Tennis News
At $450K Aircel Chennai Open 2013, India

[Q3] Prakash Amritraj (IND,549) bt (7) James Ward (GBR,250) 57 64 64
[Q3] (5) Rajeev Ram (USA,132) bt (4) Kenny De Schepper (FRA,119) 76(9) 46 61

[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,217) l (6) Robin Haase (NED,56) 57 36
[R1] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,549) vs Guillaume Rufin (FRA,90)
[R1] (Q) Rajeev Ram (USA,132) vs Dudi Sela (ISR,109)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Benoit Paire (FRA)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 26 75 7-10

In the first set Prakash missed break point in 9th game ... Prakash had 2 more break points at 15-40 in 11th game but he missed those ... Ward broke him in 11th game to win the set ... In the second set Prakash broke Ward in 1st game after that Ward created couple of break point chances On Kash's serve ... Kash hold his serves and kept single break advantage for winning this set ... In the final set again Prakash broke Ward in 1st game but Ward immediately broke Kash to make it 1-all ... Prakash again broke Ward in 3rd game to lead 2-1 ... After that both players hold their respective service games ... Prakash converted 3rd match point in 10th game after saving a break point for a win in 2 hours and 23 minutes ... Happy to see at least one Indian qualify for main-draw through qualifying ... Next he is facing Frenchman Guillaume Rufin in the first round ... Go Kash.

Rajeev won the first set in very long and tight tie-break but De Schepper broke him in 7h game of the second set ... That break helped De Schepper to make it one set all ... Rajeev dominated the final set and won it with double break ... Rajeev is facing Israeli Dudi Sela in the first round.

Yuki was matching his game with seeded Robin from the first game ... Both players had few break point opportunities which they failed to convert ... But Robin take crucial break in 12th game to win the first set when Yuki was serving for the remaining in the set ... After winning the first set Robin started to look better player on the court ... Yuki's body language wasn't encouraging ... Until 7th game both players hold their respective services but Robin take crucial break of serve on Yuki's serve in 8th game ... After this Robin hold comfortably with big four services to won this match ... In the second set Yuki failed to raise his game.

In doubles match in the start Sanam was struggling with his service returns, Paire and Wawrinka take full advantage to win the first set ... In the second set our pair was early break down but they came back strongly in the match breaking opponent's serve twice ... In that crucial break came in 12th break ... In match tie-break one time Paire and Wawrinka were leading 2-5 but Vishnu and Sanam fought back to lead 7-6 ... After that Paire and Wawrinka showed their experience to win next 4 points to clinch the match in their favor.
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At $1M Brisbane International 2013, Australia (WTA Premier)

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA) bt Vera Dushevina (RUS)/ Olga Govortsova (BLR) 64 62

Winning start of new 2013 season for Sania with Bethanie ... They defeated their Russian-Belarus pair in straight sets in Premier event.

Tennis News
At $450K Aircel Chennai Open 2013, India

[Q1] (1) Ruben Bemelmans (BEL,111) bt (WC) Ajai Selvaraj (IND,1127) 61 60
[Q1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,344) bt Sanam Singh (IND,297) 67(3) 64 63
[Q1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,929) bt (WC) Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,1125) 63 63
[Q1] Vijayant Malik (IND,539) bt N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,572) 46 63 75
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,549) bt (3) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,117) 64 36 63
[Q1] Theodoros Angelinos (GRE,502) bt (WC) Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1545) 62 60
[Q1] Saketh Myneni (IND,384) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,996) 63 64
[Q1] (4) Kenny De Schepper (FRA,119) bt Arjun Kadhe (IND,1106) 61 62
[Q1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,328) bt (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,1515) 63 64
[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,1015) bt Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,812) 75 63
[Q1] (5) Rajeev Ram (USA,132) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,796) 64 61

[Q2] (1) Ruben Bemelmans (BEL,111) bt Vishnu Vardhan (IND,344) 64 46 61
[Q2] Filip Krajinovic (SRB,420) bt Sidharth Rawat (IND,929) 63 62
[Q2] (6) Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (GER,177) bt Vijayant Malik (IND,539) 62 46 75
[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,549) bt Theodoros Angelinos (GRE,502) 64 64
[Q2] (4) Kenny De Schepper (FRA,119) bt N. Sriram Balaji (IND,328) 64 36 61
[Q2] (5) Rajeev Ram (USA,132) bt Divij Sharan (IND,1015) 60 36 61
[Q2] (7) James Ward (GBR,250) bt Saketh Myneni (IND,384) 36 63 64

As expected cracker match between Sanam and Vishnu which lasted for 2 hours and 20 minutes ... Despite struggling with his 1st serve Sanam produced fighting performance against Vishnu ... After a win Vishnu played excellent second qualifying round against top-seed Ruben Bemelmans in first 2 sets before tiredness in the final ... Vijayant also played excellent match against Stebe ... In the fianl set Vijayant was early break down but fought back breaking Stebe in 8th game but Stebe broke him 11th game for a win ... Superb win by Prkash over in-form Sugita in three sets ... In the second qualifying round Prakash scored comfortable straight games with a single break in both sets over Angelinos ... In other match Balaji was break down after losing the first set against De Schepper but Balaji broke back to make it 3-all ... Bala again broke De Schepper in 8th game and won the second set after winning 4 games in a row from 2-3 ... In the final set De Schepper broke Balaji in 2nd game and take 3-0 lead and with another break of serve De Schepper won this set comfortably ... Rajeev started confidently and won the first set without losing a single game against Divij ... Divij fought back in the second and managed to win it despite failing to won a single game in the first set ... In the third Rajeev dominated winning it breaking Divij twice ... Saketh had excellent start against Ward ... He won the first set but then failed to keep momentum in next two sets and lost them with a single break ... In the final set Saketh was up with a break at 4-2 but Ward won next 4 games breaking Saketh's serve twice.

Prakash having a very good chance for qualifying for the main-draw ... In the final qualifying he is facing Britisher James Ward.

Tennis News
At $450K Aircel Chennai Open 2013, India

[Q1] (1) Ruben Bemelmans (BEL,111) vs (WC) Ajai Selvaraj (IND,1127)
[Q1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,344) vs Sanam Singh (IND,297)
[Q1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,929) vs (WC) Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,1125)
[Q1] (2) Philipp Petzschner (GER,115) vs Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,518)
[Q1] Vijayant Malik (IND,539) vs N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,572)
[Q1] (3) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,117) vs Prakash Amritraj (IND,549)
[Q1] Theodoros Angelinos (GRE,502) vs (WC) Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1545)
[Q1] Saketh Myneni (IND,384) vs Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,996)
[Q1] (4) Kenny De Schepper (FRA,119) vs Arjun Kadhe (IND,1106)
[Q1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,328) vs (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,1515)
[Q1] Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,812) vs Divij Sharan (IND,1015)
[Q1] (5) Rajeev Ram (IND,132) vs Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,796)

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,663) vs Jan Hajek (CZE,106)
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,217) vs (6) Robin Haase (NED,56)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Daniel Nestor (IND) vs (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Neduchezhiyan (IND)
[R1] (3) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (IND) vs Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Go Soeda (JPN)
[R1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Benoit Paire (FRA)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)
[R1] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Really crap draw for Sanam and Vishnu ... Both had a decent chance of qualifying for main-draw with little favorable draw but now winner between them will face Belgian top-seed Bemelmans in the qualifying second round ... Prakash is having tough qualifying first round against 3rd seed Japanese Sugita.

Somi having decent first round against Jan Hajek but Yuki had tough match against top-60 Robin Haase.

Tennis News
At $450K Aircel Chennai Open 2013, India

The organizers announced wild-cards for singles and doubles ... In the singles Somdev and Yuki r getting deserving wild-cards ... In the doubles Yuki receive wild-card with Vishnu but second wild-card given to local pair Jeevan and Balaji ... I feel injustice for promising pairing of Purav and Divij as both need some encouragement from local associations to push their rankings inside top-100.

In the doubles, Mahesh will be top-seed with Nestor ... Leander is playing with 43rd ranked Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin and they most probably will be 2nd seed ... Rohan is starting his new year with his new partner Rajeev Ram so they will be 3rd seed in the draw.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Pune, India

Doubles
[SF] (4) Jia Xiang Lu (CHN)/ Jia Jing Lu (Chn) bt Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sheng Nan Sun (CHN) 2-3 Retd.

With this end of the Indian challenge in this tournament.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy 2012, Doha, Qatar

Final
India l Pakistan 4-5 (2-1)
Goal Scorers - Goal Scorers - SV Sunil (IND) 9', VR Raghunath (IND) 21' PC, Gurvinder Singh Chandi (IND) 55', Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 59' PC and Muhammad Waqas (PAK) 7' PC and 57', Shafqat Rasool (PAK) 42', Mohammad Imran (PAK) 48' PC and 63' PC

Pakistan started with attacking hockey from the start ... We were matching them but Pakistani players were attacking more ... In 7th minute Raghu conceded penalty corner and Waqas converted for Pakistan scoring his 10th goal of the tournament ... In 2 minutes we equalized through field goal from Sunil ... Sunil missed easy chance in front of the goal and Pakistanis also making mess inside our circle ... Indians earned their first penalty corner in 20th minute when ball rises dangerously inside the circle ... Raghu scored from it scoring his 8th goal of the tournament ... Indians earned their second penalty corner just before hooter but this time Pakistanis saved it ... In the second half Pakistan equalized through Rasool in 42nd minute ... Pakistan earned their 2nd penalty corner through their continuous attack and Mohammad Imran converted to gave lead to them ... After that Indians equalized through Chandi in 55th minute ... Pakistan responded within 2 minutes with goal from Waqas, his 11th goal of the tournament ... Indians earned penalty corner in next minute and Rupinderpal converted it ... In 2 minutes Indians earned another penalty corner but this time Rupinderpal missed but after that Pakistan earned another penalty corner and again Mohammad Imran gave lead to Pakistan ... When 3 minutes remaining Indians left the field protesting against Korean umpire who refused to give penalty corner, I think that was unsporting behavior from Indians ... After few minutes match resumed and Pakistan managed to hold lead till the end ... Pakistan was deserving winner of Asian Champions Trophy after this entertaining match.

