Tennis News
At $442.5K SA Tennis Open, Johannesburg

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) bt (Q) Raven Klaasen (RSA,302) 64 63

Good straight sets victory ... Next match against Tipsarevic will be dress rehearsal before Davis cup tie.
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At $10K Cambodia F2 Futures, Phnom Penh

[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,800) bt (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) 62 63

Doubles
[R1] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) bt DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ SIRIBUTWONG (THA) 64 63
[R1] (4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) bt SHARMA (IND)/ TIWARI (IND) 63 62
[R1] GAJJAR (IND)/ MALIK (IND) l TAKEUCHI (JPN)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 46 76(2) 7-10
[R1] SIE (INA)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) l ONOZAWA (JPN)/ SEKIGUCHI (JPN) 46 75 6-10
[R1] PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt (2) GASPARYAN (RUS)/ MOSER (AUT) 63 36 10-6

[QF] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) vs MARGAROLI (SUI)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA)
[QF] (4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) vs TAKEUCHI (JPN)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA)
[QF] PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND) vs ONOZAWA (JPN)/ SEKIGUCHI (JPN)

Good upset by young Vijayant over his senior team-mate ... In doubles also Ashutosh and Vijaysunder scored very good upset win over 2nd seed pair.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 13

Ian Nepomniachtchi - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Max. Vachier-Lagrave ½-½
Wang Hao - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Alexander Grischuk - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Levon Aronian - Jan Smeets ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Erwin l'Ami ½-½
Anish Giri - Ruslan Ponomariov ½-½

Group B - Round 13
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Le Quang Liem ½-½

Group c - Round 13
Tania Sachdev - Sebastian Siebrecht 0-1

In group A most of the matches ended without any action ... Nakamura agreed to draw after 22 moves ... In 19 moves Carlsen match ended in draw ... Kramnik match also ended in draw after 22 moves ... Anand tried to win but in end agreed to draw after 38 moves.

In group B Ganguly and Liem accepted draw in just 20 moves ... Tania ended on losing side in her last match of Group C in 36 moves.

American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura won his first Tata (Corus) title ... Anand also finished strongly on second position in this super grandmaster event.

Final Standing of Group A
Hikaru Nakamura - 9 pts
Viswanathan Anand - 8½ pts
Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian - 8 pts
Vladimir Kramnik and Max. Vachier-Lagrave - 7½ pts
Ruslan Ponomariov and Anish Giri - 6½ pts
Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wang Hao - 6 pts
Alexander Grischuk, Jan Smeets and Erwin l'Ami - 4½ pts
Alexei Shirov - 4 pts

Tennis News
At $442.5K SA Tennis Open, Johannesburg

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs (Q) Raven Klaasen (RSA,302)

Doubles
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ David Martin (USA) vs Martin Fischer (AUT)/ Rainer Schuettler (GER)

Somi having winnable first round match against local qualifier ... In doubles Somi is playing with likable American David Martin.
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At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[F] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) l (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA,458) 26 36

Expected result, Danai was playing solid tennis this week ... Still Vishnu grabbed 15 pts which help him to move near top 350 ranking.

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At $10K Cambodia F2 Futures, Phnom Penh

[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,332) vs (JE) Marton Fucsovics (HUN,1431)
[R1] (5) Yuki Bhambri (IND,525) vs (WC) Kenny Bun (CAM,1516)
[R1] (7) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,545) vs (Q) Hung-Yuan Hsu (TPE,1516)
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,677) vs (Q) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1146)
[R1] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) vs Vijayant Malik (IND,800)
[R1] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) vs (Q) Bowen Ouyang (CHN,1009)

Doubles
[R1] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) vs DOAKMAIKLEE (THA)/ SIRIBUTWONG (THA)
[R1] (4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) vs SHARMA (IND)/ TIWARI (IND)
[R1] GAJJAR (IND)/ MALIK (IND) vs WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA)
[R1] SIE (INA)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) vs ONOZAWA (JPN)/ SEKIGUCHI (JPN)
[R1] PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND) vs (2) GASPARYAN (RUS)/ MOSER (AUT)

[Q2] (2) Vivek Shokeen (IND,983) l (Q) Hung-Yuan Hsu (TPE,1516) 64 36 26
[Q2] (9) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1146) bt (3) Koki Matsunaga (JPN,984) 67(3) 63 64
[Q2] (11) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) l (5) Bowen Ouyang (CHN,1009) 36 67(5)
[Q2] (6) Divij Sharan (IND,1017) l (12) Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA,1174) 46 60 36

[Q1] (2) Vivek Shokeen (IND,983) bt Christopher Marquis (IND,1704) 75 61
[Q1] (9) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1146) bt William Aherne (GBR,UNR) 63 60
[Q1] (11) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) bt Kelsey Stevenson (CAN,UNR) 76(1) 75
[Q1] (6) Divij Sharan (IND,1017) bt Ethan Tulliani (AUS,UNR) 62 61
[Q1] Ashutosh Singh (IND,1676) l (7) Luca Margaroli (SUI,1070) 57 16

Not so good show in qualifying ... Only Abhijeet Tiwari scored upset win over higher ranked Japanese opponent to qualify for main-draw.

From this week Danai is not playing in Cambodian futures so big chance for our players to lift title here ... This week Karan is joining our gang :) So our 2 players r top 2 seeds and 5 players r in top 8 seedings.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 12

Viswanathan Anand - Anish Giri ½-½
Ruslan Ponomariov - Alexei Shirov ½-½
Erwin l'Ami - Levon Aronian ½-½
Jan Smeets - Alexander Grischuk 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Wang Hao 1-0
Hikaru Nakamura - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Ian Nepomniachtchi 1-0

Group B - Round 12
Radek Wojtaszek - Suryashekhar Ganguly 0-1

Group c - Round 12
Mark van der Werf - Tania Sachdev 0-1

Giri hold Anand after 50 moves ... Quick 20 moves draw between Nakamura and Kramnik ... But Carlsen scored another solid victory in 29 moves to moved into third place with Aronian ... Nakamura still leading by ½ pt over Anand ... Now only last round is remaining.

In group B Ganguly defeated Wojtaszek in 33 moves playing with black ... Similar result produced by Tania in group C playing with black, she defeated van der Werf in 43 moves.

Football News
At I-League 2010-11, India - Round XII

Mumbai FC l Salgaocar SC 0-1

Goal Scored - Ryuji Sueoka (SSC) 34'
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Pune FC bt JCT Mills FC 4-0

Goal Scored - Mandjou Keita (PFC) 48', 64' and 80', Asim Hasan (PFC) 66'
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Chirag United SC bt ONGC, Mumbai 4-2

Goal Scored - Joshimar Da Silva Martins (CU) 42', Elija Junior (CU) 55', Denson Devadas (CU) 60', Lalkamal Bhowmick (CU) 81' and Badmus Babatunde (ONGC) 58' and 90'
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HAL, Bangalore l Dempo SC 0-3

Goal Scored - Ranti Martins (DSC) 7' and 67', Roberto Mendes Silva (Beto) (DSC) 49'
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East Bengal dw Churchill Brothers SC 2-2

Goal Scored - Sanju Pradhan (EB) 49' P, Tolgay Ozbey (EB) 70' and Kayne Vincent (CB) 68' and 90+' P
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Viva Kerala l Indian Arrows (AIFF XI) 0-1

Goal Scored - Subodh Kumar (IA) 87'
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Air India FC dw Mohun Bagan 1-1

Goal Scored - Manjit Singh (AI) 45+' and Jose Ramirez Barreto (MB) 58'

Newly named Indian Arrows scored upset win over Viva with late goal from Subodh Kumar ... East Bengal side was unlucky to get full 3 points due to penalty conceded in last minute of the match ... Air men also hold Mohun Bagan for 1-all draw.

Salgaocar scored away win with Mumbai FC with goal from Japanese recruit Ryuji Sueoka ... Pune FC scored their first home win of the season, they convincingly beat JCT with hat-trick from Mandjou Keita ... Chirag scored home victory against ONGC ... Dempo also scored convincing win away win against HAL.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Men's Doubles Final
[F] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 36 46

In first game of the match our pair had 3 break point chances at 0-40 but they failed to convert it ... After that Bryans managed to hold their serve easily and they managed to keep pressure on Lee and Mahesh's serve ... They take crucial break on Lee's serve in 6th game and that was enough to won first set for Bryans ... In second set also Bryans managed to hold their serves easily and keeping pressure on Indians ... Take crucial break on Mahesh's serve in 9th game due to error of judgements from Lee and Mahesh ... Then also lucky break of net cord on break point for Bryans ... In 10th game on Bob's serve our pair showed spirited effort ... Mahesh hit 2 superb backhand down the line winner and created break point chance at 30-40 ... But then Bob hit moster services to won game and match.

Our pair looked lot better than Chennai open ... If they continue to play more together then they r having definitely chance of capturing few more grandslam titles.

