Boxing News
At AIBA World Boxing Championships 2011, Baku, Azerbaijan

Men's Light Welter 64kg
[R1] Manoj Kumar (IND) bt Valentino Knowles (BAH) 17-11

[R2] Manoj Kumar (IND) vs (4) Raymond Moylett (IRL)

As expected close bout between Manoj Kumar and Valentino Knowles earlier ... Manoj won closely contested first round 5-4 ... Increased his lead to 11-8 after winning the second round 6-4 ... In third he gave less chance to his opponent to won this round 6-3 and match 17-11 ... Next he is facing tough challenge from regaining European Champion Irish Raymond Moylett.

Tennis News
At $15K Indonesia F4 Futures 2011, Jakarta

[QF] (7) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,453) l (4) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,421) 62 46 67(3)
[QF] (5) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,427) l Alexander SADECKY (SUI,520) 36 57

Doubles
[SF] BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) bt SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 62 57 10-4
[SF] MALIK (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) l (2) LI (CHN)/ YI (TPE) 76(5) 36 7-10

Yuki lost against Swiss player in straight sets but in doubles he is in the final with Gajjar ... They r facing 2nd seed Taipei pair, who defeated another Indian pair in super tie-break ... Vishnu also lost against Japanese player after winning the first set.
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At $10K USA F25 Futures 2011, Laguna Niguel

[R2] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) bt (Q) Joshua Zavala (USA,1124) 61 46 75

[QF] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) vs Kiryl Harbatsiuk (BLR,771)

Doubles
[QF] Singer Lee (USA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Connor Farren (USA)/ Shane Vinsant (USA) 16 61 10-7

[SF] Singer Lee (USA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (3) Benjamin Rogers (USA)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS)

Surprisingly tight second round win for Sanam against fellow qualifier ... Next he is facing another unseeded player who upset 5th seed in the first round easily.

In doubles also he and Singer fought back to win after losing the first set easily.

Boxing News
At AIBA World Boxing Championships 2011, Baku, Azerbaijan

Men's Welter 69kg
[R1] Krishan Vikas (IND) bt Asadullo Boimurodov (KGZ) 16-8

[R2] Krishan Vikas (IND) vs (7) Mahamed Nurudzinau (BLR)

Men's Super Heavy +91kg
[R1] Paramjeet Samota (IND) l Vitalijus Subacius (LTU) 12-14

19 yrs old Krishan Vikas was impressive in his first match of this weight category, before this he was playing in 60 kg ... Vikas started attackingly in the first round which helped him to win it 8-3 ... After that Vikas played taking less risk but still managed to win the second 4-3 and the final round 4-3 to complete impressive victory ... Next he is facing 7th seed experienced Belarus boxer Mahamed Nurudzinau, who is current silver medalist in 2011 European Confederation Boxing championships.

Paramjeet Samota became first Indian boxer to lose in the first round of 2011 World Championship ... Slow start against Lithuanian boxer cost him the match ... In the first round Paramjeet was too cautious and Subacius managed to win the round 3-1 ... From the second round both boxers matched each other, Paramjeet managed to win it 6-5 ... In the final round Subacius managed to win it with similar 6-5 score so the first round score became important which helped Subacius to won this match.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

For 5th place
India l Japan 2-3 (25-23 25-18 17-25 22-25 19-21)

Indians lost big opportunity of finishing on 5th position ... After winning tight first set they won the second set comfortably to lead 2-0 ... But from the third set Japanese team started to turn table on Indians ... Japanese won the third set comfortably and then managed to win the fourth to take match into decider ... In the decider Indians tried hard but Japanese managed to complete victory in extra points ... So with that Indians finished on 6th position.

Tennis News
At $50K Madrid Challenger, Spain

[SF] (4) Guillermo Olaso (ESP)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP)/ Morgan Phillips (GBR) 64 57 8-10

Purav and Guillermo started well winning the first set but from late in the second set their unseeded opponent pair fought back ... After winning the second set Daniel and Morgan won close super tie-break to upset 4th seed.
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At $15K Indonesia F4 Futures 2011, Jakarta

[R2] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,637) l (1) Harri HELIOVAARA (FIN,252) 67(3) 64 26
[R2] (7) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,453) bt Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER,664) 61 63
[R2] (5) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,427) bt Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,480) 60 26 60

[QF] (7) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,453) vs (4) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,421)
[QF] (5) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,427) vs Alexander SADECKY (SUI,520)

Doubles
[QF] PRASHANTH (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) l SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 46 67(4)
[QF] BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) bt NUGROHO (INA)/ SUWANDI (INA) 61 61
[QF] MALIK (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) bt KIM (KOR)/ YOO (KOR) walkover

[SF] BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) vs SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA)
[SF] MALIK (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) vs (2) LI (CHN)/ YI (TPE)

Very dominating win by Vishnu to moved into quarters ... Yuki also scored good win over his similar ranked Japanese opponent ... In the second round also Indian stretched top-seed but Vijay Sundar failed to convert into victory.
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At $10K USA F25 Futures 2011, Laguna Niguel

[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) bt (2) Daniel Cox (GBR,337) 60 60

[R2] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) vs (Q) Joshua Zavala (USA,1124)

Sanam scored shocking double bagel win over 2nd seed and top-350 British player, against whom he lost last week ... May be Cox was injured in this match but still creditable performance by Sanam .. Next he is facing fellow qualifier for the place in quarters.

Chess News
At 2011 Chess Masters Final, São Paulo

Round 3 - Wednesday, September 28
Viswanathan Anand 0-1 Vassily Ivanchuk
Levon Aronian ½-½ Hikaru Nakamura
Francisco Vallejo 1-0 Magnus Carlsen

WR #1 Magnus Carlsen and WR #2 Viswanathan Anand lost in the third round ... Now both r sharing last place as per Bilbao scoring system, here winner get 3 pts and draw get 1 pt.

Anand lost against Ivanchuk playing with white in 69 moves ... Vallejo scored upset win over Carlsen in 42 moves.

Boxing News
At AIBA World Boxing Championships 2011, Baku, Azerbaijan

Men's Light Heavy 81kg
[R1] (12) Dinesh Kumar (IND) bt Deepak Maharjan (NEP) 20-8

[R2] (12) Dinesh Kumar (IND) vs Bosko Draskovic (MNE)

Dinesh Kumar started positively against Nepali boxer and won the first round 10-3 ... After that in next two rounds he maintained lead and won those rounds 5-2 and 5-3 respectively ... Next he is facing boxer from Montenegro.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

For 5th to 8th position
India bt Pakistan 3-1 (16-25 25-23 28-26 25-20)

We again faced Pakistan in placing match ... We started tentatively and Pakistan take full advantage of it to comfortably won the first set ... In the second set both teams had chances but we won it winning crucial points in the end ... In the third set Pakistan take early lead and controlling the set ... We kept fighting to won it in extra points ... In 4th set we played superior game than Pakistan to won it comfortably ... So now we will play match for 5th place against Japan, who defeated Sri Lanka comfortably.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,89) l (WC) Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,60) 57 46

Sommy wasted couple of break points early but he managed to break Marcos in 7th game to lead 4-3 ... On 5-3 Sommy had 3 set points at 0-40 on Marcos's serve but wasted all those ... After that Marcos broke Sommy while serving for the set in 10th game and again broke him in 12th game to won the first set ... Sommy had 8 break points but converted 1, other hand Marcos had 3 break points and converted 2 ... In the second set also Sommy had 3 break points at 0-40 in 1st game but failed to convert ... Marcos broke him in 4th game but Sommy immediately broke back due to 2 doubles faults from Marcos ... Marcos take crucial break in 10th game to won the match ... So another story of missed opportunities for Sommy, he wasted 10 break points from 12 he received but Marcos converted 4 from 6 break points.
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At $50K Madrid Challenger, Spain

[QF] (4) GuillerOlaso (ESP)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)/ Ivan Navarro (ESP) 63 62

[SF] (4) Guillermo Olaso (ESP)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP)/ Morgan Phillips (GBR)

Very comfortable win by Purav and Guillermo against all Spanish pair ... In the semis they r facing unseeded pair who upset 2nd seed in the first round.
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At $15K Indonesia F4 Futures 2011, Jakarta

[R1] Vijayant MALIK (IND,606) l (1) Harri HELIOVAARA (FIN,252) 06 75 57
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,637) bt Shuichi SEKIGUCHI (JPN,630) 46 61 61
[R1] (Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,827) l (6) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,446) 36 57
[R1] Karunuday SINGH (IND,664) l (4) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,419) 46 36
[R1] Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,559) l Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER,664) 46 26
[R1] (7) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,453) bt Chuhan WANG (CHN,730) 62 63
[R1] (5) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,427) bt Hiroki KONDO (JPN,521) 62 63
[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,604) l Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,480) 36 46
[R1] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND,312) l Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA,816) 64 67(6) 46

[R2] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,637) vs (1) Harri HELIOVAARA (FIN,252)
[R2] (7) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,453) vs Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER,664)
[R2] (5) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,427) vs Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,480)

Horrible start for Indian contingent ... Only 3 players made it to the second round ... Karan lost in 3 sets against Thai opponent who is 500 places below in the ranking.

