Tennis News
At $1.7M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[R1] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)
[R1] Leander Paes (IND)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) vs (2) Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Horia Tecau (ROU)

This week Lee is back on the tour and playing with Tipsarevic ... Tough first round against 2nd seeded pair.
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At $220KBMW Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,129) vs Eleni Daniilidou (GRE,81)

Sania is playing only in the singles at Malaysian Open ... Good decision ... She is facing former top-15 Greece player Eleni Daniilidou in the first round.
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At $50K Singapore Challenger, Singapore

[Q3] Divij Sharan (IND,804) bt (8) Matthew Barton (AUS,609) 76(7) 63
[Q3] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND,469) l (7) Henri Laaksonen (SUI,603) 46 26
[Q3] (3) Karan Rastogi (IND,480) l (5) Jose (Rubin) Statham (NZL,556) 26 46

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,290) vs (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,804)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) l Jimmy Wang (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 46 26

Only Divij managed to score upset victory but facing Yuki in the first round ... Other hand Vijayant and Karan lost against lower ranked opponents ... Karan's struggle in the singles is worrying.

Yuki lost in the doubles first round.
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At $10K India F2 Futures 2012, Bhopal

Singles First Round
(1) Patrik Rosenholm (SWE,426) bt Akash Wagh (IND,1204) 63 63
Rupesh Roy (IND,916) bt Richard Gabb (GBR,902) 64 76(5)
N. Sriram Balaji (IND,738) bt (WC) Dineshkanthan Thangarajah (SRI,UNR) 62 63
Sanam Singh (IND,776) bt (6) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,554) 64 62
(4) Kento Takeuchi (JPN,533) bt (Q) Ronak Manuja (IND,UNR) 75 63
Sam Barry (IRL,731) bt (Q) Maik Burlage (GER,1393) 67(5) 60 61
Kenny Bun (CAM,1194) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,894) 16 63 64
(7) Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,670) bt Lucas Renard (SWE,901) 63 36 63
(8) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,692) bt (WC) Aaditya Tewari (IND,UNR) 62 62
(Q) Jordi Munoz-Abrue (ESP,1710) bt Mark-Alexander Kepler (GER,938) 64 62
(Q) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1710) bt (Q) Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE,1237) 76(2) 46 76(5)
(WC) Sidharth Rawat (IND,1398) bt (3) Rohan Gajjar (IND,515) 64 46 75
Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,784) bt (5) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,540) 75 16 3-0 Retd
James Feaver (GBR,770) bt (Q) Miles Bugby (GBR,1318) 64 64
(Q) Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE,761) bt Kunal Anand (IND,1466) 75 75
(2) Arata Onozawa (JPN,518) bt (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1485) 62 62

Doubles First Round
(1) Miles BUGBY (GBR)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Maik BURLAGE (GER)/ Mark-Alexander KEPLER (GER) 46 63 10-8
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (WC) Chandril SOOD (IND)/ Lakshit SOOD (IND) 76(4) 61
(3) Sam BARRY (IRL)/ Patrik ROSENHOLM (SWE) bt Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Sanam SINGH (IND) 76(4) 16 10-6
Abhijeet TIWARI (IND)/ Akash WAGH (IND) bt Mark FYNN (ZIM)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 64 67(2) 10-8
(WC) Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Sidharth RAWAT (IND) bt (WC) Arpit SHARMA (IND)/ Aaditya TEWARI (IND) 64 64
(4) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Rupesh ROY (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 63 64
James FEAVER (GBR)/ Richard GABB (GBR) bt Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE)/ Shuichi SEKIGUCHI (JPN) 26 63 10-7
(2) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN)/ Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) bt Shu SAITO (JPN)/ Chieh-Fu WANG (TPE) 76(3) 46 10-7)

Last week's winner Sanam scored dominating win against 6th seed Jeevan, his opponent from junior days ... Sidharth Rawat also scored upset win over Rohan Gajjar ... Rupesh defeated Gabb in the straight sets.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Men's Final
India bt France 8-1 (3-1)

Goal Scored - Birendra Lakra (IND) 17', Sandeep Singh (IND) 19' PC, 26' PC, 38' PC, 49' PC and 50' PC, SV Sunil (IND) 43', V. Raghunath (IND) 56' PC

INDIAN MEN QUALIFIED FOR LONDON OLYMPICS 2012 TROUNCING FRENCH TEAM 8-1.

Deserving winner, we won all matches in this qualifier ... In last 2 league matches Canada and Polish teams stretched us but we kept scoring to won those matches ... After winning this qualifier few people r starting to comment that this match was fixed ... I really feel pity for those people for their crooked mind ... They r forgetting that they r not only degrading our players but also humiliating opposition team (here France), who today gave their heart out on the field ... Playing in Olympics is every player's dream who play for their respective nation ... So fixing comments r pathetic one and frankly speaking these people r one of reason that our image is damaged on international scene ... But then who cares, not at least me ... I M PROUD OF MY TEAM WHO SHOWED AWESOME ATTACKING HOCKEY DISPLAY ON THE FIELD ... SPECIAL THANKS TO SANDEEP SINGH (5 GOALS), GOALKEEPER SREEJESH AND INDIAN COACH MICHAEL NOBBS!!!

Nervy start for our team ... In the beginning they were looking under pressure of qualifying for the Olympics ... Sandeep Singh missed penalty corner in 3rd minute but after first 10 minutes we started to look settle on the field ... Birendra Lakra scored field goal in 17th minute with tap-in in front of the goal after excellent pass from Manpreet ... In 2 minutes we earned our 2nd penalty corner which converted by Sandeep Singh with mid-level flick ... In 23rd minute French side scored stunning goal through Simon Martin-Brisac with quick pass from Jean-Jean ... After that Indians controlled and dominated match ... They were kept attacking one after another ... Sandeep converted 3rd penalty corner in 26 mins with high flick ... At half-time we were leading 3-1 ... In the second half we earned our 4th penalty corner in 2 minutes and Sandeep converted another one with high flick ... With that he completed his hat-trick ... In a next minute South Africa earned their 2nd penalty corner ... They received 4 penalty corners in a row due to infringement by Indian players ... But we managed to defend it and immediately scored field goal through SV Sunil ... Sandeep converted 2 more penalty corners with powerful hits in 49th and 50th minutes to take his match tally to 5 goals ... Indians earned their 7th penalty corner in 55th minute and at that time Sandeep was off the field but Raghunath converted that with powerful high flick ... In this match both teams played physical game which saw 3 Yellow and 4 Green Cards in the match ... We were very good in the penalty corners conversion, converted 6 from 7 PCS.

Sandeep Singh received well deserving Player of the Match award and Indian Captain Sardar Singh received Player of the Tournament award.

Tennis News
At $50K Singapore Challenger,

[Q2] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND,465) bt Ariez Elyaas Deen Hesham (MAS,UNR) 60 60
[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND,804) bt (1) Riccardo Ghedin (ITA,301) w/o
[Q2] (3) Karan Rastogi (IND,488) bt (WC) Austin Karosi (USA,UNR) 46 63 62

[Q3] Divij Sharan (IND,804) vs (8) Matthew Barton (AUS,609)
[Q3] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND,465) vs (7) Henri Laaksonen (SUI,603)
[Q3] (3) Karan Rastogi (IND,488) vs (5) Jose (Rubin) Statham (NZL,556)

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,289) vs Qualifier
[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,332) vs (8) Amir Weintraub (ISR,211)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) vs Jimmy Wang (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE)
[R1] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Purav Raja (IND)/ Karan Rastogi (IND)

Vijayant gave double bagel to Malaysian player and enter in the final qualifying round ... He will face Swiss player for his first main-draw entry in the challenger ... Divij also joined him in the finak qualifying round when his opponent gave walkover ... In the final qualifying round he will face 600+ ranked Australian Barton ... Karan's match was suspended due to rain when he was leading 3-2 ... After rain-break both players traded breaks before Austin take crucial break to won the first set ... From the second set Karan served excellently and didn't face a single break point on his serve ... Other hand he broke Austin once in the second set and twice in the third set to completed victory ... In the final qualifying he is facing New Zealand's ..

In main-draw Yuki is facing qualifier and Vishnu having tough match against #211 Israeli Weintraub.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Women's Final
India l South Africa 1-3 (0-2)

Goal Scored - Jaspreet Kaur (IND) 57' PC and Shelley Russell (RSA) 4', Pietie Coetzee (RSA) 30' PC, Marsha Marescia (RSA) 53' PC

South African women controlled match from the start ... Taking lead after first 5 minutes they kept pressure on Indians ... Didn't give any space for Indians to build proper attack ... Under this pressure Indians cracked and South Africa scored 2nd goal through penalty corner ... After half-time also South Africans kept pressure and scored another goal ... After that Indians scored a goal through penalty corner but they were never in the match ... South Africans scored deserving victory and booked place in 2012 London Olympics ... Indian women wait is extended to 36 years for another participation in Olympics.

