Squash News

At $50K Women's Windy City Open 2014, Chicago, USA (Gold 50)

[R1] Dipika Pallikal (IND,10) l (5) Low Wee Wern (MAS,6) 2-3 (5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 14-12, 6-110 (80m)

Dipika lost in 80 minutes long marathon match against Low Wee Wern ... Wern started winning first game comfortably but Dipika produced comeback for winning the second ... Wern stopped Dipika's resistance for winning the third game but Dipika wasn't going to lose without fight ... The fourth game both players tried hard and after saving few match balls Dipika won it in extra points ... I think her efforts in fourth game drained Dipika and Wern take advantage for winning the decider..
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At $115K Men's Windy City Open 2014, Chicago, USA (World Series Gold)

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,18) bt Tarek Momen (EGY,12) 3-1 (11-9, 3-11, 11-4, 11-7) (50m)

[QF] Saurav Ghosal (IND,18) vs (4) Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY,3)

Terrific win by Saurav against another marathon man and higher ranked Momen in four games ... After winning tight first game Saurav lost the second game cheaply ... But Momen failed to keep momentum in next game and Saurav take advantage of it for winning it comfortably ... Momen tried fightback in the fourth but Saurav kept his advantage for winning this match in 50 minutes ... In the quarters he is facing WR #3 Mohamed Elshorbagy.

Badminton News

At $120K Yonex German Open 2014, Mülheim an der Ruhr

[QF] Arvind Bhat (IND,82) bt (14) Viktor Axelsen (DEN,26) 21-17 21-14

[SF] Arvind Bhat (IND,87) vs (15) Tien Chen Chou (TPE,24)

Arvind continued with his (sort of) giant-killing and defeated another top-25 type Danish player Axelsen in straight games ... In the semis he is facing Taipei's Tien Chen Chou.

Tennis News

At $2.36M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

[SF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Tomasz Bednarek (POL)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) 62 60

[F] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (1) Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB)

Proved to be very easy win for Aisam-Rohan losing only 2 games ... In the final they r facing top-seed Zimo-Nestor.
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At $10K India F1 Futures , Chandigarh

Singles Semi Finals
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) 75 64
(2) Sanam SINGH (IND) l (4) Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) 46 36

Doubles Final
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)/ Sanam SINGH (IND) 64 64

Vishnu is back on (at least) Indian futures scene though he need to show consistency in next few futures before we make final verdict ... Good strong win against Bala for Vishnu but next he is facing in form Dutchman Antal Van Der Duim ... Antal Van Der Duim scored convincing win over higher ranked and local boy Sanam.

For Sanam this Friday turned disappointing as after losing his singles semi-final he lost the doubles final with Vivek Shokeen against top-seed Bala-Ranjeet in straight sets ... So this title win helping Bala for cementing his top-200 position.

Squash News

At $115K Men's Windy City Open 2014, Chicago, USA (World Series Gold)

[R1] Saurav Ghosal (IND,18) bt (WC) Peter Creed (WAL,88) 3-0 (11-6, 12-10, 11-7) (52m)

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,18) vs Tarek Momen (EGY,12)

Saurav played long match in this straight games victory ... Creed stretched him after losing first game with his energetic performance ... Saurav is facing Egyptian Tarek Momen, who scored upset win over 6th ranked his countryman Karim Darwish.

Badminton News

At $120K Yonex German Open 2014, Mülheim an der Ruhr

[R3] Anand Pawar (IND,34) l (15) Tien Chen Chou (TPE,24) 14-21 10-21
[R3] Arvind Bhat (IND,82) bt Daren Liew (MAS,38) 21-14 21-12
[R3] Prannoy H. S (IND,39) l (5) Wan Ho Son (KOR,13) 14-21 15-21
[R2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,43) l (7) Eriko Hirose (JPN,15) 18-21 16-21
[R2] (Q) Thulasi P. C. (IND,79) l (6) Sayaka Takahashi (JPN,13) 17-21 11-21

[QF] Arvind Bhat (IND,82) vs (14) Viktor Axelsen (DEN,26)

Anand failed to raise his game against top-25 Taipei player ... But fighting performance by Arundhati and Prannoy against their respective top-15 opponents ... Thulasi also gave creditable performance as an qualifier against #13 Takahashi.

Arvind is turning back the clock and performing like his old days ... He scored dominating win over top-40 Malaysian Daren Liew in straight games ... In the quarters he is facing WR #26 Danish Viktor Axelsen.

Tennis News

At $2.36M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) 57 76(3) 10-7

[SF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Tomasz Bednarek (POL)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)

Didn't expected such fighting performance by Mahesh-Istomin against Rohan-Aisam ... Mahesh-Istomin won tight firset set but Rohan-Aisam kept fighting ... They won second set in tie-break and then kept momentum for winning match tie-break ... In the semis they r facing Czech-Polish unseeded pair of Dlouhy-Bednarek.
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At $10K India F1 Futures , Chandigarh

Singles Quarter Finals
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (Q) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) 46 63 75
(3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt (Q) Ko SUZUKI (JPN) 62 60
(4) Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) bt (5) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 63 63
(2) Sanam SINGH (IND) bt (6) Mathias BOURGUE (FRA) 26 63 64

Doubles Semi finals
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (3) Sho KATAYAMA (JPN)/ Bumpei SATO (JPN) 63 64
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)/ Sanam SINGH (IND) bt (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 67(1) 64 10-6

Ronit gave fighting performance against Vishnu, who used his experience for comeback win ... Sanam also fought back after losing first set against Frenchman ... Bala had comfortable match against Japanese qualifier ... In the doubles final top-seed Bala-Ranjeet will face Sanam-Vivek, who scored tough win against 2nd seed Jeevan-Vishnu.

Tennis News

At $2.36M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

[R2] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,78) l (WC) Malik Jaziri (TUN,137) 36 57

Doubles
[R1] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) bt Oliver Marach (AUT)/ Florin Mergea (ROM) 46 63 16-14

[QF] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Denis Istomin (UZB)

This was a big let down after last round win over Del Potro though due to retirement ... This was winnable match and Buji had his chances but he failed to capitalized ... In the first set Jaziri broke Buji in 3rd game to lead 2-1 in next game Buji had 3 break points but Jaziri saved those with huge serving to kept upper hand, 4-2 ... Jaziri again broke Buji when he was serving for staying in the set in 9th game to won this set ... In the second set Buji broke Jaziri in 5th game to lead 4-2 but after that poor serving and shot making cost match for Buji ... Jaziri broke Buji in 8th game to made 4-all ... Then again while serving for staying in the match in 12th game Buji failed to hold and lost this match.

Really good win for Mahesh with Istomin against Marach-Mergea after losing first set ... They won long 30 points match tie-break for entering in to the second round ... Next they r facing Rohan-Aisam for place in the semis.
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At $10K India F1 Futures , Chandigarh

Singles Second Round
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (1) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 63 62
(Q) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) bt (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) 63 62
(3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 62 75
Ronak MANUJA (IND) l (Q) Ko SUZUKI (JPN) 16 36
(5) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt (Q) Kunal ANAND (IND) 46 63 62
(4) Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) bt (Q) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND) 61 60
(6) Mathias BOURGUE (FRA) l (Q) Garvit BATRA (IND) 16 26
(2) Sanam SINGH (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 36 62 62

Doubles Quarter finals
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 76(6) 61
(3) Sho KATAYAMA (JPN)/ Bumpei SATO (JPN) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 62 63
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)/ Sanam SINGH (IND) bt (4) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Gabriel TRUJILLO-SOLER (ESP)76(5) 36 14-12
(2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Garvit BATRA (IND)/ Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND) 63 61

Vishnu scored dominating win over top-seed Jeevan to show he is slowly coming back to form ... Ronit Singh scored biggest win as he defeated 7th seed Vijayant Malik in straight sets and next he is facing Vishnu ... All other expected results though RamK and Sanam scored win after losing first set.

Badminton News

At $120K Yonex German Open 2014, Mülheim an der Ruhr

[Q1] Tanvi Lad (IND,57) l Line Kjaersfeldt (DEN,55) 19-21 23-21 16-21
[Q1] Thulasi P. C. (IND,79) bt Sarah Walker (ENG,71) 21-15 21-14
[Q1] (2) Sayali Rani (IND,58) bt Ella Diehl (RUS,105) w/o

[Q2] Thulasi P. C. (IND,79) bt (4) Ya Ching Hsu (TPE,56) 22-20 19-21 14-21
[Q2] (2) Sayali Rani (IND,58) l Yu Po Pai (TPE,121) 12-21 14-21

[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,34) bt Chun Seang Tan (MAS,49) 21-16 21-17
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,82) bt Ari Trisnanto (GER,161) 21-18 21-12
[R1] Prannoy H. S (IND,39) bt Sattawat Pongnairat (MAS,56) 21-12 21-19
[R1] (9) Parupalli Kashyap (IND,18) bt Misha Zilberman (ISR,52) 21-14 21-17

[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,34) bt Iztok Utrosa (SLO,101) 21-16 21-12
[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,82) bt (3) Yun Hu (HKG,10) 21-17 16-21 21-11
[R2] Prannoy H. S (IND,39) bt (9) Parupalli Kashyap (IND,18) 21-19 21-18
[R1] (Q) Thulasi P. C. (IND,79) bt Li Michelle (DEN,24) 7-21 21-19 21-17
[R1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,43) bt (Q) Line Kjaersfeldt (DEN,55) 17-21 22-20 21-19

[R3] Anand Pawar (IND,34) vs (15) Tien Chen Chou (TPE,24)
[R3] Arvind Bhat (IND,82) vs Daren Liew (MAS,38)
[R3] Prannoy H. S (IND,39) vs (5) Wan Ho Son (KOR,13)
[R2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,43) vs (7) Eriko Hirose (JPN,15)
[R2] (Q) Thulasi P. C. (IND,79) vs (6) Sayaka Takahashi (JPN,13)

Anand take advantage of weaker draw and he is in the third round ... Arvind had a tough match against top 10 Hong Kong player Yun Hu ... Arvind showed his old touch and scored huge upset win ... He defeated Yun Hu in three games and in that convincingly winning the final game ... Prannoy scored upset win over his higher ranked senior Kashyap in straight games ... Thulasi scored huge upset when she defeated top-25 Danish girl Li Michelle after losing first game ... After losing first game Arundhati was 16-19 down in second ... Arundhati won next four points and then converted 2nd game point to won it ... The last game also closely fought which Arundhati prevailed.