Other hand Yuki started with a comfortable win in his first competitive match after long injury lay off ... Vijayant also performed well against top-seed after losing the first set without winning a single game.
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At $10K USA F25 Futures 2011, Laguna Niguel

[R1] Singer Lee (USA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (2) Daniel Cox (GBR)/ Adam Hubble (AUS) 64 16 12-10

[QF] Singer Lee (USA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Connor Farren (USA)/ Shane Vinsant (USA)

Good win for Sanam and his ex-UVa teammate against 2nd seed ... Last week Sanam lost against same pair in the first round.

Chess News
At 2011 Chess Masters Final, São Paulo

1st leg in São Paulo, Ibirapuera Park, from September 25th to October 1st.
2nd leg in Bilbao, Alhóndiga, from 5th to 11th October.

Tourney sytem - double round robin with 6 players over 10 rounds
Time control - 90 minutes/40 moves + 30 minutes + 10 seconds/move starting with the 1st move
Game start - 15h for all rounds in São Paulo (14h - NY time / 20h Paris time) --- 16:00 in Bilbao
Rest day - 29th September and 9th October

Participants
WR #1 Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2823)
WR #2 Viswanathan Anand (IND,2817)
WR #3 Levon Aronian (ARM,2807)
WR #7 Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR,2765)
WR #12 Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2753)
WR #28 Francisco Vallejo (ESP,2716)

Round 2 - Tuesday, September 27
Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0 Francisco Vallejo
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Levon Aronian
Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Viswanathan Anand

Round 1 - Monday, September 26
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Levon Aronian 1-0 Francisco Vallejo

Anand and Carlsen agreed draw in 28 moves ... Nakamura and Ivanchuk game also ended in 28 moves ... Only Levon Aronian scored win against Vallejo in 53 moves.

In the second round again only Vallejo found losing side ... Vassily Ivanchuk defeated him in 37 moves ... Nakamura hold Anand in 38 moves ... Carlsen and Aronian also managed draw after 56 moves.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

Quarter Finals
Australia bt Pakistan 3-1 (25-16 25-23 22-25 25-15)
India l China 0-3 (25-27 20-25 20-25)
Iran bt Sri Lanka 3-0 (25-16 25-18 25-15)
Korea bt Japan 3-2 (25-21 28-30 23-25 25-17 16-14)

Chinese team take 2/3 pts early in the first set and managed to keep till end ... We saved couple of set points before Chinese team converted 3rd set point to win the first set ... Same story repeated in the second game, Chinese team take early 2/3 pts lead ... We managed to reduce it to 17-18 but then Chinese team won next few points to won this set easily ... And same repeated in the third set also ... Again we were equal with Chinese team till 17-all but this time also Chinese team won crucial pts to complete victory in straight sets.

So again we failed to take advantage of good showing in last few matches and lost crucial knockout match to play for 5th to 8th position.

Boxing News
At AIBA World Boxing Championships 2011, Baku, Azerbaijan

Men's Fly 52kg
[R1] Suranjoy Mayengbam (IND) bt Zsolt Dobradi (HUN) 24-8

[R2] Suranjoy Mayengbam (IND) vs (9) Tugstsogt Nyambayar (MGL)

Men's Bantam 56kg
[R1] Akhil Kumar (IND) bt Filip Barak (SVK) 16-8

[R2] Akhil Kumar (IND) vs (4) John Nevin (IRL)

Suranjoy started cautiously winning the first round 6-4 ... He won thesecond round dominantly with 11-1 and then easily hold challenge of Hungarian boxer to won the third round 7-3 ... So in end very convincing winning start for Suranjoy.

Akhil's match is started ... Good start for Akhil, he won the first round 6-3 ... Akhil won the second round 4-2 and increased his lead to 10-5 ... Akhil continued with his good performance to won the third round 6-3 to complete the victory ... Next he is facing tough match against 4th seed Irish boxer John Nevin ... He was silver medalist in last AIBA World Championships at Milan in 2009.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,89) bt (Q) Mikhail Ledovskikh (RUS,309) 76(5) 64

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,89) vs (WC) Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,60)

Sommy struggled with his game ... On court he didn't looking fit still he managed to win against qualifier ... In the first set both players traded early breaks but Sommy won closely fought tie-break ... With a single break Sommy won the match and booked another match with Marcos Baghdatis.
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At $15K Indonesia F4 Futures 2011, Jakarta

[R1] PRASHANTH (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (1) HELIOVAARA (FIN)/ KONDO (JPN) 76(8) 46 10-6
[R1] (3) GONZALES (PHI)/ SINGH (IND) l NUGROHO (INA)/ SUWANDI (INA) 64 26 6-10
[R1] BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) bt RUNGKAT (INA)/ SASONGKO (INA) 76(9) 64
[R1] MALIK (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) bt (4) MITSUHASHI (JPN)/ SEKIGUCHI (JPN) 63 62

[QF] PRASHANTH (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) vs SIRIBUTWONG (THA)/ SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA)
[QF] BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) vs NUGROHO (INA)/ SUWANDI (INA)

Indian pairs started with big upset win over top-seed and third seed pairs.
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At $10K USA F25 Futures 2011, Laguna Niguel

[Q4] (6) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) bt (13) Aaron Yovan (USA,1411) 63 76(3)

[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) vs (2) Daniel Cox (GBR,337)

Doubles
[R1] Lee Singer (USA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (2) Daniel Cox (GBR)/ Adam Hubble (AUS)

Second week in a row Sanam is facing tough challenge of Daniel Cox in singles and doubles.

Boxing News
At AIBA World Boxing Championships 2011, Baku, Azerbaijan

Men's Light Fly 46-49kg
[R1] Devendro Singh Laishram (IND) bt Asylbek Nazaraliev (KGZ) 14-8

[R2] Devendro Singh Laishram (IND) vs Joselito Velazquez Altamirano (MEX)

Men's Fly 52kg
[R1] Suranjoy Mayengbam (IND) vs Zsolt Dobradi (HUN)

Men's Bantam 56kg
[R1] Akhi Kumar (IND) vs Filip Barak (SVK)

Men's Light 60kg
[R1] Jai Bhagwan (IND) vs Evaldas Petrauskas (LTU)

Men's Light Welter 64kg
[R1] Manoj Kumar (IND) vs Valentino Knowles (BAH)

Men's Welter 69k
[R1] Krishan Vikas (IND) vs Asadullo Boimurodov (KGZ)

Men's Middle 75kg
[R1] (7) Vijender Kumar (IND) vs Emilio Correa Bayeux (CUB)

Men's Light Heavy 81kg
[R1] (12) Dinesh Kumar (IND) vs Deepak Maharjan (NEP)

Men's Heavy 91kg
[R1] Manpreet Singh (IND) bye

[R2] Manpreet Singh (IND) vs Dzhakon Qurbanov (TJK)

Men's Super Heavy +91kg
[R1] Paramjeet Samota (IND) vs Vitalijus Subacius (LTU)

From today AIBA World Boxing Championships is started at Baku ... In Light Fly 19 yrs old Devendro Singh Laishram started with win in his first senior level tournament against Kyrgyzstani boxer ... After the first round both boxers were tied 4-all ... Devendro Singh take lead after second round winning it 6-2 and also won third round 4-2 to moved into the next round ... Next he is meeting 18 yrs old Mexican boxer to place in pre-quarter finals.

Seeded Vijender Singh having very tough opener against Cuba's Olympic silver-medallist Emilio Correa ... Vijender has lost to Correa in the Olympic semifinals.

Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manoj Kumar is playing against Bahamas' Valentino Knowles, who was the 60kg gold-medallist at the Commonwealth Games.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

Pool E
India bt Pakistan 3-2 (25-23 25-23 19-25 18-25 15-3)
Iran bt Japan 3-0 (25-22 25-22 25-17)

Quarter Finals
Iran vs Sri Lanka
India vs China
Japan vs Korea
Australia vs Pakistan

We managed to win closely fought first set ... In the beginning of the second set India were down 1-5 and Pakistan managed to lead better part of the set ... But Indians caught with them in 19-all and from 22-23 they won last 3 pts to won the second set ... Pakistan fought back and won the third and fourth sets convincingly.

