Football News

Indian football team received first round bye for Asian Qualifiers for 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil ... And having good second round draw against #111 United Arab Emirates ... Matches will be on, First leg - July 23 and Second leg - July 28.

Other hand in second round draw for the 2012 London Olympics men’s football tournament we r having tough match against #90 Qatar and will play home-and-away on June 19 (in Qatar) and June 23 (in India).

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

Doubles
[QF] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Oliver Marach (AUT)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 46 67(8)
[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (6) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 63 67(4) 10-7

[SF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Oliver Marach (AUT)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)

Feeling lot happy when Indian players defeated Zimo and any of his partner ... :-) ... Mahesh and Lee started well saved 8 break points on their serve and converted 2 from 4 to won first set ... Second set went as per service games but Zimo and Llodra managed to won tie-break ... In super tie-break Lee and Mahesh proved strong to find their place in the semis ... In the semis they r facing Marach and Tipsarevic, who defeated Rohan and Aisam ... After losing first set Rohan and Aisam tried hard in the second but lost closely fought tie-break.
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At $35K St Brieuc Challenger, France

[R1] (4) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Olivier CHARROIN (FRA) bt Sergei BUBKA (UKR)/ Pavol CERVENAK (SVK) 63 76(5)

[QF] (4) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Olivier CHARROIN (FRA) vs Yves ALLEGRO (SUI)/ Marc GICQUEL (FRA)

This week Purav is partnering Charroin in tough French challenger ... Had winning start but now they r facing experienced pair in quarters.
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At $10K Thailand F1 Futures, Khon Kaen

[SF] Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Ti Chen (TPE) l Kyu-Tae Im (KOR)/ Danai Udomchoke (THA) 76(3) 46 7-10
[SF] (3) Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) l (2) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Warit Wachiramanowong (THA) 67(3) 36

Both players lost in doubles semis so Indian challenge got over in this futures.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

Doubles
[R2] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Marc Lopez (ESP)/ David Marrero (ESP) 76(5) 64

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (6) Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)

Good fighting win for Lee and Mahesh ... In first set nobody lose their serves though our pair had couple of set points in 10th game ... But they played excellent tie-break to won first set ... They also won second set with a single break to moved into the quarters ... Next they r facing Zimo and Llodra.
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At $10K Thailand F1 Futures, Khon Kaen

[R2] (3) Rohan Gajjar (IND,540) l Kirati Siributwong (THA,950) 36 61 67(3)
[R2] Vijayant Malik (IND,791) l (5) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,564) 36 67(2)
[R2] (4) Rupesh Roy (IND,563) l (Q) Antoine Escoffier (FRA,1422) 36 61 57

Doubles
[QF] Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Ti Chen (TPE) bt Simon Cauvard (FRA)/ Elie Rousset (FRA) 63 76(5)
[QF] (3) Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) bt Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL)/ Alec Witmeur (BEL) 64 61
[QF] Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA) l (2) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Warit Wachiramanowong (THA) 26 46

[SF] Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Ti Chen (TPE) vs Kyu-Tae Im (KOR)/ Danai Udomchoke (THA)
[SF] (3) Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) vs (2) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Warit Wachiramanowong (THA)

Our poor record in singles at Thailand and Malaysia futures continued ... Our 2 players r in doubles semis.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

Doubles
[R2] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Michal Mertinak (SVK)/ Dick Norman (BEL) 76(4) 36 10-8

[QF] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Oliver Marach (AUT)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)

Rohan and Aisam started well breaking Norman's serve in second game but lost Aisam's serve in third game to back on serve ... When they were leading 5-4, they had a set point but failed to convert ... In tie-break they take mini-break at 3-all and take control to won the set ... In second set they their serve got broken and couldn't break opponent's serve to lost the set ... But again played solid super tie-break winning key points to moved into quarter-finals ... Next they r facing Marach and Tipsarevic, who upset Bryans.
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At $10K Thailand F1 Futures, Khon Kaen

[R1] (3) Rohan Gajjar (IND,540) bt (WC) Nuttanon Kadchapanan (THA,UNR) 64 67(3) 76(8)
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,791) bt (Q) Ben Wagland (AUS,1534) 63 75
[R1] (4) Rupesh Roy (IND,563) bt (Q) Sam Barry (IRL,1240) 57 63 64

[R2] (3) Rohan Gajjar (IND,540) vs Kirati Siributwong (THA,950)
[R2] Vijayant Malik (IND,791) vs (5) Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA,564)
[R2] (4) Rupesh Roy (IND,563) vs (Q) Antoine Escoffier (FRA,1422)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Kong Pop Lertchai (THA)/ Christopher Marquis (IND) l (1) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Hsin-Han Lee (TPE) 26 36
[R1] (3)Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) bt Andrew Gerst (USA)/ Matt Simpson (NZL) 62 36 10-4
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA) bt (WC) Nuttanon Kadchapanan (THA) / Warit Sornbutnark (THA) 61 64
[R1] Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Ti Chen (TPE) bt Sam Barry (IRL)/ Barry King (IRL) 64 67(2) 10-6

[QF] Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Ti Chen (TPE) vs Simon Cauvard (FRA)/ Elie Rousset (FRA)
[QF] (3)Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) vs Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL)/ Alec Witmeur (BEL)
[QF] Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA) vs (2) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Warit Wachiramanowong (THA)

Unexpectedly tough matches for our both seeded players ... Rohan Gajjar was stretched to the fullest and Rupesh needed fightback after losing the first set.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

[R3] Somdev Devvarman (IND,73) l (6) David Ferrer (ESP,6) 46 26

Doubles
[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Eric Butorac (USA)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) 62 63

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) l Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/ Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 46 36

[R2] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Marc Lopez (ESP)/ David Marrero (ESP)

From start Ferrer was making numerous unforced errors mostly due to Sommy's retrieving game ... Sommy broke him in the first game but Ferrer immediately broke back in the second game ... Sommy was struggling with his first serve in this match ... Again Sommy broke Ferrer in 5th game to handed back break in next game, 3-all ... In 8th game again Sommy saved 3 break points but while serving for staying in the set Sommy lost his serve in 10th game to lose first set ... Second set Ferrer hold his first 2 service games after deuce ... Sommy saved couple of break points in the second game but Ferrer broke him in the fourth game to take 1-3 lead ... But this time Sommy immediately broke back with excellent game from back court, in that he hit excellent lob winner (this was his 3rd lob winner of the match) ... Ferrer take decisive break in next sixth game and then hold his serve comfortably to lead 2-5 ... While serving to remained in the match Sommy lost his serve after 40-15 leading, Ferrer converted 2nd match point when Sommy's backhand went over the baseline ... Though Sommy lost in 1 hr 42 mins still he produced fighting performance ... In this match he struggled with his first serve and despite that he kept fighting for all points.

Indian Express scored convincing victory over their first round opponents ... In both sets they broke opponents serve twice to scored easy win ... Next they r facing Spanish pair.

After first round exit Sania mentioned about tiredness and fatigue after playing back to back matches ... That proved true in doubles also ... In the first set Sania and Elena fought back 2 times after a break down but when Sania lost her serve in 7th game they couldn't break back and lost first set ... In second set Sania lost her serve in 3rd game and Elena lost in 9th game to lose second set easily ... So Sania will take deserved and much needed couple of weeks break.

Formula One
At 2011 Australian Grand Prix, Melbourne

Both HRT drivers, Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi, failed to qualify for Australian GP race under '107% rule'.

In the race both Force India drivers, Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta, finished on 11th and 12th positions ... But following post-race checks, the Melbourne stewards decided that both Sauber C30s were in breach of technical regulations 3.10.1* and 3.10.2**, in relation to their rear wings, so Sauber’s Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi have lost their seventh and eighth positions ... Due to this Sutil and Paul di Resta promoted to 9th and 10th positions, which opened Force India's points account in season's first race.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt (5) Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Jie Zgeng (CHN) 62 46 10-7
[R1] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) 63 76(5)

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/ Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)
[R2] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Michal Mertinak (SVK)/ Dick Norman (BEL)

Sania and Elena played oozing with confidence after last week's Premier title win ... They broke twice 5th seed pair to won first set easily ... In second set they lost serve early but broke back to brought set on the serve but Chan and Zgeng take crucial break in 7th game to won this set ... In super tie-break Sania and Elena kept control to win match.