Tennis News
At $2M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[F] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Lisa Raymond (USA) 26 16

Top-seed Lisa and Liezel scored very dominating win over 2nd seed Elena and Sania ... In the first set Lisa and Liezel broke Sania and ELena twice to won this set ... In the second set Sania and Elena managed to break their serve once but Lisa and Liezel broke them thrice to completed one-sided win in 67 minutes.
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At $513K Open 13, Marseille, France

[SF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Dustin Brown (GER)/ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) 76(3) 57 6-10

Close loss for top-seed Mahesh and Rohan against big serving scratch pair ... After winning the first set in tie-break our pair lost the second set with a single break ... The STB won by this big serving pair comfortably ... In this match Brown and Tsonga served 19 aces and our pair managed 7.
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At $10K India F1 Futures 2012, Chandigarh

Singles Final
Sanam SINGH (IND,776) bt N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,739) 75 63

Congrats Sanam for deserving title win in $10K futures ... This was his second futures title, before this he won at Chandigarh only in December 2005 ... All matches he won in straight sets without losing more than 8 games in the match.

In the final Sanam started tentatively and lost his serve early to fall behaind 1-4 but from 5-2 he won next 5 games breaking Balaji twice to won the first set ... In the second set Sanam broke Balaji in 3rd game to lead 2-1 and Sanam again broke Balaji in 9th game to completed the victory.
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At $50K Singapore Challenger,

[Q1] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND,465) bye
[Q1] (3) Karan Rastogi (IND,488) bye
[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,804) bt Sonchai Rattiawana (THA,UNR) 62 63

[Q2] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND,465) vs Ariez Elyaas Deen Hesham (MAS,UNR)
[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND,804) vs (1) Riccardo Ghedin (ITA,301)
[Q2] (3) Karan Rastogi (IND,488) vs (WC) Austin Karosi (USA,UNR)

Good to see so many Indian players r playing together ... Yuki and Vishnu r in the main-draw ... Karan and Vijayant playing qualifying with Divij.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Men
India bt Poland 4-2 (1-1)

Goal Scored - Sandeep Singh (IND) 26' and 70', Shivendra Singh (IND) 59', VR Raghunath (IND) 65' PC and Thomasz Dutkiewicz (POL) 13' PC and Miroslaw Juszczak (POL) 62' PC

Women
India bt Italy 1-0 (0-0)

Goal Scored - Ritu Rani (IND) 55' PC

In the end we made tough for ourselves against Poland ... We had very high ball possession and circle penetrations but finishing touches inside circle were poor ... In last 2 matches our forward-line were struggling to score and I really hope they remove this flaw in the final ... In this match Shivendra failed to stop ball 2/3 times in penalty corner drill, little worrying sign ... I am also worrying about our goal-keeping ... Chhetri and Sreejesh r struggling in this tournament ... Previously they were lot better in stopping penalty corner hits but here both r giving some soft goals which can cost us in big matches and better opponents ... In this tournament we r looking improved but I m still feeling low considering the chances we r wasting after getting so much space on the field ... I m really hoping for convincing win in the final against France.

Polish team take lead through penalty corner ... Indians needed to wait until late before Sandeep equalized converting 3rd penalty corner ... In the second half also we played some sloppy game, missed couple of penalty corners ... Shivendra scored one opportunistic goal in the front of goalmouth ... Polish team immediately attacked and equalized through another penalty corner ... In last 5 minutes we converted 2 penalty corners to complete victory and Polish team missed chance of facing us in the final.

Indian women needed victory against Italian women to qualify for the final against South Africa and they delivered ... We should won this match more easily but excellent goal keeping by Italian goal-keeper Roberta Lilliu ... From the start Italians were playing defensively but Indians failed to take advantage due to a poor circle penetration and even poorer shots at the goals ... In the second half our players started eagerly and were playing in Italian half ... They kept pressurizing Italians but missed chances and missed one penalty corner ... Indians received 6th penalty corner on that Jasjeet Kaur's hit saved by Lilliu, ball ballooned in the air and near goalmouth Ritu Rani reverse flicked from shoulder height into the goal ... After that unnecessarily Indians went defensive ... Italians pushed hard and earned 3 penalty corners but Indians managed to save.

Tennis News
At $2M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[SF] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Shuai Peng (CHN) 62 67(5) 13-11

[F] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Lisa Raymond (USA)

After winning the first set Sania and Elena struggled to finish the match ... They lost the second set in tie-break ... Needed to save 3 match points before winning close super tie-break.
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At $513K Open 13, Marseille, France

[SF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Dustin Brown (GER)/ Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)

In the semis our pair will play against scratch pair.
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At $10K India F1 Futures 2012, Chandigarh

Singles Semi Finals
Sanam SINGH (IND,776) bt (4) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN,536) 62 62
N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,739) bt (5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,537) 63 62

Doubles Final
Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (WC) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) 75 63

Very dominating performance by Sanam against seeded Japanese opponent ... Balaji also scored commanding win over higher ranked Ranjeet to face Sanam in thew final.

In doubles Rohan and Saketh lifted title beating veterans Arunprakash and Vijay Kannan.

Football News
At FIFA International Friendly 2012, Muscat, Oman

Oman bt India 5-1

Goal Scored - Mohamad al Gasani (OMA) 5', Ismail Alajmi (OMA) 7' and 58', Hasan Rabea (OMA) 87', Abdullah Thuwaini (OMA) 90' and Joaquim Abranches (IND) 64'

Oman trounced India in one-sided match ... Indians were playing without lot of regulars due to injury or rested them and Oman players take full advantage of it ... In first 10 minutes they scored 2 goals and that set tone of the match ... Indians managed to scored a goal through Joaquim Abranches but Oman scored 2 more goals in last few minutes to complete humiliation.

Tennis News
At $2M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[QF] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP)/ Shahar Peer (ISR) 61 46 10-8

Sania and Elena started strongly and breaking opponents serve twice they won the first set comfortably ... In the second set Maria and Shahar take crucial break in 10th game breaking Elena's serve when she was serving for staying in the set ... STB was very close as both pairs were going neck to neck but our pair take crucial min-break in the end and won this match.
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At $513K Open 13, Marseille, France

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Arnaud Clement (FRA)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) 63 64

Good straight sets win by our pair over decent pair ... Lukas and Arnaud defeated Lee and Mahesh in the last year's Wimbledon ... Our pair won the first set with a single break ... In the second set Rohan lost his serve but this time our pair broke them twice to won this match.
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At $10K India F1 Futures 2012, Chandigarh

Singles Quarter Finals
Sanam SINGH (IND,776) bt Shuichi SEKIGUCHI (JPN,782) 61 61
(8) Saketh MYNENI (IND,693) l (4) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN,536) 75 2-5 Retd
N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,739) bt (7) Sarvar IKRAMOV (UZB,670) 62 75
(5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,537) bt (2) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,515) 63 62

Doubles Semi Finals
GAJJAR (IND)/ MYNENI (IND) bt (1) LEE (TPE)/ PENG (TPE) 61 67(5) 10-4
(WC) KANNAN (IND)/ RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (2) BARRY (IRL)/ BUGBY (GBR) 76(1) 63

Sanam scored very dominating win over Sekiguchi losing only 2 games ... Balaji also scored straight sets win over Uzbek Ikramov ... After winning the first set 6-2 Balaji was leading with break 4-2 in the second ... Ikramov broke back to lead 5-4 but after that Balaji won next 3 games and again broke Ikramov in 11th game to win this match ... As per report Saketh retired from his match, still waiting for the final result.

Ranjeet scored another upset win by Indian over higher ranked opponent ... He also defeated Japanese in straight sets ... Saketh was unlucky as he retired from his match ... After winning the first set he was break down before retirement.

In doubles our both pairs entered into the final beating top 2 seeded pairs.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Men
India bt Canada 3-2 (1-0)

Goal Scored - Shivendra Singh (IND) 26', Sandeep Singh (IND) 40' PC and 61' PC and Mark Pearson (CAN) 50', Scott Tupper (CAN) 53' PC

Women
India l South Africa 2-5 (1-2)

Goal Scored - Asunta Lakra (IND) 23' PC, Soundarya Yendala (IND) 52' and Dirkie Chamberlain (RSA) 12' PC, 32' and 58', Sulette Damons (RSA) 53' and 67'

In very hard fought and entertaining match Indian men prevailed over Canada ... Both teams played physical match, Indians received 2 green cards in the first half and Canadians also received 2 green cards in the second half ... In this match Sandeep struggled with his drag and flick skill ... He missed 3 chances but converted 2 and in that last one was crucial one ... Sandeep missed couple of penalty corners in the first half but Shivendra's field goal helped Indians to gain lead ... Indians double their lead when Sandeep converted penalty corner in 40th minute ... After that Indians relaxed ... Canada scored field goal due to poor defense by Ignace Tirkey and in three minutes Canadians converted penalty corner when Sreejesh made a mistake while stopping direct hit from Tupper ... In next few minutes Candian players received 2 green cards and Indians take advantage of one less man on the field ...They earned penalty corner and Sandeep converted this when nine minutes were remaining ... After that Indians defended well to complete the victory ... With 12 points India booked their place in the final ... Canada need victory in the final group match against France to place in the final but I think France having better chance of qualifying for the final.

