Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Men's Doubles
[R2] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)/ Joao Souza (BRA) 75 76(3)

[R3] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Jesse Levine (USA)/ Marinko Matosevic (AUS)

Boys Singles
[Q1] Sumit Nagal (IND,119) bt (6) Austin Siegel (USA,79) 64 62

[Q2] Sumit Nagal (IND,119) vs (11) Hugo Cesar Dojas (BRA,92)

Girls Singles
[Q1] Lavanya Khanuja (IND,UNR) l Marika Akkerman (CAN,213) 06 16
[Q1] (14) Kanika Vaidya (IND,132) l Louisa Chirico (USA,332) 26 26

15 yrs old Sumit Nagal started with upset win over 6th seed American in the straight sets in the first qualifying round ... In the final qualifying round he is facing 11th seed Brazilian.

Unseeded Brazilian pair stretched Leander and Radek in the second round match though our pair won it in straight sets ... In the first set crucial break came on Brazilian serve in 12th game and the second set went to tie-break where our pair won it convincingly ... Next they r facing American-Aussie pairing Jesse Levine and Marinko Matosevic, who upset 11th seed and current Wimbledon champion pair in the second round.

Chess News
At 40th World Chess Olympiad 2012, Istanbul, Turkey

Men's Round 4
(13) India dw (5) USA 2-2

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND,2707) l GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2778) 0-1 (B)
GM Pentala Harikrishna (IND,2685) bt GM Gata Kamsky (USA,2746) 1-0 (W)
GM Parimarjan Negi (IND,2664) dw GM Alexander Onishuk (USA,2666) ½-½ (B)
GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND,2637) dw GM Varuzhan Akobian (USA,2617 ½-½ (W)

Women's Round 4
(6) India dw (19) Serbia 2-2

GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) dw IM Natasa Bojkovic (SRB,2392) ½-½ (W)
IM Eesha Sanjay Karavade (IND,2371) l WGM Maria Manakova (SRB,2304) 0-1 (B)
IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) bt WIM Marija Rakic (SRB,2300) 1-0 (W)
WGM Mary Ann Gomes (IND,2396) dw WGM Ana Benderac (SRB,2266) ½-½ (B)

Indian men performed really well to hold tough USA ... Hikaru defeated Sasi in 39 moves on top board but Hari responded beating experienced and higher rated Gata Kamsky in 41 moves ... On last two boards matches ended in draw in contrasting style ... So after 4 rounds our men team is on 11th position.

In women's match on 3rd board Tania defeated Marija Rakic in 48 moves to give lead to India ... Ana Benderac hold Mary Gomes on the last board ... But on 2nd board Maria Manakova scored upset win over Eesha in 64 moves ... On the first board Harika was in trouble in the late but she survived marathon match which ended in a draw after 108 moves ... After 4 rounds our women team is on 9th position.

Football News
At Nehru Cup 2012, New Delhi

Group Stage
India l Cameroon 0-1
Goal Scored - Samuel Bitte (CAM) 2'

Cameroon take early lead through Samuel Bitte ... Syed Nabi allegedly brings down Eloundou inside the penalty box and Cameroon received penalty but Ibanga Bertin missed giving easy save to our goalkeeper Karanjit Singh ... Cameroon kept that one goal advantage to completed the victory and psychological advantage before the final.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Women's Doubles
[R1] (13) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Alberta Brianti (ITA)/ Sorana Cirstea (ROU) 61 61

[R2] (13) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Darija Jurak (CRO)/ Katalin Marosi (HUN)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (6) Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Samantha Crawford (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA) 62 64

Very comfortable winning start for Sania and Bethanie, who lost only two games in the match ... After disappointing result in men's doubles Mahesh had a winning start with his new Czech partner in the mixed doubles.
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At $50K Bangkok-1 Challenger, Thailand

[QF] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt (WC) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Kittipong Wachiramanowong (THA) 75 64

[SF] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Dudi Sela (ISR) / Harol Srugo (ISR)

Vishnu and Divij entered with straight sets win over local pair ... In the semis they r facing Israeli pair.
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At $15K Iran F1 Futures, Esfahan (clay)

[SF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) bt (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) 62 64
[SF] (6) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) bt (7) Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,643) 75 64

Doubles Final
(2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) l (1) Roman Jebavy (CZE)/ Michal Schmid (CZE) 46 46

So Bala and Vijay Sundar scored straights sets victory to enter in the final ... This must be first singles final between Indians outside India and that's also on clay.

In doubles top-seed Czech pair proved strong for Bala and Ranjeet.

At 40th World Chess Olympiad 2012, Istanbul, Turkey

Men's Round 3
(13) India bt (28) Slovenia 3-1

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND, 2707) dw GM Luka Lenic (SLO,2640) ½-½ (B)
GM P. Harikrishna (IND,2685) bt GM Alexander Beliavsky (SLO,2609) 1-0 (W)
GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND,2637) bt GM Matej Sebenik (SLO,2552) 1-0 (B)
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal (IND,2550) dw GM Jure Skoberne (SLO,2552) ½-½ (W)

Women's Round 2
(6) India bt (8) Armenia 2½-1½

GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) dw GM Elina Danielian (ARM,2476) ½-½ (B)
IM Eesha Karavade (IND,2371) dw IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM,2454) ½-½ (W)
IM Tania Sachdev (2379) bt IM Lilit Galojan (ARM,2349) 1-0 (B)
WGM Mary Ann Gomes (ARM,2396) dw WGM Maria Kursova (ARM,2338) ½-½ (W)

Sasikiran managed only draw with black but Abhijeet and Hari scored wins in their matches ... GN Gopal also hold higher rated Skoberne ... With this win we r still in top 10.

Our women side scored good win against 8th seed Armenian ... Tania Sachdev scored only important with black and Eesha Karavade hold higher rated Mkrtchian in their match ... Our women team is also remain in top 10 after three rounds.

Tennis News
At Davis cup 2012 - Asia/Oceania Group I, Chandigarh, India

Team - Vishnu Vardhan, Yuki Bhambri, Sanam Singh and Saketh Myneni
Reserved - Divij Sharan and N. Sri Ram Balaji
Davis cup captain - S.P Misra

Though I m happy that AITA decided to choose young players as in preparation of building strong junior team still I m not happy with omission of Divij Sharan from the team ... He was only true doubles specialist from short-listed six players ... It would be better if they selected Divij in place of Saketh in the team ... Otherwise expected selection for this Davis cup tie.
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At $15K Iran F1 Futures, Esfahan (clay)

[R2] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) bt (Q) Rouzbeh Kamran (IRI,UNR) 62 75
[R2] (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) bt Chandril Sood (IND,1474) 62 46 62
[R2] Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) l (7) Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,643) 36 26
[R2] (6) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) bt Anoosha Shahgholi (IRI,1741) 62 16 64
[R2] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,393) bt Kunal Anand (IND,1373) 60 75

[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) bt (8) Marc Abodulnour (SYR,1257) 62 61
[QF] (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) bt Amirvala Madanchi (IRI,UNR) 63 75
[QF] (6) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) bt (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,393) 36 75 61

Doubles
[QF] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Mohammed Mohazebnia (IRI) l (1) Roman Jebavy (CZE)/ Michal Schmid (CZE) 36 67(5)
[QF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND) bt Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) 62 64
[QF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) bt Shahin Khaledan (IRI)/ Farshad Talavar (IRI) 64 76(5)

[SF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) bt (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND) 76(2) 61

Good to see our three players in the singles semis ... Sriram Balaji performing like top-seed ... Also happy to see Ranjeet is performing as per his ranking ... Vijay Sundar scored upset win over 2nd seed Jeevan.

In the doubles our 2nd seed pair Balaji and Ranjeet r in the final ... Next they r facing top-seed Czech pair.
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At $10K Poland F6 Futures, Legnica

[QF] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) l (3) Adam Pavlasek (CZE,546) 26 26

Young 17 yrs in-form Polish player proved too strong for Prajnesh but still creditable performance by him to reach in the quarters as an qualifier and that's also on clay.