Badminton News

2012 year-end BWF World Ranking

Women's singles
3 Saina Nehwal
19 P. V. Sindhu (PB)
94 P. C. Thulasi

Men's singles
14 Parupalli Kashyap (PB)
31 Ajay Jayaram
38 R. M. V. Gurusaidutt
40 Sourabh Varma
50 B. Sai Praneeth (PB)
51 Anand Pawar
62 K. Srikanth (PB)
86 H. S. Prannoy

Men's doubles
34 Rupesh Kumar/ Sanave Thomas
42 Tarun Kona/ Arun Vishnu
48 Pranaav Chopra/ Akshay Dewalkar

Women's doubles
25 Jwala Gutta/ Ashwini Ponnappa
61 Aparna Balan/ N. Siki Reddy
71 Pradnya Gadre/ Prajakta Sawant
118 Pradnya Gadre/ Ashwini Ponnappa

Mixed doubles
27 V. Diju/ Jwala Gutta
36 Ashwini Ponnappa/ Tarun Kona
59 Arun Vishnu/ Aparna Balan
78 N. Siki Reddy/ Pranaav Chopra
83 Pradnya Gadre/ Akshay Dewalkar

Here r 2012 year-end rankings of our players ... In men's singles scene r rosy with few emerging young players but worrying sign on women's singles as only Sindhu is looking top talent after Saina.

Happy to see our 4 players r on their personal best ranking at year-end rankings ... In doubles our new pairs need to step up to become top-16 pairs.

Tennis News
At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Pune, India

[R2] (6) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,283) bt Kyra Shroff (IND,488) 62 61
[R2] (4) Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN,255) bt (Q) Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,UNR) 62 60
[R2] (8) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,301) bt (WC) Prarthana G. Thombare (IND,825) 63 61

Doubles
[QF] Basak Eraydin (TUR)/ Melis Sezer (TUR) bt Sharmada Balu (IND)/ Nungnadda Wannasuk (THA) W/o
[QF] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sheng Nan Sun (CHN) bt Natasha Palha (IND)/ Ho Ching Wu (HKG) 46 62 10-5

[SF] (4) Jia Xiang Lu (CHN)/ Jia Jing Lu (Chn) vs Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sheng Nan Sun (CHN)

Indians singles challenge ended without much fight against seeded players ... In the doubles Nidhi in the semis with her Chinese partner.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy 2012, Doha, Qatar

India l Malaysia 3-5 (0-3)
Goal Scorers - Goal Scorers - Birendra Lakra (IND) 47' PC, SV Sunil (IND) 62', VR Raghunath (IND) 63' PC and Mohd. Fitri Saari (MAS) 18' and 27', Azlan Misron (MAS) 20' PC, Faizal Saari (MAS) 38', ? (MAS) 68'

Lethargic performance by our team against spirited Malaysians ... From start Malaysians were attacking and scored 3 goals in 10 minutes to lead 3-0 at half-time ... They scored 4th goal in first 3 minutes of the second half ... Indians converted 3rd penalty corner through Lakra ... After that we were pushing hard but usual problem of wayward shooting inside the circle were costing us ... We scored 2 goals in two minutes to reduced margin to 3-4 when 7 minutes remaining ... But again sloppy defending cost us 5th goal when 2 minutes were remaining.

In the final we r facing Pakistan who defeated Japan 5-2 in other match.

Tennis News
At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Pune, India

[R1] (1) Nina Bratchikova (RUS,80) bt (WC) Ankita Raina (IND,597) 62 63
[R1] (6) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,283) bt Rutuja Bhosale (IND,547) 62 60
[R1] (Q) Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,UNR) 63 76(2)
[R1] Oksana Kalashnikova (GEO,416) bt (Q) Natasha Palha (IND,843) 60 75

[R2] (6) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,283) vs Kyra Shroff (IND,488)
[R2] (4) Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN,255) vs (Q) Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,UNR)
[R2] (8) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,301) vs (WC) Prarthana G. Thombare (IND,825)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Conny Perrin (SUI)/ Tadeja Majeric (SLO) bt Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Keren Shlomo (ISR) 64 75
[R1] Shiho Akita (JPN)/ Chihiro Takayama (JPN) bt (WC) Adnya Naik (IND)/ Amrita Mukherjee (IND) 64 60

As expected Rashmi won her match against her Indian opponent ... Otherwise disappointing outing for Indians.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy 2012, Doha, Qatar

India bt Pakistan 2-1 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - Goal Scorers -Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 36' PS, Chinglensana Kangujam (IND) 49' and Muhammad Waqas (PAK) 57' PC

This was typical physical game between India and Pakistan but with win we qualified for the final ... Indians were lucky in this game as Pakistan was better team on the field.

Pakistan dominated the first half as we were under continuous attack from them ... Late in the second hald we received penalty corner but on poor penalty corner (regular) drill we missed the chance ... But in the 1st minute of the second half we got penalty stroke and Rupinderpal Singh converted it ... In 39 minutes Pakistan received their first penalty corner as Raghu fouled inside the circle but he blocked Muhammad Waqas's hit ... Pakistan missed another penalty corner and then Abbasi missed a sitter from front of the goal ... Indians take advantage of missed chances of Pakistan and scored field goal through Chinglensana ... After that Pakistan kept pressing and earned 3rd penalty corner ... This time they scored through Waqas despite Indian protest ... Raghu got yellow card in 61st minute ... Rupinderpal missed ball in 3rd penalty corner when ball was stopped by stopper ... Chandi earned another penalty corner for India in 68th minute ... Indians earned another penalty corner when Pakistani defender raised a stick inside the circle while defending penalty corner ... Rupinderpal's flick deflected from cross-bar ... Pakistan earned their 4th penalty corner in dying moments but this time Rupinderpal cleared the ball ... In the end Pakistan was attacking but we survived due to excellent goal-keeping by Sreejesh ... He saved numerous Pakistani attacks single-handedly.

Tennis News
At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Pune, India

[R1] (1) Nina Bratchikova (RUS,80) vs (WC) Ankita Raina (IND,597)
[R1] Kyra Shroff (IND,488) bt (Q) Eetee Maheta (IND,933) 36 62 61
[R1] (6) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,283) vs Rutuja Bhosale (IND,547)
[R1] (4) Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN,255) bt (WC) Rishika Sunkara (IND,567) 62 60
[R1] (8) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,301) bt (LL) Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND,1064) 63 75
[R1] (Q) Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,UNR) vs (WC) Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,UNR)
[R1] Oksana Kalashnikova (GEO,416) vs (Q) Natasha Palha (IND,843)
[R1] (WC) Prarthana G. Thombare (IND,825) bt (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,719) 64 63
[R1] (Q) Ya-Hsuan Lee (TPE,1002) bt (Q) Bhuvana Kalva (IND,UNR) 61 61

Doubles
[R1] (1) Conny Perrin (SUI)/ Tadeja Majeric (SLO) vs Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Keren Shlomo (ISR)
[R1] Shiho Akita (JPN)/ Chihiro Takayama (JPN) vs (WC) Adnya Naik (IND)/ Amrita Mukherjee (IND)
[R1] Sharmada Balu (IND)/ Nungnadda Wannasuk (THA) bt (WC) Namita Bal (IND)/ Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND) 62 63
[R1] Ya-Hsuan Lee (TPE)/ Chihiro Nunome (JPN) bt Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) 62 64
[R1] (4) Jia Xiang Lu (CHN)/ Jia-Jing Lu (CHN) bt (WC) Vasanti Shinde (IND)/ Dhruti Tatachar Venugopal (IND) 75 75
[R1] Natasha Palha (IND)/ Ho Ching Wu (HKG) bt Ankita Raina (IND)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) 76(5) 36 10-8
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sheng Nan Sun (CHN) bt (ALT) Varunya Chandrashekhar (IND)/ Rashmi Teltumbde (IND) 62 60

Our five girls qualified for main-draw ... In that Rashmi Teltumbde scored impressive win over higher ranked Hong Kong player Ho Ching Wu in the first round qualifying ... Only couple of players r having favorable draw in the first round ... Otherwise our players r facing seeded opponents in the first round.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy 2012, Doha, Qatar

India bt Oman 11-0 (4-0)
Goal Scorers - SV Sunil (IND) 3' and 44', Dharamvir Singh (IND) 8' and 56', VR Raghunath (IND) 30' PC and 38' PC, Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 33' PC and 43' PC, Akashdeep Singh (IND) 53' PC, Harbir Singh (IND) 65' PC, Danish Mujtaba (IND) 67'

As expected very dominating win by Indians over Omanis ... In this match we converted 6 penalty corners from 10 penalty corners we earned ... We were 2-0 up before first 10 minutes and half-time we were 4-0 up ... We scored 7 more goals in the second half and in that 4 goals were from penalty corners ... Raghu and Rupinder scored a brace from penalty corners ... Sunil and Danish scored a brace (field goals).

