Hockey News
At 2012 Women's Champions Challenge 1, Dublin, Ireland

Pool A
India bt Wales 3-0
Goal Scorers - Ritu Rani (IND) 18', Lily Chanu Mayengbam (IND) 28' PC, Soundarya Yendala (IND) 70' PC

India opened its 2012 Champions Challenge 1 tournament with a 3-0 win against Wales ... Wales gave solid performance but Indians converted their chances ... Next match against WR #7 Australia is very important for Indians.

Tennis News
At 2.2M China Open, Beijing

[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,177) l (7) Donald Young (USA,124) 36 26

Doubles
[R1] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (WC) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)

Yuki lost his serve in 2nd game and Donald kept that advantage to win the first set ... Donald dominated in the second and broke Yuki twice to win it comfortably.

Mahesh and Rohan r unseeded and facing wild-card Chinese pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $1.2M Japan Open, Tokyo

[R1] (1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Julian Knowle (AUT)/ Filip Polasek (SVK)

Lee and Radek r top-seed in Japan open as all other top pairs playing in China open.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Gulbarga, Karnataka

Singles Final
Prerna Bhambri (IND) bt (4) Zi Yang (CHN) 62 62

Superb solid win by Prerna to lift the title against in-form higher ranked Chinese, who double bageled 2 players in this tournament including top-seed Hong Kong playerand our Rutuja Bhosale ... Prerna won this final in 78 minutes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[SF] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) l (1) Alex Bogdanovic (GBR,333) 57 46

I was hoping upset win for Prakash ... Alex won it in 2 sets but Prakash gave fighting performance against him.

Chess News
At São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final, São Paulo, Brazil

Round 5 - Saturday, September 29

Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Sergey Karjakin
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Levon Aronian ½-½ Fabiano Caruana

Round 4 - Friday, September 28

Fabiano Caruana bt Francisco Vallejo 1-0
Magnus Carlsen dw Levon Aronian ½-½
Serguei Kariakin dw Viswanathan Anand ½-½

In fifth round Anand managed draw against Carlsen after 58 moves ... He was under trouble after making mistake early but managed to hold Carlsen ... So end of São Paulo leg Anand is on 4th position with 4 draw ... 6 points behind leader Fabiano Caruana.

The fourth draw in a row for Anand but Fabiano Caruana secured first leg's title with his third win in 4 matches.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At 6th Women's Grand Prix, Ankara, Turkey

Final Standing
GM Humpy Koneru (IND,2593) 8½ pts
GM Anna Muzychuk (SLO,2606) 8 pts
GM Xue Zhao (CHN,2549) 7½ pts
GM Viktorija Cmilyte (LTU,2520) 6½ pts
WGM Lufei Ruan (CHN,2492) 6½ pts
IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul (MGL,2434) 6 pts
GM Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS,2524) 5½ pts
WGM Wenjun Ju (CHN,2528) 5 pts
GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL,2502) 4½ pts
WGM Betul Cemre Yildiz (TUR,2341) 3½ pts
GM Monika Socko (POL,2463) 2½ pts
WGM Kubra Ozturk (TUR,2294) 2 pts

Round one - Sunday September 16, 2012
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434) ½-½ GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524)
GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606) ½-½ WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528)
WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294) 0-1 WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492)
GM Socko Monika (POL,2463) 0-1 GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520)
WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341) 0-1 GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593)
GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549) 1-0 GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502)

Round two - Monday September 17, 2012
GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524) ½-½ GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502)
GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593) ½-½ GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549)
GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520) 0-1 WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341)
WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492) 1-0 GM Socko Monika (POL,2463)
WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528) 1-0 WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294)
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434) ½-½ GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606)

Round three - Tuesday September 18, 2012
GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606) 1-0 GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524)
WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294) ½-½ IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434)
GM Socko Monika (POL,2463) ½-½ WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528)
WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341) 0-1 WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492)
GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549) 0-1 GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520)
GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502) bt 0-1 GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593)

Round four - Wednesday September 19, 2012
GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524) 0-1 GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593)
GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520) 1-0 GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502)
WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492) ½-½ GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549)
WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528) 1-0 WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341)
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434) 1-0 GM Socko Monika (POL,2463)
GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606) 1-0 WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294)

Round five - Friday September 21, 2012
WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294) ½-½ GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524)
GM Socko Monika (POL,2463) 0-1 GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606)
WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341) ½-½ IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434)
GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549) 1-0 WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528)
GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502) ½-½ WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492)
GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593) ½-½ GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520)

Round six - Saturday September 22, 2012
GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524) 1-0 GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520)
WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492) 0-1 GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593)
WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528) 1-0 GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502)
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434) 0-1 GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549)
GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606) 1-0 WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341)
WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294) 0-1 GM Socko Monika (POL,2463)

Round seven - Sunday September 23, 2012
GM Socko Monika (POL,2463) 0-1 GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524)
WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341) ½-½ WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294)
GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549) ½-½ GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606)
GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502) ½-½ IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434)
GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593) 1-0 WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528)
GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520) ½-½ WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492)

Round eight - Monday September 24, 2012
GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524) ½-½ WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492)
WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528) ½-½ GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520)
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434) ½-½ GM Koneru Humpy 2593)
GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606) ½-½ GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502)
WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294) ½-½ GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549)
GM Socko Monika (POL,2463) ½-½ WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341)

Round nine - Wednesday September 26, 2012
WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341) 1-0 GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524)
GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549) 1-0 GM Socko Monika (POL,2463)
GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502) 1-0 WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294)
GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593) 0-1 GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606)
GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520) ½-½ IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434)
WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492) ½-½ WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528)

Round ten - Thursday September 27, 2012
GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524) 1-0 WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528)
IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434) ½-½ WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492)
GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606) ½-½ GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520)
WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294) 0-1 GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593)
GM Socko Monika (POL,2463) ½-½ GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502)
WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341) 0-1 GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549)

Round eleven - Friday September 28, 2012
GM Zhao Xue (CHN,2549) ½-½ GM Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS,2524)
GM Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL,2502) 1-0 WGM Yildiz Betul Cemre (TUR,2341)
GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2593) 1-0 GM Socko Monika (POL,2463)
GM Cmilyte Viktorija (LTU,2520) 1-0 WGM Ozturk Kubra (TUR,2294)
WGM Ruan Lufei (CHN,2492) ½-½ GM Muzychuk Anna (SLO,2606)
WGM Ju Wenjun (CHN,2528) 0-1 IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MGL,2434)

Koneru Humpy won her final round game comfortably and won this GP by half point and now places second in the overall Grand Prix series.

Humpy lost playing with white in 9th game against top-seed Anna Muzychuk but won last two rounds and Anna managed only draw in last two rounds.

Tennis News
At $551K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[SF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) l (4) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 76(6) 46 8-10

Lee and Horia Tecau lost in the semis against Butorac and Hanley ... Lee and Horia won the first set in tie-break ... In the second set Butorac and Hanley broke Lee in 7th game, Lee and Horia had a break point in 10th game but Butorac won the set with ace ... In match tie-break Butorac and Hanley kept early mini-break advantage to complete the victory.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[QF] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) bt (6) Dennis Lajola (USA, 552) 63 67(5) 64

[SF] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) vs (1) Alex Bogdanovic (GBR,333)

Prakash needed three sets to beat in-form American Dennis Lajola ... With this win he is in the semis, where he meet top-seed British Alex Bogdanovic.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Gulbarga, Karnataka

[SF] Prerna Bhambri (IND) bt Nan Nan Zhang (CHN) 62 62
[SF] (4) Zi Yang (CHN) bt (1) Wang Yau Venise Chan (HKG) 60 60

[QF] (4) Zi Yang (CHN) bt (WC) Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy (IND) 61 60
[QF] Nan Nan Zhang (CHN) bt (WC) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) 76(2) 60
[QF] Prerna Bhambri (IND) bt (2) Emily Webley- Smith (GBR) 75 1-2 Retd.