Indian women suffered their 1st defeat in the tournament when they went down fighting to top-ranked South Africa 2-5 in their fourth match ... This was the best match from women group ... South Africans played superb attacking hockey with better co-ordination and they also defended very well ... Our women played well in the patches, they suffered due to erratic passes and struggled in the mid-field ... Until 2-all we were matching them but South Africans scored immediately on the next minute after our equalizer that broke our confidence and then our team was looking scattered all over the place ... After this loss in the final match Indian women need to beat 2nd place Italian team to qualify for the fianl.

Tennis News
At $10K India F1 Futures 2012, Chandigarh

Singles Second Round
Sanam SINGH (IND,776) bt (1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,332) 64 64
Shuichi SEKIGUCHI (JPN,782) bt (6) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,565) 46 63 76(3)
(4) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN,536) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,938) 36 63 62
(8) Saketh MYNENI (IND,693) bt (WC) Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1396) 63 76(3)
(7) Sarvar IKRAMOV (UZB,670) bt (Q) Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE,1237) 63 36 61
N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,739) bt Rupesh ROY (IND,916) 75 64
(5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,537) bt (Q) Jordi MUNOZ-ABREU (ESP,1709) 36 63 64
(2) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,515) bt (Q) Matthieu VIERIN (ITA,1475) 62 62

Doubles Quarter Finals
(1) LEE (TPE)/ PENG (TPE) bt SEKIGUCHI (JPN)/ VIERIN (ITA) 76(3) 63
GAJJAR (IND)/ MYNENI (IND) bt (3) ONOZAWA (JPN) / TAKEUCHI (JPN) 62 76(4)
(WC) KANNAN (IND)/ RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (4) BALAJI (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 76(4) 26 10-6
(2) BARRY (IRL)/ BUGBY (GBR) bt SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) 64 Retd

Super UPSET win by Sanam over Vishnu ... He broke Vishnu once in each set ... In the first set in 3rd game and in the second in 9th game ... Balaji also scored good win over Rupesh ... Nice to see he is continue with last year's good work ... Ranjeet needed comeback to beat Spanish qualifier, who upset Kaza in the previous round and Saketh also joined them in quarters.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Men
India bt France 6-2 (3-1)

Goal Scored - Shivendra Singh (IND) 4', Sandeep Singh (IND) 9' PC, 30' PS and 37' PC, SV Sunil (IND) 39', Tushar Khandekar (IND) 62' and Lucas Sevestre (FRA) 35' PC, Fabien Magner (FRA) 56' PC

Women
India bt Poland 3-0 (1-0)

Goal Scored - Ritu Rani (IND) 14', Rani Rampal (IND) 36' Poonam Rani (IND) 62'

Indian men showed some excellent stick-work in this match but I m feeling our team is facing the second half blues in this tournament ... In the second half we r trying to slow the pace, making few defensive errors and missing few chances in front of the goal ... Same repeated in today's match also ... Still much better outing for us than previous matches and importantly good preparation before tomorrow's important match against Canada.

Again Indians take early lead through field goal from Shivendra ... After that Sandeep converted his trade-mark penalty corner hit ... Indians missed few chances to extend the lead but they were playing very attacking game ... Indians awarded penalty stroke when French defender fouled SV Sunil inside the circle and Sandeep converted it easily ... Before half-time our players were looking relaxed and Frech side take advantage to earned penalty corner which they converted after the hooter ... Immediately after start of the second half Indians earned another penalty corner and Sandeep completed another hat-trick converting that ... In couple of minutes SV Sunil scored easiest filed goal after excellent pass from Shivendra ... After that we missed couple of penalty conrners and Dinesh missed few chances in front of goals ... In one of attack French side earned another penalty corner which they again converted due to poor defending by our goal-keeper Chetri ... 8 minutes before the final hooter Tushar found himself totally unmarked at top of the circle and scored goal on powerful shot ... So with 3 wins in 3 matches we r leading the group by 3 points from 2nd place teams; Canada, France and Poland.

Indian women scored comforable win over Polish women ... At half-time Indians were leading 1-0 after early field goal from Ritu Rani ... On 1st minute of the second half Rani Rampal scored excellent individual goal dribbling 3 defenders ... Both teams wasted penalty corners before Poonam scored another field goal ... After 3 matches India and South Africa r having 7 points but on better goal difference we r on the top position.

Tennis News
At $2M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[R1] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (WC) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Andreja Klepac (SLO) 61 63

[QF] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (ESP)/ Shahar Peer (ISR)

Sania and Elena won the first set with triple break of serves ... In the second set both pairs traded early breaks but our pair take crucial break after 3-2 and won the second set.
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At $513K Open 13, Marseille, France

[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 63 57 10-3

Not a convincing win but at least winning start for Mahesh and Rohan in this Marseille open.

Tennis News
At $10K India F1 Futures 2012, Chandigarh

Singles First Round
(1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,332) bt (LL) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1486) 64 76(5)
Sanam SINGH (IND,776) bt (WC) Juan Antonio LOS SANTOS (MAS,UNR) 63 61
Shuichi SEKIGUCHI (JPN,782) bt (WC) Ranjeet SINGH (IND,UNR) 61 60
(6) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,565) bt (Q) Kevin JORDI (SUI,1871) 46 61 61
(4) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN,536) bt Richard GABB (GBR,902) 64 Retd
Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,938) bt (Q) Dineshkanthan THANGARAJAH (SRI,UNR) 63 62
(WC) Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1396) bt (Q) Vijay KANNAN (IND,1498) 75 57 64
(8) Saketh MYNENI (IND,693) bt James FEAVER (GBR,770) 61 61
(7) Sarvar IKRAMOV (UZB,670) bt (LL) Miles BUGBY (GBR,1319) 62 64
(Q) Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE,1237) bt (Q) Akash WAGH (IND,1203) 63 62
N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,739) bt Sam BARRY (IRL,885) 63 76(1)
Rupesh ROY (IND,916) bt (3) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,521) 76(5) 64
(5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,537) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1170) 64 61
(Q) Jordi MUNOZ-ABREU (ESP,1709) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,795) 62 62
(Q) Matthieu VIERIN (ITA,1475) bt (Q) Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND,1498) 64 2-1 Retd
(2) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,515) bt (WC) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1199) 75 62

Doubles
(1) LEE (TPE)/ PENG (TPE) bt JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ TIWARI (IND) 64 64
SEKIGUCHI (JPN)/ VIERIN (ITA) bt (WC) SOOD (IND)/ SOOD (IND) 64 64
(3) ONOZAWA (JPN) / TAKEUCHI (JPN) bt BUN (CAM)/ DULDAEV (KGZ) 60 62
GAJJAR (IND)/ MYNENI (IND) bt (WC) BHATTI (IND)/ NARUKA (IND) 61 64
(WC) KANNAN (IND)/ RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt KEPLER (GER)/ SHARMA (IND) 63 64
(4) BALAJI (IND)/ VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt ANAND (IND)/ RAWAT (IND) 63 63
SHOKEEN (IND)/ SINGH (IND) bt PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ WAGH (IND) 60 60
(2) BARRY (IRL)/ BUGBY (GBR) bt FEAVER (GBR)/ GABB (GBR) 61 64

Sidharath Rawat scored fighting win over experienced Vijay Kannan ... Vivek also stretched Vishnu in the both sets.

Akash qualified for the main-draw but lost against lower ranked Chinese Taipei qualifier ... Kaza also suffered shocking defeat ... Impressive win by Rupesh over Rohan, Rupesh is playing after long injury break ... Saketh also started with very convincing win ... In the second round best match will be Vishu against Sanam.

In latest ranking Yuki climbed to his career best singles ranking, #289.

