Tennis News

Year-end WTA Singles rankings (2018 year-end rankings in bracket)

180 Ankita Raina (205)
368 Riya Bhatia (555)
465 Rutuja Bhosale (344)
568 Karman Kaur Thandi (207)
619 Sowjanya Bavisetti (746)
649 Pranjala Yadlapalli (288)
746 Zeel Desai (769)
788 Mahak Jain (521)
890 Sathvika Sama
904 Jeniffer Luikham (809)

Not a great year, as our 2 promising youngsters, Karman and Pranjala sidelined due to long injury ... Hoping a better 2020 for them ... Karman has made a cut in the AO 2020 qualifying with her protected ranking, #208 ... She joins Ankita in the qualifying list ... Ankita had a steady year but she looks stagnant in her current position ... She also jumps inside the top-150 in the 2020 season.

Chess News

At the World Women's Rapid Championship 2019, Moscow, Russia

Final standings in women's section

1 GM Koneru Humpy (IND,2438) 9,0
2 GM Lei Tingjie (CHN,2498) 9,0
3 IM Atalik Ekaterina (RUS,2360) 9,0

13 GM Harika Dronavalli (IND,2425) 8,0

Koneru Humpy's scored an amazing comeback to win the Women's world rapid title ... After twelve rounds it all ended in a three-way tie; Lei Tingjie, who was leading the event, lost her last round to Ekaterina Atalik and also Humpy who beat Tan Zhongyi in the final round ... Atalik, Humpy, and Lei all ended on 9.0/12 ... Because Koneru Humpy and Lei Tingjie had the best tiebreak, a playoff was organized between the two ... In the blitz, Humpy had a slow start and lost the first game with white pieces ... Lei needed to hold Humpy in the 2nd game for the championship ... Lei had chances to win this game but she made mistakes under pressure and Humpy took advantage of it and won this game with black pieces ... With the momentum firmly on her side, Humpy was all pumped up for the Armageddon ... She lost the toss and Lei decided to take the white pieces and an extra minute ... The Armageddon game was one-way traffic as Humpy played solidly and Lei was unable to make any headway ... Very soon, the Indian GM built up a winning position and agreed to a draw via threefold repetition.

In the Blitz World Championship, Humpy finished on the 12th position with 10.5 points ... After 13 rounds, Humpy and Lagno were leading with 10 points each, but Humpy lost the last 3 rounds to finish with 10.5 points after 17 rounds ... Harika finished in the 25th position.

Tennis News

A Leander Paes announcement,

P.C. to Leander's twitter handle

#OneLastRoar!!!

Leander Paes has announced that 2020 will be his farewell year on the ATP World Tour ... He will be participating in the selected tournaments with the hope of representing India in the Tokyo Olympic and the Davis Cup for the last time ... He is playing for 30 yrs. on the tour and gave some memorable moments to the fans ... On the personal note, he won 8 doubles and 10 mixed doubles Grand Slam titles ... In that, he completed career Grand Slam in the men's doubles and the mixed doubles ... His high point playing for the country was, winning a bronze medal for India in singles in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games ... He competed in consecutive Olympics from 1992 to 2016, making him the first Indian and only tennis player to compete at seven Olympic Games ... He also holds the record for the most Davis Cup doubles win with 44 victories ... One of my favorite Lee's Davis Cup memory is, his performance in the away tie against France at Frejus in 1993 ... Lee defeated Henri Leconte and Arnaud Boetsch on clay and helped India to win this tie 3-2 ... There are mixed emotions but definitely, this will be a fun-filled farewell year ... Thank you Lee for everything!

Tennis News

At Fed Cup 2020 - Asia Oceania Group 1, Dongguan, China

Indian Team: Sania Mirza, Ankita Raina, Karman Kaur Thandi, Riya Bhatia, Rutuja Bhosale
Reserve Player: Sowjanya Bavietti
Captain: Vishal Uppal
Coach: Ankita Bhambri

Our Fed Cup team is announced for the 4-8 February 2020 event ... After 4 years Sania is back in the team with a super-mom title ... Karman also joins our team after her long injury break, so this is our strongest team in the last few years ... Six teams are playing; China, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Uzbekistan r participating ... The format is, top 2 teams will be promoted and the bottom 2 teams will be relegated.

Weightlifting News

At the 6th Qatar International Cup 2019, Doha

The women's 48kg category

Gold - Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (IND) (Snatch 83kg + Clean and jerk 111kg) 194 kg

The men's 67kg category

Silver - Jeremy Lalrinnunga (IND) (Snatch 140kg + Clean and jerk 166kg) 306 kg (YWR) (YAR)

To qualify for Tokyo, a weightlifter must compete in at least one event in each of the three periods of six months (spread over November 2018 to April 2020), at least six events overall and in at least one gold and another silver level event.

The 25-year-old Chanu won gold with an effort of 194kg in the Olympic qualifying silver level event, the points from which will come in handy when the final rankings for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics cut are done.

Youth Olympic gold medallist weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga went on a record-breaking spree, claiming three world marks in a remarkable performance, on the way to a silver in the men’s 67kg category at the 6th Qatar International Cup here.
the 17-year-old smashed his own Youth World and Asian record in snatch, clean and jerk and total lift with an effort of 306kg to win the silver medal Friday night.

Jeremy broke 27 records in total all under his name, combining national and international marks.
He smashed 12 international records -- three youth world, three youth Asian and six Commonwealth records -- and 15 national records -- five youth nationals, five junior nationals and five senior nationals.

Hockey News

At Tokyo Olympics 2020, Japan

Men's Schedule - Pool A (timing in IST)
Saturday, July 25 - India vs New Zealand - 6.30 am
Sunday, July 26 - India vs Australia - 3 pm
Tuesday, July 28 - India vs Spain - 6.30 am
Thursday, 30 July - India vs Argentina - 6 am
Friday, 31 July - India vs Japan - 3 pm

Sunday, 2 August - Quarterfinals - 6 am, 8.30 am, 3 pm, 5.30 pm
Tuesday, 4 August - Semifinals - 7 am, 3.30 pm
Thursday, 6 August - Bronze medal match (7 am), Final (3.30 pm)

Women's Schedule - Pool A (timing in IST)
Saturday, July 25 - India vs Netherlands - 5.15 pm
Monday, 27 July - India vs Germany - 5.45 pm
Wednesday, 29 July - India vs Great Britain - 6.30 am
Friday, 31 July - India vs Ireland - 8.15 am
Saturday, 1 August - India vs South Africa - 8.45 am

Monday, 3 August - Quarterfinals - 6 am, 8.30 am, 3 pm, 5.30 pm
Wednesday, 5 August - Semifinals - 7 am, 3.30 pm
Friday, 7 August - Bronze medal match (7 am), Final (3.30 pm)

The schedule for Olympic hockey matches is declared in the last week ... In the men's Pool A, we are starting with the Black sticks before playing against a mighty Kookaburras ... In the women's Pool A, we are having first 3 tough matches against mighty Dutch women, German women, and British women.

Football News

At the U17 Women's Football Tournament 2019, Mumbai, India

Final
India l Sweden 0-4 (0-3)
Goal Scored - Rusul Kafaji (SWE) 4', Elma Nelhage (SWE) 16', Monica Bah (SWE) 70'

The Swedish girls clinched victory in the final of the U17 Women's Football Tournament 2019 with a 4-0 win against hosts India ... Inside the first 20 minutes, Sweden took 3-0 lead, but after that, our girls gave a spirited performance ... But they failed to score and Sweden added the 4th goal.

Badminton News

2019 Year-end rankings of the Indian top-50 players (last year's rankings in bracket),

Men's Singles
11 B. Sai Praneeth (22)
12 Srikanth Kidambi (8)
23 Purupalli Kashyap (44)
26 H. S. Prannoy (20)
28 Saurabh Varma (54)
32 Lakshya Sen (109)
33 Sameer Varma (12)
44 Subhankar Dey (49)

Women's Singles
6 P. V. Sindhu (3)
11 Saina Nehwal (9)

Men's Doubles
12 Satwiksairaj Ranikreddy / Chirag Shetty (16)
30 Manu Attri / B. Sumeeth Reddy (25)
49 Arjun M.R/ Shlok Ramchandran (40)

Women's Doublesv 30 Sikki Reddy / Ashwini Ponnappa (23)
46 Pooja Dandu / Sanjana Santoshv 50 Meghana Jakkampudi /Poorvisha S Ram (31)

Mixed Doubles
28 Sikki Reddy / Pranav Chopra (23)
36 Ashwini Ponappa / Satwiksairak Ranikreddy (22)
47 K. Manisha / MR Arjun

In the singles, India having most players, 8, in the top-50 ... China and Japan have 7 each but our, not a single player produced any world-beater performance ... We need a lot of improvement from our players for hoping any chance in Tokyo 2020 ... The jury is out for Lakshya as his higher ranking through winning $25K tournaments ... In the women singles, Sindhu becoming a World Champion was only a bright spot ... Otherwise, forgetting year for Sindhu ... Saina's performance is on the declining and her injuries also not helping her.
Satwik and Chirag showing a lot of improvement after Satwik's 6+ months injury break ... They r currently performing like the top-8 doubles pair ... Having a lot of hopes from them ... Ashwini-Sikki looks stagnant and remains in the top-30 ... After Satwik's comeback, interesting to see how he and Ashwini perform in the mixed-doubles.