In the decider Indians take 4-1 lead, which they managed to keep until end and converted 2nd match point to complete victory and qualify to quarter-final on the second position from Pool E ... In quarter-final we r facing big challenge of China.

In this match Pakistan outnumbered us in points, 109-102.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,89) vs (Q) Mikhail Ledovskikh (RUS,309)

Surprised to see Sommy is playing here ... I was hoping he will take another week to return on the tour after his recent shoulder injury.
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At $50K Madrid Challenger, Spain

[R1] (4) Guillermo Olaso (ESP)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Javier Banos Pantoja (ESP)/ Antonio Garcia Sanchez (ESP) 64 57 12-10

This week Purav is playing in Span and with new Spanish partner ... They needed all their experience to pull first round win against local wild card pair.
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At $10K USA F25 Futures 2011, Laguna Niguel

[Q1] Suraj Desai (IND,UNR) l Aba Omodele-Lucien (USA,UNR) 63 36 46
[Q1] (6) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) bye

[Q2] (6) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) bt Jacob Jung (USA,UNR) 61 61
[Q3] (6) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) bt Dante Saleh (USA,UNR) 60 60

[Q4] (6) Sanam Singh (IND,1149) vs (13) Aaron Yovan (USA,1411)

This week also Sanam is playing in qualifying ... As expected he is in the final round with easy victories.
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At $15K Indonesia F4 Futures 2011, Jakarta

[R1] Vijayant MALIK (IND,606) vs (1) Harri HELIOVAARA (FIN,252)
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,637) vs Shuichi SEKIGUCHI (JPN,630)
[R1] (Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,827) vs (6) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,446)
[R1] Karunuday SINGH (IND,664) vs (4) Junn MITSUHASHI (JPN,419)
[R1] Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,559) vs Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER,664)
[R1] (7) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,453) vs Chuhan WANG (CHN,730)
[R1] (5) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,427) vs Hiroki KONDO (JPN,521)
[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,604) vs Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,480)
[R1] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND,312) vs Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA,816)

Doubles
[R1] PRASHANTH (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) vs (1) HELIOVAARA (FIN)/ KONDO (JPN)
[R1] (3) GONZALES (PHI)/ SINGH (IND) vs NUGROHO (INA)/ SUWANDI (INA)
[R1] BHAMBRI (IND)/ GAJJAR (IND) vs RUNGKAT (INA)/ SASONGKO (INA)
[R1] MALIK (IND)/ SHARMA (IND) vs (4) MITSUHASHI (JPN)/ SEKIGUCHI (JPN)

Big Indian contingent is playing in 2 weeks of Indonesia futures ... This week Kaza Vinayak qualified for main-draw ... Some players having tricky matches ... Hoping our players go deep in these futures.

Archery News
At Archery World Cup Final 2011, Istanbul, Turkey

Recurve Women Individual Final
Deepika Kumari (IND) l Ming Cheng (CHN) 5-6 (28-29 26-25 27-25 26-28 26-26 8-9)

[SF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Berengere Schuh (FRA) 6-0 (28-25 26-23 25-23)
[QF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Alejandra Valencia (MEX) 6-4 (26-24 27-27 25-26 28-28 28-25)

At Archery World Cup Final Deepika Kumari failed to score perfect 10 on the final arrow and lost Gold medal in tie-break.

In the first round Deepika needed all experience to beat Mexican girl's challenge but had a very easy semi-final ... In the final Chinese giel Ming Cheng started well but Deepika was taking advantage of Cheng's mistake to take match in tie-break.

In tie-break Ming Cheng was shooting first and scored a 9 pts ... The 17-year old Deepika needed a 10 to win, but she could not hold the pressure and finished with an 8 ... With that Chinese Ming Cheng became the new World Cup Final winner.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

Pool E
India bt Japan 3-1 (20-25 30-28 25-21 25-23)
Iran bt Pakistan 3-0 (25-18 25-14 25-11)

Terrific start in the second round which we were hoping for Indian team ... Started with huge upset win over defending Asian Champion Japan in comeback victory after losing the first set ... In the second set also our team hanged until end to win tight set in extra points.

So very important 3 pts for us as we qualified for this group with 0 pt ... Now win against Pakistan can give us big chance of qualifying for quarter-final in the second position.

Badminton News
At $200K Japan Masters, Tokyo

[SF] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) l (8) Juliane Schenk (GER,8) 19-21 10-21

Today Saina was looking lethargic on the court ... Saina was making too many unforced errors - hitting shots in the net or outside -, misjudging the shuttles and surprisingly Juliane Schenk dictated at the net.

In the first game both players were going neck to neck till end ... Saina manged 19-all from 17-19 down but Schenk won next 2 pts to grab the first game ... In the second game also same trend continued ... After 8-all Schenk take control due Saina's error-prone game ... From 14-10 Schenk won next 7 pts in a row to complete victory in 40 mins.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

Pool A
India l Iran 0-3 (25-27 17-25 25-27)
Chinese Taipei bt Afghanistan 3-0 (25-12 25-19 25-16)

So again we played close match against Iran taking 2 sets into extra points but failed to turn table ... That means our record remain intact that how much close we play against Iran we end up losing ... In the second round we r in Pool E with Iran, Japan and Pakistan ... I m hoping upset win against Japan and very close fought win against Pakistan.

Badminton News
At $200K Japan Masters, Tokyo

[QF] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Juan Gu (SIN,23) 21-17 21-13

[SF] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (8) Juliane Schenk (GER,8)

Saina produced dominant performance against Juan Gu in quarters ... In both games she take early lead and kept it until end to complete victory in 30 mins ... In the first game Saina started with 4-0 lead which she increased to 7-1 ... Gu tried to fightback but she never caught Saina ... In the second game Saina started with 5-0 lead and then Gu never recovered to produce any challenge.

Juliane Schenk scored surprisingly comfortable straight games victory over WR #2 Shixian Wang ... So Saina will be facing Juliane Schenk in the semis.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

Pool A
India bt Afghanistan 3-0 (25-9 25-13 25-11)
Iran bt Chinese Taipei 3-0 (25-17 26-24 25-15)

Our men won convincingly against Afghanistan, which was expected considering Afghanis first major International tournament.

So with this win we enter into the second round with Iranians ... Tomorrow our match with Iran will decide who will take a win result into the second round.

Badminton News
At $200K Japan Masters, Tokyo

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) l Simon Santoso (INA,17) 20-22 16-21
[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) l (6) Jin Chen (CHN,6) 15-21 21-6 18-21
[R2] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Mingtian Fu (SIN,29) 21-17 21-16

[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (7) Jung Eun Ha (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR) 9-21 21-18 22-24
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (5) Hung Ling Chen (TPE)/ Wen Hsing Cheng (TPE) 15-21 10-21

[QF] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Juan Gu (SIN,23)

Saina take early 9-5 lead but Mingtian managed to catch her at 14-all ... Saina won the first game after winning 4 pts in a row from 17-all ... In the second game Mingtian take early lead 12-8 but this time Saina caught with her at 13-all ... Again Saina won 5 pts in a row from 16-all to complete victory in 33 mins ... In quarters Saina is facing top ranked Singaporean who defeated local girl Sayaka Sato.

Jin Chen take early 7-2 lead and kept that to won the first game ... In the second game Kashyap won 8 pts in a row to take 8-1 lead, which he kept increasing to won this game losing only 6 pts ... In the third game Jin Chen take early 9-4 lead and managed to keep that most of the game ... But Kashyap won 4 pts in a row from 14-18 to 18-all ... Jin Chen won next 3 pts to complete victory in 67 mins.

From 1-2 down Ajay won next 6 pts to take 7-2 lead but from 11-6 he started to lose bunch of pts and Santoso managed to catch with him at 14-all ... Then Santoso take lead and had couple of game pts at 20-18 but Ajay saved those before Santoso converting 3rd to won the first game ... In the second game Santoso won 6 pts in a row from 0-2 down to take lead, which he managed to keep ... Ajay came near at 16-17 but Santoso won next 4 pts to complete victory in 43 mins.

