Snooker News
At Asian Snooker Championship 2012, Doha, Qatar

Courtesy cuesportsindia.com

Final
Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Pankaj Advani (IND) 7-5 (11-90(60), 72-57, 76-09, 00-139(116), 74-22, 56-60, 77-07, 72-64, 80-00, 40-82, 09-99(54), 59-47)

[SF] Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (IRI) 6-3 (51-27, 85-00, 60-72(60), 06-86(86), 49-79, 95(76)-00, 61(53)-17, 70-37, 89-00)
[SF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Noppon Saengkham (THA) 6-4 (25-79, 91-06, 48-69, 58-47, 00-90(84), 78-36, 00-71(67), 61(52)-16, 74(59), 06, 61-49)

[QF] Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Saleh Mohammed (AFG) 5-2 (69-54, 39-68, 83-39, 103-30, 50-63, 113(63)-01, 67-37)
[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Ehsan Heydari Nezhad (IRI) 5-0 (72-46, 71(54)-22, 66-01, 72(66)-01, 76-65)

[PQF] Aditya Mehta (IND) bt Muhammad Mustafa Shehab (UAE) 4-0 (83-20, 59-09, 64-32, 58-40)
[PQF] Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Ahmed Saif (QAT) 4-0 (71-15, 81-00, 70-18, 62-14)
[PQF] Hossein Vafaei Ayouri (IRI) bt Kamal Chawla (IND) 4-1 (76-36, 67-60,61(51)-62, 63-42, 64-46)

Aditya Mehta managed to win his first Asian Snooker title in his third appearance in the Asian Snooker final ... Aditya Mehta become only third Indian to have won this title, before him Yasin Merchant won it twice in 1989 and 2001 then Alok Kumar in 2004 ... So after 8 years Indian won this prestigeous title ... India confirmed the Asian snooker title after Aditya and Pankaj Advani reached into final ... This was Pankaj's second Asian Snooker final but his title wait continues ... Three weeks back Pankaj lifted Asian Billiard title so he was hoping for grand double.

In the final, after losing the first frame Aditya won a crucial second frame with a 49 points break after being 40 down to level 1-1 ... Pankaj fought back by taking the lead 3-2 ... But after winning the next Aditya managed to level 3-3 and then take the lead 6-3 ... Pankaj won next 2 frames to make it 5-6 ... A battle of nerves happened in 12th frame ... Both players made a series of errors so frame was swinning in both directions ... Aditya held his nerves from 23-22 and scripted memorable win after winning the frame 59-41.

This is a first international title for Aditya ... While capturing title Aditya scored a big win over 17 yrs old current IBSF World Snooker Champion and ACBS Asian Under-21 Snooker Champion Iran's Hossein Vafaei Ayouri in the semi-final

After group stage Aditya (Group A) and Pankaj (Group C) qualified for knock-out stage as group winners and Kamal Chawla on 2nd place from Group E.

Rowing News
At 2012 Asian Olympic Qualification Regatta 2012, Chung-ju, Korea

Men's Single Sculls - M1x
Gold - Swarn Singh Virk (IND) 7:01.681
Silver - Mohsen Shadinaghadeh (IRI) 7:08.527
Bronze - Dongyong Kim (KOR) 7:11.505

Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls - LM2X
Gold - Kazushige Ura/ Daisaku Takeda (JPN) 6:31.253
Silver - Chun Shek Leung/ Hoi Kwan Lok (HKG) 6:37.700
Bronze - Sandeep Kumar/ Manjeet Singh (IND) 6:38.164

Swarn Singh Virk along with Manjeet Singh and Sandeep Kumar booked their berths in the upcoming London Olympics in the Asian Olympic qualifiers at Chung Ju, Korea.

Virk qualified in the men’s single sculls (M1X) after winning the final comfortably, while Manjeet and Sandeep take the third and last position in the lightweight men’s double sculls (LM2X) after facing stiff competition from the other Asian countries.

Swimming News
At Singapore Swimming Association Grand Prix 2012, Singapore

Virdhawal Khade
100m freestyle (1st), 50.02s (OST), 200m freestyle (1st) 1:50.93s (OST), 50m freestyle (1st) 23.30s

Sandeep Sejwal
50m breaststroke (1st) 28.55s, 100m breaststroke (1st) 1:02.26 (OST), 200m breaststroke 2:17.59s

Jyotsna Pansare
50m freestyle (9th) 28.44s, 100m butterfly (3rd) 1:04.54s, 100m freestyle (9th) 1:00.76, 100m backstroke (2nd) 1:09.76s

Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal improved their timings at the three-day Singapore Swimming Association Grand Prix ... Veer bettered the 50.34 seconds that he clocked in 100m freestyle in last year’s FINA World Championships by clocking 50.02s in the finals (OST is 50.53) ... Veer also met the OST in the 200m freestyle, his effort in the final (1:50.93s) was better than the qualifying time set at 1:51.59 ... Veer joins Karnataka’s Aaron D’ Souza as the second Indian to have met the OST in 200m freestyle ... D’Souza had clocked 1:50.89s in the Singapore National Open meet in last month ... But, according to FINA rules, the swimmer with a better OST stands a chance to qualify ... Veer failed to qualify in the 50m freestyle, his timing of 23.30s was slower than the OST that has been fixed at 22.88s.

Sandeep Sejwal also bettered a timing of 1:02.62s which he clocked in 100m breaststroke in the FINA Worlds last July by clocking 1:02.26s (OST is 1:02.92s).

Next they r participating in the 55th Malaysian Open, an Olympic qualifying event with 8 more Indian swimmers.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[SF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) l Wan Ho Shon (KOR,17) 14-21 21-19 16-21

I was expecting win from Kashyap after his qualification for Olympics but Korean Shon proved better player on the court ... After losing the first game Kashyap kept fighting to win the second ... In the decider Korean didn't give him much chance.

Tennis News
At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Chinese Taipei

[QF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij SHaran (IND) l (4) Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)/ Hsin-Han Lee (TPE) 62 36 4-10

Purav and Divij lost against local 4th seed pair after winning the first set ... They started well but Taipei pair came back strongly from the second.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Andijan

Singles Final
(3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt Ivan Sergeyev (UKR,526) 63 76(1)

Vishnu lifted his first title abroad and overall fifth futures title ... What a performance from Vishnu to lift his first title abroad beating top-250 caliber Ignatik in the semis and last week's winner Ivan Sergeyev in the final ... Much needed victory for Vishnu
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

Singles Final
(4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) 46 61 76(4)

[SF] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) 62 63
[SF] (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) bt (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,877) 76(3) 63

Good to see Jeevan defeated top 2 seeds on a same day to lift his third futures title ... Now he need to show consistency in $15K and $15K+H Futures at home and abroad before shifting to challenger level.

Wrestling News
At the World Qualifying Tournament, Taiyuan, China

Former world champion and Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Sushil Kumar booked his London Olympics ticket after winning the 66kg freestyle title ... Sushil easily defeated Georgia's Otar Tushishvilli 3-0 in the final.

I m very happy for Sushil Kumar, he is one wrestler who can give us another medal as he wretle without fearing anyone ... Big lion-heart wrestler ... Here he won all his matches comfortably ... In last tournament he was struggling with shoulder injury but here fully-fit Sushil Kumar proved too strong for other wrestlers

66 kg Freestyle

Final

Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Otar Tushishvili (GEO) 3-0 

[SF] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Andriy Kvyatkovskyy (UKR) 3-1
[QF] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Jayden Alexander Lawrence (Australia) 5-0
[R2] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Radley Umang (Palau) 7-0
[R1] Sushil Kumar (IND) bye

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) bt (3) Jin Chen (CHN,4) w/o
[QF] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) l (4) Yanjiao Jiang (CHN,7) 21-18 12-21 18-21

[QF] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Bodin Issara (THA)/ Maneepong Jongjit (THA) 12-21 12-21
[QF] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (3) Miyuki Maeda (JPN)/ Satoko Suetsuna (JPN) 21-19 13-21 14-21

[SF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) vs Wan Ho Shon (KOR,17)

Kashyap got big lucky break as his Chinese opponent WR 4 Jin Chen gave walkover in quarter-final ... This was big boost for Kashyap's Olympics quest as next week he will be definitely India's #1 ranked player so get opportunity to represent India at London Olympics.