Badminton News
At $120K Syed Modi International India GP Gold 2012, Lucknow

Women's Final
(2) Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) l (7) Lindaweni Fanetri (INA,33) 15-21 21-18 18-21

Men's Final
(2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt (14) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,41) 21-19 14-21 21-17

Sindhu failed to lift women's singles title as she lost the final against Indonesian in 73 minutes ... In this match from the start Indonesian Lindaweni Fanetri didn't give a chance to Sindhu settle in the match ... Both players were making errors but also played some excellent points after long rallies ... Sindhu failed to read overhead cross-court smashes from Fanetri ... In the first game Fanetri opened 4-1 lead which she increased to 11-4 ... Fanetri kept this lead to win the first game ... In the second game Sindhu opened 6-1 lead ... Fanetri tried to reduce it and managed to come near 10-12 and then afterwards 15-16 ... Sindhu converted 2nd game point and take match into the decider ... In the third game Sindhu started with 3-0 lead but Fanetri caught her at 4-all ... After that both players exchanged lead till 10-all ... Fanetri won next 4 points to take 14-10 lead but Sindhu fought back from 14-16 to take 17-16 lead ... Fanetri won next 4 points and gave herself 3 match points ... Fanetri converted 2nd match point for winning the championship.

In the men's final Kashyap defeated Thai Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk for lifting his first GP Gold title in India in 72 minutes ... Kashyap played very patient game and was attacking when needed ... In the third game Kashyap fitness was visible ... He was fittest player on the court.

In the first game Tanongsak take 5-2 lead but Kashyap caught with him at 5-all ... After that Tanongsak opened 9-5 and then 13-7 lead ... Kashyap fought back to reduce it to 12-13 ... Again Tanongsak opened 17-13 lead this time Kashyap won 6 points in a row to take 19-17 lead ... Kashyap converted 2nd game point and won this game ... In the second game Tanongsak was leading from the start ... KAshyap reduced to 6-7 but after that Kashyap made few unforced errors and Tanongsak take advantage of it winning the second game ... In decider Kashyap take 5-2 lead but Tanongsak made it 5-all ... From 6-all Kashyap opened two points lead ... Tanongsak managed to reduce lead to one point at 11-12 ... Kashyap won next 4 points to opened 16-11 lead ... Tanongsak tried fightback from 14-19 after winning next 3 points but Kashyap won next two points for championship win.

Badminton News
At $120K Syed Modi International India GP Gold 2012, Lucknow

[SF] (2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt (3) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,27) 21-18 23-21
[SF] (2) Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) bt (3) Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,23) 21-12 21-14

[F] (2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) vs (14) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,41)
[F] (2) Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) vs (7) Lindaweni Fanetri (INA,33)

Kashyap and Sindhu won their respective semi-finals in men's and women's to enter in the final ... Sindhu scored very comfortable win over similar ranked Thai player in 39 minutes ... Kashyap take 6-0 early lead which he kept until end of the game ... In the second game Kashyap take 8-4 lead but Tommy Sugiarto caught with him at 19-all from 14-19 down ... Kashyap failed to covert match point at 20-19 but he saved a game point at 20-21 ... Kasyap converted 2nd match point for good win in 46 minutes.

In the women's final Sindhu is facing Indonesian Lindaweni Fanetri ... In the men's final Kashyap is facing Thai Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk ... Kashyap having 2-4 win-loss record against him.

Tennis News
At 2013 Fed Cup - Asia-Oceania Group 1, Astana, Kazakhstan

India's Fed Cup Team
Sania Mirza, Kyra Shroff, Rutuja Bhosale, Rishika Sunkara

AITA announced team for Fed cup which will be played in February ... This time team selection was purely on rankings as our top ranked singles and doubles players r selected.
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At $10K India F17 Futures, Belgaum

Singles Final
(6) Michael Shabaz (USA) bt (Q) Torsten Wietoska (GER) 60 76(3)

Michael Shabaz won double crown at Belgaum after winning the singles title beating Wietoska ... After losing the first set easily Wietoska fought hard in the second but Shabaz managed to win it in tie-break for his first ITF singles futures title.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy 2012, Doha, Qatar

India bt Japan 3-1 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - VR Raghunath (IND) 22' PC and 59' PC, Gurvinder Singh Chandi (IND) 51' and Koji Kayukawa (JPN) 50' PS

Japan exposed Indian defense in this match ... We were dis-oriented in this match and Japan tried hard to take advantage ... Japan wasted 2 penalty corners but Raghu scored for Indians on first penalty corner ... We had poor last 5 minutes of the first half where Japanese were attacking and we were struggling to enter in Japanese half ... In the second half we played more physical game and our players received cards for that ... Japan equalised through penalty stroke in 50th minute ... On next minute Chandi scored through field goal to gave lead ... Raghu continued with his good form and scored his 4th goal of the tournament converting 3rd penalty corner.

Tennis News
At $10K India F17 Futures, Belgaum

[SF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND) l (6) Michael Shabaz (USA) 26 57
[SF](Q) Torsten Wietoska (GER) bt Andre Gasper Murta (POR) 76(3) 76(5)

Doubles Final
(1) Vijay Sundar Prashant (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) l Michael Shabaz (USA)/ Amrit Narasimhan (USA) 67(3) 57

Balaji failed to utilize opportunity of winning this futures and joining Yuki, Vishnu and Sanam in top-300 in end of the year ranking ... He lost in straight sets against Michael Shabaz ... In other semis German qualifier Torsten Wietoska continued with his superb form after entering in the final.

Tomorrow Michael Shabaz having chance of winning double crown after winning the doubles title with Amrit Narasimhan ... They defeated top-seed Vijay Sundar and Arun-Prakash in tight two sets.

Badminton News
At $120K Syed Modi International India GP Gold 2012, Lucknow

[QF] Srikanth K. (IND,69) l (14) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,41) 16-21 12-21
[QF] Prannoy H. S. (IND,93) l (5) Alamsyah Yunus (INA,42) 21-18 10-21 12-21
[QF] (12) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,39) l (3) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,27) 21-19 20-22 16-21
[QF] (2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt Soon Huat Goh (MAS,90) 23-21 8-21 21-16
[QF] (2) Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) bt Febby Angguni (INA,144) 21-13 21-17

Prannoy and Srikanth lost in the quarters ... Guru missed opportunity of finishing match in straight games ... He wasted one match point before Sugiarto winning the second game ... In the final game Sugiarto take couple of points lead from 10-all which he manged to increase in end for the victory.

Surprisingly tough match for Kashyap against lower ranked Malaysian .... After winning the first game in extra points he lost the second very easily ... Kashyap needed to raise his game for the victory in the decider ... Sindhu scored straight games victory over almost 150th ranked Indonesian in the quarters.

Tennis News
At $10K India F17 Futures, Belgaum

[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND) bt Colin van Beem (NED) 64 57 63
[QF] (6) Michael Shabaz (USA) bt (3) Theodoros Anjelinos (GRE) 64 64

[QF] (7) Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (IND) l (Q) Torsten Wietoska (GER) 46 63 57
[QF] Andre Gasper Murta (POR) bt (8) Jeroen Benard (NED) 75 63

Doubles
[SF] (1) Vijay Sundar Prashant (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) 64 36 10-6
[SF] Michael Shabaz (USA)/ Amrit Narasimhan (USA) bt (2) Sergei Krotiok (RUS)/ Luca Margaroli (SUI) 63 76(4)

Balaji is the only Indian in the singles semis ... Ashwin gave fighting performance against consistent German Wietoska.

In doubles top-seed pair of Vijay Sundar and Arun-Prkash r in the final ... They will face tricky unseeded American pair.

Hockey News
At Asian Champions Trophy 2012, Doha, Qatar

India bt China 4-0 (2-0)
Goal Scorers - SV Sunil (IND) 13' VR Raghunath (IND) 17' PC and 52' PC, Own goal 53'

Comfortable winning start for Indians against Chinese team ... We scored 2 goals each in both half and in that Raghu scored twice through penalty corners.

Badminton News
At $120K Syed Modi International India GP Gold 2012, Lucknow

[R3] (3) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,27) bt (16) Sai Praneeth B. (IND,58) 12-21 21-12 21-16
[R3] (12) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,39) bt (7) Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif (MAS,35) 21-10 21-16
[R3] Prannoy H. S. (IND,93) bt Siswanto (INA,305) 21-18 21-12
[R3] (2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt Parinyawat Thongnuam (THA,236) 21-16 21-17
[R3] Srikanth K. (IND,69) bt (4) Ajay Jayaram (IND,31) 21-18 21-18
[R2] (2) Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) bt Victoria Na (AUS,99) 21-9 21-9
[R2] (5) Aprilla Yuswandari (INA,28) bt Sayali Gokhale (IND,177) 21-15 21-11
[R2] (7) Lindaweni Fanetri (INA,33) bt Rituparna Das (IND,UNR) 19-21 21-17 28-26
[R2] (4) Nichaon Jindapon (INA,) bt Ruthvika Shivani G. (IND,) 21-4 21-13

[R2] Berry Angriawan (INA)/ Yohanes Rendy Sugiarto (INA) bt Nandagopal K. (IND)/ Hema Nagendra Babu T. (IND) 21-14 21-16
[R2] (2) Ricky Karanda Suwardi (INA)/ Muhammad Ulinnuha (INA) bt Alwin Francis (IND)/ Diju V. (IND) 21-8 21-11
[R2] (5) Gideon Markus Fernaldi (INA)/ Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra (INA) bt Manu Attri (IND)/ Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND) 21-19 21-11
[R2] (1) Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki (INA)/ Hendra Aprida Gunawan (INA) bt Deepak Khatri (IND)/ Vinay Kumar Reddy P. (IND) 21-15 21-15
[R2] (4) Sung Hyun Ko (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR) bt Jayan James (IND)/ Dilshad K. (IND) 21-6 21-7
[R2] Wahyu Nayaka Arya Pankaryanira (INA)/ Ade Yusuf (INA) bt (8) Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) 22-20 21-17
[R2] Yoo Jung Chae (KOR)/ Ji Won Kim (KOR) bt Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) W/o
[R2] (2) Savitree Amitrapai (THA)/ Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA) bt Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy N. (IND) 21-11 21-15
[R2] (1) Shinta Mulia Sari (SIN)/ Lei Yao (SIN) bt Yamini Sharma (IND)/ Shraddha Srivastava (IND) 21-7 21-6
[R2] (2) Fran Kurniawan (INA)/ Shendy Puspa Irawati (INA) bt Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Siki Reddy N. (IND) 21-9 21-14

Good upset win by Guru over higher ranked Malaysian ... Also young Srikanth scored upset win over higher ranked and lot more experienced Ajay Jayaram ... Four Indian men players r in the quarters but only Sindhu remains in women's draw ... Disappointing performance in the doubles continue as our all pairs lost in the second round.