Chess News
At 40th World Chess Olympiad 2012, Istanbul, Turkey

Men's Round 2
(13) India bt (72) Turkey 2016 3-1

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND,2707) bt IM Burak Firat (TUR16,2423) 1-0 (W)
GM Parimarjan Negi (IND,2664) dw FM Cemil Can Ali Marandi (TUR16,2362) ½-½ (B)
GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND,2637) bt FM Vahap Sanal (TUR16,2387) 1-0 (W)
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal (IND,2550) dw FM Muhammed Batuhan Dastan (TUR16,2317) ½-½ (B)

Women's Round 2
(6) India bt (50) Australia 3½-½

IM Eesha Karavade (IND,2371) bt WIM Arianne Caoili (AUS,2204) 1-0 (W)
IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) bt Sally Yu (AUS,1990) 1-0 (B)
WGM Mary Ann Gomes (IND,2396) bt IM Duc Hoa Nguyen (AUS,2505) 1-0 (W)
WGM Swaminathan Soumya (IND,2271) dw Biljana Novakovic-Dekic (AUS,2104) ½-½ (B)

Our both teams loses unnecessary 1 and ½ point respectively against lowly rated Turkey 2016 men's team and Australia women's team ... We need to avoid such slip-up to finish inside top 10.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Men's Doubles
[R2] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Dustin Brown (GER)/ Christopher Kas (GER) 63 63
[R1] (8) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Bernard Tomic (AUS) 36 67(4)

[R2] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)/ Joao Souza (BRA)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) bt Andrea Petkovic (GER)/ Eric Butorac (USA) 62 76(5)

Lee and Radek started with comfortable straight sets win over German pair ... Next they r facing Brazilian pair.

But Rohan and Mahesh lost in the straight sets against young Aussie opponents ... After losing the first set our pair stretched Aussies to tie-break but failed to win it ... I m wondering may be this was Mahesh's last match in US open men's doubles.

Sania had a winning start in MXD with her new British partner Colin Fleming ...
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At $35K+H Como Challenger, Italy

[R1] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) l Andrei Daescu (ROU)/ Adam Hubble (AUS) 64 26 7-10

Both pairs traded early breaks in the first set ... Purav and Adil take crucial break in 9th game and win the set after holding their serve ... Daescu and Hubble take control from the second set and won it comfortably with double break ... They controlled the match tie-break and converted second match point to score upset win.
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At $10K Poland F6 Futures, Legnica

[R2] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) bt (3) Adrian Sikora (SVK,482) 62 46 61

[QF] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) vs (3) Adam Pavlasek (CZE,546)

Prajnesh scored big upset win over 3rd seed Slovak Sikora in 3 sets ... After winning the first set Prajnesh was up with break but Sikora fought back and won it but in the decider Sikora was tired and Prajnesh take advantage to complete victory ... His first win against top-500 player ... Next he is facing 17 yrs old 5th seed Czech player.

Chess News
At 40th World Chess Olympiad 2012, Istanbul, Turkey

Men's Round 1
(90) Wales l (13) India 0-4

IM Richard Jones (WAL,2393) l GM Pentala Harikrishna (IND,2685) 0-1
Tim Kett (WAL,2237) l GM Parimarjan Negi (IND,2664) 0-1
Richard Dineley (WAL,2259) l GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND,2637) 0-1
CM Iolo Jones (WAL,2243) l GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal (IND,2650) 0-1

Women's Round 1
(68) [Former Yugoslav Republic of] FYR Macedonia l (6) India 0-4

Bojana Bejatovic (MKD,1978) l GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) 0-1
Monika Stojkovska (MKD,1939) l IM Eesha Sanjay Karavade (IND,2371) 0-1
Dragana Nikolovska (MKD,1828) l IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) 0-1
Simona Lakinska (MKD,1655) l WGM Swaminathan Soumya (IND,2271) 0-1

Our both teams started with expected , 0-4, dominating win against lowly rated opponents ... In the second round our men's team is facing young Turkish side, Turkey 2016 and women's side is facing Australia.

Football News
At Nehru Cup 2012, New Delhi

Group Stage
India dw Nepal 0-0

We managed only draw in this boring match ... Nepal adjusted lot better to wet and rainy condition than us ... Now we need to perform lot better against Cameroon for qualifying for the final.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,473) l Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP,94) 36 26 63 46

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (6) Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Samantha Crawford (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA)
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) vs Andrea Petkovic (GER)/ Eric Butorac (USA)
[R1] (3) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Kristina Mladenovic (FRA)/ Michael Llodra (FRA)
[R1] Jie Zheng (CHN)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)

Sommy started with breaking Ruben's serve in 1st game but then lost his serve in 2nd and 4th games to 1-4 down ... After that both players hold their respective serves so Ruben won the first set with a single break advantage ... In the second set Ruben broke Sommy in 3rd and 7th games to win it comfortably ... In the third set after saving break point on his serve in 1st game Sommy broke Ruben in 4th game to lead 4-1 ... And then hold his serves to win this set ... In the fourth set Ruben broke Sommy in 4th game and take 1-3 lead ... Sommy immediately broke back to make it 2-3 ... Ruben again broke Sommy in 8th game to lead 3-5 but Sommy again immediately broke him when he was serving for the set, 4-5 ... But while serving for the staying in the set Sommy failed to hold and lost the match ... In the third and fourth sets Sommy showed glimpse of his old game so we can say his game is coming back ... He failed to generate speed on his serve giving indication that he still need to recover full strength in his shoulder.

Mixed doubles draw is out ... This time surprisingly Sania and Mahesh r not playing together but both r having decent partners in Czech Andrea Hlavackova and British Colin Fleming.
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At $50K Bangkok-1 Challenger, Thailand

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,263) l Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,343) 67(7) 67(2)

This match was consider as match of missed opportunities ... Vishnu had numerous break point chances which he failed to convert and also didn't take advantage of early mini-break in the first set tie-break.
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At $15K Iran F1 Futures, Esfahan (clay)

[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) bt (Q) Shoah Rotagh (IRI,UNR) 60 60
[R1] (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) bt Shahin Khaledan (IRI,1288) 64 64
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND,1474) bt (Q) Mohamadreza Kazemi (IRI,UNR) 61 61
[R1] Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) bt Jamshid Ilmuradov (TKM,UNR) 61 64
[R1] (6) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) bt Mo Niaki (CAN,1377) 36 76(6) 62
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,1373) bt (WC) Hamid Reza Nadaf (IRI,UNR) 76(2) 75
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,393) bt (Q) Mohammed Mohazebina (IRI,UNR) 62 62

[R2] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) vs (Q) Rouzbeh Kamran (IRI,UNR)
[R2] (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) vs Chandril Sood (IND,1474)
[R2] Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) vs (7) Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,643)
[R2] (6) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) vs Anoosha Shahgholi (IRI,1741)
[R2] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,393) vs Kunal Anand (IND,1373)

Doubles
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Mohammed Mohazebnia (IRI) bt Alborz Akhavan Roufigar (IRI)/ Mohsen Hossein Zade (IRI) 26 62 10-6
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) bt Hamidreza Aleyasin (IRI)/ Anoosha Shahgholi (IRI) 63 06 10-6
[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND) bt (WC) Salar Saraydarpour (USA)/ Eric Vehovec (CAN) 63 60
[R1] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) bt Sarvar Ikramov (UZB)/ Sergey Shipilov (UZB) 76(4) 63

[QF] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Mohammed Mohazebnia (IRI) vs (1) Roman Jebavy (CZE)/ Michal Schmid (CZE)
[QF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND) vs Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND)
[QF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) vs Shahin Khaledan (IRI)/ Farshad Talavar (IRI)

Good to see Sood brothers take advantage of weaker opponents ... Surprisingly Vijay Sundar stretched by Canadian but Ranjeet and Jeevan scored comfortable win ... Balaji scored very dominating win without losing a single game.

In doubles also our pairs started with win.
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At $10K Poland F6 Futures, Legnica

[Q1] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) bt Pavel Kuzin (UKR,UNR) 60 60
[Q2] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) bt Rafal Charkiewicz (POL,UNR) 61 75

[R1] (Q) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) bt (Q) Adam Majchrowicz (POL,1474) 64 64

[R2] (Q) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,1537) vs (3) Adrian Sikora (SVK,482)

Happy to see our players r playing in tougher conditions ... Previous two weeks Prajnesh Gunneswaran qualified winning 3 matches and won a round each in the main draw of 15K futures in Poland ... This week also Prajnesh qualified and won the first round ... Next he is facing 3rd seed Slovak Sikora.