So turned to be terrific day for Indians as many of them defeated higher ranked opponents but in next round almost all r facing seeded opponents ... Hoping for at least couple of upsets.

Badminton News

At $15K Austrian International Challenge 2014, Vienna

[R1] (5) Sourabh Varma (IND,41) bt Christian Lind Thomsen (DEN,87) 21-14 21-15
[R1] (2) Prannoy H. S (IND,39) bt Kwong Beng Chan (MAS,67) 21-15 21-13
[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,86) l Michal Rogalski (POL,106) 18-21 17-21
[R1] Thulasi P. C. (IND,79) l (3) Maria Febe Kusumastuti (INA,50) 13-21 25-27
[R1] (5) Tanvi Lad (IND,57) bt Natalya Voytsekh (UKR,119) 22-20 21-19
[R1] (2) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,43) bt Sarina Kohlfurst (AUT,231) 21-4 21-6

[R2] (5) Sourabh Varma (IND,41) bt (Q) Adrian Dziolko (POL,242) 21-10 21-19
[R2] (2) Prannoy H. S (IND,39) l Tzu Wei Wang (TPE,78) 15-21 21-18 15-21
[R2] (5) Tanvi Lad (IND,57) l (Q) Wei Xu (CHN,613) 21-18 20-22 16-21
[R2] (2) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,43) l (Q) Wei Jia (CHN,UNR) 21-13 17-21 17-21

[QF] (5) Sourabh Varma (IND,41) bt (Q) Yu Hsien Lin (TPE,121) 21-17 21-8

[SF] (5) Sourabh Varma (IND,41) bt (1) Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,30) 21-16 23-21

[F] (5) Sourabh Varma (IND,41) bt (8) Andre Kurniawan Tedjono (INA,64) 21-11 21-23 21-18

Last week Sourabh Varma won Austrian challenge tournament ... In the semis he defeated top-seed and WR #30 Jen Hao Hsu in straight games ... He lost his only game of the tournament in the final against former top-20 Indonesian Andre Kurniawan Tedjono but recovered to won the final game ... Other hand disappointing performance by our other shuttlers as they failed to cross second round despite higher rankings.

Tennis News

Tennis News
At $2.36M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,78) bt (2) Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG,5) 76(3) retd.

[R2] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,78) vs (WC) Malik Jaziri (TUN,137)

In the beginning Buji struggling with his serve and Del Potro broke him to take 2-0 lead ... But Buji fought back and broke Del Potro in 3rd game to made it 2-all ... Buji had another couple of break points in 5th game but Del Potro saved them with big serving ... When Buji serving staying in the set at 5-6 he made couple of unforced errors and were 3 set points down, 0-40 ... Buji won next 5 points to hold his serve with better serving ... Buji dominated tie-break with errors from Del Potro ... He take mini-breaks on 1st and 4th points to lead 4-0 ... After that both players won points on their respective serves so Buji take the first set ... At this point Del Potro retired from his match due to wrist injury though Buji played excellent tennis and kept keeping ball backhand side of Del Potro which troubled him ... On paper this is first win for Buji against top 5 opponent ... Next Buji is facing fellow wild-card player Tunisian Malik Jaziri, who defeated #53 Dutch player Igor Sijsling after losing first set 0-6.

Tennis News

At $2.36M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (Q) Nikolay Davydenko (RUS)/ Victor Hanescu (ROU) 61 57 10-8

Rohan-Aisam faced singles specialist in the first round and surprisingly had tough match ... Aisam-Rohan won the first set comfortably but Davydenko-Hanescu won closely fought the second set and take match in decider ... The match tie-break was also well fought and in that Rohan-Aisam prevailed.
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At $10K India F1 Futures , Chandigarh

Singles First Round
(1) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 63 64
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND) 46 63 64
(Q) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 64 67(3) 64
(7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) 63 60
(3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Sho KATAYAMA (JPN) 76(4) 63
Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND) 61 62
Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt (WC) Vikrant DAHIYA (IND) 76(2) 63
(8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) l (Q) Ko SUZUKI (JPN) 61 16 46
(5) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt Lucas RENARD (SWE) 76(5) 62
(Q) Kunal ANAND (IND) bt Jatin DAHIYA (IND) 61 61
(Q) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND) bt (WC) Anvit BENDRE (IND) 61 61
(4) Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) bt (Q) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND) 61 61
(6) Mathias BOURGUE (FRA) bt (Q) Shotaro GOTO (JPN) 76(6) 61
(Q) Garvit BATRA (IND) bt (WC) Ranjeet SINGH (IND) 61 60
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt Bumpei SATO (JPN) 75 76(4)
(2) Sanam SINGH (IND) bt Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE) 62 75

Doubles First Round
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) 62 2-2 Retd.
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) 63 64
(3) Sho KATAYAMA (JPN)/ Bumpei SATO (JPN) bt Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE)/ Lucas RENARD (SWE) 62 64
Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND)/ Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt Shotaro GOTO (JPN)/ Ko SUZUKI (JPN) 76(2) 64
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)/ Sanam SINGH (IND) bt Chandril SOOD (IND)/ Lakshit SOOD (IND) 60 64
(4) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Gabriel TRUJILLO-SOLER (ESP) bt Anvit BENDRE (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 63 63
Garvit BATRA (IND)/ Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND) bt Ronit Singh BISHT (IND)/ Jatin DAHIYA (IND) 46 64 10-6
(2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 61 60

Good chance for Indians players to raise their rankings in this 5 weeks of Indian futures series ... After end of Indian challengers series Somdev climbs to #78 and Yuki is on #146 in the singles ... In the doubles back to back doubles titles helped Saketh and Sanam but good performance by our other players helped them to rise career high rankings ... Saketh is in his career high doubles ranking, #178 and Sanam is also on his career high doubles ranking #219 ... Yuki also join them on his career high doubles ranking, #139 ... Balaji is on his career best doubles ranking, #200 ... Purav is also on his career best doubles ranking #72.

Good upset wins by young Ronit against Ashwin ... Garvit also join him in second round but Ranjeet lost his match against Japanese qualifier.
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At $10K Thailand F3 Futures, Nonthaburi

[R1] (6) Karunuday Singh (IND,483) l Takashi Saito (JPN,754) 36 67(5)

Doubles
[R1] Karunuday SINGH (IND)/ Peng GAO (CHN) l Takashi SAITO (JPN)/ Masato SHIGA (JPN) 46 16

KU is playing in Thai futures with his ongoing training but bad start as he lost in the first round of singles and doubles against lowly ranked Japanese opponent Takashi Saito.

Squash News

At $50K Women's Windy City Open 2014, Chicago, USA (Gold 50)

[R1] Dipika Pallikal (IND,10) vs (5) Low Wee Wern (MAS,6)

Dipika is playing at Windy City Open and facing WR #6 Low Wee Wern in the first round.
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At $115K Men's Windy City Open 2014, Chicago, USA (World Series Gold)

[R1] Saurav Ghosal (IND,18) vs (WC) Peter Creed (WAL,88)

Favorable first round match for Saurav against wild-card Wales player in this big World series tournament.

Tennis News

At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

Singles Final
(2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt (1) Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ,92) 63 61

Somdev won his third challenger title beating Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov at Delhi challenger ... This was his third challenger title and 2nd $100K challenger, before this he won $100K Izmir challenger, Turkey in 2010 ... His first challenger title was in 2008 at $50K Lexington Challenger.

In first set both players started positively on their service games and first six games went as per server ... From 3-all Buji managed to put extra pressure on Aleksandr's serve ... He broke Aleksandr in 7th and 9th games for winning the first set ... In the second set also Buji continued putting pressure on Aleksandr's serve and broke him in 2nd and 4th game to lead 4-0 ... In 5th game Aleksandr had 3 break points but he failed to covert though he complained about couple of line calls which were given right ... After losing eight games in a row Aleksandr managed to hold his serve in 6th game ... Buji hold his next serve on 15 and completed dominating win over top-seed Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov ... Buji was in his retriever best and he forced errors from Nedovyesov in this match.