Tennis News
At $10K India F17 Futures, Belgaum

[R2] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) 67(2) 61 61
[R2] Colin van Beem (NED) bt (Q) Rohan Gide (IND) 63 60

[R2] (3) Theodoros Anjelinos (GRE) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 46 76(1) 64
[R2] (6) Michael Shabaz (USA) bt Luca Margaroli (SUI) 63 64

[R2] (7) Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (IND) bt (Q) Suraj R. Prabodh (IND) 64 62
[R2] (Q) Torsten Wietoska (GER) bt (LL) Jatin Dahiya (IND) 57 61 61

[R1] (8) Jeroen Benard (NED) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 64 64
[R1] Andre Gasper (POR) bt (2) Sanam Singh (IND) 76(6) 63

Doubles
[QF] (1) Vijay Sundar Prashant (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Ronak Manuja (IND) 64 36 10-7
[QF] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh PC (IND) 76(3) 63
[QF] Michael Shabaz (USA)/ Amrit Narasimhan (USA) bt (4) Theodoros Angelinos (GRE)/ Sanam Singh (IND) 57 64 10-6
[QF] (2) Sergei Krotiok (RUS)/ Luca Margaroli (SUI) bt (WC) Jatin Dahiya (IND)/ Shahbaz Khan (IND) 62 64

Yuki was tired after winning back to back titles and his tiredness was visible in this third week's loss ... Ramkumar missed big opportunity of upsetting Anjelinos ... He was up with break in last two sets before losing it.

Badminton News
At $120K Syed Modi International India GP Gold 2012, Lucknow

[R1] Pratul Joshi (IND,400) bt (1) Taufik Hidayat (INA,11) 21-17 21-12
[R1] Prasojo Adi Andrianus (INA,1163) bt Vijetha N. V. S. (IND,876) 21-11 21-15
[R1] (5) Alamsyah Yunus (INA,37) bt Anup Sridhar (IND,108) 21-12 21-12
[R1] Wei Sheng Loh (MAS,117) bt Neeraj Vashist (IND,UNR) 21-7 21-6
[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,134) bt Aditya Joshi (IND,UNR) 21-18 21-10
[R1] (4) Ajay Jayaram (IND,31) bt Nikita Khakimov (RUS,149) 21-15 21-13
[R1] Sukamta Evert (INA,159) bt Abhimanyu Singh (IND,262) 21-13 21-15
[R1] Vinay Kumar Reddy P. (IND,406) bt Mayank Behal (IND,485) 16-21 21-9 21-18
[R1] Srikanth K. (IND,82) bt Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub (MAS,232) 21-11 15-21 21-19
[R1] (14) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,42) bt Arsalan Naqvi (IND,UNR) 21-13 21-9
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,92) bt Vikas Harsha P. (IND,516) 21-9 21-6
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,97) bt Anatoliy Yartsev (RUS,272) 21-12 16-21 24-22
[R1] Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS,77) bt Mohit Kamat (IND,218) 16-21 21-15 21-15
[R1] (12) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,43) bt Prakash Jolly (IND,506) 21-11 21-9
[R1] Sarang Lakhanee (IND,483) bt Dinuka Karunaratne (SRI,516) W/O
[R1] (16) Sai Praneeth B. (IND,66) bt Chao Huang (SIN,161) 21-15 21-15
[R1] Zulhelmi Zulkiffli (MAS,339) bt Deepak Khatri (IND,950) 21-18 21-18
[R1] (3) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,27) bt Abhinav Manota (IND,UNR) 21-11 21-7
[R1] Misbun Ramdan Mohmed Misbun (MAS,75) bt Oscar Bansal (IND,335) 17-21 21-15 21-18
[R1] Rohit Yadav C. (IND,231) bt Srujan Nandaluri (IND,775) 21-9 21-18
[R1] Soon Huat Goh (MAS,87) bt (6) Sourabh Varma (IND,34) 21-19 21-14
[R1] Subhankar Dey (IND,394) bt Giap Chin Goh (MAS,234) 21-16 12-21 21-16
[R1] Vladimir Malkov (RUS,72) bt Aditya Prakash (IND,294) 21-14 21-12
[R1] (2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt Young Woong Ha (KOR,153) 21-18 21-9

[R1] Ksenia Polikarpova (RUS,165) bt (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) 17-21 18-20 Retd.
[R1] (6) Nozomi Okuhara (JPN,38) bt Mohita Sahdev (IND,210) 21-5 21-8
[R1] Maria Febe Kusumastuti (INA,51) bt Tanvi Lad (IND,112) 21-10 21-15
[R1] (4) Nichaon Jindapon (THA,36) bt Mudra Dhainje (IND,179) 21-12 21-6
[R1] Ruthvika Shivani G. (IND,UNR) bt Thulasi P. C. (IND,107) 21-14 11-21 21-13
[R1] (7) Lindaweni Fanetri (INA,34) bt Trupti Murgunde (IND,223) 24-22 21-9
[R1] Rituparna Das (IND,UNR) bt Aditi Mutatkar (IND,160) 16-14 Retd.
[R1] Sayali Gokhale (IND,149) bt Milicent Wiranto (INA,138) 19-21 22-20 21-18
[R1] (3) Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,25) bt Arundhati Pantawane (IND,102) 21-19 21-18
[R1] Febby Angguni (INA,198) bt Neha Pandit (IND,98) 21-14 22-20
[R1] Victoria Na (AUS,86) bt Sarada Jasti (IND,173) 21-11 12-21 21-19
[R1] (2) Sindhu P. V. (IND,23) bt Li Lian Yang (MAS,87) 21-6 21-12

[R2] Siswanto (INA,367) bt Pratul Joshi (IND,400) 21-18 16-21 22-20
[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,92) bt Prasojo Adi Andrianus (INA,1163) 21-12 21-10
[R1] Jong Woo Yim (KOR,167) bt Chetan Anand (IND,134) 15-21 21-15 21-18
[R1] (4) Ajay Jayaram (IND,31) bt Sukamta Evert (INA,159) 21-9 21-15
[R2] Srikanth K. (IND,82) bt Vinay Kumar Reddy P. (IND,406) 21-12 21-12
[R2] (14) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,42) bt Sameer Verma (IND,97) 21-19 21-16
[R2] (12) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,43) bt Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS,77) 21-8 23-21
[R2] (16) Sai Praneeth B. (IND,66) bt Sarang Lakhanee (IND,483) 19-21 21-3 21-5
[R2] Soon Huat Goh (MAS,87) bt Rohit Yadav C. (IND,231) 21-16 21-19
[R2] Parinyawat Thongnuam (THA,271) bt Subhankar Dey (IND,394) 21-14 21-14
[R2] (2) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt Vladimir Malkov (RUS,72) 24-22 16-21 21-18

It is difficult to follow this Indian GP Gold tournament as so many Indian players r facing ... Updating only the singles score.

Big upset in men's and women's draw as both top-seeds r out in the first round ... Also Sourabh Varma lost his first round match ... Kast ween Indian International tournament winner Thulasi P. C. lost against un-ranked Indian player in the first round ... Pratul Joshi failed to repeat his first round performance and lost in the second round.

Tennis News
At $10K India F17 Futures, Belgaum

[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND) bt Ajai Slevaraj (IND) 62 63
[R1] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) bt Vivek Shokeen (IND) 75 63
[R1] (Q) Rohan Gide (IND) bt Kunal Anand (IND) 76(8) 62
[R1] Colin van Beem (NED) bt (5) Sergei Krotiouk (RUS) 62 63

[R1] (3) Theodoros Anjelinos (GRE) bt Vignesh Peranamllur (IND) 63 61
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt (Q) Rutger Cramer (NED) 61 62
[R1] Luca Margaroli (SUI) bt (WC) Vinod Gowda (IND) 62 61
[R1] (6) Michael Shabaz (USA) bt (Q) William Kendall (USA) 61 61

[R1] (7) Ashwin Vijayaraghavan (IND) bt Lakshit Sood (IND) 67(6) 61 75
[R1] (Q) Suraj R. Prabodh (IND) bt (Q) Shahbaz Khan (IND) 16 76(4) 75
[R1] (LL) Jatin Dahiya (IND) bt Rupesh Roy (IND) 63 60
[R1] (Q) Torsten Wietoska (GER) bt (4) Vijay Sundar Prashant (IND) 63 76(3)

[R1] (8) Jeroen Benard (NED) bt (WC) Amrit Narasimhan (USA) 63 64
[R1] Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) bt (Q) Neeraj Elangovan (IND) 46 62 63
[R1] Andre Gasper (POR) bt (WC) Rajat Maheshwari (IND) 61 61
[R1] (2) Sanam Singh (IND) bt (Q) Ronak Manuja (IND) 64 61

Doubles
[R1] (1) Vijay Sundar Prashant (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Sagar Manjanna (IND)/ Rakshay Thakkar (IND) 63 76(3)
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Ronak Manuja (IND) bt (WC) Chinmay Pradhan (IND)/ Nishit Vakil (IND) 60 62
[R1] (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh PC (IND) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanthan (IND) 26 75 10-3
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt Ajai Selvaraj (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayraghavan (IND) 64 64
[R1] Michael Shabaz (USA)/ Amrit Narasimhan (USA) bt Lakshit Sood (IND)/ Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 57 64 10-2
[R1] (4) Theodoros Angelinos (GRE)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (WC) Sagar Ahuja (IND)/ Saurabh Patil (IND) 3-1 Retd
[R1] (WC) Jatin Dahiya (IND)/ Shahbaz Khan (IND) bt Jorean Benard (NED)/ Colin van Beem (NED) 64 26 10-8
[R1] (2) Sergei Krotiok (RUS)/ Luca Margaroli (SUI) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) 64 62

German Torsten Wietoska continued with his good form, this time defeated 4th seed Vijay Sundar ... Lakshit stretched Ashwin to three sets.