Snooker News
At European Tour Event One, Stadthalle, Fürth, Germany (Players Tour Championship)

[R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Martin O'Donnell (ENG,81) 4-0
[R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) l Rory McLeod (ENG,33) 2-4

[R2] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Ian Burns (ENG,79) 4-1
[R3] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt John Higgins (SCO,4) 4-1
[R4] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Mark King (ENG,26) 4-3
[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Ryan Day (WAL,25) 4-1

[SF] Pankaj Advani (IND) l Mark Selby (ENG,1) 2-4

I was totally forgot that this year Pankaj and Aditya r playing on professional tour as Asian Snooker Championship finalists ... Pankaj bacame the first Indian player ever to reach a semi-final of a professional snooker tournament ... He lost against WR #1 Mark Selby in the semis but before that he defeated former WR #1 John Higgins in the third round.
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At International Championship Qualifiers, Sheffield, England

[Q-R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Craig Steadman (ENG,83) 6-1
[Q-R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Michael Leslie (SCO,92) 6-3

[Q-R2] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Steve Davis (ENG,50) 6-5
[Q-R2] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Mike Dunn (ENG,54) 6-3

[Q-R3] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Alan McManus (SCO,47) 6-3
[Q-R3] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Jimmy White (ENG,48) 6-5

[Q-R4] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) bt Michael Holt (ENG,31) 6-4
[Q-R4] Aditya Mehta (IND,72) bt Jamie Cope (ENG,25) 6-4

Pankaj and Aditya participated in International Championship qualifying tournament at Sheffield, England ... Both won their 4 matches to qualify for the International Championship, which will play from October 28 to November 4 in Chengdu, China ... This is new ranking event with the highest prize money ever at a tournament in China, the winner to receive £125,000.

While qualifying our both players defeated legendary players ... Pankaj defeated Steve Davis (former WR #1 and 6 time World Champion) and Aditya also defeated Jimmy White (former WR #2 and 6 time World Championship finalist)

Hockey News
At Champions Trophy, Australia

Pool A
Germany, England, New Zealand and India

Pool A

Australia, The Netherlands, Belgium and Pakistan

Match Schedules

Saturday 1 December
1 A 10:30 Germany v New Zealand
2 A 12:30 England v India
3 B 14:30 Australia v Belgium
4 B 16:30 Netherlands v Pakistan

Sunday 2 December
5 A 10:30 England v Germany
6 A 12:30 New Zealand v India
7 B 14:30 Belgium v Pakistan
8 B 16:30 Netherlands v Australia

Monday 3 December - Rest Day

Tuesday 4 December
9 A 13:30 Germany v India
10 A 15:30 New Zealand v England
11 B 17:30 Belgium v Netherlands
12 B 19:30 Australia v Pakistan

Wednesday 5 December - Rest Day

Thursday 6 December
13 QF* 12:30 1st Pool A v 4th Pool B
14 QF* 15:00 2nd Pool B v 3rd Pool A
15 QF* 17:30 2nd Pool A v 3rd Pool B
16 QF* 20:00 1st Pool B v 4th Pool A

We r in Pool A with Olympic champions Germany, England and New Zealand ... For us all matches r tough against all seven teams

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Men's Doubles
[R2] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Dustin Brown (GER)/ Christopher Kas (GER)
[R1] (8) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Bernard Tomic (AUS)

Women's Doubles
[R1] (13) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Alberta Brianti (ITA)/ Sorana Cirstea (ROU)

Doubles draw is out ... Lee and Radek r in top-draw with 3rd seed Lindstedt and Tecau ... Mahesh and Rohan r in bottom draw with 4th seed Poles, Fyrstenberg and Matkowski.

Sania and Bethanie r in bottom draw with 2nd seed Italians Errani and Vinci.
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At $50K Bangkok-1 Challenger, Thailand

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,263) vs Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,343)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt (WC) Kirati Siributwong (THA)/ Peerakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA) 62 63

[QF] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (WC) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Kittipong Wachiramanowong (THA)

Expected easy winning start for Vishnu and Divij against local Thai pair ... Next they r facing another wild-card pair.

In the singles Vishnu is facing Japanese ... If he wins then he can face 2nd seed local favorite Danai Udomchoke.
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At $35K+H Como Challenger, Italy

[R1] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) vs Andrei Daescu (ROU)/ Adam Hubble (AUS)

This week Purav is playing with Canadian Adil Shamasdin.
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At $15K Iran F1 Futures, Esfahan (clay)

[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) vs (Q) Shoah Rotagh (IRI,UNR)
[R1] (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) vs Shahin Khaledan (IRI,1288)
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND,1474) vs (Q) Mohamadreza Kazemi (IRI,UNR)
[R1] Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) vs Jamshid Ilmuradov (TKM,UNR)
[R1] (6) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) vs Mo Niaki (CAN,1377)
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,1373) vs (WC) Hamid Reza Nadaf (IRI,UNR)
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,393) vs (Q) Mohammed Mohazebina (IRI,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Mohammed Mohazebnia (IRI) vs Alborz Akhavan Roufigar (IRI)/ Mohsen Hossein Zade (IRI)
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) vs Hamidreza Aleyasin (IRI)/ Anoosha Shahgholi (IRI)
[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND) vs (WC) Salar Saraydarpour (USA)/ Eric Vehovec (CAN)
[R1] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) vs Sarvar Ikramov (UZB)/ Sergey Shipilov (UZB)

Good to see our players r participating in this weaker futures in Iran.

Football News
At Nehru Cup 2012, New Delhi

Group Stage
India bt Syria 2-1
Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (IND) 45+', Anthony Pereira (IND) 84' and Alaa Alshbli (SYR) 90+'

India bt Maldives 3-0
Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri 45'+ P and 70', Syed Rahim Nabi (IND) 54'

With consecutive two wins we r leading group stage with 6 points in on-going Nehru Cup ... We won the first match against Syrian with timely strikes by captain Chhetri by header and excellent tap over goalkeeper's head in the second half by Pereira ... Syrian scored a goal in extra times but that was late for them.

In the second match Indians gave solid performance to beat Maldives ... Two goals from Chhetri and a header by Syed Nabi helped to register this win.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,189) l Maxime Authom (BEL, 193) 36 63 36

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,473) vs Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP,85)

Yuki had tricky match against in-form Belgian Maxime Authom ... Maxime broke Yuki in 2nd game to take 3-0 lead and kept that advantage to win the first set ... In the second set both players hold their serves till 7th game ... In 8th game Yuki broke Maxime and then hold to win this set ... In the third set Maxime broke Yuki in 2nd game to lead 3-0 and kept that advantage to complete the victory.

Sommy is playing with protected ranking and facing Spanish Hidalgo in the first round ... Decent draw but looking at lack of match fitness I don't have much hope from Sommy.
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At $553K Winston-Salem Open, USA

[R1] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL) bt Eric Butorac (USA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 64 67(3) 10-3

[QF] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL) l Pablo Andujar (ESP)/ Leonardo Mayer (ARG) 76(8) 67(4) 4-10

Rohan and Mariusz started with win in match tie-break against good pairing of Butorac and Hanley but lost in the quarters against Andujar and Mayer ... First 2 sets went into tie-breaks but Andujar and Mayer proved lot better in match tie-break.
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At $50K+H Segovia Challenger, Spain

[QF] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Olivier Charroin (FRA) l Julien Obry (FRA)/ Boris Pashanski (SRB) 60 36 5-10

Purav and his French partner lost in the quarters in the match tie-break.
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At Spain F25 $10K Futures,

[R1] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1257) bt (Q) Pol TOLEDO BAGUE (ESP,1494) 67(5) 60 62

[R2] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1257) l (2) Joshua MILTON (GBR,422) 26 26

Mohit Mayur needed comeback win against fellow qualifier to earn the point but lost in the second round against 2nd seed British player.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,189) bt (8) Horacio Zeballos (ARG,109) 46 63 76(5)

[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,189) vs Maxime Authom (BEL,193)