[R2] (1) Wang Yau Venise Chan (HKG) bt (Q) Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND) 62 64
[R2] (WC) Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy (IND) bt Natasha Palha (IND) 76(2) 36 61
[R2] (WC) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) bt (3) Kyra Shroff (IND) 63 60
[R2] Prerna Bhambri (IND) bt (WC) Spruti Shivalingaiah (IND) 64 46 63

[R1] (Q) Sowjanya Bavisetti (IND) bt Sweta Rana (IND) 64 63
[R1] (Q) Oleksandra Korashvili (UKR) bt (6) Ankita Raina (IND) 75 61
[R1] (4) Zi Yang (CHN) bt Rutuja Bhosale (IND) 60 60
[R1] Natasha Palha (IND) bt (Q) Shalaka Uddur Manjunath (IND) 75 62
[R1] (WC) Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy (IND) bt (5) Rishika Sunkara (IND) 76(6) 64
[R1] Ju-Eun Kim (KOR) bt (Q) Riya Bhatia (IND) 61 60
[R1] (WC) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) bt Napatsakorn Sankaew (THA) 76(5) 46 64
[R1] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND) bt (WC) Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND) 76(2) 61
[R1] (WC) Spruti Shivalingaiah (IND) bt (8) Nidhi Chilumula (IND) 61 36 63
[R1] Prerna Bhambri (IND) bt Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) 75 62
[R1] Misa Kinoshita (JPN) bt Shivika Burman (IND) 61 60

Excellent result for Prerna, who is in the final in this tough $10K tournament.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[QF] (ALT) Sanam Singh (IND)/ Vasek Pospisil (CAN) l (1) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 64 36 5-10

Sanam and Vasek gave terrific fight to top-seed Poles but lost in match tie-break ... After winning the first set they lost momentum and Poles came back to win it.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $551K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[QF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) bt Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/ Alexander Waske (GER) 60 36 10-5

[SF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) vs (4) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)

Leander is in the semis with his new Romanian partner Horia Tecau and they will face 4th seed pair ... In the quarters they defeated Tipsarevic and Waske in match tie-break after winning the first set without losing a single game.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F6 Futures, Binh Duong

[QF] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) l (6) Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,548) 46 16

Doubles
[SF] (3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Vijayant Malik (IND) l (2) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Bowen Ouyang (CHN) 46 62 10-12

Vijayant failed to continue with his 7 matches winning streak in the singles and lost against Japanese ... In the doubles he and his Thai partner lost very close match against 2nd seed pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[R2] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) bt (4) Reid Carleton (USA,527) 63 60

[QF] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) vs (6) Dennis Lajola (USA, 552)

Prakash is definitely playing top-400 type tennis ... Another dominating win against top-525 player losing only 3 games.

Chess News
At São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final,

Round 3 - Wednesday, September 26
Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Levon Aronian ½-½ Francisco Vallejo
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Sergey Karjakin

Another draw for Anand in the third round ... All other boards also ended in draw.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] (LL) Sanam Singh (IND,373) l Nikolay Davydenko (RUS,44) 57 46

Sanam was lost due to his lack of experience in this top level but he gave creditable fight to Davydenko ... In this match Sanam faced 16 break points.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $551K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[R1] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) bt Robin Haase (NED)/ Jean Julien-Rojer (NED) 64 75

[QF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) vs Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/ Alexander Waske (GER)

So a winning start for this new pair ... Next they r facing Tipsarevic and Waske in the quarters.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F6 Futures, Binh Duong

[R2] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt Maximilian Dinslaken (GER,795) 63 75
[R2] Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,847) l (2) Liang-Chi Juang (TPE,399) 46 16

[QF] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs (6) Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,548)

Doubles
[QF] (3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Vijayant Malik (IND) bt Chih-Jen Ho (TPE)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) 64 46 10-5
[QF] Andrew Fitzpatrick (GBR)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) l (2) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Bowen Ouyang (CHN) 36 76(5) 7-10

[SF] (3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Vijayant Malik (IND) vs (2) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Bowen Ouyang (CHN)

Vijayant continued with his good form and really happy with his consistency.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[R1] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) bt (Q) Sahr Timothy Kpulun (SLE,1498) 64 62

[R2] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) vs (4) Reid Carleton (USA,527)

Expected winning start against fellow qualifier ... Next he is facing 4th seed American.

Chess News
At São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final,

Round 2 - Tuesday, September 25
Francisco Vallejo 0-1 Magnus Carlsen
Sergey Karjakin 0-1 Fabiano Caruana
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Levon Aronian

Round 1 - Monday, September 24
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Francisco Vallejo
Levon Aronian 1-0 Sergey Karjakin
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Magnus Carlsen

Anand is struggling with his form after three month layoff ... But after first round loss Carlsen responded with solid win in the second.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] (ALT) Sanam Singh (IND)/ Vasek Pospisil (CAN) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Matthew Ebden (AUS) 64 64

Terrific lucky break for Sanam ... After entering into the singles main-draw as lucky loser he got chance to enter into the doubles as alternate pair with Canadian Pospisil ... This pair started with win against experienced American-Australian pair in the straight sets ... In the quarters they will mostly face top-seed Polish pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F6 Futures, Binh Duong

[R1] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt Bowen Ouyang (CHN,733) 62 75
[R1] (Q) Ajai Selvaraj (IND,1110) l Maximilian Dinslaken (GER,795) 46 06
[R1] Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,847) bt (Q) Jae Hwan Kim (KOR,1397) 63 62

[R2] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs Maximilian Dinslaken (GER,795)
[R2] Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,847) vs (2) Liang-Chi Juang (TPE,399)

Expected wins for Vijayant and Ashwin.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[Q4] (5) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1454) l (10) Thomas Shubert (USA,1653) 63 26 46
[Q4] Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt Michael Laser (USA,UNR) 60 61

[R1] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,945) vs (Q) Sahr Timothy Kpulun (SLE,1498)

Prakash qualified for the main-draw in third week in a row ... He scored very dominating win losing a single game ... In main-draw he is facing another qualifier.

Shooting News
At ISSF World Cup Final - Shotgun - 2012, Maribor, Slovenia

Double Trap
Gold - Joshua Richmond (USA) (49+48+48 = 145) 145 + 47 = 192
Silver - Ronjan Sodhi (IND) (48+49+47 = 144) 144 + 47 = 191
Bronze - Fehaid Aldeehani (KUW) (47+47+49 = 143) 143 + 47 = 190

American Joshua Richmond won the 2012 Double Trap Men ISSF World Cup title, at the ISSF World Cup Final held in Maribor, Slovenia ... He defeated the winner of the last 2010 and 2011 ISSF World Cup Finals Indian Ronjan Sodhi by a single target ... Richmond qualified for the final hitting 145 targets, one more than Ronjan Sodhi ... That one extra target helped him to win the gold medal as in the final all top three shooters hit 47 targets each.

Tennis News
At $2.2M Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo

[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP) l (ALT) Darija Jurak (CRO)/ Katalin Marosi (HUN) 06 64 8-10

Sania's poor run contined ... This week she played with another new partner, Spanish Nuria Llagostera Vives ... They were 2nd seed but lost against alternate playing in match tie-break after losing the first set without winning a single game.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] (LL) Sanam Singh (IND,373) vs Nikolay Davydenko (RUS,44)

Sanam is in main-draw as lucky-loser and he is playing against very inconsistent Davydenko.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F6 Futures, Binh Duong

[R1] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,536)
[R1] (LL) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,941) l (7) Arata Onozawa (JPN,562) 16 16
[R1] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs Bowen Ouyang (CHN,733)
[R1] (Q) Ajai Selvaraj (IND,1110) vs Maximilian Dinslaken (GER,795)
[R1] Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,847) vs (Q) Jae Hwan Kim (KOR,1397)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Vijayant Malik (IND) bt (WC) Mach Dan Huynh Ho (VIE)/ Duc-Quynh Tran (VIE) 64 64
[R1] Andrew Fitzpatrick (GBR)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) 46 76(10) 10-4

[QF] (3) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Vijayant Malik (IND) vs Chih-Jen Ho (TPE)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE)
[QF] Andrew Fitzpatrick (GBR)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) vs (2) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Bowen Ouyang (CHN)

Kaza lost easily against 7th seed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[Q3] (5) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1454) bt Sam Gould (NZL,UNR) 64 76(6)
[Q3] Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt Jesus Alberto Reyes (MEX,UNR) 61 60

[Q4] (5) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1454) vs (10) Thomas Shubert (USA,1653)
[Q4] Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs Michael Laser (USA,UNR)

Prakash and Sunil r in the final qualifying round ... This week Prakash re-entered into ATP rankings after finalist at Claremont ... His current rank is, #945

Golf News
At Asia-Pacific Panasonic Open 2012, Japan

Final Standing
T4 Shiv Kapur (IND) 67 68 69 67 -13 ￥6,350,000 (approx. $81,400)
T51 Jeev Milkha Singh (IND) 67 71 74 72 PAR ￥660,000 (approx. $8460)
T68 Chiragh Kumar (IND) 69 72 71 77 +5 ￥300,000 (approx. $3850)
70 SSP Chowrasia (IND) 74 67 76 74 +7 ￥300,000 (approx. $3850)

Shiv Kumar scored 4 under final round to finish inside top 5 in this prestigious jointly organized tournament by JPGA and Asian tours ... After longtime Shiv produced this top 5 finish which helped him to win more that 81 thousand dollars ... Jeev, SSP and Chiragh failed to produce below par rounds.

