Wednesday, February 05, 2014

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.

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