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At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[SF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) bt (3) Toshihide Matsui (JPN,436) 76(5) 63

[F] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) vs (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA,458)

Doubles
[F] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) l (3) UDOMCHOKE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 46 46

Good win by Vishnu to reached in the final ... In the final he is facing Danai, who is playing top 150 tennis this week as he didn't loose more than 4 games in any match.

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At Davis Cup 2011,

Expected team is announced for our away Davis cup world group match against defending champions Serbia from 14th to 16th March.


Karan and Vishnu r added in the team as reserves.

Davis Cup team - S.P. Misra (non-playing captain), Leader Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna.

Reserves - Karan Rastogi and Vishnu Vardhan.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 11

Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Hikaru Nakamura 0-1
Vladimir Kramnik - Magnus Carlsen 0-1
Wang Hao - Jan Smeets ½-½
Alexander Grischuk - Erwin l'Ami ½-½
Levon Aronian - Ruslan Ponomariov ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Anish Giri ½-½

Group B - Round 11
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Luke McShane 0-1

Group c - Round 11
Tania Sachdev - Roeland Pruijssers ½-½

Anand agreed to draw with Vachier-Lagrave playing with black after 34 moves ... But Nakamura take sole lead with win over Nepomniachtchi in 44 moves ... Carlsen played excellent end game to beat Kramnik in 80 moves playing with black ... So now after 11th round, Nakamura is leading with 8 pts, Anand is second with 7½ pts, Aronian is in 3rd place with 7 pts and Carlsen with Kramnik r on 6½ pts.

In group B Ganguly faced another loss against McShane in 57 moves ... In group C Tania managed to hold Pruijssers in 34 moves.

Badminton News
At $1.2M Victor Korea Open Super Series Premier 2011, Seoul

[QF] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (8) Qing Tian (CHN)/ Yunlei Zhao (CHN) 16-21 15-21

Indian challenge ended in this mega event with loss of Jwala and Ashwini in doubles quarter finals against Chinese pair ... Seeded Chinese pair scored easy straight games victory in 30 mins.

Tennis News
At $50K+H Singapore Challenger,

[QF] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) l (8) Andrej Martin (SVK,177) 36 46

Doubles
[SF] Rik DE Voest (RSA)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) l (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 46 76(2) 7-10

Somdev started well breaking Andrej's serve in 3rd game but lost his serve in next game to make it 2-all ... Andrej again broke Somi's serve in 6th game and that was enough to won first set .. In second set also Andrej take crucial break in 5th game and that was enough to won second set and match in 1 hour 25 mins.

In doubles Somi and Rick tried comeback after losing first set ... They won second set in tie-break before losing super tie-break.
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At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[QF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) bt Ervand Gasparyan (RUS,867) 76(3) 75
[QF] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) l (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA,458) 36 16

[SF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) vs (3) Toshihide Matsui (JPN,436)

Doubles
[SF] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) bt GASPARYAN (RUS)/ IVANOV (EST) 62 26 12-10

[F] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) vs (3) UDOMCHOKE (THA)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA)

Excellent fighting win for Vishnu over Gasparyan in singles and in doubles semi final ... Yesterday surprised to see Yuki's loss against Gasparyan but happy that Vishnu managed to take care of him ... In semis Vishnu is facing 3rd seed Japanese Matsui and in doubles final he is facing Thai pair with Divij.

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At $10K Turkey F3 Futures, Antalya

[QF] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) l (3) Toni Androic (CRO)/ Dino Marcan (CRO) 64 67(5) 0-10

Badminton News
At $1.2M Victor Korea Open Super Series Premier 2011, Seoul

[R2] P Kashyap (IND,23) l (3) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,3) 16-21 13-21
[R2] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) l Sayaka Sato (JPN,27) 21-17 19-21 11-21

[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Mizuki Fujii (JPN)/ Reika Kakiiwa (JPN) 21-18 14-21 21-15
[R2] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (6) Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Qing Tian (CHN) 16-21 13-21

[QF] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (8) Qing Tian (CHN)/ Yunlei Zhao (CHN)

Jwala and Ashwini scored another fighting win over higher ranked Japanese opponents to moved into quarters ... Now they r having big challenge of Chinese pair.

Otherwise disappointing day ... Gade defeated Kashyap in easy match ... Jwala and Diju also couldn't produce much fight against seeded Chinese pair.

But shocking result was of Saina ... Saina started well winning first game easily but from second game Japanese Sayaka Sato played pressure on Saina ... She kept 2/3 points lead from middle of the game to won it ... In decider after 7-all Sayaka Sato didn't give any chance to Saina and won it comfortably ... After longtime we r seeing Saina losing against below top-25 player.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Doubles
[SF] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) 76(5) 46 63

[F] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Mixed Doubles
[QF] Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l (2) Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) W/O

Lee and Mahesh created history reaching final of Australian Open after 11 yrs and will try to win their first Australian Open doubles title ... In first set both pairs traded couple of breaks ... They were up 6-5 after breaking serve in 11th game but couldn't manage to finish the set ... Then Lee and Mahesh won tie-break 7-5 ... In second set Lee and Mahesh had couple of break point chances but failed to take ... Other hand Nestor and Mirnyi also had couple of break point chances they converted one breaking Lee's serve in 5th game, Lee was up 40-0 before losing his serve, to won second set ... In third set our pair didn't gave a single break point chance and converted one they got in 6th game ... While Mahesh serving for the match our pair converted second match point after duece to move into the final against Bryans.

Mahesh and Rodionova gave walkover in MXD quarter-final ... Hoping no serious injury scare for Mahesh, mostly precautionary before men's double final on Saturday.
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At $50K+H Singapore Challenger,

[R2] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) bt John Millman (AUS,203) 64 63
[R2] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND,332) l Dmitry Tursunov (RUS,197) 36 26

[QF] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs (8) Andrej Martin (SVK,177)

Doubles
[R1] Rik DE Voest (RSA)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) bt (4) Flavio Cipolla (ITA)/ Simone Vagnozzi (ITA) 64 63

[QF] Rik DE Voest (RSA)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) bt (WC) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE) 64 36 10-7
[QF] Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 67(5) 62 5-10

[SF] Rik DE Voest (RSA)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Somi had easy outing ... He scored comfortable win but today also he lost his serve when he was serving for the match at 5-2 ... I think many time we experience this with Buji .. Next he is facing 8th seed Andrej Martin in quarters.

Somi also completed his doubles first round match after match was stopped when he and Rik were leading 3-1 in second set ... They won this and immediately played quarters against Dima and his partner ... Rik and Somi won in super tie-break and will face Ratiwatana twins in the semis, who defeated Treat and Purav.

Dima was tough to handle for Karan as Dima still play game of top-50 type but this was important experience for Karan to his future matches and development.
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At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[R2] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) bt Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,833) 36 64 62
[R2] (5) Yuki Bhambri (IND,525) l Ervand Gasparyan (RUS,867) 36 46
[R2] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) bt Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,566) 63 64
[R2] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,677) l (8) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,551) 46 26

[QF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) vs Ervand Gasparyan (RUS,867)
[QF] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) vs (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA,458)

Doubles
[QF] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) bt GAJJAR (IND)/ MALIK (IND) 61 64
[QF] PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND) l GASPARYAN (RUS)/ IVANOV (EST) 46 57

[SF] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) vs GASPARYAN (RUS)/ IVANOV (EST)

Shocking loss of Yuki against Russian Ervand Gasparyan ... I hope Vishnu handles him in quarters as Ervand Gasparyan also eliminated Indian pair with his partner in doubles.

Vishnu scored nice comeback win over talented Liang-Chi Huang ... Rohan also played exceptional well to win in straight sets against similar ranked Japanese player.
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At $10K Turkey F3 Futures, Antalya

[R1] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1206) l (Q) Piotr Gadomski (POL,731) 26 26

Doubles
[R1] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) bt Durukan Durmus (TUR)/ Artem Smirnov (UKR) 75 26 10-3

[QF] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) vs (3) Toni Androic (CRO)/ Dino Marcan (CRO)

Akash and Srirambalaji earned their first ranking point of 3 weeks of Turkey futures as they won their doubles first round match ... But not a single ranking point for Akash and Srirambalaji from this 3 weeks of Turkey futures in singles.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 10

Viswanathan Anand - Alexei Shirov 1-0
Anish Giri - Levon Aronian ½-½
Ruslan Ponomariov - Alexander Grischuk 1-0
Erwin l'Ami - Wang Hao 0-1
Jan Smeets - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Ian Nepomniachtchi 0-1
Hikaru Nakamura - Max. Vachier-Lagrave 1-0

Group B - Round 10
Friso Nijboer - Suryashekhar Ganguly 0-1

Group c - Round 10
Benjamin Bok - Tania Sachdev ½-½

Anand and Nakamura again take joint lead with dominating wins after 10th round ... Anand defeated Shirov in 26 moves playing with white ... Nakamura defeated Vachier-Lagrave in 33 moves playing with white ... Other 2 last round joint leaders , Kramnik and Aronian, matches ended in a draw.

In other match Nepomniachtchi handed shock defeat playing with black to Carlsen in 53 moves ... So that is almost ended Carlsen title hope.