Sindhu played exceptional match against WR #7 Chinese opponent Yanjiao Jiang ... Though she lost in this match but she give us hope for the future ... In the first game Sindhu started well and take couple of points lead early which she increased to 15-11 ... But from 17-13 lead Jiang fought back to make it 17-all ... Sindhu won next 3 points and converted 2nd game point to won this game ... Jiang started positively in the second game and take early 5-3 then 9-6 lead and she kept hold on this game to won it comfortably ... In the decider also Jiang started with 7-1 lead which was big lead and Sindhu never able to catch with Jiang after that ... But Sindhu kept fighting till the end ... She reduced that lead to 10-8 then 18-15 ... From 16-20 Sindhi saved couple of match points before losing this match in 58 minutes.

WR #6 Japanese pair take early couple of points and they maintained that until Indian pair caught with them at 10-all ... Then both pairs were moving point by point until 16-all ... Ashwini and Jwala won next 4 points to gained 4 game points ... Japanese pair saved 3 of them before Jwala and Ashwini converted 4th game point ... In the second game Japanese pair opened up lead from 3-all and kept increasing ... From 12-9 they won next 6 points and take big lead, 18-9 ... That was enough to won the second game ... In the decider Japanese pair take early 5-0 lead ... Indians managed to reduce it to 4-6 but only that much they came closer to Japanese pair ... After that Japanese pair dominated to won this game.

Thai pair trounced Rupesh and Sanave in their quarter-final, which was lasted only 29 minutes.

Tennis News
At $2.7M Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Spain

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) l Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Marc Lopez (ESP) 57 63 5-10

Mahesh and Nenad was break down in the first set but they broke back at 4-5 ... Next game they were up 40-0 before losing the serve ... With single break Nenad and Mahesh won the second set but in STB Spanish pair proved strong for them.
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At 2012 u-16 Asia/Oceania Junior Davis and Fed Cup Final Qualifying, Bendigo, Australia

Junior Davis Cup - Quarter Final
(3) India l (1) Korea 1-2

R1 - Sahil Deshmukh l Ku Keon Kang 16 06
R2 - Sumit Nagal l Hyeon Chung 26 16
R3 - Sahil Deshmukh/ Fatehdeep Singh bt Hyeon Chung/ Geon Ju Shin 76(4) 57 75


Junior Fed Cup - Quarter Final
(1) India l (3) Australia 1-2

R1 - Snehadevi Reddy l Zoe Hives 16 16
R2 - Rutuja Bhosale bt Naiktha Bains 76(5) 62
R3 - Rutuja Bhosale/ Snehadevi Reddy l Naiktha Bains/ Isabelle Wallace 62 46 36

Korean boys dominated our boys and they won their two singles matches losing only 4 games ... Surprised to see this one-sided scoreline for Sumit ... In doubles dead rubber Sahil and Fatedeep produced herculean effort to gave single win for us from this tie.

In girls section, Australian Zoe Hives gave winning start for their team beating Snehadevi Reddy very comfortably ... Rutuja won her match against Australia's #1 Bains to give us 1-all score ... But in the crucial doubles match our pair lost after winning the first set ... In the final set they were up 3-1 before losing next 5 games.

I m really surprised to see choice of doubles pairing by captain Sai Jayalakshmy Jayaram against Aussies ...Sai Jayalakshmy decided to use untested pairing of Rutuja and Snehadevi Reddy for this crucial match against Aussie ... Before that in our group matches she used pairing of Rutuja and Simran Kaur Sethi.

Disappointed to see that our both teams failed to perform as per their seeding and missed chance of qualifying for the final of JDC and JFC.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[SF] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt (1) Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR,279) 76(5) 26 76(5)

[F](3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs Ivan Sergeyev (UKR,526)

Huge upset win by Vishnu ... This wasn't expected ... Luv the way he won two tie-breaks to upset top-seed Uladzimir Ignatik in three sets and moreover he saved 3 match points in the third set ... Next he is facing unseeded Ukrainian, who upset 2nd seed Russian.
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

[QF] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) bt (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708) 63 76(4)
[QF] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830) 46 63 64
[QF] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) l (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,877) 46 36
[QF] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) l (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) 46 46

Jeevan scored good comeback victory after losing the first set ... In the semis he will face Vijayant but Ranjeet lost in straight sets against Belgian player.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) l (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1) 16-21 21-15 5-21
[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) bt Boonsak Ponsana (THA,30) 15-21 21-14 22-20
[R2] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) l Youn Joo Bae (KOR,12) 19-21 10-21
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) bt (8) Ji Hyun Sung (KOR,11) 21-17 22-20
[R2] (Q) Neha Pandit (IND,128) l Juan Gu (SIN,17) 13-21 10-21

[R2] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR) 21-18 18-21 21-19
[R2] Manish Gupta (IND)/ Gaurav Venkat (IND) l (2) Sung Hyun Ko (KOR)/ Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR) 10-21 9-21
[R2] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Vita Marissa (INA)/ Nadya Melati (INA) 16-21 21-15 21-17

[R2] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Shoji Sato (JPN)/ Shizuka Matsuo (JPN) 12-21 14-21
[R2] Gaurav Venkat (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) l (5) Sudket Prapakamol (THA)/ Saralee Thoungthongkam (THA) 6-21 15-21

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) vs (3) Jin Chen (CHN,4)
[QF] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) vs (4) Yanjiao Jiang (CHN,7)

[QF] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs Bodin Issara (THA)/ Maneepong Jongjit (THA)
[QF] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (3) Miyuki Maeda (JPN)/ Satoko Suetsuna (JPN)

Saina started positively and take 7-3 early lead but Bae kept pressure on Saina and caught with her at 9-all ... After that both players exchanged lead but from 18-19 Bae won next 3 points to won the first game ... Bae started confidently in the second after winning the first ... She take early 5-1 lead and kept increasing ... From 13-9 Bae won next 6 points and take huge 19-9 lead ... After that Saina managed to win only a single point before losing this match in 39 minutes ... This was shocking defeat by Saina against Korean on home court ... Looking at Saina's recent form and confidence it is stupid to believe that she is a medal contender for Olympics.

Ajay Jayaram produced another fighting performance against WR #1 Chong Wei Lee ... In the first game both players were neck to neck ... Ajay was leading 16-14 but then Lee won next 7 points to won the first game ... In the second game Ajay take 14-8 lead from 6-all ... Ajay increased lead to 19-10, after that Lee tried to fight back and reduced lead to 14-19 but Ajay converted 2nd game point and won this game ... In the decider Lee take 4-0 lead which he increased to 9-2 ... Lee continued to dominate in this game and won last 9 points from 12-5 to complete win in 47 minutes.

Boonsak Ponsana take early lead to won the first game ... In the second game Kashyap take control from 9-all to won it comfortably ... Both players were keeping pace with each other ... Boonsak take early 4-1 lead but Kashyap responded winning next 6 points and lead 7-4 but again Boonsak caught with him at 7-all ... This trend continued as whenever one player take couple of points lead then his opponent responded winning next, 10-all, 11-all, 13-all, 15-all, 16-all, 17-all and 18-all ... Boonsak won next 2 points and had couple of match points ... Kashyap saved both and make it 20-all ... Kashyap won next 2 points to completed excellent comeback victory in 63 minutes ... Kashyap need another win to qualify for London Olympics as top Indian men shuttler but he is facing Chinese WR #4 Jin Chen in the quarters ... Tough task for Kashyap.

