Tennis News

At $5.2M China Open, Beijing (WTA Premier)

[R1] (8) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bt Kimiko Date-Kuumm (JPN)/ Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) 63 63

[R2] (8) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Lucie Safarova (CZE)

Good straight sets win for Sania and Cara ... In both sets both pairs traded early breaks but after that Sania-Cara take control to won it ... Next they r facing tricky pairing of Pavlyuchenkova-Safarova.
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At $15K Rwanda F1 Futures, Kigali (clay)

[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,2121) vs (1) Gerald Melzer (AUT,197)
[R1] Neishit Vakil (IND,1904) vs (Q) Gilles De Sousa (FRA,UNR)
[R1] (Q) Mithun Murali (IND,UNR) bt Yu Takahashi (JPN,2117) 60 61
[R1] (Q) Rahul Sadhwani (IND,UNR) vs (6) Lorenzo Papasidero (ITA,853)
[R1] Sagar Ahuja (IND,1408) bt Eric Vehovec (CAN,2038) 76(3) 61
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) bt (Q) Medhir Goyal (IND,UNR) 61 60

[R2] (Q) Mithun Murali (IND,UNR) bt (7) Hassan Ndayishimiye (BDI,885)
[R2] Sagar Ahuja (IND,1408) vs (5) Alexander Lazov (BUL,643)
[R2] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) vs Henry Atseye (NGR,1774)

Doubles
[R1] Rahul Sadhwani (IND)/ Neishit Vakil (IND) vs Anatole Bizimana (RWA)/ Mathieu Uwizeyimana (RWA)
[R1] Sagar Ahuja (IND)/ Kunal Anand (IND) bt (3) Mark Fynn (ZIM)/ Hassan Ndayishimiye (BDI) 64 26 10-7
[R1] Medhir Goyal (IND)/ David Oringa (UGA) l Sanni Adamu (NGR)/ Henry Atseye (NGR) 16 26
[R1] Jannis Liniger (SUI)/ Mithun Murali (IND) vs Olivier Havugimana (RWA)/ Refiloe Molaoa (RSA)

[QF] Sagar Ahuja (IND)/ Kunal Anand (IND) vs Sanni Adamu (NGR)/ Henry Atseye (NGR)

Good to see Sagar joins Mithun and Jeevan in the second round ... Sagar-Kunal started with upset win over 3rd seed African pair in match tie-break.
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At $10K Kuwait F3 Futures, Meshref

[R1] Akash Wagh (IND,1774) vs Thomas Statzberger (AUT,1317)
[R1] Arpit Sharma (IND,1650) l Patrick Davidson (USA,1442) 26 06
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,1181) l (5) Torsten Wietoska (GER,656) 16 46
[R1] Jatin Dahiya (IND,1310) bt (Q) Uros Lukic (YUG,UNR) 60 62

[R2] Jatin Dahiya (IND,1310) vs (8) Matias Castro (ARG,1100)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Mohammed Reda (KUW)/ Kento Tagashira (JPN)
[R1] Matias Castro (ARG)/ Akash Wagh (IND) vs Hussain Jamal (KUW)/ Abdulaziz Redha (KUW)
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND)/ Arpit Sharma (IND) vs Hassan Al Mousa (KUW)/ Punn Bodhidatta (THA)

Only Jatin managed to win his first round against unseeded.
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At $10K Spain F33 Futures, Sabadell

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,684) vs Frederico Ferreira Silva (POR,741)

Doubles
[R1] (2) David Perez Sanz (ESP)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Manel Perez Esteve (ESP)/ Jaume Santo-Valdivieso (ESP) 63 61

[QF] (2) David Perez Sanz (ESP)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Lucas McCone (BEL) / Thomas McCone (BEL)

Interesting first round match up against 18 yrs old Silva ... In the doubles Ramkumar had easy win with his Spanish partner ... Next they r facing Belgian twins.
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At $10K Turkey F39 Futures , Antalya - Kaya-Belek

[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) vs (Q) Alexander Mozgovoy (RUS,UNR)

This week Prajnesh is playing in Turkey.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] (4) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) bye
[R1] Anjana KOMPALLY (IND) vs Caroline UEBELHOER (GER)
[R1] (Q) Shivani MANCHANDA (IND) vs (Q) Chantelle RIGOZZI (AUS)

This week little better participants but still first round bye for Rishika.

Tennis News

At $2.37M Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan (WTA Premier)



Doubles Final
Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bt Chan Hao-Ching (TPE)/ Liezel Huber (USA) 46 60 11-9

First time Sania and Cara played together and they lifted the title as Japan open in very entertaining match ... After losing the first set Sania-Cara fought back and won the second set in 27 minutes without losing a single game ... In match tie-break both pairs were fighting hard ... Sania-Cara was 2 match points down at 7-9 but afterwards they won 4 points in a row to lift the title ... This was Sania's 18th WTA doubles title and Cara's 56th WTA doubles title.
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At $5.2M China Open, Beijing (WTA Premier)

[R1] (8) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) vs Kimiko Date-Kuumm (JPN)/ Chanelle Scheepers (RSA)

Sania-Cara r 8th seed and facing Date-Krumm and Scheepers in the first round
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At $3.57M China Open, Beijing

[Q1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,98) bt (2) Robin Haase (NED,60) 26 64 60

[Q2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,98) bt Paolo Lorenzi (ITA,85) 36 76(5) 63

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,98) vs Fernando Verdasco (ESP,32)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) vs John Isner (USA)/ Sam Querrey (USA)
[R1] (2) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Robert Lindstedt (SWE) vs Novak Djokovic (SRB)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)

Buji scored superb back to back comeback wins over higher ranked opponents and enter into the main-draw of China open ... So this qualification also give Buji 20 ranking points ... In the first round Buji is playing against former top-10 Spanish player Fernando Verdasco.

In the final qualifying round Buji struggled in the first set and managed to win only 3 points on Lorenzi's serve but after that Buji produced another excellent comeback ... In the second set Buji lost his serve in 7th game, 3-4, but he immediately broke Lorenzi to made it 4-all ... In 11th game Buji saved 3 break points before holding his serve and then won tie-break to take the match into the decider ... In the third set Buji saved a break point before holding his serve in 2nd game and then he broke Lorenzi in 3rd game to take 2-1 lead ... Again Buji broke Lorenzi in 9th game when he was serving for staying in the match for excellent win ... Before then in the first round Buji scored upset win over @60 ranked Robin Haase ... After losing the first set easily Buji fought back and won the second set ... In the third set Haase struggled with his first serve as he managed only 27% ... Buji take full advantage of it and won this set without losing a single games.

This wee Leander is playing with Nestor and they r top-seed ... They r facing American big serving pair of Isner and Querrey ... Mahesh and Robert Lindstedt r second seed and facing really tricky pair of Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka.
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At $1.4M Japan Open, Tokyo

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Juan Monaco (ARG)/ Horacio Zeballos (ARG)

Rohan-Edouard r playing at Japan open and they r facing Argentine pair in the first round.
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At $100K Sacramento Challenger, USA

[R1] Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) l Greg Ouellette (USA,726) 36 1-3 Retd.

Ashwin retired from the match due to back injury.
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At $10K Egypt F26 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[SF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) bt Karim-Mohamed Maamoun (EGY,540) 76(5) 63

[F] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) l (2) Enrique Lopez-Perez (ESP,250) 06 06

Prajnesh is in the final of Egypt futures ... He scored straight sets win over local player ... Prajnesh won the tight first set in tie-break before winning the second set convincingly ... In the final he faced 2nd seed and top-250 Spanish player.

Turned to be forgettable final for Prajnesh ... Enrique Lopez-Perez gave him double bagel in the final ... Really shocking scoreline in the final for Prajnesh.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[SF] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) l (3) Giulia BRUZZONE (ITA) 26 61 46

Rishika failed to overcome Italian challenge ... After losing the first set Rishika tried fightback after winning the second set comfortably but she failed to kept her momentum in the decider.

Hockey News

At 8th Women's Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia



For Bronze medal
India bt China 2-2 (2-0) 3-2 PS
Goal Scorers - Anuradha Devi Thokchom (IND)16', Vandana Katariya (IND) 31' and Yan Yan (CHN) 51', Wu Mengrong (CHN) 64'

After missing qualification for World cup Indian girls gave spirited performance against mighty Chinese girls and defeated them in penalty shootout for Bronze medal match ... Indian girls started confidently and were leading 2-0 at half-time with 2 field goals ... In the second half Indians tried defending and Chinese girls take advantage of it ... They take advantage of dodgy defending from Indians to scored 2 goals ... Match ended 2-all but in the shootout, the Indians came out on top, converting three of their chances as against two by the Chinese girls.