Football News

At the U17 Women's Football Tournament 2019, Mumbai, India

India bt Thailand 1-0 (0-0)
Goal Scored - Kritina Devi (IND) 90+'

Our u-17 girls scored an upset win over the Thai girl and enter into the final ... The injury-time goal from Kritina Devi, she scored from a long-range, helped our team for this fighting win ... In the final, we are facing a big challenge of the u-17 Swedish girls, who reached final after winning both matches ... They defeated us 3-0 in the first match and Thai girls 3-1 in their second match.

Badminton News

At $25K YONEX SUNRISE Bangladesh International Challenge 2019, Dhaka (International Challenge)

[R1] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Rajesh Verma (IND,UNR) 21-5, 21-10
[R2] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Muhammad Ziyad Md Tah (MAS,324) 21-13, 21-6
[R3] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Aidil Sholeh Ali Sadikin (MAS,154) 21-17, 21-9
[QF] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt NG Tze Yong (MAS,156) 21-9, 21-11
[SF] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt (3) Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay (INA,82) 21-18, 21-16

Singles Final
(1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Jun Hao Leong (MAS,239) 22-20, 21-18

Lakshya needs to play higher level tournaments... He has achieved his current ranking playing these lower-level $25K tournaments ... Currently, he is dominating these tournaments as he won his 5th $25K tournament in the last 10 weeks.

Golf News

At $750K BNI Indonesian Masters 2019, Jakarta, Indonesia

T8 Shiv Kapur (IND) 70 65 71 69 -13 $17,212.50
T10 Rashid Khan (IND) 73 65 71 68 -11 $12,741.00
T15 Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 71 69 72 67 -9 $9,313.00
T21 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 69 67 74 70 -8 $7,725.00
T33 Aman Raj (IND) 69 73 72 68 -6 $5,325.00
T33 Viraj Madappa (IND) 69 69 71 73 -6 $5,325.00
T33 SSP Chawrasia (IND) 72 69 74 67 -6 $5,325.00
T64 Arjun Atwal (IND) 72 71 75 75 +5 $2,100.00

Shiv failed to produce the good final round as he had a chance of finishing in the top-5 ... Overall good performance by the Indian golfers in this Indonesian tournament.

Badminton News

At $1.5M HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2019, Guangzhou, China

Group A
[M3] Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) bt Bing Jiao He (CHN,7) 21-19 21-19

Sindhu ended her BWF World Tour Finals campaign with a consolation win in the final group match ... She defeated a local girl, Bing Jiao He, in tight 2 games ... In the first game, Sindhu was 9-18 down but she made an exceptional comeback in the match ... She won the next 9 points for 18-all and won the game after winning the last 3 points ... In the second game, Sindhu opened 3-4 points lead from the beginning and kept that advantage through-out this game ... Bing saved a couple of match points but Sindhu converted 3rd for a win.

Football News

At the U17 Women's Football Tournament 2019, Mumbai, India

India l Sweden 0-3 (0-2)
Goal Scored - Matilda Vinberg (SWE) 4' P, Ida Weidenberg (SWE) 25', Monica Bah (SWE) 90+'

The AIFF organizing the u-17 women's tournament ... This is considering our girls better preparation and build-up for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup next year ... Our India U-17 team is facing a higher ranked Sweden and Thailand.

In the first match, the Swedish girl scored a convincing win over our girls ... Our team struggled with poor marksmanship in-front of the goal ... A good overall learning experience for Thomas Dennerby's team.

Badminton News

At $1.5M HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2019, Guangzhou, China

Group A
[M2] Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) l Yu Fei Chen (CHN,2) 22-20 16-21 12-21

Another loss for Sindhu after winning the first game ... She had a 6-3 win-loss record against Yu Fei Chen but her recent lack of form let her down.

Golf News

At LET Order of Merit 2019,

13 Aditi Ashok (IND) 233.47 pts (7 tournaments) € 77,696.79
14 Diksha Dagar (IND) 231.89 pts (from 19 tournaments) € 57,944.56
45 Tvesa Malik (IND) 113.52 pts (12 tournaments) € 28,420.89
75 Astha Madan (IND) 51.80 pts (13 tournaments) € 12,130.38
90 Vani Kapoor (IND) 29.00 pts. (6 tournaments) € 6,611.28

Aditi finished the Ladies European tour season on the creditable 13th position, playing in only 7 tournaments ... The Ladies South African Open winner, Diksha Dagar, finished behind Aditi and Tvesa Malik also finished inside the top-50 ... So first-time our 3 girls finished inside on the top-50 of the European tour ... Also Diksha and Tvesa finished on the 2nd and the 3rd positions on the Rookie of the year list.

Badminton News

At $1.5M HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2019, Guangzhou, China

Group A
[M1] Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) l Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,4) 21-18 18-21 8-21

Sindhu qualified for the BWF World Tour Finals as a World Champion, despite having overall poor season ... She received a favorable draw but Sindhu lost in her first match against Yamaguchi after winning the first game.

Squash News

At $12K Men's Life Time Betty F Griffin Memorial Florida Open 2019, Boca Raton, USA (PSA Challenger Tour 10)

[R1] (1) Vikram Malhotra (IND,58) bt Anthony Rogal (ENG,180) 11-6, 11-4, 11-5 (35m)
[QF] (1) Vikram Malhotra (IND,58) bt Leandro Romiglio (ARG,166) 11-4, 6-11, 11-9, 11-7 (40m)
[SF] (1) Vikram Malhotra (IND,58) bt (3) Mazen Gamal (EGY,64) 11-9, 12-14, 11-3, 11-9 (84m)

Final
(1) Vikram Malhotra (IND,58) bt (6) Jesus Camacho (MEX,89) 11-6, 11-6, 11-4 (39m)

Vikram won the title in Florida beating a Mexican youngster Camacho in straight games ... Before that in the semis, he scored a win in the marathon match against a similar ranked Gamal.

Golf News

At € 300K Magical Kenya Ladies Open 2019, Vipingo Ridge, Kenya

2 Aditi Ashok (IND) 73 70 67 65 -13 € 27,000.00
T16 Diksha Dagar (IND) 77 73 70 69 +1 € 4,725.00
T27 Tvesa Malik (IND) 72 71 73 76 +4 € 3,195.00
T53 Astha Madan (IND) 74 76 76 71 +9 € 1,290.00

Aditi scored an excellent 7-under final round but a German Esther Henseleit scored a superb 8-under to win the title ... But a still creditable performance by Aditi to finish on the 2nd position.

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At € 1M AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open 2019, Mauritius

T17 Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 70 69 70 65 -14 € 12,475.00
T54 Abhijit Chadha (IND) 69 70 71 73 -5 € 3,450.00
T54 Udayan Mane (IND) 73 68 74 68 -5 € 3,450.00
71 Viraj Madappa (IND) 71 70 75 75 +3 € 1,600.00

Jyoti scored an excellent 7-under final round to finish in the top-20 in the Mauritius Open.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Solapur, India

[R1] (2) Ankita Raina (IND,188) bt Valeriya Strakhova (UKR,366) 63 60
[R2] (2) Ankita Raina (IND,188) bt Riya BHatia (IND,376) 63 64
[QF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND,188) bt Sandra Samir (EGY,368) 16 64 61
[SF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND,188) bt Katie Boulter (GBR,342) 57 62 62

Singles Final
(2) Ankita Raina (IND,188) bt (5) Naiktha Bains (GBR,249) 63 63

Doubles
Naiktha Bains (GBR)/ [R1] (1) Ulrikke Eikeri (NOR)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bye
[QF] (1) Ulrikke Eikeri (NOR)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt Prathiba Narayan prasad (IND)/ Soha Sadiq (IND) 61 61
[SF] (1) Ulrikke Eikeri (NOR)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt Sandra Samir (EGY)/ Ekaterina Yashina (RUS) 26 60 10-8

Doubles Final
(1) Ulrikke Eikeri (NOR)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt Berfu Cengiz (TUR)/ Despina Papamichail (GRE) 57 64 10-3

Ankita wins a double crown at Solapur ... In the singles final, she defeated an Indian origin Naiktha Bains in straight sets but before that she scored an excellent comeback win over the former top-100 player, Katie Boulter.
She also won the doubles title with her Norwegian partner Ulrikke Eikeri.