Archery News
At Archery World Cup Final, Tokyo, Japan

Recurve Women Individual Final
Deepika Kumari (IND) l Bo Bae Ki (KOR) 4-6 (26-23, 27-25, 24-28, 23-26, 25-26)

[SF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Jennifer Nichols (USA) 6-2 (28-24, 25-26, 26-25, 28-27)
[QF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Miki Kanie (JPN) 7-1 (25-23, 26-26, 29-24, 27-24)

Deepika Kumari missed big opportunity of winning the world cup final stage ... In the final she had big opportunity of beating current Olympics gold medalist Korean Bo Bae Ki ... Deepika started positively after winning first 2 sets but Bo fought back winning next 2 sets ... In 4th set Deepika was needing 10 to win this match but she managed only 7 ... In the final set also Deepika was needing 9 to win this world cup but again she managed 7 only.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh (IND, 370) l (2) Michael Yani (USA,241) 46 67(4)

Sanam lost against experienced American Yani in straight sets ... In the first set both players hold their service games till 4-all ... In the second set Sanam take early lead and was leading 5-3 but lost advantage from here ... Yani broke back and then take the set in tie-break which he won comfortably.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $551K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[Q2] N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,536) l (4) Hiroki Moriya (JPN,204) 46 36

Doubles
[R1] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) vs Robin Haase (NED)/ Jean Julien-Rojer (NED)

Vijay Sundar failed to stretch Japanese Davis cup player Moriya and lost in straight sets.

This week Lee is playing with Tecau.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F26 Futures, Irvine

[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt Eddie Neese (USA,UNR) 61 61
[Q1] (5) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1454) bye

[Q2] (5) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1454) bt Harrison Keyser (AUS,UNR) 62 3-0 Retd.
[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt Masayoshi Ono (JPN,UNR) 63 57 61

[Q3] (5) Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,1454) vs Sam Gould (NZL,UNR)
[Q3] Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs Jesus Alberto Reyes (MEX,UNR)

Prakash and Sunil moved into 3rd qualifying round.

Tennis News
At $850K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur

[Q1] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,370) bye
[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh (IND, 370) bt Yew-Ming SI (MAS,UNR)

[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh (IND, 370) vs (2) Michael Yani (USA,241)

Good draw for Sanam and take full advantage of it ... Now in the final qualifying he is facing experienced American Yani.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $551K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[Q1] N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,536) bt (WC) Chayanon Kaewsuto (THA,UNR) 64 64

[Q2] N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,536) vs (4) Hiroki Moriya (JPN,204)

Expected straight sets victory over Thai wild-card player for Vijay Sundar ... Though he needed to fightback after 0-3 down in the second set ... Next he is facing top-200 type Japanese Davis cup player Moriya.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K Izmir Cup, Turkey

[SF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (3) Brydan Klein (AUS)/ Dane Propoggia (AUS) 67(5) 46

Purav and Drew were up with early break but they failed to keep pressure ... They missed numerous break points and Australians take full advantage of it ... After winning the first set in tie-break they won the second with a single break.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F5 Futures, Binh Duong

Singles Final
[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt Junn Mitsusashi (JPN,658) 75 62

[SF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt (3) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,399) 63 36 63

Vijayant ended his superb week with winning title in this Vietnamese futures ... With this 22 yrs old Vijayant Malik wins his first futures title in his fifth futures final ... Before this Vijayant had made 4 futures finals from 2011, 3 in India and 1 in Nigeria.

In the final he was 0-3 down but after that he played excellently ... When Mitsusashi was serving for the set at 3-5 Vijayant broke him in 9th game and then again broke him in 11th game before holding his serve to win the set ... Vijayant didn't give chance Mitsusashi in the second set ... He broke Mitsusashi in 1st and 3rd games to lead 4-0 ... After that Mitsusashi tried fight back and broke Vijayant in 6th game to make it 2-4 but again Vijayant broke Mitsusashi in 7th game ... Then Vijayant hold his serve for the title win ... Before that Vijayant defeated higher ranked Taipei player in the semis.

Tennis News
At $75K Izmir Cup, Turkey

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) l (2) Michael Russell (USA,106) 67(4) 16

Doubles
[QF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (ALT) Roman Borvanov (MDA)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 64 76(4)
[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR) 06 63 8-10

[SF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (3) Brydan Klein (AUS)/ Dane Propoggia (AUS)

In the first set Vishnu matched with experienced Russell in all departments but in tie-break Russell take mini-break on 1st point and that was enough for him to win the first set ... In the second set Russell dominated the proceeding after breaking Vishnu in 2nd game to take 3-0 lead and then double his lead breaking Vishnu in 6th game to win the match.

In doubles Purav and Drew enter into the semis with straight sets victory ... After winning the first set with a single break our pair was leading with early break in the second but lost their serve in 8th game to bring the set back on serve ... Again Purav and Drew take break in 11th game but again failed to hold while serving for the match ... They played better tie-break for completing the victory ... Next they r facing 3rd seed Aussie pair in the semis.

Vishnu and Divij started disastrously after losing the first set without winning a single game ... They fought back after winning the second set with early break ... In match tie-break British pair take early lead which our pair failed to overcome ... Tiredness after the Davis cup matches were shown in this tournament.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F5 Futures, Binh Duong

[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt (1) Jose Statham (NZL,325) 46 64 63

[SF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs (3) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,399)

Doubles
[QF] Yang Lu (CHN)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) l (1) Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA)/ Jose Statham (NZL) 36 26

Vijayant scored superb upset win against top-seed and New Zeland's Davis cup player Jose Statham ... After losing the first set Vijayant played excellent and take advantage of Jose's tiredness from last week's Davis cup matches.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F25 Futures, Costa Mesa

[R2] (SE) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) l (Q) Marcos Giron (USA,1739) 36 46

Prakash lost in the second round against in-form American qualifier Marcos Giron in the straight sets.

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2012, Tokyo

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) l Wei Feng Chong (MAS,35) 16-21 16-21
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) l (4) Yeon Ju Bae (KOR,11) 21-10 12-21 18-21

Ajay failed to produce much fight to experienced Malaysian, who is having terrific record against all Indian players.

Sindhu failed to repeat her performance like China Masters ... She started confidently winning the first game losing oly 10 points but from the second game Yeon Ju Bae improved her performance and Sindhu struggled with adjust her game ... Bae won the second game comfortably ... In the final game Bae take early lead of 11-4 then 15-6 ... From 10-18 Sindhu tried fightback and came close to 17-19 ... But in end that early difference was too much and Sindhu lost against Bae.

After last week's performance Sindhu climb to her personal best ranking, #20 ... Ajay Jayaram and Sourabh Varma also climb to their best singles ranking, Ajay at #23 and Sourabh at #31 ... oung Guru re-enter into the top-50, #46.