Tennis News

At $2.37M Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan (WTA Premier)

[SF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bt (1) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Shuai Peng (CHN) 64 62

Sania-Cara enter into the final at Japan Open .... They scored convincing win over top-seed Chinese-Taiwani pair in 75 minutes.
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At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[SF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA) l (3) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ John Peers (AUS) 36 46

Lee-Daniele failed to raise their game against Murray-Peers in straight sets loss ... Lee-Daniele failed to break opponent's serve in the match and other hand lost their service game one in both the sets.
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At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[SF] (ALT) Somdev Devvarman / Rik De Voest (IND/RSA) l Pablo Cuevas (URU)/ Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 60 26 7-10

Buji-Rik started confidently and bangle their South American pair in the first set but after that South American pair recovered ... They won the second set breaking Buji-Rik twice and kept momentum in the match tie-break for good win.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Fergana, Uzbekistan

[QF] (8) Ankita RAINA (IND,310) l (3) Anastasiya VASYLYEVA (UKR,245) 16 36

Ankita lost easily against top-250 Ukrainian but still she performed as per her ranking in this tournament.
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At $15K Burundi F1 Futures, Bujumbura (clay)

[SF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) l (4) Lukas Jastraunig (AUT,628) 67(3) 67(5)

Doubles Final
(2) Yannick MERTENS (BEL)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (4) Mark FYNN (ZIM)/ Hassan NDAYISHIMIYE (BDI) 63 62

Jeevan lost the semi-final against Austrian Lukas Jastraunig ... In both sets Jeevan failed to win tie-break.

Jeevan lifted the doubles title with his Belgian partner Yannick Meriens as they defeated 4th seed African pair easily.
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At $10K Egypt F26 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[QF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) bt (4) Ivan Nedelko (RUS,451) 61 3-0 Retd.

[SF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) vs Karim-Mohamed Maamoun (EGY,540)

Prajnesh's higher ranked Russian opponent Ivan Nedelko conceded match in the second set ... Before that Prajnesh won the first set losing a single game and then up 3-0 in the second ... Next Prajnesh is facing local in-form Karim-Mohamed Maamoun in the semis.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[QF] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) bt Viktoriya BOGOSLOVSKAYA (RUS) 76(2) 63

[SF] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) vs (3) Giulia BRUZZONE (ITA)

Rishika needed little extra efforts for beating Russian girl ... Next she is facing Italian opponent.

Tennis News

At $2.37M Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan

[QF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bt (4) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER)/ Kveta Peschke (CZE) 75 63

[SF] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) vs (1) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Shuai Peng (CHN)

Sania and Cara stormed in the semi-final with straight sets win over 4th seed pair Groenefeld-Peschke ... In the semi-final they r facing top-seed Chinese-Taiwani pair.
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At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[QF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA) bt Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL) 67(4) 76(8) 10-8

[SF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA) vs (3) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ John Peers (AUS)

In the first set both pairs traded single break but in the tie-break Colombian pair proved strong for Lee-Daniele ... In the second set also Lee-Daniele were early break down after losing serve in 3rd game, 1-2, but they broke Colombian in 6th game to made it 3-all ... Lee-Daniele had 2 set points on Colombian's serve in 10th game but they failed to convert ... In tie-break Lee-Daniele were mini-break down at 2-5 but they immediately broke back ... Lee-Daniele saved 2 match points in this long tie-break before converting 5th set point ... In match tie-break both pairs exchanged lead early but then both pairs were neck to neck ... Lee-Daniele take lead after mini-break on 16th point, 9-7, and converted 2nd match point on their serve for hard fought win after 2 hours and 3 minutes .. In the semi-final they r facing 3rd seed Murray-Peers.
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At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[QF] (ALT) Somdev Devvarman / Rik De Voest (IND/RSA) bt (2) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 36 64 10-7

[SF] (ALT) Somdev Devvarman / Rik De Voest (IND/RSA) vs Pablo Cuevas (URU)/ Horacio Zeballos (ARG)

Buji-Rik scored upset win over 2nd seed Benneteau-Zimonjic in comeback victory ... Buji-Rik lost the first set against Benneteau-Zimo but after that they fought back to won the second set with a single break ... Buji-Rik kept their momentum in match tie-break and enter into the semis after winning it ... Next they r facing South American pair.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Fergana, Uzbekistan

[R2] (8) Ankita RAINA (IND,310) bt Yumi MIYAZAKI (JPN,548) 61 62

[QF] (8) Ankita RAINA (IND,310) vs (3) Anastasiya VASYLYEVA (UKR,245)

Doubles
[QF] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND)/ Anna SMOLINA (RUS) l Basak ERAYDIN (TUR)/ Melis SEZER (TUR) 26 26
[QF] Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Deniz KHAZANIUK (ISR) l (2) Michaela HONCOVA (SVK)/ Veronika KAPSHAY (UKR) 26 64 7-10

Ankita scored convincing win over her Japanese opponent and with that I think she has guaranteed her place in top-300 when next rankings get updated ... Bravo Ankita ... Next she is facing top-250 Ukrainian Vasylyeva.

But in the doubles Nidhi and Ankita lost their matches with their respective partners ... Ankita-Deniz stretched their 2nd seed opponents to match tie-break.
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At $15K Burundi F1 Futures, Bujumbura (clay)

[QF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) bt (8) Mark Fynn (ZIM,1059) 61 57 63

[SF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) vs (4) Lukas Jastraunig (AUT,628)

Doubles
[SF] (2) Yannick MERTENS (BEL)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (3) Alexander LAZOV (BUL)/ Jannis LINIGER (SUI) 63 60

[F] (2) Yannick MERTENS (BEL)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) vs (4) Mark FYNN (ZIM)/ Hassan NDAYISHIMIYE (BDI)

Surprisingly Zimbabwean Fynn stretched Jeevan to three sets ... After losing the first set easily Fynn surprised Jeevan after winning the second ... Jeevan recovered and won the final set ... In the semis he is facing 4th seed Austrian ... In the doubles Jeevan-Yannick r in the final with dominating win after losing only three games ... In the final they 4 facing 4th seed Fynn-Ndayishimiye, who upset top-seed Austrian pair.
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At $10K Egypt F26 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[R2] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) bt Maxi Pongratz (AUT,1176) 63 62

[QF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) vs (4) Ivan Nedelko (RUS,451)

Comfortable win for Prajnesh ... Next he is facing 4th seed Russian Nedelko.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R2] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) bt Linda DUBSKA (CZE) 60 60

[QF] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) vs Viktoriya BOGOSLOVSKAYA (RUS)

Very dominating win by Rishika against Czech girl ... Next she is facing Russian girl, who upset 6th seed.

Hockey News

At 8th Women's Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Semi Finals
India l Korea 1-2 (0-2)
Goal Scorers - Ritu Rani (IND) PC 41' and Cheon Seul Ki (KOR) PC 2', Cheon Eun Bi (KOR) PC 9'

India needed to win the tournament to qualify for the World Cup and they fought hard against higher ranked Koreans but that wasn't enough ... All three goals came through penalty corners ... Koreans take 2-0 lead in first 10 minutes but after that Indians kept attacking without any luck ... Koreans defended well and we missed few chances in front of the goal ... Indians reduced margined through Rani in early 2nd half but then failed to scored equalizer ... So with this loss our chances of qualifying for World cup got over.

Tennis News

 At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL) 57 57
[R1] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniele Brachial (ITA) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 75 76(4)

[QF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA) vs Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL)

Winning start for Lee and his Italian partner but match was tougher than expected ... Divij-Purav gave fighting performance against higher ranked Colombian pair but lost due to failing to win crucial points in this match ... In the first set Divij-Purav were up with a break 3-0 and then in the second set 4-2 before losing both sets ... Lee and Bracciali r facing this Colombian pair in the quarters.
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At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[R1](ALT) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Rik De Voest (RSA) bt Pablo Andujar (ESP)/ Victor Hanescu (ROU) 63 62

[QF] (ALT) Somdev Devvarman / Rik De Voest (IND/RSA) vs (2) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)

Buji and Rik played as alternate pair and scored comfortable win in the first round over decent pair ... Next they r facing 2nd seed, who defeated Yuki and His Malaysian partner in the first round.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Fergana, Uzbekistan

[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,586) l (7) Basak ERAYDIN (TUR,293) 46 16
[R1] (8) Ankita RAINA (IND,310) bt (WC) Jamilya SADYKZHANOVA (UZB,UNR) 60 61

[R2] (8) Ankita RAINA (IND,310) vs Yumi MIYAZAKI (JPN,548)

Doubles
[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Deniz KHAZANIUK (ISR) bt Anna GRIGORYAN (RUS)/ Tatiana GRIGORYAN (RUS) 62 62

[QF] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND)/ Anna SMOLINA (RUS) vs Basak ERAYDIN (TUR)/ Melis SEZER (TUR)
[QF] Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Deniz KHAZANIUK (ISR) vs (2) Michaela HONCOVA (SVK)/ Veronika KAPSHAY (UKR)