Rohan and Aisam had little trouble in holding their serves but despite facing break points they managed to hold ... Take crucial break in 8th game to won first set ... In second set both pairs hold their serves and set went into tie-break ... In tie-break our pair take early mini-break to lead 3-1 and kept that lead to won set and match.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,73) bt (31) Milos Raonic (CAN,34) 76(5) 75
[R2] (Q) Sania Mirza (IND,99) l (24) Maria Kirilenko (RUS,27) 75 36 06

[R3] Somdev Devvarman (IND,73) vs (6) David Ferrer (ESP,6)

Somdev started confidently breaking big serving Raonic in first game ... Again Sommy managed to break Raonic in 5th game to take 5-1 lead ... But in 8th game Sommy wasted 3 set points and Raonic managed to break back to make it 5-3 ... Then Raonic again broke Sommy in 10th game to make 5-all ... In tie-break Sommy take 5-1 lead Raonic saved another 2 set points before Sommy winning it ... In second set also Sommy struggled with his first serve percentage and Raonic broke him in marathon 3rd game to take early lead ... Sommy found opportunity in 8th game to broke back and he take it to make 4-all ... Then until 11th game both players hold their serve and in 12th game on Raonic's serve Sommy take chances and broke him @15 to won set and match in 2hours ... This is superb upset win over upcoming big thing on ATP tour.

So another showdown with top-10 player, this time Spanish WR #6 Devid Ferrer.

Kirilenko started match with breaking Sania's serve in first game to take 0-1 lead but Sania immediately broke back in next game to make it 1-all ... After that Kirilenko take control breaking Sania's serve twice to take 5-1 lead ... But Sania had different plan she won next 6 games breaking Kirilenko's serve thrice and also in that saved 3 set points in 8th game to won set after amazing comeback in the set ... Again in second set Kirilenko started with breaking Sania's serve but Sania immediately responded breaking Kirilenko's serve in 2nd and 4th games and take 3-1 lead ... After that instead of taking control of the match we experienced amazing meltdown ... Sania lost next 11 games to lost spectacularly ... It was shocking to see how any player lost from domianting situation without winning further any single game ... Sania lost this match in 2 hrs 26 mins.
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At $15K India F2 Futures, Kolkata

Singles Final
(1) Adam KELLNER (HUN) bt (5) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) 63 61

Singles Semi Finals
(Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) l (1) Adam KELLNER (HUN) 26 16
(5) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) bt (8) Nicolas REISSIG (AUT) 60 36 60

Doubles Final
(2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Srirambalaji Narayanswamy (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) 76(1) 76(5)

Kaza lost easily against top-seed in the semis ... But Divij and Vishnu won their back to back doubles title in this $15K future in 2 tie-breaks against Srirambalaji and Ashutosh.

Football News
At AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Group B
India dw Turkmenistan 1-1

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 60' and Begli Annageldiyev (TKM) 52' P

India managed draw, Jeje scored 4th goal in 3 matches ... Turned to be terrific tournament for young Jeje Lalpekhlua on his India senior debut ... So with that India finished top of the Group B.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 11 - Thursday 24 March
Blind
Ivanchuk-Topalov ½-½
Gashimov-Grischuk ½-½
Giri-Anand 0-1
Carlsen-Gelfand 0-1
Nakamura-Kramnik 0-1
Aronian-Karjakin ½-½

Rapid
Topalov-Ivanchuk 1-0
Grischuk-Gashimov ½-½
Anand-Giri 1-0
Gelfand-Carlsen 0-1
Kramnik-Nakamura 0-1
Karjakin-Aronian ½-½

Anand ended Amber Chess on positive note beating Anish Giri in Blindfold and Rapid ... But that wasn't enough to grab second place still it assured him sole third position ... Carlsen lost against Gelfand in Blind but won his Rapid match ... Other hand Aronian preferred draw against Karjakin to grab Amber Chess title.

Final Combined standing
1. Aronian 15½
2. Carlsen 14½
3. Anand 13
4. Grischuk 11
Ivanchuk 11
6. Gashimov 10½
Gelfand 10½
Nakamura 10½
Topalov 10½
10. Karjakin 10
11. Kramnik 8
12. Giri 7

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,73) bt Potito Starace (ITA,47) 62 64
[R1] (Q) Sania Mirza (IND,99) bt Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP,62) 62 64

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,73) vs (31) Milos Raonic (CAN,34)
[R2] (Q) Sania Mirza (IND,99) vs (24) Maria Kirilenko (RUS,27)

Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs (5) Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Jie Zgeng (CHN)
[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Eric Butorac (USA)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO)
[R1] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER)/ Rajeev Ram (USA)

After good week at Indian Wells Masters Somdev started confidently ... In first set Sommy broke Starace serve twice to won first set comfortably ... In this despite only 50% first serve percetage Somi didn't face a break point ... In second set Sommy again take early break to lead 3-2 but this time Starace broke him in 6th game to make it 3-all ... Sommy take crucial break in 9th game and then hold his serve to complete victory ... Next Sommy is facing Canadian young rising star Milos Raonic.

Sania also started confidently against Parra Santonja ... She broke Parra Santonja in 3rd and 7th games to won first set without facing break point ... In second set also she didn't lose focus ... Sania broke Parra Santonja in 7th game but lost her service in next game to make it 4-all ... But again Sania take break in 9th game and hold her serve to finish match in straight sets ... Sania next facing 24th seed Russian Maria Kirilenko.

In doubles our both pairs r again top draw and can face eachother in semis ... Rohan and Aisam r 7th seeds and they can face Bryans in quarters but before that they r having tricky first round against Rajeev Ram and Kohlschreiber.
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At $15K India F2 Futures, Kolkata

Singles Quarter Finals
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) l (1) Adam KELLNER (HUN) 26 46
(Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt (7) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 57 76(2) 36
(5) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) bt Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) 61 61
(8) Nicolas REISSIG (AUT) bt Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER) 67(2) 63 64

Doubles semi Finals
(3) NARAYANASWAMY (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt PRASHANTH (IND)/ ROY (IND) 63 64
(2) SHARAN (IND) / VARDHAN (IND) bt (4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 63 60

Yuki gave good fight after losing first set but sad to see he lost 6 games in a row after leading 4-0.

Other hand terrific performance by young Kaza against experienced Ranjeet ... He produced creditable fightback to won this match and book his match against top-seed.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 10 - Wednesday 23 March
Blind
Topalov-Aronian 0-1
Kramnik-Ivanchuk ½-½
Karjakin-Nakamura ½-½
Gelfand-Giri 1-0
Grischuk-Carlsen ½-½
Anand-Gashimov ½-½

Rapid
Aronian-Topalov ½-½
Ivanchuk-Kramnik ½-½
Nakamura-Karjakin ½-½
Giri-Gelfand ½-½
Carlsen-Grischuk 1-0
Gashimov-Anand 0-1

Anand won Rapid game against Gashimov, which helped him to score victory in 10th round ... Carlsen also won Rapid game against Grischuk to scored victory ... Aronian maintained his 1 pt lead with Blindfold victory over Topalov.

So before last round Aronian maintained lead with 14½ pts ... Carlsen is on second position with 13½ pts ... Anand is on sole third position with 11 pts.

Football News
At AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

Group B
India bt Pakistan 3-1

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 67' and 90+', Steven Dias (IND) 90' and Arif Mehmood (PAK) 32'

Good win by Indian side ... Showed good character after down by a goal in first half ... After Jeje scored equalizer in 67th mins they scored 2 goals in dying minutes to complete another win in Group B.

Terrific start of International career for Jeje, who scored 3 goals in 2 matches while playing for India seniors.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

[Q2] (19) Sania Mirza (IND,99) bt (8) Reneta Voracova (CZE,89) 64 62

[R1] (Q) Sania Mirza (IND,99) vs Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP,62)

Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs (5) Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Jie Zgeng (CHN)

Sania started slowly and lost her serve in first game ... After wasting few chances in second game Sania broke Reneta in fourth game to make it 2-all ... Then crucial break came in 10th game when Reneta was serving for the stay in the set ... Sania comfortably broke her @15 to won first set ... After losing her serve in first game Sania was holding her serve easily and same trend was continue in second set ... Sania broke Reneta in fourth game to take 3-1 lead and when Reneta was serving for staying in the match at 5-2 then again Sania broke her @30 to complete easy victory.

In this match Sania struggled with her first serve percentage, 45%, but won 77% points and also won 67% on her second serve ... Faced only break point which was in first game of the match ... Good to see she is winning so many points on her serves.

Winnable first round match against Spanish girl Arantxa Parra Santonja if she in not tired after playing non-stop tennis last 15 days ... Tough doubles round as first match against 5th seed Chan and Zgeng.
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At $15K India F2 Futures, Kolkata

Singles Second Round
(WC) Chandril SOOD (IND) l (1) Adam KELLNER (HUN) 16 06
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 61 64
(Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt (Q) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 76(2) 62
(7) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 76(6) 76(2)

Vijayant MALIK (IND) l (5) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) 67(7) 36
Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) bt (LL) Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 62 61
(8) Nicolas REISSIG (AUT) bt (Q) Maximilian NEUCHRIST (AUT) 75 64
Rupesh ROY (IND) l Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER) 36 76(4) 36

Doubles Quarter Finals
PRASHANTH (IND)/ ROY (IND) bt MARQUIS (IND)/ SIPAEYA (IND) 62 63
(3) NARAYANASWAMY (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt NEUCHRIST (AUT)/ WEISSBORN (AUT) 62 63
(4) BHAMBRI (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (WC) KRISHNA (IND)/ SUKUL (IND) 62 61
(2) SHARAN (IND) / VARDHAN (IND) bt MALIK (IND)/ SHOKEEN (IND) 62 60

Good to see Kaza Vinayak continued showing consistency upsetting senior Vignesh ... But anther disappointing loss of Rupesh against German Jaan-Frederik Brunken.