Tennis News
At $500K KDB Korea Open, Seoul

[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) l Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/ Vania King (USA) 75 46 7-10

Sania and Anabel lost in match tie-break after winning the first set.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K Izmir Cup, Turkey

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) bt Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA,188) 64 62

[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs (2) Michael Russell (USA,106)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Denis Matsukevich (RUS)/ Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 64 76(3)

[QF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (ALT) Roman Borvanov (MDA)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)
[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR)

Vishnu continued with his good form ... He struggled in the first set with his serve but he take crucial break in 9th game and while serving for the set saved few break points before winning this set ... In the second set he served well and then broke Izak in 3rd and 7th game for completing victory ... In the doubles also Vishnu had a winning start with Divij and they defeated tricky pair of experienced Tursunov and his partner.
Next he is facing 2nd seed Russell ... I think it is high time for Vishnu for win over top-100 around experienced player ... :)

In doubles our pair having good chance to reach into the semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F5 Futures, Binh Duong

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt (WC) Minh-Quan Do (VIE,1290) 61 63
[R2] (Q) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,941) l Junn Mitsuhashi (JPN,658) 67(6) 06

[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs (1) Jose Statham (NZL,325)

Expected win for Vijayant but surprised to see meltdown by Kaza in the second ... Hopefully no injury issue.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F25 Futures, Costa Mesa

[R1] (SE) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt Ya-Nan Ma (CHN,1026) 63 61

[R2] (SE) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs Q-Marcos Giron (USA,1739)

Prakash continued with his good form from last week ... He defeated his Chinese opponent convincingly ... Next he is facing American qualifier, who upset 4th seed in the first round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K $15K Australia F8 Futures, Port Pirie, Australia

[R1] (4) Saketh Myneni (IND,384) l Gavin Van Peperzeel (AUS,887) 36 Retd.

Doubles
[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Patrick Davidson (USA) l David Barclay (AUS)/ Robert Howe (AUS) 46 76(4) 7-10

I really hope not a serious injury issue for Saketh.

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2012, Tokyo

[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,54) l (1) Lee Chong Wei (MAS,2) 13-21 9-21
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) bt (Q) Zi Liang Derek Wong (SIN,63) 21-14 21-14
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,19) l (7) Taufik Hidayat (INA,12) 18-21 18-21
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,55) l (4) Sho Sasaki (JPN,7) 18-21 15-21
[R1] (Q) B. Sai Praneeth (IND,69) l Daren Liew (MAS,27) 21-17 15-21 20-22
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) bt Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,50) 21-18 17-21 21-13

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l (8) Thien How Hoon (MAS)/ Wee Kiong Tan (MAS) 16-21 13-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l (5) Naoki Kawamae (JPN)/ Shoji Sato (JPN) 16-21 24-26
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN) 18-21 19-21

Ajay started with comfortable victory over Singaporean qualifier ... After winning the first game Sindhu faced resistance from her Japanese opponent but in the third Sindhu dominated to win it comfortably ... Sasaki take early 7-2 lead against Guru which Guru failed to overcome ... Guru saved 3 game points but Sasaki converted 4th to win it ... Same story repeated in the second game also ... Sai Praneeth won the first game before losing the second ... In the final game Sai take lead in the middle of game 14-9 which he kept till 19-16 ... Liew caught with him at 19-all still Sai had match point at 20-19 but failed to convert it ... Kashyap gave fighting performance but lost in straight games against Hidayat ... Anand was no match to Lee ... Our all doubles pair lost in straight games.

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2012, Tokyo

[Q1] (3) B. Sai Praneeth (IND,69) bt Andrew Smith (ENG,97) 21-15 18-21 21-19

[Q2] (3) B. Sai Praneeth (IND,69) bt Riichi Takeshita (JPN,127) 21-14 21-15

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) vs (Q) Zi Liang Derek Wong (SIN,63)
[R1] (Q) B. Sai Praneeth (IND,69) vs Daren Liew (MAS,27)

Sai Praneeth needed to dig deep in the first round against Smith ... He was 11-16 down in the final game but he fought back to win 7 points from next 8 points to complete the victory ... He qualified for main-draw with comfortable win over local player

Tennis News
At $500K KDB Korea Open, Seoul

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND) / Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) vs Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/ Vania King (USA)

Bethanie is injured so Sania is again playing with new partner and facing tricky first round match against King and Amanmuradova.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K Izmir Cup, Turkey

Doubles
[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Drew Courtney (USA) bt (1) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS)/ Denys Molchanov (UKR) 63 62

Purav and Drew scored very comfortable win against top-seed pair ... Good start for them.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F5 Futures, Binh Duong

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) bt (Q) Nuttanon Kadchapanan (THA,1878) 63 57 60
[R1] (Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,941) bt Hyun-Woo Nam (KOR,662) 36 63 62
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,536) l (5) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN,442) 36 76(5) 16

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs (WC) Minh-Quan Do (VIE,1290)
[R2] (Q) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,941) vs Junn Mitsuhashi (JPN,658)

Kaza scored excellent upset win over experienced Korean Nam ... Vijay Sundar lost against his Chinese opponent ... Vijayant needed 3 sets against Thai youngster.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F25 Futures, Costa Mesa, USA

[R1] (SE) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs Ya-Nan Ma (CHN,1026)

Prakash received special exemption in main-draw for this futures as he reached the final in last week's US 24 futures.

Golf News
At $500K Yeangder Tournament Players Championship, Chinese Taipei (Asian Tour)

Final Standing
1 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 66 69 69 -12 $79,250.00
T9 Himmat Rai (IND) 71 70 71 -4 $9,220.00
T21 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 68 74 72 -2 $5,325.00
T27 Chiragh Kumar (IND) 74 70 71 -1 $4,425.00
T53 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 73 74 72 +3 $1,800.00

Gaganjeet Bhullar fought his way through tough condition to win his 3rd Asian Tour title by final three-under-par 69 round at the weather-shortened Yeangder Tournament Players Championship on Monday ... Gaganjeet ended 4 strokes ahead of 2nd place American Jason Knutzon and 14-time Asian Tour winner Thaworn Wiratchant of Thailand to win this tournament with his 3 days total of 12-under-par 204 ... The Yeangder TPC was reduced to 54-stroke play tournament because of inclement weather.

Gaganjeet Bhullar - “I believe it was my fighting spirit as I told myself that I’ve got to win this tournament no matter what happens. I knew I was playing well and I played really well on the par-fives all week. I guess this whole week I was totally focused and I was in the zone and if I can repeat what I’ve been doing the last two rounds nobody can even touch me.“

“I’ve been in this position many times on the Asian Tour and after that it was my fighting spirit. I told myself that I had to make another birdie and it came on the 16th. The par saver and tournament saver would be the putt on the 14th. I also saved another par on the 15th which was really good. Those two putts gave me lots of confidence and I told myself that if I can hole these two, I can hole a long putt for a birdie and that was what exactly happened on the 16th.”

Badminton News
At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2012, Tokyo

[Q1] (3) B. Sai Praneeth (IND,69) vs Andrew Smith (ENG,97)

[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,54) vs (1) Lee Chong Wei (MAS,2)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) vs Qualifier
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,19) vs (7) Taufik Hidayat (INA,12)
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,55) vs (4) Sho Sasaki (JPN,7)
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,24) vs Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,50)

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs (8) Thien How Hoon (MAS)/ Wee Kiong Tan (MAS)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (5) Naoki Kawamae (JPN)/ Shoji Sato (JPN)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN)

Sourabh Varma withdrawn from Japan open ... Tough draw for our players as most of them playing seeded opponents.

Tennis News
At $10K USA F24 Futures, Claremont, USA

[F] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) l (2) Daniel Kosakowski (USA,346) 36 16

Kosakowski defeated Prakash convincingly in the final but still terrific run from Prakash in this futures tournament after long injury break.

-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K $15K Australia F8 Futures, Port Pirie, Australia

[R1] (4) Saketh Myneni (IND,384) vs Gavin Van Peperzeel (AUS,887)

Doubles
[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Patrick Davidson (USA) vs David Barclay (AUS)/ Robert Howe (AUS) vs

Good to see Saketh is playing in tougher Australian condition.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F5 Futures, Binh Duong

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,477) vs (Q) Nuttanon Kadchapanan (THA,1878)
[R1] (Q) Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,941) vs Hyun-Woo Nam (KOR,662)
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,536) vs (5) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN,442)

Doubles
[R1] Yang Lu (CHN)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) bt (WC) Mach Dan Huynh Ho (VIE)/ Duc-Quynh Tran (VIE) 64 76(9)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) l (3) Perakiat Siriluethaiwattana (THA)/ Kittiphong Wachiramanowong (THA) 46 16
[R1] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l (WC) Hans Lindenberg Stentoft (DEN)/ Philip Orno (DEN) 67(4) 64 9-11

Sidharth and Ajai lost in the final qualifying ... So only Kaza qualified for main-draw but he is facing Korean Hyun-Woo Nam, last week Kaza managed to win only 5 games against Nam.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I Relegation Play-off 2012, Chandigarh, India

India bt New Zealand 5-0

Day One
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) bt Daniel King-Turner (NZL,382) 36 06 62 64 62
[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs Jose Statham (NZL,317) 62 67(5) 64

Day Two
[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) bt Jose Statham (NZL,317) 62 67(5) 64 62
[R3] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Daniel King-Turner (NZL)/ Michael Venus (NZL) 76(3) 46 63 67(4) 63

Day Three
[R4] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) bt Jose Statham (NZL,317) 26 75 76(5)
[R5] Sanam Singh (IND,367) bt Artem Sitak (NZL,705)

In the first set Yuki was totally off-color and was playing erratic game ... From the second set he played little better but still not his best tennis ... In the third set he was struggling with cramps ... His team to need work on his fitness and importantly his sudden terrible play in the match.