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At $100K+H ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

[Q1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,421) l (2) Aleksandra Krunic (SRB,167) 63 06 3-10

A decent performance by Rutuja against a former top-40 ranked Krunic.

Tennis News

At Australian Open 2020 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off, Zhuhai, China

[QF] (7) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,271) l Yunseong Chung (KOR,320) 46 36

Indian challenge got over with a straight-sets loss of Mukund against a Korean Yunseong Chung.

Tennis News

At Australian Open 2020 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off, Zhuhai, China

[R1] (3) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,176) l Ze Zhang (CHN,358) 36 06

Doubles
[QF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l Yuki Mochizuki (JPN)/ Sho Shimabukuro (JPN) 36 63 11-13

A bad day for Indians ... Expected a win from Ram against Ze Zhang, but he managed to win only 3 games in his loss.
In the doubles, the seeded Ram and Arjun lost a close match in the long super tie-break against a Japanese pair.

Tennis News

At Australian Open 2020 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off, Zhuhai, China

[R1] (3) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,176) vs Ze Zhang (CHN,358)
[R1] (7) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,271) bt (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,498) 63 62

[QF] (7) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,271) vs Yunseong Chung (KOR,320)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bye

[QF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Yuki Mochizuki (JPN)/ Sho Shimabukuro (JPN)

Mukund scored a comfortable win over Sid ... In the quarters, he is facing a Korean Yunseong Chung, who scored an upset win over Istomin ... Ram is having a tricky match against a local favorite, Ze Zhang.
In the doubles, Ram is playing with Arjun and they r having a bye in the first round ... In the quarters, they r facing a Japanese pair.

Tennis News

At Australian Open 2020 Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off, Zhuhai, China

[FQ] (3) Sidharth Rawat (IND,498) bt Arjun Kadhe (IND,596) 57 63 61

The expected win for Sid against Arjun in 3 sets ... With this win, he has joined Ram and Mukund in the main-draw ... In the doubles, Ram is playing with Arjun.

Golf News

At €300K Andalucia Open de Espana 2019, Málaga, Spain (Ladies European Tour)

T2 Aditi Ashok (IND) 70 67 69 70 -12 € 22,500.00
T32 Tvesa Malik (IND) 72 71 75 72 +2 € 2,520.00
T39 Diksha Dagar (IND) 72 69 77 73 +3 € 1,930.00

Aditi gave a strong performance to finish for the tied 2nd position with an excellent score of 12-under ... Tvesa and Diksha also made a cut and played 4 rounds.

Badminton News

At $150K Ecogreen Syed Modi International Badminton Championships 2019, Lucknow, India (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300)

[R1] Sourabh Verma (IND,36) bt Xiaodong Sheng (CAN,84) 21-11 21-16
[R2] Sourabh Verma (IND,36) bt Alap Mishra (IND,163) 21-11 21-18
[QF] Sourabh Verma (IND,36) bt Kunlavut Vitidsarn (THA,41) 21-19 21-16
[SF] Sourabh Verma (IND,36) bt Kwang Hee Heo (KOR,44) 21-17 16-21 21-18

Men's Singles Final
Sourabh Verma (IND,36) l (8) Tzu Wei Wang (TPE,22) 15-21 17-21

Sourabh reached the final in this Indian Super 300 tournament ... He lost the final against the top-25 ranked Tzu Wei Wang ... Before this, he scored an impressive win over a multiple junior World champion Thai, Kunlavut Vitidsarn ... Other hands, his all seniors; Shrikanth, Sai, Sameer Verma, and Kashyap lost in first 2 rounds ... Satwik and Chirag also lost in the first round as a 2nd seed pair.
In the women's singles, Rituparna Das reached in the semis after her pro-long injury break ... Sindhu and Saina skipped this tournament due to injury.

Table Tennis News

At Chengdu Airlines 2019 Men's World Cup, Chengdu, China

[R16] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) l (8) Timo Boll (GER,) 1-4 (11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11, 8-11)

Timo Boll ended the fairytale for Sathiyan Gnanasekaran at the Men’s World Cup ... Timo won 4-1 in a classy lesson after staying calm against a fiery opponent ... Sathiyan shows with his performances in Chengdu, that he has a bright future ahead.

Tennis News

At the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I - 2019, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

India bt Pakistan 4-0
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,176) bt Muhammad Shoaib (PAK,UNR) 60 60
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,131) bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman (PAK,UNR) 60 62

[R3] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman (PAK)/ Muhammad Shoaib (PAK) 61 63

[R4] Sumit Nagal (IND,131) bt Yousaf Khalil (PAK,1680) 61 60

On the second day, we completed the tie win in 53 minutes when Jeevan and Lee expectedly won their match comfortably ... A better performance by these Pakistani kids as they won 4 games in this match ... This was Jeevan's first win in his debut Davis Cup tie ... In the fourth match, Jeevan scored the fastest win of this tie in 32 minutes losing a single game against Khalil ... With this win, the Indians completed a victory and they will face a 2-times Davis cup winner Croatia in away match in the qualifier in March 2020.

Table Tennis News

At Chengdu Airlines 2019 Men's World Cup, Chengdu, China

Group D
[M1] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) bt Simon Gauzy (FRA,22) 4-3 (11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8)
[M2] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) bt Jonathan Groth (DEN,24) 4-2 (11-3, 12-10, 7-11, 16-14, 8-11, 11-8)

[R16] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) vs (8) Timo Boll (GER,)

Sathiyan playing in the season-ending World Cup ... He qualified for the main-draw from Group D with 2 top-notch wins against his higher-ranked European opponents ... In the first match, he was 0-2 down against Gauzy before making an excellent comeback ... In the round-16, Sathiyan is facing a former WR #1 Timo Boll.

Tennis News

At the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I - 2019, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

India vs Pakistan 2-0
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,176) bt Muhammad Shoaib (PAK,UNR) 60 60
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,131) bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman (PAK,UNR) 60 62

It is painful to post a score of this tie as these Pakistani teenagers r no match to our players ... A 42 mins annihilation by Ram of his opponent Muhammad Shoaib ... Sumit scored his first Davis Cup win in 64 minutes losing 2 games.

Archery News

At Asian continental qualification tournament for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Bangkok, Thailand

Recurve Women's Gold Medal match
(1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) 6-0 (27-24, 27-26, 27-26)

[SF] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (13) Nguyet Do Thi Anh (VIE) 6-2 (27-27, 28-23, 28-28, 25-24)
[SF] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (31) Karma (BHU) 6-2 (24-21, 25-27, 27-20, 29-25)

[QF] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (24) Narisara Khunhiranchaiyo (THA) 6-2 (27-25, 27-24, 24-26, 29-27)
[QF] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (14) Anastassiya Bannova (KAZ) 6-4 (23-26, 26-23, 20-24, 24-21, 25-17)

[R3] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (17) Zahra Nemati (IRI) 6-4 (25-25, 26-26, 26-23, 22-26, 28-26)
[R3] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (11) Nguyen Thi Phuong (VIE) 6-0 (28-26, 27-22, 27-25)

[R2] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (33) Nur Afisa Abdul Halil (MAS) 7-3 (28-24, 28-26, 27-27, 27-28, 24-23)
[R2] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (38) Lam Shuk Ching Ada (HKG) 7-1 (28-22, 27-24, 28-28, 27-23)

[R1] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bye
[R1] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bye

We secure a quota in the women’s archery Tokyo 2020, as Deepika Kumari secured a gold beating her compatriot Ankita Bhakat in the Asian continental qualification tournament final in Bangkok ... There were 3 recurve men’s and 3 recurve women’s places available ... A country can only participate if they had not already won a space in that category ... Each country can win a maximum of one space in each category ... This quota place also means that we are also guaranteed to have a spot in the mixed team competition.

Before this in the Asian Championship, our recurve archers won 4 bronze medals - men's team and women's team, Atanu Das won beating a Korean in men's individual, and our mixed pair team of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari also won a bronze.