Zeballos broke Yuki in 3rd game to take early lead ... In 7th game Yuki saved 4 break points to hold his serve but Zeballos won the first set with a single break ... Yuki served better in the second set and broke Zeballos in 8th game to won this set ... In the final set Yuki broke Zeballos in 1st game and take 2-0 lead but Zeballos broke back in 4th game to make it 2-2 ... Then both players hold their serves comfortably till tie-break ... In the tie-break Zeballos was leading with early mini-break on 3rd point but when Zeballos was serving at 4-3 Yuki won both points on Zeballos's serve to take lead, 5-4 ... Zeballos take mini-break back after winning 10th point but Yuki won next point on his serve for his first match point ... Yuki converted it winning point on Zeballos's serve and completed upset win over 8th seed Argentine ... Next he is facing similar ranked Belgian Maxime Authom for the place in the final qualifying round.
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At $50K+H Segovia Challenger, Spain

[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Olivier Charroin (FRA) bt Lorenzo Giustino (ITA)/ Nikola Mektic (CRO) 64 60

[QF] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Olivier Charroin (FRA) vs Julien Obry (FRA)/ Boris Pashanski (SRB)

Good dominating winning start for Purav and Olivier.
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At Spain F25 $10K Futures,

[Q1] (3) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1257) bye
[Q2] (3) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1257) bt Bruno PEDROSA (POR,UNR) 60 3-0 Retd.
[Q3] (3) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1257) bt Aleksei NERUSHENKO (ESP,UNR) 63 62

[R1] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1257) vs (Q) Pol TOLEDO BAGUE (ESP,1494)

Good chance for Mohit Mayur to earn ATP point after qualifying.

Tennis News
At $3.43M Western & Southern Open - ATP World Tour Masters, Cincinnati, USA

[F] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l (4) Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) 46 46

Mahesh and Rohan lost against 4th seed Lindstedt and Tecau in the straight sets.
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At $637K New Haven Open - WTA Premier, Yale, USA

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Paola Suarez (ARG) vs Andreja Klepac (SLO)/ Alicja Rosolska (POL)

This week Sania is playing with Argentine Paola Suarez in New Haven open.
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At $553K Winston-Salem Open, USA

[Q3] Sanam Singh (IND,415) l (7) Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR,102) 76(8) 36 36

Sanam started well breaking Stakhovsky in 1st game and was leading 2-0 ... Stakhovsky broke Sanam in 8th game and then both players hold their service games til tie-break ... In tie-break Sanam missed a set point but converted 2nd to win tight first set ... Stakhovsky played better in next two sets ... He won the second set with double break and won the decider with a single break ... Still creditable performance by Sanam against top-100 player.
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At $50K+H Segovia Challenger, Spain

[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Olivier Charroin (FRA) vs Lorenzo Giustino (ITA)/ Nikola Mektic (CRO)

This week Purav is back with Charroin in Segovia challenger.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup - Asia/ Oceania (1st Round Play-off), Chandigarh, India

The AITA decide to chose new-look team for Davis cup tie against New Zeland ... Leander Paes and Somdev Devvarman making themselves unavailable for the tie ... Lee chose to make himself unavailable for Davis Cup play as he was caught up with the World Team Tennis competition in the United States and Sommy said he wasn't fit enough for Davis Cup commitment at the moment ... Other hand AITA decided to drop Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna from the team on disciplinary grounds after their spat with them in Olympics doubles team selection fiasco.

AITA short-listed six members for the tie - Yuki Bhambri(191), Vishnu Vardhan (285), Saketh Myneni (387), Sriram Balaji (390), Sanam Singh (415) and Divij Sharan (1310) ... Final four members selection will be completed before 2nd september, which in ITF deadline.
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At $3.43M Western & Southern Open - ATP World Tour Masters, Cincinnati, USA

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt (3) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 64 36 10-8
[SF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA) 64 63

[F] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (4) Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Horia Tecau (ROU)

Mahesh and Rohan scored two excellent wins and enter into the final ... In the quarters they defeated 3rd seed Poles ... After winning the first set our pair lost the second but our pair played better to win match tie-break ... In the semis they faced unseeded pairing of Dodig and Melo, who upset Lee and Radek in the second round ... Our pair won this match in the straight set ... In the final they r facing 4th seed pair of Lindstedt and Tecau.
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At $553K Winston-Salem Open, USA

[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,415) bt Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL,348) 26 61 61
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,469) l (5) Benjamin Becker (Ger,90) 26 06

[R2] Sanam Singh (IND,415) bt (1) Matthew Ebden (AUS,71) 76(3) 5-2 Retd.

[R3] Sanam Singh (IND,415) vs (7) Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR,102)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL) vs Eric Butorac (USA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)

Sanam Singh scored two upset wins and enter into the final qualifying round ... In the first round he defeted Colombian Cabal ... After losing the first set he came back strongly to won final two sets comfortably ... In the second qualifying round he scored huge upset win over WR £71 Australian Matthew Ebden ... Though Ebden retired in the second round Sanam was controlling the match at that time ... He won the first set in tie-break and in the second was leading with double break ... In the final qualifying round he is facing Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky.

Tennis News
At $3.43M Western & Southern Open - ATP World Tour Masters, Cincinnati, USA

[R2] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA) 36 64 5-10

Lee and Radek lost in match tie-break in their first match together after two months ... After losing the first set they fought back to win the second but Melo and Dodig was much better in match tie-break.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[QF] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,285) l (5) Ivan Sergeyev (UKR, 216) 67(6) 57

Doubles
[QF] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (3) Hsin-Han Lee (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE) 46 76(2) 8-10

Though Vishnu lost this match still he gave heartening performance ... Liked the way he kept fighting after losing very closely fought the first set ... Vishnu lost his serve in 1st game but he immediately broke back ... Vishnu missed a break point chance in 8th game ... In tie-break Sergeyev was leading 3-5 but Vishnu take mini-break back and was leading 6-5 on his serve ... Vishnu failed to win a point on his serve and Sergeyev converted 1set set point to win the set ...In the second set both players hold their respective serves till 11th games ... Sergeyev managed to break Vishnu in 12th game and won the match when Vishnu was serving for the staying in the match.

Taipei pair broke Vishnu in 10th game and won the first set ... In this set Taipei pair didn't face a single break point and other hand our pair saved 6 break points from 7 ... Vishnu and Divij played tight second set and won it in tie-break but Taipei pair won close match ti-break.
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At $125K+H Cordenons Challenger, Italy

[QF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Stefano Ianni (ITA) l (4) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Michal Mertinak (SVK) 26 67(10)

After losing the first set Purav and his Italian partner Stefano played lot better in the second to take it in tie-break ... In tie-break Dlouhy and Mertinak used all their experience and won this long tie-break.

Tennis News
At $3.43M Western & Southern Open - ATP World Tour Masters, Cincinnati, USA

[R2] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA)
[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Robin Haase (NED)/ Juan Monaco (ARG) w/o

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (3) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)

Mahesh and Rohan r in the quarters as their opponent gave walkover due to Monaco's toe injury ... Coincidentally their quarter-final opponents Poles also received walkover in their second round match.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,285) bt (3) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS,207)

[QF] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,285) vs (5) Ivan Sergeyev (UKR, 216)

Doubles
[QF] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Sergei Krotiouk (RUS)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) 62 63

Definetely breakthrough victory for Vishnu at the challenger level against top-200 type 3rd seed Russian Konstantin Kravchuk ... In the first set both players traded early breaks in 4th and 5th games ... Vishnu take important break on Kravchuk's serve in 8th game and then hold his serve to won the first set ... In the second set both players hold their serve comfortably till tie-break ... In tie-break Kravchuk was leading 5-3 but Vishnu won next 4 points and won this match ... Next he is facing 5th seed Ukrainian Ivan Sergeyev.

In doubles Divij and Vishnu scored very comfortable win and enter into the semis.
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At $125K+H Cordenons Challenger, Italy

[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Stefano Ianni (ITA) bt (WC) Gianluca Naso (ITA)/ Mose Navarra (ITA) 57 61 10-8

[QF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Stefano Ianni (ITA) vs (4) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Michal Mertinak (SVK)

Purav and Stefano scored comeback win over wild-card pair in the first round ... Next they r facing 4th seed very experienced doubles pair.

