Tennis News
At $75K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,733) bt (4) Mischa Zverev (GER,137) 46 75 64

[R2] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,733) vs (Q) Taro Daniel (JPN,337)

In the first set Zverev take first break in 5th game but Somi broke back in the next game to make it 3-all ... Zverev take crucial break in 9th game and then hold his serve to win the first set ... In the second set Somi broke Zverev in 4th game to lead 3-1 but then failed to hold his serve in next game ... Again Somi broke Zverev in 8th game to lead 5-3 but failed to hold his own service game while serving for the set ... Somi won the set when he take crucial break on Zverev serve in 12th game ... In the final set Zverev take early break breaking Somi in 3rd game ... Suddenly Somi was making too many unforced errors ... Zverev take advantage of it and again broke Somi in 5th game to lead 1-4 ... Somi raised his game from this game and comeback strongly ... Somi won next 5 games and in that broke Zverev's serve 3 times; 6th game, 8th game and 10th game ... His best win after his shoulder operation.

Next he is facing Japanese qualifier, who defeated Prakash three weeks ago in Tiburon Challenger.
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At $15K India F14 Futures, Pune

[R2] (1) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,299) bt (WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1181) 61 61
[R2] (7) Mate PAVIC (CRO,467) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1188) 64 75
[R2] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,374) bt James MARSALEK (GBR,568) 63 62
[R2] (5) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,398) bt (WC) Chandril SOOD (IND,1174) 63 62
[R2] Prakash AMRITRAJ (IND,806) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1077) 75 60
[R2] (3) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE,368) bt (WC) Arjun KADHE (IND,1408) 76(3) 36 57
[R2] (8) Nicolas REISSIG (AUT,504) bt Chieh-Fu WANG (TPE,935) 63 63
[R2] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,328) bt (Q) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE,UNR) 61 76(2)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Saket Myneni (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 63 64
[QF] (3) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Arjun Kadhe (IND) 62 75
[QF] (4) Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Nicolas Reissig (AUT) bt Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) 62 64
[QF] (2) N Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Sidharth Rawat (IND)/ Rakshay Thakkar (IND) 63 62

Overall expected results in the singles and the doubles but really impressive fight by young Arjun against 3rd seed Huang ... Huang won this match in the decider on his experience.

Tennis News
At €2.95M BNP Paribas Masters, Paris, France

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

This week Lee is playing with Jurgen ... For Mahesh and Rohan their performance in this Masters count for qualifying for ATP Tour Finals ... They r fighting for 2 places with 4th seed Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, who r in their draw and can meet in the quarters, other pair is 7th seed Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer.
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At $15K India F14 Futures, Pune

[R1] (1) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,299) bt (WC) Purav RAJA (IND,1279) 76(4) 62
[R1] (WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1181) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1115) 62 46 61
[R1] Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1188) bt (Q) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND,1475) 64 62
[R1] (7) Mate PAVIC (CRO,467) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,904) 63 61
[R1] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,374) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,921) 62 61
[R1] James MARSALEK (GBR,568) bt (Q) Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE,1521) 62 64
[R1] (WC) Chandril SOOD (IND,1174) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1196) 76(9) 61
[R1] (5) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,398) bt (Q) William KENDALL (USA,UNR) 63 64
[R1] Prakash AMRITRAJ (IND,806) bt (6) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,460) 75 62
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1077) bt (Q) Rakshay THAKKAR (IND,1360) 63 62
[R1] (WC) Arjun KADHE (IND,1408) bt (Q) Peng Chih HSUEH (TPE,UNR) 60 63
[R1] (3) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE,368) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1042) 61 61
[R1] (8) Nicolas REISSIG (AUT,504) bt (Q) Sebastian OFNER (AUT,UNR) 46 62 62
[R1] Chieh-Fu WANG (TPE,935) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,823) 64 76(3)
[R1] (Q) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE,UNR) bt (LL) Lakshit SOOD (IND,UNR) 75 63
[R1] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,328) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,543) 76(2) 57 64

Doubles
[R1] (1) Saket Myneni (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND)/ Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 63 63
[R1] Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Vivek Shokeen (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) 64 76(6)
[R1] (3) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) bt Ajai Selvaraj (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) 64 64
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt (WC) Tejas Chaukulkar (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) 63 64
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND)/ Lakshit Sood (IND) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) 75 75
[R1] (4) Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Nicolas Reissig (AUT) bt (WC) Rohan Gide (IND)/ Nitten Kirrtane (IND) 64 64
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND)/ Rakshay Thakkar (IND) bt (WC) Jatin Dahiya (IND)/ Sagar Manjanna (IND) 63 62
[R1] (2) N Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Ronak Manuja (IND) 64 36 10-7

Comfortable winning start for Saketh ... Chandril also scored good win against similar ranked Abhijeet but surprised loss of Ashwin against lower ranked Taipei player ... Expected results in the doubles.

Arjun started with a comfortable win but next he is facing 3rd seed Taipei player ... Happy to see Prakash's winning start against Ranjeet ... Vijay Sundar stretched Balaji in tough three sets.

Golf News
At $6.1M CIMB Classic, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Co-sanctioned by PGA and Asian Tours)

Final Standing
T10 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 65 72 65 67 -15 $102,500.00
T26 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 71 66 68 69 -10 $60,600.00

Gaganjeet Bhullar finished creditable tied for 10th position ... Gaganjeet managed 4 under final round which helped him to finish in top-10 and also best Asian player's finish this year.

Billiard News
At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format Final
(1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (6) Mike Russell (QAT) 1895-1216

Pankaj defeated hot favorite and defending multiple times World champion Mike Russell to lift this first unification Billiard World Championship ... Pankaj won the final by 650+ points ... Huge victory for Pankaj.

So both titles, Point and Time formats, won by Indians.

Badminton News
At $200K French Open 2012, Paris

[F] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) l Minatsu Mitani (JPN,26) 19-21 11-21

In this match Saina played some beautiful points but after that was making couple of errors and she was looking very tired ... In the first game she lost 4 points making unforced errors from 19-17 to lose it ... In the second game also she lost 10 points from final 12 points from 9-10 ... Disappointing performance for Saina ... Other hand Minatsu Mitani won her first Super series title in her first Super series final.

Billiard News
At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format - Final
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (3) Matthew Bolton (AUS) 6-2

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[SF] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 1381-867
[SF] (6) Mike Russell (QAT) bt (2) Matthew Bolton (AUS) 1562-1028

Rupesh Shah continued with his giant killing and lifted this first unification World Billiards Championship title in Point format beating Australian Matthew Bolton in the final.

Pankaj started well with big breaks in the first session ... He scored three breaks of 167, 205 and 257, which built a lead of 600 points by the session break ... That lead proved too big for Dhruv to overcome as finally Pankaj won the match by 514 points ... In the second semi-final Bolton tried hard to catch Russell but Mike Russell's huge 740 points break in the first session proved decisive.

Badminton News
At $200K French Open 2012, Paris

[SF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) bt (4) Juliane Schenk (GER,6) 21-19 21-8

[F] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) vs Minatsu Mitani (JPN,26)

Saina scored straight games win over Juliane Schenk in 36 minutes for another Super Series final ... In the first game Saina was leading by couple of points from the start but Juliane managed to catch with her at 6-all ... From 9-all Saina extended 13-9 lead but again Juliane caught her 16-all and then after falling behind 16-19 Juliane managed to make it 19-all ... Saina won next 2 points to win this game ... In the second game Saina opened 8-0 lead and she didn't give any chance of fightback to Juliane ... Saina won this game easily ... In the final Saina is facing Japanese Minatsu Mitani, last week at Denmark open Saina defeated her in the straight games.

Tennis News
At $15K India F13 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Final
(6) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,400) bt Mate Pavic (CRO,463) 61 61

Jeevan scored very dominating win over Pavic to win $15K futures title, his 4th futures title ... Though Pavic tried but failed to generate a single break point on Jeevan's serve ... Other hand Jeevan toyed with Pavic's serve breaking twice in the first set and thrice in the second.
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At $75K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[Q1] (3) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt Nicolas Meister (USA,543) 64 64

[Q2] (3) Sanam Singh (IND,355) l Edward Corrie (GBR,507) 46 16

[R1] (WC) Somdev DevVarman (IND,733) vs (4) Mischa Zverev (GER,140)

Doubles
[Q1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l (1) James Andersen (RSA)/ Izak van der Merwe (RSA) 46 63 10-5

Sanam started with straight sets victory in the first qualifying round ... But in the second qualifying round he faced British player and lost easily in two sets ... In the doubles qualifying Somi and Sanam lost against top-seed South African team in match tie-break ... So turned to be disappointing day for Sanam.