Sindhu continued with her giant-killing ... She scored another upset win over top-15 player, this time Korean Ji Hyun Sung ... In the first game Sindhu take control from 5-all and she kept increasing her lead ... Sindhu converted her third game point to won this game ... In the second game Sindhu take early 12-5 lead but Sung kept fighting and managed to catch Sindhu at 17-all ... Sindhu kept her cool and converted second match point to score memorable victory in 40 minutes.

Good to see Rupesh and Sanave take advantage of lucky break of getting walkover from top-seed ... In the second round they defeated Korean pair in tight three games and keep their hope alive for Olympics qualification ... Interesting next match between Thai pair and our pair in mens doubles ... Both pairs r trying for Olympics qualification so winner between this match will be favorite for getting that, right now Thai pair is leading the race.

Jwala and Ashwini also keep their hope alive with superb comeback victory over Indonesian pair ... After losing the first game they came back strongly in the match to won next two.

If my calculation is correct then Jwala and Ashwini r qualify for London Olympics women's doubles after reaching in the quarters ... Mostly Jwala will become first Indian badminton player to qualify for two events in the same Olympics ... Jwala and Diju r almost certain to qualify.

Expected losses of Neha, Manish Gupta/ Gaurav Venkat and Tarun Kona/ Ashwini Ponnappa but was hoping better performance from Ashwini and Tarun against Japanese pair.

Tennis News
At $2.7M Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Spain

[R2] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bt Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Andy (ISR) 76(4) 46 10-6

Good to see Mahesh managed to pull win in this tough match with Nenad against very experienced Israeli pairing of Erlich and Ram in super tie-break.
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At 2012 u-16 Asia/Oceania Junior Davis and Fed Cup Final Qualifying, Bendigo, Australia

Junior Davis Cup - Group C
(3) India l (5) China 0-2

R1 - Sahil Deshmukh l Fa-Jing Sun 26 16
R2 - Sumit Nagal l Wei-Qiang Zheng 36 64 16
R3 - Sahil Deshmukh/ Sumit Nagal vs Fa-Jing Sun/ Wei-Qiang Zheng (not played)


Junior Fed Cup - Group A
(1) India bt (7) New Zealand 2-0

R1 - Snehadevi Reddy bt Claudia Williams 75 63
R2 - Rutuja Bhosale bt Paige Hourigan 64 63
R3 - Rutuja Bhosale/ Snehadevi Reddy vs Paige Hourigan/ Claudia Williams (not played)

In girls Snehadevi gave us winning start and Rutuja also scored straight sets victory ... In the quarters they will face host and #3 seed Australia to qualify for world group ... Australia lost against #5 China to finished the second in their Group C.

In boys, Sahil received thumping beating from Chinese and after that Sumit also lost in 3 sets against his Chinese opponent ... So in the quarters India is having big task of defeating #1 seed Korea to qualify for world group.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) l (1) Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR,279) 16 46
[QF] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt (8) Mikhail Vasiliev (RUS,495) 63 64

[SF] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (1) Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR,279)

Really good straight sets win by Vishnu against Vasiliev considering his recent poor form ... This win will give huge confidence to Vishnu for his future matches ... Next he is facing top-seed, who defeated Karan convincingly in other quarter-final.
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

[R2] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) bt Marin Bradaric (CRO,973) W/O
[R2] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708) bt Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1114) 57 63 61
[R2] Rupesh Roy (IND,979) l (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830) 16 36
[R2] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,985) 62 62
[R2] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) 61 64
[R2] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) bt (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) 63 64
[R2] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) l (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) 26 06

[QF] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) vs (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708)
[QF] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) vs (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830)
[QF] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) vs (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,877)
[QF] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) l (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) 46 46

After losing the first set Vijay Sundar made strong comeback to win next 2 sets easily ... Sriram Balaji lost in the quarters against 2nd seed Spanish player.

Tennis News
At 2012 u-16 Asia/Oceania Junior Davis and Fed Cup Final Qualifying, Bendigo, Australia

Junior Davis Cup - Group C
(3) India bt Malaysia 3-0

R1 - Sahil Deshmukh bt Low Kar Win 46 60 62
R2 - Sumit Nagal bt Colin Wong 61 61
R3 - Sumit Nagal/ Fatehdeep Singh bt Ahmad Faez/ Colin Wong 62 62

(3) India vs Hong Kong 1-0
R1 - Sahil Deshmukh bt Chak Pong Lam 63 36 4-3 Retd.
R2 - Sumit Nagal vs Ho Hin Pak
R3 - Sahil Deshmukh/ Sumit Nagal vs Chak Pong Lam/ Ho Hin Pak


Junior Fed Cup - Group A
(1) India bt Philippines 3-0

R1 - Snehadevi Reddy bt Roxanne May Resma 60 63
R2 - Rutuja Bhosale bt Maria Angela Sunga 62 61
R3 - Rutuja Bhosale/ Simran Kaur Sethi bt Katrina Orteza/ Roxanne May Resma 62 61

(1) India bt Vietnam 2-0

R1 - Simran Kaur Sethi bt Pham Thuy Thuong 60 60
R2 - Snehadevi Reddy bt Si Boi Ngoc 60 60
R3 - Rutuja Bhosale/ Simran Kaur Sethi vs Si Boi Ngoc/ Dao Minh Trang

Very dominating start in u-16 Fed cup by our girls ... After winning first match comfortably against Malaysia they r leading 2-0 against Vietnam before rain-break.

In boys Davis cup, as expected Sumit Nagal won his match comfortably but Sahil;s struggle against these lower ranked players is worrisome for India ... Next he will face tougher challenge of Chinese player.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) bt Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,630) 64 64
[R2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ) 61 76(3)

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) vs (1) Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR,279)
[QF] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (8) Mikhail Vasiliev (RUS,495)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Vladyslav Manafov (UKR)/ Yaraslau Shyla (BLR) 16 63 7-10

Karan and Vishnu r in the quarters ... Next they r facing former top-250 players.
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

[R2] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) bt Marin Bradaric (CRO,973) W/O
[R2] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708) vs Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1114)
[R2] Rupesh Roy (IND,979) vs (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830)
[R2] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,985) 62 62
[R2] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) vs Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903)
[R2] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) bt (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) 63 64
[R2] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) vs (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479)

Good to see our 3 players r in the quarters in this rain affected tournament.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) bt Sourabh Varma (IND,41) 21-15 17-21 21-11
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) bt Yuhan Tan (BEL,47) 21-11 21-14
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,42) l (Q) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,51) 21-16 18-21 19-21
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Pui Yin Yip (HKG,19) 21-14 21-6
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) bt Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,13) 21-17 21-19
[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) l (4) Yanjiao Jiang (CHN,6) 9-21 11-21
[R1] (Q) Neha Pandit (IND,128) bt Jing Yi Tee (MAS,63) 21-18 9-21 21-19

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt (1) Jae Sung Jung (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR) w/o
[R1] Bennet Antony (IND)/ Suraj P. H. (IND) l Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR) 17-21 12-21
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l Bodin Issara (THA)/ Maneepong Jongjit (THA) 12-21 11-21
[R1] Mayank Behal (IND)/ Manjush Mohan K. K. (IND) l (3) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN) 9-21 7-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA) 15-21 10-21
[R1] (Q) Gopi Raju G.(IND)/ Shivam Sharma (IND) l V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Khim Wah Lim (MAS) 7-21 15-21
[R1] Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND)/ Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND) l (4) Mohammad Ahsan (INA)/ Bona Septano (INA) 12-21 13-21
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Jishnu Sanyal (IND) l Adam Cwalina (POL)/ Michal Logosz (POL) 13-21 17-21
[R1] Manish Gupta (IND)/ Gaurav Venkat (IND) bt (Q) Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND) 21-14 15-21 21-15
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) l Yixin Bao (CHN)/ Qianxin Zhong (CHN) 13-21 13-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt (7) Lok Yan Poon (HKG)/ Ying Suet Tse (HKG) w/o
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Duanganong Aroonkesorn THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 21-19 11-21 10-21
[R1] Jyotshna P. (IND)/ Thulasi P. C. (IND) l Hye Won Eom (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR) 13-21 4-21

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Muhammad Rijal (INA)/ Debby Susanto (INA) 20-22 21-18 22-20
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Xia Huan (CHN) 18-21 19-21
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN) 21-16 19-21 11-21
[R1] Gaurav Venkat (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) bye
[R1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l (7) Shintaro Ikeda (JPN)/ Reiko Shiota (JPN) 9-21 19-21
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l (3) Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR) 18-21 15-21
[R1] Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND)/ Jyotshna P. (IND) l Hanbin He (CHN)/ Yixin Bao (CHN) 13-21 13-21
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) l Danny Bawa Chrisnanta (SIN)/ Yu Yan Vanessa Neo (SIN) 11-21 21-17 15-21

Really creditable upset win by Neha over Malaysian player .. As expected interesting match between Ajay and Sourabh ... Kashyap also entered into the second round.