Shooting News
At London Olympics 2012,

Air Rifle Men and 50M Rifle 3 Position Men
Gagan Narang, Abhinav Bindra, Sanjeev Rajput

50M Rifle Prone Men
Joydeep Karmakar, Gagan Narang,

Air Pistol Women
Annuraj Singh, Heena Sidhu

Sports Pistol
Rahi Sarnobat, Annuraj Singh

Trap Men
Manavjit Singh Sandhu

Double Trap
Ronjan Sodhi

Trap Women
Shagun Chowdhary

Rapid Fire Pistol
Vijay Kumar

Coaches
Stanislav Lapidus - Rifle Coach, Anatoly Piddubnyl - Pistol Coach, Smirnov Pavel - Pistol Coach, Marcello Dradi - Shotgun Coach, Heniz Reinkemier - Rifle Coach, Sunny Thomas - National Coach, Amarjang Singh - Shotgun Coach, Moraad Ali Khan - Shotgun Coach

Reserves
3 Position Men - Imran Hasan Khan
Prone Men - Sushil Ghaley
Air Rifle Men - Sateyendra Singh
Rapid Fire Pistol - Pemba Tamang
Sports Pistol - Anisa Sayyed
Air Pistol Women - Shweta Chaudhary
Trap Men - Anirudh Singh
Double Trap - RVS Rathore
Trap Women - Seema Tomar

Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore failed to find a place while rising talents Heena Sidhu and Joydeep Karmakar got the nod in the 11-member Indian shooting team, announced on Sunday for the London Olympics.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Men
India bt Italy 8-1

Goal Scored - Sandeep Singh (IND) 4' PC, 22' PC and 23' PC, Raghunath (IND) 12' PC, SV Sunil (IND) 30', Gurvinder Singh Chandi (IND) 31', Shivendra Singh (IND) 38' and 52' and Alessandro Nanni (ITA) 17' PC

Women
India bt Canada 4-1

Goal Scored - Saundarya Yandala (IND) 16' PC, Rani Rampal (IND) 19', Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam (IND) 29' PC, Anuradha Devi (IND) 49' and Hannah Haughn (CAN) 69'

Not the ideal 2nd half for Indian men after going into the second half with 6-1 on the board, they managed to score only 2 goals and missed a numerous chances.

In the first half Sandeep Singh scored hat-trick to gave early lead and in the second half Shivendra Singh scored twice but he also missed few chances ... I m still not happy with overall game from us ... They need to tighten their game from next match.

Not perfect match but at least Indian women scored their first win of the tournament ... Had a good first half but they messed few penalty corners ... Our women need to work on their endurance in later stage of the match.

Tennis News
At $2M Dubai Tennis Championships, UAE

[Q1] (WC) Sania Mirza (IND,97) l Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN,85) 26 63 62

Doubles
[R1] (2) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (WC) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Andreja Klepac (SLO)

Sania had opportunity but failed to convert against Canadian.
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At $513K Open 13, Marseille, France

[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,605) l Lauren Rochette (FRA,314) 36 63 67(5)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs James Cerretani (USA)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN)

Rohan must be trying for the second singles place for Davis cup tie as he played in qualifying and performed well enough in his loss ... Also he is playing with Mahesh in doubles ... They r top-seeds.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - For playoff 5th to 8th place
India l Korea 2-3

[MS1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND) bt Hyun Il Lee (KOR) 21-18 21-17
[MD1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pranav Chopra (IND) l Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Sung Hyun Ko (KOR) 12-21 10-21
[MS2] Sourabh Varma (IND) l Wan Ho Shon (KOR) 8-21 21-19 19-21
[MD2] Sanave Thomas (IND)/ Diju V. (IND) l Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Baek Choel Shin (KOR) 11-21 11-21
[MS3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND) bt Ji Hoon Hong (KOR) walkover

Really surprising selection by our team management ... For this important match they decided to rest Ajay Jayaram and Rupesh Kumar ... Reason was this tie winner had opportunity to play in the Thomas cup but we blow it with poor team selection.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Men
India bt Singapore 15-1

Goal Scored - Gurvinder Singh Chandi (IND) 10', 21' and 40', Shivendra Singh (IND) 18' and 30', Danish Mujtaba (IND) 25' and 52', SV Sunil (IND) 54' and 57', Sardar Singh (IND) 11', Tushar Khandker (IND) 42', Sandeep Singh (IND) 47' PC, SK Uthappa (IND) 48', Yuvraj Walmiki (IND) 53', Birendra Lakra (IND) 70' and Enrico Marican (SIN) 39'

Women
India dw Ukraine 1-1

Goal Scored - Soundarya Yendala (IND) 42' and Maryna Vynohradova (UKR) 26'

Though we scored dominating win still in this match we missed more than two dozen chances ... In the first half we scored 6 goals and in the second 9 goals but shocked to see we accepted goal from young Singaporean side in the second half.

Our women had poor start as lowly ranked Ukrainian team held us 1-all ... Our women team was looking rusty in this match and Ukrainian team performed really well after battling extreme weather conditions ... Ukraine take the lead in the first half which we equalized in the second half ... Our one goal disallowed by technical officials but still very disappointing performance by our women in this match.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - For playoff 5th to 8th place
India bt Chinese Taipei 3-2

[MS1] Ajay Jayaram (IND) l Jen Hao Hsu (TPE) 21-14 19-21 11-21
[MD1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Sheng Mu Lee (TPA)/ Chieh Min Fang (TPE) 18-21 17-21
[MS2] Sourabh Varma (IND) bt Tien Chen Chou (TPE) 22-20 20-22 21-18
[MD2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pranav Chopra (IND) bt Min Chun Liao (TPE)/ Chun Wei Wu (TPE) 21-18 24-22
[MS3] Anand Pawar (IND) bt Yu Hsien Lin (TPE) 21-13 21-19

India finished creditable 7th position beating Chinese Taipei team in superb comeback win ... They were 0-2 down before winning final 3 matches ... Ajay lost in 3 games to Hsu and after that our top doubles team Rupesh and Sanave lost their next match ... In third match Sourabh scored hard fought win in 69 minutes match ... This win gave us 1st point in this match ... Next Akshay and Pranav scored win against Chinese Taipei pair to make it 2-all and in the final match Anand Pawar was favorite and he scored straight games victory to gave India memorable victory.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - playoff 5th to 8th place
India l Thailand 2-3

[MS1] Parupalli Kashyap (IND) l Boonsak Ponsana (THA) 20-22 21-8 19-21
[MD1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Sudket Prapakamol (THA)/ Songphon Anugritayawon (THA) 21-16 18-21 17-21
[MS2] Sourabh Varma (IND) bt Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA) 21-19 21-17
[MD2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pranav Chopra (IND) l Patipat Chalardchaleam (THA)/ Nipitphon Puangpuapech (THA) 17-21 20-22
[MS3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND) bt Pakkawat Vilailak (THA) 21-15 14-21 21-7

I really don't understand why we r not playing in-form Ajay in these matches ... Ajay had a good record against Ponsana but we played with Kashyap ... He gave fight but failed to convert in the win ... Rupesh and Sanave started well but lost last 2 games ... Sourabh scored good straight game victory but in second doubles match Thai pair proved strong for young Pranav and Akshay ... In the final match Sai Praneeth again scored uset win over Thai player.

Tennis News
At $15K China F4, Yuxi

[QF] (6) Karan RASTOGI (IND,497) l (1) Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE,183) 36 76(6) 67(10)
[QF] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,523) l (2) Ti CHEN (TPE,276) 36 36

Big lost opportunity for Karan to upset top-200 player ... After losing the first set he fought back ... In the tie-break Karan failed to convert 6 set points but converted 7th point ... In the third set also he had couple of match points in tie-break which he failed to convert.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - Quarter Final
India l Malaysia 0-3

[MS1] Ajay Jayaram (IND) l Chong Wei Lee (MAS) 12-21 21-17 8-21
[MD1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Kien Keat Koo (MAS)/ Boon Heong Tan (MAS) 14-21 21-23
[MS2] Parupalli Kashyap (IND) l Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS) 17-21 21-18 11-21

Malaysian team defeated Indians 3-0 in the quarter-final ... Ajay managed to take WR #1 Chong Wei Lee in 3rd game after winning the second but Lee proved strong in the last game ... After losing the first game easily Rupesh and Sanave produced fight in the second but Malaysian pair managed to finish this match in 2 games ... Kashyap played well in first 2 games but failed to keep same consistency in the final game ... Still overall decent performance from our Thomas cup team after disappointing performance by the Uber cup team.

Tennis News
At $15K China F4, Yuxi

[R2] (6) Karan RASTOGI (IND,497) bt Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE,612) 76(4) 67(4) 64
[R2] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,523) bt (7) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,409) 75 63

[QF] (6) Karan RASTOGI (IND,497) vs (1) Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE,183)
[QF] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,523) vs (2) Ti CHEN (TPE,276)

Doubles
[SF] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) l Yu CHANG (CHN)/ Xin GAO (CHN) 67(4) 62 7-10

Superb upset win by Rohan against talented Indonesian youngster ... Also Karan scored very good hard fought win against Chinese Taipei player ... In quarters our both players r facing top 2 seeds from Chinese Taipei, so real test for them.
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At $15K Australia F1 futures, Toowoomba

[SF] (1) Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Erik CHVOJKA (CAN) l Brydan KLEIN (AUS)/ Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS) 16 26

One-sided loss for top seed pair in the quarters against local pair.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas & Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - Group B
(8) India l (4) Indonesia 2-3

[MS1] Parupalli Kashyap (IND) l Simon Santoso (INA) 7-21 15-21
[MD1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Alvent Yulianto Chandra (INA)/ Hendra Aprida Gunawan (INA) 21-18 21-16
[MS2] Anand Pawar (IND) l Taufik Hidayat (INA) 16-21 13-21
[MD1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pranav Chopra (IND) l Markis Kido (INA)/ Hendra Setiawan (INA) 18-21 16-21
[MS3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND) bt Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA) 13-21 21-15 21-9


Uber Cup - Group W
(6) India l (1) China 0-5

[WS1] Saina Nehwal (IND) l Yanjiao Jiang (CHN) 19-21 19-21
[WD1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Yunlei Zhao (CHN)/ Qing Tian (CHN) 19-21 10-21
[WS2] Sindhu P. V. (IND) l Xuerui Li (CHN) 16-21 13-21
[WD2] Prajakta Sawant (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l Shu Cheng (CHN)/ Pan Pan (CHN) 18-21 19-21
[WS3] Sayali Gokhale (IND) l Xin (F) Liu (CHN) 9-21 2-21

So today our teams lost their respective matches against China in the Uber cup and against Indonesia in the Thomas cup ... But our Thomas cup team has already booked their place in the quarters ... They will face Malaysia in the quarter-final.