In group B Ganguly scored much needed victory playing with black in 51 moves ... In group C match Tania hold Benjamin Bok in marathon match after 70 moves.

Badminton News
At $1.2M Victor Korea Open Super Series Premier 2011, Seoul

[R1] P Kashyap (IND,23) bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,26) 21-17 21-9
[R1] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,21) 19-21 21-14 22-20

[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Tsz Ka Chan (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG) 18-21 22-20 22-20
[R1] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Nathan Robertson (ENG)/ Jenny Wallwork (ENG) 21-19 21-18

[R2] P Kashyap (IND,23) vs (3) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,3)
[R2] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Sayaka Sato (JPN,27)

[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Mizuki Fujii (JPN)/ Reika Kakiiwa (JPN)
[R2] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (6) Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Qing Tian (CHN)

Saina is started season 2011 with Superseries Premier tournament, year's first tournament with prize money over 1 million dollars ... But Saina had tough outing ... After leading in most of the first game Saina was up 18-16 before losing it ... In second game she dominated from the start to win it easily ... In third game both players had chance ... Saina take early lead but then Tai take lead and was 2 pts from winning the match at 19-17 before losing after saving one match point.

Kashyap scored very comfortable win over similar ranked Thai player in 31 mins ... But next he is facing experienced WR Nr. 3 Peter Gade.

Jwala had contrasting winning start in women's doubles and mixed doubles ... Jwala and Ashwini scored remarkable comeback fighting win over Hong Kong pair ... In MXD with Diju she scored straight games victory over British pair.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Doubles
[QF] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (8) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 64 64

[SF] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN)

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (4) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 67(11) 67(5)
[R2] Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Sara Errani (ITA)/ David Marrero (ESP) 63 61

[QF] Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (2) Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN)

Lee and Mahesh break once in each set to scored very important victory against Zimo and Llodra ... In first set they got important break on Llodra's serve in 9th game and then in second set they broke Zimo's serve in 9th game after 7 duece ... It was quality match as both pairs played well, only our pairs were more consistent on winning important points ... In the semis they will face 2nd seed Nestor and Mirnyi.

Easy win for Mahesh and Rodionova ... Next they r facing 2nd seed Nestor and Srebotnik in quarter finals.

But defending champion Lee and Cara lost in 2 tie-breaks against Hanley and Yung-Jan Chan.
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At $50K+H Singapore Challenger,

[R1] Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 62 61
[R1] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) l (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 46 16
[R1] Rik DE Voest (RSA)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs (4) Flavio Cipolla (ITA)/ Simone Vagnozzi (ITA) 64

[QF] Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Today rain disrupted play ... Purav and Treat scored very dominating win over Chinese pair ... But Karan and his Indonasian lost easily against Thai twins.

Last time when I checked Somi and Rik was up by one set but no updates after that.
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At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[R1] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) bt (WC) Kenny Bun (CAM,1516) 76(4) 62
[R1] (5) Yuki Bhambri (IND,525) bt (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,1017) 76(2) 62
[R1] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) bt Vivek Shokeen (IND,983) 76(2) 62
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,800) l (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA,458) 16 16
[R1] (Q) Ashutosh Singh (IND,1676) l Kirati Siributwong (THA,978) 57 46

[R2] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) vs Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,833)
[R2] (5) Yuki Bhambri (IND,525) vs Ervand Gasparyan (RUS,867)
[R2] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) vs Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,566)
[R2] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,677) vs (8) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,551)

Expected wins for our players in singles.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Turkey F3 Futures, Antalya

[Q2] (14) Akash Wagh (IND,1206) bt Sardor Pulatov (UZB,UNR) 46 64 64

[Q3] (16) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) l (3) Tomislav Brkic (BIH,781) 46 46
[Q3] (14) Akash Wagh (IND,1206) bt Sebastian Padure (ROU,1676) 75 64

[R1] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1206) vs (Q) Piotr Gadomski (POL,731)

Doubles
[R1] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) vs Durukan Durmus (TUR)/ Artem Smirnov (UKR)

With back to back wins Akash qualified for maindraw but Srirambalaji lost in the final qualifying round.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 9

Hikaru Nakamura - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Jan Smeets 0-1
Vladimir Kramnik - Erwin l'Ami 1-0
Wang Hao - Ruslan Ponomariov 1-0
Alexander Grischuk - Anish Giri ½-½
Levon Aronian - Alexei Shirov 1-0

Group B - Round 9
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Vlad Tkachiev 0-1

Group c - Round 9
Mark Bluvshtein - Tania Sachdev 1-0

As expected another draw for Anand but after 41 moves ... Kramnik catched them with win over Erwin l'Ami ... Carlsen and Vachier-Lagrave ended in a draw, so they remained ½ pt behind 3 leaders who is having 6 pts.

In group B, Ganguly lost playing with white against Vlad Tkachiev in 64 moves ... In group C, Tania received beating in 29 moves from Mark Bluvshtein.

Tennis News
At $50K+H Singapore Challenger,

[R1] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) bt (WC) Peerakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA,1174) 62 61
[R1] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND,332) bt Brydan Klein (AUS,214) 61 36 64

[R2] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs John Millman (AUS,203)
[R1] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND,332) vs Dmitry Tursunov (RUS,197)

Doubles
[R1] Rik DE Voest (RSA)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs (4) Flavio Cipolla (ITA)/ Simone Vagnozzi (ITA)
[R1] Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN)
[R1] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) vs (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Superb third set comeback win by Karan against WR #215 Aussie player Brydan Klein ... After winning first set easily Karan but from second Brydan Klein started to play well ... He take 1-3 lead but Karan managed to make it 3-all ... But Brydan Klein managed to win next 3 games to won second set ... In third set Brydan Klein broke Karan in first game but Karan immediately broke back ... Brydan Klein again broke him in 5th game but again got broken by Karan in 6th game to make it 3-all ... Brydan Klein take another break in 7th game to take 4-3 lead but Karan having different plan ... Karan won next 3 games breaking Brydan Klein's serve twice to complete remarkable win over top-220 player.

Buji had expected easy start against wildcard player.

Next Karan having tough match against former top-20 but currently struggling Dmitry Tursunov, who started with easy win over seeded Ivo Minar in the first round ... Buji is facing unheard Aussie player John Millman.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[R1] (7) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,545) l Bumpei Sato (JPN,837) 26 67(2)
[R1] (Q) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) l (8) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,551) 63 36 36
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,677) bt (Q) David Agung Susanto (INA,UNR) 62 62

[R2] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,677) vs (8) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,551)

Doubles
[R1] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) bt SIE (INA)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 64 62
[R1] GAJJAR (IND)/ MALIK (IND) bt ISOBE (JPN)/ TRIJATI (INA) 62 62
[R1] PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt (4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) 62 57 11-9

[QF] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) vs GAJJAR (IND)/ MALIK (IND)
[QF] PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND) vs GASPARYAN (RUS)/ IVANOV (EST

Bad loss for Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan against Japanese player ... Kaza started well but failed to finish it, so no ranking point for him.

Good upset win by Ashutosh and Vijay Sundar against another Indian seeded pair.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Doubles
[R3] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (13) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Tommy Robredo (ESP) 64 46 64
[R3] (10) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (8) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 63 67(6) 67(3)

[QF] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (8) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)

Tough win for Lee and Mahesh ... In this match Lee was struggling to hold his serve ... In third set he didn't hold his serve once and 4 times his serve was broken in the match ... Other hand Tommy Robredo was also facing same problem ... Our pair won first set with a single break ... In second set Spaniards take crucial break in 9th game on Lee's serve ... In third set Lee lost his serve in 3rd game but they immediately broke Granollers serve to make it 2-all ... In 6th game they broke Robredo's serve but in next game Lee again failed to hold ... At 5-4 our pair again broke Robredo's serve to won match.

Rohan and Aisam were unlucky to lose against 8th seed Zimo and Llodra ... In complete match they didn't lose their single service games in the match and most of the part they were better pair on the court ... After winning first set a single break, our pair was on the roll ... But Llodra and Zimo used their all experience in both tie-breaks to make result in their favor ... Now Lee and Mahesh need to break their jinx of losing against Zimo and his partner.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[Q2] (3) Divij Sharan (IND,1017) bt (15) Araik Arutunyan (RUS,1591) 61 60
[Q2] (9) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) bt (4) Luca Margaroli (SUI,1070) 63 75
[Q2] Christopher Marquis (IND,1704) l (6) Elbert Sie (INA,1146) 06 16
[Q2] (16) Ashutosh Singh (IND,1676) bt (7) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1146) 64 75

[R1] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,387) vs (WC) Kenny Bun (CAM,1516)
[R1] (5) Yuki Bhambri (IND,525) vs (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,1017)
[R1] (7) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,545) vs Bumpei Sato (JPN,837)
[R1] (6) Rohan Gajjar (IND,535) vs Vivek Shokeen (IND,983)
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,800) vs (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA,458)
[R1] (Q) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) vs (8) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,551)
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,677) vs (Q) David Agung Susanto (INA,UNR)
[R1] (Q) Ashutosh Singh (IND,1676) vs Kirati Siributwong (THA,978)

Doubles
[R1] (1) SHARAN (IND)/ VARDHAN (IND) vs SIE (INA)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)
[R1] GAJJAR (IND)/ MALIK (IND) vs ISOBE (JPN)/ TRIJATI (INA)
[R1] (4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) vs PRASHANTH (IND)/ SINGH (IND)

Good win by Kaza over higher ranked Swiss player ... Ashutosh also qualified with win over Tiwari.