Terrific start for Sindhu, who take early 11-5 lead and then from 12-13 she take 17-13 lead which was enough to won the first game ... In the second game both players were exchanging lead till the end ... Sindhu won last 3 points from 18-19 and scripted big win.

Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa scored excellent fighting win over Indonesian pair in well fought match.

Very dominating win by Sania against Pui Yin Yip but sad to see Guru again missed opportunity to win some matches in this Indian super series.

After this loss against unseeded Chinese pair Jwala and Diju will need wild-card for Olympics.

Tennis News
At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Chinese Taipei

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,308) l (6) Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,146) 62 57 60

Marco Chiudinelli didnot give chance to Yuki settled in the match ... He broke Yuki twice in the first set ... In the second set also Marco Chiudinelli take early control breaking Yuki in 1st game and 5th game to lead 4-1 ... But from here Yuki produced excellent fight back ... He broke Marco in 6th and 8th games to make it 4-all and then take crucial break in 12th game for winning the second set ... After Yuki's excellent comeback in the second I was expecting exciting last set but surprisingly Yuki got bagelled in the third set ... Shocking melt-down.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R1] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) bt (Q) Marko Danis (SVK,1148) 57 64 60

[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) vs Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,630)
[R2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ)

Surprisingly tough match for Karan against qualifier.
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At 2012 u-16 Asia/Oceania Junior Davis and Fed Cup Final Qualifying, Bendigo, Australia
Junior Davis Cup - Group C
(3) India - Sumit Nagal, Sahil Deshmukh, Fatehdeep Singh
Vishal Uppal (Captain)
(5) China , Malaysia and Hongkong

Junior Fed Cup - Group A
(1) India - Rutuja Bhosale, Snehadevi Reddy, Simran Kaur Sethi
Sai Jayalakshmy Jayaram (Captain)
(7) New Zeland, Philippines and Vietnam

In boys we r third seeded behind Korea and Japan ... In girls we r top-seeded as Rutuja is only girl in top-100 in this tournament ... Hopefully we will perform as per our high rankings to qualify for Finals.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[Q1] Akshit Mahajan (IND,313) l Vladimir Ivanov (RUS,54) 16-21 14-21
[Q1] Sameer Verma (IND,151) bt Ivan Sozonov (RUS,84) 21-16 21-19
[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,56) bt Nandagopal K. (IND,171) 21-8 21-16
[Q1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,90) l Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (SIN,63) 21-14 24-26 19-21
[Q1] Rohit Yadav (IND,243) bt Vladimir Malkov (RUS,81) 23-21 19-21 21-16
[Q1] Anup Sridhar (IND,100) l Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,49) 18-21 15-21
[Q1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,80) bt Srikanth K. (IND,251) 21-12 21-18
[Q1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) bye
[Q1] Sayali Gokhale (IND,118) l Sabrina Jaquet (SUI,79) 20-22 21-23
[Q1] Thulasi P. C. (IND,86) l Lianne Tan (BEL,51) 17-21 18-21
[Q1] Tanvi Lad (IND,134) l Elizabeth Cann (ENG,50) 20-22 15-21
[Q1] Neha Pandit (IND,128) bt Trupti Murgunde (IND,UNR) 21-11 11-2 Retd
[Q1] Mohita Sahdev (IND,211) bye

[Q2] Sameer Verma (IND,151) l Vladimir Ivanov (RUS,54) 21-17 23-25 14-21
[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,56) l Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,51) 12-21 14-21
[Q2] Rohit Yadav (IND,243) l Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (SIN,63) 13-21 13-21
[Q2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,80) l Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,49) 21-19 19-21 21-23
[Q2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) bt Sabrina Jaquet (SUI,79) 19-21 21-13 21-18
[Q2] Neha Pandit (IND,128) bt Mohita Sahdev (IND,211) 21-17 22-24 21-14

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs Sourabh Varma (IND,41)
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) vs Yuhan Tan (BEL,47)
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,42) vs Qualifier
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Pui Yin Yip (HKG,19)
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) vs Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,13)
[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) vs Jie Yao (NED,18)
[R1] (Q) Neha Pandit (IND,128) vs Jing Yi Tee (MAS,63)

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs (1) Jae Sung Jung (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR)
[R1] Bennet Antony (IND)/ Suraj P. H. (IND) vs Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs Bodin Issara (THA)/ Maneepong Jongjit (THA)
[R1] Mayank Behal (IND)/ Manjush Mohan K. K. (IND) vs (3) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA)
[R1] (Q) Gopi Raju G.(IND)/ Shivam Sharma (IND) vs V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Khim Wah Lim (MAS)
[R1] Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND)/ Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND) vs (4) Mohammad Ahsan (INA)/ Bona Septano (INA)
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Jishnu Sanyal (IND) vs Adam Cwalina (POL)/ Michal Logosz (POL)
[R1] Manish Gupta (IND)/ Gaurav Venkat (IND) vs (Q) Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND)
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) vs Yixin Bao (CHN)/ Qianxin Zhong (CHN)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt (7) Lok Yan Poon (HKG)/ Ying Suet Tse (HKG) W/O
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Duanganong Aroonkesorn THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA)
[R1] Jyotshna P. (IND)/ Thulasi P. C. (IND) vs Hye Won Eom (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Muhammad Rijal (INA)/ Debby Susanto (INA)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Xia Huan (CHN)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN)
[R1] Gaurav Venkat (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) bye
[R1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) vs (7) Shintaro Ikeda (JPN)/ Reiko Shiota (JPN)
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs (3) Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR)
[R1] Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND)/ Jyotshna P. (IND) vs Hanbin He (CHN)/ Yixin Bao (CHN)
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) vs Danny Bawa Chrisnanta (SIN)/ Yu Yan Vanessa Neo (SIN)

As expected big Indian contingent is playing in this Indian Super series ... Good opportunity for our players to earn some important ranking points.

In the first qualifying round Prannoy lost big opportunity of upsetting higher ranked Singaporean ... He wasted 2 match points in the second after winning the first game easily ... Chen converted 4th match point and completed victory after 71 minutes ... Sameer Verma scored convincing upset win over top-100 Russian ... Another surprise winner was Rohit Yadav who also defeated top-100 Russian.

In the final qualifying Anand and Rohit lost easily against their respective opponents ... Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth gave fighting performance against their higher ranked opponents ... Both players wasted 3 match points in their matches ... Sameer had 3 match points in the second game which he failed to convert and Sai Praneeth had 3 match points in the final game when he was leading 20-18 but he also failed to convert.

Arundhati Pantawane qualified for maindraw after comeback win over Swiss girl ... After losing the first game Arundhati dominated to win the second ... In the decider Swiss girl was leading 18-16 but Arundhati won last 5 points in a row to complete the victory ... Neha's win against Mohita was expected but Mohita gave fighting performance in this match and won the second game.

Interesting first round match between Ajay and Sourabh ... Our all Olympics bound doubles pair having tough first round matches.