Somi received wild-card for the main-draw ... He is facing tough match-up against German top-150 Mischa Zverev.

Badminton News
At $200K French Open 2012, Paris

[QF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (7) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,10) 22-20 22-20

[SF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (4) Juliane Schenk (GER,6)

Saina needed her all experience to beat Thai youngster Ratchanok Intanon in 42 minutes ... In the first game Saina opened 5-2 lead which she maintained and then increased ... From 14-19 Ratchanok started fightback ... She won next 4 points to make it 18-19 and then saved 2 game points from 18-20 but Saina converted 3rd game point ... Almost same story repeated in the second game ... Saina take 4-0 lead but Ratchanok caught with her at 5-all ... Then both exchanged lead till 16-all ... THen Saina opened 2 points lead 18-16 ... Saina had 3 match points at 20-17 but this time also Ratchanok saved all 3 match points to make it 20-all ... Again Saina converted 4 match point for hard fought victory ... Next Saina is facing German Juliane Schenk ... Last week in the Danish open final Saina defeated her convincingly.

Billiard News
At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format
[SF] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (8) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 5-2
[SF] (3) Matthew Bolton (AUS) bt (2) David Causier (ENG) 5-3

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[QF] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (9) Rupesh Shah (IND) 1647-705
[QF] (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt (5) Sourav Kothari (IND) 562-558
[QF] (3) Geet Sethi (IND) l (6) Mike Russell (QAT) 739-1345
[QF] (2) Matthew Bolton (AUS) bt (10) David Causier (ENG) 927-581

After scoring back to back win against Geet and Pankaj in previous matches Peter Gilchrist failed to overcome Indian challenge in third match ... Rupesh Shah defeated him comfortably in the semis ... Rupesh is meeting Aussie Matthew Bolton in World championship match in point format.

Another closely fought match in the quarters of time format ... Sourav Kothari was leading most of the part until last minute when Dhruv managed to put important balls for the victory ... Pankaj showed ruthless form to beat Rupesh Shah ... Geet and Mike were neck to neck until the break but after that Mike put 485 points break which ended Geet's hope.

Tennis News
At $15K India F13 Futures, Mumbai

[SF] Mate Pavic (CRO,463) bt (4) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,372) 16 64 62
[SF] (6) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,400) bt (WC) Purav Raja (IND,1272) 63 64

Doubles Final
(1) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (3) N Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) 60 46 10-8

[SF] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Arjun Kadhe (IND) 60 67(5) 10-5

Jeevan scored comfortable win over over Purav ... In both sets he broke Purav's serve early and kept that advantage to win this match ... In the final Jeevan is facing young unseeded Croatian Mate Pavic.

In doubles final Saketh and Purav lifted title beating compatriots Balaji and Arun Prakash in match tie-break ... Before that in the semis after losing the first set 6-0 Kaza and Arjun fought back to win the second in tie-break but in match tie-break Purav and Saketh scored their experience for the win.

Billiard News
At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format
[QF] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) l (8) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 1-4
[QF] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (5) Ashok Shandilya (IND) 4-2
[QF] (6) Devendra Joshi (IND) l (3) Matthew Bolton (AUS) 0-4
[QF] (2) David Causier (ENG) bt Martin Goodwill (ENG) 4-1

Peter Gilchrist scored back to back upset win over Indians ... After defeating former world champion Geet Sethi last night he knocked out Pankaj Advani, another world champion in point format quarter final match ... Devendra Joshi outplayed by Matthew Bolton in other quarters.

Only Rupesh Shah manage to keep Indian interest in point format ... He defeated Ashok Shandilya in well fought match ... Next he is facing Peter Gilchrist.

Tennis News
At $15K India F13 Futures, Mumbai

[QF] (8) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,446) l Mate Pavic (CRO,463) 67(2) 16
[QF] (4) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,372) bt Nicholas Reissig (AUT,505) 46 61 62
[QF] (WC) Purav Raja (IND,1272) bt James Marsalek (GBR,572) 63 64
[QF] (6) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,400) bt (2) Christopher Rungkat (INA,303) 76(3) 62

Doubles
[SF] (3) N Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Nicolas Reissig (AUT) 63 62

[QF] (1) Saket Myneni (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) 62 63
[QF] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Arjun Kadhe (IND) bt (WC) Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND) 62 62
[QF] (3) N Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Arun Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Ronak Manuja (IND) 62 64
[QF] Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Nicolas Reissig (AUT) bt (2) Christopher Rungkat (INA)/Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) 63 64

Jeevan scored superb win over top-300 type in-form top Indonesian player, Christopher Rungkat ... After winning the first set in tie-break Jeevan won the second set with double break ... Purav's excellent run in the singles continued ... In the quarters he surprised British James Marsalek with his serve and volley game to win this match in the straight set ... Ranjeet failed to overcome challenge of Mate Pavic.

In the doubles Kaza and Arjun moved into the semis with comfortable win ... Balaji and Arun Prakah make sure that all Indians final in the doubles with their doubles semi-final comfortable win over Mate Pavic and Nicolas Reissig.

Badminton News
At $200K French Open 2012, Paris

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs (3) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,8) 21-18 17-21 14-21
[R2] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,27) 21-16 21-13

[QF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (7) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,10)

After the first round hiccup Saina won this round match more comfortably ... She controlled the match and scored straight games over her Thai opponent ... Next she is facing Thai top player, Ratchanok Intanon.

Ajay started well taking early control in the first game and won it keeping that lead ... But from the second game despite leading he lost advantage in crucial juncture and lost next 2 games.

Billiard News
At the 2012 World Billiards Championship, Leeds, England

World Billiards Championship 2012 - Time format
[R16] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Martin Goodwill (ENG) 1303-425
[R16] (9) Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Robert Hall (ENG) 571-569
[R16] (5) Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Matthew Sutton (ENG) 574-389
[R16] (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Ashok Shandilya (IND) 626-494
[R16] (3) Geet Sethi (IND) bt Robin Wilson (ENG) 776-615
[R16] (6) Mike Russell (QAT) bt (11) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 1033-627
[R16] (10) David Causier bt (7) Balachandra Bhaskar (IND) 1115-617
[R16] (2) Matthew Bolton (AUS) bt Siddharth Parikh (IND) 1127-342

[R32] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Phil Davis (ENG) 1063-199
[R32] Martin Goodwill (ENG) bt (16) Manish Jain (IND) 578-380
[R32] (9) Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Steve Brookshaw (ENG) 525-342
[R32] (5) Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Alok Kumar (IND) 855-373
[R32] Matthew Sutton (ENG) bt (12) Arun Agrawal (IND) 427-408
[R32] Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt (13) Nalin Patel (ENG) 535-313
[R32] (4) Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Dhvaj Haria (IND) 679-300
[R32] (3) Geet Sethi (IND) bt Revanna Umadevi (IND) 1016-193
[R32] (7) Balachandra Bhaskar (IND) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 451-436
[R32] Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt (15) John Hartley (ENG) 645-346

World Billiards Championship 2012 - 150up format

[R16] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt (16) Robin Wilson (ENG) 4-1
[R16] (8) Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt (9) Geet Sethi (IND) 4-1
[R16] (5) Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt (12) Michael Pearson (AUS) 4-0
[R16] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (4) Mike Russell (QAT) 4-2
[R16] (6) Devendra Joshi (IND) bt (11) Alok Kumar (IND) 4-1
[R16] (7) Martin Goodwill (ENG) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 4-1
[R16] (2) David Causier (ENG) bt (15) Siddharth Parikh (IND) 4-1

[R32] (1) Pankaj Advani (IND) bt S. Venkateswaran (IND) 4-0
[R32] (9) Geet Sethi (IND) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 4-0
[R32] (5) Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt Steve Brookshaw (ENG) 4-1
[R32] (12) Michael Pearson (AUS) bt Balachandra Bhaskar (IND) 4-2
[R32] Rupesh Shah (IND) bt (12) Robert Hall (ENG) 4-1
[R32] (11) Alok Kumar (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 4-0
[R32] (6) Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Christopher Taylor (ENG) 4-0
[R32] Sourav Kothari (IND) bt (10) Arun Agrawal (IND) 4-1
[R32] (15) Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt Dhvaj Haria (IND) 4-0

The newly formed World Billiards Ltd has brought together the International Billiards & Snooker Federation (IBSF) and World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA) events for a unified World Championship ... So 65 players from 15 countries participated for the first ever unified World Billiards Championship.