Tennis News
At $2.17M Western & Southern Open - WTA Premier, Cincinnati, USA

[R1] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)/ Anna Tatishvili (GEO) 62 16 8-10

Another loss for Sania and Bethanie after winning the first set ... After dominating the first set they lost the second easily ... In match tie-break Makarova and Tatishvili proved better than our pair.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,390) l (3) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS,207) 36 16
[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,285) vs Michal Konecny (CZE,286) 64 61

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,285) vs (3) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS,207)

Vishnu scored solid win against similar ranked opponent ... In the first set most crucial break taken by Vishnu in 10th game ... In the second set Vishnu broke Konecny in 4th and 6th games and completed comfortable win.

Balaji struggled against 3rd seed Russian ... Russian take early break in the first and again broke Balaji in 9th game to win this set ... In the second set Russian broke Balaji in 2nd game and 4th game to take 5-0 lead and won it comfortably ... Next Vishnu will meet this 3rd seed Russian.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Our top 16 performance
Sushil Kumar - Wrestling Men's Freestyle (66kg) - Silver
Vijay Kumar - Shooting Men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol - Silver
Gagan Narang - Shooting Men's 10m Air Rifle - Bronze
Saina Nehwal - Badminton women's singles - Bronze
Mery Kom Hmangte - Boxing Women's Flyweight (51kg) - Bronze
Yogeshwar Dutt - Wrestling Men's Freestyle (60kg) - Bronze
Joydeep Karmarker - Shooting Men's 50m Rifle Prone - Finished 4th
Amit Kumar - Wrestling Men's Freestyle (55kg) - Lost in QF
Devendro Singh Laishram - Boxing Men's Light Flyweight (49kg) - Lost in QF
Kashyap Parupalli - Badminton men's singles - Lost in QF
Leander Paes and Sania Mirza - Tennis Mixed Doubles - Lost in QF
Vijender - Boxing Men's Middleweight (75kg) - Lost in QF
Krishna Poonia - Women's Discuss Throw - 7th
Soniya Chanu - Womens weightlifting (48 kg) - 7th
Vikas Gowda - Men's discuss throw - 8th
Also adding young, Irfan Kolathumthodi - Men's 20km Racewalking - 10th (for doing an NR at age 22 and being very close to a top-8 timing)

Though we failed to win a Gold medal in this Olympics still we showed improvement/ progress in our performance.

In this Olympics we had SIXTEEN Top-8 performances ... In that SEVEN Top-4 performances and we won SIX Medals.

And for a comparison, India had ten such performances in Beijing Olympics 2008 where we had three Top-4 finishes.

With this improvement I m hoping yellow medal(s) at Rio ... Proud of all Indian athletes.

Tennis News
At $3.43M Western & Southern Open - ATP World Tour Masters, Cincinnati, USA

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

Lee and Radek r back as pair after almost 2 months gap ... They r in top draw with top-seed Nestor and Mirnyi ... Mahesh and Rohan r also in top draw with third seed Poles.
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At $2.17M Western & Southern Open - WTA Premier, Cincinnati, USA

[R1] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)/ Anna Tatishvili (GEO)

Sania and Bethanie r in top draw with top-seed.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q3] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) bt Sergei Krotiouk (RUS,614) 75 57 75

[R1] (Q) N.Sriram Balaji (IND,390) vs (3) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS,207)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Andrej Martin (SVK)/ Adrian Sikora (SVK) 63 64

Balaji won almost three hours long final qualifying against experienced Krotiouk ... In the first set until 11 games both players hold their service games but while serving for staying in the set Krotiouk failed to hold his serve ... In the second set also both players were holding their service game but this time Krotiouk take crucial break in 11th game on Balaji's serve ... Then Krotiouk hold to won this set ... First 2 sets trend continued in the final set ... Again both players were holding their respective service games ... Again like the first set Balaji take crucial break on Krotiouk's serve in 12th game to complete fighting win ... In the first round he is facing 3rd seed Russian Kravchuk.

In doubles Divij and Vishnu had comfortable winning start against Slovak pair.
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At $125K+H Cordenons Challenger, Italy

[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Stefano Ianni (ITA) vs (WC) Gianluca Naso (ITA)/ Mose Navarra (ITA)

Purav and his Italian partner r facing wild-card Italian pair where veteran Mose Navarra is playing.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Wrestling
Men's 66kg Freestyle

Final Standing
Gold - Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu (JPN)
Silver - Sushil Kumar (IND)
Bronze - Akzhurek Tanatarov (KAZ) and Livan Lopez Azcuy (CUB)

Gold Medal match
Sushil Kumar (IND) l Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu (JPN) 1-3 (1-4 points)

[R2] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Ramazan Sahin (TUR) 3-1 (2-2 points)

[QF] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Ikhtiyor Navruzov (UZB) 3-1 (6-3 points

[SF] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Akzhurek Tanatarov (KAZ) 3-1 (9-6 points)

Athletics
Men's Marathon
78 Ram Singh Yadav (IND) 2:30:06

Sushil Kumar won the Silver in Men's 66kg Freestyle wrestling ... Sushil Kumar created history after becoming first Indian athlete to win 2 individual medals in Olympics.

In the final Sushil Kumar failed to reproduce his form which he showed in earlier bouts ... Japanese Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu did smart wrestling in the final ... In the first period both wrestlers were cautious but Yonemitsu grabbed one point with takedown to win this period ... In the second round Sushil Kumar showed aggression but mid-way in the period Yonemitsu did superb takedown and rollover combination to earned 3 points ... After that Sushil Kumar tried hard and won 1 point through takedown but Yonemitsu defended well to complete the victory ... Still creditable performance by Sushil Kumar to won the Silver.

Before that Sushil Kumar also had a tough draw and he faced Beijing Olympics Gold medalist Turkish wrestler Ramazan Sahin in his first match ... Ramazan Sahin won the first period with couple of takedown earning 2 points ... In the second period both wrestlers failed to earn point and Sushil Kumar had advantage in the clinch ... He earned a point to win this period ... In the final period Sushil Kumar earned a point with takedown to won this bout.

In the quarter final Sushil Kumar face young Uzbek wrestler Ikhtiyor Navruzov ... Sushil lost against same wrestler eariler in the Asian olympics qualifying tournament ... In the first period Uzbek earned first point with takedown but Sushil fought back and earned a point after takedown ... In the dying moments he throw Uzbek wrestler out of the ring to earned second point ... Uzbek take referral but result went against him giving penalty point to Sushil ... In the second period Sushil take lead after takedown but when only couple of seconds were remaining Uzbek wrestler take a point through takedown ... This time Indian camp asked for referral which went against them giving a extra penalty point to Uzbek ... Both wrestlers were trying hard in the final period but Sushil take advantage of Uzbek's extra aggression to earned a point through takedown and then earned another through throw in the dyding second to complete the victory.

Amazing win in the semis by Sushil Kumar ... He turned table on Kazakh wrestler Akzhurek Tanatarov from brink of defeat in the final period ... Sushil Kumar won the first period with earning 3 points with takedown and rollover ... Kazakh Akzhurek Tanatarov won the second period with 3 points with takedown and rollover in early stages of this period ... In the final period Kazakh Tanatarov take 3-0 lead in first 15 seconds with takedown and rollover ... But after that Sushil Kumar made excellent comeback he earned 5 points with superb excellent and takedown combination ... In the final stages hr throw Tanatarov over the shoulder to complete victory in entertaining match ... In the end Kazakh Akzhurek Tanatarov was bleeding through ears.

Disappointed run in marathon for Ram Singh Yadav, who finished on 78th position.

With this we completed our best medal haul in the Olympics ... Before this our 3 medal haul at Beijing Olympics was the best but we bettered that in London Olympics ... We finished with 6 medals, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze medals.