I m really started feeling some mental block for Saina against Yanjiao Jiang ... In the first game Saina was leading 18-12 but lost 19-21 ... Then in the second game Saina was trailing 6-12 then 12-16 but she made it 19-all ... Then again lost final 2 points ... Overall disappointing performance by our women.

Terrific performance was given by young Sai Praneeth in the final match against Indonesia ... Before this match India were lost their tie but still Sai gave his best ... After losing the first game he was down 2-7 in the second ... He equalized at 9-all and from 15-all he won last 6 points to won the second game ... In the final game he take control from the start and take sizable lead at 11-3 and after that completed formality of winning this game and the match ... This was 90th ranked Sai's first top-25 win from his short career.

Tennis News
At $2.16M Qatar Total Open 2012, Doha

[R2] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) l Vera Dushevina (RUS)/ Shahar Peer (ISR) 46 46

Sania and Elena had a surprising early exit from Qatar open as they lost in straight sets against Peer and Dushevina ... In this match both pairs struggled with their service games ... Sania and Elena broke their opponents 2 times and Peer and Dushevina broke them 3 times in the first set ... In the second set our pair broke them once but got broken twice.
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At $531K ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, Netherlands

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS)/ Dick Norman (BEL) 46 63 6-10

Another poor result for Mahesh and Rohan ... They really need to start clicking as soon as possible as Olympics deadline is coming near and their doubles ranking is falling down.
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At $15K China F4, Yuxi

[R1] (6) Karan RASTOGI (IND,497) bt Yu CHANG (CHN,727) 63 67(6) 63
[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,523) bt (WC) Peng GAO (CHN,986) 76(1) 75

[R2] (6) Karan RASTOGI (IND,497) vs Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE,612)
[R2] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,523) vs (7) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,409)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Jun-Chao XU (CHN)/ De-Long ZHU (CHN) 61 63

[QF] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Richard BECKER (GER)/ Jaan-Frederik BRUNKEN (GER) 63 67(3) 10-3

[SF] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs Yu CHANG (CHN)/ Xin GAO (CHN)

Good hard fought win for Karan against local player ... He need these wins to give him confidence on his own game ... Gajjar also scored tight win against local wild-card player ... In the second round both playing against players in-form, who r currently around their best singles ranking ... So good test for our players.

In doubles Karan and Rohan moved into the semis after scoring win against Germans in STB ... They r only non-Chinese pair remaining in the draw.

Vijayant Malik withdrew from this futures ... Hopefully nothing serious injury worry and only precautionary step before 3 weeks of Indian futures series.
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At $ 15K Australia F1 futures, Toowoomba

[R1] (Q) Divij SHARAN (IND,806) l Jordan COX (USA,670) 63 46 36

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Erik CHVOJKA (CAN) bt Matthew BARTON (AUS)/ Ze ZHANG (CHN) 36 63 11-9
[QF] (1) Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Erik CHVOJKA (CAN) bt Steven DE WAARD (AUS)/ John MILLMAN (AUS) 57 1-1 Retd

[SF] (1) Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Erik CHVOJKA (CAN) vs Brydan KLEIN (AUS)/ Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS)

Decent fighting performance by Divij in the singles ... Also he won closely fought the first round doubles match with his Canadian partner.

They entered into semis as their opponents withdrew after winning the first set.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - Group B

(8) India bt (14) Macau, China 5-0

[MS1] Ajay Jayaram (IND) bt Chi Man Lam (Macau) 21-9 21-11
[MD2] Sanave Thomas (IND)/ Diju V. (IND) bt Ion Weng Lo (Macau)/ Io Keng Iao (Macau) 21-6 21-2
[MS2] Parupalli Kashyap (IND) bt Chi Chong Ng (Macau) 21-10 21-7
[MD1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pranav Chopra (IND) bt Kin Fai Leong (Macau)/ Chi Man Lam (Macau) 21-11 21-13
[MS3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND) bt Hok Man Lou (Macau) 21-5 21-8


Uber Cup - Group W
(6) India l (9) Malaysia 2-3

[WS1] Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Jing Yi Tee (MAS) 21-17 21-16
[WD1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Eei Hui Chin (MAS)/ Pei Tty Wong (MAS) 12-21 16-21
[WS2] Sindhu P. V. (IND) bt Lydia Li Ya Cheah (MAS) 16-21 21-13 21-9
[WD2] Prajakta Sawant (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l Liu Ying Goh (MAS)/ Vivian Kah Mun Hoo (MAS) 17-21 17-21
[WS3] Sayali Gokhale (IND) l Li Lian Yang (MAS) 21-11 15-21 20-22

Our Thomas team gave expected easy victory and officially book their place in the quarter-final of the Thomas cup ... Their next match against Indonesian team will decide group winner.

Very closely fought match played between India and Malaysia in the Uber cup ... Saina gave winning start but Jwala and Ashwini lost their doubles match ... Then Sindhu gave 2-1 lead scoring comeback victory but Prajakta and Pradnya lost against Malaysian pair ... In the last deciding match Sayali played against Li Lian Yang ... Sayali won the first game but Li Lian Yang fought back winning the second ... In the decider Sayali take 11-2 lead but Li Lian Yang came back stongly ... She won 9 points in a row from 8-14 to take 17-14 lead ... Sayali saved 3 match points from 17-20 but failed to save the fourth match point ... So with that Malaysia qualifyied for the quarter-finals with China in the Uber cup.

Tennis News
At $531K SAP Open, San Jose, USA

[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,297) l Dennis Lajola (USA,719) 46 46

Big lost opportunity for Yuki becoz very few times in his career player get such opportunity of playing against such lowly ranked player to qualify for main-draw ... In this match he made numerous unforced errors and struggled with this serve ... Yuki need to bring more consistency in his game and regularly win these matches.

In the first set Dennis broke Yuki in 1st game and that break was enough for winning the first set ... In the second set also Dennis broke Yuki in 1st game but this time Yuki immediately broke back to make it 1-all ... Dennis again broke him in 5th game but again Yuki broke back to make it 3-all ... Dennis take crucial break in 9th game and then hold his serve converting 3rd match point to won this match.
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At $ 15K Australia F1 futures, Toowoomba

[Q1] (4) Divij SHARAN (IND,806) bye
[Q2] (4) Divij SHARAN (IND,806) bt Vincent CADONA (AUS,UNR) 60 61
[Q3] (4) Divij SHARAN (IND,806) bt Jack SCHIPANSKI (AUS,1184) 64 63

[R1] (Q) Divij SHARAN (IND,806) vs Jordan COX (USA,670)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Erik CHVOJKA (CAN) vs Matthew BARTON (AUS)/ Ze ZHANG (CHN)

Good to see Divij decided to play in Australian futures ... He qualified for singles main-draw and he is top seed in doubles with Canadian partner.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas & Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - Group B
(8) India bt (10) Singapore 3-2

[MS1] Parupalli Kashyap (IND) bt Zi Liang Derek Wong (SIN) 21-16 21-19
[MD1] Rupesh KT Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Zhao Jiang Terry Yeo (SIN)/ Liu Yi (SIN) 21-8 21-15
[MS2] Sourabh Verma (IND) l Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (SIN) 20-22 16-21
[MD2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pranav Chopra (IND) bt Chayut Triyachart (SIN)/ H C Jeffrey Wong (SIN) 21-19 21-16
[MS3] Anand Pawar (IND) l Chao Huang (SIN) 14-21 21-6 18-21

(4) Indonesia bt (14) Macau, China 5-0

India had winning start against Singapore ... So with this win we secure our place in quarter-final, though we still need to win our next match against Macau but I feel that is formality.

Our doubles teams helped us to win this tie after Kashyap gave us a winning start ... Sourabh Verma lost his match and Anand's inconsistent performance continued ... In 5th rubber he lost his match in 3 games.

Major blow for Indian women team before their Uber cup match ... Saina Nehwal is struggling with viral infection (throat infection) ... Also a injury to Arundhati Pantawane's left eye has forced to skip the Uber Cup despite being selected in the Indian squad ... Becoz of that her performance also suffered in the senior nationals held in Bangalore recently ... Arundhati is currently recuperating at home, nursing the ulcer in her eye which had affected her vision badly.