In time format, Balachandra Bhaskar (Group B), Dhruv Sitwala (Group C), Arun Agarwal (Group E), Geet Sethi (Group F), Pankaj Advani (Group G), Sourav Kothari (Group I) and Rupesh Shah (Group J) were group winners.

In 150up (point) format, Pankaj Advani (Group B), Devendra Joshi (Group D), Alok Kumar (Group F), Geet Sethi (Group G), Ashok Shandilya (Group I) and Arun Agrawal (Group J) were group winners.

In Point and Time formats Pankaj qualified as top-seed for knock-out stage with his superior scoring.

Our eight players r in thr round of 16 in time format knock-out stage ... In round of 32 matches only 3 players crossed 1000 points; Pankaj Advani (1063), Mike Russell (1046) and Geet Sethi (1016).

Five Indians in the quarter-final of time format including Pankaj and Geet ... Pankaj continued with his terrific form and scored dominating win ... Geet struggled against young Robin Wilson ... Sourav Kothari was lucky as last 13 minutes remaining he was leading 111 points until time end Hall managed unfinished 109 points and lost by 2 points ... Our finalist is guaranteed as in top draw all Indian players r remaining ... In the quarters Geet having tough test against defending champion and favorite Mike Russell .

In 150up (point) format knock-out stage, former world champion Rupesh Shah scored biggest upset when he defeated the defending champion Mike Russell in round of 16 ... Geet also lost against former world champion Peter Gilchrist ... Four Indians r in the quarter-finals in this category.

After losing 1st game to Rupesh, Russell fought back winning next 2 games where he produced two consecutive breaks over 100 points, 150 (unfinished) and 101 to take 2 games to 1 lead over Rupesh ... Rupesh scored 71 points break at crunch time to make it 2 games-all ... In 5th game Rupesh scored 127 points break and lead 3 games to 2 ... In 6th game Rupesh scored 72 and 61 points break but Mike fought back scoring 67 points break ... Rupesh kept his nerve in final momemnts and completed his dream victory.

Rupesh Shah - “It was not easy to make a comeback from 2-1 down and that against a legendary player like Russell. When I got a break of 71 and 127 in third and fourthframe, I started looking for a positive result. In the last game I was going well but when I missed on the score of 131, there was a feeling of so near yet so far. But finally I managed to win.”

Badminton News
At $200K French Open 2012, Paris

[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) l Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,23) 20-22 16-21
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) bt (Q) Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,64) 21-16 21-17
[R1] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Li Han (CHN,23) 21-11 16-21 21-19

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l (4) Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR)12-21 7-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Patiphat Chalardchaleam (THA)/ Savitree Amitrapai (THA) 18-21 15-21

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs (3) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,8)
[R2] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,27)

Another loss for Sourabh against Sony ... In the first game Sourabh produced fight and had a game point at 20-19 but after that Sony proved too strong for him.

Tarun and Ashwini's struggle of finding footing on international stage continue ... In men's double 4th seed Koreans trounced our Indian pair in 23 minutes.

In the first game from 4-all Saina opened small lead and then from 11-9 she won 6 points in a row to win this game comfortably ... In the second game Li Han started with winning first 6 points ... Saina tried hard to catch Li but this lead proved crucial to Li for winning the second game ... In the decider Saina take 3-0 lead which she increased to 11-5 but Li Han caught with her at 14-all then again at 17-all ... Saina won next couple of points to lead 19-17 but again Li Han managed to make it 19-all ... This time Saina won next 2 points to complete victory in 59 minutes ... Surprisingly tough match for Saina after her excellent title win at Denmark open ... Next Saina is facing Thai girl Sapsiree Taerattanachai.

Ajay scored straight games win over Thai qualifier ... In the first game couple of times Ajay take a lead and both time Suppanyu made it equal but from 11-all Ajay take control and won this game ... In the second game Ajay opened 7-2 lead and kept it till end despite efforts from Suppanyu ... In the second round Ajay is facing veteran Peter Gade.

Tennis News
At $100K+H Seoul Challenger, South Korea

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,181) l (WC) Ji Sung Nam (KOR,612) 0-1 Retd. ( Left foot arch bruised)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Yuichi Sugita (JPN)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE) w/o

Yuki retired from his singles match after playing a single game ... Don't know about seriousness of his injury ... He and Divij also give walkover in the doubles ... Tough luck for Yuki.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R2] Kyra Shroff (IND,540) l (6) Cristina Dinu (ROU,319) 16 26

Doubles
[QF] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS) l (1) Conny Perrin (SUI)/ Chanel Simmonds (RSA) 26 16
[QF] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) l (3) Jia Xiang LU (CHN)/ Jia-Jing LU (CHN) 26 67(6)

Rishika and her Israeli partner had some respected score in their loss against 3rd seed Chinese pair ... In other 2 matches our players managed to win only 3 games in their matches.
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At $15K India F13 Futures, Mumbai

[R2] (1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,272) l Mate PAVIC (CRO,463) 57 Retd.
[R2] (8) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,446) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,907) 61 64
[R2] (4) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE,372) vs (Q) Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE,1880)
[R2] (5) Saketh MYNENI (IND,387) l Nicolas REISSIG (AUT,505) 26 64 57
[R2] (WC) Purav RAJA (IND,1272) bt (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,421) 75 46 64
[R2] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,321) l James MARSALEK (GBR,572) 62 26 46
[R2] (6) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,400) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1082) 46 63 62
[R2] (WC) Arjun KADHE (IND,1404) l (2) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,303) 46 36

Proved terrible day for seeded Indians who played against foreigners ... Only 3 Indians in the quarters.

Tennis News
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I - Davis Cup 2013,

Draw is out for Asia/Oceania Zone Group I and we r 4th seeded ... In the first round India is facing South Korea ... Luckily this time we r having all home matches to qualify to the World Group Playoffs ... If we win against Korea from February 1-3, 2013 then we mostly face Japan (or Indonesia) from April 5-7, 2013.

AITA announced to hold the tie in New Delhi at the R K Khanna Tennis Stadium from February 1 to 3.
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At €1.9M Swiss Indoors Basel, Switzerland

[R1] (2) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l (ALT) Robin Haase (NED)/ Dick Norman (BEL) 57 62 12-14

Another shocking loss for Rohan and Mahesh against alternate pairing of Haase and Norman ... After losing the first set Rohan and Mahesh made strong comeback winning the second set easily ... In match tie-break they failed to keep momentum and lost in extra points.
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At $100K+H Seoul Challenger, South Korea

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,181) bt (3) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS,119) 64 76(5)
[R1] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,1310) l (6) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,135) 26 75 46

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,181) vs (WC) Ji Sung Nam (KOR,612)

Yuki scored big win against Dima, who was in great form after winning back to back challengers in Turkey last month and reaching QF at Tokyo ATP this month.

In the first set Yuki faced 6 break points on his serve but he saved 5 but he broke Dima's serve twice from 4 break points to win this set ... In the second set Yuki didn't face a single break point but he failed to convert 5 break points on Dima's serve ... In tie-break Dima double faulted to give Yuki min-break, 5-3 ... While serving for the match Yuki double faulted at 6-4 but Yuki again take mini-break on Dima's serve converting 2nd match point ... Next Yuki is facing Korean wild-card youngster, who scored easy upset win against Alexander Kudryavtsev.