As expected Sanam played in the last rubber ... Sanam struggled with his serve early in the match ... He made numerous double faults but Artem served more poorly to lose the first set and in the second set Sanam was terrific form ... He won this set breaking Artem 3 times ... So clean 5-0 win for India.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K Izmir Cup, Turkey

[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,1263) bt Dinko Halachev (BUL,1906) 63 61
[Q2] Purav Raja (IND,) l (3) Mirza Basic (BIH,304) 26 46

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA,188)

Doubles
[R1] Purav Raja (IND) / Drew Courtney (USA) vs (1) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) / Denys Molchanov (UKR)
[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND) / Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Denis Matsukevich (RUS) / Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)

Purav played in Izmir cup qualifying ... Won the first round comfortably but he lost against top-300 player in the second round.

Only Vishnu participated in the singles ... He is facing South African Davis cup player and Top #200 ranked Van Der Merwe.

In the doubles, Vishnu and Divij r 2nd seed and facing tricky Russian pair where Tursunov is playing ... Purav is again playing with Drew but they r facing top-seed in the first round.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F24 Futures, Claremont, USA

[SF] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Mohamed Abid (TUN,UNR)

[F] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs (2) Daniel Kosakowski (USA,346)

Prakash continued with his good form and defeated another experienced Tunisian qualifier quite comfortably ... In the final he is facing American 2nd seed Daniel Kosakowski.

Badminton News
At $400K Li Ning China Masters 2012, Changzhou

[SF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) l Yun Hu (HKG,21) 16-21 18-21
[SF] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) l (4) Yanjiao Jiang (CHN,9) 10-21 21-14 19-21

Ajay Jayaram struggled with his regular game and he was never in the match .. Erratic game cost him his first place in the major final.

Jiang showed greater experience on the court and take 10-3 lead ... Jiang never gave chance to Sindhu for comeback and won it comfortably ... In the second game Sindhu take 6-0 lead which Jiang managed to reduce it 13-14 ... But Sindhu won 7 points from next 8 points to win this game ... In this game Sindhu played very good net game and excellent deceptive drop shots in her advantage ... In the final game both players were exchanging lead ... Jiang opened couple of points lead at 8-6 but Sindhu won next 4 points to lead 10-8 ... This time Jiang won next 4 points to retake the lead, 12-20 ... From 12-16 down Sindhu won next 5 points to lead 17-16 ... After that Sindhu missed couple of easy shots; open court smash and simple return in the net ... Jiang used her all experience to win final 2 points ... Sindhu had a big opportunity but she missed due to pressure ... Still creditable performance from Sindhu, Ajay, Guru and Sourabh in this Chinese super series.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I Relegation Play-off 2012, Chandigarh, India

India bt New Zealand 3-0

Day One
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) bt Daniel King-Turner (NZL,382) 36 06 62 64 62
[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs Jose Statham (NZL,317) 62 67(5) 64

Day Two
[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) bt Jose Statham (NZL,317) 62 67(5) 64 62
[R3] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Daniel King-Turner (NZL)/ Michael Venus (NZL) 76(3) 46 63 67(4) 63

Jose Statham saved a break point in 1st game and other hand Vishnu was serving superbly ... Vishnu take break in 5th game with excellent return game ... He doubled his break lead again breaking Jose in 7th game and then hold comfortably to completed victory ... Vishnu played excellent tennis from back of the court from both flanks ... This win gives 2-0 lead to India.

Kiwis decided to play with King-Turner in the doubles ... They must be trying to use his big serving in their advantage ... In the first set both pairs hold their service games comfortably ... Nobody faced a break point ... In tie-break Kiwis take early mini-break at 1-2 but then our pair won next 4 points taking both points on Michael Venus's serve, 5-2 ... Then our pair doubles their mini-break lead with winning point on King-Turner's serve 6-3 ... Vishnu comfortably converted 1set set point on his serve ... In the second set we had 3 break points in 2nd game on Michael Venus's serve but Kiwi's hold ... Our pair take break on Venus's serve in 6th game with some superb return, 4-2 ... Next on Vishnu's serve 2 mis-judgement by our pair cost this game ... Kiwis again broke Divij in 9th game when our pair made errors ... From 4-2 up we lost the second set losing 4 games in a row ... Mis-judgments, poor first serve percentage and errors on crucial points cost us ... In 1st game of the third set our pair saved 3 break points on Vishnu's serve before holding it ... Our pair broke Michael Venus's serve in 4th game at luv with excellent service returns to take 3-1 lead ... After that our both players hold their service games to win this set ... In this set Divij and Vishnu played some superb passing shots from back of the court ... With that they managed to put extra pressure on Kiwis serve ... In the fourth set Vishnu struggled with cramps ... Kiwis take a break on Divij's serve in 4th game due to mistake by our players ... Vishnu received some medical help for his cramps from Misra and support staff ... With Vishnu's tightness and reduced movements Divij take initiative and tried his best ... Our pair broke Venus in 7th game to brought the set on serve ... In 11th game our pair missed big opportunity, they had 3 break points, 0-40, on Venus serve ... Kiwis saved break points before holding ... In tie-break Kiwis targeted Vishnu and take match in the fifth set after winning it ... In the fifth set also Vishnu wasn't looking fit ... This was his sixth set of the day ... Indians take 1st break in 6th game after breaking Venus at luv ... Next game was big as injured Vishnu was serving ... He was 15-40 down but then his 4 big serves including 2 aces to hold and strengthen the break, 5-2 ... Kiwis tried to put pressure on Divij in 9th game but excellent service gsme by Divij, who converted first match point ... So winning debut for our new pairing of Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan in 3 hours 52 minutes ... With this win we completed victory in this tie on the second day.

Huge resilience and courage from Vishnu ... Today he played six sets and in that last two sets he played with cramps and came out as winner ... He played 9 sets in 26 hours ... Proud with this young Indian team.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F24 Futures, Claremont, USA

[QF] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt (5) Jeff Dadamo (USA,580) 76(3) 76(5)

[SF] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs (Q) Mohamed Abid (TUN,UNR)

Another excellent win by Prakash over seeded American player ... This match was tough as Prakash struggling with his serve but he kept pressure and won tie-breaks ... Next he is facing experienced Tunisian Mohamed Abid, who is also coming out of injury ... He qualified winning 4 matches and in the quarters he defeated top-seed #311 Britisher Bogdanovic.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Spain F28 Futures, Legnica

[QF] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,1182) l Jaime Pulgar-Garcia (ESP,996) 76(6) 36 26

Mohit Mayur failed to keep momentum after winning the first set and lost in the quarters.

Badminton News
At $400K Li Ning China Masters 2012, Changzhou

[QF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,56) l (1) Long Chen (CHN,3) 8-21 12-21
[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) bt Sourabh Varma (IND,40) 12-21 21-14 21-16
[QF] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) bt (2) Xuerui Li (CHN,2) 21-19 9-21 21-16

[SF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs Yun Hu (HKG,21)
[SF] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) vs (4) Yanjiao Jiang (CHN,9)

Sindhu scored biggest win of her career beating WR #2 and London Olympics gold medalist Xuerui Li, that's also in China ... In the first game Sindhu opened 6-2 lead Li made it 7-8 but that only close she managed to get ... Sindhu kept her lead and opened 19-15 lead before converting 2nd game point to win this game ... Xuerui Li responded strongly in the second game and take 8-0 lead before winning this game losing only 9 points ... In the decider also Sindhu take couple of points lead from the start and was leading 8-3 ... Sindhu extended that lead to 14-7 and Xuerui Li reduced the lead to 16-19 ... But Sindhu kept her cool and completed huge win over in-form Xuerui Li in 45 minutes ... In the semis she is facing another Chinese opponent WR #9 Yanjiao Jiang.

