqdas (KUW,973)
[R1] (6) Nikolaus MOSER (AUT,523) vs Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,992)
[R1] (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1006) vs (Q) Keita KOYAMA (JPN,1334)
[R1] (Q) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,1802) vs (Q) Weerapat DOAKMAIKLEE (THA,1326)
[R1] (4) Daniel COX (GBR,422) vs Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA,777)
[R1] (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,490) vs (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,UNR)
[R1] Karunuday SINGH (IND,697) vs Mate PAVIC (CRO,892)
[R1] (WC) Kunal ANAND (IND,1802) vs (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND,UNR)
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,394) vs Alexander SATSCHKO (Ger,785)

Unbelievable draw, cruel is an understatement ... Karan, Saketh, Jeevan, Ramkumar and Mohit Mayur r getting worst possible draw.

This week I m hoping upset from Ramkumar as Junn is struggling with his fitness ... Saketh can upset Karan, this is huge match of the first round ... Other hand good opportunity of grabbing their first ranking point of Indian futures for Sunil, Balaji, Kunal and Saurabh.

Chess News
At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 4 - Saturday, November 19, 2011
Magnus Carlsen ½ ½ Sergey Karjakin
Peter Svidler ½ ½ Boris Gelfand
Ian Nepomniachtchi ½ ½ Hikaru Nakamura
Levon Aronian ½ ½ Viswanathan Anand
Vladimir Kramnik ½ ½ Vassily Ivanchuk

All matches ended in a draw in 4th round.

Tennis News
At $15K F10 India Futures, Pune

Singles Final
(Q) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,1514) bt (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,395) 64 75

Both players serving well from the start ... Jeevan was looking lot better and fitter in long rallies ... Other hand Vishnu was depending mostly on his big serves ... Jeevan take crucial break in 10th game to win the first set.

In the second set again both players were holding their serves easily ... Vishnu was looking tired after long 3 hrs semi-final against Yuki and Jeevan was looking better player on the court ... Vishnu take medical break for tight muscles and little pain due to side stain ... Vishnu had 2 break points on Jeevan's serve in 9th game but Jeevan saved both with solid serves and UFE from Vishnu ... Second time in the match Vishnu failed to hold his serve while serving for staying in the set ... Jeevan take crucial break in 12th game with couple of down the line and couple of UFEs from Vishnu helped him to lift his fitst $15K Futures title in Pune ... Congratulation for Jeevan for this big title win as an qualifier ... Very happy for him.

Vishnu 11 aces and Jeevan 6 aces in the match.

Chess News
At 2011 Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana, Albania

Game 4 - Friday, November 18, 2011
Yifan Hou (CHN) ½-½ Humpy Koneru (IND)

In the fourth game of the match World champion Hou Yifan had advantage with white pieces ... Humpy Koneru had to defend the position that was not pleasant for her ... In the deep endgame White managed to win a pawn, but there were not many sources left for a fight – both players had a rook and a knight ... Humpy defended this endgame well despite being short on time and the opponents agreed a draw ... The game finished after 58 moves ... Today is the rest day but Yifan is still having 1 pt lead over Humpy, 2.5-1.5
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At the 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 3 - Friday, November 18, 2011
Vladimir Kramnik ½ ½ Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1 Levon Aronian
Viswanathan Anand ½ ½ Ian Nepomniachtchi
Hikaru Nakamura 0-1 Peter Svidler
Boris Gelfand 0-1 Sergey Karjakin

This was literally 'black' day for White in third round as 3 out of 5 games ended in a win for Black, and even Carlsen's draw as Black against Kramnik was probably won in the final position.

Badminton News
At $250K Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2011, (Superseries)

[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,4) l (7) Tine Baun (DEN,7) 16-21 15-21
[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,34) l (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1) 16-21 13-21
[QF] (Q) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) l (2) Long Chen (CHN,2) 13-21 21-23

In the first game Saina was leading 9-6 but from 10-all Tine take control to win it ... In the second game Tine take control from 4-all ... She won 6 pts in a row and kept that lead to scored comfortable win in 29 minutes ... So another title Saina failed to defend this year, so still searching for her first superseries title in 2011 ... Worrying form of Saina.