Divij started with breaking Sugita in 2nd game to lead 2-0 but after that Sugita won next 6 games to win the set breaking Divij thrice ... In the second set Divij saved 7 break points and converted only break point in 12th game to win this set ... In the final set Sugita take crucial break in 7th game and kept that advantage to win this match.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R1] Kyra Shroff (IND,540) bt (Q) Chinenye Ndidi Izuogo (NGR,UNR) 60 60
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND,675) l (7) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,346) 26 67(4)
[R1] Shivika Burman (IND,861) l (5) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO,299) 36 36
[R1] Rishika Sunkara (IND,634) l Viktoriya Tumova (BUL,599) 26 36
[R1] (Q) Arantxa Andrady (IND,UNR) l Anja Prislan (SLO,520) 06 16
[R1] (Q) Nikita Deshmukh (IND,UNR) l (2) Channel Simmonds (RSA,177) 06 06

[R2] Kyra Shroff (IND,540) vs (6) Cristina Dinu (ROU,319)

Doubles
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS) bt Osariemen Airhunmwunde (NGR)/ Rita Obasigie (NGR) 61 61
[R1] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) 64 60
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) l (2) Cristina Dinu (ROU)/ Tadeja Majeric (SLO) 62 57 3-10

[QF] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS) vs (1) Conny Perrin (SUI)/ Chanel Simmonds (RSA)
[QF] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) vs (3) Jia Xiang LU (CHN)/ Jia-Jing LU (CHN)

Expected easy win for Kyra, who won without losing a single game ... In doubles Rishika and her Israeli partner Ester started with easy win ... Next they r facing 3rd seed Chinese pair.
-----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F13 Futures, Mumbai

[R1] (1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,272) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,823) 64 57 63
[R1] Mate PAVIC (CRO,463) bt (Q) Rakshay THAKKAR (IND,1358) 36 62 62
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,907) bt (Q) Sebastian OFNER (AUT,UNR) 60 64
[R1] (8) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,446) bt Reid CARLETON (USA,511) 4-1 Retd.
[R1] (4) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE,372) bt N Vijay Sunder PRASHANTH (IND,534) 62 67(2) 62
[R1] (Q) Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE,1880) bt Chieh-Fu WANG (TPE,941) 61 64
[R1] Nicolas REISSIG (AUT,505) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1122) 63 63
[R1] (5) Saketh MYNENI (IND,387) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1917) 62 61
[R1] (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND,421) bt (Q) William KENDALL (USA,UNR) 64 75
[R1] (WC) Purav RAJA (IND,1272) bt (Q) Jatin DAHIYA(IND,1668) 61 60
[R1] James MARSALEK (GBR,572) bt (Q) Lakshit SOOD (IND,1900) 61 62
[R1] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,321) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1044) 75 64
[R1] (6) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,400) bt (WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,1178) 62 63
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1082) bt (Q) Peng Chih HSUEH (TPE,UNR) 63 62
[R1] (WC) Arjun KADHE (IND,1404) bt (WC) Kunal ANAND (IND,1267) 63 60
[R1] (2) Christopher RUNGKAT (INA,303) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,926) 63 61

Doubles
[R1] (1) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Purav RAJA (IND) bt (WC) Anvit BENDRE (IND)/ Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND) 60 64
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt Rakshay THAKKAR (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 63 62
[R1] Arjun KADHE (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt (4) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 62 67(4) 10-8
[R1] (WC) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 62 75
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 75 64
[R1] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE)/ James MARSALEK (GBR) 61 75
[R1] Mate PAVIC (CRO)/ Nicolas REISSIG (AUT) bt (wC) Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Lakshit SOOD (IND) 62 63
[R1] (2) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE)/ Christopher RUNGKAT (INA) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)

Impressive start for young Arjun Kadhe in the singles and doubles ... Bala won tricky match against Ramkumar ... Other hand expected easy win for Jeevan.

Badminton News
At $200K French Open 2012, Paris

[Q1] Arvind Bhat (IND,77) l Matthieu Lo Ying Ping (FRA,90) 16-21 22-20 14-21
[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Scott Evans (IRL,67) 21-14 21-10

[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,51) l Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,64) 21-16 24-26 29-30

[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) vs Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,23)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs (Q) Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,64)
[R1] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Li Han (CHN,23)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (4) Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Patiphat Chalardchaleam (THA)/ Savitree Amitrapai (THA)

Arvind Bhat lost match due to rustiness and tiredness ... After losing the first game he was match point down at 19-10 ... He won this game after saving match point but Frenchman blown away his challenge from 12-all in the final game.

Other hand Anand Pawar started with comfortable win over Irish top player in 30 minutes ... In the first game Anand take control from 9-all and in the second game he take control from 5-all for this comfortable win ... But Anand lost in the final qualifying in a long match which was lasted for 82 minutes ... After winning the first game Anand faced big challenge from Suppanyu ... Anand saved couple of game points from 18-20 but failed to convert 3 match points and Suppanyu converted 4th game point to take match into decider ... In the third game Anand opened early lead and was leading 13-8, 15-11 and 17-15 ... Suppanyu made it 17-all afterwards both players traded lead one after another ... Anand had 3 more match points in extra points, importantly at 28-27 then 29-28 but Suppanyu saved those and converted his 6 match point for his terrific comeback victory.

Tennis News
At $100K+H Seoul Challenger, South Korea

[Q3] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) bt Woong-Sun Joon (KOR,735) 64 76(10)

[R1] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,1310) vs (6) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,135)

Divij won the weird final qualifying match where both players shared 13 service breaks ... In the first set 1st 7 service games got broken but Divij managed to keep his one break advantage to win it ... In the second set also first 5 service games got broken ... Divij was leading 4-2 but while serving for the match at 5-4 he got broken ... In tie-break also Divij was leading 5-2 before Korean made it 5-all ... Korean missed 3 set points which he failed to convert and Divij managed to convert 3rd match point for a win ... In main-draw he is having tough match against 6th seed Japanese Yuichi Sugita.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R1] Kyra Shroff (IND,540) vs (Q) Chinenye Ndidi Izuogo (NGR,UNR)
[R1] (Q) Nikita Deshmukh (IND,UNR) vs (2) Channel Simmonds (RSA,177)
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND,675) vs (7) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,346)
[R1] (Q) Arantxa Andrady (IND,UNR) vs Anja Prislan (SLO,520)
[R1] Shivika Burman (IND,861) vs (5) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO,299)
[R1] Rishika Sunkara (IND,634) vs Viktoriya Tumova (BUL,599)

Doubles
[R1] Nikita Deshmukh (IND)/ Alexandra Riley (USA) vs Anastasia Meglinskaya (RUS)/ Alexandra Romanova (RUS)
[R1] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) vs Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK)
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) vs (2) Cristina Dinu (ROU)/ Tadeja Majeric (SLO)

Hopefully this week Kyra will take advantage of good draw ... Other than her only Rishika having match which she can wins.

Golf News
At $1.25M Hero Indian Open, Bengaluru, India (Asian Tour)

Final Round
4 Shiv KAPUR (IND) 67 71 68 66 -12 $61,625.00
T5 Anirban LAHIRI (IND) 70 71 66 67 -10 $43,333.33
T8 Chiragh KUMAR (IND) 69 71 67 68 -9 $29,437.50
T12 Jyoti RANDHAWA (IND) 72 68 67 70 -7 $18,520.83
T22 Gaganjeet BHULLAR (IND) 68 69 70 73 -4 $13,312.50

Thai veteran Thaworn Wiratchant won the tournament in the play-off against Scottish Richie Ramsay and become leader in Asian Order of Merit.

Three Indians finished in top 10 ... Shiv Kapur and Anirban Lahiri scored excellent 5 under and 4 under respectively to finish inside top 5 ... But in-form Gaganjeet struggled on this course and managed only 2 over last round which pushed him outside top 20.
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At $4M The McGladrey Classic, Sea Island, Georgia, USA (PGA Tour)

Final Round
T10 Arjun Atwal 67 63 69 71 -10 $92,000

Arjun missed chance of securing his PGA tour card ... He required top 2 finish and he was tied for 3rd position after the third round ... Instead he managed 1 over in the final round to finish in tied 10th position ... Big miss opportunity for Arjun ... Now only last tournament is remaining of the season and Arjun need top 3 finish for securing PGA tour card for 2013 season.

Squash News
At 5K Ipsich Open 2012, Australia

Women's Final
(7) Anaka Alankamony (IND,92) bt (1) Kylie Lindsay (NZL,36) 11-8 13-11 11-5 (31m)

[SF] (7) Anaka Alankamony (IND,92) bt (6) Cheyna Tucker (RSA,80) 11-9 8-11 12-10 10-12 11-2 (50m)

[QF] (7) Anaka Alankamony (IND,92) bt (4) Christine Nunn (AUS,74) 8-11 11-8 11-5 8-11 11-7

[R2] (12) Aparajitha Balamurukan (IND,118) l (5) Lotte Eriksen (NOR,81) 9-11 6-11 11-4 4-11 (48m)
[R2] (7) Anaka Alankamony (IND,92) bt Zoe Petrovansky (AUS,181) 11-8 5-11 11-7 11-7 (31m)

[R1] (12) Aparajitha Balamurukan (IND,118) bt Iritana Gray (AUS,167) 11-4 11-0 11-2 (14m)
[R1] (7) Anaka Alankamony (IND,92) bt Kelly Fraser (AUS,UNR) 11-4 11-2 11-0 (18m)

India's 18 yrs old Anaka Alankamony won her 2nd (and 1st outside India) title on the women's professional squash tour ... She defeated top-40 Kylie Lindsay from New Zealand in the final taking advantage of unforced errors from top-seed ... Creditable performance from Anaka, who played 4 matches in 2 days ... Overall 17 sets in those 4 matches inside 36 hours.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

Women's Final
(3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (6) Juliane Schenk (GER,7) 21-17

Saina won the Denmark open beating Juliane Schenk in 34 minutes ... This was Saina's 6th Super Series title and she also won $30,000 prize money.