Squash News
At $25K Windy City Open, Chicago, USA

Final
(1) Saurav Ghosal (IND,26) bt (Q) Yasir Butt (PAK,105) 11-8 15-13 10-12 11-5

[SF] (1) Saurav Ghosal (IND,26) bt Alan Clyne (SCO,49) 11-4 11-5 11-6
[QF] (1) Saurav Ghosal (IND,26) bt (Q) Olivier Pett (ENG,88) 5-11 11-7 11-4 14-12
[R1] (1) Saurav Ghosal (IND,26) bt Cesar Salazar (MEX,55) 6-11 8-11 11-2 11-6 11-6

Saurav lifted his first title of the year ... He was top-seed in this tournament but needed to give full efforts in every match except semi-final ... In the first round match he made remarkable comeback against Mexican after 0-2 down ... In quarter-final also he needed extra efforts against last year's champion Pett ... Saurav had a easy semifinal but in the final Pakistani qualifier stretched him again ... Two games went into extra points before Saurav won the fourth comfortably ... Much needed title for Saurav.

Tennis News
At $531K SAP Open, San Jose, USA

[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) bt Fritz Wolmarans (RSA,338) 62 64

[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,297) vs Dennis Lajola (USA,719)

Yuki continued with his good form and easily defeated South African in the second qualifying round ... Yuki started positively and take double breaks to lead 4-0 in the first set ... After winning the first set comfortably he broke Fritz Wolmarans in 7th game of the second set to completed victory in the straight sets ... Next he is facing lowly ranked American Dennis Lajola, who defeated top-seed Rajeev Ram in the second qualifying round ... Good opportunity for Yuki to qualify for the main-draw.

First time in his short career this week Yuki is entered into top-300, his career best ranking #297.
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At $2.16M Qatar Total Open 2012,

[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) bye

Sania missed qualifying rounds due to her title win at Pattaya ... So she is participating in doubles only with her regular partner Elena ... They r getting bye in the first round as 2nd seeds but after that very tricky draw for them against really good doubles players.

Reaching in the quarter-final at Pattaya open helped Sania to improve her singles ranking ... She is back in top-100, #97.
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At $15K China F4, Yuxi

[R1] (6) Karan RASTOGI (IND,497) vs Yu CHANG (CHN,727)
[R1] Vijayant MALIK (IND,478) vs (Q) Bei LIU (CHN,1151)
[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,523) vs (WC) Peng GAO (CHN,986)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Wan GAO (CHN)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) vs Yang LU (CHN)/ Yilun WANG (CHN)
[R1] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs Jun-Chao XU (CHN)/ De-Long ZHU (CHN)

Draw is out and this week only Karan is seeded ... This week Karan's ranking is drop behind Vijayant.

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

Doubles Final
(1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) bt (4) Hao-Ching Chan (TPE)/ Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) 36 61 10-8

Sania and Rodionova pulled superb comeback to lift the title ... After losing the first set with a single break they fought back superbly ... Sania and Rodionova broke Taiwani pair's serve twice in the second set to take 5-0 lead and won it ... In STB they needed all experience to fought back ... They were down 1-4 but managed to make it 4-all ... Then again Taiwani pair take 6-8 lead but again Mirza and Rodionova fought back taking 2 mini-breaks they won 4 points in a row to won this match ... This was Sania's 13th WTA doubles title.
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At $531K ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, Netherlands

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS)/ Dick Norman (BEL)

Good to see Rohan and Mahesh r trying to play as many tournaments to click as a pair.

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

[SF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) bt (3) Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/ Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN) 64 64

[F] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) vs (4) Hao-Ching Chan (TPE)/ Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)

In doubles semi-final Sania and Rodionova scored comfortable straight sets win over 3rd seed pair of Akgul Amanmuradova and Kimiko Date-Krumm ... In the final they r facing 4th seed Chinese Taipei pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan.
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At $531K SAP Open, San Jose, USA

[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) bt (5) Pierre-Ludovic Duclos (CAN,230) 64 16 76(4)

[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) vs Fritz Wolmarans (RSA,338)

Yuki scored superb hard fought win over his hitting partner from IMG acadamy ... In the nextr qualifying round he is facing South African, whom he defeated at Knoxville challenger in 2010

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

[QF] Sania Mirza (IND,111) l (Q) Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE,159) 57 36

Doubles
[SF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) vs (3) Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/ Kimiko Date-Krumm (JPN)

Lost too many chances in this match ... She was up 5-3 in the first set before losing next 4 games and in the final set Sania managed to hold her service once and got broken 3 times ... Really disappointing game by her.

Sania was leading with early break, 5-3, but lost her serve in 10th and 12th games to lose the first set ... In the second set Sania lost her serve in 2nd, 4th and 6th games and she broken Hsieh in 3rd and 5th games ... Poor serving through out the match for Sania.
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At $50K+H Quimper Challenger, France

[QF] (4) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA)/ Maxime Teixeira (FRA) 57 46

Lost against French pair in the quarters.
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At $15K China F3, Mengzi

[QF] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,472) l (4) Jozef KOVALIK (SVK,356) 63 67(2) 64
[QF] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,404) l (3) Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED,341) 46 16

Doubles Final
(2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (1) Peng GAO (CHN)/ Hiroki KONDO (JPN) 62 64

Vijayant made brilliant start with winning the first set ... In the second set both players were holding their serves ... Vijayant needed to save 3 set points in 12th game but Slovak proved too strong in tie-break ... Jozef won the final set with a single break but Vijayant gave good fighting performance against top-350 type player.

Rohan and Karan lifted title in doubles beating top-seed pair in straight sets but Karan lost one-sided in singles quarter-final.

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,111) bt Anne Keothavong (GBR,88) 64 75

[QF] Sania Mirza (IND,111) vs (Q) Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE,159)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) bt Varatchaya Wongteanchai (THA)/ Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) 64 63

In the first set Sania broke Anne in 2nd game to take 3-0 lead but Anne broke back Sania 5th game to make it 3-all ... Sania take crucial break in 10th game when Anne was serving stay in the set ... In the second set Anne broke Sania in 3rd game but Sania fought back and broke her in 6th game to 3-all ... Sania hold her next couple of service games with ease ... In 11th game Sania failed to hold her serve easily, from 40-0 she gave Anne chance of taking it in deuce with double fault, saved couple of break points before holding it after six deuces ... Sania broke Anne in 12th game converting first match point to completed excellent victory.

In doubles quarter-final also Sania and Anastasia Rodionova scored straight sets victory over local pair Wongteanchais.

In singles quarter-final Sania will face Tapei qualifier Hsieh Su-Wei, who upset Kimiko Date-Krumm in the second round.
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At $100K Dallas Challenger, Texas, USA

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) l Stefan Seifert (GER,284) 46 26

Doubles
[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Vladimir Obradovic (SRB) l (4) Nicholas Monroe (USA)/ Jack Sock (USA) 46 36

Yuki started with breaking Stefan serve in 1st game but lost his own serve in next game, 1-all ... Yuki failed to convert break point in 3rd and lost his serve in 6th game, 2-4, but this time Yuki broke back to make it 3-4 ... In 8th game Yuki saved 3 break points from 0-40 to hold his serve ... In 9th game Yuki wasted 2 break points and served 2 double faults to lose his serve and the set ... In the second set Yuki got broken in 4th game and 8th game to lose this match ... Yuki had a few chances of breaking back but in this match Yuki struggled with his game ... His service returns weren't accurate ... He made numerous double faults (8) and failed to raise his game ... Disappointing performance after good first round win ... Also he lost in doubles first round against 4th seeds.
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At $50K Caloundra Challenger, Australia

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,340) l (3) James Duckworth (AUS,210) 46 46

Doubles
[QF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l James Lemke (AUS)/ Dane Propoggia (AUS) 36 26

Vishnu lost in singles and doubles against Aussie players ... Doubles loss was surprising one.
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At $15K China F3, Mengzi

[R2] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,472) bt (Q) De-Long ZHU (CHN,UNR) 60 61
[R2] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,404) bt Constantin BELOT (FRA,691) 63 61

[QF] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,472) vs (4) Jozef KOVALIK (SVK,356)
[QF] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,404) vs (3) Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED,341)

Doubles
[SF] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (4) Norbert GOMBOS (SVK)/ Jozef KOVALIK (SVK) 63 26 10-8

[F] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs (1) Peng GAO (CHN)/ Hiroki KONDO (JPN)

Really good win by Karan considering his recent poor form ... This win will give him huge confidence for his future matches ... Next both r facing top-350 type players in the quarters and in doubles final Karan and Rohan r facing top-seeds.