Guru failed to create challenge against top-seed Long Chen and lost easily in straight games ... In all-Indian quarter-final, Ajay overcome challenge of young Sourabh after losing the first game ... Still creditable fighting performance by Sourabh Varma.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I Relegation Play-off 2012, Chandigarh, India

India vs New Zealand 1-0

Day One
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) bt Daniel King-Turner (NZL,382) 36 06 62 64 62
[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs Jose Statham (NZL,317) 62 67(5) 64

Happy to see Yuki pulled off victory after losing first 2 sets ... He had poor body language in those two sets ... He was looking flat and was going through motions but from the third set he started to find his range of shots and played really well ... Again some patchy work in the fourth before controlling match in the fifth ... Really big experience for Yuki to lead India as top player and then producing comeback after two sets down ... Really be a big shot in the arm for his future.

From the start Yuki was struggling with his serve ... Yuki had a break point in 6th game but failed to convert it ... From here Yuki lost next 9 games ... Those 9 games were worst played by Yuki while I ever watched ... From third set Yuki raised his game and broke Turner in 5th and 7th games to win this set ... In 4th set, Yuki broke Turner in 1st game and kept that advantage to take match in the fifth ... In the final set again Yuki broke Turner in 1st game and was serving better ... Yuki take another break on Turner's serve in 7th game to lead 5-2 ... Won the match with fabulous drop shot from middle of the court.

In the second match Vishnu started with bang and was winning free points on his serve ... He take early break to lead and then again broke Jose in 8th game to win the set ... From middle of the second set Vishnu started to struggle on his serve and giving few points through errors to Jose ... Jose take advantage of it to win the second set in tie-break ... In the third set Vishu take early mini-break and kept that advantage to win this set ... Match suspended due to bad light.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F4 Futures, Binh Duong

[QF] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,982) l (6) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,658) 26 26

Nam scored hat-trick on wins over Indians players after beating Sid easily ... Still good performance by SIdharth to reach in the quarters with two upset wins.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Spain F28 Futures, Legnica

[R2] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,1182) bt (Q) Manuel Mazzella (ITA,1878) 57 62 64

[QF] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,1182) vs Jaime PULGAR-GARCIA (ESP,996)

Good to see Mohit Mayur taking advantage of lucky break of the first round to reaching quarters.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K USA F24 Futures, Claremont, USA

[R1] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt Dennis Nevelo (USA,829) 63 64
[R2] (PR)Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) bt (3) Devin Britton (USA,486) 64 76(4)

[QF] (PR) Prakash Amritraj (IND,UNR) vs (5) Jeff Dadamo (USA,580)

Excellent results for Prakash, who is playing with protected ranking in US futures ... In the first round he defeated American Dennis Nevelo easily ... In the second round he upset 3rd seed and the 2008 US Open junior singles finalist and 2009 NCAA singles champion Devin Britton in straight sets ... Huge victory for Prakash.

Badminton News
At $400K Li Ning China Masters 2012, Changzhou

[R1] (8) Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Jian Guo Ong (MAS)/ Yin Loo Lim (MAS) 9-21 14-21

[R2] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,56) bt (8) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) 16-21 21-18 21-4
[R2] Sourabh Varma (IND,40) bt Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,30) 21-12 21-16
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) bt Zi Liang Derek Wong (SIN,64) 21-17 21-9
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) bt (8) Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,14) 10-21 21-7 21-19

[QF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,56) vs (1) Long Chen (CHN,3)
[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs Sourabh Varma (IND,40)
[QF] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) vs (2) Xuerui Li (CHN,2)

Ajay dominated the second game before little stretched in the first game by Wong ... Sourabh continued with his impressive performance against higher ranked opponent, this time Taiwani player ... He won the first game comfortably ... In the second game from 8-all he opened 3 points lead and kept increasing to win this game converting 3rd match point ... Kashyap won the first game but Guru fought back to win the second ... In the third game Guru take 6-0 lead then extended to 11-1 ... Guru won last 7 points in a stretch to complete the victory ... I m hoping no injury issue with Kashyap ... Top-15 Thai Porntip started confidently and won the first game comfortably against Sindhu but Sindhu made excellent comeback in the match and won the second game losing only 7 points ... In the final game Porntip take 11-6 lead but Sindhu caught with her at 14-all and from 16-all she take couple of points lead ... Sindhu maintained that lead to complete upset victory over Porntip.

Our 8th seed MXD pair of Ashwini and Tarun lost easily in the first round against Malaysians.

In the quarters Ajay is facing Sourabh ... Guru is facing top-seed and WR #3 Long Chen ... Sindhu is facing WR #2 and London Olympics gold medalist Xuerui Li.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I Relegation Play-off 2012, Chandigarh, India

Day One
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) vs Daniel King-Turner (NZL,382)
[R2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs Jose Statham (NZL,317)

Day Two
[R3] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Artem Sitak (NZL)/ Michael Venus (NZL)

Day Three
[R4] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) vs Jose Statham (NZL,317)
[R5] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,262) vs Daniel King-Turner (NZL,382)

India decide to play safe and last night added WR #94 Divij in the team as doubles specialist ... Today announcing team for match-up for day one our captain SP Misra decided to stick with rankings of the players ... Despite Sanam's good form in last few weeks SP Misra decided to play Vishnu as the second singles player ... Not a bad choice but sometime I feel we need to see form of the player in Davis cup matches ... Wishing good luck for our young team.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Istanbul Challenger, Turkey

[SF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (2) Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (ESP)/ John Peers (AUS) 67(4) 4-3

Purav and Drew lost the first set in tie-break against 2nd seed.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F4 Futures, Binh Duong

[R2] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,937) l (6) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,658) 46 16
[R2] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,982) bt (2) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,561) 63 62

[QF] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,982) vs (6) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,658)

Doubles
[SF] (3) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) l (2) Nuttanon KADCHAPANAN (THA) / Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 46 36

Sidharth scored very comfortable upset win over 2nd seed and 550-type Japanese player Onozawa in the second round ... Next he is facing 6th seed Nam, who defeated 2 Indian players in his first 2 rounds.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Spain F28 Futures, Legnica

[R1] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,1182) bt (8) Guillermo Gomez-Diaz (ESP,884) 67(1) 2-3 Retd.

[R2] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,1182) vs (Q) Manuel Mazzella (ITA,1878)

Doubles
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Cristian Florentin VOINEA (ROU) bt Sergio MAGRO MORENO (ESP)/ Inigo SANTOS ALVAREZ DE MO (ESP) 63 61

[QF] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Cristian Florentin VOINEA (ROU) l (2) Miguel-Angel LOPEZ JAEN (ESP)/ Oriol ROCA BATALLA (ESP) 26 46

Mohit Mayur got lucky break as his seeded opponent withdrew in the second set while leading in the match ... Mohit Mayur lost in doubles quarters with his Romanian partner.

Tennis News
At $75K+H Istanbul Challenger, Turkey

[QF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Jamie Baker (GBR)/ Erik Chvojka (CAN) 62 16 10-8

Purav and Drew needed match tie-break to beat good pairing of Baker and Chvojka to reach semis.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F4 Futures, Binh Duong

[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,982) bt Perekiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA,908) 62 64
[R1] Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1104 ) l (6) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,658) 36 16

[R2] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,937) vs (6) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,658)
[R2] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,982) vs (2) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,561)

Doubles
[QF] (3) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 75 64

[SF] (3) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) vs (2) Nuttanon KADCHAPANAN (THA) / Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA)

Sidharth is started to show consistency in his results with win over higher ranked Thai ... Next he and Kaza r facing seeded opponents.

Badminton News
At $400K Li Ning China Masters 2012, Changzhou

[R1] (8) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) bt (Q) Huan Gao (CHN,164) 21-13 14-21 21-19
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,56) bt Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS,31) 21-18 19-21 21-13
[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,40) bt Daren Liew (MAS,28) 19-21 21-17 21-12
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) bt (3) Kenichi Tago (JPN,9) 21-13 21-17
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,55) l (2) Jin Chen (CHN,4) 17-21 12-21
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) bt Jamie Subandhi (USA,281) 21-15 21-12

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l Patiphat Chalardchaleam (THA)/ Nipitphon Puangpuapech (THA) 11-21 21-17 18-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l Rasmus Bonde (DEN)/ Mads Conrad-Petersen (DEN) 21-18 12-21 21-19

[R2] (8) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) vs Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,56)
[R2] Sourabh Varma (IND,40) vs Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,30)
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs Zi Liang Derek Wong (SIN,64)
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) vs (8) Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,14)

Impressive easy win by Ajay against top-10 Japanese player ... Also good fighting win by Guru and Sourabh against higher ranked respective Malaysian opponents in three games ... Kashyap also won tricky match against Chinese qualifier ... Sindhu scored comfortable win over lower ranked American player ... But our both doubles pair lost in the first round in three games.