Tennis News

At $2.36M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE

[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs (2) Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG,5)

Doubles
[Q1] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Benjamin Becker (GER)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 57 57

[R1] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Qualifiers
[R1] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) vs Oliver Marach (AUT)/ Florin Mergea (ROM)

From this year ATP 500 tournaments will have doubles qualifying tournament ... Purav-Divij were top-seed at Dubai qualifying but they failed to take advantage and lost their first round match after taking 5-3 lead in first set ... In the doubles main-draw Aisam-Rohan r 2nd seed and Mahesh is partnering Istomin.

Buji receive wild-card for the singles but having tough match against Del Potro ... So another match against top-5 player for Buji.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

[SF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt (4) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,114) 64 62

[F] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs (1) Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ,92)

Doubles Final
(WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 76(5) 64

Somdev is in the final breaking his challenger semi-final jinx beating in-form Russian Evgeny Donskoy in straight sets ... In the final he is facing top-seed Kazakh Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

In the semis Buji lost his serve in 2nd game to down 0-3 but after that he won next four games in that he broke Donskoy in 5th and 7th games to lead 4-3 ... Donskoy again broke Buji in 8th game for 4-all but Buji immediately broke him 9th game to take 5-4 lead ... Buji hold his serve after saving 2 break points for winning first set ... In second set both players traded early break at 2-all ... From here Buji take control and won next four games for comfortable win ... Buji broke Donskoy in 5th and 7th games, and while serving for thematch at 5-2 he saved 2 break points before holding his serve.

Saki-Sanam lifted their second challenger title in two weeks and that also big $100K challenger title ... This title will push Saki's ranking inside top-200 doubles rankings and Sanam's doubles rankings will be inside top-250.

After winning first set in tie-break Saki-Sanam were up 5-1 in second set ... Ratiwatanas tried fight back with winning next three games but Saki-Sanam won 10th game for memorable victory.

Tennis News

At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

[QF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt Zhe Zhang (CHN,229) 62 retd.

[SF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs (4) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,114)

Doubles
[SF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (4) Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (ESP)/ Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) 63 62
[SF] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 63 36 7-10

[F] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Buji broke Zhang in 1st and 3rd games to take 4-0 lead and kept this double break advantage for winning first set ... After losing first set Zhang retired from the match citing shoulder injury ... So last week's semi-final is repeating again between Buji and Donskoy but this time I m hoping for different result than last week.

Saki-Sanam scored very confident win over 4th seed pair and enter into their second challenger final in two weeks and that's also in this big $100K challenger ... So they r in chance of lifting their 2nd challenger title in two weeks.

In the final they r facing Ratiwatana brothers, who defeated Indian wild-card pair of Vishnu-Jeevan in match tie-break ... Vishnu-Jeevan started well after winning first set but Ratiwatana brothers fought back and won second set ... Ratiwatanas proved better pair in match tie-break.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, New Delhi, India

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,285) l (3) Yuliya Beygelzimer (UKR,180) 36 57

Decent fighting performance in loss by Ankita against her experienced Ukrainian opponent, Yuliya Beygelzimer ... Hopefully her win against Noppawan in previous round turn around last 4 months slump.

Squash News

At $15K Men's Savcor Finnish Open 2014, Mikkeli, Finland (Challenger 15)

[R1] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,75) l (2) Olli Tuominen (FIN,24) 1-3 (12-10, 7-11, 3-11, 7-11)(54m)

Mahesh lost to 2nd seed and 5 times former champion local player Olli Tuominen in four games ... Mahesh started well when he won 1st game in extra points but after that Olli used his experience in this an hour long match.

Tennis News

At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

Doubles
[QF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ti Chen (IND) 67(4) 76(4) 10-7

[SF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (4) Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (ESP)/ Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ)
[SF] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (2) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Saki-Sanam were favorite in this match but I wasn't expected so much close match ... After losing first set in tie-break Sanam-Saki also needed tie-break for winning second set ... In match tie-break also both pairs were close before Saki-Sanam winning it ... In semi-final they r facing in-form 3rd seed pair ... In other semi-final Vishnu-Jeevan r facing Thai 2nd seed Ratiwata bros.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, New Delhi, India

[R2] (WC) Natasha Palha (IND,587) l (7) Ilona Kremen (BLR,242) 36 46
[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,285) bt (5) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,222) 63 61

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,285) bt (3) Yuliya Beygelzimer (UKR,180)

Superb dominating upset win by Ankita against talented Thai girl Noppawan Lertcheewakarn losing only 4 games ... Interestingly Noppawan is a former junior #1 and former junior Wimbledon champion in 2009, she won double crown that year ... So considering Ankita's current slump in form I wasn't expected this win, pleasently surprised ... Next she is facing former top-100 and 3rd seed Ukrainian Yuliya Beygelzimer.

Natasha lost in two sets with respectable score.

Snooker News

At £300K Welsh Open 2014, Newport, Wales

[R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,66) vs Joel Walker (ENG,84)
[R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,62) l Mike Dunn (ENG,67) 3-4 (4-73, 54-57, 80-15, 67-08, 05-77(54), 65-1, 9-79)

Aditya started badly and lost first 2 frames against Dunn due to inconsistency in making sizable break but he fought well and won next 2 frames ... Dunn won fifth game scoring match's only 50+ break ... Aditya again fought back to won 6th game with small breaks but in decider Dunn started with break of 45 and Aditya was never in position for challenging that ... This was winnable match for Aditya but in end his failure to scored any big break cost him the match.

Tennis News

At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

[R2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt Di Wu (CHN,212) 62 62

[QF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs Zhe Zhang (CHN,229)

Doubles
[QF] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) 63 57 11-9

Buji scored really dominating win over Chinese top singles player Di Wu in 61 minutes ... Buji broke Wu in 3rd game to take 3-1 lead ... Buji again broke Wu in 7th game and then hold his serve for winning first set ... In this set Buji didn't face a single break point on his serve ... In second set Buji started with a break of serve and he again broke Wu in 3rd game to lead 4-0 ... After holding his serve in next game Wu broke Buji in 6th game to 2-4 score ... But Buji again broke Wu in 7th game and then hold his serve for comfortable win ... In the quarter final Buji is facing another Chinese opponent, this time Chinese #2 Zhe Zhang.

This home challenger turned disappointing for Yuki as he with Venus lost in the doubles quarter-finals ... Vishnu showed his doubles talent this time with Jeevan to upset Yuki-Venus in match tie-break ... After winning first set Vishnu-Jeevan lost second set when they failed to hold at 5-6 ... In match tie-break both pairs were neck to neck till 5-all then Yuki-Venus opened 8-5 lead ... Yuki-Venus had 2 match points at 9-7 but they failed to win next point on their serve ... Vishnu-Jeevan won next 4 points and completed really good win ... So Yuki again missed 2 match points in the doubles like he missed in the singles against Pouille.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, New Delhi, India

[R2] (Q) Sharrmadaa Balu (IND,718) l Varatchaya Wongteanchai (THA,436) 67(20) 67(4)

Tough match for Balu against former top-225 Thai player Wongteanchai but Balu played really well against Thai girl ... She lost match in two tie-breaks in that first tie-break was 42 points long, only if she won that.

Tennis News

At 2M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE (WTA Premier)

[R1] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) l Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/ Lucie Safarova (CZE) 67(5) 75 9-11

This match was tricky but I was still hoping for win for our 4th seed pair ... After losing first set in tie-break Sania-Cara fought hard and won second set ... In match tie-break Czech pair proved better of Sania-Cara in extra points.
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At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,293) l Thomas Fabbiano (ITA,181) 67(4) 67(4)
[R1] (6) Yuki Bhambri (IND,143) l Lucas Pouille (FRA,187) 62 57 57
[R1] (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,407) l (SE) Ilija Bozoljac (SRB,204) 26 76(5) 46
[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt (WC) Karunuday Singh (IND,483) 62 75

[R2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs Di Wu (CHN,212)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) 76(4) 16 10-4
[R1] Theodoros Angelinos (GRE)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) l Radu Albot (MDA)/ Illya Marchenko (UKR) 46 75 6-10

[QF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ti Chen (IND)
[QF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND)

Saketh lost against Fabbiano in two tie-breaks ... Fabbiano was better player on the court though score was looking close ... Saketh struggled with his second serve and amanged to win only 28% points.

Expected win for Buji against KU but still creditable performance by KU in second set ... Buji won first set with double break but in the second set Buji lost his serve thrice and needed to break KU four times for winning it.

Yuki started confidently against Pouille and won first set comfortably despite losing his serve once ... In second set Yuki struggled with his serve and Pouille take crucial break in 12th game when Yuki was serving for staying in the set ... In third set Yuki broke Pouille in 3rd game to lead 3-1, Yuki missed another break point opportunity in 5th game ... But from 5-3 Yuki lost the plot as he struggled to finish the match ... Pouille broke Yuki when he was serving for the match at 5-4 and it repeated like second set that this time Yuki failed to hold his serve from 40-15 when he was serving for staying in the match ... Big missed opportunity of pushing his ranking inside top-130 for Yuki.

RamK gave creditable fighting performance against last week's winner Bozo ... After losing first set RamK fought back to won second set in tie-break ... But he failed to kept momentum in third and Bozo won it with single break.