In doubles semis all Indian pairs.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 9 - Tuesday 22 March
Blind
Gashimov-Gelfand 1-0
Giri-Grischuk ½-½
Carlsen-Anand 0-1
Nakamura-Topalov 1-0
Aronian-Kramnik 1-0
Ivanchuk-Karjakin ½-½

Rapid
Gelfand-Gashimov 1-0
Grischuk-Giri 1-0
Anand-Carlsen 0-1
Topalov-Nakamura 1-0
Kramnik-Aronian ½-½
Karjakin-Ivanchuk ½-½

Anand and Carlsen match played like WR#1 and WR#2 ... Anand won Blind match to take lead but Carlsen fought back winning Rapid game ... Both players won their matches with black ... Aronian scored win over Kramnik winning Blind game.

After 9 rounds Aronian is leading with 13 pts and Carlsen is on second with 12 pts ... Grischuk joined Anand and Ivanchuk on third place with 9½ pts.

Tennis News
At $3.645M Sony Ericsson Open, Miami, Florida, USA

[Q1] (19) Sania Mirza (IND,99) bt Xinyun Han (CHN,125) 75 60

[Q2] (19) Sania Mirza (IND,99) vs (8) Reneta Voracova (CZE,89)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,73) vs Potito Starace (ITA,47)

Sania was very tired after winning Masters doubles title on Saturday then travelling to Miami and immediately on Monday playing qualifying ... She started slowly and Han take full advantage of it ... After wasting 4 break points in the first game Sania managed to hold her serve in 2nd game ... But from 1 all Sania lost her serve in 4th game and 6th game to found herself 1-5 down ... But then she produced unimaginable comeback and consecutively won next 11 games to won match and moved into final qualifying ... She will meet Czech player Reneta Voracova.

Other hand Somi receive lucky break and got direct entry in main-draw ... In first round he is facing top-50 Italian player and with his current form he should win this match.

Football News
At AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

India bt Chinese Taipei 3-0

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 33', Sunil Chhetri (IND) 75', Jewel Raja (IND) 87'

#145 India is in Group B with #147 Chinese Taipei, #154 Turkmenistan and #171 Pakistan.

The Indian national team made a perfect start to their AFC Challenge Cup 2012 qualifying campaign as they beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 in a Group B.

Jeje Lalpekhlua gave India the lead in the first half and then late goals in second half from skipper Sunil Chhetri and substitute Jewel Raja completed a good win ... Good to see our strikers r scoring goals.

Tennis News
At $15K India F2 Futures, Kolkata

Singles First Round
(1) Adam KELLNER (HUN) bt James FEAVER (GBR) 61 61
(WC) Chandril SOOD (IND) bt Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 62 64
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) l Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 61 36 26
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (Q) Sahr Timothy KPULUN (SLE) 62 62
(Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt (4) Gerald MELZER (AUT) 62 63
(Q) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt Kirati SIRIBUTWONG (THA) 62 62
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt (WC) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) 64 36 62
(7) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (PR) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) 63 64
(WC) Suresh KRISHNA (IND) l (5) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) 57 16
Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 64 57 64
(Q) Kenny BUN (CAM) vs Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) vs
(LL) Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) bt (LL) Arvind SINGH (IND) 60 62
(Q) Haadin BAVA (IND) l (8) Nicolas REISSIG (AUT) 36 36
(WC) Divij SHARAN (IND) l (Q) Maximilian NEUCHRIST (AUT) 63 16 26
Rupesh ROY (IND) bt (Q) Jatin DAHIYA (IND) 60 62
(2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) l Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER) 46 46

Doubles First Round
MARQUIS (IND) / SIPAEYA (IND) bt (1) KRETSCHMER (GER) / SATSCHKO (GER) 36 Retired
PRASHANTH (IND) / ROY (IND) bt MELZER (AUT) / REISSIG (AUT) 63 64
(3) NARAYANASWAMY (IND) / SINGH (IND) bt (WC) ANAND (IND) / TEWARI (IND) 60 76(2)
NEUCHRIST (AUT) / WEISSBORN (AUT) bt (WC) SOOD (IND) / SOOD (IND) 64 63
(WC) KRISHNA (IND) / SUKUL (IND) bt BUN (CAM) / TIWARI (IND) 64 67(5) 12-10
(4) BHAMBRI (IND) / VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt SIRIBUTWONG (THA) / SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 60 63
MALIK (IND) / SHOKEEN (IND) bt PERANAMALLUR (IND) / SHARMA (IND) 62 61
(2) SHARAN (IND) / VARDHAN (IND) bt MANUJA (IND) / UZAKOV (UZB) Walkover

Shocking loss of Vishnu against 20 yrs old German in straight sets ... Other hand 20 yrs old Chandril Sood scored comfortable upset win over Uzbek player ... Vivek started with winning first set easily but again failed to complete victory ... Srirambalaji produced fight but Vijay Sundar proved strong for him.

Terrific dominating upset win by Kaza Vinayak over top-450 Gerald Melzer ... Vignesh also scored upset win over Thai.

In doubles our 7 pairs r in quarters.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 8 - Sunday 20 March
Blind
Grischuk-Nakamura ½-½
Anand-Aronian ½-½
Gelfand-Ivanchuk ½-½
Kramnik-Gashimov ½-½
Karjakin-Giri ½-½
Topalov-Carlsen ½-½

Rapid
Nakamura-Grischuk 1-0
Aronian-Anand 1-0
Ivanchuk-Gelfand 1-0
Gashimov-Kramnik 1-0
Giri-Karjakin 1-0
Carlsen-Topalov 1-0

In 8th round Anand lost against Aronian and I think this loss mostly put him out of title race.

Aronian is leading with 11½ pts and closely followed by Carlsen on 11 pts ... Anand is sharing 3rd place with Ivanchuk at 8½ pts.

Badminton News
At $125K Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold 2011, Basel

Women Singles Final
(2) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Ji Hyun Sung (KOR,19) 21-13 21-14

Saina won her first title of 2011 beating unseeded Korean opponent in 42 mins ... Saina scripted comfortable win as from start she was never under pressure ... In both games she take control from the start to won it easily.


Congrats Saina!!!

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

Women Doubles Final
Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt (8) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Meghann Shaughnessy (USA) 60 75

Sania created history with her Russian partner Elena Vesnina winning her first Premier tournament title at Indian Wells ... This title win in this big tournament will give them confidence of winning grand slams in the future ... Sania dedicated her this title to the victim's of Japan's devastating earthquake ... This title win gave Sania 1000 ranking points, which push her doubles ranking to #32 and they won big prize money $118,500 each.


Sania and Elena started well, they were holding their serves easily ... They broke Shaughnessy's serve twice and Mattek-Sands serve once to won first without losing a game in 25 mins ... In second set Americans started serving with Mattek-Sands and she hold comfortably ... Then they broke Sania's serve in 2nd game and 6th game to take 1-5 lead ... Then Sania and Elena started fightback breaking Shaughnessy's serve in 7th game ... Vesnina hold before our pair again broke Mattek-Sands's serve ... Then in 10th game Sania first time hold her serve in second set ... Our pair take crucial break breaking Shaughnessy's serve in 11th game (this was 4th time they broke her serve) and then Vesnina hold comfortably to complete memorable win ... They showed solid nerve to make comeback after 1-5 down in the second set and won 6 games in a row to complete victory.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 7 - Saturday 19 March
Blind
Giri-Topalov 0-1
Carlsen-Kramnik 1-0
Gashimov-Karjakin ½-½
Aronian-Gelfand 1-0
Ivanchuk-Grischuk ½-½
Nakamura-Anand ½-½

Rapid
Topalov-Giri ½-½
Kramnik-Carlsen 0-1
Karjakin-Gashimov ½-½
Gelfand-Aronian ½-½
Grischuk-Ivanchuk 0-1
Anand-Nakamura ½-½

Magnus Carlsen improved his position with a 2-0 win over Vladimir Kramnik and now only ½ pt behind leader Levon Aronian ... Anand managed only draw with Nakamura so falling further behind from leaders ... So now Levon Aronian is still leading with 10 pts and Magnus Carlsen is on second position with 9½ pts ... Anand is remained on third position with 8 pts.

Badminton News
At $125K Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold 2011, Basel

[SF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (4) Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9) 21-19 13-21 21-14

Saina scored hard fought win over Korean Bae to moved into the final ... After winning closely fought first game Saina lost second game easily but in third Saina again take control to win match in 58 mins.