Tennis News
At $10K India F16 Futures, Dharwad

Singles Final
(2) Sanam SINGH (IND,360) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1083) 62 76(4)

Sanam wins another singles ITF futures title, his second in two weeks ... Young Ramkumar gave fighting performance against in-form Sanam in the final ... After losing the first set easily Ramkumar stretched Sanam to tie-break in the second but failed to stop for winning the title in two sets.

Badminton News
At BWF Superseries Finals 2012, ShenZhen, China

Semi Final
Saina Nehwal (IND,3) l Xuerui Li (CHN,2) 20-22 21-7 13-21

I would say big lost opportunity for Saina to scored upset win over Olympics champion Chinese Xuerui Li ... Saina started with 6-0 early lead which she maintained till 20-16 ... After that Xuerui Li saved 4 game points and won 6 points in a row for winning the first game ... In the second game Saina again had excellent start ... She was leading 8-0 but this time Saina maintained her focus and won this game very comfortably ... In the decider both players were neck to neck until 11-all ... Xuerui Li take control after winning next 6 points and Saina failed to overcome this deficit ... Xuerui Li completed victory in 50 minutes.

Tennis News
At $10K India F16 Futures, Dharwad

[SF] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1083) bt (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1508) 76(3) 75
[SF] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,360) bt (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,534) 61 60

Doubles Final
Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA)/ Michael SHABAZ (USA) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 64 36 10-7

Another all Indian final in these Indian futures ... Sanam scored very dominating win against Ranjeet ... From 2-1 he won last 10 games in a row.

Much needed breakthrough for Ramkumar in this tournament after reaching his first ITF futures singles final ... He won the semis in very tight two sets against former college player Wietoska ... In last 2 futures Wietoska was in form as he reached in the semis as an qualifier ... So really confidence boosting win for Ramkumar.

Shabaz lifted doubles title with Amrit ... They defeated surprising Indian pair of Ajai and Ashwin in match tie-break.

Badminton News
At BWF Superseries Finals 2012, ShenZhen, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,3) bt Juliane Schenk (GER,4) 21-7 21-18

Very confident victory by Saina ... Started with 6-0 early lead which she kept increasing ... She won the first game winning last 6 points in a row ... In the second game Saina take 6-2 lead but Juliane caught her there ... After that both exchanged leads and kept pace with other ... From 16-all Juliane opened 2 points lead in the later stage of the game, 16-18 ... But after that Saina won 5 points in a row and won the match in straight games in 37 minutes.

Saina qualified for the semis in the second position when Thai Ratchanok Intanon defeated Tine Baun in straight games ... In the semis Saina is facing Olympics champion Chinese Xuerui Li.

Tennis News
At $10K India F16 Futures, Dharwad

[QF] (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1508) bt (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,347) 46 75 57
[QF] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1083) bt Arjun KADHE (IND,1224) 64 67(3) 61
[QF] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,534) bt (5) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,573) 63 62
[QF] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,360) bt Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1076) 64 64

Doubles
[SF] Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA)/ Michael SHABAZ (USA) bt Fariz MOHAMMED (IND)/ Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 63 62
[SF] Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt (2) Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS)/ Luca MARGAROLI (SUI) 63 75

German qualifier Wietoska continued with giant-killing ... He scored biggest upset beating top-seed Balaji ... After losing the first set Balaji fought back to win tight second set ... In the decider Wietoska take crucial break 11th game for a win ... Ramkumar won the battle between youngster ... He showed Arjun that he is better player and having more stamina than him after winning the decider comfortably ... Other hand expected victories for Sanam and Ranjeet.

Good upset win by Ashwin and Ajai against 2nd seed Swiss-Russian pair in the doubles semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Djibouti

[QF] (8) Shweta RANA (IND,835) l (1) Anna FLORIS (ITA,245) 26 36

Doubles
[QF] Arantxa ANDRADY (IND)/ Shweta RANA (IND) l (1) Melanie KLAFFNER (AUT)/ Margarita LAZAREVA (RUS) 36 67(4)

Respectable final score for Shweta Rana against top-250 Italian player Floris.

Badminton News
At BWF Superseries Finals 2012, ShenZhen, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,3) l Ratchanok Intanon (THA,9) 13-21 16-21

Another poor day for Saina, who lost in straight games against young Thai Intanon in 34 minutes ... In both games Saina failed to raise her game and lost tamely ... Now qualifying for the semis is remain on lot of ifs and buts ... I think Saina will miss the semi-final.

Tennis News
At $10K India F16 Futures, Dharwad

[R2] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,347) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,955) 64 2-0 Retd.
[R2] (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1508) bt Jeroen BENARD (NED,926) 62 60
[R2] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1083) bt (4) Vijayant MALIK (IND,539) 75 3-1 Retd.
[R2] Arjun KADHE (IND,1224) bt Luca MARGAROLI (SUI,1025) 62 75
[R2] (5) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,573) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1270) 63 63
[R2] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,534) bt (Q) Lakshit SOOD (IND,1923) 63 64
[R2] Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1076) bt (6) Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS,671) 63 67(6) 62
[R2] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,360) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,904) 63 62

Doubles Final
[QF] Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA)/ Michael SHABAZ (USA) bt (1) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) 76(5) 64
[QF] Fariz MOHAMMED (IND)/ Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt Arjun KADHE (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) 62 1-0 Retd.
[QF] Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 63 64
[QF] (2) Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS)/ Luca MARGAROLI (SUI) bt William KENDALL (USA)/ Sagar MANJANNA (IND) 76(1) 63

Surprisngly couple of retirement in the second round matches ... Both matches were between Indians, Ramkumar was up with break in the second after winning the first and in the second match Balaji was also up with break in the second after winning the first set ... Sanam comfortably won his match ... German qualifier Wietoska and Dutch Beem also entered in the quarters with upset wins ... Arjun continued with his good run and scored win over his Swiss opponent ... Very interesting quarter-final between him and Ramkumar ... Expected win by Vijay Sundar and Ranjeet.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Bangkok, Thailand

[R2] Ankita RAINA (IND,574) l Ho Ching WU (HKG,743) 46 57

Ankita failed to build on her first round upset win ... Lost against lowly ranked Hong Kong player.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Djibouti

[R2] (8) Shweta RANA (IND,835) bt Brenda NJUKI (SWE,UNR) 62 Retd.
[R2] Manya NAGPAL (IND,UNR) l (4) Melanie KLAFFNER (AUT,434) 06 06
[R2] Anushka BHARGAVA (IND,1042) l (5) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS,579) 36 16
[R1] Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) l (2) Margarita LAZAREVA (RUS,352) 64 57 36

[QF] (8) Shweta RANA (IND,835) vs (1) Anna FLORIS (ITA,245)

Doubles
[QF] Manya NAGPAL (IND)/ Rika YAMAMOTO (JPN) l (3) Alessia CAMPLONE (ITA)/ Anna FLORIS (ITA) 06 26
[QF] Nikita DESHMUKH (IND)/ Chinenye Ndidi IZUOGU (NGR) l (2) Diana BOGOLIY (UKR)/ Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS) 06 06

Only Shweta won her singles match but Arantxa gave encouraging performance against top-350 Russian opponent.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Potchefstroom, South Africa

[R2] Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND,1066) l Ilze HATTINGH (RSA,UNR) 26 16

Sharon lost against local junior player without giving much fight.

Badminton News
At BWF Superseries Finals 2012, ShenZhen, China

Group B
Saina Nehwal (IND,3) l Tine Baun (DEN,6) 14-21 21-11 19-21

Superseries Finals begin in China ... Saina is runner-up from the last edition but started badly in group stage ... In the first match she lost against Danish veteran Tine Baun in three games in 51 minutes ... After losing the first game Saina fought back and won the second game easily ... In the decider Tine take 6-2 early lead and after that Saina was trying to catch her ... One time Saina managed to reduce lead to one point,13-14, from 9-14 down ... But again Tine won next 4 points and take 18-13 lead ... From 17-20 Saina saved 2 match points but Tine converted third match point.

Saina needs to win her next two matches against WR #4 Juliane Schenk and WR #9 Ratchanok Intanon to qualify for the semis.

Squash News
At $325k Qatar PSA World Championship 2012, Doha

[R3] Saurav Ghosal (IND,21) l (1) James Willstrop (ENG,1) 0-3 (6-11 7-11 2-11 (49M))

It was tough match for both players considering they trains together ... Saurav is also James’ best friend on the tour ... Saurav take 6-2 lead in the first game and that time James was working hard to get to the ball ... After that James take control of the match and won it in straight games.