Seeded Korean pair overpowered Jwala and Ashwini in the first game .... In the second game Indian pair take control early from 4-0 lead ... Koreans tried fightback When Indians were leading 19-13 ... Jwala and Ashiwini kept cool to won the second game ... In the third game again Indian pair take 5-0 early lead but Koreans caught with them at 7-all and take 11-8 lead ... This time Indians caught with them at 11-all and take 14-11 lead after winning 6 pts in a row ... Again Koreans managed to catch with them at 16-all but again Jwala and Ashwini won next 4 pts to lead 20-16 ... Koreans saved all 4 match pts to make it 20-all ... Indians saved a match pt at 22-21 but Koreans converted 2nd match point after saving 5 match pts.

5th seed Chinese Taipei pair defeated Diju and Jwala easily ... In the first game Chinese Taipei pair won 7 pts in a row from 12-13 to take control of the game and in the second game they won 12 pts in a row from 8-9.

Volleyball News
At the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship, Tehran, Iran

Pool A
India bt Chinese Taipei 3-2 (25-20 20-25 27-25 20-25 15-12)
Iran bt Afghanistan 3-0 (25-8 25-19 25-13)

In the 16th Asian Sr. Men’s Volleyball Championship we r in Pool A with host Iran, Chinese Taipei and Afghanistan.

We messed up easy match into nail-biting ... So despite fighting win I m disappointed over our teams effort but at least winning start for us.

Our women team lost against Australian in 9th-12th placing match in 4 sets (25-23 23-25 23-25 21-25)

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2012,

As expected we r getting first round bye as top-seed and will face winner between Uzbek and New Zealand in round two ... So for us Uzbek will be away tie and if New Zealand wins then that would be a home tie.
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At $450K BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] Alessandro Motti (ITA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Jordan Kerr (AUS)/ Travis Parrott (USA) 26 16

Turned very tough outing for Purav with his Italian partner ... They lost match in just 51 mins losing services twice in each set.
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At $125K Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R2] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,453) l Denya Molchanov (UKR,290) 76(4) 36 57

Doubles
[QF] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l (3) John Paul Fruttero (USA)/ Raven Klaasen (RSA) 57 16

In the first set both players were holding their service games comfortably ... In 11th game Vishnu saved 2 break points ... In tie-break Vishnu take early mini-break to lead 2-0 but Molchanov fought back taking mini-break back at 4-5 ... Vishnu take double mini-break on Molchanov's serve to won the first set ... In the second set Vishnu missed break point opportunities early but Molchanov broke him in 4th game and saved few more break points in his next service game ... This break was enogh for Molchanov to won the second set ... In the third set Vishnu take important break in 6th game to lead 4-2 but Molchanov immediately broke back to bring the set back on serve, 4-3 ... Vishnu wasted 3 more break points in 8th game and in next game Vishnu saved a break point on his serve ... But Molchanov take crucial break on 11th game ... Vishnu saved a match point but Molchanov converted 2nd to complete victory ... Big missed opportunity for Vishnu after getting lucky break in a draw ... He had a big chance of reaching quarters of this big challenger.

Third seed pair take important break in 11th game to won the first set and then they dominated to won the second.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures 2011, Costa Mesa

[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) l (2) Daniel Cox (GBR,310) 64 67(3) 46

Sanam fought well in this match ... He won the first set and had opportunity to won this match but lost it ... Despite Cox high ranking I feel Sanam should start winning these matches if he is aiming high.

Badminton News
At $200K Japan Masters, Tokyo

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) bt (7) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,7) 21-18 21-19
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) bt Viktor Axelsen (DEN,33) 19-21 21-14 21-14
[R1] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Inthanon Ratchanok (THA,13) 21-17 21-10

[R1] Rupesh Kumar KT (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (6) Markis Kido (INA)/ Hendra Setiawan (INA) 13-21 12-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Hsin Yun Chang (TPE)/ Chia Wen Lai (TPE) 21-8 21-17
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Shintaro Ikeda (JPN)/ Reiko Shiota (JPN) 22-20 21-15

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) vs Simon Santoso (INA,17)
[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs (6) Jin CHEN (CHN,6)
[R2] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Mingtian Fu (SIN,29)

[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (7) Jung Eun Ha (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR)
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (5) Hung Ling Chen (TPE)/ Wen Hsing Cheng (TPE)

Saina scored comfortable dominating win against young Thai Inthanon Ratchanok in 33 mins ... Next she is facing Singaporean girl to place in quarters.

Ajay scored huge upset win over WR #7 Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen in straight games ... In the first game he take control after winning 4 pts in a row from 15-14 ... In the second game both players were neck to neck until 19-all before Ajay winning last 2 pts ... Next he is facing former WR #3 Indonesian Simon Santoso ... Other hand slow start for Kashyap, after losing the first game he came back strongly to won next two ... In the second round he is facing tough Chinese opponent.

Diju and Jwala also had winning start against local pair ... Next they r facing 5th seed Taiwani pair ... In women doubles Jwala and Ashwini scored very comfortable win in 21 mins ... Next they r facing 7th seed Korean pair.

Seeded Indonesian pair proved too strong for Rupesh and Sanave.

Tennis News
At $450K BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] Alessandro Motti (ITA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Jordan Kerr (AUS)/ Travis Parrott (USA)

This week Purav getting chance of playing in ATP tournament.
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At $125K Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,453) bt (LL) Sergey Shipilov (UZB,UNR) 76(5) 62

[R2] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,453) vs Denya Molchanov (UKR,290)

Doubles
[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Jurgen Zopp (EST)/ Jan Hernych(CZE) 63 06 10-4

[QF] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (3) John Paul Fruttero (USA)/ Raven Klaasen (RSA)

Vasek Pospisil didn't show up for this challenger so in his place local lucky loser got chance ... Vishnu take advantage of it scoring the first round win ... Next he is facing unseeded Ukrainian.

Also winning start for Vishnu and Divij in doubles against last week's Ningbo runner-up pair ... After winning the first set they lost the second without winning a game but it looks they played perfect STB ... Next they r facing 3rd seed pair.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures 2011, Costa Mesa

[Q4] (5) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) bt (13) Marcel Thiemann (GER,1353) 64 64

[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) vs (2) Daniel Cox (GBR,310)

Doubles
[R1] Alexandre Lacroix (FRA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l (2) Daniel Cox (GBR)/ Adam Hubble (AUS) 67(5) 46

Sanam qualified for main-draw with straight sets win ... But in singles and doubles he is facing seeded Daniel Cox.

In doubles last week's doubles title winner lost against 2nd seed pair in straight sets.

Badminton News
At $200K Japan Masters, Tokyo

[Q1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,97) bt Thulasi PC (IND,120) 15-21 22-20 22-20
[Q1] Gurusaidutt RMV (IND,55) l Keigo Sonoda (JPN,70) 21-15 14-21 16-21
[Q1] (2) Anand Pawar (IND,54) bt Kento Momota (JPN,268) 21-16 21-17

[Q2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,97) l Ying Suet Tse (HKG,87) 12-21 15-21
[Q2] (2) Anand Pawar (IND,54) l Tien Chen Chou (TPE,59) 18-21 21-19 21-23

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) vs (7) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,7)
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs Viktor Axelsen (DEN,33)
[R1] (4) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Inthanon Ratchanok (THA,13)

[R1] Rupesh Kumar KT (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs (6) Markis Kido (INA)/ Hendra Setiawan (INA)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Hsin Yun Chang (TPE)/ Chia Wen Lai (TPE)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Shintaro Ikeda (JPN)/ Reiko Shiota (JPN)

Guru lost in the first qualifying round ... Arundhati was lucky to beat fellow Indian Thulsi in her qualifying first round match but in the second qualifying round she failed to produce much fight against Hong Kong player ... Anand lost big opportunity to qualify for main-draw ... He had 4 match points from 20-17 in the third game which he failed to convert it.