Expected win for Ankita against local unranked wild-card ... Nidhi lost against top-300 Turkish girl ... In the doubles Ankita and her Israeli partner started with comfortable win ... Next they r facing 2nd seed pair and Nidhi with her Russian partner r facing Turkish pair.
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At $15K Burundi F1 Futures, Bujumbura (clay)

[R2] Mithun Murali (IND,UNR) vs (6) Lorenzo Papasidero (ITA,864) 75 06 36
[R2] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) bt Francesco Garzelli (ITA,1240) 64 64

[QF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) vs (8) Mark Fynn (ZIM,1059)

Doubles
[QF] George BARTH (USA)/ Medhir GOYAL (IND) l (1) Lukas JASTRAUNIG (AUT)/ Gerald MELZER (AUT) w/o
[QF] (2) Yannick MERTENS (BEL)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt James ALLEMBY (GBR)/ Gilles DE SOUSA (FRA) 46 63 10-6

[SF] (2) Yannick MERTENS (BEL)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) vs (3) Alexander LAZOV (BUL)/ Jannis LINIGER (SUI)

Straight sets win for Jeevan ... Next he is facing Zimbabwean Fynn ... Mithun started with winning the first set but failed to kept momentum.

Jeevan is in the doubles semis with his Belgian partner after scoring win in match tie-break in the quarter.
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At $10K Kuwait F2 Futures, Meshref

[R2] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,321) l Q) Sadio Doumbia (FRA,UNR) 0-5 ret
[R2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,1181) l (5) Ivo Klec (SVK,589) 62 67(3) 26

Doubles
[QF] (4) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l Siyu Liu (CHN)/ Chuhan Wang (CHN) 67(3) 62 5-10
[QF] Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) l (3) Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Tak Khunn Wang (FRA) 26 26

Saketh got injured in his match and Rawat failed to kept momentum after winning the first set ... How come Saketh played his doubles match after retiring from the singles? Sometime feel disturbing when players try to took simple route of retiring from their matches when things r not going in their favor ... Anyway Saketh-Davidson lost against Chinese pair in match tie-break ... 3rd seed Roelofse-Wang proved too strong for Akash-Kaza.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND) l Erika HENDSEL (EST) 46 26

[R2] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) vs Linda DUBSKA (CZE)

Not promising outing for Indian girls as only Rishika is in the second round.

Hockey News

At 8th Women's Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Pool A
India bt Malaysia 2-0 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - Poonam Rani (IND) 36', Lily Chanu (IND) 49'

Our girls struggled in the first half but they raised their game in the second half ... They scored two field goals against host for grabbing semi-final place ... In the semis we r facing strong Korean side.

Tennis News

At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,98) l (Q) Matteo Viola (ITA,140) 36 36

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Syed Mohd Agil Syed Naguib (MAS) vs (2) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 26 26

Indian Wells qualifying result repeated again ... In that match also Some struggled against Matteo and same happened in this 76 minutes match ... From the game it looks Matteo is having upper hand in their duel, in this match also he exploited Buji's patience with his consistent game ... Buji struggled with his service game and Matteo take advantage of it breaking him 2nd and 4th game to lead 4-0 ... Buji broke him in 5th game to reduced it to 2-4 but Matteo hold his service games for winning the first set ... In the second set Buji broke him in 2nd game to lead 3-0 but after wards shockingly Buji lost his serve thrice for losing six games in a row ... Buji was so frustrated that he argued with chair umpire and showing anger on the court ... In the end disappointing loss for Buji.

Expected loss for Yuki and his unranked Malaysian partner against seasoned players ... Still $2k+ pay cheque for Yuki.
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At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Robert Lindstedt (SWE) l Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP)/ Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 62 36 8-10

Disappointing start for Mahesh-Robert in their start of Asian leg ... They won the first set comfortably but after that they lost control over the match and lost match in match tie-break ... Hopefully they perform better in China.
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At $50K Napa Challenger, USA

[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,375) l Bobby Reynolds (USA,145) 26 46

Doubles
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l Denis Kudla (USA)/ Donald Young (USA) 26 26

Matches were tough but I was expecting little better performance from Sanam in the singles and the doubles.
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At $15K Burundi F1 Futures, Bujumbura (clay)

[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,2121) l (5) Alexander Lazov (BUL,643) 06 16
[R1] Neishit Vakil (IND,1904) l Jannis Liniger (SUI,1990) 06 06

Doubles
[R1] Rahul SADHWANI (IND)/ Neishit VAKIL (IND) l (4) Mark FYNN (ZIM)/ Hassan NDAYISHIMIYE (BDI) 26 26

Expected horrible losses.
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At $10K Egypt F26 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[R1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,UNR) l (Q) Igor Sobolta (UKR,UNR) 62 36 36
[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) bt Marlon Oliveira (BRA,1235) 62 46 62

Prajnesh needed three sets against Brazilian for a win.
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At $10K Kuwait F2 Futures, Meshref

[R1] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,321) bt Arpit Sharma (IND,1650) 60 61
[R1] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1774) l (7) Torsten Wietoska (GER,656) 76(5) 36 06
[R1] Jatin Dahiya (IND,1310) l Thomas Statzberger (AUT,1317) 16 16

Only Saketh won his match and Akash's fitness issues came ahead ... He won the first set in tie-break but after that his German opponent only lost 3 games for winning the match.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] (Q) Shivani MANCHANDA (IND) l Samantha KOELLIKER (SUI) 06 06
[R1] Anjana KOMPALLY (IND) l (8) Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) 06 06

Wow, our both players lost with double bagel.

Tennis News

At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[Q3] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,98) bt Jean-Julien Rojer (NED,UNR) 75 75

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,98) vs (Q) Matteo Viola (ITA,140)

Surprisngluy tough resistant by Jean-Julien Rojer ... Still Buji completed win in tight two sets against thie top-15 doubles player and qualify for main-draw ... In the main-draw he is facing another qualifier Italian Matteo Viola ... Winner between this match will be facing top-seed and WR #4 David Ferrer.
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At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[Q3] (8) Karunuday Singh (IND,684) l (4) Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,165) 64 16 46

Fighting performance by Karunuday against experienced and top-200 Swiss Chiudinelli ... But after winning the first set Karunuday failed to kept momentum.
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At $50K Napa Challenger, USA

[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,446) l (2) Tim Smyczek (USA,104) 26 26

Vijayant lost in the first round against top-100 type American Tim Smyczek.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Fergana, Uzbekistan

[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,586) vs (7) Basak ERAYDIN (TUR,293)
[R1] (8) Ankita RAINA (IND,310) vs (WC) Jamilya SADYKZHANOVA (UZB,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND)/ Anna SMOLINA (RUS) bt Arina FOLTS (UZB)/ Alexandra RILEY (USA) 61 64
[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Deniz KHAZANIUK (ISR) vs Anna GRIGORYAN (RUS)/ Tatiana GRIGORYAN (RUS)

Good to see Nidhi is playing this $25K tournament with Ankita ... Winning start for Nidhi in the doubles with her Russian partner.
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At $15K Burundi F1 Futures, Bujumbura (clay)

[R1] Rahul Sadhwani (IND,UNR) l Gilles De Sousa (FRA,UNR) 06 16
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,2121) vs (5) Alexander Lazov (BUL,643)
[R1] Sagar Ahuja (IND,1408) l (6) Lorenzo Papasidero (ITA,864) 16 16
[R1] Mithun Murali (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Saidi Nkurunziza (BDI,UNR) 60 60
[R1] Neishit Vakil (IND,1904) vs Jannis Liniger (SUI,1990)
[R1] Medhir Goyal (IND,UNR) l Mark Fynn (ZIM,1054) 26 16
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) bye

[R2] Mithun Murali (IND,UNR) vs (6) Lorenzo Papasidero (ITA,864)

[R2] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,329) vs Francesco Garzelli (ITA,1240)

Doubles
[R1] George BARTH (USA)/ Medhir GOYAL (IND) bt Aymar Hugor BIYAMBA NZILA STAR (GAB)/ Anatole BIZIMANA (RWA) 76(4) 76(1)
[R1] Rahul SADHWANI (IND)/ Neishit VAKIL (IND) vs (4) Mark FYNN (ZIM)/ Hassan NDAYISHIMIYE (BDI)
[R1] Olivier HAVUGIMANA (RWA)/ Mithun MURAL (IND) l Mariusz KUR (POL)/ Eric VEHOVEC (CAN) 63 46 6-10
[R1] Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Kunal ANAND (IND) l (3) Alexander LAZOV (BUL)/ Jannis LINIGER (SUI) 36 67(3)
[R1] (2) Yannick MERTENS (BEL)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bye