Tennis News

Singles rankings (2018 year-end rankings in bracket)
125 Gunneswaran, Prajnesh (110)
131 Sumit Nagal (340)
176 Ramkumar Ramanathan (133)
271 Sasi Kumar Mukund (295)
392 Saketh Myneni (259)
498 Siddharth Rawat (432)
596 Arjun Kadhe (392)
671 Manish Sureshkumar (581)
823 Aryan Goveas
972 S.D. Prajwal Dev

Doubles rankings (2018 year-end rankings in bracket)
38 Rohan Bopanna (37)
46 Divij Sharan (39)
89 Purav Raja (91)
105 Leander Paes (64)
111 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (75)
134 Ramkumar Ramanathan (233)
137 N. Sriram Balaji (111)
197 Saketh Myneni (202)
201 Arjun Kadhe (169)
203 Vishnu Vardhan (126)

As this is an end of challenger season for our players, here are the 2019 year-end rankings for them ... In the singles, only Sumit having a standout performance to climb in the top-140 rankings ... He is having a good chance to break in the top-100 as he is defending only 6 points till March 2020 ... Prajnesh struggled with injury and niggles and that affected his performance on the court ... Ram struggled with the form but managed to remain inside the top-200 ... Hoping, 2020 can be a breakthrough year for Mukund.

In the doubles also, our players remained stagnant, hoping better results from them in the Olympics year.

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Sania Mirza confirmed that she will be back in competitive tennis at Hobart International in January 2020, two years after taking a maternity break ... She will play at Hobart International in January with Ukraine's Nadiia Kichenok and in the 2020 Australian Open mixed doubles with American Rajeev Ram.

Hockey News

At Tokyo Olympics 2020,

Men
Pool A: Australia, Argentina, India, Spain, New Zealand, Japan
Pool B: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa

Women
Pool A: Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, India, South Africa
Pool B: Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Spain, China, Japan

The FIH has now confirmed the Tokyo 2020 pools ... We are in the tougher pools, our men's team (WR #5) with the 2016 Rio Men’s Gold medallists, Argentina (WR #4), Australia (WR #1), Spain (WR #8), New Zealand (WR #9) and hosts Japan (WR #15) ... And our women's team (WR #9) with the 2016 Rio Women’s Gold medallists, Great Britain (WR #5), the Netherlands (WR #1), Germany (WR #4), Ireland (WR #8), and South Africa (WR #16)

Badminton News

At $25K Scottish Open 2019, Glasgow, Scotland (International Challenge)

[R1] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Luka Wraber (AUT,98) 21-13 21-8
[R2] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Kiran George (IND,125) 21-17 21-19
[QF] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt (6) Brian Yang (CAN,71) 21-12 21-15
[SF] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Christo Popov (FRA,133) 9-21 21-8 22-20

Men's Singles Final
(1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt (4) Ygor Coelho (BRA,58) 18-21 21-18 21-19

Lakshya ended his training cum tournament stint win a title win in the Scottish Open ... He trained under Morten Frost for 3 months and participated in the European tournaments ... In Scotland, he won the title after losing the first game against Ygor Coelho ... Lakshya made unforced errors but kept fighting till the end for winning the title ... Before that in the semis, he defeated a French youngster, Christo Popov, in 3 games ... Lakshya saved a match point at 19-20 in the decider, this was a good win considering Popov defeated him in the last week at the Irish Open's second round.

Golf News

At $300K Sabah Masters 2019, Sabah, Malaysia (Asian Tour)

T2 Aman Raj 68 70 70 63 -13  $22,300
T5 Rashid Khan 67 70 69 68 -10  $10,280
T12 Udayan Mane 68 68 69 71 -8  $4,377
T21 Aadil Bedi 70 70 70 69 -5  $3,000
T39 Karandeep Kochhar 71 69 69 73 -2  $1,780
T50 Khalin Joshi 68 74 70 72 PAR  $1,260
60 Jyoti Randhawa 69 74 71 73 +3  $960

Good to see our new players are doing better on the Asian tour ... But another 2nd place finishes for us, Aman Raj was tied for the 1st with 3 other golfers ... He lost in a play-off to finish in the 2nd position.

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At $6.6M The RSM Classic 2019, Saint Simons Island, Georgia

T50 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 71 67 66 72 -6 $17,006

Anirban had a poor 2-over final round, which slid him down in the final standing

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Bhopal, India

P.C. to Karman's FB page

[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (LL) Snehal Mane (IND,1248) 61 61
[R2] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (2) Ankita Raina (IND,187) 36 63 76(3)
[QF] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (Q) Karin Kennel (SUI,533), 62 26 64
[SF] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (Q) Melanie Klaffner (AUT,588) 36 75 62

Singles Final
Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) l (4) Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN,266) 16 1-3 retd.

P.C. to Rutuja's FB page

Doubles
[R1] (1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Vlada Katic (ISR)/ Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) 62 64
[QF] (1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Jennifer Luikham (IND)/ Mihika Yadav (IND) 63 63
[SF] (1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (4) Karin Kennel (SUI)/ Silvia Njiric (CRO) w/o

Doubles Final
(1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (3) Diana Marcinkevica (LAT)/ Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) 64 75

In her second tournament from a long injury break, Karman reached into the final but retired due to fatigue ... As before this, she played continuous 3 three-setter matches ... Still, a good performance from Karman ... Last week at Gwalior also, Karmar reached in the quarters ... Also, Sowjanya Bavisetti performed really well, she reached in the semis at Gwalior and this week in the quarters.

In the doubles, Rutuja and her partner Emily Webley-Smith won the title without losing a set.

Squash News

At $106K Men's Channel VAS Championship 2019, Weybridge, Surrey, England (World Tour Gold)

[R1] (7) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) bye
[R2] (7) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) bt (9/16) Tom Richards (ENG,26) 11-3, 11-5, 11-5 (37m)

[QF] (7) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) l (1) Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY,2) 11-5, 9-11, 9-11, 12-10, 10-12 (85m)

As per the report, Saurav played one of the best squash of his life in the quarters against ElShorbagy ... Last week, ElShorbagy defeated Saurav in 3 games at the World Championship ... But here, he has tested the top seed Mohamed ElShorbagy to the limit, he had a match ball before losing the match in extra points in the decider.

They r calling this as one of the best matches of the last year ... Both players played a fast and accurate squash ... In the decider, Saurav was 2-8 down and he caught with Elshorbagy at 9-all and had a match ball at 10-9 but wrong shot selection cost him a win.

Hockey News

At the FIH Pro League 2020,

India's FIH Men's Pro League Schedule, Timings (IST), Venues

Saturday, Jan 18, 2020 - India vs the Netherlands - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Sunday, Jan 19 - India vs the Netherlands - 5 pm - Bhubaneswar
Saturday, Feb 8 – India vs Belgium - 5 pm - Bhubaneswar
Sunday, Feb 9 - India vs Belgium - 5 pm - Bhubaneswar
Friday, Feb 22 – India vs Australia - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Saturday, Feb 23 - India vs Australia - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Saturday, April 25 – Germany vs India - 5.30 pm - Berlin
Sunday, April 26 - Germany vs India - 3.30 pm - Berlin
Saturday, May 2 – Great Britain vs India - 2 pm - London
Sunday, May 3 - Great Britain vs India - 2 pm - London
Saturday, May 23 – India vs New Zealand - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Sunday, May 24 - India vs New Zealand - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Friday, June 5 – Argentina vs India - 5 pm - Tucuman
Saturday, June 6 - Argentina vs India - 5 pm - Tucuman
Saturday, June 13 – Spain vs India - 1 pm - Valencia
Sunday, June 14 - Spain vs India - 1 pm - Valencia

Indian men's hockey team will begin its Pro League campaign at home against world #3 Netherlands on January 18 and 19 ... Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium will host Indian men's hockey team's FIH Pro League matches ... I am surprised to see, we don't find any other venue for our matches other than Bhubaneswar.

Equestrian News

At the South Asia East, Oceania (a 4-star level tournament for Olympics qualifications), Germany

Group G - Individual Eventing Category
1. Fouaad Mirza (IND) 64 pts.

Our equestrian Fouaad Mirza secured an Olympic quota after finishing as a top-ranked rider in his group at the 4-star level tournament for Olympics qualifications in Germany ... He scored 64 pts. to become a highest-ranked rider in the Group G for the South Asia East, Oceania in the individual eventing category after the end of the European stage ... The official confirmation will be announced by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) on February 20.

After 20 years our equestrian is qualified for the Olympics ... Before this, Imtiaz Anees (2000 Sydney) and late Wing Commander IJ Lamba (1996 Atlanta) were represented India in the Olympics.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[SF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l Andre Begemann (GER)/ Daniel Masur (GER) 76(3) 36 9-11

With this loss end of ATP 2019 season for Indians ... VSP and Mukund lost a close match against the Germans, Masur, and Begemann, after winning the first set ... Our pair had 2 match-points at 9-7 which they failed to convert.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[QF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (WC) Tiago Cacao (POR)/ Joao Monteiro (POR) 76(6) 64

[SF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs Andre Begemann (GER)/ Daniel Masur (GER)

VSP and Mukund r in the semis with a tight straight sets win over a local pair ... Next, they r facing a German pair for a place in the final.