Tennis News
At $125K Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,453) vs (6) Vasek Pospisil (CAN,127)

Doubles
[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Jurgen Zopp (EST)/ Jan Hernych(CZE)

Vishnu received wild card at big Tashkent challenger ... Having tough match against in-form Canadian.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures 2011, Costa Mesa

[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) bt Christoph Thiemann (GER,UNR) 63 63
[Q3] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1787) l (1) Dennis Lajola (USA,936) 63 46 36

[Q4] (5) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) vs (13) Marcel Thiemann (GER,1353)

Sunil gave tough fight to top-seed but failed to convert it into win ... Sanam scored another convincing win but need to keep focus in his last qualifying match against another German player.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Play-off 2011, Japan

Japan bt India 4-1
Day Three
[R4] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,456) l Kei Nishikori (JPN,55) 57 36 36
[R5] Rohan Bopanna (IND,559) l Go Soeda (JPN,116) 5-4 Retd

Sommy didn't play in reverse single due to shoulder injury ... In his place Vishnu got the chance to play against Japan's top player Kei Nishikori ... Vishnu lost in straight set but produced decent performance against player, who is 400 places higher ranked ... In the first set Kei broke Vishnu in 11th game to won it ... In the second Kei broke Vishnu in 3rd and 9th games to won it ... In third set Kei broke Vishnu in 6th game to won it ... Kei served superbly in this match ... His powerful ground strokes and passing shots were treat to watch ... So with this Japan qualified for World Group after 26 yrs and we need to play in Asia-Oceania zonal matches to qualify for the World Group.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures 2011, Costa Mesa

[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) bt Rogan Egerton (GBR,UNR) 62 64
[Q2] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1787) bt Felix Van Kann (GER,UNR) 64 63

[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) vs Christoph Thiemann (GER,UNR)
[Q3] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1787) vs (1) Dennis Lajola (USA,936)

Sanam and Sunilkumar moved to third round of the qualifying with straight sets victory ... Next Sunilkumar is facing tough test against top-seed American.

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Masters, Changzhou

[SF] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR) 21-6 19-21 19-21

Diju and Jwala started with 5-0 lead and that kept tempo of this game ... They kept increasing the lead and won the first game losing only 6 pts in 10 mins ... In the second set Koreans turned table on Indian pair to take early 9-3 lead ... After that Indian pair tried to catch Korean ... They managed that at 15-all but again Koreans take 17-19 lead ... Indians made it 19-all but Koreans won next 2 pts to won the second game ... In the third game Koreans take early 3-0 lead and managed to keep that ... Indians came near at 11-12 but Koreans won next 5 pts to increase the lead ... Indians saved 2 match points from 17-20 but Koreans converted 3rd match point to complete superb victory in 53 mins ... Missed opportunity for Diju and Jwala to reach final of China Masters.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Play-off 2011, Japan

Japan vs India 2-1
Day Two
[R3] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Tatsuma Ito (JPN)/ Yuichi Sugita (JPN) 75 36 63 76(4)

In the first set we broke Sugita's serve in 3rd game but then Mahesh lost his serve in 8th game with UFEs and double faults ... We take crucial break on Sugita's serve in 11th game to won the first set ... In the second set Japanese pair broke Rohan's serve in 6th game and that break was enough to won the second set for Japan ... In the third set Hesh and Bops broke Sugita's serve in 4th game ... Japanese pair fought back breaking Mahesh's serve in 7th game but immediately our pair broke Ito's serve and then Rohan hold to won the third set ... In fourth set Japanese pair take early break to lead 1-4 but while Ito was serving for the set at 3-5 our pair broke back and take this set in tie-break ... After trading early mini-breaks our take crucial mini-break to lead 5-4 and then Rohan served to complete victory.

Though we win still very inspired game by Japanese pair, especially Sugita ... Labored win by our top 10 quality doubles pair ... We prevailed by our players huge experience.
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At $35K+H Ningbo Challenger, China

Doubles Final
Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Jan Hernych (CZE)/ Jurgen Zopp (EST) 36 76(3) 13-11

Karan and Divij produced excellent comeback victory to lift doubles title at Ningbo ... After losing the first set our pair was leading 5-3 in the second but lost their serve while serving for the set ... In tie-break they dominated to win with double mini-break ... Both players fought hard in super tie-break where our pair prevailed tough challenge from opponents ... This is Karan's second challenge title and other hand this is Divij's first challenge title.
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At $10K USA F23 Futures 2011, Claremont

Doubles Final
(4) Alexandre Lacroix (FRA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Vladimir Obradovic (SRB)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 63 61

Sanam and his French partner comfortably won the doubles title in this US Futures ... They defeated Vignesh and his Serbian partner losing only 4 games ... In the morning Sanam and Vignesh went to Costa Mesa for playing qualifying first round at US F24 Futures before coming back at Claremont for doubles final, Costa Mesa was 50 miles from Claremont.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures 2011, Costa Mesa

[Q1] [2] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND, 962) l Xin Gao (CHN, 1629) 46 26
[Q1] [5] Sanam Singh(IND, 1149) bt Nathaniel Gorham (USA, 1493) 62 60
[Q1] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND, 1787) bt Deiton Baughman (USA,UNR) 64 75
[Q1] Suraj Desai (IND,UNR) l Alexandru Gasca-Silav (ROU,UNR) 67(2) 16

[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh(IND,1149) vs Rogan Egerton (GBR,UNR)
[Q2] Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1787) vs Felix Van Kann (GER,UNR)

Sanam scored dominating win over Gorham ... Winning start for Sunil after long lay over ... But Vignesh lost against his Chinese opponent.

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Masters, Changzhou

[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) l (1) Yihan Wang (CHN,1) 8-21 12-21
[QF] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Robert Blair (SCO)/ Gabrielle White (ENG) 17-21 21-19 21-9

[SF] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR)

From final score it looks like WR #1 Yihan Wang gave badminton lesson to Saina in their 34 mins match ... In the first game Yihan take control of the game from 6-5 ... She won next 15 pts losing only 3 ... In the second game Saina managed to enter into double figure ... Yihan won 8 pts in a row from 4-3 to take control and won it comfortably to moved into the semis.

Diju and Jwala showed excellent fightback against Scott-Brit pair to enter into semis ... After losing the first game Indian pair take control of the second game from 9-8 winning next 4 pts ... Scott-Brit pair tried comeback winning 4 pts from 13-19 down but Indian pair kept cool to win it ... In the third game Indian pair take control winning 6 pts in a row from 3-all and then kept increasing to won it cvery convincingly ... In the semis they r facing another unseeded Korean pair.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Play-off 2011, Japan

Japan vs India 2-0

Day One
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,65) l Yuichi Sugita (JPN,175) 36 46 57
[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND,559) l Kei Nishikori (JPN,55) 36 26 26

Sommy played disappointing game to lose this first rubber in the straight sets against #175 ranked Yuichi Sugita ... In this match Sommy managed to create 1 break point opportunities, which was in the second set ... Other hand Yuichi Sugita created 7 break point opportunities and converted 1 in each set ... In this match Sommy managed to win only 16 pts on Sugita's serve, that was disastrous considering Sommy is having good returning game ... Sugita had 53 winners and 40 unforced errors, Sommy had 19 winners and 29 unforced errors.

In the first set Sugita broke Sommy in 4th game, 1-3 ... In the second set, Sugita broke Sommy in 3rd game to take early lead and saved a break point on his serve to lead 1-3 ... Sugita take crucial break in 11th game to seal the match.

Rohan gave much worst performance than Sommy to lose in 1 hr 38 mins ... Rohan had a couple of break points in the first set ... Other hand Nishikori broke Rohan once in the first set and then twice in remaining 2 sets to scored very comfortable win.
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At $35K+H Ningbo Challenger, China

[SF] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Mao-xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 62 63

[F] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Jan Hernych (CZE)/ Jurgen Zopp (EST)

Karan and Divij scored very comfortable win over local pair to moved into the final ... They won their match in an hour ... Next they r facing another unseeded pair for the title, who upset top-seed pair in straight sets.
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At $10K USA F23 Futures 2011, Claremont

[R2] Sanam Singh (IND,1154) l (1) Steve Johnson (USA,527) 46 36

Doubles
[SF] (4) Alexandre Lacroix (FRA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Dennis Mkrtchian (USA)/ Dennis Novikov (USA) 60 61
[SF] Vladimir Obradovic (SRB)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt Joshua Graves (USA)/ Rudolph Siwy (CZE) 64 76(6)

[F] (4) Alexandre Lacroix (FRA)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Vladimir Obradovic (SRB)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND)

Well played match against in-form top-seed player by Sanam ... Sanam and Vighnesh reached in the final of doubles with their respective partners ... But now both having big task of playing doubles final here and also playing qualifying for the next week futures.

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Masters, Changzhou

[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) l (2) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,3) 18-21 15-21
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Ayane Kurihara (JPN,26) 21-11 18-21 27-25

[R2] Rupesh Kumar K. T. (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l (4) Sung Hyun Ko (KOR)/ Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR) 13-21 9-21
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR) 21-19 21-17

[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (1) Yihan Wang (CHN,1)
[QF] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Robert Blair (SCO)/ Gabrielle White (ENG)

Diju and Jwala moved to quarters with straight games victory over Koreans showing the first round big upset win wasn't fluke.