Tennis News
At $15K India F1 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Final
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (7) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) 26 75 63

Yuki scored superb comeback win over Croatian former world #88 Roko Karanusic ... In the begining Yuki started tentatively, Roko broke him in 3rd and 7th games to won first set comfortably ... In second set also Roko started breaking Yuki's serve in 1st game but this time Yuki was ready to fight back and he immediately broke back to make it 1-all ... Roko again broke him in 5th game and this time also Yuki immediately broke back to make it 3-all ... Roko take crucial break in 9th game ... In 10th game Yuki saved 2 championship points before breaking back ... Then he hold in 11th game and broke Roko to won second set ... After winning this set momentum was with Yuki ... In decider Yuki take crucial break in 4th game and hold his service games to won match ... Superb title win by Yuki.

Badminton News
At $125K Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold 2011, Basel

[Q1] Aditi Mutatkar (IND,69) l (4) Karina Jorgensen (DEN,56) 19-21 15-21

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) bt (Q) Keigo Sonoda (JPN,163) 21-19 10-21 21-10
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,42) bt Eetu Heino (FIN,86) 21-14 21-11
[R1] (6) P. Kashyap (IND,23) l Sven Eric Kastens (GER,94) 21-10 19-21 19-21

[R1] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (Q) Sashina Vignes Waran (FRA,62) 23-21 21-9

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Michael Fuchs (GER)/ Oliver Roth (GER) 21-19 21-16
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Johanna Goliszewski (GER)/ Carla Nelte (GER) 21-15 21-13
[R1] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Johannes Schoettler (GER)/ Sandra Marinello (GER) 21-15 14-21 21-19

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) bt Yuhan Tan (GER,82) 21-15 21-13
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,42) l (5) Wan Ho Shon (KOR,22) 21-17 15-21 18-21

[R2] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Eriko Hirose (JPN,12) 21-15 17-21 21-11

[R2] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt (6) Mads Conrad-Petersen (DEN)/ Jonas Rasmussen (DEN) 19-21 22-20 21-14
[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (7) Shizuka Matsuo (JPN)/ Mami Naito (JPN) 16-21 12-21
[R2] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (8) Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR) 14-21 9-21

[R3] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) bt (16) Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,30) 21-17 16-21 21-16

[QF] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (4) Chieh Min Fang (TPE)/ Sheng Mu Lee (TPE) 17-21 13-21

[QF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (6) Petya Nedelcheva (BUL,13) 22-20 21-17
[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) l (4) Sung Hwan Park (KOR,15) 19-21 19-21

[SF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (4) Youn Joo Bae (KOR,9)

Saina moved to semis beating Bulgarian Petya Nedelcheva in straight game ... In semis she is facing 4th seed and WR #9 Korean Youn Joo Bae ... Before this match Saina already played couple of matches with top-15 players so she looks in good nick.

Ajay Jayaram also had very good tournament, who reached into quarters ... Also our men doubles team played well to reach quarters.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 6 - Friday 18 March
Blind
Gelfand-Nakamura ½-½
Grischuk-Aronian ½-½
Anand-Ivanchuk ½-½
Topalov-Gashimov ½-½
Kramnik-Giri ½-½
Karjakin-Carlsen ½-½

Rapid
Nakamura-Gelfand 0-1
Aronian-Grischuk 0-1
Ivanchuk-Anand 1-0
Gashimov-Topalov 1-0
Giri-Kramnik 0-1
Carlsen-Karjakin 1-0

In 6th round Aronian and Anand suffer their first defeats of the tournament ... Anand lost his rapid match against Ivanchuk and Aronian lost his rapid match against Grischuk ... Carlsen scored victory over Karjakin in rapid to moved on second place ... Aronian is leading with 8½ pts, Carlsen is on second position 7½ pts and Grischuk caught up with Anand to share third position, they r on 7 pts.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)/ Xavier Malisse (BEL) 36 63 8-10
[SF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/ Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) 60 64

[F] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs (8) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Meghann Shaughnessy (USA)

What a performance by Sania and Elena Vesnina ... Both reached their first Masters double final with very dominating win over Hantuchova and Radwanska ... In the first set they didn't give any chance to opponents and won it without losing a game ... In second set Sania and Elena started with breaking Radwanska's serve in the first game then they again broke Hantuchova's serve in third game to take 3-0 lead ... In fourth game Vesnina failed to hold her serve but again breaking Radwanska's serve they take 4-1 lead ... Sania hold to make it 5-1 ... From here Hantuchova and Radwanska take next 3 games saving 2 match points and in that they again broke Elena Vesnina's serve ... But in 10th game Sania hold her serve to convert 3rd match point ... This pair of Sania and Elena Vesnina is cooking big way ... In the final they r facing 8th seed American pair Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy, who received walkover in semis from Azarenka and Kirilenko.

Disappointed to see Rohan and Aisam missed chance of moving into their first Masters final ... After losing first set they fought back well winning second set ... But in super tie-break Dolgopolov and Malisse proved strong for our pair.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F1 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Semi Final
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (4) Gero KRETSCHMER (GER) 76(5) 63
(7) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) bt (2) Adam KELLNER (HUN) 64 63

Doubles Final
(2) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Divij SHARAN (IND) bt (1) Gero KRETSCHMER (GER)/ Alexander SATSCHKO (GER) 76(4) 76(5)

Gero started on positive note breaking Yuki early ... As per report at that time it was difficult for Yuki to read Gero's serve ... But as set progresses Yuki started to read Gero's serve and he broke Gero's serve in 8th game to make it 4-all ... In tie-break Yuki take crucial mini-break to won first set ... In second set Yuki was running away with the set he broke Gero in 1st and 3rd game to lead 4-0 ... In 5th game Yuki had 3 break points 0-40 but somehow Gero manged to hold it after winning next 5 points ... Then Gero take medical break and that disturbed Yuki's rhythm after multiple deuce he lost his serve in 6th game ... Gero hold easily in 7th game ... In crucial 8th game Yuki again faced break points but he managed to hold and then again breaking Gero's serve he moved into the final to play against former top-100 player Roko Karanusic, who looks into the form.


Purav and Divij lifted doubles title with very had fought win over 150 ranked type German top-seed pair ... They won both sets in tie-breaks to scored upset win.

Tennis News
At $15K India F1 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Quarter Final
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (1) Karan RASTOGI (IND) 62 62
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) l (4) Gero KRETSCHMER (GER) 63 67(3) 36
(3) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) l (7) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) 46 26
(2) Adam KELLNER (HUN) bt Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 64 62

Doubles Semi Finals
(1) KRETSCHMER (GER)/ SATSCHKO (GER) bt NEUCHRIST (AUT)/ WEISSBORN (AUT) 75 62
(2) RAJA (IND)/ SHARAN (IND) bt BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) 64 64

Though happy for Yuki's first solid win over his senior Karan but feeling bad for Karan, who r struggling after his one-sided loss against Janko Tipsarević in Davis cup tie ... Rohan failed to score upset over 4th seed ... For Vishnu former top-100 player Karanusic proved too strong ... Purav and Sunil r in the final and will face top-seed German pair.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

Round 5 - Thursday 17 March
Blind
Ivanchuk-Carlsen 1-0
Gashimov-Aronian 0-1
Giri-Nakamura 1-0
Anand-Karjakin ½-½
Topalov-Grischuk 1-0
Kramnik-Gelfand 0-1

Rapid
Carlsen-Ivanchuk 0-1
Aronian-Gashimov 1-0
Nakamura-Giri ½-½
Karjakin-Anand ½-½
Grischuk-Topalov 1-0
Gelfand-Kramnik 0-1

Russian GM Sergey Karjakin hold Anand in both matches, Other hand Aronian scored 2-0 win over Gashimov to extend the lead but Carlsen's 0-2 loss against Ivanchuk helped Anand to move on sole 2nd position.

After five rounds Aronian is leading with 8 pts, Anand is second with 6½ pts and Carlsen is third with 6 pts.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[PQF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) l (1) Rafel Nadal (ESP,1) 57 46

Doubles
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Novak Djokovic (SRB)/ Viktor Troicki (SRB) 61 76(5)

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)/ Xavier Malisse (BEL)
[SF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/ Agnieszka Radwanska (POL)

Watched match and my impression is Sommy played a great match ... His serve was deceptive and except last game of both sets Rafa was struggling to read it ... He was mixing speed and placing of the serve smartly which troubled Rafa ... It was definitely looking that Sommy and his team worked out strategy for Rafa ... He frustrated Rafa with soft balls (reducing pace on the shot), Rafa made unforced errors due to going for extra ... He was matching Rafa's athleticism from back of the court but standing lot back of the court gave him trouble to retrieving drop shots ... I think in this match Sommy used controlled aggression may be that was his team's strategy ... Unfortunately got broken at love in both sets to when he was serving to stay in the set/match ... Feeling proud to watch this match and after the match Sommy received standing ovation from center court crowd.