[QF] George BARTH (USA)/ Medhir GOYAL (IND) vs (1) Lukas JASTRAUNIG (AUT)/ Gerald MELZER (AUT)

Jeevan is 2nd seed and having bye in the singles and the doubles ... Mithun started with comfortable win over local teenager.
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At $10K Kuwait F2 Futures, Meshref

[Q1] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,321) bye
[Q1] (4) Akash Wagh (IND,1775) bye

[Q2] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,321) bt Tamim Hallak (LIB,UNR) 62 60
[Q2] (4) Akash Wagh (IND,1775) bt Uros Lukic (YUG,UNR) 60 62

[R1] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,321) vs Arpit Sharma (IND,1650)
[R1] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1774) vs (7) Torsten Wietoska (GER,656)
[R1] Jatin Dahiya (IND,1310) vs Thomas Statzberger (AUT,1317)
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,1181) bt Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND,970) 64 60

Doubles
[R1] (4) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Jordan Ubiergo (FRA) 75 36 13-11
[R1] Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) bt Sidharth Rawat (IND)/ Arpit Sharma (IND) 63 64

[QF] (4) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Siyu Liu (CHN)/ Chuhan Wang (CHN)

Not sure about Saketh's planning ... This week he needed to play qualifying with Akash and both qualified ... In the doubles tough win for Saketh and Davidson against French pair in extra points of match tie-break, next they r facing Chinese pair ... Sidharth Rawat scored comfortable straight sets win over higher ranked Kaza but Kaza-Wagh defeated Sidharth-Arpit in straight sets.
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At $10K Egypt F26 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[R1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,UNR) vs (Q) Igor Sobolta (UKR,UNR)
[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,544) vs Marlon Oliveira (BRA,1235)

Only Prajnesh is playing with Sasi in this wek's Egypt futures.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[SF] (1) Rishika SUNKARA (IND) bt bye
[R1] (Q) Shivani MANCHANDA (IND) vs Samantha KOELLIKER (SUI) [R1] Anjana KOMPALLY (IND) vs (8) Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) [R1] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND) vs Erika HENDSEL (EST)

Rishika is top-seed and she is having bye in the first round.

Archery News

At Archery World Cup Final 2013, Paris, France

Recurve Women's Individual


Gold - Ok Hee Yun (KOR)
Silver - Deepika Kumari (IND)
Bronze - Yuanyuan Cui (CHN)

Gold Medal match
Deepika Kumari (IND) l Ok Hee Yun (KOR) 4-6 (27-30 28-28 19-29 27-28 29-29)

[SF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Aejandra Valencia (MEX) 6-5 (26-27 25-28 29-24 27-27 30-27)

[QF] Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Aida Roman (MEX) 7-1 (28-28 29-28 26-24 28-26)

Deepika Kumari lost in the final against Korean WR #2 and experienced Ok Hee Yun ... The final was very close as Deepika started confidently scoring 10 points in all 3 arrows for winning the first set ... The second set tied 28-28 so Deepika was leading 3-1 ... In the third set both archers were tied on 19 points before last arrow ... Then Yun scored 10 but Deepika didn't have time to shoot ... Deepika lost 4th set by single point ... In the fifth set both archers matched each other arrows to scored identical 29 points ... So with that 1 point Yun completed victory and Deepika won the Silver.

Before this Deepika defeated two Mexican archers to reached the final ... In the first match she defeated London Olympics silver medalist Aida Roman comfortably ... In the semi-final she faced another Mexican 19 yrs old Aejandra Valencia, who defeated Olympics Gold medalist Korean Hyun Jung Joo in her first match ... Valencia won the first 2 sets and at that time Deepika was trailing 0-4 ... Deepika won the third set comfortably and then hold Valencia 27-27 in 4th set ... At that time scored 3-5 in Deepika's favor ... In the fifth set Deepika scored perfect 30 scoring three 10s and made it 5-5 ... In Shoot-off both archers hit 9 but Deepika's arrow was closer to the centre so that handed her a win.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary

66 kg Greco-Roman

Gold - Han-su Ryu (KOR)
Silver - Islam-Beka Albiev (RUS)
Bronze - Frank Staebler (GER) and Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND)

Bronze Medal Match
Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND) bt Aleksandar Maksimovic (SRB) 4-0

Repechage
[R-R1] Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND) bt Sharur Vardanyan (SWE) 6-4

[QF] Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND) l Han-su Ryu (KOR) 0-7

[R3] Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND) bt Mihail Cosniceanu (MDA) 6-2

[R2] Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND) bt Ismael Navarro Sanchez (ESP) 5-0

[R1] Sandeep Tulsi Yadav (IND) bye

74 kg Greco-Roman
[R1] Chhikara Rajbir (IND) bye

[R2] Chhikara Rajbir (IND) l Veli-Karri Osvald Suominen (FIN) 0-5

120 kg Greco-Roman
[R1] Naveen (IND) l Riza Kayaalp (TUR) 0-4

On the last day of World Wrestling Championship Sandeep Yadav won the Bronze medal for India ... He won the second and third rounds on the points but in the quarter-final he lost in one-sided match against Korean wrestler Ryu ... Ryu went to win the Gold medal so Sandeep got chance of playing in Repechage ... He won closely fought bout against Swedish wrestler Sharur Vardanyan by 2 points and entered in the Bronze medal match ... In the Bronze medal match Sandeep didn't give a chance to his Serbian opponent with his defensive style ... Sandeep scored with a gut wrench in the second period and added a go-behind takedown from an under-arm spin to defeat 2012 European bronze medal winner Serbian Aleksandar Maksimovic ... Sandeep Yadav became India’s first medalist in Greco-Roman at a senior world championships.

Our other two wrestlers failed to overcome their opponents challenge.

Hockey News

At Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Pool A
India l China 0-1 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - Wang Meng Yu (CHN) PC 50'

India girls fought valiantly against higher-ranked Chinese girls before going down by a single goal in their second Pool A match ... After ending first half goalless draw Chinese scored through penalty corners ... After trailing Indians pressed hard for the equalizer and created quite a few scoring chances but the Chinese defended well ... Indians were looking toothless in Chinese circle ... Still good performance by Indian girls ... Now they will play important match against host Malaysia for semis qualification.

Tennis News

At $2.37M Toray Pan Pacific Open, Tokyo, Japan

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bt Kristina Mladenovic (FRA)/ Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 26 60 10-7

This week Sania is participating with multiple grand slam winners Cara Black ... In the first round they faced unseeded pair Mladenovic-Pennetta ... Sania-Cara lost the first set but gave bagel to their opponents in the second set and then won match tie-break to enter into the second round.
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At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[Q2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,101) bt Eric Butorac (USA,UNR) 61 63

[Q3] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,101) vs Jean-Julien Rojer (NED,UNR)

Buji scored comfortable win over American doubles specialist Eric Butorac in 44 minutes ... In the final qualifying round he is facing another doubles specialist Dutch player Jean-Julien Rojer.
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At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[Q2] (8) Karunuday Singh (IND,684) bt Warit Sornbutnark (THA,1246) 46 75 76(4)

[Q3] (8) Karunuday Singh (IND,684) vs (4) Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,165)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Robert Lindstedt (SWE) vs Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP)/ Paolo Lorenzi (ITA)
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL)
[R1] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA) vs James Cerretani (USA)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN)

Karunuday needed comeback win in his 2 hours and 22 minutes against lowly ranked Thai player ... After losing the first set Karunuday needed to dig deep for his comeback win ... In the final qualifying match he is facing experienced Swiss player and WR #165 Marco Chiudinelli.

In the doubles our three pairs r playing ... Divij-Purav getting another opportunity of playing in ATP maindraw ... Mahesh and Lee r top 2 seeded with their respective new partners.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Taiwan

[SF] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,477) bt (2) Jack Sock (USA,88) 67(10) 75 63

[F] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,477) l Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE,64) 46 36

Doubles
[F] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) l (1) Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL) 46 26

In the semi-final Yuki scored big win over WR #88 Jack Sock in well fought three sets after 2 hours and 49 minutes match ... In the first set Yuki missed 5 set points in tie-break before losing it ... In the second set Yuki was early break down, 1-3, but he fought back and broke Sock on in 8th game and made it 4-all ... Yuki had a set point in 10th game but Sock saved it ... Yuki broke Sock in 12th game for winning the second set ... In the final set both players hold their respective service games till 7th game ... Yuki broke Sock in 8th game and then hold his service game comfortably for exciting win ... He needed to play the final after only 90 minutes break.