Long Chen started positively and take 8-2 lead which he kept increasing ... He won the first game easily ... In the second game also Long Chen opened 9-4 lead but this time Guru fought back ... He was 12-18 down but reduced it to 16-18 ... Long Chen had 2 match point at 20-18 but Guru saved those and had a game point at 21-20 ... He failed to convert it and then Long Chen converted 3rd match point to complete victory in 44 minutes ... Very heartening performance by Guru against this top Chinese player.

Lee take early control from 3-all ... Ajay managed to reduce it to 7-8 but after that Lee gave clinical performance to won the first game ... In the second game take 8-2 ealy lead which he kept increasing to complete easy straight games victory in 32 minutes.

Tennis News
At $50K Salzburg Challenger, Austria

[SF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l (2) Alexander Waske (GER)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO) 57 76(6) 8-10

After losing the first set our pair did excellent comeback to won the second set in tie-break after saving the match point ... In super tie-break our pair was up 8-6 but after that 2nd seed pair take couple of mini-breaks to win this match ... Still creditable performance by our pair against this experienced pair.
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At $15K F10 India Futures, Pune

Singles Semi Finals
(3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,395) bt (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,378) 62 67(3) 75
(Q) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,1514) bt (6) Ranjit Virali-Murugesan (IND,564) 36 64 Retd.

Doubles Final
(2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Alexander Satschko (GER) bt (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 46 76(1) 10-8

Vishnu struggled in the first set ... Made lots of UFEs and his service wasn't working ... Yuki broke him in 1st and 5th to win the first set comfortably ... In the second set both players hold their service games comfortably ... In 11th game Yuki had a break point but Vishnu saved it ... Vishnu won tie-break comfortably with couple of mini-breaks to take match in the decider ... Dog fight in the third set ... Both raised their game and played excellent tennis ... Vishnu take crucial break converting the first match point in 12th game to complete excellent comeback win ... Creditable comeback by Vishnu, who lost in their last 2 meetings at Nationals and Nigerian futures.

Ranjit started well and was better player on the court in the first set ... But after winning the first set he was troubling with shoulder ... Jeevan take full advantage of it breaking him once to won the second set ... After that Ranjit retired due to shoulder injury ... So singles final is between 2 Chennai players, Vishnu and Jeevan.

In doubles Rohan and Satschko scored excellent comeback win over top-seed pair of Karan and Vishnu ... After losing the first set they won the second set in tie-break ... In super tie-break Rohan and Satschko were 6-8 down and from here they won next 4 points to lift the title.

Chess News
At 2011 Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana, Albania

Third Game - Thursday, November 17
Humpy Koneru (IND) 0-1 Yifan Hou (CHN)

In the third game current World champion Yifan Hou playing with black defeated Humpy in 37 moves.

So after 3 rounds Hou is leading 2-1 ... Hou is looking stronger player and it is very difficult for Humpy to produce comeback in this championship match.
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At 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 2 - Thursday, November 17
Aronian Levon ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik
Jan Nepomniachtchi ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Peter Svidler ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Boris Gelfand

In the second round only WR #1 Carlsen managed to win with white ... All other matches ended in a draw.

Tennis News
At $50K Salzburg Challenger, Austria

[QF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Maximilian Neuchrist (AUT)/ Tristan-Samuel Weissborn (AUT) 62 62

[SF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (2) Alexander Waske (GER)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO)

Another comfortable win by Purav and Divij but next tough match against experienced doubles players.
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At $15K F10 India Futures, Pune

[QF] (1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,378) bt (8) Richard BECKER (GER,604) 75 75
[QF] (3) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,395) bt Karunuday SINGH (IND,696) 61 64
[QF] (6) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,564) bt (4) Karan RASTOGI (IND,401) 36 64 61
[QF] (Q) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,1514) bt (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,491) 63 61

Doubles
[SF] (1) RASTOGI (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) bt NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) 76(3) 63
[SF] (2) GAJJAR (IND)/ SATSCHKO (GER) bt JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ MYNENI (IND) 75 36 10-8

Today Vijayant had bad day and Jeevan played according to plan to take advantage of it ... Jeevan scored really dominating win over Vijayant to book place in the semis ... In this futures Vishnu is in good form ... He is producing clinical performances one after another ... Today also he scored comfortable win over Karunuday.