Rohan and Aisam r in their first Masters semi-final with good win over Serbian pair ... They dominated first set to win it comfortably without facing a single break point and breaking Serbian twice ... In second set our pair faced 4 break points and saved all to take set in tie-break ... They kept their nerves to won set and match ... In semis they r facing another unseeded pair Dolgopolov and Malisse, who upset top-seed Bryans in second round and Murrays in quarter-final.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F1 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Second Round
(1) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt Nicolas REISSING (AUT) 61 62
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Rupesh ROY (IND) 63 64

(Q) Ashutosh SINGH (IND) l Gero KRETSCHMER (GER) 75 46 0-3 RETD
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (Q) Divij SHARAN (IND) 64 64

(PR) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) l (7) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) 16 57
(3) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt James FEAVER (GBR) 63 64

(WC) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) l Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 76(5) 46 06
(2) Adam KELLNER (HUN) bt Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER) 36 61 63

Doubles Quarter Finals
MARQUIS (IND)/ WAGH (IND) l (1) KRETSCHMER (GER)/ SATSCHKO (GER) 36 46
(4) RASTOGI (IND)/ SINGH (IND) l NEUCHRIST (AUT)/ WEISSBORN (AUT) 67(4) 62 7-10
BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) bt SHOKEEN (IND)/ SIPAEYA (IND) 60 63
(2) RAJA (IND)/ SHARAN (IND) bt (WC) KADHE (IND)/ KRISHNA (IND) 64 61

Expected results for Indians ... Like straight sets victory by Yuki over Rupesh ... Ashutosh and Srirambalaji produced fighting performance in their matches.

Golf News

Shocking disgusting incident happened with Jeev Milkha Singh's coach Amritinder Singh at Milan airport ... Milan Airport security officials forced to remove his turban before being allowed to board the flight.

As per report, Jeev protested by telling the airport security officials that it was nothing but harassment, but to no avail ... The adamant security staff at the airport let the duo off to board the flight only after Amritinder removed his turban and it was checked by them.

Chess News
At 2011 Amber Chess Tournament,

The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament is started ... Usual format one Blind and one Rapid game with each player.

This year 9 of top 10 chess players r participating ... Anand having good memories here as he was overall winner in 1994, 1997, 2003, 2005 and 2006 (shared with Morozevich) ... He also shared first in the rapid and shared overall second in 2009.

Anand had good start he won 3 matches 1½-½ and drew with Kramnik 1-1 ... Anand is currently on 2nd position with 5½ pts ... ½ pt behind leaders Aronian and Carlsen.

Round 4 - Tuesday 15 March
Blind
Karjakin-Kramnik 1-0
Gelfand-Topalov ½-½
Grischuk-Anand ½-½
Carlsen-Giri ½-½
Nakamura-Gashimov ½-½
Aronian-Ivanchuk ½-½

Rapid
Kramnik-Karjakin ½-½
Topalov-Gelfand 1-0
Anand-Grischuk 1-0
Giri-Carlsen 0-1
Gashimov-Nakamura 0-1
Ivanchuk-Aronian 0-1

Round 3 - Monday 14 March
Blind
Aronian-Carlsen ½-½
Ivanchuk-Nakamura 0-1
Gashimov-Giri 1-0
Grischuk-Karjakin ½-½
Anand-Gelfand ½-½
Kramnik-Topalov 1-0

Rapid
Carlsen-Aronian ½-½
Nakamura-Ivanchuk ½-½
Giri-Gashimov ½-½
Karjakin-Grischuk 1-0
Gelfand-Anand 0-1
Topalov-Kramnik 1-0

Round 2 - Sunday 13 March
Blind
Topalov-Karjakin ½-½
Kramnik-Anand ½-½
Gelfand-Grischuk 0-1
Carlsen-Gashimov 1-0
Giri-Ivanchuk ½-½
Nakamura-Aronian 0-1

Rapid
Karjakin-Topalov ½-½
Anand-Kramnik ½-½
Grischuk-Gelfand ½-½
Gashimov-Carlsen 0-1
Ivanchuk-Giri ½-½
Aronian-Nakamura ½-½

Round 1 - Saturday 12 March
Blind
Nakamura-Carlsen ½-½
Aronian-Giri 1-0
Ivanchuk-Gashimov 0-1
Karjakin-Gelfand 0-1
Grischuk-Kramnik 1-0
Anand-Topalov 1-0

Rapid
Carlsen-Nakamura 1-0
Giri-Aronian 0-1
Gashimov-Ivanchuk 1-0
Gelfand-Karjakin 1-0
Kramnik-Grischuk 0-1
Topalov-Anand ½-½

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

Doubles
[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) 63 64

[QF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Klaudia Jans (POL)/ Alicja Rosolska (POL) 64 61

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Novak Djokovic (SRB)/ Viktor Troicki (SRB)

Good dominating win by Sania and Elena Vesnina against Polish team to moved into the semis of Masters tournament.

Good win by Rohan and Aisam to move into quarters, they need these wins considering somewhat lackluster performance in 2011 after brilliant last half of 2010 season ... Next they r facing tricky Serbian pair ... But it was shocking that how many chances Lee and Mahesh missed ... They had 15 break point chances and converted only 1, other hand Rohan and Aisam had 4 chances and they converted 3.

I m really hoping Lee and Mahesh continue to play together throughout 2011 despite these early losses, as they r taking further decision on their pairing after Miami Masters.

Great, tomorrow Sommy and Rafa's match is schedule at 7:00 pm local time, that means in India we can see live it on Ten Sports from 7:30 am, 17th March.

Football News
At AFC Cup, Beirut, Lebanon

Group A
Al Ansar, Lebanon bt Dempo SC 2-0

Goal Scored - Nascimento (AlA) 32', Ali Nassereddine (AlA) 63'

After winning first match Dempo lost in second match against Lebanese team ... Now they r 3rd in standing with 3 pts.

------------------------------------------
At AFC Cup, Jakarta, Indonesia

Group H
Persipura Jayapura, Indonesia bt East Bengal 4-1

Goal Scored -

Indonesian side outplayed East Bengal to scored convincing victory.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[R3] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) bt Xavier Malisse (BEL,52) 61 36 76(5)

[PQF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) vs (1) Rafel Nadal (ESP,1)

Doubles
[R2] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt (7) Iveta Benesova (CZE)/ Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) 62 63

[QF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs Klaudia Jans (POL)/ Alicja Rosolska (POL)

What a important win for Somi .. As after his first 2 rounds win we had big expectation about him beating Malisse and he delivered in 2 hours ... This is the first time that Indian tennis player has made to the fourth round of a Masters tournament.

Somi started well breaking Malisse serve twice to won first set easily ... In second set Somi lost his serve in second game and Malisse kept that lead to won second set ... In decider set also Somi was holding his serve easily, this is really good sign, but Malisse didn't giving much chance on his own serve ... Match went into tie-break ... Somi started well taking mini-break on second point to lead 2-0 but Malisse take advantage of some erratic play from Somi to won next 5 points in that winning both points on Somi's serve ... But from 2-5 down Somi raised his game and became aggressive that helped him to win next 5 points ... On match point he hit service winner to book his match against Rafa ... Simply showed his steel nerves after getting down 2-5 in tie-break to win next 5 points to won this match.

Good to see he is getting another opportunity of playing against top 5 players, whatever score that would be good experience and learning opportunity to Somi.

Sania and Elena Vesnina scored very comfortable win over 7th seed Czech pair to moved into quarters ... Next they r facing unseeded Polish pair who upset 2nd seed in the first round.

Somdev Devvaran - “It's one of those things when you're playing with confidence, playing well, you want to keep playing, and it doesn't happen too often. I mean, for Rafa and Fed it does, but for the majority of the players it's one of those things you want to kind of ride the momentum and keep playing, keep playing with adrenaline, and hope for the best in your next matches.”