Tennis News
At $10K India F16 Futures, Dharwad

[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,347) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1118) 60 64
[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,955) bt (Q) Kunal ANAND (IND,1386) 62 75
[R1] Jeroen BENARD (NED,926) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1923) 62 63
[R1] (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1508) bt (8) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,820) 64 64
[R1] (4) Vijayant MALIK (IND,539) bt (LL) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND,1844) 62 61
[R1] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1083) bt (Q) William KENDALL (USA,UNR) 62 63
[R1] Luca MARGAROLI (SUI,1025) bt (WC) Vikram Naidu SRINIVAS (IND,UNR) 67(5) 61 75
[R1] Arjun KADHE (IND,1224) bt (7) Michael SHABAZ (USA,717) 46 76(7) 61
[R1] (5) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,573) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1119) 57 64 61
[R1] Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1270) bt (WC) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND,UNR) 76(5) 62
[R1] (Q) Lakshit SOOD (IND,1923) bt (Q) Jatin DAHIYA (IND,1784) 76(3) 64
[R1] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,534) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1073) 75 64
[R1] (6) Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS,671) bt (Q) Lorenz ILG (GER,UNR) 64 62
[R1] Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1076) bt (WC) Rohan GIDE (IND,UNR) 63 61
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,904) bt (WC) Suraj R PRABODH (IND,UNR) 62 62
[R1] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,360) bt (Q) Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND,1676) 62 61

Doubles
[R1] (1) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 64 67(10) 10-7
[R1] Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA)/ Michael SHABAZ (USA) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ Torsten WIETOSKA (GER) 63 63
[R1] Arjun KADHE (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt (4) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 76(4) 46 10-5
[R1] Fariz MOHAMMED (IND)/ Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND)/ Rakshay THAKKAR (IND) 63 46 11-9
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt (WC) Rohan GIDE (IND)/ Shahbaaz KHAN (IND) 63 36 10-8
[R1] Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt (3) Jeroen BENARD (NED)/ Colin VAN BEEM (NED) 36 63 10-5
[R1] William KENDALL (USA)/ Sagar MANJANNA (IND) bt Andre GASPAR MURTA (POR)/ Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND) 76(2) 64
[R1] (2) Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS)/ Luca MARGAROLI (SUI) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Lakshit SOOD (IND) 75 76(1)

Terrific comeback upset win by Arjun over experienced UVa top-700 type Michael Shabaz but Ashwin lost against in-form German player Wietoska ... Arjun and Kaza started with upset win in doubles over 4th seed Vijayant and Vivek.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Bangkok, Thailand

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,574) bt (7) Yuka HIGUCHI (JPN,515) 62 26 62

[R2] Ankita RAINA (IND,574) vs Ho Ching WU (HKG,743)

Doubles
[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) l (2) Oleksandra KORASHVILI (UKR)/ Tereza MALIKOVA (CZE) 36 67(1)

Good upset win by Ankita over higher ranked and seeded Japanese girl Higuchi ... Next she is facing Hong Kong player Ho Ching Wu.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Djibouti

[R1] (8) Shweta RANA (IND,835) bye
[R1] Manya NAGPAL (IND,UNR) bt Fiona CODINO (FRA,UNR) 63 67(1) 61
[R1] Anushka BHARGAVA (IND,1042) bt Nikita DESHMUKH (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R1] Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) bt Mariana DRAZIC (CRO,UNR) 63 64

[R2] (8) Shweta RANA (IND,835) vs Brenda NJUKI (SWE,UNR)
[R2] Manya NAGPAL (IND,UNR) vs (4) Melanie KLAFFNER (AUT,434)
[R2] Anushka BHARGAVA (IND,1042) vs (5) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS,579)
[R1] Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) vs (2) Margarita LAZAREVA (RUS,352)

Doubles
[R1] Arantxa ANDRADY (IND)/ Shweta RANA (IND) bt Anushka BHARGAVA (IND)/ Mariana DRAZIC (CRO) 60 62
[R1] Manya NAGPAL (IND)/ Rika YAMAMOTO (JPN) bt Sofia ARAUJO (POR)/ Anita HUSARIC (BIH) W/O
[R1] Nikita DESHMUKH (IND)/ Chinenye Ndidi IZUOGU (NGR) bye

[QF] Arantxa ANDRADY (IND)/ Shweta RANA (IND) vs (1) Melanie KLAFFNER (AUT)/ Margarita LAZAREVA (RUS)
[QF] Manya NAGPAL (IND)/ Rika YAMAMOTO (JPN) vs (3) Alessia CAMPLONE (ITA)/ Anna FLORIS (ITA)
[QF] Nikita DESHMUKH (IND)/ Chinenye Ndidi IZUOGU (NGR) vs (2) Diana BOGOLIY (UKR)/ Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS)

Good to see our so many girls r taking advantage of this weak tournament to gain ranking point.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Potchefstroom, South Africa

[Q1] Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND,1066) bye
[Q2] Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND,1066) bt Bianca BIRKENSTOCK (RSA) 63 62

[R1] (Q) Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND,1066) bt (WC) Nadine DE VILLIERS (RSA,UNR) 63 61

[R2] Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND,1066) vs Ilze HATTINGH (RSA,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Laura DEIGMAN (GBR)/ Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND) l Madrie LE ROUX (RSA)/ Chanel SIMMONDS (RSA) 26 46

Sharon utilized weak draw and move into the second round as an qualifier.

Squash News
At $325k Qatar PSA World Championship 2012, Doha

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,21) bt Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY,26) 2-0 (11-4 11-8 6-1 Retd. (28m))

[R3] Saurav Ghosal (IND,21) vs (1) James Willstrop (ENG,1)

Saurav continued with his good run at World Championship ... He was two sets up and leading 6-1 in the third when his Egyptian opponent retired from the match ... In pre-quarter final Saurav is facing WR #1 James Willstrop.

Hockey News
At 34th Men's Champions Trophy 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Bronze Medal
India l Pakistan 2-3 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - VR Raghunath (IND) 7' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 70+' PC and Muhammad Rizwan Sr. (PAK) 21', Shafqat Rasool (PAK) 41', Muhammad Ateeq (PAK) 67' PC

Gold Medal
Australia bt Holland 2-1 (1-1) AET

Indians failed to rise at occasion and lost against Pakistan after taking early lead ... Pakistan played excellent attacking hockey ... They penetrated Indian circle numerous times earning too many penalty corners ... Other hand Imran Shah was excellent under Pakistan goal, who stopped many Indian attacks ... Still encouraging performance by Indian team which was playing in Champions trophy after 2004 ... Australians lifted 5th title in row after beating Netherlands when Kieran Govers scored winner in 5th minute of extra-time

Indians take early lead through Raghunath when he converted penalty corner ... After that both teams were attacking but Pakistan's attack was having more sting ... Muhammad Rizwan Sr. equalized through bullet shot from top of the D ... In the second half Pakistan started with mission and scored another field goal through Shafqat Rasool to take lead ... Pakistan kept pushing and earned few penalty corners but failed to convert ... Shah was handling Indian attack easily ... In 67th minute Ateeq scored through penalty corner and guaranteed Bronze for Pakistan ... Indians earned 2 penalty corners in next couple of minutes ... Rupinder Pal Singh reduced the margin after scoring on last penalty corner after hooter.

Squash News
At Qatar PSA World Championship 2012, Doha

[R1] Saurav Ghosal (IND,21) bt Abdulla Al Tamimi (QAT,UNR) 3-0 (11-5 11-4 11-9 (30m))
[R1] Siddharth Suchde (IND,45) l Simon Rosner (GER,15) 0-3 (3-11 4-11 5-11 (38m))

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,21) vs Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY,26)

Saurav had a winning start at World championship ... He faced local player and scored comfortable win ... Siddharth faced to create challnge against WR #15 German.

Tennis News
At $10K India F15 Futures, Davanagere, Karnataka

Singles Final
(2) Sanam Singh (IND,358) bt (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,327) 62 76(4)

Sanam won another $10K futures title and simply show he is best Indian player with Somdev, Yuki and Vishnu ... Balaji gave fighting performance in the second but in end that wasn't enough.

Hockey News
At 34th Men's Champions Trophy 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Semi Finals
India l Australia 0-3(0-2)
Goal Scorers - Jamie Dwyer (AUS) 6' PC and 18' PS, Kieran Govers (AUS) 44'

Netherlands bt Pakistan 5-2

Australians dominated the Indians with a speedy, relentless attack for comfortable victory ... Frankly they didn't give any chance to Indians for applying their match tactics ... Tomorrow Indians will face Pakistan in Bronze medal match.

From first minute Australians were attacking ... They earned penalty corner which they failed to convert but on 2nd penalty corner on rebound Jamie Dwyer scored from front of the goal ... Indians were making fouls under pressure and Jamie earned stroke when Indian defender fouled in front of the goal ... Jamie coolly converted penalty stroke ... In the second half Govers extended lead after 10 minutes ... Indians were lucky that Australians didn't score goals.

Tennis News
At $10K India F15 Futures, Davanagere

[SF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,327) bt Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1069) 76(3) 63
[SF] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,358) bt (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1493) 60 76(1)

Doubles Final
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (1) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) 67(4) 64 10-

Sriram Balaji and Sanam entered into the final proving top 2 seeding ... Both faced tough resistant in their respective matches ... In the first semi-final Balaji broke Beem in 8th game to lead 5-3 in the first set but he failed to hold his serve while serving for the set in next game ... Balaji had a set point on Beem's serve in 12th game which he failed to convert ... In tie-break Balaji managed to win crucial mini-break for winning the first set ... In the second set Balaji broke Beem in 5th game to lead 3-2 then he take another break in 9th game to win this match in 2 hours.

In the second semi-final Sanam started strongly and won the first set without losing a single game ... But qualifier Wietoska fought back in the second ... He broke Sanam's serve in 7th game to lead 4-3 but Sanam broke back immediately to make it 4-all ... Sanam dominated tie-break and completed win in 1 hour and 44 minutes.

Excellent comeback by Jeevan and Balaji in the doubles final ... After losing the first set in tie-break they won the second set with a single break ... They dominated super tie-break losing only a single point against top-seed.

Hockey News
At 34th Men's Champions Trophy 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Quarter Finals
India bt Belgium 1-0 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Nithin Thimmaiah (IND) 12'

Pakistan bt Germany 2-1 (0-1)
Netherlands bt New Zealand (1-0)
Australia bt England 2-0 (1-0)

After missing last 6 editions of Champions trophy due to poor performance Indians were lucky to get wild-card for this edition ... They r taking full advantage of it and after topping Pool A they scored hard fought victory over Belgium in the quarter-final ... In the semi-final they r facing host and WR #2 Australia ... In the other quarter-final Pakistan upset WR #1 and current Olympics gold medalist Germany in comeback victory.