Badminton News

At $200K Gwangju Korea Masters 2019, Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300)

[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,20) l Donghun Kim (KOR,112) 19-21 12-21
[R2] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,11) l Kanta Tsuneyama (JPN,14) 14-21 19-21

A bad day for Indians as our both players lost in the second round ... Srikanth struggled against the top-15 opponent continues ... He lost in straight games against Tsuneyama ... I was hoping that Sameer will take revenge for his brother's loss against Kim ... But he also succumbed into straight games loss.

Golf News

Race to Dubai Rankings for 2019 Season,

65 Shubhankar Sharma €676,961.77
115 Gaganjeet Bhullar €298,882.27
173 SSP Chawrasia €107,068.01

At Final Qualifying Stage Lumine 2019, Tarragona, Spain

4 SSP Chawrasia (IND) 69 66 71 67 69 69 -17

Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar have retained their playing card for the 2020 season, but our players failed to win any tournament ... Shubhankar had 3 top-10 finishes and Gaganjeet had one.

SSP lost his playing card after finishing on the #173, but he grabs the 2020's playing card after finishing on the 4th position of the 6 rounds Q-School ... So again our 3 players; Shubhankar, Gaganjeet, and SSP; will be playing on the 2020 European tour.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[R1] (4) Scott Clayton (GBR)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (WC) Goncalo Falcao (POR)/ Pedro Sousa (POR) 36 26
[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (3) Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA) 06 64 11-9

[QF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (WC) Tiago Cacao (POR)/ Joao Monteiro (POR)

VSP and Mukund scored an excellent comeback win over the 3rd seed pairing after losing the first set 0-6 ... Next, they r facing a local wild-card pair.
Purav and his partner Clayton lost in straight sets against a local wild-card pair.

Football News

At 2022 World Cup Qualifiers - AFC Second Round, Muscat, Oman

Oman bt India 1-0 (1-0)
Goal Scored - Muhsen Al Ghassani (OMA) 32'

We lost 0-1 against a better Oman-side ... The superior Oman-side was looking threatening from the start ... Muhsen won the penalty after Bheke fouled him inside the box in the 6th minute, but he hit over the cross-bar ... But Oman-side deservingly took a lead in the 32nd minute when Muhsen scored ... After that, we tried but their defense was better and they also missed a lot of chances.

Badminton News

At $200K Gwangju Korea Masters 2019, Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300)

[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,20) bt Kazumasa Sakai (JPN,69) 11-8 retd.
[R1] Sourabh Verma (IND,36) l Donghun Kim (KOR,112) 21-13 12-21 13-21
[R1] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,11) bt Wing Ki Vincent Wong (HKG,37) 21-18 21-17

[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,20) vs Donghun Kim (KOR,112)
[R2] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,11) vs Kanta Tsuneyama (JPN,14)

Sameer's opponent Sakai retired in the middle of the first game ... Next, he is facing a local player, Donghun Kim, who defeated his brother Sourabh after losing the first game.
Srikanth started with straight games win over Wing Ki Vincent Wong ... Next, he is facing a similar ranked Japanese, Tsuneyama.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND,261) l Daniel Masur (GER,257) 36 06

Doubles
[R1] (4) Scott Clayton (GBR)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Goncalo Falcao (POR)/ Pedro Sousa (POR)
[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (3) Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA)

So not a fruitful trip to Mukund for his attempt to grab the Australian qualifying place ... He failed to challenge Masur on the indoor clay-court, a bad loss.

He is playing the doubles with VSP and they r facing the 3rd seeds ... Purav is playing with Clayton and they r the 4th seed ... They r facing a local wild-card pair.

Golf News

At $7.5M Nedbank Golf Challenge 2019, Sun City, South Africa (European Tour)

T56 Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 70 74 78 74 +8 €16,330.97

Shubhankar struggled to adjust to this South African course and finished the bottom of the standing.

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At $400K Panasonic Open India 2019, Tauru, Haryana (Listing only top-15 Indian players)

T2 Shiv Kapur (IND) 67 67 70 -12 $34,600.00
T2 Chikkarangappa S (IND) 69 68 67 -12 $34,600.00
T5 Vikrant Chopra 67 70 69 -10 $13,706.67
T8 Veer Ahlawat 69 69 70 -8 $8,666.67
T11 M Dharma 67 73 69 -7 $6,513.33
T11 Arjun Prasad 67 74 68 -7 $6,513.33
T14 Om Prakash Chouhan 70 70 70 -6 $4,908.89
T14 Rashid Khan 67 70 73 -6 $4,908.89
T14 Khalin Joshi (IND) 67 71 72 -6 $4,908.89
T14 Karandeep Kochhar 67 72 71 -6 $4,908.89

Shiv Kapur was leading the tournament till the 18th hole but struggled with his nerves ... He double-bogeyed to finish on the 2nd position for the second consecutive week ... Chikka produced an excellent 5-under final round to finish on the tied 2nd position.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

Doubles Final
(1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) 76(3) 63

Purav and Ram lifted their back to back title as they defeated another Indian pairing of Saki and Arjun in straight sets ... Arjun and Saki took first set in the tie-break but after losing that they failed to challenge in-form pairing of Purav and Ram.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[SF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) l (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111) 67(8) 26

Doubles
[SF] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt (4) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) 64 75
[SF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 57 76(1) 10-4

[F] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND)

The Indian challenge got over in the singles with Ram's loss ... In the first set, both players exchanged early breaks but there was nothing much to differentiate in their game ... In the tie-break, Ram had a set point on James serve but James converted the 2nd setpoint ... In the second set, from 2-all James took control and won the next 4 games to complete the win.

A pairing of Purav and Ram continues with their terrific run ... They scored a straight-sets win over VSP and Klein ... In the final, they r facing another Indian pairing of Saki and Arjun ... Saki and Arjun scored a hard-fought win over the 2nd seed Vishnu and Matsui ... After losing the first set they took control from the second set tie-break and won both tie-breaks comfortably

Badminton News

At $400K Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2019, Kowloon, Hong Kong China (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500)

[SF] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) l Cheuk Yiu Lee (HKG,27) 9-21 23-25

Srikanth lost in straight games against a local player Lee ... After losing the first game easily Srikanth took an early lead in the second ... But he failed to win the game, Srikanth had 5 game points from 20-15 which he missed ... He had a couple of more game points at 21-20 and 22-21, again he missed those ... Lee converted his 2nd match point for 2 games win.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[QF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bt (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,127) 64 76(5)
[QF] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,250) l (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111) 57 64 57

[SF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Aziz Dougaz (TUN)/ Calvin Hemery (FRA) 63 64
[QF] (4) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) 62 63

[SF] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (4) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)
[SF] (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND)

Ram scored a really good win over Sumit in a quality match ... In the first set, he broke Sumit in the 10th game for winning it ... In the second set, both players exchanged early breaks before going this set into the tie-break ... Ram completed win after winning the tie-break ... In the semis, he is facing Duckworth.
Mukund stretched Duckworth to fullest ... Mukund had his chances but he missed those with some inconsistent shot-making ... He broke James in the 9th game of the 2nd set and held his serve to take the match into the decider ... Both players held their respective service games till 5-all ... Mukund had 3 breakpoints on James's serve which he missed and James broke him in the 12th game for winning this match.

VSP and Klein enter into the semis with an easy win over Anirudh and Niki ... Next, they r facing the top-seed Purav and Ram, who also defeated Dougaz and Hemery in straight sets.

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At $164.4K+H Houston Challenger 2019, Texas, USA

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) l (1) Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Santiago Gozales (MEX) 26 67(4)

Bala and Jeevan lost in straight sets against the top-seed pairing of Erlich and Gonzales.

Badminton News

At $400K Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2019, Kowloon, Hong Kong China (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500)

[QF] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) bt (5) Chen Long (CHN,4) 21-13 retd.

[SF] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) vs Cheuk Yiu Lee (HKG,27)

The players r getting injured when Srikanth is around, just joking ... Chen Long retired in the quarters after losing the first game against Srikanth ... Next, he is facing a local favorite Cheuk Yiu Lee.