Tennis News
At $3.22M Rogers Cup - ATP World Tour Masters, Toronto, Canada

[SF] (5) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (2) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 36 46

Bryans scored comfortable win over Lee and Jurgen in the semis and enter into the final.
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At $2.2M Rogers Cup - WTA Premier, Montréal, Canada

[QF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (3) Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 61 57 5-10

Sania and Bethanie lost in the quarters ... After dominating the first set our pair finished match in the second ... Petrova and Srebotnik take full advantage to win this match in match tie-break.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q2] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) bt Azamat Bahriddinov (UZB,UNR) 60 62
[Q3] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) vs Sergei Krotiouk (RUS,614)

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,292) vs Michal Konecny (CZE,287)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Andrej Martin (SVK)/ Adrian Sikora (SVK)

Balaji need to win one more round to qualify for main-draw.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Wrestling
Men's 55kg Freestyle

Final Standing
Gold - Toghrul Asgarov (AZE)
Silver - Besik Kudukhov (RUS)
Bronze - Yogeshwar Dutt (IND) and Coleman Scott (USA)

Bronze medal match
Yogeshwar Dutt (IND) bt Jong Myong Ri (PRK) 3-1 (7-1 points)

[R1] Yogeshwar Dutt (IND) bt Anatolie Ilarionovitch Guidea (BUL) 3-1 (7-3 points)

[R2] Yogeshwar Dutt (IND) l Besik Kudukhov (RUS) 0-3 (0-3 points)

Repechage Round
[R1] Yogeshwar Dutt (IND) bt Franklin Gomez Matos (PUR) 3-0 (2-0 points)

[R2] Yogeshwar Dutt (IND) bt Masoud Esmaeil Poorjouybari (IRI) 3-1 (7-5 points)

Athletics
Men's 50km Race Walk
36 Basanta Bahadur Rana (IND) 3:56:48 (NR)

Men's Hockey - Classification 11-12
India l South Africa 2-3
Goal Scored - Sandeep Singh (IND) 14' PC, Dharamvir Singh (IND) 67' and Andrew Cronje (RSA) 8', Timothy Drummond (RSA) 34', Lloyd Norris-Jones (RSA) 65'

Yogeshwar Dutt created history winning the Bronze in Men's 55kg Freestyle wrestling ... He became only third wrestler to win medal in Olympics ... He played final three bouts in about an hour with injured eye to grab this medal.

In the first period faced experienced Bulgarian wrestler Anatolie Ilarionovitch Guidea ... The first period ended without any point ... Bulgarian wrestler had the advantage in the clinch and he scored to win this period ... In the second period Yogeshwar scored couple of points to win it ... In the final period both wrestlers were trying and managed to earn points ... Yogeshwar won this period 5-2 to complete victory.
In the second period bout Yogeshwar was facing multiple times world champion Russian Besik Kudukhov ... Again Yogeshwar was unlucky and Russian had advantage in the clinch ... Russian scored a point to win this period ... In the second period Russian scored couple of points to win this bout.

In Repechage first period Yogeshwar faced World championships silver medalist Puerto Rican Franklin Gomez Matos ... Yogeshwar produced excellent defensive skill against Matos ... In first 2 periods both wrestlers failed to earn any point but this time luck favored Yogeshwar and had the advantage in the clinch in both periods ... In the first period he managed to earn point with holding him down and in the second period he earned point when with the clinch position he managed to take Matos out of the ring ... This was huge win for Yogeshwar.

Next Yogeshwar faced Iranian wrestler Masoud Esmaeil Poorjouybari ... After ending the first period without a point Yogeshwas had the clinch advantage but Masoud turned table on him by a short amplitude throw to win this period ... In the second period Yogeshwar earned early 3 points with Dhak technique and hold that advantage to win it despite some good efforts from Iranian ... In the final period also Yogeshwar kept his aggression and earned 4 points with four takedown with holding from behind and enter into bronze medal match.

For Bronze medal Yogeshwar faced North Korean Jong Myong Ri ... Jong won the first period with a single point with late takedown ... In the second period Yogeshwar managed to earn point with a take down and won it ... In the final period Yogeshwar was in aggressive mood and he earned technical fall with fantastic 6-point roll-over on North Korean ... Refree stopped bout and awarded win to Yogeshwar Dutt ... Superb wrestling in Repechage rounds by Yogeshwar to win well deserving medal.

Basanta Bahadur Rana created new national record in 50km race walk but that was enough to help him finished on 36th place ... Still creditable walk from Rana on this big Olympics stage.

Indian men's hockey team was deserving to finished on last place with their horrible performance ... We lost against South Africa in the final placing match ... So with that first time we failed to win (or draw) a single match in Olympics ... In this match also we failed to learn from past mistakes and gave dis-oriented performance ... We failed in marking opponents, trapping passes, clueless inside the D and failed to convert from penalty corners ... We earned 4 penalty corners and converted only one.

Now we r having 5 medals, one silver and four bronze.

Tennis News
At $3.22M Rogers Cup - ATP World Tour Masters, Toronto, Canada

[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Paul Hanley (AUS)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 46 67(6)

[QF] (5) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (3) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 76(5) 46 10-4

[SF] (5) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (2) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Mahesh and Rohan had a bad start in US hard court season opener ... They lost in the straight sets against Zimo and Hanley ... Other hand Lee and Jurgen scored upset win over 3rd seed Polish pair in match tie-break ... After winning the first set in tie-break our pair lost the second set against Poles ... But they comfortably win match tie-break and in the semis they r facing 2nd seed Bryans.
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At $2.2M Rogers Cup - WTA Premier, Montréal, Canada

[R2] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)/ Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 62 63

[QF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (3) Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Katarina Srebotnik (SLO)

Sania and Bethanie scored comfortable win over Slovak pair and enter into the quarters ... Next they r facing 3rd seed Petrova and Srebotnik.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Wrestling
Men's 55kg Freestyle
[R2] Amit Kumar (IND) bt Hassan Sabzali Rahimi (IRI) 3-1 (2-2 points)

[QF] Amit Kumar (IND) l Vladimer Khinchegashvili (GEO) 1-3 (1-7 points)

Repechage Round
[R2] Amit Kumar (IND) l Radoslav Marinov Velikov (BUL) 0-3 (0-2 points)

Men's 74kg Freestyle
[R2] Narsingh Pancham Yadav (IND) l Matthew Judah Gentry (CAN) 1-3 CP (1-4 points)

Amit Kumar scored huge upset win over Iranian wrestler Hassan Sabzali Rahimi, who was current Asian champion, bronze medalist at World Championships and former World junior champion ... Iranian won the first round 1-0 on point ... Amit Kumar responded well to win the second round with similar score of 1-0 ... In the final round both wrestlers tried and round ended 1-1 but match was awarded to Amit Kumar on the last scored technical point.

But in the quarter final young Georgian wrestler proved strong for Amit Kumar ... He take advantage of mistakes by over defensive Amit Kumar ... Khinchegashvili won the first round easily 4-0 ... After losing the first round Amit Kumar tried hard to win the second but made mistakes in aggression which cost him the match ... Tough luck but good experience for young Amit Kumar.

Big tactical error from Amit Kumar and his team ... Bulgarian wrestler wasn't better than Amit Kumar so unnecessary defensive approach by him in this bout ... Both rounds ended with 0-0 and both times Bulgarian wrestler had the advantage in the clinch ... In both occasion Velikov managed to score a point ... Big learning experience for Amit Kumar from this Olympics that unnecessary too much defensive approach didn't work.

Narsingh Yadav lost against Canadian in the first round on points ... After losing the first round Narsingh wrestled well in the second ... This round tied 1-1 at the end but awarded to Matthew so he won this match.

Tennis News
At $3.22M Rogers Cup - ATP World Tour Masters, Toronto, Canada

[R2] (5) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Milos Raonic (CAN)/ Viktor Troicki (SRB) w/o (back strain to Troicki)

[QF] (5) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (3) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)

Lee and Jurgen r in the quarters as they received walkover ... In the quarters they r facing 3rd seed Polish pair.
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At $35K+H Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan

[SF] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) l (5) Farrukh Dustov (UZB,354) 36 16

Doubles
[F] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR)/Ivan Sergeyev (UKR) 46 67(1)

Balaji's excellent run ended against Uzbek's Davis cupper and regular challenger player Farrukh Dustov ... Farrukh controlled match from the start ... He broke 2 times Balaji in both sets for comfortable win ... Very creditable performance by Balaji to reached his first challenger semi-final as an qualifier on red clay.