Sardar Singh gave excellent present to himself for his 150th match for India when he gave excellent pass to Nithin, who had easy tap in ... After this early goal our team was attacking but Belgian side regrouped in the late of the half ... Had two penalty corners but failed to covert due to excellent goalkeeping from 34 yrs old Rao ... In the second half Indians had early momentum but after that Belgians tried hard to equalize ... Belgians had few penalty corners and Indians also had opportunities to increase lead through excellent counter-attacking but both teams failed to convert it ... In end Indians managed to hold this single goal advantage for a much needed win.

Tennis News
At $10K India F15 Futures, Davanagere

[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,327) bt Jeroen BENARD (NED,922) 63 64
[QF] Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1069) bt (3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,380) 64 63
[QF] (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1493) bt (4) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,510) 63 67 64
[QF] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,358) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1071) 62 46 64

Doubles
[SF] (1) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 75 62
[SF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ Torsten WIETOSKA (GER) 76 (1) 16 10-7

Sriram Balaji scored straight sets victory over Dutch opponent to face another Dutch player, who upset 3rd seed Jeevan in the straight sets.

Mohit Mayur take a set against in-form Sanam but Sanam kept his focus and won the final set ... He will face German qualifier who scored another upset win over 4th seed Ranjeet in three sets.

Tennis News
At $10K India F15 Futures, Davanagere

[R2] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,327) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1116) 64 61
[R2] Jeroen BENARD (NED,922) bt (8) Michael SHABAZ (USA,712) 64 57 75
[R2] (3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,380) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1032) 63 61
[R2] Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1069) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1907) 75 63
[R2] (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1493) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,817) 64 63
[R2] (4) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,510) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1113) 63 46 62
[R2] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1071) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,876) 62 76(3)
[R2] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,358) bt Chandril SOOD (IND,1107) 63 61

Doubles
[QF] (1) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS) 64 60
[QF] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt (3) Jeroen BENARD (NED)/ Colin VAN BEEM (NED) 62 64
[QF] Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ Torsten WIETOSKA (GER) bt Sagar MANJANNA (IND)/ Rakshay THAKKAR (IND) 76(1) 16 10-7
[QF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA)/ Michael SHABAZ (USA) 75 63

Mohit Mayur continued with his good form... He scored another upset win over higher ranked Kaza but other hand Ashwin failed to overcome challenge of German qualifier who upset Vijay Sunder ... All remaining results were expected.

Good upset win by Mohit Mayur and Ramkumar against 3rd seed Dutch pair.

Hockey News
At 34th Men's Champions Trophy 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Pool A
India l Germany 2-3 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Gurwinder Singh Chandi (IND) 5', Nithin Thimmaiah (IND) 40' PC and Oliver Korn (GER) 13', Tobias Matania (GER) 56' and 58' PC

England dw New Zealand 1-1 (1-0)

Quarter Finals - 6th December 2012

Germany vs Pakistan
Netherlands vs New Zealand
India vs Belgium
Australia vs England

Despite losing against German side Indians finished top of the Pool A with better goal difference ... In the quarter-final they r facing Belgium.

Indians take early lead through Chandi but Germans equalized within 10 minutes ... In the second half again Indians take lead through Nithin when he scored on rebound on penalty corner ... In this match we did some silly passes and usual poor trapping ... Germans take advatage of it and scored 2 goals in 3 minutes in the late of second half ... After that we tried to equalized but Germans defended well for the victory.

Tennis News
At $10K India F15 Futures, Davanagere

[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,327) bt (WC) Lakshit SOOD (IND,1920) 67(5) 62 60
[R1] Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1116) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1123) 61 36 76(6)
[R1] Jeroen BENARD (NED,922) bt (Q) Brahamjot SINGH (IND,UNR) 64 64
[R1] (8) Michael SHABAZ (USA,712) bt (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,1757) 64 60
[R1] (3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,380) bt Andre GASPAR MURTA (POR,1079) 61 64
[R1] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1032) bt (Q) Ronak MANUJA (IND,1891) 62 62
[R1] (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1907) bt (WC) Alok ARADHYA (IND,UNR) 61 63
[R1] Colin VAN BEEM (NED,1069) bt (7) Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS,613) 61 64
[R1] (Q) Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,1493) bt (6) N Vijay Sunder PRASHANTH (IND,553) 64 62
[R1] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,817) bt (Q) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,UNR) 63 62
[R1] Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1113) bt (Q) Suraj BENIWAL (IND,UNR) 60 1-0 Retd.
[R1] (4) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,510) bt (WC) Rakshay THAKKAR (IND,1541) 64 60
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1071) bt (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND,530) 46 76(5) 62
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,876) bt (Q) Vikram Naidu SRINIVAS (IND,UNR) 63 63
[R1] Chandril SOOD (IND,1107) bt (Q) Suraj R PRABODH (IND,UNR) 46 63 64
[R1] (2) Sanam SINGH (IND,358) bt Arjun KADHE (IND,1216) 64 60

Doubles
[R1] (1) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Fariz MOHAMMED (IND)/ Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 63 16 10-7
[R1] Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Sergei KROTIOUK (RUS) bt Suraj BENIWAL (IND)/ Brahamjot SINGH (IND) Retd.
[R1] (3) Jeroen BENARD (NED)/ Colin VAN BEEM (NED) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 67(4) 63 10-4
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND) 63 61
[R1] Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND)/ Torsten WIETOSKA (GER) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 76(3) 63
[R1] Sagar MANJANNA (IND)/ Rakshay THAKKAR (IND) bt (4) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 36 76(4) 10-3
[R1] Amrit NARASIMHAN (USA)/ Michael SHABAZ (USA) bt Arjun KADHE (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) 63 75
[R1] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Chandril SOOD (IND)/ Lakshit SOOD (IND) 62 75

Excellent upset win by Mohit Mayur against 5th seed Vijayant Malik after losing the first set ... Two other seeded players also lost ... German qualifier Wietoska scored upset win against Vijay Sunder and Dutch Van Beem scored upset win over 7th seed Krotiouk ... Otherwise expected results.

Squash News

Dipika Pallikal became the first Indian squash player to enter into top 10 ranking when she was ranked 10 in the December WISPA rankings after her consistent performance throughout the year.

After consistent performance over the year helped Saurav to reach his personal best ranking, #21 ... Before this his personal best was #22 in December 2010.

Hockey News
At 34th Men's Champions Trophy 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Pool A
India bt New Zeland 4-2 (3-1)
Goal Scorers - Akashdeep Singh (IND) 10', Gurwinder Singh Chani (IND) 14', Raghunath VR (IND) 25' PC, Danish Mujtaba (IND) 65'and Own Goal (IND) 2', Nicholas Wilson (NZL) 37'

England bt Germany 4-1 (0-0)

Indians showed their last win over England wasn't fluke scoring another good win over higher ranked WR #6 All Black sticks ... With this win Indians r leading Pool A winning both matches ... Our crucial last match is against Germany on Tuesday for better quarterfinal placement..

Indians were down early with own goal but we fought back scoring 2 excellent field goals in 4 minutes to take lead ... We increased lead when Raghunath converted penalty corner on deflection ... In the second half within 2 minuted New Zeland scored through penalty corner to reduced the lead ... Despite controlling this half Indians failed to increase lead until Dinesh deflected inside the circle for our 4th goal.

Young British side upset mighty Germans in the second match after losing the first match against Indians ... With this upset result this pool is wide open.

Tennis News
At $10K ITF Women's tournament, Kolkata, India

[F] Katherine IP (HKG,UNR) bt (3) Rishika SUNKARA (IND,570) 26 63 63

Doubles Final
Arantxa Andrady (IND)/Kyra Shroff (IND) bt (2) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) 64 64

In the singles final unranked Hong Kong player Katherine Ip continued with her giant-killing ... She scored upset win over 3rd seed Rishika after losing the first set to lift her first ITF tournament title.

In the doubles final there was all Indians affair ... Kyra win the title with Arantxa beating young 2nd seed pairing of Rutuja and Rishika.

Badminton News
At $120K Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton GP Gold 2012

[SF] Srikanth K. (IND,109) l Huan GAO [CHN,69) 8-21 19-21
[SF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,51) l Yuekun CHEN (CHN,65) 16-21 17-21

In the semis Chinese players proved too strong for our players ... Still very creditable performance from young Srikanth and Guru in this GP Gold tournament.

Hockey News
At 34th Men's Champions Trophy 2012, Melbourne, Australia

Pool A
India bt England 3-1 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Danish Mujtaba (IND) 22', Yuvraj Walmiki (IND) 38', Gurwinder Singh Chandi (IND) 66' PC and Richard Smith (ENG) 15' PC

Germany bt New Zeland 3-2

WR #11 India started with upset win over WR #4 England in Men's Champions Trophy ... Indians scored couple of acrobatic goals and one indirect penalty corner conversion.

England take early lead after converting 1st penalty corner through Richard Smith ... After that British goalkeeper Pinner made excellent save on Indian penalty corner ... Danish Mujtaba scored excellent acrobatic goal to equalized ... In the second half rain started and Indians were looking better team ... Yuvraj Walmiki scored amazing acrobatic goal and gave lead to India ... England wasted 3 penalty corners but Indians converted their 3rd penalty corner ... Indians take indirect penalty corner and on Sardar Singh's hit Gurwinder Singh Chandi tapped from front of the goal to secure victory.

Overall better play but still some worrying signs like; our clearance from the D weren't good enough, many times our players kept dribbling inside own's D, our traps were error-prone but we were lucky as our players made less errors ... Tomorrow's match against New Zealand is important for semi-final qualification after this excellent start.