Football News

At 2022 World Cup Qualifiers - AFC Second Round, Dushanbe, Tajikistan

India dw Afghanistan 1-1 (0-1)
Goal Scored - Seiminlen Doungel (IND) 90+' and Zelfagar (AFG) 45+'

The Indians produced a fighting draw ... The draw keeps India in with a mathematical chance of making it into the top two positions in Group E ... We controlled the match in the second half but needed to wait till injury time for an equalizer.

Tennis News

At Group 1 Asia/ Oceania - 1st Round 2019,

Indian Team: Sumit Nagal, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Saketh Myneni, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes
Reserves: Sasikumar Mukund, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Siddharth Rawat
Non-playing Captain: Rohit Rajpal

The team is announced for the Pakistan tie ... Leander is back in the team with Rohan and in the singles, Saki joins Ram and Sumit.

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At $125K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Taipei, Chinese Taipei

[QF] (3) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED) l Ya-Hsuan Lee (TPE)/ Fang-Hsien Wu (TPE) 63 36 9-11
[QF] Isabella Shinikova (BUL)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) l I-Hsuan Cho (TPE)/ Yi-Tsen Cho (TPE) 36 46

Prarthana and Isabella lost in straight-sets against a local pair ... Ankita and Schoofs also failed to overcome a Taipei pair after winning the first set.

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At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[R3] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) vs (14) Tim Van Rijthoven (NED,324) 64 57 36
[R3] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bt (12) Cem Ilkel (TUR,273) 63 64
[R3] (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,127) bt (13) Ivan Nedelko (RUS,323) 2-0 retd.
[R3] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,250) bt Ergi Kirkin (TUR,545) 60 62
[R3] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) l (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111) 16 26

[QF] (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,127) vs (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199)
[QF] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,250) vs (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt (WC) Anvit Bendre (IND)/ Parikshit Somani (IND) 62 64

[QF] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Aziz Dougaz (TUN)/ Calvin Hemery (FRA)
[QF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Bogdan Bobrov (RUS)/ Ivan Nedelko (RUS) 64 46 16-14
[QF] (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Steven Diez (CAN)/ Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP) 36 62 10-4

[SF] (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND)
PRajnesh lost after winning the first set against a Dutch guy Van Rijthoven and frankly speaking result doesn't matter ... I really salute his willpower to come here and play after his father demised only 4 days back ... Salute you Prajnesh for your grittiness for showing here despite a tragedy at home.
Ram scored a confident win over Ilkel ... In the quarters, he is facing Sumit, who received a walkover as his Russian opponent retired in the 3rd game.
Mukund also scored a comfortable win over Kirkin ... Next, he is facing the 2nd seed Duckworth, who comfortably defeated Manish.

In the doubles, Arjun and Saki scored a hard-fought win in the match tie-break which was 26 pts. long ... Next, they r facing the 2nd seed Vishnu and Matsui, who dominated the match after losing the first set against Diez and Ortega-Olmedo.
Purav and Ram started with a comfortable win ... Next, they r facing VSP and Klein.

Badminton News

At $400K Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2019, Kowloon, Hong Kong China (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500)

[R2] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) bt (Q) Sourabh Verma (IND,38) 21-11 15-21 21-19
[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,28) l (6) Jonatan Christie (INA,6) 12-21 19-21
[R2] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,25) l (2) Tien Chen Chou (TPE,2) 21-12 21-23 10-21

[R2] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) l Busanan Ongbamrungphan (THA,18) 18-21 21-11 16-21

[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (4) Yuta Watanabe (JPN)/ Arisa Higashino (JPN) 19-21 12-21

[QF] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) vs (5) Chen Long (CHN,4)

Srikanth enters into the quarters and facing Long Chen ... He needed 3 games to beat Sourabh Verma in the second round.
Heartbreaking loss for Kashyap as after dominating the first game he had 3 match points against WR #2 Chou at 20-17 ... But somehow he missed all those and lost the game and then Chou rolled over him ... Prannoy failed to challenge Jonatan Christie in his loss.
A surprise loss of Sindhu against Busanan after 10 consecutive wins ... We can consider this as a bad loss.

Satwik and Ashwini lost in straight games against the 4th seed Japanese pair.

Tennis News

At $125K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Taipei, Chinese Taipei

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,185) l (3) Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS,108) 67(1) 16

Doubles
[R1] (3) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED) bt Susan Bandecchi (SUI)/ Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic (GER) 64 76(4)

[QF] (3) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED) vs Ya-Hsuan Lee (TPE)/ Fang-Hsien Wu (TPE)
[QF] Isabella Shinikova (BUL)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) vs I-Hsuan Cho (TPE)/ Yi-Tsen Cho (TPE)

Ankita stretched Diatchenko in the first set, but after losing the first set Ankita failed to challenge.

In the doubles, Ankita and Schoofs started with a win ... Next, Ankita and Prarthana r facing Taipei pairs with their respective partners.

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At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[R2] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) bt Chandril Sood (IND,1700) 61 63
[R2] (Q) Dalwinder Singh (IND,1699) l (14) Tim Van Rijthoven (NED,324) 36 16
[R2] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND,1180) l (7) Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,248) 36 26
[R2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,520) l (15) Brydan Klein (GBR,398) 16 63 46
[R2] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bt Markos Kalovelonis (GRE,753) 63 64
[R2] (Alt) Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND,1438) l (12) Cem Ilkel (TUR,273) 26 16
[R2] (WC) Dhruv Sunish (IND,1040) l (13) Ivan Nedelko (RUS,323) 36 75 26
[R2] (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,127) bt (WC) Aryan Goveas (IND,867) 63 76(5)
[R2] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,250) bt Toshihide Matsui (JPN,800) 62 63
[R2] (10) Saketh Myneni (IND,266) l Ergi Kirkin (TUR,545) 63 57 46
[R3] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) vs (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111)

[R3] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) vs (14) Tim Van Rijthoven (NED,324)
[R3] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs (12) Cem Ilkel (TUR,273)
[R3] (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,127) vs (13) Ivan Nedelko (RUS,323)
[R3] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,250) vs Ergi Kirkin (TUR,545)
[R3] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) vs (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111)

Doubles
[R1] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) bt Sidharth Rawat (IND)/ Manish Sureshkumar (IND) 75 63
[R1] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Danylo Kalenichenko (UKR)/ David Pichler (AUT) 63 36 10-5
[R1] (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Rio Noguchi (JPN)/ Yusuke Takahashi (JPN) 63 63

[QF] (4) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND)
[QF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Bogdan Bobrov (RUS)/ Ivan Nedelko (RUS)
[QF] (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Steven Diez (CAN)/ Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP)

An expected win for our seeded players; Prajnesh, Ram, Sumit, and Mukund ... A gutsy performance by Prajnesh as he lost his father only 4 days back, but he still decided to participate.
These days Saki couldn't win 3 sets match and that happened here also ... Dhruv and Sid also gave fighting performance against their higher-ranked opponents.

Vishnu and Matsui started with a comfortable win ... Next, they r facing Diez and Ortega-Olmedo ... Arjun and Saki completed the win in the match tie-break, next, they r facing a Russian pair ... Niki and Anirudh scored a win over their senior compatriot Manish and Sid ... Next, they r facing VSP and Klein.

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At $164.4K+H Houston Challenger 2019, Texas, USA

[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) bt Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA) 63 46 10-7

[QF] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs (1) Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Santiago Gozales (MEX)

a hard-fought win for Bala and Jeevan against Margaroli and Vavassori ... Next, they r facing the top-seed pairing of Erlich and Gonzales.