Tennis News
At $2.7M Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Spain

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bye

Surprised to see this week Mahesh is partnering Nenad ... Mahesh need good result to push his rank inside top-10.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Chinese Taipei

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,308) vs (6) Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,146)

Doubles
[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij SHaran (IND) bt (WC) I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) 64 76(5)

Tough match for Yuki against top-150 Swiss player Chiudinelli.

In doubles Purav and Divij had a winning start against local wild-card pair.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R1] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) vs (Q) Marko Danis (SVK,1148)
[R1] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt (LL) Sardor Pulatov (UZB,1856) 61 61

[R2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Ivan Sergeyev (UKR)/ Mikhail Vasiliev (RUS) 62 46 10-5

[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Vladyslav Manafov (UKR)/ Yaraslau Shyla (BLR)

Winnable first round matches for Karan and Vishnu and as expected Vishnu scored dominating win over local lucky-loser .. Next he is facing qualifier from Kyrgyzstan.

In doubles top-seed Karan and Vishnu needed STB to beat Ukrainian-Russian pair.
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

[R1] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) bt (WC) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1297) 63 63
[R1] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708) bt Marko Rajic (SRB,1320) 62 62
[R1] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt Andre Gaspar Murta (POR,1293) 76(4) 63
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,985) bt (Q) Vignesh Veerabadran (IND,1724) 64 76(3)
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND,979) bt (Q) Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1442) 64 63
[R1] Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1212) l (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830) 26 26
[R1] (Q) Fariz Mohammed (IND,UNR) l Joss Espasandin (SUI,1087) 36 26
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,952) 63 67(3) 63
[R1] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) bt (Q) Peter Goldsteiner (AUT,1293) 36 64 62
[R1] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) bt (Q) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1442) 64 75
[R1] (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) bt Goncalo Pereira (POR,957) 63 62
[R1] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Kunal Anand (IND,1498) 63 64
[R1] (WC) Rishabdev Raman (IND,UNR) l (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) 36 16

Doubles
[R1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Mark Vervoort (NED) l Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA)/ Goncalo Pereira (POR) 67(6) 36
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) vs Vijay Kannan (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND)
[R1] (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt (WC) Rishabdev Raman (IND)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) 61 76(3)
[R1] (WC) Vignesh Veerabadran (IND)/ U M Gugan Verma (IND) l Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL)/ Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL) 36 26
[R1] Abhijeet Tiwari (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND)/ Ronak Manuja (IND) 75 63
[R1] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs Andre Gaspar Murta (POR)/ Matthieu Vierin (ITA)
[R1] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) vs Peter Goldsteiner (AUT)/ Austin Karosi (USA)
[R1] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Rakshay Thakkar (IND) 62 61

Tough draw for Ashwin as he faced top-seed Vijayant and lost easily ... Expected winning start for Sriram Balaji, Jeevan, Balaji, Rupesh, Ranjeet and Vignesh Peranamallur ... Good upset win by Elwin Antony against Kunal.

Good win by Ramkumar over Kaza ... Vivek completed his first round match with a win.

Sad to see top-seed pair of Ramkumar and his Dutch partner lost in the first round.

Table Tennis News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Hong Kong

18-year-old Ankita Das became 1st Indian paddler and the only Indian woman player to book her berth for the London Olympics ... Ankita scored hard fought 4-3 win over her Indian teammate K Shamini.

Soumyajit Ghosh became 2nd Indian paddler  to qualify for the London Olympics ... He defeated his Indian teammate Anthony Amal Raj for the qualification ... Sharath lost to Amal Raj and thus lost the chance to face Soumyajit ... Sharath will now have to come through from the last qualification tournament in Doha (May 10-13) where two slots would be available.

Athletics News

At last Renjith Maheswary qualified for London Olympics with jump of 16.85 meters at Patiala in Fed Cup which is exact the 'B' standard qualification mark for the Olympics ... After his 17,03 meters jump in CWG Renjith is struggling in an international events.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[QF] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) l (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 26 06

Bad day for Lee and Radek, they managed to win only 26 pts in the match and Bryans won 51 pts ... This simply displayed Bryans domination in this 51 minutes match.

In the first set Bryans broke Radek's serve in 6th and Lee's serve in 8th game to won the set ... In the second set Bryans were more dominating and won this set without losing a single game.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) l Takuto Niki (JPN,501) 46 67(5)

Vijayant lost against Japanese giant-killer, who upset top seed, in well fought straight sets.
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 At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[SF] (5) Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB,683) bt (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) 61 75
[SF] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 64 67(3) 06

Doubles Final
(2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) 76(3) 67(5) 10-7

 Ashwin started well breaking Bradaric in 5th game and that single break helped him to won the first set ... In the second set Ashwin missed couple of break points and from tie-break Bradaric was controlling the points ... Ashwin was playing fifth week in a row and that take toll on him ... In the final set he was fighting though cramps and failed to won a single game.

In the doubles Jeevan and Vijay Sundar lifted title after beating Vivek and Rupesh in three tie-breaks.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

Doubles Final
(3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA) 62 64

Kyra with her Russian partner Yana Sizikova lifted doubles title at Oman ITF tournament ... In the final they defeated unseeded pair of Barbara Haas and Laetitia Sarrazin comfortably.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[R2] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Eduardo Schwank (ARG) 63 63

[QF] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Lee and Radek were leading with one set up when rain interrupted ... And won the second set comfortably after rain interruption.
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At $15K Chinese Taipei F2 Futures 2012, Kaohsiung

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) l John Millman (AUS,488) 46 26

Doubles
[QF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) l Mirza Basic (BIH) / Bowen Ouyang (CHN) 46 46

After encouraging yesterday's win over Danish player Yuki lost today against another challenger level player who is coming out of injury.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F1 Futures 2012, Namangan

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) l Ivan Sergeyev (UKR,529) 26 57

Karan lost in the quarters against lower ranked Ukrainian.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) bt (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN,1522) 67(4) 63 62
[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs Takuto Niki (JPN,501)

Another good win for Vijayant against local qualifier ... Next he is facing Japanese Takuto Niki, who upset top-seed in the first round.
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At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[QF] (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) bt Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1141) 63 67(4) 60
[QF] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) l (5) Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB,683) 64 76(4)
[QF] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) bt (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,513) 76(4) 76(2)
[QF] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,699) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 64 62

Doubles
[SF] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB) 60 60
[SF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) 63 64

Surprising win for Ashwin against Jeevan but sad to see Sriram Balaji and Vijay Sundar lost their matches.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

[QF] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) l (5) Lou Brouleau (FRA,599) 61 26 26
[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) l Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA,1143) 36 26

Doubles
[SF] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt (1) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Anna Zaja (GER) 16 75 10-6
[SF] Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA) bt (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) 76(5) 63

Ankita lost in the singles quarters and doubles semis against French girl Laetitia Sarrazin ... Kyra started well against French girl Brouleau but from the second set Brouleau proved better player on the court ... Kyra in the final of doubles with with over top-seed pair.

Badminton News
At $150K Asia Championships 2012, Shandong, China

[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) l (8) Zhengming Wang (CHN,15) 9-21 18-21
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) l Xiao Jia Chen (CHN,40) 13-21 16-21

[R2] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Duanganong Aroonkesorn (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 17-21 12-21
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Sa Rang Kim (KOR)/ Hye In Choi (KOR) 14-21 21-11 17-21
[R2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Wai Hong Wong (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG) 19-21 7-21

Turned to be disastrous day at China as our all players lost their matches ... Only Diju and Jwala managed to take their opponents in the third game ... As expected this new player Xiao Jia Chen proved strong for Saina and so another bad loss for Saina against lower ranked Chinese opponent.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Viktor Troicki (SRB)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 46 46
[R2] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) vs Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Eduardo Schwank (ARG)

Disappointing start of clay season for Mahesh and Rohan.
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At $15K Chinese Taipei F2 Futures 2012, Kaohsiung

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) bt (8) FrederiK Nielsen (DEN,273) 63 64

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) vs John Millman (AUS,488)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) bt I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE) 64 36 13-11

[QF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs Mirza Basic (BIH) / Bowen Ouyang (CHN)

Really good straight sets win by Yuki over very experienced challenger level Danish player FrederiK Nielsen ... Next he is facing Aussie Millman.