Karan won the first set but Ranjt fought back to win the second ... From the second set onward Karan struggled to read Ranjit's game and his powerful returns ... Ranjit take a break in 4th game and then another break in 6th game to complete his victory ... Ranjit overpowered Karan in the third to win this match.

Yuki take crucial break in 12th game to win the first set .. In the second set also Yuki broke Becker's serve in 12th game to complete the victory.

In doubles top 2 seeds pairs r in the final in contrasting style ... Saketh and Mohit Mayur gave fighting performance against Rohan and Satschko but failed to convert in a win in STB ... But still creditable performance by last week's winner pair.

Badminton News
At $250K Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2011, (Superseries)

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Jie Yao (NED,19) 21-17 21-17
[R2] (Q) Arvind Bhat (IND,56) l (2) Long Chen (CHN,2) 10-21 8-21 (30m)
[R2] (Q) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) bt (7) Pengyu Du (CHN,7) 15-21 21-7 21-13 (56m)
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,34) bt Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS,40) 21-16 21-15

[R2] Rupesh Kumar K. T. (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (2) Jae Sung Jung (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR) 11-21 14-21 (23m)
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (2) Chen Xu (CHN)/ Jin Ma (CHN) 18-21 16-21

[QF] Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (7) Tine Baun (DEN,7)
[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,34) vs (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1)
[QF] (Q) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) vs (2) Long Chen (CHN,2)

In the first game both players were togather until 9-all .. Saina opened 3 points lead from there and kept that to win the first game ... In the second game Saina take early 7-3 lead but Jie made it 7-all winning continuous 4 points ... Again Saina opened 4 points lead from 7-all ... Jie tried to reduce and managed to come near at 16-17 but Saina kept her cool to complete victory in 38 minutes.

Saina is facing Tine Baun in the quarters ... In their last meeting Saina won against this veteran former WR #1 but regular top-10 player in recent years in Indonesia Open.

In the first game Guru take early 8-4 lead but Pengyu fought back to make it 8-all ... Still both players were equal till 14-all ... From here Pengyu opened the lead to with the first game ... In the second game Guru take control early from 5-1 he increased his lead to 11-2 and 16-3 ... He won the second game very easily ... In the third game also Guru take early 8-3 lead which he kept increasing to score huge upset win and will face WR #2 Long Chen in the quarters.

Ajay joined Guru and Saina in this superseries quarters with comfortable win over his Malaysian opponent ... In the first game Ajay take lead winning 6 points continuously from 3-6 and kept that lead to won this game ... In the second game Hashim take early lead, he was leading 7-3 then 12-9 ... This time also Ajay won 6 points continuously to take lead and keep that to win this match.

Arvind and pair of Rupesh and Sanave failed to produce any fight against their respective WR #2 opponents.

Diju and Jwala were neck to neck against WR #2 Chinese pair till 14-all ... Chinese pair opened 2 points lead but Indian pair caught with them immediately, 16-all ... Again Chinese pair take couple of points lead and maintained to win this tight first game ... In the second game Diju and Jwala take 3-0 and 7-4 early lead but both time Chinese pair came back strongly to regained the lead ... From 11-all they kept increasing lead to won the second game and match in 29 minutes.

Chess News
At 6th Tal Memorial, Moscow, Russia

Round 1 - Wednesday, November 16
Levon Aronian ½ ½ Magnus Carlsen
Vladimir Kramnik 0-1 Ian Nepomniachtchi
Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0 Peter Svidler
Viswanathan Anand ½ ½ Sergey Karjakin
Hikaru Nakamura ½ ½ Boris Gelfand

It is a historical first tournament where 4 players rated 2800 and over participating, Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, and Kramnik ... In the first round Kramnik lost to Nepomniachtchi, and while the top seeds failed to impress, Ivanchuk also scored victory against Svidler.