In the final Yuki lost his serve in 1st game and then both players hold their respective service games and so that single break gave Lu the first set ... In the second set Lu broke Yuki in 3rd game and then again broke Yuki in 9th game for straight sets win in 66 minutes ... Yuki must be tired after his long singles semi-final and didn't recover in 90 minutes ... But with 80 points which he earn from this tournament will help Yuki to re-enter into top-300 ... He was also schedule to play the doubles final after 30 minutes rest

I think Yuki played the double final in respect to his doubles partner and spectators ... As after playing almost 4 hours on the court he played doubles final and frankly result was expected ... Yuki must be drained after playing long singles semi-final and then singles finalthat was reflected in his doubles final ... Still creditable week for Yuki as he reached in the final as an qualifier and also reached the final with his Taiwani partner as wild-crad pair.
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At $50K Napa Challenger, USA

[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,375) vs Bobby Reynolds (USA,145)
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND,446) vs (2) Tim Smyczek (USA,104)

Sanam and Vijayant having tough first round matches.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary

60 kg Greco-Roman
[R1] Ravinder Singh (IND) bye

[R2] Ravinder Singh (IND) bt Erbol Kalabaeyu (BLR) fall 4:03

[R3] Ravinder Singh (IND) l Jesse David Thielke (USA) fall 4:40

84 kg Greco-Roman
[R1] Harpreet Singh (IND) bye

[R2] Harpreet Singh (IND) l Eerik Aps (EST) 0-6

96 kg Greco-Roman
[R1] Hardeep Singh (IND) bye

[R2] Hardeep Singh (IND) l Marin Czac (MDA) 1-3

Still no special performance in Greco-Roman division by Indian wrestlers ... Ravinder Singh started well winning his match with fall against Belarus wrestler ... In the third round he was up with points against American wrestler Thielke but Thielke won the bout with fall ... Our other two wrestlers lost in their respective first bout.

Hockey News

At Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 2013, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Pool A
India bt Hong Kong 13-0 (9-0)
Goal Scorers - Ritu Rani (IND) 2', 6', 23', 24', 26', 34' and 58', Kirandeep Kaur (IND) 5', Vandana Katariya (IND) 13', 18' and 39', Poonam Rani (IND) 69', Joydeep Kaur (IND) 70'

Indians girls scored comfortable win against Hong Kong team on the first day ... This was expected result ... Ritu Rani scored 7 goals in this match ... At half-time we were 9-0 up but then only managed 4 more goals in the second half ... In the second match we r facing mighty Chinese team.

Tennis News

At $984K Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,101) bye

[Q2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,101) vs Eric Butorac (USA,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Syed Mohd Agil Syed Naguib (MAS) vs (2) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)

Buji is 2nd seed in the qualifying ... After receiving bye in the first round Buji is facing American doubles specialist Eric Butorac ... Other hand Yuki missed chance of getting special exemption at Fergana challenger after reaching semis at Kaohsiung Challenger ... He added his name for Malaysian qualifying but missed as he still playing at Kaohsiung Challenger ... He is in the doubles maindraw as wild-card with Malaysian partner and facing tough match against 2nd seed Benneteau-Zimo.
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At $567.5K Thailand Open, Bangkok

[Q1] (8) Karunuday Singh (IND,684) bt Pruchya Isarow (THA,821) 62 46 76(8)

[Q2] (8) Karunuday Singh (IND,684) vs Warit Sornbutnark (THA,1246)

Karunuday is playing qualifying at Thailand open ... He stretched to fullest in the first round by local player as he won the final set tie-break in extra points ... Next he is facing another local Thai player.
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At $10K Kuwait F1 Futures, Meshref

Singles Final
(1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) l (7) Mohammad Ghareeb (KUW,726) 46 16

Saketh lost against experienced Mohammad Ghareeb in the final ... Disappointed to see Saketh loses in this one-sided match.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Alger, Algeria

Singles Final
(2) Shweta Rana (IND) l (1) Sherazad Benamar (FRA) 16 63 16

Good fighting performance by Shweta Rana against top-400 French girl ... Shweta stretched her to three sets after losing the first set.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[SF] (1) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) l (4) Julia VALETOVA (RUS) 64 46 26

Surprising loss of Prarthana against 4th seed Russian girl and her doubles partner ... I was expecting the title from Prarthana after excellent last week but here after winning the first set she failed to keep momentum and lost next two sets ... Prarthana won the doubles title with Russian Julia Valetova.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary

Women - 67 kg Freestyle
[R1] Najot Kaur (IND) bt Gilda De Oliviera (BRA) 11-4

[R2] Najot Kaur (IND) l Leidy Izquierdo Mendez (COL) 0-9

Women - 72 kg Freestyle
[R1] Jyoti (IND) l Yaemin Adar (TUR) 5-9

Men - 55 kg Greco-Roman
[R1] Gaurav Sharma (IND) bye

[R2] Gaurav Sharma (IND) bt Lazaros Karathanasis (GRE) 8-0

[R3] Gaurav Sharma (IND) l Orkhan Ahmadov (AZE) 0-8

Women's performance ended on disappointing note and they finished last in overall standing ... Gaurav Sharma lost in the third round of his Greco-Roman category.

Tennis News

At €410K Moselle Open, Metz, France

[SF] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) l Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Raven Klaasen (RSA) 46 76(8) 6-10

In a serve-dominated encounter Rohan-Edouard lost against another big server pair Brunstrom-Klaasen in match tie-break ... After losing the first set Rohan-Edouard fought back and won the tie-break in extra points ... But they failed to keep momentum in the match tiebreak.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Taiwan

[QF] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,477) bt (4) Alejandro Gonzalez (COL,114) 63 26 62

[SF] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,477) vs (2) Jack Sock (USA,88)

Doubles
[SF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) bt Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Danai Udomchoke (THA) 63 64

[F] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) vs (1) Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL)

Yuki's dream run is continued in the singles and the doubles ... In the singles, Yuki broke Gonzalez in the first game and take 2-0 lead ... Yuki kept that advantage and again broke him in 9th game for winning the first set ... In the second set Gonzalez take advantage of Yuki's mistake and broke him in 3rd and 5th games ... Gonzalez won this set comfortably ... In the final set both players hold their respective service games till 5th game but after that Yuki became more aggressive and broke Gonzalez in 6th and 8th games for excellent victory ... Next he is facing top-100 and 2010 Junior US open champion American Jack Sock.

Yuki and Chieh-Fu Wang continues their good run in the doubles and scored straight sets victory over experienced doubles players ... In the final they r facing Colombian pair.
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At $10K Kuwait F1 Futures, Meshref

[SF] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) bt (6) Abdullah Maqdas (KUW,757) 36 64 63

[F] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) vs (7) Mohammad Ghareeb (KUW,726)

Doubles Final
(2) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l (1) Lewis Burton (GBR)/ Marcus Willis (GBR) 46 57

Again Saketh struggled with his service games but he fought back after losing the first set against local player ... In the final he is facing most experienced and former top-350 Kuwaiti player Mohammad Ghareeb.

Saketh and Davidson lost in the doubles final against top-seed British pair.
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At $10K Egypt F24 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[QF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,543) l (5) Karim-Mohamed Maamoun (EGY,542) 67(5) 64 0-1 Retd.

Prajnesh retired from his match in the third set ... After losing the first set Prajnesh foght back to won the second ... But Prajnesh retired from his match after one game of the third set.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Alger, Algeria

[SF] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) bt (6) Alina Wessel (GER) 4-0 Retd.

[F] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) vs (1) Sherazad Benamar (FRA)

Shweta's German opponent retired from the match when she was 0-4 down ... In the final Shweta is facing top-seed French girl Sherazad Benamar.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[QF] (1) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) bt Samantha POWERS (USA) 62 63

[SF] (1) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) vs (4) Julia VALETOVA (RUS)

Prarthana scored comfortable win over Samantha Powera and in the semis she is facing 4th seed Russian.

Badminton News

At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2013, Tokyo (Superseries)

[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,23) l (5) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,8) 18-21 13-21
[QF] Prannoy H. S. (IND,56) l Huan Gao (CHN,32) 11-21 22-20 13-21
[QF] K Srikanth (IND,39) l (7) Kenichi Tago (JPN,5) 18-21 9-21

Indian challenge got over in Japan open as our all three players lost in the quarter final ... Srikanth stretched Tago in the first game but after that Tago dominated the match and won it in 39 minutes ... Ajay also fought in the first game but afterwards Nguyen proved strong for 40 minutes win ... Prannoy lost the first game easily against Gao after losing 9 points in a row from 8-all ... In the second game both players exchanged lead, from 12-all Prannoy opened 4 points lead, 16-12 ... Prannoy missed 3 game points from 20-17 before converting 4th game point and won this game ... In the third game Prannoy tried fightback winning 6 points in a row from 2-6 to lead 8-6 ... But after that Gao gave only 5 points to Prannoy before completing victory.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary

Women - 55 kg Freestyle
[R1] Pooja (IND) l Iryna Husyak (UKR) 0-8

Women - 59 kg Freestyle
Geeta (IND) l Yuliya Ratkevich (AZE) 0-5

Women - 63 kg Freestyle
[R1] Geetika Jakhar (IND) l Maria Mamashuk (BLR) 0-5

Our women wrestlers disappointing outing continued on the second day ... All wrestlers lost in the first round.