In this match also Saina scored many smash winners ... On the net both players matched each other but in end Saina managed to force errors from Juliane ... In the first game Saina started with 4-0 lead but Juliane caught with her at 9-all ... Saina again opened 3 points lead at 15-12 ... This time also Juliane caught with her at 17-all ... Saina won next 4 points to win this game ... In the second game both players traded lead till 5-all ... But from here Saina opened 9-5 lead which she extended to 16-7 ... She won this game losing another single point and lifted deserving Denmark open title.

Tennis News
At $100K+H Seoul Challenger, South Korea

[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) bt In-Sub Lee (KOR,1566)0 62

[Q3] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) vs Woong-Sun Joon ( KOR,735)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Yuichi Sugita (JPN)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE)

Divij is in the final qualifying round with easy win over Lee ... He is facing another Korean in the final round.

In doubles Yuki and Divij r 3rd seed and facing Wang and Sugita.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

[SF] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (1) Yihan Wang (CHN,1) 21-12 12-7 Retd (knee injury)

[F] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (6) Juliane Schenk (GER,7)

Saina scored her first win over WR #1 Yihan Wang in their 7th match ... Yihan take 5-0 lead in that Saina was making unforced errors but after that Saina won 6 points in a stretch and then after losing another point Saina again won 6 points in a row to lead 12-6 ... Saina kept that advantage through the game with her net game, half-smashes and smart game from back of the court ... Saina forced errors through Yihan from her all court game ... In the second game Saina opened 8 points lead after winning 6 points from 3-1 ... After that Yihan tried to fightback but she troubled with knee ... She retired from middle of the game awarding match to Saina.

In the final Saina is facing German Juliane Schenk ... Against whom Saina is leading 5-3 in win-loss record.

Squash News
At $25K Macau Open 2012,

[SF] (Q) Joshna Chinappa (IND,51) l (1) Joelle King (NZL,12) 7-11 2-11 1-11

Joshna failed to produce much fight against top-seed Joelle King ... In the first game she matched King but in the last two games King dominated to win it comfortably.

Tennis News
At $100K+H Seoul Challenger, South Korea

[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) bt (WC) Daniel Yoon (KOR,UNR) 61 61

[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) vs In-Sub Lee (KOR,1566)

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) vs (3) Dmitry Tursunov (RUS,105)

Divij is playing in qualifying and started with comfortable win in the first round.

In main-draw Yuki is having very tough match against experienced Dmitry Tursunov.

Squash News
At $25K Macau Open 2012,

[R1] (Q) Joshna Chinappa (IND,51) bt (3) Samantha Teran (MEX,16) 11-9 8-11 11-8 11-8
[R1] (2) Dipika Pallikal (IND,14) bt (WC) Liu Kwai Chi (MAC) 11-3 11-2 11-1

[QF] (Q) Joshna Chinappa (IND,51) bt Misaki Kobayashi (JPN,35) 11-9 9-11 13-11 9-11 11-6
[QF] (2) Dipika Pallikal (IND,14) l (8) Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY,28) 11-9 5-11 11-6 12-14 7-11

[SF] (Q) Joshna Chinappa (IND,51) vs (1) Joelle King (NZL,12)

Qualifier Joshna Chinappa reached in the semis of Macau open with hard fought five games win over Japanese Kobayashi but other hand 2nd seed Dipika lost against her Egyptian opponent after taking 2-1 games lead ... Dipika failed to win match in 4th game which she lost in extra points.

Before this in the first round Joshna scored huge upset win over WR #16 Mexican Samantha Teran in four close games ... In the semis Joshna is facing top-seed Joelle King.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

[QF] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt (5) Tine Baun (DEN,6) 21-10 21-11

[SF] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (1) Yihan Wang (CHN,1)

In this Danish Super Series Saina is looking in attacking form ... In this match also she attacked Baun's serve and won this match in 33 minutes losing only 21 points ... But next Saina is having her toughest test against WR #1 Yihan Wang, against whom she is still searching for her first win after 6 matches.

In the quarters Saina opened early lead of 7-2 and then kept increasing to win the first game ... In the second game Baun was with Saina until 7-8 but then Saina won 7 points in a row to take control of the game.

Tennis News
At Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Play-Off, Nanjing, China

[QF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) l (2) Jimmy Wang (TPE,146) 26 36

Yuki failed to produce his A game and lost quite easily against Jimmy Wang ... With this Indian interest ended from this tournament.

Tennis News
At $740K Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia

[QF] (3) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l Raquel Kops-Jones (USA)/ Abigail Spears (USA) 57 46

They lost against American pair in the second round ... In the both sets Sania lost her serve while serving for staying in the match.

So with this end of the season 2012 for Sania.
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At Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Play-Off, Nanjing, China

[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,360) l (WC) Ze Zhang (CHN,154) 75 26 26
[R1] (WC) Sriram Balaji (IND,321) l Di Wu (CHN,185) 26 16
[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,272) bt (WC) Hsin Han Lee (TPE,817) 62 63
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) bt (LL) Yuqing Ning (CHN,1534) 64 36 62
[R1] (WC) Prerna Bhambri (IND) l (Q) Yifan Xu (CHN,414) 16 16
[R1] (WC) Ankita Raina (IND,) l (WC) Yuxuan Zhang (CHN,245) 16 16

[QF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) vs (2) Jimmy Wang (TPE,146)
[QF] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,272) l (3) Danai Udomchoke (THA,153) w/o (knee injury)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) l (WC) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 67(1) 46
[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE) 46 16
[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (WC) Di Wu (CHN)/ Zhizhen Zhang (CHN) 46 57

Turned to be terrible day for Indians ... Only Vishnu and Yuki managed to script wins in the singles but shocking losses in the doubles for our seeded pairs ... Moreover Vishnu injured his knee in the doubles and he decided to give walkover to Danai in the singles quarter-final.

Only Yuki is remaining in the draw and he is facing 2nd seed Wang.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

Doubles
[QF] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) l (4) Keren Shlomo (ISR)/ Jasmin Steinherr (GER) 67(5) 16
[QF] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) l (1) Nina Bratchikova (RUS)/ Margarita Lazareva (RUS) 46 26

End of Indian challenge in this Lagos tournament.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

[R2] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Minatsu Mitani (JPN,28) 21-15 21-14
[R2] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) l Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,23) 19-21 17-21

[QF] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs (5) Tine Baun (DEN,6)

Saina scored comfortable win inside 20 minutes against Japanese Mitani and enter into the quarters ... In the quarters Sania is facing local favorite and very experienced Tine Baun.

Sourabh failed to build on the upset he scored against Gade ... In the first game he fought neck to neck but failed to convert crucial points ... In the second game also same story repeated.

Tennis News
At Asia-Pacific Australian Open Wildcard Play-Off, Nanjing, China

[Q4] (1) Sanam Singh (IND,360) bt Yuqing Ning (CHN,UNR) 62 57 64

[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,360) vs (WC) Ze Zhang (CHN,154)
[R1] (WC) Sriram Balaji (IND,321) vs Di Wu (CHN,185)
[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,272) vs (WC) Hsin Han Lee (TPE,817)
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND,179) vs (WC) Farukh Dustov (UZB,231)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) bye
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN)/ Andy Lau (HKG) 63 61
[R1] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Yuqing Ning (CHN)/ Zhuoyang Qiu (CHN) 62 62

[R1] Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Ankita Raina (IND) l Ting Li (CHN)/ Qiang Wang (CHN) 67(3) 26

[QF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) vs (WC) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)
[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (4) Danai Udomchoke (THA)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE)
[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Di Wu (CHN)/ Zhizhen Zhang (CHN)

Sanam need three sets to book his place in the main-draw ... Vishnu and Yuki having winnable first round matches ... Bala and Sanam r facing local favorite ... In doubles our men's pairs started with comfortable win but their real test will start from quarter-finals.
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At €550K Erste Bank Open, Vienna, Austria

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,534) l (WC) Ernests Gulbis (LAT,155) 67(6) 36

Somdev wasted 2 set points in tie-break leading 6-4 before losing it ... In the second set Somi was break down at 2-4 but he broke back in 7th game to make it 3-4 ... Gulbis again broke him in 8th game and then hold to complete the victory.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria
[R2] Rishika SUNKARA (IND,631) l (5) Cristina DINU (ROU,301) 64 46 16

Doubles
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) bt Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS)/ Alexandra Riley (USA) 63 64

[QF] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) vs (4) Keren Shlomo (ISR)/ Jasmin Steinherr (GER)
[QF] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) vs (1) Nina Bratchikova (RUS)/ Margarita Lazareva (RUS)

Rishika started well winning the first set but after that Romanian Dinu produced strong comeback to win the match.