In doubles Buji and his Greece partner lost in match tie-break ... But other hand Saketh-Sanam showed their last week's title win wasn't fluke ... They defeated top-seed Divij-Purav in match tie-break ... Saki_Sanam won first set in tie-break but played poor second set which they lost winning a single game ... In match tie-break Saki-Sanam didn't give chance to Divij-Purav and won it comfortably.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, New Delhi, India

[R1] (Q) Eetee Maheta (IND) l Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR) 57 76(3) 06
[R1] (Q) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) l Rika Fujiwara (JPN) 75 36 36
[R1] (WC) Natasha Palha (IND) bt (Q) Manya Nagpal (IND) 62 62
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND) bt (WC) Rishika Sunkara (IND) 76(2) 62
[R1] (Q) Riya Bhatia (IND) l (3) Yuliya Beygelzimer (UKR) 26 36
[R1] (Q) Sharrmadaa Balu (IND) bt (Q) Vaniya Dangwal (IND) 62 60
[R1] (Q)Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND) l (2) Olga Savchuk (UKR) 06 16

[R2] (WC) Natasha Palha (IND,587) vs (7) Ilona Kremen (BLR,242)
[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,285) vs (5) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,222)
[R2] (Q) Sharrmadaa Balu (IND,718) vs Varatchaya Wongteanchai (THA,436)

As such no upset other than fighting performance from Eetee in first 2 sets against higher ranked Israeli opponent but only Indian players move to next round who faced Indian players.

Tennis News

At 2M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, UAE (WTA Premier)

[R1] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) vs Andrea Hlavackova (CZE)/ Lucie Safarova (CZE)

This week they r facing tricky Czech pair in first round.
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At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

[Q3] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (Ind, 467) l (5) Daniel Cox (GBR,250) 26 16

[R1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND,352) l (8) Illya Marchenko (UKR,161) 26 63 46

Doubles
[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ti Chen (IND) bt Steven Diez (CAN)/ Go Soeda (JPN) 75 64
[R1] (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) l Matthias Bachinger (GER)/ Thomas Fabbiano (ITA) 62 26 6-10
[R1] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Ruben Gonzales (PHI)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 63 62
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) bt (PR) Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA) 62 63
[R1] Theodoros Angelinos (GRE)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs Radu Albot (MDA)/ Illya Marchenko (UKR)

Prajnesh failed to gave challenge to Cox in his one-sided loss.

Other hand Sanam again missed big opportunity of earning few important ranking points ... After losing first set easily Sanam was break down at 2-3 in second set ... He won next four games breaking Illya in 6th and 8th games for winning this set ... In fiset also Sanam was break down at 3-0 after losing his serve in 2nd game ... Sanam broke Illya in 5th game to made 3-all ... In 9th game Sanam missed break point on Illya's serve and then failed to hold his serve in next game for losing the match.

RamK-Ranjeet started well and won first set convincingly but from second set their opponents Bachinger-Fabbiano started finding their range ... Bachinger-Fabbiano won second set with double break and take 6-1 lead in match tie-break ... RamK-Ranjeet reduced lead to 5-7 but Bachinger-Fabbiano kept their pressure and completed win.

But our other three pairs started with straight sets win in their first round matches ... Yuki-Venus had very comfortable outing ... Next they r facing Indian wild-card pair of Vishnu-Jeevan, who also had comfortable outing ... Bla also started with win with Ti Chen against Soeda-Diaz.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, New Delhi, India

[R1] (WC) Prerna Bhambri (IND) l (1) Erika Sema (JPN) 16 36
[R1] Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) l Veronika Kapshay (UKR) 46 57
[R1] (Q) Eetee Maheta (IND) vs Deniz Khazaniuk (ISR)
[R1] (WC) Shweta Rana (IND) l (8) Qiang Wang (CHN) 26 06
[R1] (Q) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) vs Rika Fujiwara (JPN)
[R1] (WC) Natasha Palha (IND) vs (Q) Manya Nagpal (IND)
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND) vs (WC) Rishika Sunkara (IND)
[R1] (Q) Riya Bhatia (IND) vs (3) Yuliya Beygelzimer (UKR)
[R1] (Q) Sharrmadaa Baluu (IND) vs (Q) Vaniya Dangwal (IND)
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND) l Peangtarn Plipuech (THA) 36 26
[R1] (Q)Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND) vs (2) Olga Savchuk (UKR)

Prerna failed to challenge top-seed Sema and Prarthana also failed to repeat her good performance from Fed cup ... She lost in tight two sets ... For Shweta and Nidhi, their respective opponents proved too strong for them.

Tennis News

At $100K Delhi Challenger, India

[Q1] (WC) Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) l Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) 16 57
[Q1] Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) l (7) Ti CHEN (TPE) 46 36
[Q1] (WC) Garvit BATRA (IND) l (2) Jordi SAMPER-MONTANA (ESP) 26 26
[Q1] Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) bt N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) 26 61 63
[Q1] Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN l (5) Daniel COX (GBR) 67(4) 16
[Q1] Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (WC) Venkat IYER (IND) 62 61
[Q1] N Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) l Joshua MILTON (GBR) 26 36
[Q1] Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (WC) Lakshit SOOD (IND) 64 26 61
[Q1] (WC) Jatin DAHIYA (IND) l Tyler HOCHWALT (USA) 26 26

[Q2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,467) bt (2) Jori Samper-Montana (ESP,218) 76 63
[Q2] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,657) l (4) Rui Machado (POR,249) 64 67(5) 26
[Q2] Vijayant Malik (IND,512) l (3) Axel Michon (FRA,248) 06 26

[Q3] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (Ind, 467) vs. (5) Daniel Cox (GBR,250)

[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,292) vs Thomas Fabbiano (ITA,180)
[R1] (6) Yuki Bhambri (IND,145) vs Lucas Pouille (FRA,188)
[R1] (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,405) vs (SE) Ilija Bozoljac (SRB,270)
[R1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND,350) vs (8) Illya Marchenko (UKR,158)
[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) vs (WC) Karunuday Singh (IND,482)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND)
[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Ti Chen (IND) vs Steven Diez (CAN)/ Go Soeda (JPN)
[R1] (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) vs Matthias Bachinger (GER)/ Thomas Fabbiano (ITA)
[R1] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Ruben Gonzales (PHI)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs (PR) Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA)

In qualifying terrific upset win by Prajnesh over top-220 Jori Samper-Montana ... In final qualifying he is facing British Daniel Cox.

In the singles good draw for Yuki and Buji ... In the doubles tricky match for Purav-Divij against last week's winner Saketh-Sanam.

Tennis News

At 2.4M Qatar Total Open, Doha (WTA Premier 5)

[QF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) l (7) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Nadia Petrova (RUS) 64 46 12-14

This was tough match against Russians but in end Sania-Cara had chances which they missed ... Sania-cara started well after winning first set but they failed to kept momentum and Russians take advantage to won second set ... Both pairs fought hard in match tie-break which Russian pairs won in extra points.
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At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[SF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) l (3) Evegeny Donskoy (RUS,127) 63 57 26

Doubles Final
(WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 63 36 10-4

Yet again Buji struck by challenger semi finals jinx as he failed to cross it at Kolkata also ... After 2010 Buji failed to cross semi-final stage in challengers but I m hoping it will change in next week at big Delhi challenger.

In first set Buji take early break to lead 4-2 and kept that break advantage for winning the set ... In second set Donskoy broke Buji in 4th game to lead 3-1 but Buji immediately broke him in next game to brought set on serve, 2-3 ... Donskoy again broke Buji in in 6th game to lead 4-2 ... This time also Buji broke in next game to back on serve 3-4 ... Donskoy broke Buji on love in 12th game to won this set ... After losing second set Buji lost steam from his game and Donskoy take full advantage of it ... Donskoy dominated third set set, he broke Buji in 4th and 8th games for winning it comfortably.

Saketh-Sanam lifted their first challenger title beating Vishnu-Divij in match tie-break ... Sanam-Saketh controlled first set and were up 5-2 to won it with keeping advantage ... In second set also Saketh-Sanam were break up at 2-1 but Divij-Vishnu used their experience and fought back ... They won 5 games from next 6 games and in that they broke Saketh-Sanam twice to take the final in match tie-break ... But this time Divij-Vishnu failed to kept momentum and other hand Saketh-Sanam played almost perfect match tie-break and won it comfortably ... Congrats to both wild card pairs for excellent win.

Tennis News

At 2.4M Qatar Total Open, Doha (WTA Premier 5)

[R2] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bt Karolina Pliskova (CZE)/ Kristyna Pliskova (CZE) 46 62 10-4

[QF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) vs (7) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Nadia Petrova (RUS)

Slow start for Sania-Cara but after losing first set they dominated the match against Pliskova twins ... Next they r facing tricky Russian pair of Pavlyuchenkova-Petrova.
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At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[QF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) bt Adrian Menendez Maceiras (ESP,208) 46 61 63

[SF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) vs (3) Evegeny Donskoy (RUS,127)

Doubles
[SF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Gerard Granollers (ESP)/ Adrian Menendez Maceiras (ESP) 63 67(5) 10-7
[SF] (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) 64 64

[F] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND)

Somdev needed comeback to give himself winning gift on his birthday ... In the semis he is facing Russian Evegeny Donskoy ... In the quarters Buji started on back foot as Adrian broke him in 1st game ... Andrian kept lead till 7th game but at 3-4 Buji broke Adrian to made it 4-all ... Adrian immediately broke Buji in next game and then hold his serve for winning first set ... In second set Buji managed to put pressure on Adrian's serve ... Buji broke Adrian in 2nd and 4th games to lead 5-0 and then kept that double break advantage for winning this set ... In final set Buji broke Adrian in 3rd game to lead 3-1 ... After that Buji kept that advantage and then again broke Adrian in 9th game when he was serving for staying in the match ... So after losing first set Buji gave dominating performance against his Spanish opponent.