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

[R1] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) bt Iryna Bremond (FRA)/ Caroline Garcia (FRA) 60 62

[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) vs Varatchaya Wongteanchai (THA)/ Varunya Wongteanchai (THA)

Top-seeds Sania and Anastasia scored very convincing win over French girls ... Next they r facing local Thai Wongteanchai sisters.
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At $50K Caloundra Challenger, Australia

[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Matthew Barton (AUS)/ Michael Look (AUS) 62 62

[QF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs James Lemke (AUS)/ Dane Propoggia (AUS)

Very comfortable victory against local wild-card pair ... In quarters they r facing another Aussie pair.
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At $50K+H Quimper Challenger, France

[R1] (4) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Pablo Carreno-Busta (ESP)/ Joao Sousa (POR) 75 75

Winning start for Purav and Olivier but in close 2 sets.
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At $15K China F3, Mengzi

[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,513) l (1) Vincent MILLOT (FRA,311) 46 46
[R1] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,472) bt (Q) Hung-Yuan HSU (TPE,1906) 63 62
[R1] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,404) bt (Q) Nian FENG (CHN,1426) 60 64

[R2] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,472) vs De-Long ZHU (CHN,UNR)
[R2] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,404) vs Constantin BELOT (FRA,691)

Doubles
[QF] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Dominik SCHULZ (GER)/ Maximilian WILDE (GER) 76(3) 61

[SF] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs (4) Norbert GOMBOS (SVK)/ Jozef KOVALIK (SVK)

Rohan had a decent scoreline against top-seed in his loss ... Other hand Karan and Vijayant had easy victories against qualifiers ... Vijayant is facing another qualifier in the second round but Karan having his first test against Frenchman.

Hockey News
At 2012 Olympic Qualification Tournament, New Delhi

Bharat Chikara is set to replace Arjun Halappa as a stand-by in the Indian hockey team for this month's Olympic Qualifiers after Halappa left the national camp following his omission from the main squad.

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,111) bt Ayumi Morita (JPN,64) 36 61 62

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,111) vs Anne Keothavong (GBR,88)

Usual slow start for Sania ... From 3-2 she lost next 4 games to lose the first set ... In the second set Sania take a break in 2nd game to lead 3-0 ... Sania again broke her service game in 6th game to comfortably win the second set ... In the decider Sania take early break in 3rd game and she saved 2 break points on serve in 4th to consolidate the break, 3-1 ... Sania again broke Morita in 7th game to take 5-2 lead and then hold her serve to complete very good win.

Terrific comeback win by Sania ... Though she faced many break points in the second and third sets still she managed to save all those and broke Morita twice in the last two sets ... Tricky match against Anne Keothavong, who upset 2nd seed in the first round.
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At $100K Dallas Challenger, Texas, USA

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) bt (4) Tobias Kamke (GER,88) 76(3) 46 64

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) vs Stefan Seifert (GER,284)

Doubles
[Q2] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Vladimir Obradovic (SRB) bt (2) Michael McClune (USA)/ Philip Simmonds (USA) 67(5) 63 12-10

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Vladimir Obradovic (SRB) vs (4) Nicholas Monroe (USA)/ Jack Sock (USA)

Yuki started well and take early break ... He was leading 5-3 and 30-0, from here Yuki lost control and Kamke managed to make it 5-all ... In tie-break from 1-2 Yuki won next 5 points to won tie-break with double mini-break ... In the second set Yuki broke in 2nd game to lead 2-0 but Kamke broke Yuki in 3rd and 5th games to take 2-4 ... Again Yuki broke Kamke in 8th game to make it 4-all but Kamke broke him in 9th game to won the second set ... In the third set Kamke broke Yuki in 1st game ... Yuki saved 2 break points on his serve and failed to convert four break points on Kamke's serve in 4th game, 1-3 ... Yuki saved another 2 break points in 5th game ... In 7th game Yuki again faced 2 break points but he manged to hang on to hold the serve ... Yuki take a break in 8th game to make it 4-all ... When Kamke was serving for stay in the match ... Yuki played excellent returning game to broke him ... Yuki won the match winning last 4 games from 2-4 ... This was biggest victory of Yuki's small career.

Also like he came back on the court and won another tight match in doubles final qualifying ... In the first round they r facing American 4th seed pair.
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At $50K Caloundra Challenger, Australia

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,340) bt (Q) Nima Roshan (AUS,828) 64 76(8)

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,340) vs (3) James Duckworth (AUS,210)

In the second set match turned very close ... Vishnu saved 2 break points in 6th game and then saved 3 set points in 10th game ... Tie-break was also very close but at least winning start for Vishnu ... Vishnu will face 3rd seed James Duckworth in the second round.
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At $15K China F3, Mengzi

[R1] Austin KAROSI (USA)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) l (4) Norbert GOMBOS (SVK)/ Jozef KOVALIK (SVK) 46 64 5-10
[R1] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Yu Cheng LI (CHN)/ Bei LIU (CHN) 61 64

[QF] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs Dominik SCHULZ (GER)/ Maximilian WILDE (GER)

Vijayant gave fighting performance with his partner against 4th seed Slovaks ... Karan and Rohan had comfortable victory against local pair in their opening match.

Badminton News
At 2012 Thomas & Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia, Macau, China

Thomas Cup - Group B
(4) Indonesia, (8) India, (10) Singapore, (14) Macau

Indian Team - Parupalli Kashyap, Ajay Jayaram, Anand Pawar, Sourabh Verma, B. Sai Praneeth, Sanave Thomas, Rupesh KT Kumar, Diju Valiyaveetil, Pranav Chopra and Akshay Dewalkar

Uber Cup - Group W
(1) China, (6) India, (9) Malaysia

Indian Team - Saina Nehwal, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Arundhati Pantawane, Sayali Gokhale, Jwala Gutta, Ashwini Ponnappa, Prajakta Sawant, Pradnya Gadre, Aparna Balan and Sikki N. Reddy

Thomas and Uber Cup Preliminery Round - Asia will be played at Macau from 14th February ... Our women team is in group W with top-seed China and our men team is in Group B with Indonesia ... Our both teams r having good chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals as top 2 teams from each group will move to the knockout stage.

Tennis News
At $220K Pattaya Open, Thailand

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,111) vs Ayumi Morita (JPN,64)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) vs Iryna Bremond (FRA)/ Caroline Garcia (FRA)

Sania is having tricky opener against Japanese top player in the singles ... I feel unnecessarily she is playing in the doubles in this lower level tournament.
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At $50K Caloundra Challenger, Australia

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,340) vs (Q) Nima Roshan (AUS,828)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Matthew Barton (AUS)/ Michael Look (AUS)

Vishnu having good opportunity to score the first round win against local qualifier in the singles.

As expected Divij and Vishnu climb in their doubles rankings ... Divij is on #145 (one place behind Purav) and Vishnu is on #182.
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At $100K Dallas Challenger, Texas, USA

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,306) vs (4) Tobias Kamke (GER,88)

Doubles
[Q1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Vladimir Obradovic (SRB) bt (WC) Lance Hagan (USA)/ Ryan Haley (USA) 61 64

[Q2] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Vladimir Obradovic (SRB) vs (2) Michael McClune (USA)/ Philip Simmonds (USA)

Yuki is facing tough opener against top-90 German Kamke in this big challenger and in doubles he is playing final doubles qualifying round with Serbian Vladimir Obradovic.
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At $50K+H Quimper Challenger, France

[R1] (4) Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Pablo Carreno-Busta (ESP)/ Joao Sousa (POR)

Last year Purav played few challengers with Frenchman Olivier Charroin and had decent results ... This week he is partnering him in Quimper challenger.
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At $15K China F3, Mengzi

[R1] Rohan GAJJAR (IND,513) vs (1) Vincent MILLOT (FRA,311)
[R1] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,472) vs (Q) Hung-Yuan HSU (TPE,1906)
[R1] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,404) vs (Q) Nian FENG (CHN,1426)

Doubles
[R1] Austin KAROSI (USA)/ Vijayant MALIK (IND) vs (4) Norbert GOMBOS (SVK)/ Jozef KOVALIK (SVK)
[R1] (2) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs Yu Cheng LI (CHN)/ Bei LIU (CHN)

Rohan is having very tough draw ... He is facing top-seed Frenchman Millot and our other 2 players r facing qualifiers.

Squash News
At 1st WSF u21 World Cup, Chennai, India

Final
(4) India l (1) Egypt 1-2

Ravi Dixit (IND) l Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY) 1-3 (4-11,7-11,11-7,7-11)
Dipika Pallikal (IND) bt Nour El Sherbini (EGY) 3-2 (11-7,4-11,8-11,14-12,11-5)
Ramit Tandon (IND) l Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 1-3 (10-12,4-11,11-6,8-11)

In the final again reigning world junior champion Marwan El Shorbagy proved strong for Ravi Dixit ... Ravi tried fight back winning third set after losing first 2 sets but Marwan kept hold to won fourth.