Kyra and her doubles partner had a winning start in doubles ... ext they r facing top-seed Russian pair.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

[R1] (Q) Anand Pawar (IND,51) l (5) Sho Sasaki (JPN,6) 21-14 15-21 11-21
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) l (7) Pengyu Du (CHN,9) 21-19 8-21 9-21
[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) bt (6) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,8) 21-18 21-14
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) bt Yeon Ju Bae (KOR,12) 21-17 21-17

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA) 20-22 19-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Markis Kido (INA)/ Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth (INA) 18-21 15-21

[R2] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Minatsu Mitani (JPN,28)
[R2] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) vs Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,23)

Ananad started with winning the first game but after that Sho Sasaki controlled the match and completed victory in 54 minutes.

Saina scored straight games win over tricky Korean against he lost in their last meeting at Indian open ... The first game was well fought until late in the game but in the second game Saina take lead from the start and kept it to win it in 38 minutes.

Tarun and Arun fought well against Indonesians but failed to win important points.

Sourabh Varma scored huge upset win over local favorite and former WR #1 Peter Gade ... Gade is remained in top-10 despite his 36 yrs old age ... Sourabh became only 3rd Indian to beat him, before this Gopichand defeated him in 2001 at All England open and then Anup Sridhar defeated him in 2009 in Singapore Super Series ... All other Indian players failed to overcome Gade's challenge ... In the first game Sourbh opened 5-0 lead which he increased to 17-11 ... Gade reduced it to 16-17 but Sourabh kept his cool on next important points to won it ... In the second game from 6-5 Sourabh opened lead which he kept increasing and won this game comfortably.

Ajay started confidently against Du but after winning the first game Ajay failed to keep challenge with Du, who won last two games very comfortably.

Football News
At FIFA International Friendly 2012, Singapore

Singapore l India 0-2
Goal Scored - Khairul Amiri (SIN) 41', Fazrul Nawas (SIN) 49'

Host Singapore take lead though defensive mistakes from Indians in late of the first-half ... Singapore doubled thier lead within 4 minutes and take any chance of Indian comeback ... Disappointing effort by Indian team.

Tennis News
At $740K Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia

[R1] (3) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Darya Kustova (BLR)/ Olga Savchuk (UKR) 63 57 10-6

Sania and Nuria started with win though they r stretched to match tie-break by their opponents.
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At Asia-Pacific Wild-Card play-Off for Australian Open 2013, Nanjing, China

[Q3] (1) Sanam Singh (IND,360) bt De Zhu (CHN,UNR) 63 61

[Q4] (1) Sanam Singh (IND,360) vs Yuqing Ning (CHN,1534)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) bye
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Sanam Singh (IND) vs (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN)/ Andy Lau (HKG)
[R1] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Yuqing Ning (CHN)/ Zhuoyang Qiu (CHN)

[R1] Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs Ting Li (CHN)/ Qiang Wang (CHN)

Expected easy wins for Sanam after receiving bye in the first 2 qualifying rounds.

In the doubles, top-seed Yuki and Divij having favorable draw but Vishnu and Purav can face Chinese top pair of Xin Gao and Zhe Li in the quarters.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R1] Kyra SHROFF (IND,536) l (WC) Zarah RAZAFIMAHATRATRA (MAD,UNR) 67(5) 06
[R1] Rishika SUNKARA (IND,631) bt Maria SAKKARI (GRE,582) 63 62
[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,681) l (5) Christina DINU (ROU,301) 16 16
[R1] Shivika BURMAN (IND,861) l Jia Xiang LU (CHN,613) 46 36
[R1] (Q) Nikita DESHMUKH (IND,UNR) l (3) Conny PERRIN (SUI,295) 06 06
[R1] (Q) Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) l (Q) Ester MASURI (ISR,UNR) 16 26

Doubles
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) vs Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS)/ Alexandra Riley (USA)
[R1] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt Shivika Burman (IND)/ Nour Azzouz (EGY) 62 60
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) l (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Jia Xiang Lu (CHN) 26 63 4-10

Poor start for our girls in the singles ... Only Rishika scored win, that's also upset win, over Greece player in dominating manner.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Ivan Sozonov (RUS,84) 21-7 21-7

[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,52) 21-19 21-16

[R1] (Q) Anand Pawar (IND,51) vs (5) Sho Sasaki (JPN,6)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs (7) Pengyu Du (CHN,9)
[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) vs (6) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,8)
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Yeon Ju Bae (KOR,12)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Markis Kido (INA)/ Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth (INA)

Tough draw for our men in Danish Super Series Premier tournament.

Anand Pawar scored good win over similar ranked Malaysian to qualify for main-draw.

Golf News
At $750K Venetian Macau Open, Macau

Final Standing
1 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 63 68 69 68 -16 $118,875.00
5 Shiv Kapur (IND) 70 67 70 67 -10 $30,750.00
T38 Himmat Rai (IND) 69 70 74 70 -1 $4,950.00
T47 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 70 71 71 73 +1 $3,375.00

24 yrs old Gaganjeet Bhullar completed a commanding start-to-finish victory at the Venetian Macau Open on Sunday ... He played final round with a three-under-par 68 to secure his second Asian Tour title in five starts and in a month ... He held off the big challenges from American Jonathan Moore, who finished two shots back in second place after a 65, and Thai youngster Thitiphun Chuayprakong, who closed with a 70 to share third place with Bangladeshi Siddiku.

Gaganjeet was leading from the first day in this Macau open ... In the beginning of the final round he was leading by 2 strokes and was leading by 3 strokes after 9 holes but bogeys on 10 and 13 holes gave chance to his opponents ... Despite the pressure from Moore , Bhullar responded like a true champion ... He putted a six-foot par putt on 17 to hold on to a one-shot lead into the last hole and then delivered like a champion with a 12-foot birdie to become the first Indian winner of the Venetian Macau Open.

Gaganjeet Bhullar - “This is going to take a long time to sink in. I hit the ball so good. I was just in the perfect zone. More than that, it was self-belief. This is my first wire-to-wire Asian Tour title. I think it was more that I had to prove to myself that I’m a good front runner. I had to believe in myself. I did it and it was really special.”

“I thought I was going to play relaxed in the last few holes. But Jonathan played really well. He holed a long putt on 17 … I saw that. I had a good tee shot, missed on the left but the first putt, I hit it over the hole. Trust me, it wasn't an easy putt (coming back). I had to visualize the ball going into the hole a few times and that’s what I did. I think the putt on 17 was the putt of the tournament. The whole week, I just struck the ball really well. Mentally, I was focused and I was in the zone. I knew I would win it easily,”

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

(4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) 67(7) 63 10-5

Lee and Radek returned well and won 50% points on Mahesh and Rohan's 2nd serve which helped them to capture their 3rd title of the season and Lee's 51st ATP tour doubles title ... Leander kept his perfect record against Mahesh in the final, 3-0 ... This was his 3rd win over Mahesh, interestingly all with Czech partners ... Last 2 titles he won against Mahesh with Lukas Dlouhy at 2009 US Open and 2010 Miami Masters.

Here in the first set both pairs traded single break but Rohan and Mahesh played important points well to win tight tie-break ... In the second set Lee and Radek saved 2 break points and converted 1 from 4 break point to win this set from 3-all ... In the match tie-break Lee and Radek take early control and won it rather comfortably.

Leander Paes - "Today was a bit more of a personal match for us three Indians. Radek came in and he made it fun for me. He relaxed, laughed, joked. Said, 'stay smooth, relaxed and have a hungry intensity'. I come up and make it fun for him and try and take over whenever I can."