In the doubles Saketh-Sanam continues with their fine run and scored upset win over Spanish pair in the semis ... In first set Saketh-Sanam didn't face a single break point on their serves and they converted their single break point opportunity for winning the set ... In second set both pairs traded single break but Spanish pair won tie-break to take this match in the match tie-break ... In match tie-break both pairs traded multiple mini-breaks but Indian pair kept their focus to winning it.

Divij-Vishnu make sure of all Indians final in the doubles with straight sets victory over Nedovyesov-Rola ... In both sets our pair made comeback ... In the first set they were 1-4 down before winning next five games in a row for winning it ... In the second again they were break down at 0-3 but this time also they fought back and won 6 games from next 7 games for good victory.

Tennis News

At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,145) l (3) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,127) 36 46
[R2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) bt Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,201) 63 63

[QF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) vs Adrian Menendez Maceiras (ESP,208)

Doubles
[QF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Lucas Pouille (FRA)/ Go Soeda (JPN) 63 63
[QF] (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 63 76(4)

[SF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Gerard Granollers (ESP)/ Adrian Menendez Maceiras (ESP)
[SF] (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ)/ Blaz Rola (SLO)

Very clinical performance from Somdev against big hitter Kudryavtsev ... Buji take early break in first set to lead 4-1 ... He kept that single break advantage for winning it ... In second set Buji broke Kudryavtsev in 3rd game to lead 2-1 ... Buji broke Kudryavtsev again in 9th game when he was serving for staying in the match ... With that Buji completed comfortable win and more over in this match he did not face a single break point on his serve ... In the quarters Buji is playing against Spanish hard court specialist challenger level player Adrian Menendez Maseiras.

Other hand Yuki struggled against big serving Donskoy ... Donskoy take early break to lead 4-2 and he kept that advantage for winning it ... In second set Donskoy broke Yuki in 1st game to lead 2-0 ... From 2-4 Yuki won next 2 games and in that he broke Donskoy in 8th game to made 4-all ... But Donskoy broke Yuki in next game to lead 5-4 and then hold his serve comfortably for completing the victory ... Yuki must be tired in this week becoz after Davis cup he won double crown in last week's Chennai challenger ... So he is getting little longish break before next week's bigger Delhi challenger.

In the doubles our both pairs in the semis with solid wins ... Divij-Vishnu needed second set tie-break for their upset win over Taipei Davis cup pair in straight sets ... Sanam-Saketh scored comfortable win over Soeda-Pouille.

Tennis News

At €1.36M ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament, Rotterdam, Netherlands

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 67(4) 62 9-11

Rohan-Aisam were upset by Brunstrom-Nieminen in first round ... In first set both pairs had a single break before tie-break ... In tie-break Brunstrom-Nieminen proved better to won it ... In second set ROhan-Aisam dominated and with double break they won it comfortably ... In match tie-break also Rohan-Aisam were cruising when leading 7-2 but after that Brunstrom-Nieminen provided superb comeback and they won 9 points from next 11 points for completing upset win.
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At 2.4M Qatar Total Open, Doha (WTA Premier 5)

[R1] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) bye

[R2] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Cara Black (ZIM) vs Karolina Pliskova (CZE)/ Kristyna Pliskova (CZE)

Big Premier tournament is started and Sania-Cara r 4th seed ... After receiving bye in first round they r facing (beautiful) Pliskova twins in second round.
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At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,657) l (Q) Ti Chen (TPE,284) 36 26
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,145) bt (Q) Liang Chi-Huang (TPE,285) 46 63 61
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,292) l (3) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,127) 46 26

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,145) vs (3) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,127)
[R2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) vs Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,201)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (3) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) 76(3) 76(1)
[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) l Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) 36 75 7-10

[QF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Lucas Pouille (FRA)/ Go Soeda (JPN)
[QF] (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE)

In the beginning Yuki struggled to convert break points ... Yuki lost first set with a single break of serve ... In the second set Yuki broke Huang twice for winning it ... Till then Yuki had only 2 out of 11 break point conversion rate ... In the decider Yuki changed gear he broke Huang in 1st, 3rd and 5th games to lead 5-0 ... In 6th game on his serve Yuki missed 3 match points before losing it but again he broke Huang in 7th game converting 5th match point ... Overall good comeback win after shaky start for Yuki ... Next he is facing 3rd seed Russian Evgeny Donskoy ... Saketh gave decent fight till 4-all but Donskoy broke Saki in 9th game and then hold his serve for winning first set ... In second set Donskoy was more dominating and won it with double break ... Other hand expected loss of Vishnu, who is out of match practice due to injury and his longish break from the tennis.

Interesting matches in the second round of the singles for Indians as all Chennai challenger semi-finalists r facing each other ... Yuki against Donskoy and Buji against Kudryavtsev.

Divij-Vishnu scored really good win against 3rd seed pair of Buji-Purav ... In first set Divij-Vishnu were up 3-1 with a break but Purav-Buji fought back to made 3-all ... In tie-break Divij-Vishnu used their better services in their advantage and won it ... In the second set also both pairs hold their respective service games till 12th game ... Here also in tie-break Divij-Vishnu used their services in advantage and won it comfortably ... Next they r facing Taipei Davis cup pair.

Last week' title winner pair of Yuki-Venus lost in the first round against Nedovyesov-Rola ... After losing first set Yuki-Venus fought back in the second ... They saved match point at 4-5 and then broke opponent's serve in 11th game for winning second set ... But somehow they failed to overcome challenge of Nedovyesov-Rola in match tie-break ... In a way good break for Yuki after double crown last week before big $100K challenge in Delhi.

Tennis News

At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[R1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND,350) l Daniel Cox (GBR,250) 61 57 46
[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,100) bt Mohamed Safawat (EGY,211) 64 64
[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,657) vs (Q) Ti Chen (TPE,284)
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,145) vs (Q) Liang Chi-Huang (TPE,285)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Karunuday Singh (IND) 62 46 10-8
[R1] (3) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND)
[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ)/ Blaz Rola (SLO)

Sanam started confidently to lead 3-0 after breaking Cox in 2nd game ... With another break of serve and Sanam won first set comfortably ... In the second set also Sanam was playing nicely and was break up and serving for the match at 5-4 ... But then typical Sanam's inconsistency came into the game and Sanam lost next 3 games and in that lost his serve twice in 10th and 12th games to lose second set ... In third set Sanam was break up at 2-1 but lost next serve to 2-all ... Then again Sanam broke Cox in 7th game to lead 4-3 but this time also he failed to hold his service game in in next game, 4-all ... Cox broke Sanam again in 10th game when he was serving for staying in the match ... In this match Sanam lost his service 7 out of 14 times, so that gives us whole picture of the match ... Again big missed opportunity.

In the first set Buji needed to fightback from two service breaks down to won it and he kept that momentum to win this match in two sets.

In the doubles two matches r all Indian players ... In such match Saki-Sanam scored tight win in match tie-break against RamK-Karunuday ... Saki-Sanam started confidently and won first set comfortably ... RamK-KU fought back and won second set with single break advantage ... The match tie-break was close but Saki-Sanam used their experience in advantage for winning it.

Again Yuki is facing Liang Chi-Huang in first round ... Vishnu is facing another Taipei player Ti Chen, with lack of match practice I m not sure about his performance ... In the doubles Buji-Purav looking strong pair but they r facing tricky first round against Divij-Vishnu.

Tennis News

At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[Q2] Tyler HOCHWALT (USA) bt (6) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 63 75
[Q2] (4) Ti CHEN (TPE) bt (WC) Christopher MARQUIS (IND) 64 60

With losses of Jeevan and Christopher Indian challenge got over in qualifier ... So this time no Indian qualifier and only 5 Indian players in main-draw.

Snooker News

At €125K Euro Tour 8, Gdynia, Poland

[R1] Pankaj Advani (IND,64) l Alex Borg (MALTA,123) 2-4 (43-51, 65-23, 28-62(57), 51-60, 65-53(53), 42-70(62))
[R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,63) bt James Wattana (THA,68) 4-0 (74-42, 96(54)-2, 68-54, 73-1)

[R2] Aditya Mehta (IND,63) l Tom Ford (ENG,28) 1-4 (63(56)-38, 1-129(85), 7-73, 0-105(55), 20-66)

Aditya started with straight frames win over Thai experienced James Wattana but failed to keep same momentum against top-30 Tom Ford in the second round ... Other hand Pankaj lost against Alex Borg in close match in first round

Tennis News

At € 486K Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia

[SF] Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (2) Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)/ Horia Tecau (ROU) 67(4) 63 6-10

Really good effort by Purav-Marcelo against seasoned pair of Rojer-Tecau ... After losing first set in tie-break they fought back and won the second set ... Rojer-Tecau's experience proved useful them in match tie-break ... Turned to be good tournament for Purav.
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At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

Singles Final
(7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) bt Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,238) 46 63 75

Doubles Final
(2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) bt N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) 64 76(3)

Yuki lifted his third singles challenger title in his fourth final in close match against Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev after 2 hours and 4 minutes match ... Yuki won the doubles title with Venus to win double crown ... Great week for Yuki.