Badminton News

At $400K Yonex-Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2019, Kowloon, Hong Kong China (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 500)

[Q1] (4) Sourabh Verma (IND,38) bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,39) 21-15 21-19
[Q2] (4) Sourabh Verma (IND,38) bt Lucas Claerbout (FRA,77) 21-19 21-19

[R1] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) bt (1) Kento Momota (JPN,1) w/o
[R1] (Q) Sourabh Verma (IND,38) bt (Q) Brice Leverdez (FRA,34) 21-11 21-15
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,28) bt Yu Xiang Huang (CHN,29) 21-17 21-17
[R1] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,25) bt Kenta Nishimoto (JPN,12) 21-18 16-21 21-10
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,10) l (5) Yu Qi Shi (CHN,7) 21-11 18-21 12-21
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,16) l Tzu Wei Wang (TPE,26) 11-21 21-13 8-21

[R1] (8) Saina Nehwal (IND,9) l Yan Yan Cai (CHN,22) 13-21 20-22
[R1] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) bt Ga Eun Kim (KOR,19) 21-15 21-16

[R1] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) l Takuro Hoki (JPN)/ Yugo Kobayashi (JPN) 21-17 16-21 17-21

[R1] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ N. Sikki Reddy (IND) l Maiken Fruergaard (DEN)/ Sara Thygesen (DEN) 13-21 12-21

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ N. Sikki Reddy (IND) l (3) Dechapol Puavaranukroh (THA)/ Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA) 10-21 18-21
[R1] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Nipitphon Phuangphuapet (THA)/ Savitree Amitrapai (THA) 16-21 21-19 21-17

[R2] Kidambi Srikanth (IND,13) vs (Q) Sourabh Verma (IND,38)
[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,28) vs (6) Jonatan Christie (INA,6)
[R2] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,25) vs (2) Tien Chen Chou (TPE,2)

[R2] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) vs Busanan Ongbamrungphan (THA,18)

[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (4) Yuta Watanabe (JPN)/ Arisa Higashino (JPN)

Sourabh qualified for the main-draw with back to back wins ... In the first round, he scored a comfortable win over another qualifier, Brice Leverdez.
Srikanth receives a walkover as WR #1 Momota withdrawn from the tournament ... Next, he is facing Sourabh Verma.
Pranoy scored a straight-games win over a similar ranked Chinese opponent ... Next, he is facing the top-10 Indonesian, Jonatan Christie.
An impressive win by Kashyap against WR #12 Nishimoto, but he is having another tough match against WR #2 Chou.
Sindhu scored a comfortable win over a Korean girl ... Next, she is facing a Thai girl, Busanan Ongbamrungphan.
Saina again lost against a Yan Yan Cai in straight games... Sameer also failed to overcome the challenge of Tzu Wei Wang.
Sai lost after winning the first game against Yu Qi, he failed to close match in the second game.

Satwik and Ashwini started with a comeback win over higher-ranked Thai pair, but Pranaav and Sikki lost in straight games against the WR #4 Thai pair .. Satwik and Ashwini will face the 4th seed Japanese pair.

Meantime, in newly updated rankings, Satwik and Chirag achieve their career-best WR #7 men's doubles ranking, but they had a bad loss after winning the first game against a Japanese pair.

Squash News

At $335K PSA Men's World Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar (World Tour Platinum)

[PQF] (10) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) l (1) Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY,2) 6-11 8-11 12-14 (50m)

Saurav lost against Elshorbagy in straight games but he gave a decent fight in this match ... The match's duration was 50 minutes and after losing the first game cheaply Saurav raised his game, he had a couple of game balls in the third which he failed to convert.

Tennis News

At $125K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Taipei, Chinese Taipei

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,185) vs (3) Vitalia Diatchenko (RUS,108)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED) vs Susan Bandecchi (SUI)/ Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic (GER)
[R1] Isabella Shinikova (BUL)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) bt Jasmin Jebawy (GER)/ Alexandra Riley (USA) 75 63

Ankita having a tough match against the top-110 ranked Vitalia Diatchenko.

In the doubles, Prarthana and Isabella Shinikova started with a straight-sets win over Jebawy and Riley ... Ankita and Bibiane Schoofs r the 3rd seed and they r facing Susan Bandecchi and Sarah-Rebecca Sekulic.

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At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[R1] (Q) Dalwinder Singh (IND,1699) bt Kunal Anand (IND,1047) 63 64
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,520) bt Arjun Kadhe (IND,552) 62 36 63
[R1] Adil Kalyanpur (IND,1025) l Aziz Dougaz (TUN,463) 36 67(3)
[R1] N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,988) l Markos Kalovelonis (GRE,741) 26 46
[R1] (Alt) Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND,1438) bt (Q) Tejas Chaukulkar (IND, UNR) 76(1) 67(5) 64

[R2] (Q) Dalwinder Singh (IND,1699) vs (14) Tim Van Rijthoven (NED,324)
[R2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,520) vs (15) Brydan Klein (GBR,398)
[R2] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs Markos Kalovelonis (GRE,753)
[R2] (Alt) Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND,1438) vs (12) Cem Ilkel (TUR,273)
[R2] (10) Saketh Myneni (IND,266) vs Ergi Kirkin (TUR,545)
[R2] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) bt (16) Rio Noguchi (JPN,408) 63 76(4)

[R3] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) vs (2) James Duckworth (AUS,111)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (WC) Aryan Goveas (IND)/ Dhruv Sunish (IND) 62 61

In the second round, Manish scored an impressive win over the seeded Japanese Noguchi in straight sets ... Next, he is facing the 2nd seed, James Duckworth.

In the first round, Dalwinder scored an upset win over Kunal ... Next, he is facing the 14th seed Dutchman Van Rijthoven.
Kaza scored a fighting win over Tejas in 3 sets ... Next, he is facing the top-275 ranked Turkish player, Cem Ilkel.
Arjun failed to take advantage of home challenger, he lost in 3 sets against Sid ... Next, Sid is facing Brydan Klein.
Ram is facing Kalovelonis in the second round and Saki is facing Ergi Kirkin.

In the doubles, VSP and Klein scored a crushing win over Goveas and Sunish.

Adil failed to repeat his last week's win over Dougaz and VSP also lost in straight sets against Kalovelonis.

Shooting News

At 14th Asian Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

10m Air Pistol Men Final
Gold - Song Guk Kim (PRK) 246.5 pts. WR, AsR
Silver - Saurabh Chaudhary (IND) 244.5 pts
Bronze - Javad Foroughi (IRI) 221.8 pts
5. Abhishek Verma (IND) 181.5 pts.

In the 10m Air Pistol men final, the North Korean Song Guk Kim did an amazing shooting as he bettered Saurabh's world record by 0.2 pts, 246.5 pts and won this event ... Saurabh also had a consistent shooting to finish 2nd with 244.5 pts ... Abhishek finished on the 5th position, we already have 2 maximum quotas from this event so no quota for us ... Before this in the qualifying, our both shooters struggled with rhythm ... Abhishek and Saurabh scored 583 pts and they qualified on the 6th and 7th positions.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[FQ] (WC) Tejas Chaukulkar (IND,UNR) bt (1) Yash Chaurasia (IND,1699) 63 64
[FQ] (2) Dalwinder Singh (IND,1699) bt Suraj R Prabodh (IND,1919) 64 63

[R1] Chandril Sood (IND,1700) bt (WC) Dhruva Mulye (USA,UNR) 61 63
[R1] Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) l Roman Blokhin (RUS,1562) 46 26
[R1] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND,1180) bt Timur Khabibulin (KAZ,1088) 46 64 63
[R1] Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,1799) l Yusuke Takahashi (JPN,452) 06 63 36
[R1] (WC) Dhruv Sunish (IND,1040) bt Daisuke Sumizawa (JPN,930) 76(3) 62
[R1] (WC) Aryan Goveas (IND,867) bt Tobias Simon (GER,477) 64 76(4)
[R1] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) bt (WC) Anvit Bendre (IND,UNR) 62 60
[R1] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1097) l Danylo Kalenichenko (UKR,535) 67(3) 36

[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,1022) vs (Q) Dalwinder Singh (IND,1699)
[R1] (Q) Tejas Chaukulkar (IND,UNR) vs (Alt) Vinayak Sharma Kaza (IND,1438)

[R2] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,95) vs Chandril Sood (IND,1700)
[R2] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND,1180) vs (7) Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,248)
[R2] (WC) Dhruv Sunish (IND,1040) vs (13) Ivan Nedelko (RUS,323)
[R2] (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,127) vs (WC) Aryan Goveas (IND,867)
[R2] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,250) vs Toshihide Matsui (JPN,800)
[R2] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,748) vs (16) Rio Noguchi (JPN,408)

Some impressive wins, Aryan scored an upset win over the top-475 type German, Tobias Simon ... Next, he is facing in-form Sumit.
Anirudh and Dhruv Sunish scored upset wins over their higher ranked opponents ... Next, Anirudh is facing a Spaniard Ortega-Olmedo and Dhruv is facing the top-325 ranked Russian, Nedelko.
As expected Manish started with a comfortable win over Anvit ... Next, he is facing a Japanese Rio Noguchi.
Another expected win for Chandril ... Next, he is facing Prajnesh.
Mukund is facing a veteran Toshihide Matsui in the second round.
Lakshit and Niki lost their respective matches against their higher-ranked opponents ... Siddharth Vishwakarma gave a decent fight after losing the first set 06 against the top-500 Takahashi.

Dalwinder and Tejas qualified for the main draw ... In the first round, Dalwinder is facing Kunal and Tejas is facing Kaza.

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At $164.4K+H Houston Challenger 2019, Texas, USA

[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA)

Jeevan and Bala r playing in the big Houston Challenger.