Tennis News

At €410K Moselle Open, Metz, France

[QF] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Nicholas Monroe (USA)/ Simon Stadler (GER) 63 62

[SF] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Raven Klaasen (RSA)

Rohan-Edouard scored comfortable win over German-American pair and enter into the semis ... Next they r facing unseeded pairing of Brunstrom-Klaasen, who scored upset win over 3rd seed in the first round.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Taiwan

[R2] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) bt (7) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,146) 76(5) 75

[QF] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,477) vs (4) Alejandro Gonzalez (COL,114)

Doubles
[QF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) bt Arata Onozawa (JPN)/ Yuichi Sugita (JPN) 63 64

[SF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) vs Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Danai Udomchoke (THA)

Yuki continues with his excellent run in this big Kaohsiung Challenger ... Today he defeated Japanese Davis cupper Yuichi Sugita in two tight sets ... Interestingly this was Yuki's first win against Sugita after two losses in their previous meeting ... In the first set both players traded early breaks but in tie-break Yuki converted first set point after winning point on Sugita's serve at 6-5 ... In the second set Yuki lost his serve in third game, 1-2 ... From 3-5 Yuki won next 4 games ... In 10th game Yuki converted 4th break point and made it 5-all ... Yuki won next game on love and then in 12th game Yuki had 3 match points at 0-40 on Sugita's serve ... Yuki converted 2nd match point for excellent win ... Next he is facing 4th seed Colombian Alejandro Gonzalez. In the doubles also Yuki and his Taiwani partner Chieh-Fu Wang comfortably defeated Sugita and his partner Onozawa ... In the semi-final they r facing experienced players Udomchoke and Ebden.
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At $15K Canada F8 Futures, Toronto

[R2] (3) Sanam Singh (IND,375) l Milan Pokrajac (CAN,630) 26 16

Surprised by this one-sided loss of Sanam against Milan.
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At $10K Egypt F24 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[R2] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,543) bt Sebastian Rivera (ECU,1381) 60 61

[QF] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,543) vs (5) Karim-Mohamed Maamoun (EGY,542)

Prajnesh scored very dominating win over Sebastian Rivera losing only a single game ... Next he is facing local similar ranked player, interesting match.
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At $10K Kuwait F1 Futures, Meshref

[QF] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) bt Thomas Statzberger (AUT,1313) 75 76(2)

[SF] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) vs (6) Abdullah Maqdas (KUW,757)

Doubles
[SF] (2) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt (4) Matias Castro (ARG)/ Thomas Statzberger (AUT) 63 64

[F] (2) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs (1) Lewis Burton (GBR)/ Marcus Willis (GBR)

Surprisingly tough match for Saketh ... Expected easy win but Austrian Statzberger stretched Saketh to fullest in both sets but importantly Saketh completed victory ... Next he is facing local 6th seed player Maqdas ... Saketh is in the doubles final also with Davidson, the defeated Statzberger and his Argentine partner Castro in straight sets ... In the final they r facing top-seed British pair.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures, Costa Mesa

[QF] (4) Evan Song (USA)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) l Deiton Baughman (USA)/ Joseph Digiulio (USA) 26 57

Ashwin and his partner lost in quarter-final.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Alger, Algeria

[QF] (8) Shivika Burman (IND) l Harmony Tan (FRA) 26 36
[QF] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) bt Mia Nicole Eklund (FIN) 61 61

[SF] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) vs (6) Alina Wessel (GER)

Shweta scored dominating win against her Finnish opponent but Shivika lost against lower ranked French girl ... In the semis Shweta r facing German girl.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R2] (1) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) bt Linda DUBSKA (CZE) 60 64

[QF] (1) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) vs Ola ABOU ZEKRY (EGY)

Good start for Prarthana in this week's tournament ... In the quarter she is facing Egyptian girl.

Badminton News

At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2013, Tokyo (Superseries)

[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,37) l (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1) 12-21 16-21
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,23) bt (Q) Yuichi Ikeda (JPN,354) 21-13 11-21 21-18
[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,56) bt Jan O Jorgensen (DEN,9) 21-14 13-21 21-17
[R1] K Srikanth (IND,39) bt (Q) Kazuteru Kozai (JPN,287) 21-12 21-16
[R2] (8) P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) l (Q) Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,207) 6-21 17-21

[R2] Sumeet Reddy (IND)/ Manu Attri (IND) l (4) Xiaolong Liu (CHN)/ Zihan Qiu (CHN) 17-21 16-21

[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,23) vs (5) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,8)
[QF] Prannoy H. S. (IND,56) vs Huan Gao (CHN,32)
[QF] K Srikanth (IND,39) vs (7) Kenichi Tago (JPN,5)

I think IBL's effect is showing in our male players performance, our three players r in the quarters of Superseries ... Prannoy scored huge upset win over top-10 Danish player Jan O Jorgensen in 53 minutes ... In the first game Jan take early lead 8-5, but Prannoy won 6 points in a row from 6-9 to take a lead ... Jan managed to reduce it to 12-13 but after that Prannoy lost only couple of points before winning this game ... In the second game both players were exchanging lead till 9-all ... From 8-9 Jan won next 7 points to take 15-9 lead and didn't gave any chance to Prannoy for comeback ... After losing the second game Prannoy kept his nerve and opened 2 points lead from 7-all in the decider ... After that Prannoy kept his lead till the last ... At 15-18 Jan tried fightback winning next 2 points but Prannoy won next 3 points and completed victory ... Next he is facing Chinese Huan Gao.

Srikanth scored comfortable win over Japanese qualifier in 32 minutes ... Next he is facing Japanese top player and WR #5 Kenichi Tago ... Ajay surprisnglu stretched by another Japanese qualifier Yuichi Ikeda in 55 minutes match ... Ajay won the first game easily before losing concentration in the second and lost it poorly ... In the decider Yuichi take 4-0 lead but after that Ajay recovered and won next 5 points to lead 5-4 ... After that both players were exchanging lead ... From 13-15 Yuichi won 4 points in a row to take lead, 17-15, but Ajay won next 3 point to lead 18-17 ... Yuichi made it 18-all but again Ajay kept his cool and won next 3 points for completing the victory ... Next he is facing Vietnamese WR #8 Tien Minh Nguyen.

Other hand shocking one-sided loss of Sindhu against below 200 ranked Japanese qualifier Akane Yamaguchi in 32 minutes ... In the first game Sindhu managed to win only 6 points ... In the second game Sindhu take 7-3 then 10-5 early lead but failed to kept that advantage ... Akane won next 6 points to take lead 11-10 ... Then from 11-12 Akane opened couple of points lead and kept increasing for upset win ... In the doubles Sumeet-Manu gave decent performance against Chinese seeded pair.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary

74 kg Freestyle
Bronze Medal match
Narasingh Yadav (IND) l Ali Shabanov (BLR) 1-6

Repechage
[R-R2] Narasingh Yadav (IND) bt Gamid Dzhalilov (TJK) 7-0
[R-R1] Narasingh Yadav (IND) bt Yabrail Hasanov (AZE) 13-4

[R3] Narasingh Yadav (IND) l Jordan Burroughs (USA) 0-7
[R2] Narasingh Yadav (IND) bt Kakhaber Khubezhty (RUS) 10-2
[R1] Narasingh Yadav (IND) bye

Women - 48 kg Freestyle
[R1] Nirmala Devi (IND) l Alyssa Rae Nicole Lampe (USA) 0-7

Women - 51 kg Freestyle
[R1] Vinesh (IND) bt Wendy Martinez (MEX) 7-0
[R2] Vinesh (IND) l Isabelle Sambou (SEN) 3-6

Narasingh Yadav missed opportunity of winning the Bronze as he lost easily again Belarusian wrestler in the medal match ... Narasingh scored good win against Russian wrestler in the second round but lost easily against eventual American wrestler in the next round ... In Repechage he scored two dominating wins but failed to repeat that performance in the medal match.

Disappointing start in Women's freestyle as our both wrestlers lost in first 2 rounds.