First set was on serve until 10th game when Yuki struggled with his 1st serve and Kudryavtsev take advantage to broke him for winning this set ... In second set Yuki broke Kudryavtsev in 1st game to lead 1-0 but Kudryavtsev immediately broke Yuki in next game to made it 1-all ... Kudryavtsev again broke Yuki in 4th game to lead 3-1 and at that time he was looking in control of the match ... But Yuki had different plan and he suddenly started to found his range of shots ... Yuki won next five games and in that he broke Kudryavtsev in 5th, 7th and 9th games when he was serving for staying in the set ... In the decider Yuki needed to save 4 break points in 1st game before holding his serve but Kudryavtsev broke Yuki in 3rd game to lead 2-1 ... In 4th game Yuki had 4 break point opportunities but he failed to convert those but Yuki broke Kudryavtsev in 6th game to made it 3-all ... But instead of building on that momentum Yuki had terrible service game and he lost his serve to down 3-4 ... Again from 3-5 down Yuki produced amazing comeback ... He hold his serve comfortably and then broke Kudryavtsev in 10th game on luv to made it 5-all ... In 11th game Yuki was down 0-40, he needed to save 4 break points before holding his serve ... And then Yukji converted 1st match point for excellent comeback win ... In last set both players played terrible tennis, so many UFEs/ double faults or miscues, really ugly tennis ... Luckily Yuki made less errors that Kudryavtsev to win this match.

As expected Yuki-Venus won the title but Bala-Blaz stretched them in two sets ... Yuki-Venus won the first set with single break but they needed tie-break for winning it ... Good title win for Yuki-Venus but also really good week for Bala in the doubles as he reached his first challenger final.
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At $50K Kolkata Challenger, India

[Q1] (1) Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE) bt (WC) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND) 75 75
[Q1] Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) bt Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) 62 76(5)
[Q1] Ruan ROELOFSE (RSA) bt Lucas RENARD (SWE) 61 64
[Q1] (7) Victor BALUDA (RUS) bt VIRALI-MURUGESAN, Ranjeet (IND) 61 64
[Q1] (2) Rui MACHADO (POR) bt (WC) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 62 62
[Q1] Antal VAN DER DUIM (NED) bt Torsten WIETOSKA (GER) 60 63
[Q1] Tyler HOCHWALT (USA) bt Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) 64 46 76(7)
[Q1] (6) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Karunuday SINGH (IND) 61 64
[Q1] (3) Liang-Chi HUANG (TPE) bt (WC) Anvit BENDRE (IND) 75 61
[Q1] (WC) Izak VAN DER MERWE (RSA) bt N Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 62 64
[Q1] Mathias BOURGUE (FRA) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND) 62 76(2)
[Q1] (5) Marek SEMJAN (SVK) bt Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE) 57 75 63
[Q1] (4) Ti CHEN (TPE) bt Kevin KRAWIETZ (GER) 75 75
[Q1] (WC) Christopher MARQUIS (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND) 63 46 62
[Q1] Joshua MILTON (GBR) bt (WC) Venkat IYER (IND) 60 64
[Q1] (8) Richard BECKER (GER) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 64 64

[R1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND,388) vs Daniel Cox (GBR,247)
[R1] (WC) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,660) vs Qualifier
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) vs Qualifier
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,315) vs (3) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,130)
[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) vs Mohamed Safawat (EGY,207)

Tough qualifying matches for Indian players ... Only Jeevan and Marquis manage to enter into second qualifying as they faced Indian opponents ... Really tough Kolkata draw as main-draw cut-off is below 260 ranked.

In main-draw is out Saketh having tough first round match ... Also from second round tough matches for Yuki and Buji.

Tennis News

At Asia-Oceania Zone Group II - Fed Cup 2014, Astana, Kazakhstan (4th - 8th February)


India l Hong Kong, China 1-2
Prarthana G. THOMBARE l Eudice CHONG 26 16
Ankita RAINA l Ling ZHANG 46 36
Rishika SUNKARA/ Ankita RAINA bt Kwan Yau NG/ Ho Ching WU 62 61

Shocking loss of Indian girls against lowly ranked Hong Kong after their excellent win yesterday against New Zealand girls ... Ankita's poor loss is continued and she lost against lower ranked Ling Zhang ... Prarthans's loss against junior player, who ranked 200 odd in junior ranking was more shocking ... Big missed opportunity of moving to Group I.
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At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

[SF] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) bt (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) 62 64
[SF] Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,238) bt (2) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,130) 76(4) 63

[F] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) vs Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,238)

Doubles
[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) bt Ti Chen (TPE)/ Marek Semjan (SVK) 63 76(5)
[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) bt (3) Ruben Gonzales (PHI)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 62 61

[F] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO)

Impressive win by Yuki against uninspired Buji in this match between India's #1 and #2 ... In this match Buji didn't look in his usual self ... He was struggling with his serve, made lots of unforced errors and failed to hitting balls deep ... Other hand Yuki also struggled with his serve but he attacked Buji's weak returns and kept control despite losing service games ... In the final Yuki is facing in-form Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev, who also scored upset win over 2nd seed Russian Evgeny Donskoy.

In first set Yuki had break point chances in first 2 service games of Buji but failed to break ... From 2-all Yuki shifted gear and broke Buji in 5th and 7th games ... And hold his serve for winning this set comfortably ... In the second set we saw astoundingly seven break of serves ... Most crucial break came in 9th game on Buji's serve but before that Buji lost his serve on 1st, 3rd and 7th games and Yuki lost his serve on 2nd, 6th and 8th games ... After breaking Buji in 9th game Yuki hold his serve for win ... But he really need to work had on his serve ... Otherwise Yuki is having top-110 game.

Bala is in his first challenger final as he defeated Ti Chen and Marek Semjan in straights sets with his partner Slovenian Blaz Rola ... After winning the first set easily they dig deep to finished match in two sets and won tie-break ... In the final they r facing in-form pair of Yuki-Venus, who trounced their 3rd seed opponents Ruben Gonzales-Artem Sitak in 53 minutes losing mere 3 games.

Tennis News

At Asia-Oceania Zone Group II - Fed Cup 2014, Astana, Kazakhstan (4th - 8th February)

India bt New Zealand 2-1

Prarthana G. THOMBARE bt Dianne HOLLANDS 61 64
Ankita RAINA l Marina ERAKOVIC 16 26
Sania MIRZA/ Prarthana G. THOMBARE bt Marina ERAKOVIC/ Abigail GUTHRIE 75 61

Indians used All Black girls weakness to their advantage smartly (hats off to Captain Sania) for entering in the semis ... They r facing Hong Kong, who is coached by our own Karan Rastogi.

In first match Prarthana scored comfortable win against Hollands ... As expected Erakovic proved too strong to Ankita ... In the doubles Sania played masterstroke of playing Prarthana with her and it gave rich dividends ... Sania-Prarthana scored straight sets win over Erakovic-Guthrie.
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At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

[QF] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) bt Jordi Samper-Montana (ESP,227) w/o
[QF] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) bt Lucas Pouille (FRA,196) 36 62 62
[QF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,315) l Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,238) 06 26
[QF] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,388) l (2) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,130) 57 46

[SF] (1) Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) vs (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174)
[SF] (2) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,130) vs Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,238)

Doubles
[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) bt Steven Diez (CAN)/ Daniel Munoz-De La Nava (ESP) 63 62
[QF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) bt Thomas Fabbiano (ITA)/ Agustin Velotti (ARG) 62 63

[SF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) vs Ti Chen (TPE)/ Marek Semjan (SVK)
[SF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs (3) Ruben Gonzales (PHI)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)

Without playing a single ball Buji in the semis as his Spanish opponent Jordi Samper-Montana gave walkover due to injury ... Other hand Yuki had tricky match against 19 yrs old talented Frenchman Lucas Pouille ... In first set Yuki take 1st break in 3rd game to lead 2-1 but Pouille broke immediately in next game to made 2-all ... Pouille broke Yuki in 8th game to take 5-3 lead and after that hold his service game for winning the set ... In second set Pouille broke Yuki in 1st game but this time Yuki broke him in 2nd game to made it 1-all ... In 5th game Yuki saved 2 break points from 15-40 before holding his serve ... After that Yuki broke Pouille in 6th and 8th games to take match in decider ... Again in 1st game Yuki failed to hold but this time also he broke Pouille in next game, 1-all ... Same story of second set repeated in this set also, from 2-all Yuki won next 4 games for winning this match ... Next he is facing Buji for the place in the final ... This is first match between current India #1 and #2.

Sanam failed to challenge Donskoy's serve and that was difference in this quarter final match ... In first set both players hold their service games till 11th game without facing single break point but Donskoy broke Sanam in 12th game for winning it ... In second set Donskoy take early break and was lead 2-5 at that time Sanam hold his serve to made it 3-5 ... First time in the match Sanam broke Donskoy in 9th game to brought set on serve ... But Sanam failed to hold his serve in next game while serving for staying in the match ... Overall good tournament for Sanam as he won 5 matches in a row before losing to former top-100 player Donskoy.