In doubles also Yuki had winning start in tight match with Yi.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F1 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R2] (3) (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) l Nikoloz Basilashvili (RUS,588) 57 64 46
[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt Deniss Pavlovs (LAT,624) 63 64

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs Ivan Sergeyev (UKR,529)

Vishnu's struggled against top 600 player continued ... This time also lost against Russian ... Good to see Karan scored impressive win against Pavlovs ... Next he is facing Ukrainian who upset 2nd seed Russian in the second round.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) bt (Q) Yuqing Ning (CHN,1721) 62 64

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN,1522)

Expected easy win for Vijayant against local qualifier ... Next he is facing another Chinese qualifier.
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At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[R2] (LL) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1444) l Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1141) 26 26
[R2] (Q) Fariz Mohammed (IND,UNR) l (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) 36 16
[R2] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) bt (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) 61 61
[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) l (5) Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB,683) 67(2) 57
[R2] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) bt Rupesh Roy (IND,942) 75 3-1 Retd
[R2] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,513) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) 64 63
[R2] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,699) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) 61 62
[R2] (2) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,498) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 36 67(4)

Doubles
[QF] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Mark Vervoort (NED) 63 46 10-6
[QF] Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Chandril Sood (IND) 62 64
[QF] Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 63 36 10-4
[QF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Elwin Antony (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) 63 62

Expected results but surprising loss of Ranjeet ... Ashwin Vijayragavan was in position to scored upset win over Rupesh when Rupesh retired from the match ... Ramkumar gave fighting performance in his loss.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

[R1] Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Fiona Codino (FRA,UNR) 63 62
[R1] Barbara Haas (AUT,917) bt Disha Satish Agarwal (IND,UNR) 60 60
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt (7) Yana Sizikova (RUS,844) 57 60 64

[R2] (6) Anna Zaja (GER,808) bt Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) 60 75
[R2] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND,UNR) 62 63
[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt Jara Ghadri (GER,1234) 75 64

[QF] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) vs (5) Lou Brouleau (FRA,599)
[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) vs Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA,1143)

Doubles
[R1] Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) 62 64

[QF] (1) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Anna Zaja (GER) bt Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND)/ Shweta Rana (IND) 64 63
[QF] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Manya Nagpal (IND) 63 61
[QF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) bt Arantxa Andrady (IND)/ Samantha Koelliker (SUI) W/O

Ankita continued with her last week's form and upset 8th seed Russian in the first round ... She is with Kyra in the quarters.

Badminton News
 At $150K Asia Championships 2012, Shandong, China

[R2] (15) Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) l Nan Wei (HKG,110) 22-24 21-11 15-21
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) bt (11) Wing Ki Wong (HKG,19) 21-19 21-16
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,52) 21-9 21-12

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l (1) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN) 14-21 11-21
[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR) 13-21 14-21
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l (6) Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Kenichi Hayakawa (JPN) 14-21 18-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Vita Marissa (INA)/ Nadya Melati (INA) 21-18 17-21 7-21

[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) bt Kai Hsin Chiang (TPE)/ Pei-Ling Tsai (TPE) 21-13 14-21 21-16
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (Q) Chih Hsun Yang (TPE)/ Tsai Yi Wen (TPE) 16-21 12-21
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA) 21-16 21-18
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN) 15-21 16-21
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) bt Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Kyung Eun Jung (KOR) 21-16 13-21 21-18

[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) vs (8) Zhengming Wang (CHN,15)
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Xiao Jia Chen (CHN,40)

[R2] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Duanganong Aroonkesorn (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA)
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Sa Rang Kim (KOR)/ Hye In Choi (KOR)
[R2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Wai Hong Wong (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG)

Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant started with 3 games win over Taipei pair ... Jwala and Diju also scored straight games win.

Disappointed loss for Rupesh and Sanave and our other two men's pair lost against seeded pairs ... Also shocking loss of Jwala and Ashwini in the first round against Indonesian pair.

Disappointing loss for Ajay but excellent upset win by Sai over top 20 Wong in straight games ... Before this two times Sai lost against same player in straight games so sweet revenge for him.

Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre scored very good win in MXD against Korean pair ... Fought back in the third after losing the second game.

Saina scored very comfortable win over Japanese player but next Saina and Sai r facing local Chinese opponents ... Sai is facing WR #15 Zhengming Wang and Saina is facing WR #40 Xiao Jia Chen.

Badminton News 
At $150K Asia Championships 2012, Shandong, China

[R1] (15) Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) bt Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,35) 21-19 21-19
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,89) l (7) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,10) 6-21 20-22
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,152) l (4) Simon Santoso (INA,9) 19-21 14-21
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) bt Niluka Karunaratne (SRI,51) w/o
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) l (2) Long Chen (CHN,3) 9-21 13-21

[R2] (15) Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) vs Nan Wei (HKG,110)
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) vs (11) Wing Ki Wong (HKG,19)
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,52)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (1) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN)
[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs (6) Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Kenichi Hayakawa (JPN)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Vita Marissa (INA)/ Nadya Melati (INA)
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Kai Hsin Chiang (TPE)/ Pei-Ling Tsai (TPE)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (Q) Chih Hsun Yang (TPE)/ Tsai Yi Wen (TPE)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN)
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Kyung Eun Jung (KOR)

No upsets on the first day ... Our all players lost their matches against higher ranked opponents ... Only Ajay and Sai Praneeth faced lower ranked opponents and they r in the second round.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye
[R1] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) bye

[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Viktor Troicki (SRB)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)

Lee and Radek r in top-draw with Bryans and Mahesh and Rohan r in bottom draw with Mirnyi and Nestor.
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At $15K Chinese Taipei F2 Futures 2012, Kaohsiung

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) vs (8) FrederiK Nielsen (DEN,273)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)

Tough first round match for Yuki but he need to win these matches to push his ranking towards top-250.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F1 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R1] (3) (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) bt Vladimir Ivanov (EST,511) 26 76(3) 63
[R1] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt (Q) Oybek Abdurahimov (UZB,UNR) 60 60

[R2] (3) (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) vs Nikoloz Basilashvili (RUS,588)
[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs Deniss Pavlovs (LAT,624)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Vitali Reshetnikov (RUS)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Vladyslav Klymenko (UKR)/ Artem Smirnov (UKR) 67(5) 62 4-10

Vishnu needed to play qualifying due to late entry ... He comfortably won two qualifying matches and had a tricky first round against Estonian player ... Scored good comeback win after losing the first set ... In the second set also Vishnu needed to win tie-break before winning the third set ... Karan gave double bagel to his unranked opponent.