In the second match Dipika started well and won well fought first set but in the second Dipika made numerous unforced errors including few on service returns to lose this set ... In the third Dipika reduced unforced errors and both players were fighting for every point ... Dipika take 8-6 lead but after that Nour El Sherbini take next 5 points to won the third set ... Nour El Sherbini troubled Dipika with excellent drop shots and soft touches near the wall ... Dipika survived very close call in the fourth game ... Dipika kept struggling and was making unforced errors ... She was 5-10 down and Nour El Sherbini had 5 match and championship balls but Dipika saved all those match balls ... Dipika saved another 2 match balls at 10-11 and 11-12 and converted first set point at 13-12 to won this fourth set ... It was too much task for sixteen and half years old Nour El Sherbini to came out of losing 7 match balls in previous game ... Dipika take 4-0 lead and she kept increasing to won this set and match.

333rd ranked Ramit Tandon gave very spirited performance against 42nd ranked Karim Abdel Gawad in the first set ... Both players were trading early leads ... Ramit saved a set ball but Karim converted 2nd set ball to won the first set ... In the second set Karim showed his top game ... He won the second set losing only 4 points where he dominated all part of the set ... Surprised to see fightback from Ramit ... He increased level of his game and matches Karim shot by shot ... Take early control of the third set and won it comfortably ... Though Ramit lost fourth game and match but he gave very creditable fighting performance ... He stretched Karim to fullest with his game ... Karim needed to use all his experience to finished this match in 4 sets ... Few times Ramit take 2 points lead but from 6-8 down Karim won next well fought 5 points to completed victory.

With this Egypt lifted the 1st WSF u21 World Cup and 4th seed India finished creditable runner-up position.

Squash News
At 1st WSF u21 World Cup, Chennai, India

Semi-Finals
(1) Egypt bt (2) England 2-1

Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY) bt Charles Sharpes (ENG) 3-1 (11-7,12-14,11-4,11-5)
Nour El Tayeb (EGY) l Emily Whitlock (ENG) 0-3 (8-11,10-12,9-11)
Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) bt Declan James (ENG) 3-0 (11-7,11-8,11-9)
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(4) India bt (3) France 2-1

Ravi Dixit (IND) l Lucas Serme (FRA) 1-3 (6-11,11-8,6-11,7-11)
Dipika Pallikal (IND) bt Chloe Mesic (FRA) 3-0 (11-3,11-4,11-5)
Ramit Tandon (IND) bt Geoffrey Demont (FRA) 3-1 (11-5,6-11,11-2,13-11)

In the first semi-final top-seed Egypt defeated England, 2-1.

Ravi Dixit tried but Lucas Serme proved strong for him and Ravi lost in 4 sets ... Dipika scored comfortable win losing only 12 points and helped India to tie this match 1-all ... In the deciding match Ramit take early 4-0 lead and kept that advantage to won the first set ... But in the second set Geoffrey Demont take early lead and won the second set ... In the third set Ramit surprised Geoffrey with deceptive shots from back of the courts and won this set losing only 2 points.

What a closely fought fourth set ... Both players were fighting for each point ... Both players were trading lead in the beginning ... Ramit opened 6-4 lead but Geoffrey fought back to 6-all ... Ramit won next 4 points to 10-6 lead but Geoffrey saved all 4 match balls to make it 10-all ... Geoffrey had a set point at 11-10 but after saving that Ramit converted 5th match ball to complete memorable victory for India against 3rd seed France.

In the final Indian team is facing top-seed Egypt ... Very tough match but I m hoping some spirited performance from our players ... Dipika is favorite in her match but Ravi Dixit and Ramit Tandon r underdogs in their respective matches against higher ranked opponents.

Tennis News
At Asia-Oceania Group II 2012, Shenzhen, China

Promotional Play-Off
India bt Hong Kong, China 2-1

Rutuja Bhosale (IND,789) l Wing-Yau Venise Chan (HKG,534) 46 16
Sania Mirza (IND,111) bt Ling Zhang (HKG,220) 57 60 61
Isha Lakhani (IND)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Wing-Yau Venise Chan (HKG)/ Ling Zhang (HKG) 67(7) 61 75

Very close match than expected but at least we managed to move into Asia-Oceania Group I after scoring comeback win ... Slow start in both matches for Sania but she responded when needed ... As per her tweet she was almost five and half hours on the court ... May be Rutuja tired in this match as she was on the court in all Indian ties.
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At $50K Burnie Challenger, Australia

Doubles Final
(4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (WC) John Peers (AUS)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 26 46

I thought this final against these US collegians will be tough ... Both Australians were big server and din't give any chance on their serve ... In the first set they take early 5-1 lead with 2 breaks to won the first set ... In the second set they take crucial break on Divij's serve in 5th game and that single break was enough to win the set and match.

Squash News
At 1st WSF u21 World Cup, Chennai, India

Pool A
(4) India bt (5) Australia 3-0

Ravi Dixit (IND) bt Jamie Mcervale (AUS) 11-4 11-3 10-12 11-9 (58m)
Dipika Pallikal (IND) bt Sarah Cardwell (AUS) 11-6 11-4 11-5 (42m)
Ramit Tandon (IND) bt Walter Kofeka (AUS) 11-1 11-2 11-4 (17m)

(1) Egypt bt (8) Germany 3-0

Semi-Finals
(1) Egypt vs (2) England
(4) India vs (3) France

Australian managed to stretch only Ravi Dixit in the first match ... Otherwise very comfortable win for Indians ... In the semis they will face 3rd seed France, who upset 2nd seed British team in the league

Tennis News
At Group II 2012, Shenzhen, China

Pool B
India bt Philippines 2-1

Rutuja Bhosale (IND,789) bt Tamitha Nguyen (PHI,UNR) 62 63
Prerna Bhambri (IND,667) l Anna Clarice Patrimonio (PHI,UNR) 63 46 26
Isha Lakhani (IND)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Tamitha Nguyen (PHI)/ Anna Clarice Patrimonio (PHI) 60 61

Today Prerna lost in the second singles so Indian captain avoided any risk and Sania played in doubles with Isha to help India 2-1 victory over Philippines ... In the first match Rutuja gave winning start for India.

Tomorrow India will face Hong Kong, China, winner will be promoted to Asia/Oceania Zone Group I in 2013.
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At $50K Burnie Challenger, Australia

Doubles
[SF] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Nima Roshan (AUS)/ Jose ( Rubin) Statham (NZL) 63 62

[F] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) John Peers (AUS)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS)

Divij and Vishnu scored easy victory against Nima and Jose, who upset top-seeds in the previous round ... In the final Vishnu and Divij r facing local wild-card pair.

Squash News
At 1st WSF u21 World Cup, Chennai, India

Pool A
(4) India l (1) Egypt 0-3

Ravi Dixit (IND) l Marwan El Shorbagy (EGY) 7-11 11-6 4-11 10-12 (44m)
Anaka Alankamony (IND) l Nour El Sherbini (EGY) 6-11 7-11 3-11 (25m)
Karan Malik (IND) l Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) 11-3 9-11 0-11 3-11 (31m)

(5) Australia bt (8) Germany 2-1

Today Indian side rested Dipika in this league match against top-seed ... Ravi Dixit gave fighting performance against reigning world junior champion Marwan El Shorbagy ... In the last match also Karan Malik gave decent performance against WR #42 Karim Abdel Gawad ... Tomorrow in the last league match we will play against Australia for the place in semis.

Squash News
At 1st WSF u21 World Cup, Chennai, India

Eight teams r participating in this inaugural WSF u21 World cup ... This championship will feature mixed teams of two men and a woman ... The Indian team led by WR #15 Dipika Pallikal, other members of the team r 17 yrs old Asian Junior u19 champion Anaka Alankamony, Ravi Dixit, Ramit Tandon and Karan Malik ... India is seeded 4th behind top-seed Egypt, 2nd seed England and 3rd seed ... Egypt is having very strong squad of 2 reigning world junior champions, 18 yrs old WR #41 Marwan El Shorbagy and 18 yrs old WR #20 Nour El Tayeb, WR #42 Karim Abdel Gawad, WR #78 Mohamed Abouelghar and 16 yrs old former world junior champion WR #28 Nour El Sherbini.

India is in Pool A with Egypt, tricky Australia and Germany.

Pool A
(1) Egypt, (4) India, (5) Australia and (8) Germany

Pool B
(2) England, (3) France, (6) Hong Kong, (7) Malaysia

Pool A
(4) India bt (8) Germany 3-0

Ramit Tandon (IND) bt Rudi Rohrmuller (GER) 11-2 11-5 12-10 (45m)
Dipika Pallika (IND) bt Franziska Hennes (GER) 11-2 11-4 11-7 (20m)
Karan Malik (IND) bt Valentin Rapp (GER) 11-8 11-6 11-4 (33m)

(1) Egypt bt (5) Australia 3-0

Today in their first match our team had a winning start against Germany ... We scored comfortable 3-0 victory where all matches ended in 3 straight games ... Tomorrow we r facing #1 seeded Egypt, who today defeated Australian team very convincingly where all matches ended inside 75 minutes.