“Rafa is obviously No. 1 in the world, won a lot of Grand Slams. I have a lot of respect for the guy. He's one of my favorite tennis players, one of my idols, so when I'm out there I'm gonna do everything I can to win the match. I'm gonna compete as hard as I can and leave everything on the table.”
From ATP site

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Julian Knowle (AUT) 75 64

[R2] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)

Winning start for Mahesh and Leander in the first round of Indian Wells Masters ... In both set they lost their service game once but managed to broke opponent's service games twice ... Next they r facing Rohan and Aisam.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F1 Futures, Mumbai

Singless First Round
(1) Karan RASTOGI (IND) bt (WC) Arjun KADHE (IND) 61 61
(Q) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) l Nicolas REISSIG (AUT) 46 36
Rupesh ROY (IND) bt Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) 76(3) 61
(6) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (Q) Kenny BUN (CAM) 61 61

(Q) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) l (4) Gero KRETSCHMER (GER) 57 63 16
(Q) Ashutosh SINGH (IND) bt (LL) Akash WAGH (IND) 63 36 63
(Q) Divij SHARAN (IND) bt (WC) Lakshit SOOD (IND) 63 76(6)
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (5) Gerald MELZER (AUT) 62 62

(7) Roko KARANUSIC (CRO) bt Kirati SIRIBUTWONG (THA) 61 61
(PR) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 64 75
James FEAVER (GBR) bt (Q) Maximilian NEUCHRIST (AUT) 61 67(6) 61
(3) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (WC) Suresh KRISHNA (IND) 64 63

(8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) l Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 36 16
(WC) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) bt (Q) Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 63 36 76(6)
Vijayant MALIK (IND) l Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER) 57 46
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) l (2) Adam KELLNER (HUN) 63 57 16

Doubles
PRASHANTH (IND)/ ROY (IND) l (1) KRETSCHMER (GER)/ SATSCHKO (GER) 16 67(6)
MARQUIS (IND)/ WAGH (IND) bt MELZER (AUT) / REISSIG (AUT) 26 75 10-6
(4) RASTOGI (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt MALIK (IND)/ NARAYANASWAMY (IND) 76(3) 75
NEUCHRIST (AUT)/ WEISSBORN (AUT) bt FEAVER (GBR)/ KPULUN (SLE) 64 64
SHOKEEN (IND)/ SIPAEYA (IND) bt (WC) SOOD (IND)/ SOOD (IND) 76(5) 76(3)
BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) bt (3) KARANUSIC (CRO)/ WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 46 61 10-4
(WC) KADHE (IND)/ KRISHNA (IND) bt PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ TIWARI (IND) 61 67(1) 10-8
(2) RAJA (IND)/ SHARAN (IND) bt SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 64 62

Again Karan and Yuki r in same draw with Rupesh ... Vijay Sundar is also facing 2nd seed Kellner in the first round.

Good win over higher ranked Thai by Srirambalaji ... Rohan really scored impressive win over Jurgen Melzer's younger brother losing only 4 games ... Vijay Sundar had opportunity of finishing match in straight sets but failed.

In doubles also young Arjun Kadhe scored good upset win with Suresh Krishna against Vignesh and Tiwari ... Young Sood brothers gave remarkable fight to experienced Sunil Kumar and Vivek Shokeen ... Can these Soods become Indian version of Bryans? Time will tell.

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

Pune FC bt ONGC, Mumbai 1-0

Goal Scored - Mandjou Keita (PFC) 90+'
-----------------------------------------

Air India FC l Indian Arrows 2-5

Goal Scored - Okorogor Praise (AI) 6' and 90+' and Manandeep (IAR) 10', Jeje Lalpekhulua (IAR) 16', 17', 72' and 79'
-----------------------------------------

Viva Kerala l Churchill Brothers SC 0-1

Goal Scored - Boima Karpeh (CB) 77'
------------------------------------------

HAL, Bangalore dw Chirag United SC 1-1

Goal Scored - R.C.Prakash (HAL) 90+' P and Joshimar Da Silva Marins (CU) 73'

Young Indian Arrows scored impressive victory over Airmen ... Jeje Lalpekhulua scored 4 goals in this match ... HAL hold Chirag to 1-all draw ... Viva lost against Churchill on solitary goal.

Mandjou Keita scored a goal in dying moments to gave Pune FC win over Oilmen.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[R2] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) bt (19) Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,22) 75 60

[R3] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) vs Xavier Malisse (BEL,52)

Doubles
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Eric Butorac (USA)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) 76(4) 64

Somdev scored his best win of the career beating current top-25 and former top-10 player Cyprusian Marcos Baghdatis ... Somdev was serving well from the begining but Marcos take first break in 5th game to take 2-3 lead ... Buji immediately broke back to gave indication what's coming next ... After that both players hold their serves ... At 6-5 Somdev take crucial break converting first set point @30 to won first set ... In second set Somdev take full advantage of Marcos's struggled with first serve ... In second set Marcos's first serve percentage was 46% and had 6 double faults ... But nobody expected bagel to Marcos by more than 60 places lower ranlked player ... Marcos failed to win a single game in second set to gave Somi great win of his small career in just 1 hour and 13 mins ... In the second set Somi didn't lose a single point on his serve ... In total Marcos managed to win only 10 pts in the second set to 28 by Somi ... Next Somdev is facing Belgian Xavier Malisse, who upset Freenchman Tsonga in second round.

In doubles Rohan and Aisam had winning start ... They won first set in tie-break after both pairs failed to break opponent's service game ... In second set both pairs traded early breaks but Rohan and Aisam take crucial second break to won match in straight sets ... Now they will face winner between Lee-Mahesh and Aspelin-Knowle in second round.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[R1] (Q) Rohan Bopanna (IND,629) l (WC) Bernard Tomic (AUS,187) 76(5) 67(1) 46

[R2] (WC) Sania Mirza (IND,107) l (25) Dominica Cibulkova (SVK,27) 36 36

From start Rohan was serving like machine and managed to hold his service games easily ... Tomic was also serving well without giving much chance to Rohan ... In tie-break with mini-break Rohan won first set ... In 3rd game of second set Rohan had 2 break points chances, he failed to convert them ... Again this set went into tie-break ... From here Rohan suddenly started struggling with his first serve and Tomic take full advantage to won it easily ... In the decider his struggle with his first serve continued, percentage came down to 48% ... May be due to tiredness ... Tomic converted only opportunity to broke him and didn't give a single opportunity on his serve to Rohan ... Still good performance by Rohan to qualify for his first Masters series tournament.

Sania had soar back and she struggled with her serve ... In first set they exchanged couple of breaks before Cibulkova breaking Sania's serve at 4-3 to won first set ... In second set until 6th game this set on serves ... Cibulkova broke Sania's serve in 7th and 9th games to won second set and match easily.

Badminton News
At $350K All England Open Badminton Championship 2011, Birmingham

[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) l Eriko Hirose (JPN,17) 11-21 20-22

Disappointing loss for Saina ... In first game she failed to produce any fight ... In second game also Eriko take early lead but Saina fought back and managed to caught her at 16-all ... Saina saved 1 match point at 19-20 but Eriko converted 2nd to complete her win.

Frankly the fact was that Eriko played much better game and she deserved to win ... She troubled Saina with high flight serves and Saina's discomfort was showing ... Eriko shots had more variety and guise than Saina. Other hand Saina played very predictable and struggling with her drop shots.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA,59) 62 63

[R2] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) vs Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,22)

Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bt Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/ Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 64 61

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Julian Knowle (AUT)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Eric Butorac (USA)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO)

Somdev scored his first win in ATP Masters beating top-60 Frenchman Adrian Mannarino convincingly ... In first set Somi broke Adrian in 5th and 7th game to win it ... He won 4 games in a row from 2-all ... In second set also Somi broke Adrian in 5th game to take 3-2 and again broke him in 9th game after numerous duece ... Somi converted 3rd match point to win match in 1 hr and 24 mins ... Very dominating performance by Somdev ... Next he is facing Marcos Baghdatis.

Sania also having good start in doubles ... In men's doubles Lee and Mahesh r in same draw with Rohan and Aisam ... They can face eachother in the second round.

-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Turkey F8 Futures, Antalya

[R2] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,538) l (7) Alessandro GIANNESSI (ITA,494) 67(2) 26

So no upset from Rohan ... In 2 weeks he managed 2 wins, now back to Indian futures which r starting from next week.

Badminton News
At $350K All England Open Badminton Championship 2011, Birmingham

[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Tsu Ying Tai (TPE,22) 21-17 21-17

[R2] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (8) Mohammad Ahsan (INA)/ Bona Septano (INA) 16-21 16-21
[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (Q) Line Damkjaer Kruse (DEN)/ Marie Roepke (DEN) 21-17 19-21 18-21
[R2] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (5) Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Qing Tian (CHN) 11-21 12-21

[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Eriko Hirose (JPN,17)

Saina scored comfortable win over Tai to moved into quarter-final of All England Open ... Next she is facing experienced Japanese shuttler Eriko Hirose.

Rupesh and Sanave couldn't produce much fight against 8th seed Indonesian pair ... But had hope from Jwala and Ashwini against Danish qualifier ... They started well winning first game but failed to win this match.