In doubles top-seed Vishnu and his Russian partner lost in STB against Ukrainian pair.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs (Q) Yuqing Ning (CHN,1721)

Doubles
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Daniel Yoo (KOR) l (2) Takuto Niki (JPN)/ Arata Onozawa (JPN) 75 46 9-11
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At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[R1] (LL) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1444) bt (WC) Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1440) 46 75 61
[R1] (Q) Fariz Mohammed (IND,UNR) bt Marko Rajic (SRB,1321) 76(4) 76(2)
[R1] (WC) Vijay Kannan (IND,1618) l (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) 26 36
[R1] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) bt (Q) Vignesh Veerabadran (IND,1721) 63 64
[R1] (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) bt Joss Espasandin (SUI,1087) 64 63
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) bt Goncalo Pereira (POR,953) 60 64
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND,942) bt (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,824) 76(4) 61
[R1] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) bt (Q) Ronak Manuja (IND,UNR) 63 62
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) bt (WC) Rishabdev Raman (IND,UNR) 75 64
[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,513) bt (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) 63 64
[R1] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,699) bt (Q) Kunal Anand (IND,1496) 63 60
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1208) 36 63 63
[R1] (Q) Tejas Chaukulkar (IND,UNR) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 26 36
[R1] (2) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,498) bt (Q) Andre Gaspar Murta (POR,1294) 62 61

Doubles
[R1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Mark Vervoort (NED) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) 67(4) 63 11-9
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL)/ Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL) 64 63
[R1] (3) Vijay Kannan (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) l Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB) 64 61 5-10
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Chandril Sood (IND) bt Rakshay Thakkar (IND)/ Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 76(4) 63
[R1] Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt Joss Espasandin (SUI)/ Goncalo Pereira (POR) 76(1) 67(5) 10-5
[R1] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA)/ Matthieu Vierin (ITA) 63 62
[R1] Elwin Antony (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) bt Andre Gaspar Murta (POR)/ Bruno Pedrosa (POR) 63 63
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Rishabdev Raman (IND)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) 61 57 12-10

Fariz Mohammed earned his first ATP point with upset win over Serbian ... Rakshay take advantage of receiving lucky loser spot instead of top-seed Chilean and defeated Elangovan to earned important ranking point ... Vivek Shokeen scored upset win over higher ranked Swiss player ... Rupesh also scored upset win over 7th seed Belgian player ... All other wins were expected.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

[R1] Arantxa Andrady (IND,UNR) l Alina Mikheeva (RUS,UNR) 46 46
[R1] Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) vs (WC) Fiona Codino (FRA,UNR)
[R1] Manya Nagpal (IND,UNR) l (3) Julia Samuseva (RUS,660) 16 16
[R1] Vijayalakshmi R (IND,UNR) l Ushna Suhail (PAK,UNR) 06 26
[R1] Disha Satish Agarwal (IND,UNR) vs Barbara Haas (AUT,917)
[R1] Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND,UNR) bt Ekaterina Pushkareva (RUS,1161) 75 57 63
[R1] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt Robyn Beddow (GBR,979) 60 61
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) vs (7) Yana Sizikova (RUS,844)
[R1] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) l Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA,UNR) 36 63 06

[R2] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) vs Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND)/ Shweta Rana (IND) bt Jara Ghadri (GER)/ Jasmin Ladurner (ITA) 46 6-5 Retd.
[R1] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt Tyra Kotuwattegedera (SUI)/ Alina Mikheeva (RUS) 64 60
[R1] Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Manya Nagpal (IND) bt Robyn Beddow (GBR)/ Rika Yamamoto (JPN) 60 76(6)
[R1] Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) vs Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA)
[R1] Arantxa Andrady (IND)/ Samantha Koelliker (SUI) bt Disha Satish Agarwal (IND)/ Vijayalakshmi R (IND) 60 61
[R1] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) bye

[QF] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND)/ Shweta Rana (IND) vs (1) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Anna Zaja (GER)
[QF] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) vs Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Manya Nagpal (IND)
[QF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) vs Arantxa Andrady (IND)/ Samantha Koelliker (SUI)

Expected winning start for Kyra Shroff ... Ashmitha Easwaramurthi also scored very good fighting upset win over Russian girl.

Tennis News
At $10K UAE ITF Tournament, Fujairah

[F] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) l (2) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA,605) 36 26

Doubles
[F] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) l (4) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS)/ Anna ZAJA (GER) 46 16

Ankita lost in the final against 2nd seed Oman girl Fatma Al Nabhani but still creditable performance from her to reached in the final ... In doubles final Kyra and Fatma lost against 4th seed pair.

Tennis News
At $10K UAE ITF Tournament, Fujairah

[SF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt Haas Barbara (AUT,917) 63 26 63

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) 76(8) 63
[QF] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) l Matilda Hamlin (SWE,872) 26 26

[R2] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Smriti Joon (IND,UNR) 60 62
[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt (8) Anna Tyulpa (RUS,748) 64 62
[R2] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS,866) 63 61

[R1] (Q) Smriti Joon (IND,UNR) bt (LL) Sofia Sabljarevic (SRB,UNR) 75 62
[R1] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) 46 62 62
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt (Q) Alina Mikheeva (RUS,UNR) 62 60
[R1] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt (Q) Samantha Koelliker (SUI,UNR) 63 63
[R1] (Q) Disha Satish Agarwal (IND,UNR) l Anastasia Rudakova (RUS,1014) 06 06
[R1] (Q) Arantxa Andrady (IND,UNR) l (2) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA,605) 26 16

Doubles
[F] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) vs (4) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS)/ Anna ZAJA (GER)

[SF] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) bt (3) Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) 63 62

[QF] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) bt Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND)/ Ushna SUHAIL (PAK) 61 61
[QF] (3) Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) bt Samantha KOELLIKER (SUI)/ Katie RUCKERT (USA) 76(7) 67(4) 10-7

[R1] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) bye
[R1] Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND)/ Ushna SUHAIL (PAK) bt Tyra KOTUWATTEGEDERA (SUI)/ Sofia SABLJAREVIC (SRB) 62 76(3)
[R1] (3) Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) bt Shweta RANA (IND)/ Rika YAMAMOTO (JPN) 61 64
[R1] Barbara HAAS (AUT)/ Laetitia SARRAZIN (FRA) bt Arantxa ANDRADY (IND)/ Robyn BEDDOW (GBR) 61 63

Impressive run by Ankita Raina to reach in her first final of $10K ITF tournament at UAE ... Ankita scored some impressive wins over foreign players ... In the semi-final she scored 3 sets win over talented 16 yrs old Austrian girl Haas Barbara.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Bantamweight (56 kg) - Final
Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Wessam Salamana (SYR) 18-11

Light Heavyweight (81 kg) - Final
Sumit Sangwan (IND) bt Djakhon Kurbanov(TJK) 14-9

Shiva ended his impressive run at Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament with winning Gold beating Syria's Asian Games bronze medallist Wessam Salamana in the final ... In the first round both boxers started cautiously still Shiva won this round 5-4 ... Shiva continued with his good performance and won the second round 5-3 ... In the final round he dominated Salamana to win this round 8-4.

Sumit also won Gold beating Tajikistan's Asian Games winner Djakhon Kurbanov ... In the first round both boxers applied defensive tactics still Sumit won this round 2-1 ... Both boxers played cautiously, Sumit warned by referee for his defensive tactics ... This round ended with 5-all so Sumit was still leading by a single point after the second round, 7-6 ... In the third round Kurbanov received warning by referee ... Surprised by boring bout from Tajikistan's Djakhon Kurbanov ... In the third round Sumit scored more points and won it 7-3 to completed the victory.

Creditable performance from our young boxers Shiva and Sumit to win the gold in this Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament ... So 2 golds from 2 finals for us.

Tennis News
At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) l Alexey Kedryuk (KAZ,753) 67(3) 26

Karan lost against Alexey Kedryuk in the straight sets ... In the first set Karan take Alexey in tie-break but after that Alexey proved strong for him ... Though Kedryuk was very experienced but still these singles losses r not giving positive indication about Karan's singles career.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R2] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) l (1) Christopher Rungkat (INA,411) 26 06
[R2] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) l (Q) Dominik Schulz (GER,1496) 46 67(6)

Rohan's poor form in the singles continued in Vietnam also.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) l (3) Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Nicolas Renavand (FRA) 67(5) 46

Expected tough match but Divij and Lauren lost in straight sets after giving fighting performance.
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At $15K China F5 Futures, Chengdu

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) l Daniel Yoo (KOR,531) 46 67(2)

Vijayant failed to overcome challenge of experienced Korean ... Though he gave fight but lost in the straight sets.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Bantamweight - 56 kg
[SF] Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Satoshi Shimizu (JPN) 31-17

[F] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs Wessam Salamana (SYR)

Middleweight - 75 kg
[SF] Vijender Singh (IND) l Nursahat Pazziyev (TKM) 7-10

Light Heavyweight - 81 kg
[SF] Sumit Sangwan (IND) bt Ihab Almatdault (JOR) 24-12

[F] Sumit Sangwan (IND) vs Djakhon Kurbanov(TJK)

Heavyweight - 91 kg
[SF] Manpreet Singh (IND) l Ali Mazaheri (IRI) 6-13

Super Heavyweight - +91 kg
[SF] Paramjeet Samota (IND) l Soumar Ghosoun (SYR) 12-23

18 yrs old Shiva Thapa become 6th boxer to qualify for London Olympic and also become youngest Indian boxer to qualify for Olympic ... He defeated experienced Japanese boxer in very convincing fashion ... After first round Shiva was 6-7 down but he take control from the second ... Showing tremendous attacking skill he won the second round 15-6 to take lead 21-13 ... In the third round also he dominated and won it 10-4 to complete very creditable win ... In the final he is facing another experienced boxer Syria's Asian Games bronze medallist Wessam Salamana.