Kudryavtsev was playing in zone and didn't gave smallest chance to Saki ... Saki got blown away with onslaught from Kudryavtsev and managed to win only 2 games in his loss ... Still decent week for Saki.

Our remaining two pairs r in the semis with comfortable wins ... Yuki-Venus had comfortable outing against Fabbiano-Velotti ... Bala-Rola showed their upset win over Ratiwatanas wasn't fluke and scored comfortable win over Diaz-Munoz-De La Nava.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R2] Natasha Palha (IND,594) l (Q) Magali Kempen (BEL,UNR) 26 36

Shocking loss of Natasha against un-ranked 16 yrs old Belgian Magali Kempen after her win against top-seed Russian in the first round.

Tennis News

At Asia-Oceania Zone Group II - Fed Cup 2014, Astana, Kazakhstan (4th - 8th February)

India bt Pakistan 3-0
Prarthana G. THOMBARE bt Ushna SUHAIL 60 61
Ankita RAINA bt Sara MANSOOR 61 62
Rishika SUNKARA/ Prarthana G. THOMBARE bt Sara MANSOOR/ Ushna SUHAIL 62 61

Another expected win for Indians ... Now real test against New Zealand as I doubt anyone from our team is in mold of beating WR #50 Marina Erakovic ... So second singles match and doubles match, in that also New Zeland r tricky as Marina Erakovic is former top-25 doubles player.
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At € 486K Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia

[QF] Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (3) Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Julian Knowle (AUT) 63 75

Huge victory for Purav and his Brazilian partner Marcelo Demoliner against top-40 doubles pair at Zagreb open ... Purav-Marcelo won their match in straight sets and enter into the semis ... Big shot in arm for Purav's doubles ranking.
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At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) bt (Q) Michael Venus (NZL,390) 67(4) 60 63
[R2] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) bt Gerard Granollers-Pujol (ESP,225) 62 61
[R2] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,315) bt (8) Thomas Fabbiano (ITA,185) 63 62
[R2] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,388) bt (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,392) 61 46 76(1)

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) vs Jordi Samper-Montana (ESP,227)
[QF] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) vs Lucas Pouille (FRA,196)
[QF] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,315) vs Alexander Kudryavtsev (RUS,238)
[QF] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,388) vs (2) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,130)

Doubles
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ilija Bozoljac (SRB) l Steven Diez (CAN)/ Daniel Munoz-De La Nava (ESP) 46 76(4) 3-10
[R1] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l Ti Chen (TPE)/ Marek Semjan (SVK) 36 46
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 62 46 10-12
[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) bt (PR) Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA) 63 63

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) vs Steven Diez (CAN)/ Daniel Munoz-De La Nava (ESP)
[QF] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs Thomas Fabbiano (ITA)/ Agustin Velotti (ARG)

Turning to be terrific day for Indians ... I think first time ever we r seeing our 4 players in same challenger quarter finals ... Bravo!!

Saketh scored impressive win over good hard court player Italian Thomas Fabbiano, who won one big challenge on hard court in 2013 ... Saki lost his serve in 1st game, 0-1 but he broke Fabbiano in 4th game to made 2-all ... Saki again broke Fabbiano in 6th game to lead 4-2 and then hold his serve for winning first set ... More dominating performance in second set by Saki ... He broke Fabbiano in 1st game to lead 2-0 ... Then again Saki broke Fabbiano in 5th game to lead 4-1 and then hold his serve for completing excellent win ... Next Saketh is facing Russian Alexander Kudryavtsev, who defeated 3rd seed Blaz Rola.

Yuki also continues with his impressive form in challenger from September 2013 ... In this match Yuki broke Gerard in 2nd game to lead 3-0 but Gerard broke Yuki in 5th game to brought set on serve at 2-3 ... After that Yuki broke Gerard in 6th and 8th games to won the set ... In the second set also Yuki broke Gerard in 2nd game to lead 3-0 ... In next game Gerard hold but then Yuki again broke him in 6th game and then hold his serve for comfortable win ... Next he is facing Frenchman Lucas Pouille, who scored upset win over 4th seed Ukrainian Marchenko.

Again slow start for Somi, who struggled on his serve and failed to trouble Venus with his returning game ... Both players hold their respective service games till 6-all but Venus played better tie-break for winning it ... Somi raised his game from the second set and gave a bagel to Venus in this set ... In third Buji started with breaking Venus in 1st game to lead 2-0 ... Buji again broke Venus when he was serving for staying in the set in 9th game and completed victory with very satisfactory last two sets performance ... Somi's next opponent is Spanish Jordi Samper-Montana.

Sanam started confidently and won first set losing a single game ... In second set Bala broke Sanam early and kept that advantage for winning it ... Typical inconsistency from Sanam in the decider ... Bala broke him twice in 1st and 3rd games to take 4-0 lead but after that Yuki made amazing comeback ... He won 5 games in a row in that broke Bala in 6th and 8th game to lead 5-4 ... Bala again broke Sanam in 11th game to lead 6-5 but he failed to hold his serve while serving for the match ... After that Sanam dominated tie-break for fighting win ... Tough opponent in quarters, 2nd seed Russian Evgeny Donskoy.

In the doubles also encouraging start for Yuki with Venus ... Yuki-Venus continues with their AO form for comfortable win ... But all other pairs with Indian players lost their matches.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] Natasha Palha (IND,594) bt (1) Yuliya Kalabina (RUS,307) 62 62

[R2] Natasha Palha (IND,594) vs (Q) Magali Kempen (BEL,UNR)

Really impressive win by Natasha against top-seed Russian Kalabina ... Natasha dominated the match and won it losing only 4 games.

Chess News

At Zurich Chess Challenge 2014, Switzerland

Rapid Games
Round One
GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777) 0-1 GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872)
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773) 0-1 GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782) 1-0 GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789)

Round Two
GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825) 1-0 GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782) ½-½ GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777)
GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789) 1-0 GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773)

Round Three
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773) 0-1 GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782)
GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777) ½-½ GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825)
GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872) ½-½ GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789)

Round Four
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773) ½-½ GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782) 1-0 GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872)
GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789) 1-0 GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825)

Round Five
GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872) ½-½ GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782) ½-½ GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825)
GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777) 0-1 GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789)

Anand started badly in Rapid and lost in 1st game against Aronian after 44 moves despite playing with white pieces ... Carlsen scored dominating win in 23 moves against Gelfand ... Caruana defeated Nakamura after 44 moves.

In the second round Anand was crushed by Nakamura after 26 moves, in this match Anand played with black pieces ... Aronian defeated Carlsen after 53 moves ... Gelfand hold Caruana with black pieces.

Again in third round Anand lost against Caruana after 69 moves playing with white pieces ... Other two matches ended in a draw.

In fourth round Anand tried hard but Gelfand defended well and match ended in a draw after 91 moves ... Caruna scored upset win over Carlsen after 44 moves ... Carlsen also scored upset win over Aronian after 78 moves.

Anand managed draw with Carlsen after 35 moves ... Aronian hold in-form Caruana to draw after 42 moves ... Nakamura defeated Gelfand playing with black pieces after 49 moves.

Final Standing 1. GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872) (8+2) 10 pts
T2. GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825) (6+3) 9 pts
T2. GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782) (5+4) 9 pts
4. GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789) (4+3½) 7½ pts
5. GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773) (4+1) 5 pts
6. GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777) (3+1½) 4½ pts

Tennis News

At Asia-Oceania Zone Group II - Fed Cup 2014, Astana, Kazakhstan (4th - 8th February)

India bt Iran 3-0
Rishika SUNKARA bt Ghazaleh TORKAMAN 60 60
Prarthana G. THOMBARE bt Sahar AMINI HAJIBASHI 76(3) 60
Ankita RAINA/ Rishika SUNKARA bt Sadaf SADEGHVAZIRI/ Sahar AMINI HAJIBASHI 60 61

Expected easy win ... Next match against Pakistan also winnable ... Our team's real test will be against New Zealand.
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At € 486K Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia

[R1] Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Frantisek Cermak (CZE)/ Mikhail Elgin (RUS) 63 64

[QF] Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (3) Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Julian Knowle (AUT)

With his new partner, Marcelo Demoliner, Purav started with win in Zagreb open ... Next they r facing tough challenge of third seed pair Brunstrom-Knowle.
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At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) bt (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,405) 75 5-4 retd.
[R1] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,313) l (Q) Michael Venus (NZL,390) 76(3) 67(1) 16
[R1] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) bt Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,262) 62 64
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,315) bt Mohamed Safwat (EGY,207) 64 62
[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,388) bt (6) David Guez (FRA,170) 64 75
[R1] (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,392) bt (Q) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,478) 63 63

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) vs (Q) Michael Venus (NZL,390)
[R2] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,174) vs Gerard Granollers-Pujol (ESP,225)
[R2] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,315) vs (8) Thomas Fabbiano (ITA,185)
[R2] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,388) vs (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,392)

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) bt (1) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 57 75 10-6

Terrific upset wins by Sanam and Saketh against higher ranked opponents ... Sanam played terrific return game in his close two sets win over top-175 David Guez ... In both sets experienced multiple breaks but in both sets Sanam take crucial break to win it ... In first set Sanam take break in 9th game before holding his serve and in the second set Sanam broke Guez in 11th game and then hold for exciting win ... Next he is facing Balaji, who won his match comfortably against Prajnesh.