Badminton News
At $120K Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton GP Gold 2012

[QF] Srikanth K. (IND,109) bt Nan WEI (HKG,90) 16-21 21-19 21-19
[QF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,51) bt Yan Kit CHAN (HKG,55) 21-11 21-14

[QF] Pradnya GADRE (IND)/ Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) l Komala DEWI (INA)/ Jenna GOZALI (INA) 16-21. 21-12 15-21
[QF] Tarun KONA (IND)/ Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) l (1) Tontowi AHMAD (INA)/ Liliyana NATSIR (INA) 9-21 13-21

[SF] Srikanth K. (IND,109) vs Huan GAO [CHN,69)I
[SF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,51) vs Yuekun CHEN (CHN,65)

Another terrific performance from young Srikanth to qualify for the semis with win over higher ranked Hong Kong player Wei ... He lost the first game from 15-all losing 5 points in a row ... In the second game he started with 8-3 lead but Wei caught with him at 8-all ... Then Wei take 17-13 lead this time Srikanth caught with him at 18-all ... Srikanth won 3 points in a row from 18-19 to win this game ... In the final game Wei take early 3 points lead but Srikanth caught with him at 9-all ... Wei again take lead 14-11 lead again Srikanth caught with him at 15-all ... In this game also Srikanth won final 3 points from 18-19 to completed victory in 62 minutes.

Other hand Guru scored very comfortable win against similar ranked Chan in 34 minutes ... He didn't give any chance to Chan in both games.

Ashwini lost in women,s doubles and mixed doubles in contrasting matches .... Still creditable performance from her with new partners..

Tennis News
At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Kolkata, India

[SF] Katherine IP (HKG,UNR) bt (8) Shweta RANA (IND,939) 76(4) 61
[SF] (3) Rishika SUNKARA (IND,570) bt (7) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND,925) 75 61

Rishika scored straight sets victory over Prarthana and she will face Hong Kong player Ip who scored another upset win win over Rana.
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At $10K Cambodia F2 futures, Phnom Penh

[F] (2) Wan GAO (CHN) / Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) l (4) Marcus DANIELL (NZL) / Richard GABB (GBR) 16 67(5)

Jeevan lost in the doubles final with his Chinese partner Wan.

Squash News
At $150K Men's Hong Kong Open 2012

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,22) l (5) Ramy Ashour (EGY,4) 1-3 (7-11 5-11 12-10 10-12 (61m))

Ramy won the first 2 games easily but Saurav fought back to win the next game in extra points ... Saurav tried hard in the next game but this time Ramy won it in extra points and completed victory.
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At $77K Women's Hong Kong Open 2012

[R2] Dipika Pallikal (IND,13) vs (3) Jenny Duncalf (ENG,6) 1-3 (9-11 11-7 12-14 7-11 (60m))
[R2] (Q) Joshana Chinappa (IND,32) vs Rachael Grinham (AUS,16) 1-3 (4-11 12-10 10-12 15-17 (65m))

Our both players gave terrific performance against higher ranked opponents but they lost ... Dipika won the second game after losing the first game but after losing the third game in extra points Dipika failed to put extra pressure against WR #6.

Joshna lost the first game easily then she fought back and won the second game in extra points ... After that Joshna matched with Rachel but Rachel take next 2 games in extra points for hard fought victory.

Badminton News
At $120K Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton GP Gold 2012,

[R3] Srikanth K. (IND,109) bt Choong Hann WONG (KOR,209) 21-17 15-21 21-12
[R3] (12) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,51) bt (7) Dionysius Hayom RUMBAKA (INA,25) 21-13 21-18

[R2] Tarun KONA (IND)/ Arun VISHNU (IND) l Ronel ESTANISLAO (PHI)/ Paul Jefferson VIVAS (PHI) 21-15 19-21 22-24
[R2] Pradnya GADRE (IND)/ Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) bt Rodjana CHUTHABUNDITKUL (THA)/ Chanida JULRATTANAMANEE (THA) 25-23 21-19
[R2] Tarun KONA (IND)/ Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) bt Chi-Lin WANG (TPE)/ Hsiao Ma PAI (TPE) 21-17 22-20

[QF] Srikanth K. (IND,109) vs Nan WEI (HKG,90)
[QF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,51) vs Yan Kit CHAN (HKG,55)

[QF] Pradnya GADRE (IND)/ Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) vs Komala DEWI (INA)/ Jenna GOZALI (INA)
[QF] Tarun KONA (IND)/ Ashwini PONNAPPA (IND) vs (1) Tontowi AHMAD (INA)/ Liliyana NATSIR (INA)

Srikanth continued with his good run and scored three games victory over Malaysian for entering into the quarters ... Next he is facing higher ranked unseeded Hong Kong player Nan Wei.

Ashwini and Tarun also enter into MXD quarters with straight games victory over Taiwani pair ... Next they r having tough challenge of top-seed Indonesian pair.

Ashwini enter into the women's doubles quarter-final with Pradnya with fighting win against against Thai pair ... They r facing another unseeded Indonesian pair.

After winning the first game Tarun and Arun missed chance of finishing match in the second game ... They were 19-17 up put Filipinos won next 4 points for winning this game ... In the final game Tarun and Arun fought back after falling behind but failed to convert a match point and Filipinos converted 3rd match point for the victory.

Guru started well against Rumbaka winning the first game ... Rumbaka take early big lead but Guru kept fighting back and played excellent in later stage of the game ... He completed upset win in straight games ... Next he is facing Hong Kong player Yan Kit Chan, against him Guru having 1-2 win-loss record.

Tennis News
At $10K Cambodia F2 futures, Phnom Penh

[R2] (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,380) bt (Q) Maxi PONGRATZ (AUT,UNR) 63 62

[QF] (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,380) l Artem SITAK (NZL,714) 46 26

Doubles
[R1] (2) Wan GAO (CHN)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Pannhara MAM (CAM)/ Phalkun MAM (CAM) 60 60
[QF] (2) Wan GAO (CHN)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE)/ Chieh-Fu WANG (TPE) 76(6) 61
[SF] (2) Wan GAO (CHN)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA)/ Alexander WARD (GBR) 64 64

In the singles poor loss for Jeevan against New Zealand's lower ranked Davis cupper ... He need to win these matches overseas to move on next ladder in the ranking.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Kolkata, India

[QF] Katherine IP (HKG) bt Eetee MAHETA (IND) 62 75
[QF] (8) Shweta RANA (IND) bt (4) Ankita RAINA (IND) 64 46 64
[QF] (3) Rishika SUNKARA (IND,570) bt (5) Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,666) 64 60
[QF] (7) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND,925) bt (2) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND,551) 57 64 62

[R2] Eetee MAHETA (IND) bt (1) Kyra SHROFF (IND) 64 61
[R2] Katherine IP (HKG) bt (Q) Chun-Yan HE (CHN) 63 60
[R2] (4) Ankita RAINA (IND) bt Manya NAGPAL (IND) 63 63
[R2] (8) Shweta RANA (IND) bt Adnya NAIK (IND) 64 62
[R2] (5) Prerna BHAMBRI (IND) bt Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND) 62 57 63
[R2] (3) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) bt Amrita MUKHERJEE (IND) 60 63
[R2] (7) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) bt Spurti SHIVALINGAIAH (IND) 2-0 retd.
[R2] (2) Rutuja BHOSALE (IND) bt Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) 64 62

Rishika take full advantage of error prone Prerna for comfortable win ... Prarthana fought back after losing the first set against 2nd seed Rutuja for upset win ... Good run of Eetee Maheta ended in the quarters against Hong Kong player ... Shweta defeated higher ranked Ankita in 3 sets and facing only non-Indian girl in the semis.

Before that in the second round Eetee Maheta scored surprising and comfortable win over top-seed Kyra ... Rutuja also defeated very experienced Olympian Rushmi Chakravarthi in straight sets ... Prerna needed 3 sets for victory.

Squash News
At $150K Men's Hong Kong Open 2012

[Q1] Siddarth Suchde (IND,50) bt Alex Lau (HKG,78) 3-0 (11-6 11-2 11-5 (30m))

[Q2] Siddarth Suchde (IND,50) l Ryan Cuskelly (AUS,34) 0-3 (6-11 4-11 6-11 (39m))

[R1] Saurav Ghosal (IND,22) bt (Q) Max Lee (HKG,32) 3-0 (3-11 5-11 4-11 (42m))

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,22) vs (5) Ramy Ashour (EGY,4)

Winning start for Saurav in this big Hong Kong Open ... Next he is facing WR #4 Ramy Ashour.

Siddarth failed to qualify for the main-draw of Hong Kong open ... He lost in the final qualifying round against Australian.
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At $77K Women's Hong Kong Open 2012

[Q1] Joshana Chinappa (IND,32) bt Sin Kei Tsang (HKG,UNR) 3-0 (11-2 11-8 11-5 (20m))
[Q2] Joshana Chinappa (IND,32) bt Siti Munirah Jusoh (MAS,36) 3-0 (11-9 11-7 11-7 (29m))

[R1] Dipika Pallikal (IND,13) bt Liu Tsz-Ling (HKG,37) 3-1 (7-11 11-6 11-1 11-5 (34m))
[R1] (Q) Joshana Chinappa (IND,32) bt (4) Annie Au (HKG,9) 3-2 (5-11 11-8 6-11 11-7 11-5 (55m))

[R2] Dipika Pallikal (IND,13) vs (3) Jenny Duncalf (ENG,6)
[R2] (Q) Joshana Chinappa (IND,32) vs Rachael Grinham (AUS,16)

Joshana contined with his recent good run ... After comfortably qualifying for the main-draw of Hong Kong Open she started with huge upset against local top player and WR #9 Annie Au ... Joshana fought back after 1-2 games down winning last 2 games ... Next she is facing WR #16 Australian Rachael Grinham.

Surprisingly tough match for Dipika against lower ranked local player in the first round ... Next she is facing British top-10 player Jenny Duncalf.