Saina started with winning the first game comfortably ... In the second game after 4-6 down Kurihara won next 6 pts to take 10-6 lead but Saina caught with her at 11-all ... Kurihara again take lead from 14-12 to lead 18-14 ... Saina tried to reduce the distance and came near 18-19 before Kurihara winning next 2 pts to won the second game ... In decider Saina take early 4-0 lead which she increased to 11-5 but Kurihara fought back winning next 5 pts to make it 11-10 ... After that Saina managed to keep couple of pts lead until 18-16 ... Kurihara caught with her at 18-all ... Kurihara had a first match point at 19-20 ... Saina saved that and then Saina needed 6 match points before converting it to complete THE victory ... This match was going on for 72 mins ... It seems these Japanese girls r found some knack of handling Saina's game ... These days Saina struggled lot against Japanese girls.

After closely fought the first game Peter Gade won the second game comfortably against Kashyap ... 4th seed Korean pair scored comfortable win over Rupesh and Sanave in 25 mins.

Next in quarters Saina having real big test against WR #1 Yihan Wang ... In MXD quarters Diju and Jwala r facing another unseeded Scottish-British pair.

Motor Sports News

Armaan Ebrahim has become the first Indian racer, to secure a seat in the Indy Lights Series after being selected by Bryan Herta Autosport (BHA) team, the reigning champions of the Indy 500 series, for the 2012 season.

Team owner Bryan Herta said:
"Armaan acquitted himself very well with the Indy Lights car today. Although it is quite a bit different than some of the cars he has driven recently, he was quickly on the pace and we were pleased with the feedback he was able to provide to his engineers."

"Based on today, we are actively working to put a programme in place around Armaan to not only make him the first Indian driver on the grid of the Indy Lights Series, but also ultimately the first Indian driver in the winner's circle."

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Play-off 2011, Japan

Day One
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs Yuichi Sugita (JPN)
[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Kei Nishikori (JPN)

Day Two
[R3] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Kei Nishikori (JPN)/ Go Soeda (JPN)

Day Three
[R4] Kei Nishikori (JPN) vs Somdev Devvarman (IND)
[R5] Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Yuichi Sugita (JPN)

Good draw for Indians as Sommy is playing the first rubber ... I m feeling fifth rubber will be decider for this tie.

So many pairs were discussed and updated in a day ... Davis cup site started with Rohan and Vishnu, then it published Mahesh and Sommy but finally they announced it would be Mahesh and Vishnu ... So we need to wait before the doubles rubber for exact pairing.
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At $35K+H Ningbo Challenger, China

[QF] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Sebastian Rieschick (GER) /Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (GER) 64 76(4)

[SF] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Mao-xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)

Divij and Karan continued with their good run ... They defeated unseeded German pair in straight sets ... They won the first set with a single break but in the second set both pairs traded 8 breaks before tie-break ... In the semis they r facing unseeded local pair, who upset 4th seed Chinese Taipei pair.
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At $10K USA F23 Futures 2011, Claremont

[R1] Sanam SINGH (IND,1154) bt (WC) Raymond SARMIENTO (USA,1451) 63 63
[R1] Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,968) l (6) Rudolph SIWY (CZE,693) 16 26

[R2] Sanam SINGH (IND,1154) vs (1) Steve JOHNSON (USA,527)

Doubles
[QF] (4) LACROIX (FRA)/ SINGH (IND) bt SAVILLE (AUS)/ WHITTINGTON (AUS) 63 62
[QF] OBRADOVIC (SRB)/ PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt (3) HARRISON (USA)/ NUGENT (CIV) 75 76(2)

[SF] (4) LACROIX (FRA)/ SINGH (IND) vs MKRTCHIAN (USA)/ NOVIKOV (USA)
[SF] OBRADOVIC (SRB)/ PERANAMALLUR (IND) vs GRAVES (USA)/ SIWY (CZE)

Expected winning start for Sanam ... In the second round he is facing in-form top-seed Steve Johnson, who is current NCAA champion ... In US open he take compatriot Alex Bogomolv(Jr) in a tight 5 setter ... Also Partnering Irina Falconi in the mixed doubles event, they scalped 2nd seeds Daniel Nestor and Katerina Srebotnik enroute to quarters.
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At $10K Hungary F1 Futures, Budapest (clay)

[R2] (Q) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,UNR) l (5) Marc RATH (AUT,538) 36 36

Doubles
[QF] FOCHT (GER)/ NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) l GODRY (HUN)/ NAGY (HUN) 57 16

Jeevan lost against seeded player in the second round.

Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Masters, Changzhou

[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,55) l Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,22) 19-21 13-21
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,50) l Yan Kit Chan (HKG,36) 17-21 18-21
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) bt Rajiv Ouseph (ENG,33) 19-21 21-16 21-11
[R1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,98) l (3) Xin Wang (CHN,3) 13-21 10-21
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Aditi Mutatkar (IND,103) 21-6 21-8
[R1] Thulasi P. C. (IND,119) l (8) Shao Chieh Cheng (TPE,7) 14-21 8-21

[R1] Rupesh Kumar K. T. (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Ruud Bosch (NED)/ Koen Ridder (NED) 21-18 21-11
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Xia Huan (CHN)/ Jinhua Tang (CHN) 19-21 21-15 21-23
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt (2) Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Qing Tian (CHN) 5-21 21-14 21-18

[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs (2) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,3)
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Ayane Kurihara (JPN,26)

[R2] Rupesh Kumar K. T. (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs (4) Sung Hyun Ko (KOR)/ Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR)

Good hard fought comeback win by Kashyap but Jwala and Ashwini were unlucky to lost such a close match to local pair ... Rupesh and Sanave also started with comfortable win.

Guru had a chance, he was up 15-8 then 16-11 in the first game against Vittinghus but fail to take advantage ... Vittinghus caught with him at 16-all before winning the first game and dominated the second to complete the victory.

Terrific upset win by Jwala and Diji against WR #2 pair and that also local Chinese pair ... After losing the first game winning only 5 pts our pair fought back amazingly ... They won next 2 games lot easier than expected ... Best win of their career and definitely boost their confidence to achieve more.

Saina toyed with Aditi to won match in 22 mins.

General News

The Sports Ministry sanctioned Rs 6.85 crore financial assistance for 22 athletes considering medal prospects in next year's London Olympics.

Ronjan Sodhi - Rs 97.37 lakh
Former shooting World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu - 91.95 lakh
Mansher Singh - Rs 47.25 lakh
Discus thrower Krishna Poonia - Rs 24.20 lakh
Vikas Gowda - Rs 24.51 lakh
Shot putter Om Prakash Karhana - Rs 48.10 lakh
Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna, Yuki Bhambri and Sanam Singh - Rs 36.96 lakh each
Somdev Devvarman - Rs 39.60 lakh
The Indian men's gymnastic players -- Ashish Kumar, Rakesh Patra, Alok Ranajan and Iqrar Hasan (a collective amount ) - 56.83 lakh
The women's team - Dipa Karmarkar, B Aruna, Rucha Divekar, Roma Jogalekar and Meenakshi - Rs 33.08 lakh

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Play-off 2011, Japan

Leander Peas has officially pulled out of the tie against Japan due to back spasm and he is replaced by Vishnu Vardhan in the team .... So now mostly Rohan and Mahesh will play doubles.
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At $35K+H Ningbo Challenger, China

[R1] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt (2) Pierre-Ludovic Duclos (CAN)/ Riccardo Ghedin (ITA) 64 64

[QF] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Sebastian Rieschick (GER) /Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (GER)

Good upset win against second seed pair.
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At Hungary F1 Futures, Budapest (clay)

[R1] (Q) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,UNR) bt Roberto MARCORA (ITA,741) 64 63

[R2] (Q) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,UNR) vs (5) Marc RATH (AUT,538)

[Q3] Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (6) Filip VEGER (CRO) 62 26 75
[Q2] Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Andrej Cosiasu(ROU) 61 60
[Q1] Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Balint Slijj(HUN) 62 61

Doubles
[R1] FOCHT (GER)/ NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt PICCO (ITA)/ TORRONI (ITA) 76(5) 62

[QF] FOCHT (GER)/ NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) vs GODRY (HUN)/ NAGY (HUN)

Surprised to see Jeevan decide to play in Hungarian futures for next 3 weeks ... Good initiative to play on European clay ... With 3 good wins he qualifiers he started with impressive win in tricky match against top-750 Italian ... Next he is playing 5th seed Austrian.
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At $10K USA F23 Futures 2011,

[R1] Sanam SINGH (IND,1154) vs (WC) Raymond SARMIENTO (USA,1451)
[R1] Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,968) vs (6) Rudolph SIWY (CZE,693)

Doubles
[R1] (4) LACROIX (FRA)/ SINGH (IND) bt GARLAND (USA)/ GORHAM (USA) 76(3) 63
[R1] OBRADOVIC (SRB)/ PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt HUI (USA)/ TABATRUONG (FRA) 62 62

[QF] (4) LACROIX (FRA)/ SINGH (IND) vs SAVILLE (AUS)/ WHITTINGTON (AUS)
[QF] OBRADOVIC (SRB)/ PERANAMALLUR (IND) vs (3) HARRISON (USA)/ NUGENT (CIV)

Sanam and Vignesh r playing at US futures.