Tennis News

Davis Cup 2014 - Group I,

Davis cup draw is out and India is having home tie against Chinese Taipei but if they win this tie then they r having real test in away match against seeded Koreans.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Taiwan

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) bt Amir Weintraub (ISR,190) 76(8) 61

[R2] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) vs (7) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,146)

Yuki scored upset win over Israeli Davis cupper Amir Weintraub in straight sets ... In the first set Yuki was up with early break, 3-1, but Amir broke back in 8th game to made it 4-all ... In long tie-break Yuki kept his nerve and won it after 18 points ... In the second set Yuki dominated and won it with double break ... In the second round he is facing Japanese top-150 and 7th seed Yuichi Sugita.
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At $15K Canada F8 Futures, Toronto

[R1] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,446) l George Jecminek (CAN,855) 16 67(3)
[R1] (3) Sanam Singh (IND,375) bt Daniel Chu (CAN,1999) 62 16 63

[R2] (3) Sanam Singh (IND,375) vs Milan Pokrajac (CAN,630)

Surprisingly Sanam stretched to three sets by Canadian journeyman Chu but other hand Vijayant wasn't so lucky and lost in straight sets against lower ranked Canadian ... Sanam is facing another Canadian in the second round.
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At $10K Egypt F24 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[R1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,UNR) l (Q) Maxim Kravtsov (RUS,UNR) 26 64 57
[R1] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,543) bt Dmitry Surchenko (RUS,1463) 63 62
[R1] (5) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,582) l Dariusz Lipka (POL,UNR) 4-4 Retd.

[R2] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,543) vs Sebastian Rivera (ECU,1381)

Prajnesh started with win but Ranjeet got injured in his match ... 16 yrs old Sasi gave fighting performance in his loss.
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At $10K Kuwait F1 Futures, Meshref

[R2] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) bt Jordan Ubiergo (FRA,1491) 64 63
[R2] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1787) l Soichiro Moritani (JPN,1990) 26 16

[QF] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) vs Thomas Statzberger (AUT,1313)

Saketh scored straight sets win but Akash's inconsistency in his performance continued.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures, Costa Mesa

[R1] (LL) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) l Alex Blumenberg (BRA,708) 06 62 67(5)

After losing the first set without winning a single game Ashwin gave fighting performance in next two sets against higher ranked Brazilian.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Alger, Algeria

[R2] (8) Shivika Burman (IND) bt Fatima Zohra Boukezzi (ALG) 61 60
[R2] (WC) Victoria Chehal (IND) l Mia Nicole Eklund (FIN) 36 57
[R2] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) bt Nikita Deshmukh (IND) 61 60

[QF] (8) Shivika Burman (IND) vs Harmony Tan (FRA)
[QF] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) vs Mia Nicole Eklund (FIN)

Expected wins for Shivika and Shweta ... Next they r facing French and Finnish girls respectively.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND) l Parris TODD (USA) 46 57

Ashmitha lost against American girl in tight two sets.

Badminton News

At $200K Yonex Open Japan 2013, Tokyo (Superseries)

[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,37) bt Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,12) 21-17 7-21 21-18
[R1] B. Sai Praneeth (IND,38) l (8) Yun Hu (HKG,8) 21-23 18-21
[R1] Saurabh Verma (IND,36) l (Q) Jun Takemura (JPN,319) 24-22 19-21 14-21
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,23) bt Tien Chen Chou (TPE,25) 21-11 21-18
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,56) bt Wing Ki Wong (HKG,14) 15-21 21-17 24-22
[R1] K Srikanth (IND,39) bt Sho Sasaki (JPN,22) 22-20 22-24 21-18
[R1] (8) P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) bt (Q) Yukino Nakai (JPN,550) 21-12 21-13
[R1] Tanvi Lad (IND,77) l Sayaka Takahashi (JPN,20) 15-21 10-21

[R1] Sumeet Reddy (IND)/ Manu Attri (IND) bt Hiroyuki Saeki (JPN)/ Ryota Taohata (JPN) 21-17 21-15

[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,37) vs (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1)
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,23) vs (Q) Yuichi Ikeda (JPN,354)
[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,56) vs Jan O Jorgensen (DEN,9)
[R1] K Srikanth (IND,39) vs (Q) Kazuteru Kozai (JPN,287)
[R2] (8) P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) vs (Q) Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,207)

[R2] Sumeet Reddy (IND)/ Manu Attri (IND) vs (4) Xiaolong Liu (CHN)/ Zihan Qiu (CHN)

Some superb upsets by our Indian players ... Day's first upset started by Anand Pawar, who previously three times lost against Kuncoro ... This time Anand kep his nerve in the third game after losing the second game easily ... In next round Anand will facing Malaysian WR #1 Chong Wei Lee.

Ajay scored dominating straight games victory over similar ranked Taiwani player ... In the second round he is facing Japanese qualifier ... Sindhu also scored very comfortable win against her Japanese qualifier and in the second round also she is facing another local qualifier.

K Srikanth scored huge win against very experienced Sho Sasaki in hard fought 68 minutes match ... In the first game Srikanth kept close to Sho and converted 2nd game point for winning the first game ... In the second game Sho was in control most of the game ... Srikant saved 4 game points from 16-20 and then he had match point at 22-21 but failed to convert ... Sho converted 6th game point for winning the second game ... In the second game from 4-5 Srikanth won next 7 points to opened huge gap, 11-5 ... Sho tried fight back but failed to catch Srikanth ... Sho made it 13-14, 14-15 then 15-16 but Srikanth kept his composure and converted his third match point for memorable victory ... Next he is facing Japanese qualifier Kozai, who scored upset win against Chinese WR #2 Long Chen.

Prannoy scored comeback win against Hong Kong WR #14 Wing Ki Wong in 67 minutes ... After losing the first game Prannoy was trailing in the second game ... From 14-16 Prannoy won next 4 points to take lead and kept that for winning the second game ... In the third game also Wong take early lead, at one time Prannoy was trailing him 8-14 ... Prannoy caught him at 16-all and then Prannoy had 2 match points at 20-18 which he missed ... Wong saved another match point at 20-21 ... Prannoy saved match point at 21-22 and then converted 4th match point for excellent win ... Next he is facing top Danish player and WR #9 Jan O Jorgensen.

In the doubles Sumeet-Manu started with win against local pair but next they r facing 4th seed Chinese pair.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary

60kg Freestyle
Gold - Bekhan Goigereev (RUS)
Silver - Vladimir Dubov (BUL)
Bronze - Masoud Esmaeilpoor (IRI) and Bajrang (IND)

Bronze medal Match
Bajrang (IND) bt Nyam-Ochir Enkhsai Khan (MGL) 9-2

Repechage
[R-R2] Bajrang (IND) bt Shogo Maeda Defaulted (w/o)
[R-R1] Bajrang (IND) bt Ivan Guidea (ROU) 10-3

[R1] Bajrang (IND) bye
[R2] Bajrang (IND) l Vladimir Dubov (BUL) 0-7

84 kg Freestyle
[R1] Pawan Kumar (IND) bye
[R2] Pawan Kumar (IND) l Feng Zhang (CHN) 8-9

120 kg Freestyle
[R1] Hitender (IND) bye
[R2] Hitender (IND) l Geno Petriashvili (GEO) 0-8

Bajrang lost in his first bout against Bulgarian Vladimir Dubov ... Vladimir Dubov reached in the final and Bajrang got chance to play in Repechage ... He take full advantage of it ... He started with 10-3 win over Romanian wrestler ... In next round his Japanese wrestler defaulted and then in Bronze medal match Bajrang kept his attacking approach ... He scored 9-2 win over Mongolian wrestler Nyam-Ochir Enkhsai Khan and won the second medal for India ... Impressive performance considering our top 2 wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt r missed this World championship due to injury ... In 84 kg and 120 kg categories our wrestlers failed to cross the second round.

Tennis News

At €410K Moselle Open, Metz, France

[R1] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Eric Butorac (USA)/ Sam Querrey (USA) 61 76(4)

[QF] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Nicholas Monroe (USA)/ Simon Stadler (GER)

Rohan-Edouard started with straight sets win though after winning the first set easily their American opponents strtched them to tie-break ... In the quarter they r facing German-American pair.
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At $520K St.Petersburg Open, Russia

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (WC) Victor Baluda (RUS)/ Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) 67(6) 46

Divij-Purav lost in the first round against Russian wild-card pair ... After losing close tie-break our pair failed to produce comeback in the second ... Expected victory for our pair.
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At $10K Kuwait F1 Futures, Meshref

[R1] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1787) bt Sidharth Rawat (IND,1089) 76(2) 75

[R2] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) vs Jordan (ubiergo (FRA,1491)
[R2] (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1787) vs Soichiro Moritani (JPN,1990)

Doubles
[R1] Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) l Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Jordan Ubiergo (FRA) 26 36

[QF] (2) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Carlos Capel (ESP)/ Jaume Santo-Valdivieso (ESP) 63 60

Qualifier Akash produced excellent hard fought win over countryman Sidharth Rawat ... Really good win by Akash against big server Sidharth ... Next he is facing similar ranked Japanese opponent, his 3rd seed French opponent retired from the match ... Good opportunity for Akash to go deep in this tournament.