Tough draw for Sharan as he is facing Yuki in first round ... Another all Indian match Gajjar is facing Shokeen ... Vijayant Malik having tough match against Udonchoke ... In doubles our all pairs r in same top draw.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Turkey F3 Futures, Antalya

[Q2] (14) Akash Wagh (IND,1206) vs Sardor Pulatov (UZB,UNR)
[Q2] (16) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) bt Igor Karpov (RUS,UNR) 46 60 62

After first set hiccup easy last 2 sets for Srirambalaji.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 8

Viswanathan Anand - Levon Aronian ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Alexander Grischuk 1-0
Anish Giri - Wang Hao 1-0
Ruslan Ponomariov - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Erwin l'Ami - Ian Nepomniachtchi ½-½
Jan Smeets - Max. Vachier-Lagrave 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Hikaru Nakamura 1-0

Group B - Round 8
Li Chao - Suryashekhar Ganguly ½-½

Group c - Round 8
Tania Sachdev - Jan Willem de Jong 1-0

Another draw for Anand this time with Levon Aronian playing with White after 34 moves ... But Anand again become joint leader due to loss of Nakamura against Carlsen in 37 moves, who is playing like newly found form and very near to catching the leaders ... Vachier-Lagrave also scored win with Black against Smeets to join Carlsen, Kramnik and Aronian on 3rd place ... Shirov scored his first victory of the tournament.

In group B Ganguly managed draw with Li Chao playing with Black ... In group C Tania Sachdev scored another impressive win over Jan Willem de Jong in 46 moves playing with White.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Mixed Doubles
[R1] Zi Yan (CHN)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l (3) Maria Kirilenko (RUS)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 67(6) 16

[R2] (4) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)
[R2] Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Sara Errani (ITA)/ David Marrero (ESP)

Junior Girls
[R1] Rishika Sunkara(IND,103) l Emi Mutaguchi(JPN,71) 57 46

Rohan and Zi Yan matched game with third seed opponents in the opening set before losing the first set in close tie-break ... In second set they lost serve early in second game and then again lost their serve to gave this set without much fight.

Sunkara lost against higher ranked Japanese player in decent match.

-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K+H Singapore Challenger,

[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Roy Hobbs (SING,NR) 63 60
[Q2] Purav Raja (IND,UNR) l (4) Mikhail Vasiliev (RUS,300) 57 36

[R1] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs (WC) Peerakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA,1174)
[R1] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND,332) vs Brydan Klein (AUS,214)

Somdev is top-seed and facing Thai wildcard player ... Karan recieved wildcard and facing top-220 Aussie player.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At Cambodia F1 Futures, Phnom Penh

[Q1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND,1017) bt Nadin Teofil Indre (ROU,UNR) 63 61
[Q1] (9) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) bt Krishik Divakar (IND,UNR) 63 62
[Q1] Christopher Marquis (IND,1704) bt (13) Kotaro Isobe (JPN,1431) 75 76(2)
[Q1] (7) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1146) bt Ethan Tulliani (AUS,UNR) 60 62
[Q1] (16) Ashutosh Singh (IND,1676) bt (WC) Sambath Orn (CAM,UNR) 61 62

[Q2] (3) Divij Sharan (IND,1017) vs (15) Araik Arutunyan (RUS,1591)
[Q2] (9) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,1169) vs (4) Luca Margaroli (SUI,1070)
[Q2] Christopher Marquis (IND,1704) vs (6) Elbert Sie (INA,1146)
[Q2] (7) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1146) vs (16) Ashutosh Singh (IND,1676)

Good tight win by Christopher Marquis over higher ranked Japanese.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Turkey F3 Futures, Antalya

[Q1] (14) Akash Wagh (IND,1206) bye
[Q1] (16) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) bye

[Q1] (16) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) vs Igor Karpov (RUS,UNR)

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 7

Magnus Carlsen - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Jan Smeets 1-0
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Erwin l'Ami ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Ruslan Ponomariov ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Anish Giri 1-0
Wang Hao - Alexei Shirov ½-½
Alexander Grischuk - Levon Aronian 0-1

Group B - Round 7
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Wouter Spoelman 1-0

Group c - Round 7
Murtas Kazhgaleyev - Tania Sachdev 1-0

Boring stuff for spectators as Anand and Carlsen agreed for quick draw in 18 moves ... Anand and Carlsen's quick draw opened door for Nakamura and he take full advantage of it scoring win in 61 moves to take sole lead ... Kramnik and Aronian won their respective matches to moved on joint third position, they r only ½ pt behind second place Anand.

In group B, Ganguly scored dominating win in 26 moves playing with White ... But in group C, Tania lost against Murtas Kazhgaleyev in 52 moves playing with Black.

Football News
At I-League 2010-11, India - Round XI

Air India FC bt Dempo SC 4-0

Goal Scored - Manjit Singh (AI)13', Uttam Kumar Singh (AI) 25', Samsung Singh (AI) 55', Okorogor Praise (AI) 89'
-----------------------------------------

Mohun Bagan bt AIFF XI 2-0

Goal Scored - Edeh Chidi (MB) 11' and 81'
-----------------------------------------

Salgaocar SC bt JCT Football Club 2-0

Goal Scored - Ryuji Sueoka (SSC) 32', Francis Fernandes (SSC) 79'
------------------------------------------

East Bengal bt HAL SC, Bangalore 1-0

Goal Scored - Penn Orji (EB) 35'
-----------------------------------------

Viva Kerala dw Chirag United SC 1-1

Goal Scored - Anil Kumar KP (VK) 80' and Mohammed Rafique (CU) 49'
-----------------------------------------

Mumbai FC bt ONGC, Mumbai 1-0

Goal Scored - Ebi Sukore (MFC) 36'
------------------------------------------

Pune FC l Churchill Brothers 0-1

Goal Scored - Kayne Vincent (CB) 65'

East Bengal continued with their good form with another win ... Mumbai FC also scored back to back victory ... Viva hols Chirag with late equaliser ... But Pune FC's poor form continued.

Airmen scored shocking thumping win over Dempo scoring 2 goals in each half ... Mohun Bagan and Salgaocar scored expected victory with similar scoreline.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Doubles
[R2] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Feliciano Lopez (ESP)/ Juan Monaco (ARG) 76(2) 64

[R3] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (13) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Tommy Robredo (ESP)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (4) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Alisa Kleybanova (RUS)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) 76(2) 46 12-10
[R1] Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Andrea Petkovic (GER)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL) 62 62

Lee and Mahesh moved in to round three with 2 tight sets victory over Lopez and Monaco ... Next they r facing Spanish pair of Robredo and Granollers.

Defending champion Cara and Lee had very tough outing against tricky pair of Mirnyi and Kleybanova ... They won first set tie-break comfortably but in second set they were break down early and lost it ... They won very closely fought super tie-break to moved into second round.

Other hand Mahesh and Rodionova had very easy outing ... They won both set with double breaks in 55 mins.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 6

Viswanathan Anand - Alexander Grischuk ½-½
Levon Aronian - Wang Hao ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Vladimir Kramnik 0-1
Anish Giri - Ian Nepomniachtchi 0-1
Ruslan Ponomariov - Max. Vachier-Lagrave ½-½
Erwin l'Ami - Hikaru Nakamura 0-1
Jan Smeets - Magnus Carlsen 0-1

Group B - Round 6
David Navara - Suryashekhar Ganguly 1-0

Group c - Round 6
Tania Sachdev - Daniele Vocaturo 1-0

Today 4 players won with playing with Black ... Anand was in trouble against Grischuk but saved and managed draw as Grischuk couldn't take advantage ... Carlsen, Kramnik and Nakamura won ... So Nakamura again joins Anand at the top ... Giri lost against Nepomniachtchi.

Carlsen is getting his form back so tomorrow's match against him important for Anand ... Today I was also hoping for win against Grischuk considering his poor form but that not happened and other take advantage of situation to getting closer ... Impressed with Nakamura's consistent performance in this tournament.

Impressive win by Tania over sole leader Vocaturo and this time with White ... Now she is on 3½ pts, only 1 pt behind leader ... Hopefully she will keep this momentum in next rounds.