Winning start in doubles with their respective partners.

Golf News
At $300K ISPS Handa Singapore Classic, Singapore

1 Himmat Rai (IND) 68 66 66 71 -9 $ 47550
T2 Elmer Salvador (PHI) 68 67 70 66 -9 $ 19485
T2 Guido Van Der Valk (NED) 71 67 67 66 -9 $ 19485
T2 Tjaart Van Der Walt (RSA) 69 69 66 67 -9 $ 19485
T2 Adilson Da Silva (BRA) 68 67 65 71 -9 $ 19485

T31 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 71 68 70 70 -1 $ 2415
T42 Abhishek Jha (IND) 72 70 67 72 +1 $ 1770
T42 Vinod Kumar (IND) 72 70 67 72 +1 $ 1770
T42 Ashok Kumar (IND) 71 70 70 70 +1 $ 1770
T47 Sujjan Singh (IND) 71 70 70 71 +2 $ 1500
T69 Mandeo Pathania (IND) 69 72 73 74 +8 $ 705

This year Himmat Rai became the third Indian player to win an Asian tour tournament ... S.S.P. Chowrasia was the first one to win Avantha Masters, the joint event with European tour ... Then Anirban Lahiri who won the Panasonic Open ... But both of these events were in India and now Himmat won an event outside India.

After completion of fourth round 5 players were tied for top position ... Himmat secured his maiden Asian Tour victory in style when he sank a 25-foot birdie putt at the sixth play-off hole, beating Filipino Elmer Salvador.

Squash News
At $9K Orange County Open 2011, Irvine, California, USA

Final
(1) Dipika Pallikal (IND,24) bt (Q)Yathreb Adel (EGY,74) 11-6 12-10 11-9 (60m)

[SF] (1) Dipika Pallikal (IND,24) bt (8) Misaki Kobayashi (JPN,53) 11-9 13-11 11-6 (40m)
[QF] (1) Dipika Pallikal (IND,24) bt (5) Siyoli Waters (RSA,51) 11-5 11-6 11-8 (40m)
[R1] (1) Dipika Pallikal (IND,24) bt (Q) Kristen Lange (USA,104) 11-3 11-7 11-4

Top-seed Dipika lifted Orange County title without losing game ... In the final only Egyptian qualifier tested her in ah hour long match.

Tennis News
At $35K+H Ningbo Challenger, China

[R1] Karan Rastogi (IND,316) l (1) Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE,82) 36 36

Doubles
[R1] Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (2) Pierre-Ludovic Duclos (CAN)/ Riccardo Ghedin (ITA)

Karan struggle against top-150 players continued ... In this match Lu had 14 break points and he converted 5 ... Other hand Karan had 4 break points and converted 2.

In doubles Karan and Divij r facing 2nd seed Duclos and Ghedin.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy, Ordos, China

Final
India bt Pakistan 4-2 (0-0)

India won the inaugural Asian Champions trophy With superb performance by goalkeeper S Sreejesh in penalty shoot-out ... He made two crucial save in penalty shoot-out ... Rajpal Singh, Danish Mujtaba, Yuvraj Walmiki and Sarvanjit Singh scored for India in the penalty shootout while Muhammad Rizwan and Waseem Ahmed scored for Pakistan ... India started badly in penalty shootout when Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Shah saved the shot from Gurwinder Singh Chandi but Sreejesh responded with a saving Haseem Abdul Khan's shot ... Then on third shot again Sreejesh made crucial save on shot from Shafqat Rasool.

In the match both teams had opportunities to finished match early ... Pakistan earned seven penalty corners to India's one but they failed to beat the Indian defence and the goalkeeper Sreejesh ... Pakistan started with more attacking game but our defence stood stong importantly young V Raghunath ... Both teams played fast pacd match but nobody managed to score in full-time or extra-time.

As per report, Pakistan's Dutch head coach Michel Henricus Maria was constantly abusing Indian players from the roof of the stadium ... Whenever there was an infringement from the Indian side, he used the 'F' word liberally and whenever the umpires blew against India, he hollered 'Thank You'.

Good start for Indian coach Nobbs to win title in the first tournament with young Indian side ... But still nothing to read from this performance, we need to improve lot to match against Europeans and Australian sides ... Now our first major task in qualifying for 2012 London Olympics.

Indian women finished on 4th position after losing to Japan 2-3 in extra-time ... At one-time Indian women were leading 2-0 before losing that lead.

Archery News
At Archery World Cup Stage 4, Shanghai, China

Recurve Women Team
Final
India bt Italy 215-204

[SF] India bt Russia 219-212
[QF] India bt France 215-213
[R1] India bye

Recurve Women Individual
For Bronze Medal
Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Erwina Safitri (INA) 6-4 (25-28 28-26 26-24 26-29 27-25)

[SF] Deepika Kumari (IND) l Berengere Schuh (FRA) 5-6 (29-30 26-26 28-29 28-27 29-26) T9-T10
[QF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Bishindee Urantungalag (MGL) 7-3 (28-26 28-28 27-30 28-26 27-26)

India won the gold medal in 4th stage of World cup ... World Champion Koreans were missing but still creditable performance from Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro ... In the final they defeated Italian team who defeated them in World Championship.

In individual event Deepika Kumari won the Bronze medal beating her Indonesian opponent.

Tennis News
At US Open 2011, New York

[SF] (5) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (6) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 26 67(4)

[QF] (5) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ross Hutchins (GBR) 75 26 75

Rohan and Aisam needed only 3 points to book place in the semis, where they faced Polish pair who defeated Indian Express in the previous round.

Rohan and Aisam were outperformed by Polish pair in the semi-final ... Polish pair broke them twice to won the first set comfortably ... In the second set both pairs hold their serves to take set in tie-break ... Again Polish pair proved strong to won that and match ... Polish pair didn't face a single break point on their serve in the match, they generated 8 break point chances on Rohan and Aisam's serve and converted 2 of them.
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At $50K St Remy de Provence Challenger, France

[SF] (2) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (3) Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA)/ Edouar Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 36 63 7-10

Purav and Olivier lost in super tie-break.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy, Ordos, China

India dw Pakistan 2-2
Goal Scored - Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 44' PC, Danish Mujtaba (IND) 53' and Muhammad Waqas (PAK) 40', Muhammad Irfan (PAK) 42' PC

India staged remarkable fightback to hold Pakistan 2-2 ... Indians struggled under chilly and windy conditions, temperature was under 7 degree Celsius ... Both teams played cautious but attacking hockey ... First half locked goalless but in the second half Pakistan kept pressure and scored first goal due to defensive lapse from Indians and immediately they doubled the lead through penalty corner ... Indians fought back and earned their third penalty corner and managed to score through indirect hit despite mistake from Ignace Tirkey while stopping the ball ... After that Indians kept attacking and managed to score equalizer through Mujtaba ... First the Kiwi umpire Simon Taylor disallowed the goal but after Indian players objection he consulted with Korean umpire You Su Long and awarded goal to India ... Then both teams tried but couldn't manage to score ... In this match also we wasted 3 penalty corners from 4.

With this draw Pakistan qualify for the final ... India needed Malaysian magic and they delivered with beating Japan 3-2 ... So India r in the final and book rematch against Pakistan.

Shooting News
At 2011 ISSF Shotgun World Championship, Belgrade, Serbia

Trap Women Final
1. Yingzi Liu (CHN) (72+23) 95 hits
2. Zuzana Stefecekova (SVK) (72+20) 92 hits
3. Elena Tkach (RUS) (73+17) 90 hits
4. Shagun Chowdhary (IND) (72+17) 89 hits
5. Catherine Skinner (AUS) (72+17) 89 hits
6. Corey Cogdell (USA) (72+16) 88 hits

28 yrs old Shagun Chowdhary won 2012 Olympic quota for Trap Women after finishing 4th at ISSF Shotgun World Championship in Belgrade ... She become 9th Indian shooter to grab 2012 London Olympic quota.