Squash News

At $335K PSA Men's World Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

[R2] (10) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) bt Lucas Serme (FRA,37) 11-8, 11-5, 11-5 (36m)

[PQF] (10) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) vs (1) Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY,2)

Saurav enters into the pre-quarters of the World Championship and will face the top-seed Mohamed Elshorbagy ... In the second round, he defeated a Frenchman Lucas Serme in straight games.

Shooting News

At 14th Asian Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

Shotgun Skeet Men Final
Gold - Angad Vir Singh Bajwa (IND) 56 (Shoot-off: 6)
Silver - Mairaj Ahmad Khan (IND) (56 Shoot-off: 5)
Bronze - Saud Habib (KUW) 45

50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Final
Gold - Jonghyun Kim (KOR) 459.9 pts.
Silver - Zhonghao Zhao (CHN) 459.1 pts.
Bronze - Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (IND) 449.1 pts.

Indians win 3 more Tokyo Olympics quota, a total of 15 quota places ... This is our best-ever Olympics quota haul in the shooting ... India had 11 shooters at the 2012 London Olympics and 12 in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

A super performance by our skeet shooters, they made history as first-time we won gold and silver at the Asian level to secure Olympics quota, these were India's 14th and 15th quota places ... Angad and Mairaj tied for the first position in the final and in shoot-off Angad won scoring 6 hits ... Before that, Angad and Mairaj struggled in the final round and they tied with 6 other shooters with 120 for 3 final positions ... Mairaj qualified on the 4th position (120+14+24) and Angad qualified on the last 6th place (120+14+12) ... But in the final, our both shooters performed above expectations to clinch 2 quotas from 3 available quota places.
A young 18 yrs old Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar secured 13th quota place for India in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event ... Tomar is the second Indian after veteran Sanjeev Rajput, to have got the quota place in the 3P event ... He won a bronze scoring 449.1 points and secured quota as there were three quotas on offer in the event ... He qualified for the final on the 4th position with 1168 points.

Golf News

At $7M Turkish Airlines Open 2019, Antalya, Turkey

T7 Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 71 64 71 64 -18 €146,217.88

Shubhankar scored an excellent 8-under final round to finish inside the top-10 in a big Turkish Airlines OPen ... This performance has boosted his chances of qualifying for the final tournament in Dubai ... Currently, he is on the 61st position in the Race to Dubai Rankings, as only top-50 will get a chance to play the final tournament.

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At $300K Thailand Open 2019, Chachoengsao

T2 Shiv Kapur (IND) 74 63 71 65 -11 $25,950.00
T6 SSP Chawrasia (IND) 68 67 68 72 -9 $8,077.50
T11 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 68 67 73 69 -7 $5,280.00
T14 Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 71 72 67 68 -6 $4,161.00
T21 Viraj Madappa (IND) 70 71 70 69 -4 $3,043.13
T48 Aadil Bedi (IND) 66 77 74 67 PAR $1,405.00
T57 Khalin Joshi (IND) 69 74 71 71 +1 $1,095.00
T69 Chikkarangappa S (IND) 70 70 76 72 +4 $795.00

Shiv Kapur was tied for the first place but lost in the play-off ... Our 4 players finished inside the top-20 in the final standing.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Kobe Challenger 2019, Japan

Doubles Final
(4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt (2) Christopher Rungkat (INA)/ Andre Goransson (SWE) 76(6) 63

Ram and Purav won the title beating the 2nd seed Rungkat and Goransson in the final ... They were 1-3 down in the first set but afterward, they picked up their game to beat the favorites ... This was Ram's 3rd doubles title and the 2nd of the year.

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At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[R1] (1) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (WC) Anvit Bendre (IND)/ Parikshit Somani (IND)
[R1] (4) Brydan Klein (GBR)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (WC) Aryan Goveas (IND)/ Dhruv Sunish (IND)
[R1] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND)/ Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND) vs Sidharth Rawat (IND)/ Manish Sureshkumar (IND)
[R1] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Danylo Kalenichenko (UKR)/ David Pichler (AUT)
[R1] (2) Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Rio Noguchi (JPN)/ Yusuke Takahashi (JPN)

Our all top doubles players r in the seedings but expecting that Indian pair will win the title ... May be back to back titles for Ram and Purav.

Squash News

At $335K PSA Men's World Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

[R1] Ramit Tandon (IND,48) l Borja Golan (ESP,34) 9-11, 6-11, 3-11 (31m)
[R1] Vikram Malhotra (IND,58) l Declan James (ENG,22) 11-8, 11-1, 5-11, 3-11, 6-11 (51m)
[R1] (10) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) bt Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,52) 11-7, 11-7, 18-16 (56m)

[R2] (10) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) vs Lucas Serme (FRA,37)

Saurav moved into the second round of the World Championship beating his compatriot Mahesh in tight 3 games ... The last game was 34 points long which Saurav won on his experience ... Next, he is facing a Frenchman Lucas Serme.
Vikram missed a big opportunity of an upset against the top-25 Britisher Declan James ... He won the first 2 games but failed to complete win as James fought back to win the next 3 games.
Ramit lost in straight 3 games against Borja Golan.

Shooting News

At 14th Asian Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Final
4. Tejaswini Sawant (IND) 435.8 pts.

Tejaswini Sawant secured India's 12th Tokyo Olympic quota in the shooting in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position after reaching the final with a score of 1171 ... This will be a 1st ever Olympics for our veteran shooter ... In the final, Tejaswini finished in the 4th position with 1173 pts.

Badminton News

At $700K Fuzhou China Open 2019, China (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750)

[SF] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) l (1) Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (INA)/ Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) 16-21 20-22

Satwik and Chirag run ended in the semis against WR #1 Indonesian pair ... Our pair still not able to win a game against the WR 1 ... In the second game, our pair was leading 18-16 but not able to close it, but still they r showing improvement in their game.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Pune Challenger 2019, India

[R1] (1) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,94) bye
[R1] Chandril Sood (IND,1709) vs (WC) Dhruva Mulye (USA,UNR)
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND,1022) vs Qualifier
[R1] Lakshit Sood (IND,UNR) vs Roman Blokhin (RUS,1562)
[R1] Anirudh Chandrasekar (IND,1177) vs Timur Khabibulin (KAZ,1088)
[R1] Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND,1799) vs Yusuke Takahashi (JPN,452)
[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,520) vs Arjun Kadhe (IND,552)
[R1] Adil Kalyanpur (IND,1025) vs Aziz Dougaz (TUN,463)
[R1] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bye
[R1] N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,988) vs Markos Kalovelonis (GRE,741)
[R1] (WC) Dhruv Sunish (IND,1041) vs Daisuke Sumizawa (JPN,930)
[R1] (WC) Aryan Goveas (IND,894) vs Tobias Simon (GER,477)
[R1] (3) Sumit Nagal (IND,129) bye
[R1] (8) Sasikumar Mukund (IND,248) bye
[R1] (10) Saketh Myneni (IND,266) bye
[R1] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,715) vs (WC) Anvit Bendre (IND,UNR)
[R1] Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1097) vs Danylo Kalenichenko (UKR,535)

A total of 19 Indians are in the main-draw after a lot of withdrawals and we are waiting for 2 qualifiers ... Prajnesh and Sumit r in the top and bottom draws, Sumit and Ram can face each other in the quarters ... A couple interesting matches in the first round; Arjun is facing Sid and Adil is facing the top-500 Tunisian Aziz Dougaz, in the last week, he scored a win over Tunisian in Kuwait futures.

Shooting News

At 14th Asian Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

25m Pistol Women Final
6. Chinki Yadav (IND) 16 (eliminated by Shoot-off for a tie)

Chinki Yadav secured India's 11th Olympic quota in the shooting ... She qualified for the final scoring 588 points but in the final, she eliminated 3rd in the shoot-off to finish on the 6th position in the women's 25m Pistol category ... Chinki's quota got confirmed once Chinki qualified for the final ... A total of 4 berths were available in the event and four out of eight shooters had already secured Tokyo tickets in previous events ... But Chink's chances of representing India at Tokyo looks difficult as India having 2 strong contenders in Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker ... Rahi already secured quota in the 25m pistol event and Manu had clinched in the 10m air pistol event ... So she will be eligible to shoot in both the events in Tokyo ... That means Chinki's quota can be transferred to any other shooter - in an event where India has not won a berth.

Badminton News

At $700K Fuzhou China Open 2019, China (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 750)

[QF] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) bt (3) Jun Hui Li (CHN)/ Yu Chen Liu (CHN) 21-19 21-15

[SF] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) vs (1) Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (INA)/ Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA)

Satwik and Chirag scored another superb win over a local favorite and WR #3 pair in straight games ... Next, they r facing a WR #1 Indonesian pair, they r in 7 matches losing streak against this WR #1 pair.