In the first set Saketh was struggling with his serve and Safwat broke him in 7th game to lead 4-3 ... After that Saketh made strong comeback and won 11 games from next 13 games ... In that he broke Safwat four times ... After 3-4 down he broke Safwat in 8th and 10th games for winning first set ... In second set he showed more dominant performance and won it comfortably after converting 5th match point ... Next he is facing 8th seed Italian Thomas Fabbiano.

Yuki continued with his good form from Davis cup and scored comfortable straight sets win over Taipei player Liang-Chi Huang ... In the second round he is facing Spanish Gerard Granollers-Pujol.

Buji struggled against young RamK ... This time also RamK stretched him ... Buji was break up at 4-3 but RamK broke him in 8th game to made it 4-all ... Buji take important break in 12th game for winning it ... In the second set both players were on serve at 5-4 and RamK was leading 40-30 on his serve before retiring ... Buji's next opponent is New Zealand's qualifier Michael Venus, who scored upset win over Jeevan in comeback win ... Jeevan won first set in tie-break but failed to put pressure on Venus's serve in this match ... Venus didn't face a single break point in entire match ... Once Jeevan's game falling apart then Venus turned table on him ... He won second set tie-break and third set convincingly.

Bala-Blaz scored upset win over top-seed Thai twins Ratiwatanas in match tie-break ... After losing first set Bala-Blaz made excellent comeback and won tight second set ... After that they controlled Thai twins in match tie-break and won it

Chess News

At Zurich Chess Challenge 2014, Switzerland

Classical Games
Round Five
GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872) ½-½ GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782) 1-0 GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825)
GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789) ½-½ GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777)

The World Champion Carlsen proposed a solid Berlin Wall game and Anand failed to obtain advantage ... Both agreed draw after 40 moves ... Caruana defeated Aronian after 66 moves ... So after end of Classical games ... Carlsen is leading with 8 points and Aronian is on second place with 6 points ... Caruana is on 3rd place with 5 points and Anand is sharing 4th position with Nakamura on 4 points ... Gelfand is on last position with 3 points ... Now Rapid games will be played today.

Tennis News

At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

Final Qualifying Round
(7) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,479) bt Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,2044) 76(4) 63
(5) Sanam Singh (IND,394) bt (2) Marek Semjan (SVK,286) 62 62
(3) Victor Baluda (RUS,376) bt (6) Richard Becker (GER,395) 75 46 76(4)
(8) Karunuday Singh (IND,484) l (4) Michael Venus (NZL,384) 26 16

[R1] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,313) vs (Q) Michael Venus (NZL,390)
[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,388) vs (6) David Guez (FRA,170)
[R1] (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,392) vs (Q) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,478)

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) l Thomas Fabbiano (ITA)/ Agustin Velotti (ARG) 62 26 5-10

Sanam scored really dominating win over top-300 Slovak Marek Semjan in 58 minutes ... Sanam is having tough match against top-175 Frenchman David Guez in main-draw ... Prajnesh joined Sanam in main-draw with straight sets win over young Sasi ... He is facing Blaji in first round ... Jeevan is facing Yuki's doubles partner Michael Venus, who defeated Karunuday convincingly ... Expected better fighting performance from Karunuday.

In the doubles Prajnesh-Mohit Mayur started positively and won first set comfortably ... From the second set their opponents Fabbiano-Velotti recovered well and won this and then match tie-break comfortably.

Squash News

At $15K Women's Winnipeg Winter Club Open 2014, Winnipeg, Canada (Tour 15)


Final
(4) Joshana Chinappa (IND,20) bt Heba El Torky (EGY,39) 3-2 (12-14, 11-8, 11-5 3-11, 12-10)

[SF] (4) Joshana Chinappa (IND,20) bt (8) Misaki Kobayashi (JPN,29) 3-1 (11-7, 11-8,10-12 11-9)
[QF] (4) Joshana Chinappa (IND,20) bt (6) Siyoli Waters (RSA,34) 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-7)
[R1] (4) Joshana Chinappa (IND,20) bt (Q) Jaycee Spagrud (CAN,173) 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-8)

Joshana Chinappa won $15K Winnipeg open in very closely contested match against Egyptian Heba El Torky ... This was her 8th WSA tour event title ... After losing first game in extra points Joshana made a strong comeback and won next two games to lead 2-1 ... But Heba take full advantage of Joshana's unforced errors and won 4th game comfortably ... In fifth game both players were neck to neck but at 6-7 Heba won next 4 points to gave herself 3 match balls, 10-7 ... Under pressure Joshana raised her game and saved all thee match balls and won five points in a row for exciting title win.

Before this Joshana faced tough resistant from Japanese Kobayashi in the semis ... In first 2 rounds also Joshana faced resistant from her opponents though she won both matches in straight games.
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At $50K Women's Tub O’Towels Cleveland Classic 2014, Ohio, USA (Gold 50)

[R1] Dipika Pallikal (IND,12) l (4) Alison Waters (ENG,4) 0-3 (10-12, 4-11, 9-11) (35m)

Dipika lost against top-4 Britisher Waters in three games ... In first game Dipika stretched Waters to extra points but failed to overcome.

Chess News

At Zurich Chess Challenge 2014, Switzerland

Classical Games
Round Four
GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2777) 0-1 GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2773)
GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2872) 1-0 GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2782)
GM Levon Aronian (ARM,2825) 1-0 GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2789)

Turned to be superb round for Anand as only he managed to win with black pieces in this round ... Carlsen and Aronian scored comfortable wins with white ... Anand played exceptinally well in Slav Defense and scored comfortable win after 36 moves ... In last match he is facing Carlsen with black again ... After this win Anand tied for 3rd place with Nakamura and Caruana with 3 points.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2014 - Group I Asia/Oceania -1st Round, Indore, India

India bt Chinese Taipei 5-0

Day One
[M1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,173) bt Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE,216) 64 64 67(1) 63
[M2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) bt Ti Chen (TPE,284) 67(4) 76(3) 16 62 9-7

Day Two
[M3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 60 67(3) 63 76(2)

Day Three
[M4] Saketh Myneni (IND,313) bt Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE,216) 61 64
[M5] Yuki Bhambri (IND,173) bt Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE,UNR) 75 60

Indians completed formalities after winning last two matches ... Saketh played in first reverse singles instead of Buji and scored comfortable straight sets win over talented Tsung-Hua Yang ... In last match Taipei played their doubles specialist Peng and Yuki also scored comfortable straight sets win ... So now in second Asia/Oceania Group I match India will face Korea in April.
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At € 486K Zagreb Indoors, Zagreb, Croatia

[R1] Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Frantisek Cermak (CZE)/ Mikhail Elgin (RUS)

Thisd week Purav is playing on ATP tour with Brazilian Demoliner at Zagreb open ... They r facing unseeded pair in first round.
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At $50K Chennai Challenger, India

Qualifying Second Round
Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND) bt (1) Hiroki KONDO (JPN) 64 64
(7) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND) bt Joshua MILTON (GBR) 64 63
(2) Marek SEMJAN (SVK) bt N Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 64 36 75
(5) Sanam SINGH (IND) bt Artem SITAK (NZL) 76(2) 62
(3) Victor BALUDA (RUS) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 63 76(2)
(6) Richard BECKER (GER) bt Rahul Robinson MANOAH (IND) 61 76(4)
(4) Michael VENUS (NZL) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND) 63 75
(8) Karunuday SINGH (IND) bt Tristan-Samuel WEISSBORN (AUT) 61 67(2) 64

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,103) vs (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,405)
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,312) vs Qualifier
[R1] (7) Yuki Bhambri (IND,173) vs Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,263)
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND,313) vs Mohamed Safwat (EGY,203)
[R1] (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,396) vs Qualifier

Doubles
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Blaz Rola (SLO) vs (1) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ilija Bozoljac (SRB) vs Steven Diez (CAN)/ Daniel Munoz-De La Nava (ESP)
[R1] (WC) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Ti Chen (TPE)/ Marek Semjan (SVK)
[R1] (WC) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE)
[R1] (WC) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND) vs Thomas Fabbiano (ITA)/ Agustin Velotti (ARG)
[R1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Michael Venus (NZL) vs (PR) Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA)

Young Sasi Kumar scored huge upset win over top-seed and #285 ranked experienced Hiroki Kondo in straight sets ... Next he is facing Prajnesh, who also scored straight sets win over Britisher Joshua Milton.

Good win by Sanam against Sitak ... In the final qualifying he is facing 2nd seed Slovak Marek Semjan ... Karunuday started confidently after winning first set losing a single game but Austrian Weissborn fought back and won second set in tie-break ... Karunuday kept his focus and won the final set ... Next he is facing 4th seed Michael Venus.

The singles main-draw is out ... Buji having tricky match against RamK, who defeated him in first round of Chennai open ... Yuki is facing Taiwani opponent Huang and his is in same draw with Buji and can meet in the quarters ... Jeevan and Balaji r facing an qualifiers ... Saketh having tough match against 200 ranked top Egyptian Sawafat.