This was Shagun's first final at Shotgun World Championship and ranked 21st in the world made it to the final round with career high 72 hits ... In the final she was leading the field when she shot 12 from 12 hits in the begining ... However after that she only managed 5 hits from her next 13 shots to finish outside podium finish.

The top 3 shooters had already won a quota place so she grabbed the only quota place to the Games by finishing in 4th with a total score of 89 hits ... She was followed by Australia’s Catherine Skinner, who also scored 89 targets but lost the Quota due to the “Count Back” rule; who misses first, ranks worst ... Creditable performance in her first final from young Shagun Chowdhary considering in the final she faced 3 former world champions and an Olympic bronze medalist

Tennis News
At US Open 2011, New York

Doubles
[QF] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (6) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 46 67(4)
[QF] (5) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ross Hutchins (GBR) 75 26 6-5

Mixed Doubles
[SF] (7) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Melanie Oudin (USA)/ Jack Sock (USA) walkover

Frankly I was hoping title from Lee and Mahesh but last 2 days rain-break broke their momentum ... Before this match they were looking nice gelled unit but in this match they failed to convert opportunities ... In the match they wasted 2 break points on Polish serve and other hand Polish pair converted only break point they got in 10th game of the first set ... After losing the first set our pair were up with mini-break in tie-break but then as per news Leander injured himself during the first point which they won ... A therapist came on the court to help Lee for his back spasms but Lee was feeling pain in his back ... After that he couldn't serve properly and just kept throwing before they lost the tie break and match ... As expected Elena Vesnina and Leander Paes withdrew from semi finals of mix doubles due to Lee's back spasms.

British pair gave very tough fight to Rohan and Aisam, still our pair managed to win the tight first set ... In the second British pair broke our pair serve twice to won it comfortably ... In the decider set British pair were leading with early break ... They were 5-3 up when Rohan and Aisam started fight back with big shots ... They broke British pair twice to take 6-5 lead but rain stopped match when Aisam was serving for the match and were down 15-30.
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At $50K St Remy de Provence Challenger, France

[QF] (2) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Laurynas Grigelis (LTU)/ Giuseppe Menga (ITA) 64 62

[SF] (2) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (3) Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA)/ Edouar Roger-Vasselin (FRA)

Comfortable win for 2nd seed Purav and Olivier ... Next they r facing French 3rd seed pair ... Interesting to note that in doubles 7 semi-finalists from 8 r French.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy, Ordos, China

Women
India l China 0-4
Goal Scored - Yudiao Zhao (CHN) 6' and 66', Yibo Ma (CHN) 23' and 65'

This was expected result after disastrous first 2 matches ... China scored 2 goals each half from Zhao and Ma to complete comfortable win ... As usual we were pathetic on the field and wasted 5 penalty corners ... Now our women will play for Bronze against Japan, who lost to Korea by a single goal.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Play-off 2011, Japan

Japan announced team for their crucial tie against India ... Winner will be play in the World group ... Japan decided to go with their top 4 singles players ... Interestingly all 4 players r in singles top 200.

Japan Team - Kei Nishikori, Tatsuma Ito, Go Soeda, Yuichi Sugita
Eiji Takeuchi (capt)
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At $50K St Remy de Provence Challenger, France

[R1] (2) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Arnau Brugues-Davi (ESP)/ Fabrice Martin (FRA) 75 64

[QF] (2) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Laurynas Grigelis (LTU)/ Giuseppe Menga (ITA)

Winning start for Purav and Olivier but match was lot closer than they expected ... Hopefully they will perform as per their seeding.
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At $50K Shanghai Challenger, China

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Hiroki Kondo (JPN) l Fritz Wolmarans (RSA)/ Michael Yani (USA) 62 57 6-10

Failed to took advantage of good start ... They started well after winning the first set comfortably but then failed to convert this into a win.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy, Ordos, China

India dw Malaysia 2-2
Goal Scored - Ravi Pal (IND) 9', Danish Mujtaba (IND) 53' and Tajuddin Jalil (MAS) 25' PC, Muhammad Amin (MAS) 32' PC

Recently always good result is followed by draw or defeat but probably playing two matches within the space of 20 hours had taken its toll on our team ... For me more worrying part is our incapability of scoring goals on penalty corners ... Today we wasted 4 penalty corners and Malaysia scored both goals from penalty corners.

Indian again started with attacking hockey and managed to score early goal ... After that Malaysian take control through mid-field and scored couple of goals due to silly mistakes from our players ... At half-time we were down 1-2 ... In the second half both teams were attacking ... Malaysians had 4 penalty corners but they failed to convert ... We managed equalizer from diving Mujtaba and then both teams failed to score winner.

After this match India is having 8 pts and now our final match against Pakistan on Friday will be treated as virtual semi-final.

Tennis News
At $50K Shanghai Challenger, China

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Hiroki Kondo (JPN) bt (WC) Ya-Nan Ma (CHN)/ Feng Xue (CHN) 64 62

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Hiroki Kondo (JPN) vs Fritz Wolmarans (RSA)/ Michael Yani (USA)

Expected winning start for Divij with Hiroki ... Next they r facing another unseeded pair who upset 4th seed pair in the first round.
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At $10K Germany F14 Futures, Kenn (clay)

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1333) l (7) Jerome INZERILLO (FRA,642) 67(6) 67(4)

Balaji gave another fighting performance against seeded opponents.

Hockey News

The FIH announced today that India will no longer host the 2011 Men’s Champions Trophy due to ongoing problems with the governance of hockey in the country ... As a result of no longer hosting the Champions Trophy, India has been invited to play in the Champions Challenge to be held in South Africa in November.

Congratulation to HI and IHF for all the mess they created and living in it ... Due to their egos and stupidity we lost chance of hosting and participating in CT, but then who cares? As per report chances r high that we will lose the Olympic Qualifier also ... I think in near future they will achieve their main objective of KILLING Indian hockey completely.
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At Asian Champions Trophy, Ordos, China

Men
India bt South Korea 5-3
Goal Scored - Rupinder Singh (IND) 4' PS, Gurwinder Singh Chandi (IND) 5', SV Sunil (IND) 7', Rajpal Singh (IND) 24', Yuvraj Walmiki (IND) 62' and Lee Nam Yong (KOR) 8' and 26', Nam Hyun Woo (KOR) 68'

Women
India l Japan 0-5
Goal Scored - Yukari Yamamoto (JPN) 16', Rika Komazawa (JPN) ? and 43' PC, Izuki Tanaka (JPN) 52', Toshie Tsuki (JPN)

After disappointing draw against Japan in the previous match and more disappointing news of losing chance of hosting CT some news to cheers.

We defeated South Koreans 5-3 ... We were up 3-0 after first 7 mins and at half-time we take 4-2 lead with fast-paced hockey but again we conceded goal in dying minutes ... We need to avoid that ... Otherwise our team gelled well on the field and defended well.

Really good win by young Indian men against Koreans which will boost their confidence for next matches against Malaysia and Pakistan.

Other hand very poor performance by Indian women who were hammered by Japanese women ... Last couple of years we performed decently against Japanese girls but today's loss was hear-breaking ... After leading 2-0 at half-time Japanese women scored 3 more goals in the second ... With that we r out of playing in the final.

Tennis News
At US Open 2011, New York

Doubles
[R3] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) 64 75

[QF] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (6) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)

Mixed Doubles
[QF] (7) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Olga Govortsova (BLR)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 62 64

[SF] (7) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Melanie Oudin (USA)/ Jack Sock (USA)

Lee and Mahesh started positively breaking Treat's serve in 1st game and that break was enough to won the first set ... In the second set both pairs had a break points but they failed to convert it ... Important break came into 11th game when our pair broke Som's serve and then Le hold it to complete the victory ... Good performance by Sommy and Treat to gave tough fight to this multiple grand slams winner pair ... Next Lee and Hesh will be facing 6th seed Polish pair ... Lee already defeated them in MXD with their respective partners so hopefully he will continue that in mens doubles also.

Lee and Elena scored comfortable win in MXD ... They broke Matkowski's serve 4 times in the match and that was enough to win both sets ... Next they r facing young American pair, who r in good nick.
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At $50K St Remy de Provence Challenger, France

[R1] (2) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Arnau Brugues-Davi (ESP)/ Fabrice Martin (FRA)
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At $10K Germany F14 Futures, Kenn (clay)

[Q1] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bye
[Q2] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Antoine PLUMEY (SUI) 26 62 61
[Q3] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Jan PORTESET (GER) 64 75

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,1333) vs (7) Jerome INZERILLO (FRA,642)

Fifth week in a row Balaji qualified for main-draw but having tough first round against seeded French player.