"We've had a great year. It started off with a big bang. To do well early in a partnership is something that can happen. But to continue playing well right through the whole year shows the quality of tennis that we play."
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At €550K Erste Bank Open, Vienna, Austria

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,534) vs (WC) Ernests Gulbis (LAT,155)

Surprised to see Sommy's entry in Stockholm open ... He is playing with injury protected ranking ... His opponent Gulbis is talented player but erratic player ... Hopefully Somi makes sure that Gulbis need to play more balls.
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At $740K Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia

[R1] (3) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Darya Kustova (BLR)/ Olga Savchuk (UKR)

In her last WTA tournament of the year Sania is again playing with Nuria ... They r facing Darya Kustova and Olga Savchuk in the first round.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) l Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Mischa Zverev (GER) 46 63 10-8

After losing the first set Prkash and Groth fought back to win the second ... In match tie-break Prkash and Groth were leading 5-2 but then they lost the grip over it ... Though they saved a match point but failed to save 2nd match point.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R1] Kyra SHROFF (IND,536) vs (WC) Zarah RAZAFIMAHATRATRA (MAD,UNR)
[R1] Rishika SUNKARA (IND,631) vs Maria SAKKARI (GRE,582)
[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,681) vs (5) Christina DINU (ROU,301)
[R1] Shivika BURMAN (IND,861) vs Jia Xiang LU (CHN,613)
[R1] (Q) Nikita DESHMUKH (IND,UNR) vs (3) Conny PERRIN (SUI,295)
[R1] (Q) Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) vs (Q) Ester MASURI (ISR,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) vs Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS)/ Alexandra Riley (USA)
[R1] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) vs Shivika Burman (IND)/ Nour Azzouz (EGY)
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) vs (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Jia Xiang Lu (CHN)

Big Indian contingent for Nigerian ITF tournament.

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

Round 10 - Saturday, October 13
Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
Levon Aronian ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Sergey Karjakin

Anand ended tournament in disappointing note as another draw with Karjakin playing with White ... All other matches also shared the point.

Magnus Carlsen takes title when he defeated co-leader Fabiano Caruana in blitz tiebreak winning both matches, 2-0 ... Other hand Anand finished on 5th position, only ahead of Francisco Vallejo.

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[SF] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Marin Cilic (CRO)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA) 60 62
[SF] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ross Hutchins (GBR) 67(4) 63 10-8

Lee-Radek and Mahesh-Rohan scored contrasting win to enter in the final of Shanghai Masters ... First time 3 Indians r playing in the Masters doubles final.

Lee and Radek scored dominating win over Cilic and Melo in 58 minutes ... They won the first set without losing a single game ... In the second set also Lee and Radek broke opponent's serve thrice but lost their serve once.

In other semi-final Mahesh and Rohan had a perfect day with their serve as they didn't face a single break point ... Still Mahesh and Rohan needed comeback after losing the first set in tie-break ... The second set they won with a single break and then won close match tie-break for the victory in 1 hour 36 minutes.

Chess News
At 5th São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final, Bilbao

Round 9 - Friday, October 12
Sergey Karjakin 1-0 Francisco Vallejo
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Viswanathan Anand
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Levon Aronian

In 9th round all White wins ... Magnus Carlsen played creatively and aggressively against Anand and scored his first win over the world champion in classical time-controls in 30 moves ... Fabiano Caruana defeated Levon Aronian in 39 moves and managed to keep pace with Carlsen ... In other match Karjakin defeated Vallejo 38 moves.

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[QF] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Milos Raonic (CAN) 75 67(4) 10-5
[QF] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) 76(7) 64

Good win by Mahesh and Rohan against 2nd seed Mirnyi and Nestor ... In the first set Rohan and Mahesh saved 4 break points but they served well in tie-break to win it ... In the second set they take crucial break in 10th game (only break of the match) converting 3rd match point.

Lee and Radek scored good win in tight match against Melzer and Raonic ... In the first set Lee and Radek take crucial break in 11th game to win it ... In the second set both pairs traded a break but in tie-break Melzer and Raonic serves helped to win it ... But our pair managed to turn table on this big serving pair in match tie-break to win it comfortably.
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At $15K Australia F10 Futures, Margaret River

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,392) l (6) Adam Feeney (AUS,411) 64 26 36

Saketh gave fighting performance from last week against Feeney but still he lost after winning the first set.

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

Round 6 - Monday, October 8
Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Fabiano Caruana
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Levon Aronian

Round 7 - Tuesday, October 9
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Francisco Vallejo
Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Sergey Karjakin
Levon Aronian ½-½ Viswanathan Anand

Round 8 - Thursday, October 11
Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Levon Aronian
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

After 8 rounds Anand is still searching for his first win in the Grand Slam Final tournament which is now moved in Bilbao from São Paulo for the second leg ... Other hand WR #1 Magnus Carlsen showed excellent form winning 2 matches with white from 3 played in the second leg ... He take revenge beating leader Caruana in 6th round and then defeated Vallejo to share lead with Fabiano Caruana after 8 rounds.

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[R1] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Jonathan Marray (GBR) 76(9) 64
[R2] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Kevin Anderson (RSA)/ Sam Querrey (USA) 64 64

[QF] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Milos Raonic (CAN)
[QF] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN)

Treat and Jonathan stretched Mahesh and Rohan in the first set but after winning long tie-break our pair recovered to win the next set with a single break ... Next they r facing 2nd seed Nestor and Mirnyi.

Lee and Radek also started with straight sets win over big serving pair ... Next they r facing another big serving pair of Melzer and Raonic.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[R1] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (1) Robert Farah (COL)/ Steve Johnson (USA) 36 36

[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Mischa Zverev (GER)

Purav and Drew failed to produce fight against top-seed.
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At $15K Australia F10 Futures, Margaret River

[R2] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,392) bt (Q) Paul Kramberger (AUS,UNR) 61 61

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,392) vs (6) Adam Feeney (AUS,411)

Doubles
[QF] Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l (2) Matthew Barton (AUS)/ Michael Look (AUS) 16 46

Expected comfortable win for Saketh against unranked Australian ... As expected repeat match against Adam Feeney, who is on 7 matches winning streak ... In doubles Saketh and his American partner failed to repeat last week's performance against 2nd seed Aussie pair.

Tennis News
At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) bt Stefano Ianni (ITA)/ Matteo Viola (USA) 57 76(5) 12-10

Excellent comeback win in very close match by Prakash and Groth against Ianni and Viola ... HAppy to see Prakash is making progress on the tour after such a long injury break.
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At $15K Australia F10 Futures, Margaret River

[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,385) bt (WC) Blake Mott (AUS,1937) 62 63

[R2] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,385) vs (Q) Paul Kramberger (AUS,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Brian Grooms (USA)/ Blake Mott (AUS) 60 62

[QF] Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs (2) Matthew Barton (AUS)/ Michael Look (AUS)

Expected comfortable winning start for Saketh in the singles and doubles.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

For 5th position
India l South Korea 0-3 (23-25 12-25 19-25)

South Koreans defeated in the straight games ... We finished on creditable 6th position but we r still far behind these top 5 Asian volleyball nations.

Hockey News
At Champions Trophy 2012, Australia

As usual big list of probables ... Hockey India announced the names of 48 probables for the Indian men's hockey team ... Interestingly this time Hockey India also included few players, who were a part of the World Series Hockey (WSH), as standbys ... But again only 6 defenders in 48 players list and 23 forwards ... Moreover HI selected same bunch of players which helped us to achieve unthinkable at Olympics ... CRAP.