Badminton News
At $400K Li Ning China Masters 2012, Changzhou

[Q1] (2) Sai Praneeth B. (IND,) l Huan Gao (CHN,164) 13-21 21-18 20-22

[R1] (8) Kashyap Parupalli (IND,20) vs (Q) Huan Gao (CHN,164)
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,56) vs Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS,31)
[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,40) vs Daren Liew (MAS,28)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs (3) Kenichi Tago (JPN,9)
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,55) vs (2) Jin Chen (CHN,4)
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) vs Jamie Subandhi (USA,281)

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs Patiphat Chalardchaleam (THA)/ Nipitphon Puangpuapech (THA)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs Rasmus Bonde (DEN)/ Mads Conrad-Petersen (DEN)
[R1] (8) Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Jian Guo Ong (MAS)/ Yin Loo Lim (MAS)

Many top players including Saina decided to skip China super series ... Our many young players r playing here but Sai Praneeth lost against local player Huan Gao in the first qualifying round ... Gao is facing Kashyap in the first round ... Anand is facing WR #4 local favorite Jin Chen.

Tennis News
At $75K+H Istanbul Challenger, Turkey

[R1] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (4) Goran Tosic (MNE)/ Denis Zivkovic (USA) 63 63

[QF] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Jamie Baker (GBR)/ Erik Chvojka (CAN)

Really good easy upset win over 4th seed pair for Purav and his partner Drew Courtney ... Next they r facing unseeded British-Canadian pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $10K Vietnam F4 Futures, Binh Duong

[Q1] Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1189) l Jui MAO (TPE,1842) 46 57

[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,937) bt (WC) Hans LINDENBERG STENTOFT (DEN,UNR) 63 61
[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,982) vs Perekiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA,908)
[R1] Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1104 ) vs (6) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,658)

Doubles
[R1] Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Kenny BUN (CAM)/ Andy LAU (HKG) 64 64
[R1] (3) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Minh-Quan DO (VIE)/ Quoc-Khanh LE (VIE) 62 63

[QF] (3) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) vs Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND)

Good to see our players r playing in Asian futures.

Hockey News
At Champions Challenge 1, Dublin, Ireland

Indian Women team

Goalkeepers - Yogita Bali, Savita
Defenders - Jaspreet Kaur, Sushila Chanu, Kirandeep Kaur (vice-captain), Deep Grace Ekka, Deepika, Joydeep Kaur
Mid-fielders - Ritu Rani (captain), Vandana Katariya, Monika Malik, Chanchan Devi, Poonam Rani, MN Ponnamma
Forwards - Roselin Dung Dung, Soundarya Yendala, Lily Chanu, Anupa Barla

Officials Chief Coach - Neil Hawgood

Indian women’s team is announced for Champions Challenge 1 in Dublin ... Which will be played from September 29 to October 7 ... This is a first assignment for our new head coach Neil Hawgood.

Eight teams r participating - (7) Australia, (10) South Africa, (11) USA, (12) India, (13) Spain, (14) Belgium, (15) Ireland and (19) Scotland

And the winner of this tournament will join Argentina, England, Netherlands, Germany and Japan in the Women's Hockey Champions Trophy 2014 to be played in Argentina.

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

Men's Round 11
(13) India l (7) Azerbaijan 1½-2½

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND,2707) dw GM Eltaj Safarli (AZE,2620) ½-½ (B)
GM Pentala Harikrishna (IND,2685) l GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE,2729) 0-1 (W)
GM Parimarjan Negi (IND,2664) dw GM Rauf Mamedov (AZE,2634) ½-½ (B)
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal (IND,2550) dw GM Gadir Guseinov (AZE,2613) ½-½ (W)

Women's Round 10
(6) India bt (14) France 2½-1½

GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) bt IM Almira Skripchenko (FRA,2442) 1-0 (B)
IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) dw IM Sophie Milliet (FRA,2411) (W) ½-½
WGM Mary Ann Gomes (IND,2396) l WGM Nino Maisuradze (FRA,2284) 0-1 (B)
WGM Swaminathan Soumya (IND,2271) bt WIM Andreea Bollengier (FRA,2253) 1-0 (W)

Terrific performance by our girls to finished on 4th position ... Our first top 5 finish in Chess Olympiad ... With this performance our women team is qualified for World Team Chess Championship 2013.

Also what a performance by Abhijeet and Tania to win individual medals ... First time we won individual medal in Open and Women section ... Abhijeet Gupta gets the Silver on the Fourth Board and Tania Sachdev gets the Bronze on the Third Board.

But very disappointed performance by our other men's team members and we finished on lowly 35th position.

Tennis News
At $50K Shanghai-1 Challenger, China

[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt (WC) Xin Gao (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 64 76(5)

[F] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l (1) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 46 46

Yuki and Divij lost against Ratiwatana brothers in the final ... I was hoping another title for our pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $75K+H Istanbul Challenger, Turkey

[R1] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (4) Goran Tosic (MNE)/ Denis Zivkovic (USA)

This week Purav is playing with another new partner, American Drew Courtney.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Ningbo Challenger, China

[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,485) l Matt Reid (AUS,285) 67(2) 67(1)

Vijayant got lucky break of playing in main-draw of challenger as due to many players r playing in their respective Davis cup matches ... He had tough first round against Australian Matt Reid ... Vijayant gave fighting performance but failed to win tie-breaks.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Men's Doubles Final
(5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (2) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan(USA) 36 46

Bryans were serving well from the beginning and holding their serves comfortably ... Other hand they managed to put pressure on Radek and Lee's service games ... In 2nd game Radek saved 4 break points and then in 4th game Lee saved 3 break points on his serve ... Bryans broke Radek in 6th game to take lead ... Lee and Radek saved 3 set points on Lee's serve in 8th game but Bryans hold their serve comfortably to won it ... In the second set Bryans broke Radek in 1st game after few errors from Radek and Lee ... Lee also needed to save break point before holding his serve in 3rd game ... Again they saved 3 break points on Radek serve before holding it in 5th game ... In their last service games first time Lee and Radek hold their serve without facing break point but they failed to put pressure on Bryans serve so one break advantage was enough for Bryans to win this set and match ... In end comfortable win for Bryans, well deserving one ... This was Bryans 4th US Open title and this was their 12 grandslam titles ... Before this they were tied with Woodies ... They now have tied the record for most Grand Slam doubles titles of all time as a team and share that record with Aussies John Newcombe and Tony Roche.

Today Radek and Lee were looking flat ... Failed to pump up and put more energy into the match ... Other hand Bryans were playing almost perfect doubles match ... In whole match They hold their serves without facing a single break point and our pair faced break points on their every serve until Lee hold in 7th game of the second set without facing a break point.

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

Men's Round 10
(13) India dw (15) Cuba 2-2

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND,2707) l GM Leinier Dominguez Perez (CUB,2725) 0-1 (W)
GM Pentala Harikrishna (IND,2685) l GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista (CUB,2711) 0-1 (B)
GM Parimarjan Negi (IND,2664) bt GM Yuniesky Quesada Perez (CUB,2626) 1-0 (W)
GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND,2637) bt IM Yusnel Bacallao Alonso (CUB,2583) 1-0 (B)

Women's Round 10
(6) India bt (25) Israel 3½-½

GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) bt WIM Maya Porat (ISR,2295) 1-0 (W)
IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) bt WIM Marsel Efroimski (ISR,2174) 1-0 (B)
WGM Mary Ann Gomes (IND,2396) dw IM Masha Klinova (ISR,2317) ½-½ (W)
WGM Swaminathan Soumya (IND,2271) bt WFM Yuliya Shvayger (ISR,2202) 1-0 (B)

Sasi and Hari failed to overcome challnge of higher elo rated opponents ... Both gave fighting performance ... Sasi lost in 63 moves playing with white against Leinier Dominguez Perez ... Hari played with black and lost in 62 moves against Lazaro Bruzon Batista ... But this time again our last two boards helped us to drew this tie ... Negi defeated Yuniesky Quesada Perez with white in 45 moves ... Abhijeet continued with his good form and defeated Yusnel Bacallao Alonso in 40 moves playing with black.