Badminton News
At $15K Swedish International Stockholm 2011,

[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) l (Q) Mayu Sekiya (JPN,152) 7-21 20-22
[R1] Aditi Mutatkar (IND,81) l Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,87) 19-21 20-22

Arundhati lost in first round against her Japanese opponent in straight games though in second game she fought well ... Aditi also failed to overcome Japanese opponent ... She lost to similar ranked player in the close match.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Doubles
[R2] (10) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Jeremy Chardy (FRA)/ Arnaud Clement (FRA) 63 46 64

[R3] (10) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (8) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)

Rohan and Aisam scored 3 sets victory over tricky French pair to moved into 3rd round ... Next they r facing 8th seed new pairing of Llodra and Zimo.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 5

Jan Smeets - Viswanathan Anand 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Erwin l'Ami 1-0
Hikaru Nakamura - Ruslan Ponomariov ½-½
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Anish Giri ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alexei Shirov ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Levon Aronian ½-½
Wang Hao - Alexander Grischuk 1-0

Group B - Round 5
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Wesley So 0-1

Group c - Round 5
Robin van Kampen - Tania Sachdev ½-½

Anand played excellent attacking endgame to won match in 65 moves ... With that Anand take a sole lewad after 5th round with 4 pts, he is ½ pt ashead of American GM Hikaru Nakamura ... Carlsen scored his first win of the tournament in marathon match after 94 moves with White over Erwin l'Ami ... All other board matches were ended in a draw.

In Group B Ganguly lost another match with White ... In Group C Sachdev managed draw against Kampen with Black.

Today Anand is playing with White against Alexander Grischuk.

Badminton News
At $15K Swedish International Stockholm 2011,

[Q1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt Sofie Werner (SWE,360) 21-8 21-9
[Q2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt Kim Buss (GER,238) 21-15 21-11

[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) vs (Q) Mayu Sekiya (JPN,152)

[R1] Aditi Mutatkar (IND,81) vs Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,87)

This week Arundhati is playing at Swedish International in qualifying, She qualified for maindraw with easy wins over her ranked opponents ... Now she joined Aditi Mutatkar in maindraw and both r facing Japanese opponents in first round.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $5K Yonex Estonian International 2011, Tallinn

[F] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) l (3) Michelle Kit Ying Chan (NZL,95) 16-21 19-21

[SF] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt (6) Özge Bayrak (TUR,118)
[QF] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt (2) Perrine Le Buhanic (FRA,85) 21-14 15-21 21-11
[R2] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt Natalya Voytsekh (UKR,173) 21-15 21-12
[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt Natalia Perminova (RUS,141) 14-21 21-8 21-14

[Q2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt (5) Airi Mikkelä (FIN,452) 21-10 21-13
[Q1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,UNR) bt Ieva Linkute (LTU,UNR) 21-9 21-9

Arundhati produced superb results as an qualifier in international event at Estonia after runner-up at recently concluded nationals ... She scored one top-100 win and lost against another in the final ... Still no rank for her as she doesn't participated in required minimum tournaments for the criteria.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

Doubles
[R1] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Ivo Karlovic (CRO)/ Dusan Vemic (SRB) 57 63 60
[R1] (10) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Franco Ferreiro (BRA)/ Andre Sa (BRA) 63 60

[R2] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)/ Juan Monaco (ARG)
[R2] (10) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Jeremy Chardy (FRA)/ Arnaud Clement (FRA)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (4) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Alisa Kleybanova (RUS)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR)
[R1] Zi Yan (CHN)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (3) Maria Kirilenko (RUS)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)
[R1] Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Andrea Petkovic (GER)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)

Slow start for Mahesh and Lee against big server opponents ... But after losing first set they came into the match strongly ... In final set they didn't give any chance to Karlovic and Vemic ... Other hand Rohan and Aisam started their campaign with thumping win ... They lost only 3 games in the match and they also won final set without losing any game.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) l (1) sela Dulko (ARG)/ Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 46 16

[R1] Scott Lipsky (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) l (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 36 63 46

Expected result against WR #1 pair for Sania and her Czech partner Renata Voracova ... After decent first set they couldn't produced much fight in second set.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 4

Viswanathan Anand - Wang Hao 1-0
Alexander Grischuk - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Levon Aronian - Ian Nepomniachtchi 1-0
Alexei Shirov - Max. Vachier-Lagrave 0-1
Anish Giri - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Ruslan Ponomariov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Erwin l'Ami - Jan Smeets ½-½

Group B - Round 4
Laurent Fressinet - Suryashekhar Ganguly 1-0

Group c - Round 4
Tania Sachdev - Ilya Nyzhnyk 0-1

Anand scored win playing with White against Chinese GM Wang Hao in 33 moves ... This win helped him to move with Nakamura as joint leader ... But Ganguly and Tania lost their matches in respective groups.

Football News
At I-League 2010-11, India - Round X

Pune FC l HAL SC, Banglore

Goal Scored - Hamza Jagaba (HAL) 24'
------------------------------------------

Dempo SC l Salgaocar SC 1-3

Goal Scored - Ogba Kalu (DSC) 4' and Ryuji Sueoka (SSC) 32' and 80', Francis Fernandes (SSC) 57'
-----------------------------------------

AIFF XI dw JCT Football Club 0-0
-----------------------------------------

Chirag United l Mumbai FC 0-1

Goal Scored - Ebi Sukore (MFC) 19'
-----------------------------------------

Viva Kerala l East Bengal 0-1

Goal Scored - Tolgay Ozbey (EB) 41'
-----------------------------------------

ONGC, Mumbai l Mohun Bagan 1-3

Goal Scored - ND Opara (ONGC) 43' P and Ishfaq Ahmed (MB) 32', Chidi Edeh (MB) 34' and 89'
------------------------------------------

Churchill Brothers bt Air India 2-0

Goal Scored - Robert (CB), Bineesh Balan (CB)

Mumbai FC upset Chirag in away match ... Otherwise expected other results though East Bengal struggled to beat Viva.

Salgaocar scored dominating win over Dempo ... Again Japanese Sueoka was star for Salgaocar ... In other match young AIFF XI side drew with JCT ... Pune FC lost their home tie against HAL ... In their 2nd season Pune FC clearly struggling due to lack of form of their main Brazilian striker Edmar Figueira ... They r in 11th position in standing with 8 pts.

Football News
At AFC Asian Cup 2011, , Doha, Qatar

Group C
India l South Korea 1-4

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (IND) 12' P and Dong Won Ji (KOR) 6' and 23', Ja Cheol Koo (KOR) 9', Heung Min Son (KOR) 81'

Nothing special to write as we again struggled in defence ... Korea were up 2-0 in first 10 mins India scored through penalty due to mistake by defender Tae Hwi Kwak ... Once again Subrata Pal was exceptional under the goal and pulled off numerous brilliant saves in the second half ... Bhaichung Bhutia made his first appearance in the AFC Asian Cup when he replaced Abhishek Yadav in the 78th minute.

So with that Indian campaign from AFC over ... We ended with 3 losses scoring 3 goals and conceding 13 ... Still need lot of work to do for decent showing against these top Asian teams.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 3

Erwin l'Ami - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Jan Smeets - Ruslan Ponomariov 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Anish Giri 0-1
Hikaru Nakamura - Alexei Shirov 1-0
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Levon Aronian ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Alexander Grischuk ½-½
Vladimir Kramnik - Wang Hao ½-½

Group B - Round 3
Zahar Efimenko - Surya Ganguly ½-½

Group c - Round 3
Dariusz Swiercz - Tania Sachdev 0-1

Another quick draw in 31 moves for Anand ... Nakamura scored win over Shirov to take sole lead ... In shocking result teenager Anish Giri take full advantage of opening blunder from Magnus Carlsen to beat him in just 22 moves ... In other match Ponomariov scored his first win of the tournament.

In Group B, Ganguly managed to hole his opponent playing with Black ... In Group C, Tania showing tremdous form in playing with Black ... She scored her second win with Black after yesterday's loss with White.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,110) l Tommy Robredo (ESP,51) 67(4) 36 46
[R1] (Q) Sania Mirza (IND,145) l (11) Justine Henin (BEL,13) 75 36 16

Match between Sania and Justine was service nightmares for players who was serving ... Both players were struggled to hold their service games ... Both were continuously exchanging break after another ... Sania was up 4-2 but lost next 3 games and was set point down at 4-5 40-30 but Sania saved a set point and then break Justine's serve to make it 5-all ... Holding her serve in next game after saving break point she broke Justin's serve to won first set ... Justin started with breaking Sania's serve in first game to take early lead but Sania broke back in 4th game to make it 2-all ... Immediately Justine broke Sania's serve in 5th game to take lead ... Again she broke Sania's serve in 9th game to won second set ... From second set Justine started to play better tennis ... In third set also Justine started positively breaking Sania's serve in 2nd game to take 3-0 lead ... Again Justine broke Sania's game in 6th game to won decider comfortably.

Today Sania again showed she had game to match with top-25 player but her service games let her down ... Feel sorry to see her struggle with holding her own service games ... In this match also she had big chance of producing memorable upset if her service was good.