List of 48 Probables
Goalkeepers - Bharat Chetri (Karnataka), PR Sreejesh (Tamil Nadu), PT Rao (Services), Tarun Thimmanna (Karnataka), Srenivas Rao (AP)
Fullbacks - VR Raghunath (Karnataka), Ignace Tirkey (Services), Sandeep Singh (Haryana), Rupinderpal Singh (Tamil Nadu), Harbir Singh (Punjab), Lovedeep Singh (Chandigarh)
Midfielders - Sardar Singh (Haryana), Kothajit Singh (Manipur), Birendra Lakra (Jharkhand), Manpreet Singh (Punjab), MB Aiyappa (Karnataka), Bipin Karketta (Orissa), Pradeep Mor (Haryana), Gurmail Singh (Haryana), Amit Rohidas (Orissa), Sampath Kumar Maylaram (AP), Shirish Bisen (UP), Barkat Singh (University), Vivek Dhar (Railways), Jonny Jasrotia (Services)
Forwards - SV Sunil (Services), Gurvinder Singh Chandi (Punjab), Sarvanjit Singh (Punjab), Chinglensana Singh (Railways), Shivendra Singh (Air India), Danish Mujtaba (UP), Tushar Khandker (UP), SK Uthappa (Karnataka), Pradhanna Sommanna (Air India), Nithin Thimmaiah (Karnataka), Yuvraj Walmiki (Maharasthra),Dharamvir Singh (Punjab), Akashdeep Singh (Punjab), MG Poonacha (Railways), Prabhdeep Singh (Punjab), PL Thimmanna (Karnataka), Sukhdev Singh (Services), Lovepreet Singh (Services), Sanjay Bir Singh (Railways), Gurpreet Singh (University), Sanwan Ali (Services), Vikramjit Singh (Punjab), Karamjit Singh (Haryana)

Standbys
Goalkeepers - Kamaldeep Singh (Punjab), Gurpreet Singh (Air India)
Defenders - Gurjinder Singh (Punjab), Harpreet Singh (Haryana)
Midfielders - Manjit Kullu (Railways), Ravi Pal (Punjab), Vikas Sharma (UP), Vikas Pillai (Air India), Devinder Valmiki (Maharastra)

Tennis News
At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,175) l (8) Karol Beck (SVK,128) 16 36
[R1] (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,276) l Igor Kunitsyn (RUS,149) 36 46
[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,373) l (Q) Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR,228) 06 46

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki BHambri (IND) l (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Martin Emmrich (GER) 46 46

Turned terrible day for us as our all players lost their respective matches on Court 2 ... Only Vishnu gave some decent performance otherwise nothing to write about other matches ... Next week our these players r playing in Australian Open 2013 Asia-Pacific Wild Card Play Off in Nanjing, China ... There will be one wild card on offer each in Men's singles, Women's singles, Men's doubles and Women's doubles.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

5th–8th semifinals
India bt Iran 3-0 (25-18 25-8 25-15)

Our girls defeated Iranian girls and with that first-time our girls will be finish inside top-6 ... We r facing South Korea for 5th place match.

Tennis News
At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) bt Martin Emmrich (GER,1277)
[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt (4) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO,305) 62 60

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,175) vs (8) Karol Beck (SVK,128)
[R1] (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,276) vs Igor Kunitsyn (RUS,149) 26 61 76(5)
[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,373) vs (Q) Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR,228)

Sanam dismantled top-300 type Georgian Basilashvili in 54 minutes ... He won the match losing only 2 games against in-form Basilashvili ... Sanam broke Basilashvili in 3rd game to take 3-1 lead ... From 3-2 Sanam was on rampage and won next 9 games to complete the victory ... Next he is facing fellow qualifier Ukrainian Oleksandr Nedovyesov.

Vishnu had a roller-coaster ride in his 2 hours and 4 minutes match ... He started badly when Emmrich broke him in 3rd and 5th games to win the first set ... In the second set Vishnu played solid tennis and broke Emmrich in 2nd game to lead 3-0 and then take another break in 6th game to win this set .. In the decider Vishnu had 3 breakpoints at 0-40 in 3rd game which he failed to convert ... Vishnu missed another break point in 7th game and then saved a break point on his own serve in 8th game ... Vishnu broke Emmrich in 11th game but failed to hold while serving for the match in the next game ... In tie-break both players won points on their own serve till 4-4 ... Then Vishnu take mini-break on 9th point to lead 5-4 but again while serving for the match at 6-4 he failed to convert ... This time Vishnu again take mini-break on Emmrich serve to win this tight match ... Next in main-draw he is facing experienced Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

Quarter Final
India l Thailand 0-3 (13-25 21-25 15-25)

Thailand convincingly defeated Indian girls in the quarter-final ... Next we r facing Iranian girls for 5th to 8th placing match.

Tennis News
At $1.2M Japan Open, Tokyo

Doubles Final
(1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (4) Alexander Peya (AUT)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 36 67(5)

In this match Lee and Radek struggled with their services so Peya and Soares take advantage of it ... In the first set they broke Lee and Radek 3 times to win it ... In the second set Lee and Radek take early break but Peya and Soares broke to bring it on serve at 3-all ... In tie-break also at crucial juncture, 5-5, Lee double faulted and opponent take advantage to win this match.

With this Lee and Radek qualify for 2012 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals ... 39 yrs old Lee has qualified for the 13th time ... In that 4 runner-ups, 3 times with Mahesh (in 1997, 1999 and 2000) and once with Zimonjic (in 2005)
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At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[R1] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bye
[R1] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye

Our pairs r seeded so receive bye in the first round ... Rohan and Mahesh r in the same draw of 2nd seed Nestor and Mirnyi ... Lee and Radek r in the same draw with Bryans but before that they can have repeat match against Peya and Soares in the quarter ... In the second round also they will face tricky big serving unseeded pair, winner between Querrey-Anderson and Tsonga-Dolgopolov.
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At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Yuki BHambri (IND,174) vs (8) Karol Beck (SVK,128)

[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) bt Germain Gigounon (BEL,435) 67(5) 63 63
[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt Aleksandre Metreveli (GEO,929) 62 64

[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) vs Martin Emmrich (GER,1277)
[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) vs (4) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO,305)

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki BHambri (IND) vs (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Martin Emmrich (GER)

In the main-draw Yuki is facing 8th seed Karol Beck ... Both r having 1-1 win-loss record ... Yuki defeated him in Chennai open and then Beck defeated him at Astana challenger.

Vishnu had a tricky match against Belgian player and it proved that way ... Belgian won the first set in tie-break but after that Vishnu came back strongly to win next two sets ... Sanam won it comfortably against his lower ranked Georgian opponent ... In the final qualifying Vishnu is facing German Emmrich, who upset 7th seed in the first round and Sanam having tough match against top-300 type Georgian Basilashvili.

Only one pair able to qualify for the main-draw in the doubles of this tough challenger ... Yuki and Divij having tough match against 3rd seed German pair.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,919) l (2) Taro Daniel (JPN,336) 36 67(3)

Doubles
[R1] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (1) Robert Farah (COL)/ Steve Johnson (USA)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs Stefano Ianni (ITA)/ Matteo Viola (USA)

I was hoping upset win for Prakash but Japanese Taro defeated him in the straight sets.

Prakash is playing in doubles with Aussie Groth and they r facing Italian pair ... Purav and Drew having tough match against top-seed pair.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

Pool F
India l Japan 0-3 (14-25 8-25 10-25)

I would be happy if our girls finish on 7th position ... Japan also gave one-sided loss to our girls.

Tennis News
At 4.8M China Open, Beijing

Doubles Final
(5) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (3) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) 57 57

In the first set both pairs traded 5 breaks but crucial break taken by Makarova and Vesnina in 12th game to win this set ... Same story repeated in the second set ... Again both pairs traded 5 breaks and crucial break taken by Makarova and Vesnina in 12th game to win the match.

Still this was a good result for Sania considering her last few months performance on WTA tour.
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At $1.2M Japan Open, Tokyo

[SF] (1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Daniele Bracciali (ITA)/ Frantisek Cermak (CZE) 63 61

[SF] (1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (4) Alexander Peya (AUT)/ Bruno Soares (BRA)

Lee and Radek scored very comfortable win over unseeded Bracciali and Cermak losing only 4 games ... In the final they r facing 4th seed Peya and Soares.
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At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,533) l (1) Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR,227) 46 67(3)
[Q1] Vijayant Malik (IND,428) l Alexander Bury (BLR,642) 36 26
[Q1] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) bt (WC) Sardor Rakhimov (UZB,UNR) 64 62
[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) l Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA,1260) 62 67(6) 36
[Q1] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt (WC) Pavel Tsoy (UZB,UNR) 62 62

[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) vs Germain Gigounon (BEL,435)
[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) vs Aleksandre Metreveli (GRO,929)

Only Vishnu and Sanam managed win against local wild-card players ... After losing the first set Somi was up 3-0 in the second set ... After that he had 2 set points on his serve (40-15) at 5-3 but he lost 4 points in a row to lose the game and then lost match in tie-break.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,919) bt Jason Jung (USA,593) 63 64
[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,1277) l (7) Ante Pavic (CRO,420) 36 76(3) 26

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,919) vs (2) Taro Daniel (JPN,336)

Expected win for Prakash against 600 around American in straight sets ... Next he is facing 2nd seed top-325 type Japanese player Taro Daniel.

Purav gave fighting performance against 7th ranked Croatian ... He fought back after losing the first set to win the second set in tie-break but Pavic proved strong for him in the decider.