Indian women scored dominating win against lower rated Israeli team ... Harika defeated Maya Porat in 36 moves playing with white ... Tania continued with her good form and defeated Efroimski in 55 moves playing with black ... Masha Klinova hold higher rated Mary after 55 moves ... Soumya beat Shvayger in 40 moves playing with black.

Volleyball News
At 3rd AVC Cup 2012, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam

For Third Place
India l Japan 1-3 (25–16, 18–25, 20–25, 21–25)

We lost against Japan in the bronze medal match ... We started well winning the first set easily but after that we failed to keep same momentum and lost next three sets comfortably.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Men's Doubles
[SF] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (6) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Marc Lopez (ESP) 6-6 Retd.

[F] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (2) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan(USA)

Lee and Radek take 4-2 lead but Spanish pair broke back to make it 5-all ... At 6-all Spanish pair conceded defeat due to leg injury to Marc Lopez ... Tough luck for Spanish pair ... In the final our pair facing Bryans ... Hoping repeat result of Australian open final.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Shanghai-1 Challenger, China

[QF] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,402) l (1) Yen-Hsun Lee (TPE,80) 26 36

Doubles
[QF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt (WC) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 76(4) 46 6-10

[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs (WC) Xin Gao (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN)

Sanam failed to produce much fight against top-seed Yen-Hsun ... In the first set Yun won 4 games in a row from 2-all to win ... In the second set Yun take crucial break early in the set and completed win in straight sets.

In the first set Chinese pair broke our serve in 1st game but immediately broke back to make it 1-all ... In tie-break we were 4-2 up before losing 5 points in a row to lose the set ... In the second set we take early break against Chinese pair and kept that advantage for winning the set ... In match tie-break both pairs traded early mini-break but from 6-all Yuki and Divij won next 4 points and completed victory.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K Iran F2 Futures, Esfahan (clay)

Doubles Final
(2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) bt Sarvar Ikramov (UZB)/ Sergey Shipilov (UZB) 61 61

After shocking exit in the singles Balaji lifted back to back title in the doubles at Iranian futures ... In the final our pair dominated Uzbek pair and winning the title losing only two games.

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

Men's Round 9
(13) India dw (26) Georgia 2-2

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND,2707) dw GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (GEO,2659) ½-½ (B)
GM Pentala Harikrishna (IND,2685) dw GM Merab Gagunashvili (GEO,2578) ½-½ (W)
GM Abhijeet Gupta (IND,2637) bt GM Tornike Sanikidze (GEO,2585) 1-0 (B)
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal (IND,2550) l GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO,2575) 0-1 (W)

Women's Round 9
(6) India l (2) Russian Federation 1-3

GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) dw GM Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS,2530) ½-½ (W)
IM Eesha Sanjay Karavade (IND,2371) l IM Valentina Gunina (RUS,2507) 0-1 (B)
IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) dw GM Nadezhda Kosintseva (RUS,2524) ½-½ (W)
WGM Swaminathan Soumya (IND,2271) l GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS,2489) 0-1 (B)

Another disappointing show on top boards by our players ... Georgian players hold higher rated Sasi and Hari in their matches ... GN Gopal lost against Pantsulaia in 56 moves but Abhijeet played marathon match against Sanikidze and earned full point after 105 moves playing with black.

Harika and Tania hold their higher rated opponents playing with white ... Harika hold Kosintseva in 34 moves ... Tania hold Kosintseva in 33 moves ... But Eesha and Soumya lost playing with black ... Kosteniuk defeated Soumya in just 30 moves and Eesha lost against Gunina in 45 moves ... This loss will push us outside of top 5 in the standing.

Volleyball News
At 3rd AVC Cup 2012, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam

[SF] India l Iran 0-3 (23-25 13-25 23-25)

As expected Iran beat us ... We produced fight in the first and third set but still Iran won 3-0 ... Tomorrow in the third place match we will face Japan.

Tennis News
At US Open 2012, Flushing Meadows, USA

Men's Doubles
[QF] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Julian Knowle (AUT)/ Filip Polasek (SVK) 62 64

[SF] (5) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (6) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Marc Lopez (ESP)

Boys Doubles
[R1] Shotaro Goto (JPN)/ Sumit Nagal(IND) l Anton Desyatnik (RUS)/ Karen Khachanov(RUS) 36 46

Lee and Radek gave clinical performance to completed victory in straight sets ... Yesterday they won the first set and were up with a break in the second ... In the semis they r facing solid Spanish pairing 6th seed Granollers and Lopez.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $50K Shanghai-1 Challenger, China

[R2] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,402) bt (6) Yuki Bhambri (IND,188) 76(4) 16 62

[QF] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,402) bt (1) Yen-Hsun Lee (TPE,80)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Denys Molchanov (UKR) l (WC) Xin Gao (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 76(2) 46 6-10

Excellent win by Sanam over an erratic Yuki ... In the first set both players broke other's service twice but Sanam ake importnat mini-break for winning this set ... In the second set Yuki broke Sanam twice and won this set ... In decider Sanam broke Yuki twice to completed good win ... Yuki struggled with his serve and made 9 double faults ... Next Sanam having tough match against top-seed and WR #80 Yen-Hsun Lee.

Turned to be disappointing tournament for Vishnu ... He lost in the first round of doubles also ... They won the first set in tie-break against local pair but lost the second set with service break ... In match tie-break from 6-all Chainese pair won next 4 points for upset win.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K Iran F2 Futures, Esfahan (clay)

[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,375) l (7) Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,661) 16 36
[QF] (5) N.Vijay Sundar Prasanth (IND,633) l Issam Al Tawil (SYR,1500) 46 57
[QF] (4) Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND,492) l (8) Shahin Khaledan (IRI,1284) 36 62 06

Doubles
[SF] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) bt Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) 75 76(6)

[F] (2) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) vs Sarvar Ikramov (UZB)/ Sergey Shipilov (UZB)

After dominating first week our players failed in this week's futures ... Shocking one-sided loss for Balaji considering his form ... Also Vijay Sundar and Ranjeet lost their respective matches.

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

Men's Round 8
(13) India dw (20) Serbia 2-2

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (IND,2707) l GM Ivan Ivanisevic (SRB,2645) 0-1 (W)
GM Pentala Harikrishna (IND,2685) dw GM Milos Perunovic (SRB,2614) ½-½ (B)
GM Parimarjan Negi (IND,2664) dw GM Nikola Sedlak (SRB,2549) ½-½ (W)
GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal (IND,2650) bt GM Dusan Popovic (SRB,2579) 1-0 (B)

Women's Round 8
(6) India bt (28) Vietnam 2½-1½

GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2503) dw WGM Pham Le Thao Nguyen (VIE,2393) ½-½ (B)
IM Eesha Sanjay Karavade (IND,2371) l WIM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (VIE,2212) 0-1 (W)
IM Tania Sachdev (IND,2379) bt WIM Le Kieu Thien Kim (VIE,2226 1-0 (B)
WGM Mary Ann Gomes (IND,2396) bt WIM Pham Bich Ngoc (VIE,2172) 1-0 (W)

Another disappointing result for us against lower rated opponents ... Serbia hold us 2-all draw ... Our top boards r screwing us in this Olympiad ... Today Sasi lost against lower rated Ivan Ivanisevic in 40 moves ... Sasi was under time pressure despite playing with white ... Hari and his opponent played very offensively ... They agreed draw after only 30 moves but only 6 pieces were on the board ... In another offensive match Negi managed draw after 42 moves ... This time only 5 pieces on the board, white had advantage of extra pawn ... Today GN Gopal saved an embarrassment ... He defeated Serbian GM Dusan Popovic playing with black after 55 moves.

In women's match our bottom two boards gave good start for us ... Tania and Mary scored victory with black and white pieces respectively ... Tania defeated her opponent in 56 moves and Mary in 44 moves ... But Eesha had shocking defeat in hands of lower rated Nguyen Thi Mai Hung after 81 moves ... Harika manage hard fought draw against Nguyen after 99 moves and we laboured to victory against 28th ranked Vietnam.