As expected baseline battle between Buji and Robredo ... Robredo was serving better and holding with ease still Buji managed to take set in tie-break ... Robredo went up 4-0 with couple of mini-break, Somdev tried to comeback taking one mini-break back but Robredo kept control to win first set ... In second set Tommy broke Somi's serve twice and Somi managed to break back only once to lose this set ... Last set also went like second set where Buji managed to break Tommy's serve once but Tommy broke Buji's serve twice to won set and match in 2 hrs 37 mins ... Somdev didn't play bad match but then he also didn't play great enough to upset consistent Robredo.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Turkey F2 Futures, Antalya

[Q3] Akash Wagh (IND,1206) l (6) Ilia Starkov (RUS,759) 26 06
[Q3] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) l Kevin Botti (FRA,1116) 46 26

[Q2] Akash Wagh (IND,1206) bt George Von Massow (GER,UNR) 62 64
[Q2] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) bt Toni Androic (CRO,831) 76(5) 76(7)

After scoring superb fighting win by Srirambalaji over higher ranked Croatian ... Our both players failed to cross final hurdle of qualifying ... Akash lost cheaply without giving any fight.

Golf News
At $5.5M Sony Open, Honolulu, Hawaii - Final Standing (PGA Tour)

T30 Arjun Atwal 67 68 69 70 -6

After excellent 3 under first round expectation were high but Arjun couldn't produce same score in remaining rounds to finished on joint 30th place.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 2

Viswanathan Anand - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Wang Hao - Ian Nepomniachtchi 0-1
Alexander Grischuk - Max. Vachier-Lagrave ½-½
Levon Aronian - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Anish Giri - Jan Smeets ½-½
Ruslan Ponomariov - Erwin l'Ami ½-½

Group B - Round 2
Suryashekhar Ganguly - Jon Ludvig Hammer 1-0

Group c - Round 2
Tania Sachdev - Katherina Lahno 0-1

Only 1 game produced in Group A when Nepomniachtchi joined the leaders with victory over Chinese GM Hao ... Other most of games ended in quick draw ... Anand and Kramnik match ended in just 23 moves.

In Group B, Suryashekhar Ganguly bounced back after Round 1 match ... He defeated Jon Ludvig Hammer playing with White ... But in Group C, Tania lost with White against Katherina Lahno.

Chess News
At Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A - Round 1

Ruslan Ponomariov - Viswanathan Anand 0-1
Erwin l'Ami - Anish Giri ½-½
Jan Smeets - Alexei Shirov 1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Alexander Grischuk 1-0
Max. Vachier-Lagrave - Wang Hao ½-½
Ian Nepomniachtchi - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½

Group B - Round 1
Gabriel Sargissian - Surya Ganguly 1-0

Group c - Round 1
Ivan Ivanisevic - Tania Sachdev 0-1

This year tata steel is sponsoring Wijk aan Zee tournament ... Anand startd with win over Ruslan Ponomariov in 52 moves playing with Black ... He is currently joint leader with Hikaru Nakamura and Jan Smeets.

In second round Anand is facing Vladimir Kramnik.

In Group B match, Suryashekhar Ganguly lost his first round game playing with Black against Gabriel Sargissian ... In Group C match, Tania Sachdev scored win with Black over Ivan Ivanisevic to be joint leader.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

[Q3] (24) Sania Mirza (IND,145) bt Stephanie Dubois (CAN,164) 62 63

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,110) vs Tommy Robredo (ESP,51)
[R1] (Q) Sania Mirza (IND,145) vs (11) Justine Henin (BEL,13)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Ivo Karlovic (CRO)/ Dusan Vemic (SRB)
[R1] (10) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Franco Ferreiro (BRA)/ Andre Sa (BRA)
[R1] Scott Lipsky (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) vs (1) sela Dulko (ARG)/ Flavia Pennetta (ITA)

Surprisingly dominating win for Sania against player with whom she struggled in the past ... Sania was in control of the match from start ... Up with early break she lost her serve to lead 3-2 but won next 3 games to win first set ... In second set she take 4-1 before wrapping the match.

After tough 2nd qualifying match this was very good news that Sania scored easy victory against tough Canadian, with whom she lost before, Stephanie Dubois ... But very cruel draw for Sania in singles and doubles ... In singles she is facing former WR #1 Justine Henin and in doubles she with her Czech partner facing WR #1 doubles team.

In men's doubles, Lee and Mahesh r third seeds ... They r facing big server opponents, Croatian Ivo Karlovic and Serbian Dusan Vemic ... Rohan and Aisam r 10th seeds, they r also bottom draw with Lee and Mahesh and can face them in quarters ... In first round Rohan and Aisam r facing Brazilian pair Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa.
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At $10K Turkey F2 Futures, Antalya

[Q1] Akash Wagh (IND,1206) bt Oleksiy Odazhyu (UKR,UNR) 63 62
[Q1] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) bt Antun Pehar (CRO,UNR) 67(6) 64 63

[Q2] Akash Wagh (IND,1206) vs George Von Massow (GER,UNR)
[Q2] Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,1409) vs Toni Androic (CRO,831)

Last week both playewrs failed to win single ranking point ... Hopefully this week they do better, 2nd week qualifying begins.

Akash had easy match with unranked Ukrainian player but Srirambalaji had tough time against unraked Croatian ... He scored comeback win but in second qualifying he is facing another Croatian, who is top 850 player.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

[Q2] (24) Sania Mirza (IND,145) bt Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS,171) 64 67(7) 63

[Q3] (24) Sania Mirza (IND,145) vs Stephanie Dubois (CAN,164)

Sania had poor match considering her struggle with her service games ... In first set both players broke service 2 times, at one time Sania was 3-4 down with break ... She won next 3 games breaking Diatchenko's serve twice to captured first set ... First game of second sent went on for 15 mins before Sania hold her serve then both players were breaking service games of opponents ... Sania broke Diatchenko in 2nd and 4th games, otherhand Diatchenko broke Sania's serve in 3rd game and 7th game to brought it on serve at 4-3 ... Again Sania immediately broke her serve in 8th game to lead 5-3 but she failed to hold her serve, so again back on serve, 5-4 ... After that both players hold their serves to take serve in tie-break ... In tie-break Sania was 2-6 down, she saved a set point on serve ... Then she won 2 points on Diatchenko's serve and then hold her serve to save all those 3 set points ... Sania had a match point at 7-6 but Diatchenko hold her serve and take important break on 16th point to won second set ... In third set both players hold their serves first 6 games, 3-all ... After that Sania broke Diatchenko's serve in 7th and 9th games to won set and match ... This match was going on for 2 hours 36 mins.

Tough third round qualifying match against Canadian Stephanie Dubois, who defeated Sania twice before this.

Football News
At AFC Asian Cup 2011, , Doha, Qatar

Group C
India l Bahrain 2-5

Goal Scored - Gouramangi Singh (IND) 9', Sunil Chhetri (IND) 52' and Faouzi Aaish (BHR) 6' P, Ismaeel Abdulatif 19', 22', 35' and 77' (BHR)

In this match defenders put us down ... We started well attacking Bahrain goal from the start ... But stupid foul by Indian captain Climax Lawrence inside penalty box gave Bahrain side spot-kick and Faouzi Aaish easily scored ... Immediately after 3 mins Gouramangi Singh scored equaliser from close range when Abhishek Yadav directed header towards him from long pass through Renedy Singh ... At that time we played very spirited game but our defence were keeping too many spaces and Ismaeel Abdulatif take full advantage before scoring hattrick in 20 mins to gave winning lead to Bahrain side ... In early of second half Sunil scored goal through header to gave some hope to Indian fans ... Then in 61st minute Faouzi Aaish was red carded for unnecessary diving as he take second yellow card of the match ... But Indian failed to utilise this advantage of having extra legs on the field ... 13 mins before end of the game Ismaeel Abdulatif scored his 4th goal as another mistake from defender to gave comfortable win over Indians.

Football News
At I-League 2010-11, India - Round IX

Dempo SC bt Pune FC 2-1

Goal Scored - Ranty Martin (DSC) 81' and 84' P and Mandjou Kieta (PFC) 14'
------------------------------------------

Salgaocar SC l Mohun Bagan 1-3

Goal Scored - Ryuji Sueko (SSC) 89' and Ishfaq Ahmed (MB) 7', Edeh Chidi (MB) 12' and 18'
-----------------------------------------

AIFF XI dw Mumbai FC 1-1

Goal Scored - Fela (AIFF) 7' and Ebi Sukore (MFC) 90+'
-----------------------------------------

JCT Football Club bt Air India FC 2-0

Goal Scored - Kareem (JCT) 61', BK Ibrahim (JCT) 64'
-----------------------------------------

Chirag United dw East Bengal 0-0

Goal Scored - Josimar (CU) 81 '
-----------------------------------------

Churchill Brothers bt HAL SC, Banglore 3-0

Goal Scored - Bineesh Balan (CB) 50', Zakeer Mundampara (CB) 58', K Vincent (CB) 86'
-----------------------------------------

ONGC, Mumbai bt Viva Kerala 1-0

Goal Scored - ND Opara (ONGC) 90'

Chirag grabbed important point holding East Bengal ... ONGC scored crucial late goal to won their match against Viva ... Churchill scored expected easy victory.