Football News
At International Friendly 2011, Kolkata, India

India bt Malaysia 3-2
Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (IND) 39' and 53', Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 47' and Mohd Sali Mohd Safee (MAS) 45' and 60'

Malaysians started positively with attacking on Indian post ... But Indians tried hard to keep possession which helped them to get back into the match ... Indians started attacking and scored goal in 39th minute by Sunil ... Malaysian responded immediately through Safee before end of the first half ... Indians take lead through Jeje in 2nd minute of the second half ... Sunil extended their lead in 53rd minutes but again Safee reduced lead due to mistake from defense ... Then Malaysians tried hard to equalised but Indians defended well ... This is India's first victory under new coach Savio Medeira in entertaining match.

Tennis News
News update,

Mahesh denied any split report between him and Lee ... Happy to see that ... He tweeted saying - Just fin practice with Leander. Media with cameras perched in the trees and climbing the walls. Freaked out the members! Disappointed them!!
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At $15K F10 India Futures, Pune

[R2] (1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,378) bt Yu CHANG (CHN,868) 16 75 76(3)
[R2] (8) Richard BECKER (GER,604) bt (LL) Abdulla Maqdas (KUW,973) 67(6) 63 61
[R2] (3) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,395) bt Alexander SATSCHKO (GER,775) 62 61
[R2] Karunuday SINGH (IND,696) bt (7) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,592) 76(5) 63
[R2] (6) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,564) bt (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1369) 61 75
[R2] (4) Karan RASTOGI (IND,401) bt (WC) Saketh MYNENI (IND,UNR) 46 76(6) 76(6)
[R2] (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,491) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,822) 60 61
[R2] (Q) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,1514) bt Ivan ARENAS-GUALDA (ESP,677) 63 64

Doubles
[QF] (1) RASTOGI (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) bt SHARMA (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) 63 64
[QF] NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt BALAJI (IND)/ MALIK (IND) 64 64
[QF] JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ MYNENI (IND) bt (WC) KADHE (IND)/ RAMANATHAN (IND) 76(2) 63
[QF] (2) GAJJAR (IND)/ SATSCHKO (GER) vs CHANG (CHN)/ MARSALEK (GBR)

Vishnu and Vijayant scored very dominating wins ... Sad to see Kaza's one-sided loss against Vijayant ... Ranjit also moved to quarters with striaght sets victory over Mohit ... Jeevan scored straight sets upset win over Spanish player ... After winning the first set in tie-break Karunuday comfortably take the second set.

As expected match of the day played between Karan and Saketh ... Saketh won the first set with a single break ... From the beginning Karan was struggling with adjusting his game with Saketh ... Somehow he managed to control his emotions and take crucial mini-break to won the second set tie-break ... In the third set Saketh take the break in 7th game when Karan committed double fault but while serving for the match at 5-4 Saketh failed to hold his serve ... Karan started 11th game with double fault but managed to hold it ... In tie-break Karan handled his nerve better ... He wasted one match point but converted second to complete remarkable comeback victory ... As per report both played quality tennis ... Saketh showed excellent composure while facing this top-350 type player, I m impressed ... He adjusted really well to higher level of the game against Karan ... Saketh served 25 aces in this match and other hand Karan saved 4 match points ... I think if draw permit then Saketh having good chance to go deeper in next 2 futures.

Yuki started the match with too many flashy shots and missed those ... I think seeing lower ranked Chinese he was bit relaxed from the start and that almost cost him this match ... In the second set also he was struggling on his serve and hold his service games after duece but take crucial break in 12th game ... He also received court violation warning for showing anger on the court ... Yuki saved 2 match points at 5-4 and 40-15 in the second set ... In the third set also Yuki kept repeating same mistakes and Yu Chang take advantage of unforced errors to break in 1st game ... Yu kept that lead until late of the set but Yuki broke Yu when he was serving for the set at 5-4 ... Then both players hold their serves to take this final set in tie-break ... Yuki take early mini-break to lead 4-2 and then he double faulted when serving for the match at 6-2 ... Won next point to complete hard fought victory ... I like the way Yuki digging deep when he wasn't playing well in this match ... Despite bad day at the office he managed to complete the victory.

Karan and Yuki both had a confidence boosting comeback wins in these tough matches ... Despite bad games lots of positives to take from these matches for the future.