In the doubles Saketh and his American partner r in the semis with comfortable win but Kaza-Wagh pair lost in the first round.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Alger, Algeria

[R1] (8) Shivika Burman (IND) bt (WC) Sanaa Benkaddour (ALG) 60 62
[R1] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) bt (Q) Doria Khetib (ALG) 60 60

[R2] (8) Shivika Burman (IND) vs Fatima Zohra BOUKEZZI (ALG)
[R2] (WC) Victoria Chehal (IND) vs Mia Nicole EKLUND (FIN)
[R2] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) vs Nikita Deshmukh (IND)

Expected easy wins for Shivika and Shweta.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures, Costa Mesa

Doubles
[R1] (4) Evan Song (USA)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) bt Andrew Diefenbach (USA)/ Brett Van Linge (USA) 61 46 11-9

[QF] (4) Evan Song (USA)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) vs Deiton Baughman (USA)/ Joseph Digiulio (USA)

Turned to be tough first round win for 4th seed pair of Evan Song-Ashwin as they won match tie-break on extra points ... In the quarters they r facing another American pair.

Wrestling News

At 2013 Senior World Wrestling Championship, Budapest, Hungary


55 kg Freestyle


Gold - Hassan Rahimi (IRI)
Silver - Amit Kumar (IND)
Bronze - Sezer Akgul (TUR) and Nariman Israpilov (RUS)

[R1] Amit KUMAR (IND) bye
[R2] Amit KUMAR (IND) bt Yasuhiro Inaba (JPN) 8-2
[R3] Amit KUMAR (IND) bt Zoheir EL OUARRAQE (FRA) 8-0
[QF] Amit KUMAR (IND) bt Angel Alesmo ESCOBEDO (USA) 6-0
[SF] Amit KUMAR (IND) bt Sezar AKGUL (TUR) 8-0

[F] Amit KUMAR (IND) l Hassan RAHIMI (IRN) 1-2

66 kg Freestyle
[R1] Arun KUMAR (IND) bye
[R2] Arun KUMAR (IND) l Levan KELEKHSASHVILI (GEO) 0-8

96 kg Freestyle
[R1] Satywart KADAYAN (IND) bye
[R2] Satywart KADAYAN (IND) bt Gamini MADASING ACHCHILLAGE (SRI) 10-0
[R3] Satywart KADAYAN (IND) l Nicolai CEBAN (MDA) 2-5

Senior World championship is started in Hungary ... Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt missed this tournament due to injury ... On the first day we had high hope from young Amit Kumar in 55 kg freestyle, who recently won Asian championships gold in April ... As expected with some solid one-sided wins he reached in the final ... In the final both wrestlers were looking tired and Iranian didn't gave chance to attack for Amit Kumar ... In the end Iranian won the bout on the less cautions ... Still creditable performance by Amit Kumar in his first Senior World championship ... Hopefully he will keep himself motivated for Olympics medal in Rio and Tokyo.

Our other two wrestlers lost in their first and second matches in their respective weight categories..

Tennis News

At €410K Moselle Open, Metz, France

[R1] (1) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Eric Butorac (USA)/ Sam Querrey (USA)

Rohan-Edouard r playing at Metz.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Taiwan

[Q3] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) bt (5) Arata Onozawa (JPN,674) 75 61
[Q3] (6) Karunuday Singh (IND,687) l (1) Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,358) 26 16

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) vs Amir Weintraub (ISR,190)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) bt (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 76(5) 76(1)

Yuki qualify for main-draw of Kaohsiung Challenger with straight sets win ... In the first set he was 0-2 down after losing the serve in 1st game but he broke Onozawa in 6th game to made it 3-all ... Yuki missed a set point in 10th game before breaking Onozawa in 12th game for winning the first set ... In the second set Yuki dominated from the start and broke Onozawa twice for comfortable win ... In the main-draw he is facing Israeli experienced Davis Cupper Amir Weintraub ... Other hand Karunuday failed to produce challenge against Yasutaka Uchiyama.

Yuki and his Taiwani partner Chieh-Fu Wang produced huge upset against 2nd seed Ratiwatana brothers ... Both sets were closely fought but Indian-Taiwani wild-card pair played tie-breaks perfectly for huge win.
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At $15K Canada F8 Futures, Toronto

[R1] (4) Vijayant Malik (IND,446) vs George Jecminek (CAN,855)
[R1] (3) Sanam Singh (IND,375) vs Daniel Chu (CAN,1999)

This week Sanam and Vijayant r playing in the singles only ... Both r facing Canadian opponent in the first round.
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At $10K Kuwait F1 Futures, Meshref

[Q1] (1) Akash Wagh (IND,1787) bye
[Q2] (1) Akash Wagh (IND,1787) bt Phillip Gresk (POL,UNR) 63 61

[R1] (1) Saketh Myneni (IND,312) bt Mohammed Reda (KUW,1999) 61 61
[R1] (8) Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND,942) l Ali Ghareeb (KUW,1522) 26 57
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,1089) vs (Q) Akash Wagh (IND,1787)

Doubles
[R1] Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) vs Sadio Doumbia (FRA)/ Jordan Ubiergo (FRA)
[R1] (2) Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bye

Akash Wagh qualified for main-draw but facing tough match against fellow Indian Sidharth Rawat ... Saketh is favorite to dominated these Kuwait futures and he started with comfortable win ... But poor loss of Kaza against local player.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Tlemcen, Algeria

[R1] (8) Shivika Burman (IND) vs (WC) Sanaa Benkaddour (ALG)
[R1] (WC) Victoria Chehal (IND) bt (Q) Samara Amour (ALG) 60 61
[R1] Nikita Deshmukh (IND) bt (Q) Ines Belkis Alimoussa (ALG) 62 63
[R1] (2) Shweta Rana (IND) vs (Q) Doria Khetib (ALG)

This week winnable first round matches for all players as they r facing local players ... So expected wins for Victoria Chehal and Nikita Deshmukh.
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At $10K USA F24 Futures, Costa Mesa

[Q1] (3) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) bye
[Q2] (3) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) bt Jonas Meinzer (GER,UNR) 63 63
[Q3] (3) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) bt Andrew Diefenbach (USA,UNR) 61 64
[Q4] (3 )Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) l (11) Ziad Sultan (KUW,1787) 26 46

[R1] (LL) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1131) vs Alex Blumenberg (BRA,708)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Evan Song (USA)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) vs Andrew Diefenbach (USA)/ Brett Van Linge (USA)

Ashwin Vijayragavan is playing in tough US futures but he lost in the final qualifying ... He is main-draw as luckyloser and facing Brazilian ... Also in the doubles he is 4th seed with his American partner.
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At $10K Egypt F24 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

[R1] (Q) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,UNR) vs (Q) Maxim Kravtsov (RUS,UNR)
[R1] (4) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,543) vs Dmitry Surchenko (RUS,1463)
[R1] (5) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,582) vs Dariusz Lipka (POL,UNR)

This week Prajnesh join Ranjeet and Sasi for Egypt futures.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] (1) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) bye
[R1] Ashmitha EASWARAMURTHI (IND) vs Parris TODD (USA)

This week Prarthana is top-seed and receive bye in the first round ... Ashmitha is having tricky match against young 15 yrs old talented American girl, who is ranked in 1000s.

Tennis News

At $520K St.Petersburg Open, Russia

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Victor Baluda (RUS)/ Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS)

Divij-Sharan r playing at St.Petersburg Open and facing wild-card pair in the first round.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Taiwan

[Q2] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) bt Punn Bodidatta (THA,2122) 61 61
[Q2] (6) Karunuday Singh (IND,687) bt Hao-Yang Hu (TPE,1787) 63 60

[Q3] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND,476) vs (5) Arata Onozawa (JPN,674)
[Q3] (6) Karunuday Singh (IND,687) vs (1) UCHIYAMA, Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,358)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chieh-Fu Wang (TPE) vs (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Yuki and Karunuday scored comfortable win and in the final qualifying they r facing real test.
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At $15K Canada F8 Futures, Toronto

Singles Final
(2) Sanam Singh (IND,379) l (1) Peter POLANSKY (CAN,235) 26 26

Top-seed Peter Polansky proved too strong for Sanam in the final ... Still creditable performance by Sanam in his first tournament after long injury break.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Singles Final
(2) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND,556) l (1) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS,386) 67(7) 63 57

Prarthana lost in very close match against top-seed Russian ... She had opportunity to won the first set but missed in tie-break ... After that Prarthana fought back and won the second set but lost closely fought final set.
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At $10K Egypt F24 Futures , Sharm El Sheikh

Doubles Final
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (4) Karim HOSSAM (EGY)/ Karim-Mohamed MAAMOUN (EGY) 64 76(10)

Bala and Ranjeet lifted doubles title after beating 4th seed Egyptian pair ... After winning the first set they won the second set after long tie-break.