Mohun Bagan scored much needed away win over 2nd place Salgaocar ... Young AIFF side were unlucky to share a point with Mumbai FC after late goal in dying minute ... JCT scored win over Airmen.

Pune FC take early lead against Dempo and they were leading until 80th minute ... But they conceded 2 goals in 4 mins to lost this match against Dempo.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne, Australia

[Q1] (24) Sania Mirza (IND,145) bt Iryna Kuryanovich (BLR,206) 64 62

[Q2] (24) Sania Mirza (IND,145) vs Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS,171)

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,110) vs Tommy Robredo (ESP,51)

Sania started with comfortable win against Kuryanovich in first round qualification ... In this match Sania lost her serve twice, once in a each set, but she broke Kuryanovich serve 5 times ... Next she is facing Russian Diatchenko, before this they played at Pattaya open in 2009 where Sania comfortably won 64 60.

Men's main-draw is out and Somi is facing veteran and experienced Spanish player Tommy Robredo.
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At $422.3K Medibank International, Sydney, Australia

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 57 64 8-10

This new pairing of Dlouhy and Hanley proved strong for Rohan and Aisam ... After losing close first set our pair made comeback winning second but they failed to win super tie-break.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2011, Melbourne

[Q1] (24) Sania Mirza (IND,145) vs Iryna Kuryanovich (BLR.206)

Australian open qualifying draw is out ... Decent draw for Sania.
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At $422.3K Medibank International, Sydney, Australia

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)

Rohan and Aisam r facing new pairing of Lukas Dlouhy and Paul Hanley, who won title at Brisbane last week.
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At $10K Turkey F1 Futures, Antalya

[R1] (Q) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND,1409) l Dino MARCAN (CRO,727) 26 46
[R1] (Q) Akash WAGH (IND,1207) l Simon CAUVARD (FRA,630) 64 16 57

Though he lost still good fighting performance by Akash against top-650 Frenchman.

Tennis News
At $422.3K Medibank International, Sydney, Australia

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Richard Gasquet (FRA) w/o (finger infection to Julien Benneteau)

Recieved walkover due to finger infection (?) to Benneteau ... So now our pair's semis will be on Friday.

Football News
At AFC Asian Cup 2011, , Doha, Qatar

Group C
India l Australia 0-4

Goal Scored - Timothy Filiga Cahill (AUS) 11' and 65', Harry Kewell (AUS) 25', Brett Holman (AUS) 45+',

As expected Socceroos proved too strong for Indians ... From start Australian kept attacking Indian post and managed to open account in 11th minute through Cahill ... Then former Liverpool striker Kewell idoubles the lead in 25th minute ... In first half injury-time Holman scored third goal for Aussies ... In second half Cahill scored his 2nd goal with powerful header.

In 27 yrs first time India was participating in the tournament had very tough lesson in opening match ... Australians outplayed us.

Golf News
At $5.6M Hyundai Tournament of Champions, Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii - Final Standing

T12 Arjun Atwal 72 69 68 70 -13 $ 132,000.00

Really good start for Arjun in 2011 PGA TOUR's season opener considering he was first-timer in this prestigeous tournament ... In this tournament only last year's winners from PGA TOUR participated so competition was very tough ... After first round Arjun played well in next 3 rounds ... In last round he had chance of finishing inside top-10 as after conceding double bogey on 12th hole he scored 3 birdies on row but another bogey on 17th hole cost him top-10 finish.

Tennis News
At $422.3K Medibank International, Sydney, Australia

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (WC) Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Marinko Matosevic (AUS) 62 63

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Richard Gasquet (FRA)

Comfortable winning start for Rohan and Aisam against local wild-card pair ... Next they r facing French pair, who upset newly formed 2nd seed pair of Daniel Nestor and Max Mirnyi.
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At $10K Turkey F1 Futures, Antalya


[Q1] (14) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND,1409) bye
[Q1] (11) Akash WAGH (IND,1207) bye

[Q2] (14) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND,1409) bt Andreas NEYKOV (BUL,1743) 64 62
[Q2] (11) Akash WAGH (IND,1207) bt Mert DINC (TUR,UNR) 62 62

[Q3] (14) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND,1409) bt (1) Ilia STARKOV (RUS,760) 64 63
[Q3] (11) Akash WAGH (IND,1207) bt (4) Medy CHETTAR (FRA,930) 76(8) 64

[R1] (Q) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND,1409) vs Dino MARCAN (CRO,727)
[R1] (Q) Akash WAGH (IND,1207) vs Simon CAUVARD (FRA,630)

Good upset wins by Srirambalaji and Akash Wagh over higher seeds to qualify for main draw.

Tennis News
At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

Doubles Final
(1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Robin Haase (NED)/ David Martin (USA) 62 67(3) 10-7

Lee and Mahesh started well breaking Haase's serve in 2nd game ... In next game Mahesh saved 3 break points before holding it ... In 7th game Lee hold serve after duece before converting 3rd set point on Martin's serve to win first set.

In second set Lee lost his serve in 3rd game due to loose serving ... But our pair immediately broke back in next game breaking Haase's serve at 15 ... Then both pairs hold their serves to take set into tie-break ... Haase and Martin played near perfect tie-break to won it easily.

In super tie-break Haase and Martin started positively taking early mini-break to lead 1-4 ... But our pair came back taking mini-breaks on Haase's serve, 5-4 ... Martin gave mini-break back with lucky net cord, 6-5 ... On next 2 Martin's serve Mahesh played excellent return game and volley to gave double mini-break, 8-5 but on Lee's serve Haase played excellent game from back of the court and picked up drop volley, 8-7 ... On Haase's serve Mahesh hit super double handed backhand down the line service return to gave first match point ... On Haase's next serve Lee hit excellent lob for that Martin only managed to barely return which gave chance to Mahesh hit forhand winner in middle of Haase and Martin to complete victory.

So good start for 2011 season for Lee and Mahesh as a pair ... They r still not playing perfect game like their glory days but their spirit is back as the pair ... Congrats Lee and Mahesh for another title!
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At $422.3K Medibank International, Sydney, Australia

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ vs Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (WC) Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Marinko Matosevic (AUS)

Football News
At I-League 2010-11, India - Round VIII

Mohun Bagan l Chirag United SC 0-1

Goal Scored - Josimar (CU) 81 '
-----------------------------------------

JCT Mills SC bt ONGC, Mumbai 1-0

Goal Scored - Badru Ibrahim (JCT) 37'
-----------------------------------------

Air India FC dw HAL, Bangalore 1-1

Goal Scored - Colin Abranches (AI) 84' and Vijay Kumar (HAL) 76'
------------------------------------------

East Bengal bt Pune FC 1-0

Goal Scored - Tolgay Ozbey (EB) 65'
-----------------------------------------

AIFF XI dw Dempo SC 1-1

Goal Scored - Shilton D'Silva (AIFF) 8' and Ranty Martins (DSC) 28'
-----------------------------------------

Salgaocar SC bt Churchill Brothers 4-3

Goal Scored - Luciano Sobrosa (SSC) 30', Jaspal Parmar (SSC) 34', Ryuji Sueoka (SSC) 36' and 45'and K Vincent (CB) 20' and 65', Israil Gurung (CB) 35'
-----------------------------------------

Mumbai FC bt Viva Kerala 2-0

Goal Scored - Ebi Sukore (MFC) 67 ' and 90+'

Chirag scored upset win over Mohun Bagan on late goal ... JCT scored win over ONGC ... East Bengal scored another win of their campaign over Punce FC with goal from their prolific goal-scorer Australian Tolgay Ozbey ... Young AIFF XI side hold mighty Dempo side.

In exciting match Salgaocar scored win over Churchill Brothers in 7 goals thriller ... Mumbai FC also scored win over Viva ... HAL hold Airmen to 1-all draw.

Tennis News
At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[SF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Marin Cilic (CRO)/ Ivan Dodig (CRO) 61 67(4) 10-5

[F] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Robin Haase (NED)/ David Martin (USA)

Mahesh and Lee started in dominating fashion to won first set losing one game but second set went on serves and in tie-break Lee committed double fault and missed volley to gave chance to Croatian pair to make it one set all ... In super tie-break our pair kept pressure from the start ... Cilic and Dodig struggled to won points on their serve ... On match point Cilic committed double fault ... In the final Lee and Mahesh facing unseeded pair of Haase and Martin, who already upset 2 Indian pairs in this tournament.

Tennis News
At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Philipp Marx (GER)/ Ken Skupski (GBR) 64 76(3)

[SF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Marin Cilic (CRO)/ Ivan Dodig (CRO)

After close first round win from jaw of defeat Lee and Mahesh played another close match ... But in this first set they won it with a break and in second they won tie-break easily to face big servers Croatians in semi-final.

Formula One News

Hispania has officially confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan has signed with the team as a race driver for the 2011 Formula One season.