Vishnu and Divij failed to lift tile against Ukrainian pair ... In the first set Ukrainians were up by 2 breaks then our pair take back one break but Ukrainians hold one break advantage to win it ... In the second set Ukrainians proved too strong in tie-break.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Boxing

Women's Flyweight (51kg) - Final standing
Gold - Nicola Adams (GBR)
Silver - Cancan Ren (CHN)
Bronze - Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte (IND) and Marlen Esparza (USA)

Athletics
Women's High Jump - Qualification
29 Sahana Kumari (IND) 1.80 mtrs

Women's 800m - Semi Final (Heat 2)
5 Tintu Luka (IND) 1:59.69 mins SB (her timing was 11th best from 24 runners)

Wrestling
Women's 55kg Freestyle
[R2] Geeta Phogat (IND) l Tonya Lynn Verbeek (CAN) 1-3 (2-4 points)

Repechage Round
Geeta Phogat (IND) l Tetyana Lazareva (UKR) 0-2 (0-9 points)

Geeta produced really fighting performance against experienced and two time olympic medalist Canadian wrestler Tonya ... After losing the first round 1-0 Geeta fought back to win the second 0-1 ... In the third round Geeta made a tactical mistake in the last round and Tonya take advantage to win this match in her favor ... Tonya entered into the final so Geeta got opportunity of playing in Repechage round.

But Ukrainian Tetyana Lazareva proved too strong for Geeta ... Tetyana dominated the first round to win it 8-0 and won the second round earning solitary point late in the round.

Sahana Kumari failed to clear 1.85 meters and ended on disappointing T29 positions in 35 players.

Tintu was in group with highly talented runners and she gave her best ... It was creditable run from Tintu, who gave her season best timing to finished inside 2 minutes.

Tennis News
At $2.2M Rogers Cup - WTA Premier, Toronto, Canada

[R1] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (7) Julia Goerges (GER)/ Kveta Peschke (CZE) 76(1) 63

[R2] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)/ Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)

Good win by Sania and Bethanie against 7th seed pair ... After winning the first set in tie-break our pair won the second more comfortably ... Next they r facing Slovakian pair.
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At $35K+H Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan

[QF] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) bt (8) Andrej Martin (SVK,259) 64 63

[SF] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) vs (5) Farrukh Dustov (UZB,354)

Doubles
[SF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Riccardo Bellotti (ITA)/ Gerald Melzer (AUT) 63 36 10-3

[F] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR)/Ivan Sergeyev (UKR)

Bala scored back to back top-300 with another upset win over Slovak Andrej Martin and enter into his first challenger semi-final ... This was Bala's 6th win in a row, considering 3 qualifying wins, and those r on clay ... Very rare for Indian player ... In the semis he is facing local favorite Farrukh Dustov ... Until last week Farrukh was ranked #235 ... In this week's ranking he dropped by 119 places.

In the first set both players were holding their service games until 9th games ... Bala take crucial break in 10th game to win this set ... In the second set Bala broke Martin in 2nd game to lead 2-0 but Martin immediately broke back to make it 1-2 ... Bala immediately broke him in 4th game to take 3-1 lead ... After that Bala hold his service games comfortably to complete very important win.

Our pair won the first set with a single break ... After losing the second set with similar score our top-seed pair won match tie-break comfortably to enter in the final ... Vishnu and Divij r facing unseeded Ukrainian pair in the final.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Athletics
Women's 800m - Qualification (Heat 2)
3 Tintu Luka (IND) 2:01.75 (qualify for the semi-final)

Boxing
Women's Fly (51kg)
[SF] Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte (IND) l (2) Nicola Adams (GBR) 6-11

Men's Light Fly (49kg)
[QF] Devendro Singh Laishram (IND) l Paddy Barnes (IRL) 18-23

Tintu Luka finished third in heat two to qualify for the semi final of 800 meters ... Her timing was 13th best from 24 athletes.

Mery Kom had a tough opponent in Nicola Adams ... Nicola used her height and reach advantage perfectly in this match ... Mery Kom never settled in this bout becoz of Nicola's strategy ... Smart bout from Nicola ... Nicola won the rounds, 3-1, 2-1, 3-2 and 3-2 ... So the Bronze medal for Mery Kom in flyweight ... Still very creditable performance by Mery Kom to win a medal in the boxing at Olympics and becoming only third woman to win a medal.

Devendro Singh lost Light Flyweight quarter final in very entertaining match ... In this bout both boxers were aggressive from the start ... Barnes edged Devendro with more scoring punches in the first round to win 7-5 but in the second round Devendro failed to defend attack from Barnes and lost it 5-10 ... In the final round Barnes had huge 7 points advantage which was very difficult to reduce ... Devendro tried aggressively but Barnes managed to keep advantage despite losing this round 6-8 ... So with that our challenge in the boxing get over ... I was expecting at least couple of medals but in end we manage to win only 1 Bronze from Mery Kom.

Tennis News
At $35K+H Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,292) l Gerald Melzer (AUT,311) 46 67(1)
[R2] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) bt Michal Konecny (CZE,287) 64 76(5)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Victor Baluda (RUS)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) 63 63

[SF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Riccardo Bellotti (ITA)/ Gerald Melzer (AUT)

Sriram Balaji scored his biggest victory of career beating top 300 European player on the clay ... In the first set Balaji take important break on Konecny's serve in 7th game and that break was enough to win the first set ... In the second set until 10 games both players hold their serves ... Balaji take break in 11th game but failed to hold his serve while serving for the match ... Balaji kept his composure in tie-break to complete very important win and enter into his first challenger quarter final.

Vishnu had tricky match against younger brother of Jurgen Melzer ... Gerald Melzer was holding his serve comfortably without losing much points and was putting pressure on Vishnu's serve ... Gerald broke Vishnu in 7th game to win the first set ... In the second set both players hold their respective service games to take this set in tie-break ... Gerald didn't give much chance to Vishnu and won tie-break easily.

Another comfortable straight sets victory for our top-seed pair ... They didn't face a single break point on their serves and converted 3 from 6 break point opportunities ... Again Vishnu is facing Melzer in the doubles semis with Divij.
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At $15K Great Britain F13 Futures,

[R1] (5) Somdev Devvarman (IND,464) l (Q) Tom Burn (GBR,808) 16 36

Very uncharacteristic one-sided defeat to Sommy against British qualifier ... He need to play more matches to be match-fit after his 10 months break after shoulder surgery.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Athletics
Men's Triple Jump - Qualification
Renjith Maheshwary (IND) - No Mark (Disgraceful performance, fouled all three attempts)

Men's Discus Throw - Final
8 Vikas Gowda (IND) 64.79 mtrs

Men's Hockey - Group B
India l Belgium 0-3
Goal Scored - Jerome Dekeyser (BEL) 15', Gauthier Boccard (BEL) 47', Tom Boon (BEL) 67'

Disgraceful performance by Ranjith in triple jump qualifying ... He fouled out himself in all three chances ... Total waste of money of tax-payers as we send this guy to train in Italy and participated in few tournaments before Olympics ... Hopefully AAFI will take some action on him and ban him from participating from India in future.

Another story of missed chances for Indian hockey team ... We again failed to intercept ball inside the D and whenever we intercepted then we failed to score ... Both teams received two penalty corners but both teams failed to convert from that ... Belgium had better defense and excellent goal-keeping by Vincent Vanasch ... Other hand our players fumbled inside the D, they failed to clear the mark and no man-to-man marking by our players ... On the field we didn't look like unit ... So we ended our group matches without a single win.

Vikas failed to repeat his qualifying performance of throw over 65 meters ... His first throw was 64.79 meters and that was remain the best for the night for him ... The Bronze medalist throw was 3.5 meters better than Vikas.

Tennis News
At $2.2M Rogers Cup - WTA Premier, Toronto, Canada

[R1] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (7) Julia Goerges (GER)/ Kveta Peschke (CZE)

This week in Canadian premier event Sania and Bethanie r facing 7th seed pair of Goerges and Peschke in the first round.
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At $35K+H Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,292) bt (WC) Sanvar Ikramov (UZB,597) 63 36 62
[R1] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) bt (WC) Vaja Uzakov (UZB,1124) 62 64

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,292) vs Gerald Melzer (AUT,311)
[R2] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) vs Michal Konecny (CZE,287)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt (WC) Sergey Shipilov (UZB)/ Nigmat Shofayziev (UZB) 64 62

[QF] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Victor Baluda (RUS)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN)

Vishnu started confidently in this match ... He served 9 aces and lost only 2 points on his serve in the first set ... Vishnu take crucial break in 8th game to win this set ... In the second set Vishnu struggled with his serve and Ikramov take advantage of it ... He broke Vishnu in 4th game to win this second set ... In the final set from 2-all Vishnu won next 4 games, in that he broke Ikramov twice and completed the victory ... Next Vishnu having trcky match against Austrian Gerald Melzer, who upset top-seed Russian Igor Kunitsyn easily.