After yesterday's marathon match today Diju and Jwala failed to create any challenge against 5th seed Chinese pair.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[Q2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) bt Greg Jones (AUS,281) 62 64
[Q2] (ALT) Rohan Bopanna (IND,629) bt (1) Daniel Brands (GER,80) 76(5) 76(4)

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) vs Adrian Mannarino (FRA,59)
[R1] (Q) Rohan Bopanna (IND,629) vs (WC) Bernard Tomic (AUS,187)


[R1] (WC) Sania Mirza (IND,107) bt Romina Oprandi (ITA,83) 2-1 RETD

[R2] (WC) Sania Mirza (IND,107) vs (25) Dominica Cibulkova (SVK,27)

Rohan scored superb upset win over top-80 player to qualify for main-draw ... In first set both players didn't give a single break point opportunity ... In tie-break Bops lost first point on his serve but immediately he take back mini-break on next point ... Crucial mini-break came on 10th point which helped Rohan to won first set in 40 mins ... Second set also went like first set ... Both players again didn't face a single break point but in tie-break Somi take early mini-breaks to lead 5-1 and kept that lead intact to win second set in 40 mins to qualify for his first Masters main-draw.

Somdev scored comfortably repeat his win over Greg Jones ... In first set he broke Jones service twice and in second set he broke once to complete easy win.

Good to see Sania receiving lucky break to moved into second round without losing sweat ... First time we r seeing our 3 singles players in Masters series main-draw.

-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (4) Dominik Meffert (GER)/ Simon Stadler (GER) 76(5) 26 5-10

In doubles also Vishnu lost against Meffert with Divij after winning first set.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Turkey F8 Futures, Antalya

[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,538) bt (WC) Tuna ALTUNA (TUR,1102) 64 61

[R2] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,538) vs (7) Alessandro GIANNESSI (ITA,494)

Doubles
[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Ruan ROELOFSE (RSA) l (4) Ivan BJELICA (SRB)/ Tihomir GROZDANOV (BUL) 36 57

Expected victory in singles for Rohan ... Next he is facing 7th seed Italian.

Badminton News
At $350K All England Open Badminton Championship 2011, Birmingham

[R1] (Q) Anand Pawar (IND,42) l (Q) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,38) 16-21 18-21
[R1] (Q) Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) l Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,21) 17-21 19-21
[R1] P. Kashyap (IND,20) l Marc Zwiebler (GER,16) 11-21 21-8 17-21
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Seung Hee Bae (KOR,30) 21-13 21-16

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Teik Chai Gan (MAS)/ Bin Shen Tan (MAS) 21-13 21-18
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Maria Helsbol (DEN)/ Anne Skelbaek (DEN) 21-11 21-18
[R1] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR) 21-23 21-13 25-23

[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Tsu Ying Tai (TPE,22)

[R2] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN)
[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (Q) Line Damkjaer Kruse (DEN)/ Marie Roepke (DEN)
[R2] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (5) Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Qing Tian (CHN)

Anand Pawar lost in the first round in 31 mins ... In second game he saved 3 match points but it was too late in the end ... Ajay also lost in straight games against higher ranked Indonesian ... Kashyap tried to fightback after losing first game, he won second very dominantly but in decider Marc Zwiebler proved strong to him.

Saina started with confident win against Korean, next she is facing Taipei player.

Jwala and Ashwini started their campaign with dominating win in 23 min against Danish pair ... In next round they r facing another Danish pair, who upset 7th seed Indonesian pair in the first round ... In mens doubles also Rupesh and Sanave gave positive start with comfortable win over Malaysian pair.

But match of the day played by Diju and Jwala in mixed doubles ... In first game Korean pair was in lead from the start, Diju and Jwala managed to catch up at 17-all ... Diju and Jwala wasted a game point at 20-19 and Korean converted second game point to won first game ... In second game Diju and Jwala take control early and won it comfortably ... In decider both pairs were close till end, didn't giving any cushion to other pair ... Jwala and Diju saved 3 match points before converting 2nd match point to won this marathon match.

Football News
At Pre-Olympic qualifier 2012, Yangon, Myanmar - Second Leg

Myanmar dw India 1-1

Goal Scored - Kyaw Ko Ko (MYA) 64' and C.S. Sabeeth (IND) 90'

Indians had lucky escape against Myanmar ... With 64th min strike from Kyaw Ko Ko Myanmar were on verge of qualify for the 2012 AFC Olympic Qualifiers but timely strike in 90th min from Sabeeth helped India to win tie on 3-2 aggregate.

With this win India progress from the preliminary round to the first round of the 2012 AFC Olympic Qualifiers, where they will face a team from the top 13 of the continent ... The draw for that takes place on 30th March.

Tennis News
At $4.5M Indian Wells Open,

[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) bt (WC) Michael McClune (USA,781) 63 61
[Q1] (ALT) Rohan Bopanna (IND,629) bt (21) Peter Polansky (CAN,204) 76(6) 36 75

[Q2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,84) vs Greg Jones (AUS,281)
[Q2] (ALT) Rohan Bopanna (IND,629) vs (1) Daniel Brands (GER,80)


[R1] (WC) Sania Mirza (IND,107) vs Romina Oprandi (ITA,83)

Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/ Lucie Hradecka (CZE)

Good to see Rohan decided to play after getting opportunity and scored very good win ... He entered as alternative player and scored fighting win over top-200 type Canadian Peter Polansky ... Next he is facing German top-seed Daniel Brands for place in main-draw ... As usual it look Bops confidence is high after Davis cup tie so hopefully we will see more fireworks against #80 Daniel Brands.

Somi also scored expected comfortable win ... Next match is his rematch of Commonwealth Gold medal match against Australian Greg Jones.

Buji and Bops must be tired after travelling from Serbia and immediately playing this match ... Hopefully tomorrow they finish the job.

Women doubles draw is out, Sania is playing with Elena Vesnina and facing unseeded Czech pair in the first round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,367) l (5) Dominik Meffert (GER,211) 46 46

Doubles
[R1] (1) Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (WC) Yaoki Ishii (JPN)/ Kento Takeuchi (JPN) 76(2) 67(6) 6-10
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Hiroki Moriya (JPN)/ Bumpei Sato (JPN) 63 64

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (4) Dominik Meffert (GER)/ Simon Stadler (GER)

Vishnu lost in straight sets against seeded Meffert in the first round.

Another bad result, our top-seed pair Purav and Treat lost in closely fought match against local wild-card pair but luckily Vishnu and Divij managed to win ... They will face 4th seed German pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K Great Britain F3,

[R1] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND,284) l (Q) Andrew FITZPATRICK (GBR,1085) 67(5) 60 46

I think Karan is still not come out of his one-sided loss against Janko ... He lost in 3 sets against British qualifier in the first round ... So wasted trip to Britain for Karan.

Badminton News
At $350K All England Open Badminton Championship 2011, Birmingham

[Q2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) bt (3) Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,31) 17-21 21-15 22-20
[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,42) bt Hsuan Yi Hsueh (TPE,46) 21-18 21-11

[R1] (Q) Anand Pawar (IND,42) vs (Q) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,38)
[R1] (Q) Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) vs Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,21)

Ajay scored excellent comeback win over WR #31 Danish player Hans-Kristian Vittinghus in 49 mins to qualify for main-draw ... After losing first game Ajay take control of second game from 13-all to won it ... In decider Ajay was down from the start, at one time he was down 10-15 .. 13-17 ... 16-19 before Ajay caught with Vittinghus at 19-all ... Ajay saved 1 match point at 19-20 before converting his first.

Anand scored surprisingly easy win against similar ranked Taipei payer ... In main-draw Anand is playing fellow qualifier and Anand is facing top-20 Indonesian player.

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

Dempo SC bt Mohun Bagan 4-1

Goal Scored - Climax Lawerence (DSC) 26’, Clifford Miranda (DSC) 30’ and 74’, Ranty Martins (DSC) 47’ and Muritala Ali (MB) 90'
-----------------------------------------

Churchill Brothers SC bt Mumbai FC 3-1

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 16' P, Kayne Vincent (CB) 67' and 90+' and Henry Ezeh (MFC) 78'
------------------------------------------

East Bengal bt JCT Mills FC 3-0

Goal Scored - Baljit Sahni (EB) 28' and 73', Ravinder Singh (EB) 76'
-----------------------------------------

ONGC, Mumbai l Air India FC 1-2

Goal Scored - Badmus Babatunde (ONGC) 53' and Manjit Singh (AI) 6', Alan Dias (AI) 66'
-----------------------------------------

HAL, Banglore l Viva Kerala 0-1

Goal Scored - N.P. Pradeep (VK) 18'
-----------------------------------------

Chirag United FC bt Pune FC 1-0

Goal Scored - Shankar Oraon (CU) 22'

Viva continued with their inspired performance scoring away win against HAL ... Chirag defeated Pune FC with similar score in other match.

East Bengal and Churchill scored comfortable win ... Air men scored important win over ONGC.

Dempo outplayed Mohun Bagan to scored impressive win ... They scored 2 goals in each half.