Narain was a race driver for Jordan Grand Prix in 2005, and a test driver for Williams F1 in 2006 and 2007 ... From 2007 until 2009, he was the lead driver for A1 Team India in A1GP, The World Cup of Motorsport, where he won two races and achieved one pole position, becoming the first Indian ever to win a World Championship race ... In 2009, he raced for the Kolles Audi Team in the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24-Hour race, again becoming the first ever Indian to race in that legendary event ... The car finished 7th overall ... In 2010 Narain raced in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in the USA, also in the Superleague Formula in Europe, where he won a race at his favourite circuit, Brands Hatch in the UK ... His win there has extended his already unique record at that circuit, where he is the only driver to win a race in every series in which he has ever raced.

Other hand Karun Chandhok, who was a race driver for Hispania in half of 2010 season, is almost certain of not getting any race seat for 2011 season ... The most likely scenario is a test role with Tony Fernandes (Lotus Racing) ... So a year as understudy with the Malaysian outfit could see Chandhok return to the F1 grid in 2012.

Narain Karthikeyan - "It's been a while in the making, but I am extremely happy to be racing again in Formula 1 in 2011. I have always maintained that I have not given up on my desire to return to the pinnacle of world motorsport. I am confident that I still have the pace, the fitness and the will to succeed in Formula 1. I'm looking forward to racing for Hispania Racing, and to working again with Dr. Colin Kolles. We have a long standing and excellent working relationship together. I'm also looking forward to racing at the first ever Indian Grand."

Karun Chandhok - "There's no real race seat that we are chasing, we were not chasing the HRT seat at all. I've been speaking to a variety of people, but at the moment I am quite focused on getting something done for the medium to long term. If a third driver role leads to something better for 2012, then that's what I'd like to see."

Tennis News

Somdev Devvarman recieved well deserving Asian wild-card for Australian Open ... So this will be his first main-draw entry in Australian Open.
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At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Robin Haase (NED)/ David Martin (USA) 46 57

Both pairs were matching eachother game and played decent tennis ... Hasse and Martin take crucial break in 7th game breaking Rohan's serve to won first set ... In second set our pair was again early break down but they tried comeback in the set breaking Martin's serve to make it 3-all ... But Haase and Martin broke Aisam's serve in 11th game and then Haase hold to won this match ... Frankly speaking better team won as Haase and Martin produced much better game than our pair.
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At $220K ASB Auckland International, New Zealand

[SF] (3) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) l (1) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 16 16

Very one-sided loss against top-seed pair.

Tennis News
At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R1] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Marcos Daniel (BRA)/ Eduardo Schwank (ARG) 63 76(3)

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Philipp Marx (GER)/ Ken Skupski (GBR)
[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Robin Haase (NED)/ David Martin (USA)

Good start of new season for Rohan and Aisam ... Though they stretched to tie-break in decider still their comination looks good on the court.
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At $220K ASB Auckland International, New Zealand

[QF] (3) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) bt Johanna Larsson (SWE)/ Jasmin Woehr (GER) 62 76(4)

[SF] (3) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) vs (1) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)

Sania and her partner Renata Voracova moved into semis with straight sets victory ... In semis they r facing top-seed Peschke and Srebotnik.

Tennis News
At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R1] (WC) Rohan Bopanna (IND,626) l (3) (WC) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI,21) 46 46
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) l (Q) David Goffin (BEL,229) 26 46
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,505) l (Q) Alexandre Kudryavtsev (RUS,159) 26 16

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 26 26

David Goffin surprised Somi with his aggressive game, he walked on the court with proper plan which he executed to the perfection ... Other hand Somi struggled with his regular game ... Depth in shots were missing, service returns were not upto the mark, also not a great serving from him and he failed to read 20 yrs Goffin's game ... So today our players lost all their respective matches.

Rohan and Wawrinka's match went same way like last year ... In first set Rohan played loose service game 7th game to lose this set ... In second set he gave early break in first game ... Rohan had a chance of breaking back in 8th game when he was 15-40 leading but failed to convert break point ... Then both players hold their serves and Rohan lost second set on similar score like first set.

Yuki received tough and ruthless lesson of tour match from experienced Kudryavtsev in one-sided match ... Kudryavtsev won match in 50 mins ... Was expecting better fighting performance from Yuki.

Bolelli and Tipsarevic tamed Vishnu and Divij in their first round match.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $220K ASB Auckland International, New Zealand

Doubles
[R1] (3) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) bt Sarah Borwell (GBR)/ Marie-Eve Pelletier (CAN) 63 64

[QF] (3) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) vs Johanna Larsson (SWE)/ Jasmin Woehr (GER)

Winning start in doubles with Voracova.

Squash News

Big congrats to Dipika Pallikal, who reached her personal best ranking in latest WISPA ranking, #27 ... With this she also equal the best ladies singles squash ranking by any Indian player, before this Misha Grewal was #27 ranked in March 1995.

Tennis News
At $ 398,250 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs (Q) David Goffin (BEL,229)
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,505) vs (Q) Alexandre Kudryavtsev (RUS,159)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Frank Dancevic (CAN)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 36 76(8) 10-4
[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l Robin Haase (NED)/ David Martin (USA) 75 26 8-10

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Philipp Marx (GER)/ Ken Skupski (GBR)

Match report - Lee/ Hesh vs Dancevic/ Wawrinka
Our pair started tentatively, both players made errors but Mahesh was struggling more in the opening set ... In this set no old magic by Lee and Mahesh, Lee's regular net game was missing ... Other hand Dancevic and Wawrinka played perfect game on their own service games with huge and big serves ... They take crucial break in 2nd game on Mahesh's serve ... Though our pair saved 2 set points on Lee's serve in 8th game but in next game Dancevic hold his serve on luv to won first set in 31 mins.

It's 2-all in second set ... Our pair is struggling on their serves, other hand Dancevic and Wawrinka holding their serves easily ... While looking this match our pair's energy level looking very low, they r struggling to cover net or running behind to return lob ... Saved 3 break points to hold serve and lead 3-2.

Now it is 3-all and in second set Dancevic/ Wawrinka still doesn't lose a single point on their serve ... Lee hold @15 with couple of easy smashes by both players to lead 4-3 ... At last Lee managed to win a point on Wawrinka's serve with superb crosscourt backhand service return, immediately Mahesh hit down the line backhand service return to gave 0-30 lead but Wawrinka hit powerful first serves (with 2 aces) to make it 4-all.

At last our pair hold their serve on luv, so Mahesh gives 5-4 lead ... Again powerful serving from Dancevic to hold @15, 5-all ... Lee also hold @15 to lead 6-5, frankly Lee is looking very tired - may be he is playing with some minor injury or still not match fit due to his bollywood assignments ... Wawrinka hold @15 to make it 6-all.

Tie-break time
Mini-break with lob from Dancevic on Mahesh's serve and Dancevic win next 2 points on his serve to lead 3-0 ... Lee win next 2 points on his serve to make it 2-3 ... Wawrinka win next 2 points on his serve with powerful services to lead 5-2 ... Mahesh win next point on his serve but Dancevic gave another mini-break with down-the-line backhand to give 3 match points, 6-3 ... But Dancevic misses his first serve on next 2 points and our experienced pair take 2 mini-breaks back and then Lee served ace to make it 6-all ... Wawrinka missed easy half volley to give first set point to Lee and Mahesh but Wawrinka hit an ace to make it 7-all ... Then Mahesh hit out to gave them 4th match point, again Lee played excellent crosscourt volley to make it 8-all ... Then Mahesh played excellent net game giving another set point with superb backhand angled volley ... AND Dancevic again missed first serve and made error on volley to gave Indian second set.

Super tie-break time
Suddenly Dancevic struggling with his serve, he double faulted to give Indians mini-break on first point ... Wawrinka hit out after good net game by Lee to give 2-0 lead ... Another excellent point by Indian pair which ended with Lee's smash 3-0 ... Wawrinka won point on wide serve and then Lee hit super forhand down-the-line to gave double mini-break, 4-1 ... Lee won next 2 points easily on his serve in that he hit an ace, 6-1 ... YES, first chest bump after another mini-break, 7-1, in that one superb volley by Lee that gave chance to Mahesh hit powerful forhand ... Dancevic managed to win point on his serve, 7-2 ... Mahesh hit big serve to make it 8-2 but lost next point on his serve, 8-3 ... Wawrinka win point on his serve to make it 8-4 ... Another excellent volley by Lee to gave 5 match points and this time jump chest bump , 9-4 ... Lee hit powerful serve to complete awesome comeback victory, 10-4.

From late in the second set Lee and Mahesh started to comeback in rhythm ... Dancevic's struggled on his serve in tie-breaks immensely helped our pair, they take full advantage of it ... Other hand Lee and Hesh serving was improve in tie-breaks ... Match ended at 1:15am.

Somdev and Sanam fought well in first set before converting break in 12th game on 3rd set point but from second set Hasse and Martin played excellent game ... They won second set easily and in super tie-break they made come back after down 5-7 ... They won 5 points from last 6 points to won this match.

In singles opponents r decided of Yuki and Buji ... Buji having winnable match against Belgian player but Yuki having tricky match against Kudryavtsev.