Balaji take early break and then double that break advantage to won the first set comfortably ... In the second set Balaji take important break in 9th game and that break was enough to win the second set ...Next Balaji having tough match against Czech Michal Konecny, who upset 4th seed Slovenian Kamil Capkovic in the first round.

Easy first round win for our top-seed pair against local wild-card pair.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Athletics
Men's Discus Throw
5 Vikas Gowda (IND) 65.20 mtrs (qualify on 5th position in 12 discuss throwers)

Boxing
Women's Fly (51kg)
[QF] Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte (IND) bt Maroua Rahali (TUN) 15-6

[SF] Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte (IND) vs (2) Nicola Adams (GBR)

Men's Middle (75kg)
[QF] Vijender (IND) l Abbos Atoev (UZB) 13-17

Shooting
Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions
20 Gagan Narang (IND) (398 + 377 + 389) 1164 pts
26 Sanjeev Rajput (IND) (395 + 378 + 388) 1161 pts

Men's Trap
15 Manavjit Singh Sandhu (IND) (24 + 24 + 22 + 25 +24) 119

Mery Kom had tough bout considering she was playing her second bout inside 24 hrs and her Tunisian opponent was playing her first bout of the tournament ... Mery Kom didn't show any tiredness in her match ... Both boxers played cautiously in the first round which Mery Kom won 2-1 ... In the second round also both boxers were looking defensive, this round also Mery Kom won 3-2 ... In the third round Mery Kom started aggressively which surprised Tunisian Maroua Rahali ... Mary Kom won this round convincingly, 6-1, and take 7 points lead ... In the final round Mary Kom defended well and won this round 4-2 to complete comfortable win ... In the semis Mary Kom will face favorite British boxer Nicola Adams, who is current World champion ... But reaching in the semis has confirm medal for Mary Kom ... This is our best medals haul in the Olympics, we r bettering our previous record of 3 medals from Beijing Olympics.

In his second effort Vikas Gowda throw discuss over 65 meters qualification mark to qualified for the final in creditable 5th position.

Gagan missed chance of entering another final ... After excellent shooting in Prone he was total off target in his favorite Standing position, where he managed only 377 points ... In end he missed the final by 4 points ... Sanjeev Rajput also missed too many shots and finished below Gagan on 26th position.

Today in the final two rounds Manavjit Singh Sandhu scored 49 targets from available 50 but his yesterday's poor shooting costed him the place in the final ... Last finalist qualified with 122 hits.

In shocking result our big medal hope Vijender lost close bout against Uzbek Abbos Atoev in the quarter final ... Though Abbos Atoev 2 times world champion still Vijender had better record against him ... In their last bout at 2010 Guangzhou Asian games Vijender won the gold medal beating Atoev 7-0 in the final ... Here both boxers started cautiously which ended first round at 3-3 ... In the second and third round both boxers were aggressive and tried to attack but Atoev managed to land more scoring punches that Vijender to won both rounds with similar 7-5 score ... As per commentators another case of bad judging by judges ... They thought Vijender was clear winner from this close bout.

Tennis News
At $3.22M Rogers Cup - ATP World Tour Masters, Toronto, Canada

[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye
[R1] (5) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) bye

This week Leander is playing with Melzer instead of Radek and they r 5th seed.
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At $35K+H Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q3] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) bt (8) Sergei Krotiouk (RUS,615) 76(6) 62

[R1] (Q) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,472) vs (WC) Vaja Uzakov (UZB,1124)

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jaan-Frederik Brunken (GER) l (4) Michal Konecny (CZE)/ Denis Matsukevitch (RUS) 67(6) 61 3-10

Sriram Balaji qualified for main-draw after scoring win over futures type experienced Russian player ... After winning the first set in tie-break Sriram Balaji won the second set comfortably ... In main-draw he is facing local wild-card player.

Sriram Balaji and his German partner lost against 4th seed pair ... After losing the first set in tie-break Balaji and Brunken won the second set comfortably but in match tie-break 4th seed pair proved strong for them.
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At $15K Great Britain F13 Futures,

[R1] (5) Somdev Devvarman (IND,464) vs (Q) Tom Burn (GBR,808)

Somdev is starting his comeback on professional tour from British futures.

Olympics News
At London Olympics 2012, England

Boxing - Women's Fly (51kg)
[R1] Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte (IND) bt Karolina Michalczuk (POL) 19-14

[QF] Chungneijang Mery Kom Hmangte (IND) vs Maroua Rahali (TUN)

Men's Hockey - Group B
India l South Korea 1-4
Goal Scored - Gurwinder Singh Chandi (IND) 10' and Jong Hyun Jang (KOR) 6' PC, Hyun Woo Nam (KOR) 60' PC and 70' PC, Seung Il Lee (KOR) 68'

Shooting - Men's Trap
25 Manavjit Singh Sandhu (IND) (24 + 24 + 22) 70

Magnificent Mary scored very important win against tough Polish opponent ... Karolina Michalczuk was Bronze medalist from the World cup ... Both boxers started cautiously in the first round which ended 3-3 ... In the second round also both boxers were cautious in their attacking but Mary Kom won this round 5-4 ... In the third round Mary Kom was aggressive and attacked Karolina to won this round 7-3 ... After taking 5 points lead in the last round Mary Kom decided to defend and counter-attack ... She successfully handled Karolina's aggression and this round ended on tie, 4-4 ... In the quarter final Mary Kom is facing Tunisian boxer Maroua Rahali.

After three rounds of 25 shots Manavjit Singh Sandhu was lying on 25th position ... In the first 2 rounds he missed 2 shots but in the last round he missed 3 shots ... Qualifying for the final is very difficult for Manavjit Singh Sandhu with this low score.

Indians struggled on the hockey field continued ... Koreans take early lead through Jang when he converted penalty corner in 6th minute ... In four minuted Indians responded with field goal through Gurwinder Singh Chandi ... At half-time score was 1-1 ... In the second half we missed chances and Koreans converted another penalty corner through Hyun Woo Nam to take lead ... Indians tried hard as our all players were in Korean half and Koreans take full advantage of it ... They scored field goal through counter attack in 68 minutes through Seung Il Lee ... Koreans added another goal through penalty corner at end of the game through Nam ... Another poor performance by Indians ... We failed to convert single penalty corner through four penalty corners and other hand Koreans converted three from five penalty corners.

Tennis News
At $100K Aptos Challenger, USA

[Q1] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) l Austin Krajicek (USA,428) 46 63 1-4 Retd.

After long injury break Prakash entered into Aptos challenger but retired in the third set.
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At $75K+H Beijing Challenger, China

Doubles Final
(4) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l (1) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA) / Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 67(3) 62 6-10

Yuki and Divij fought well but lost against experienced top-seed Thai pair ... Ratiwatanas won the first set in tie-break but Indian pair fought back to win the second breaking Ratiwatanas twice ... In the match tie-break Ratiwatanas proved strong for our pair.
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At $35K+H Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,474) bt Sardor Rakhimov (UZB,UNR) 60 63
[Q2] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,474) bt (WC) Sanjar Fayziev (UZB,UNR) 64 64

[Q3] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,474) vs (8) Sergei Krotiouk (RUS,615)

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,304) vs (WC) Sanvar Ikramov (UZB,597)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (WC) Sergey Shipilov (UZB)/ Nigmat Shofayziev (UZB)
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jaan-Frederik Brunken (GER) vs (4) Michal Konecny (CZE)/ Denis Matsukevitch (RUS)

Good to see Sriram Balaji is playing in challenger qualifying ... He won the first 2 rounds against Uzbek players ... Also pleasantly surprised to see Vishnu is playing challenger on red clay.
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At $10K USA F22 Futures, Decatur, Illnois

Singles Final
(3) Sanam Singh (IND,436) l (Q) Ryan Rowe (USA,1642) 46 63 46

Sanam failed to lift another futures title and lost in three sets against American qualifier.