Badminton News
At $350K All England Open Badminton Championship 2011, Birmingham

[Q1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) bt Eric Pang (NED,40) 21-17 21-14
[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,42) bt Rune Ulsing (DEN,51) 21-10 22-20

[Q2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,36) vs (3) Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,31)
[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,42) vs Hsuan Yi Hsueh (TPE,46)

[R1] P. Kashyap (IND,20) vs Marc Zwiebler (GER,16)
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,) vs Seung Hee Bae (KOR,30)

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs Teik Chai Gan (MAS)/ Bin Shen Tan (MAS)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Maria Helsbol (DEN)/ Anne Skelbaek (DEN)
[R1] Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR)

All England Open is starting from today ... Kashyap and Saina having direct entry in singles main-draw ... Anand Pawar and Ajay Jayaram r playing singles qualifying.

Winning start in straight games for Ajay and Anand ... Next both having tricky match to qualify for maindraw.

Before the tournament starts Saina received lucky break ... As from her side draw #2 Yihan Wang and #4 Tine Baun withdraw from the tournament so Saina is highest seeded player remaining until the final ... Hopefully she will take advantage of it.

Tennis News
At 2011 Davis Cup - World Group, Novi Sad, Serbia

India l Serbia 1-4

Day 3
[R4] Somdev Devvarman (IND,93) l Viktor Troicki (SRB,18) 46 26 57
[R5] Karan Rastogi (IND,285) l Janko Tipsarevic (SRB,45) 06 16

Defending champion Serbia completed win with Troicki scoring straight sets win over Somdev ... Match started with Troicki breaking Somi's serve but Somi immediately broke back to bring on the serve ... Crucial break of the match came in 9th game when Somi wasted game points with unforced errors and Troicki take advantage to break it ... Then he hold after deuce to won first set ... In second set Troicki take control from the start and breaking Somi's serve twice he won second set comfortably ... In third set Somi started positively and broke Troicki's serve in 4th game to take 3-1 lead but Troicki immediately broke back in next game ... On 6th game more drama happened ... Troicki hit out and Somi pointed out but lady chair umpire thought Somi told it was in and she gave point to Serbia ... Then for next 10 mins Somdev and our captain S.P. Misra were talking with match referee and complaining about chair umpire but in end as expected decision was stand which was declare by umpire ... Troicki take crucial break in 11 games and then hold his serve after deuce to gave win to Serbia.


In this match most of the games were went into deuce ... Somdev was unlucky and made unforced errors on crucial points and that cost him the match ... Still overall impressive performance in this tie ... Many positives to take from this tie where Lee and Hesh were missing.


In last rubber, we gave chance to Karan ... Though Tipsarevic toyed with him to scored one-sided win, still good experience for Karan for future matches.

-----------------------------------------------------------
At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,367) vs (5) Dominik Meffert (GER,211)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Yaoki Ishii (JPN)/ Kento Takeuchi (JPN)
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Hiroki Moriya (JPN)/ Bumpei Sato (JPN)

Tough singles first round match for Vishnu against 5th seed German Dominik Meffert ... In doubles Purav is top-seed with Treat ... In doubles our both pairs playing against local wild-card pairs.

Tennis News
At 2011 Davis Cup - World Group, Novi Sad, Serbia

India vs Serbia 1-2

Day 2
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Somdev Devvarman(IND) l Ilija Bozoljac (SRB)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 64 36 46 67(10)

Zimo started match and hold it easily, then Bops served well to make it 1-all ... Then Indian take first break on Bozoljac's serve but Serbian pair immediately broke Somi's serve to make it 2-all ... Again Indians broke Bozoljac's serve in 7th game but this time also Somi failed to hold his serve to make it 4-all ... In 9th game Indians broke Zimo's serve and then Rohan served out to win first set ... In second set Serbian started with different plan and Bozoljac served first ... Serbian pair again broke Somi's serve in 4th game to take 1-3 lead ... Somi first time hold in the match in 8th game but one break was enough to won second set ... In third set again Serbian broke Somi's serve in 3rd game and that was enough to won third set ... Fourth set Indian started positively and broke Bozoljac's serve in 4th game to take 3-1 lead but Serbian pair fought back and broke Somi's serve in 7th game to brought back on serve ... In 11th game Indians were lucky to hold their serves ... In tie-break first 6 points went on serve then Somi gave first mini-break on Bozoljac's serve hitting down the line service winner ... But Serbian immediately take mini-break back on Rohan's serve to make it 4-all ... Somi saved first match point with big serve to make it 6-all ... At 10-9 Rohan missed easy volley and then Somi hit out and gave 4th match point to Serbia, who converted this to won this rubber and take 1-2 lead.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K Australia Futures F2, Berri (grass)

[SF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,363) l (4) Benjamin Mitchell (AUS,522) 61 67(2) 57

After winning first set easily Vishnu lost very tight next 2 sets to 2010's Wimbledon Junior runner-up Benjamin Mitchell ... Wasted good chance of acculumating more ranking points.

Tennis News
At 2011 Davis Cup - World Group, Novi Sad, Serbia

India vs Serbia 1-1

Day 1
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,629) l Viktor Troicki (SRB,18) 36 36 75 63 36
[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,93) bt Janko Tipsarevic (SRB,45) 75 75 76(3)

Viktor Troicki started very well controlling the match ... It was difficult to win points on Troicki's serve for Rohan ... With in an hour Rohan was 2 sets down ... In third set Troicki was putting pressure on Rohan's serve but he managed to keep his nerves and holding his serve ... After saving break point in 9th game Rohan first time pushed Troicki in 12th game and take crucial break to won third set ... From here Rohan's body language changed and Troicki was looking under pressure ... Rohan was serving well and kept pressure on Troicki's service games ... Again Rohan take crucial break on 8th game to serve for the set ... 9th game turned nasty as Troicki was looking under pressure but crowd started making noise in between points and while Rohan serving ... Rohan committed couple of double faults and very upset ... He was vocal and complained it to chair umpire ... But then this is Davis cup and one should expect hostile crowd supporting their nation ... Rohan manged to win game and set but he lost cool ... In fifth set He lost his serve twice to found himself down 0-4 ... He manged to broke Troicki once but damage was already done ... He saved 2 match points in 8th game on his serve but Troicki hold it easily to gave first rubber to Serbia in 3 hrs 20 mins.

Tipsarevic started positively breaking Somi early to lead 0-2, Somi broke back in next game to 1-2 but again Tipsarevic broke him and take 1-4 lead ... After that Somi produced nice comeback breaking Tipsarevic's serve twice to take 5-4 lead ... But while serving for the set he wasted 3 set points before losing it ... He immediately corrected his mistake breaking Tipsarevic and then hold easily to won first set ... In second set poor call from the umpire in 4th game gave Tipsarevic break ... But Somi kept fighting and producing errors from Tipsarevic, while serving for the set at 3-5 Tipsarevic couldn't hold his serve and brought game on serve 4-5 ... After holding his serve in 10th game Somi again take crucial break in 11th game before serving to win second set and take 2-0 sets lead ... Third set also started like other two sets ... Tipsarevic take early break in 4th game to take 1-3 lead but Somi immediately broke back in next game with some superb cross-court backhand and down the line forhand to bring on serve, 2-3 ... But little loss of concentration and unforced errors from Somi gave another break to Tipsarevic, 2-4 ... Again couple of unforced errors from Tipsarevic and unbelievable returns from Somi gave him another break back, 3-4 ... Tipsarevic played excellenmt return game to broke back at love and take 3-5 lead ... And another poor game for server due to unforced errors, Somi broke Tipsarevic's serve to brought back on serve 4-5 ... This was 6th break of service game in a row ... At last Somi managed to hold to stay in the set in 10th game ... In 11th game Tipsarevic also hold game after saving 2 break points ... Somi hold comfortably to take third set in tie-break ... In tie-break Tipsarevic got first mini-break on 3rd point when Somi's forehand went out but Tipsarevic gave mini-break back hitting wild backhand on 5th point ... After long rally Somi hit awesome running cross-court forehand winner to win 6th point, 3-3 ... Somi take lead with mini-break when Tipsarevic forehand goes out, he double his mini-break with another mistake from Tipsarevic to gave Somi 3 match points ... Then on Somi's serve Tipsarevic made another unforced error to gave this rubber to India and Somi in 3 hrs.

Today Somi played super aggressive tennis ... This was THE best somi'd match I ever watched ... So after first day India tied with defending champion Serbia 1-1 ... Tomorrow crucial doubles match will be played.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K Australia Futures F2, Berri (grass)

[QF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,363) bt (6) Brendan Moore (AUS,779) 63 76(3)

[SF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,363) vs (4) Benjamin Mitchell (AUS,522)

Doubles Final
(1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (2) Chris Letcher (AUS)/ Brendan Moore (AUS) 46 63 10-8

Vishu scored good win over fellow seeded player ... In semis he is facing 18 yrs old talented Benjamin Mitchell, who was last year's junior Wimbledon runner-up .. So good match for Vishnu, who need to play his best tennis to beat Mitchell.

This week Vishnu and Divij lifted doubles title in comeback win.