Another young boxer 18 yrs old Sumit Sangwan qualify for London Olympic becoming 7th boxer ... Sumit defeated Jordan boxer Ahmad Suleiman Al-Teimat, who trained at Cuba, 24-12 ... Sumit won all three rounds ... He won the first round 5-3 but won convincingly in the second round 11-4 and then in the third also he controlled to win it 8-5 ... In the final he is facing Tajikistan's Asian Games winner Djakhon Kurbanov.

Disappointed loss for Vijender against Turkmenistan's Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist Nursahat Pazziyev ... All three rounds won by young Turkmenistan's boxer by a single point, 3-2, 3-2 and 4-3 ... Expected gold from Vijender.

Iranian multiple Asian champion Ali Mazaheri proved strong for Manpreet Singh ... With this loss Manpreet's dream of qualifying for Olympic is broken ... After the first round Manpreet was leading 3-2 but after that Ali Mazaheri didn't give any chance to him ... Ali won next two rounds 5-2 and 6-1 to move into the final.

Syria's Asian Championships silver medallist Sumar Ghossoun proved too strong for Paramjeet Samota ... Ghossoun won all three rounds, 6-3, 10-4 and 7-5.

So after this Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament our total seven boxers are qualified for London Olympics ... This is our biggest contingent for boxing ... Really creditable performance.

London Olympic Qualifiers - Boxing

Men's Light Flyweight (49 kg) - Devendro Singh
Men's Bantamweight (56 kg) - Shiva Thapa
Men's Lightweight (60 kg) - Jai Bhagwan
Men's Light Welterweight (64 kg) - Manoj Kumar
Men's Welterweight (69 kg) - Vikas Krishan Yadav
Men's Middleweight (75 kg) - Vijender Singh
Men's Light Heavyweight (81 kg) - Sumit Sangwan

Tennis News
At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[R2] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ,1472) 61 57 62

[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs Alexey Kedryuk (KAZ,753)

Surprisingly three setters for Karan against qualifier ... Next he is facing very experienced and former top 275 ranked local player Alexey Kedryuk ... With Karan's current form this is tough one.
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At $10K Qatar F1 futures 2012, Doha

[R2] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1797) l (6) Cristian RODRIGUEZ (COL,781) 26 06

6th seed Colombian proved too strong for Ashwin.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[QF] (3) N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Rohan Gajjar (IND) l Constantin Belot (FRA)/ Kevin Botti (FRA) 76(3) 36 6-10

Balaji and Gajjar lost their doubles match against unseeded French pair in STB.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers

[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) bt Laurynas Grigelis (LTU)/ Giuseppe Menga (ITA) 76(3) 76(4)

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) vs (3) Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Nicolas Renavand (FRA)

Divij and Lauren won their quarter-final in two tight tie-breaks ... Next they r facing 3rd seed French pair, in this very experienced and former top-40 singles and doubles player Marc Gicquel is playing.
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At $15K China F5 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) bt Yan Bai (CHN,892) 67(5) 6-5 Retd.

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs Daniel Yoo (KOR,531)

As expected tough match for Vijayant ... He lost the first set in tie-break and keep fighting in the second ... His Chinese opponent retired from the match in 12th game of the second set ... Next Vijayant is facing another experienced player, Korean Daniel Yoo, who was top-350 in 2011.

Tennis News
At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt (WC) Kairat Kosherov (KAZ,1717) 61 60

[R2] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ,1472)
Expected comfortable winning start for Karan.
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At $10K Qatar F1 futures 2012, Doha

[R1] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1797) bt Alexander LAZOV (BUL,1267) 75 46 76(6)

Doubles
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) l Alexei FILENKOV (RUS)/ Denys MYLOKOSTOV (UKR) 46 46

Ashwin scored superb comeback win in the singles ... After winning the first set Aswin was up with break at 3-2 but lost his serve twice to lose the second set ... In the third he was 0-3 then 1-4 down but fought back and won tight tie-break to earned another ranking point. Last couple of weeks hot pair lost in the first round.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) l (6) Kittipong Wachiramamowong (THA,566) 67(2) 36
[R1] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) bt (WC) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,UNR) 75 62

[R2] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) vs (1) Christopher Rungkat (INA,411)
[R2] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) vs (Q) Dominik Schulz (GER,1496)

So only Rohan and Kaza managed to win their first round in the singles.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND,779) l (5) (WC) Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy (FRA,225) 26 26

Doubles
[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) vs Laurynas Grigelis (LTU)/ Giuseppe Menga (ITA)

Lost easily against Frenchman.
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At $15K China F5 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs Yan Bai (CHN,892)

Tough match for Vijayant against local player, who was top 350 in 2011.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Bantamweight - 56 kg
[QF] Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Worapoj Petchkoom (THA) 16-10

[SF] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs Satoshi Shimizu (JPN)

Young Shiva Thapa scored another exciting win over experienced Thai boxer Worapoj Petchkoom, who was Athens Olympic Games silver medallist ... Shiva is a one win away from qualifying for London Olympic.

Shiva won first 2 rounds 5-3 and 7-2 to opened 7 points lead ... This lead was enough though Worapoj Petchkoom tried fightback in the third round but managed to win round by a single point, 5-4 ... In the semis he is facing another experienced boxer, Japanese Satoshi Shimizu.

Tennis News

After latest rankings update chances r high that Indian top singles player will be out top 200 in few weeks ... Somdev is still out due to shoulder injury and his rank is tumbling down to #197 ... Sania's single rank is also come down to #182 though she still hold top 10 position in women's doubles, #9.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs (WC) Kairat Kosherov (KAZ,1717)

This week Karan is top-seed but he need title win to improve his confidence.
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At $10K Qatar F1 futures 2012, Doha

[R1] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1797) vs Alexander LAZOV (BUL,1267)

Doubles
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) vs Alexei FILENKOV (RUS)/ Denys MYLOKOSTOV (UKR)

Ashwin continued with his good form and qualify for main-draw at Qatar.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) bt (Q) De-Long Zhu (CHN,1512) 67(5) 64 62
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) vs (6) Kittipong Wachiramamowong (THA,566)
[R1] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) vs (WC) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,UNR)
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) l Constantin Belot (FRA,693) 36 36

Doubles
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) l (1) Dane Propoggia (AUS)/ Jose Statham (NZL) 16 26
[R1] (3) N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Rohan Gajjar (IND) bt (WC) Mach Dan Huynh Ho (VIE)/ Nam Hoang Ly (VIE) 63 63

[QF] (3) N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Rohan Gajjar (IND) vs Constantin Belot (FRA)/ Kevin Botti (FRA)

Kaza started with win over Chinese qualifier but Sriram Balaji lost against similar ranked French player ... Sriram Balaji need to win these matches to move in the ranking.

In doubles Sriram Balaji and Rohan had a winning start.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND,779) vs (5) (WC) Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy (FRA,225)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) bye

Divij is playing futures in France but having tough match in the singles against local top-225 player ... In doubles he recieve bye in the first round with his French partner Rochette.