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.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Kobe Challenger 2019, Japan

[QF] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) l (2) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,107) 26 36

Doubles
[SF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Yosuke Watanuki (JPN) 63 64

Ram lost easily against Yuichi Sugita, but in this match, he in this match, he tried hard and also tried to use different tactics ... Sugita outsmarted him for a win
But in the doubles, Ram and Purav scored a straight-sets win over an experienced Japanese pair.

Badminton News

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

[R2] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,25) l (7) Viktor Axelsen (DEN,6) 13-21 19-21
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,11) l (4) Anders Antonsen (DEN,5) 20-22 22-20 16-21

[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) bt (6) Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Yuta Watanabe (JPN) 21-18 21-23 21-11

[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (5) Seung Jae Seo (KOR)/ Yujung Chae (KOR) 21-23 16-21

[QF] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) vs (3) Jun Hui Li (CHN)/ Yu Chen Liu (CHN)

Satwik and Chirag continue with their terrific form ... Last month, they scored a straight-games win over this WR #6 Japanese pair, today also they were cruising for straight games win ... But Japanese pair saved 2 match points before taking the match into the final game ... Satwik and Chirag recovered and roared to 6-0 lead in the final game, and kept that advantage for winning this game comfortably ... In the quarters, they r facing a local WR #3 pair.

Sai lost a close match against the WR #5 Antonsen in almost 83 mins long match ... In the first game, Sai missed a game point but in the second game, he converted the 3rd game point ... Antonsen played better and kept lead throughout the game.
Kashyap lost in a straight-games against the WR #6 Axelsen.
In the MXD, Satwik and Ashwini gave a decent performance in their loss against a seeded Korean pair.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Kobe Challenger 2019, Japan

[R3] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bt (8) Jay Clarke (GBR,180) 63 63

[QF] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs (2) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,107)

Doubles
[QF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Ji Sung Nam (KOR)/ Min-Kyu Song (KOR) 75 26 10-7
[QF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP) l (2) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) 46 26

[SF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Yosuke Watanuki (JPN)

After a long time, seeing an upset win by Ram over a higher-ranked Jay Clarke ... Ram played an aggressive and solid game and put pressure on Jay from the beginning ... In the quarters, he is facing a local favorite Yuichi Sugita.
As per the report in the doubles, Ram and Purav made an excellent comeback in the match tie-break ... They were 2-6 down when they won the next 6 points and converted the 2nd match point for a win ... Next, they r facing a Japanese pair ... Arjun and Lopez Perez lost in a straight-sets against the 2nd seed Rungkat and Goransson.

Shooting News

At 14th Asian Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

Trap Men Final
6. Kynan Chenai (IND) 13 hits out

Kynan Chenai missed an Olympic quota as he finished in the last 6th position in the final after 13 hits out ... Kuwait had 3 shooters in the final and they already grabbed 1 quota place so they were contesting for only 1 from 3 available quotas ... Kynan only needed to avoid the last place as the quota was available until the 5th position ... But he missed this opportunity after a solid 122 hits out in qualifying and was a 2nd qualifier for the final ... After a long time, we r in the peculiar position of missing participation in the shotgun at the Olympics.

Tennis News

At $100K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Shenzen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,184) l (Q) Fang Ying Xun (CHN,234) 63 16 06

Doubles
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED) l (1) Nao Hobino (JPN)/ Makato Ninomiya (JPN) 36 36

Ankita lost the last 2 sets easily after winning the first set against Fang Ying Xun in the first round ... In the doubles also, Ankita and Schoofs lost in straight sets against the top-seed Japanese pair ... Hopefully, no injury issue for Ankita.

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At $54K+H Kobe Challenger 2019, Japan

[R1] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 4-2 retd.

[QF] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Ji Sung Nam (KOR)/ Min-Kyu Song (KOR)

Ratiwatana twins retired in the first set after 6 games ... In the quarters, Ram and Purav r facing a Korean pair.

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At $54K+H Knoxville Challenger 2019, Tennessee, USA

[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) l Marcos Giron (USA)/ Alex Lawson (USA) 57 46

Bala and Jeevan lost in straight sets against an American pair in the first round.

Badminton News

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

[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,29) l Rasmus Gemke (DEN,26) 17-21 18-21
[R1] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,25) bt Sitthikom Thammasin (THA,22) 21-14 21-13
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,11) bt Tommy Sugiarto (INA,16) 15-21 21-12 21-10
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,17) l Cheuk Yiu Lee (HKG,28) 18-21 18-21

[R1] (8) Saina Nehwal (IND,9) l Yan Yan Cai (CHN,20) 9-21 12-21
[R1] (6) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,6) l Yu Po Pai (TPE,42) 13-21 21-18 19-21

[R1] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) bt Phillip Chew (USA)/ Ryan Chew (USA) 21-9 21-15
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ B. Sumeeth Reddy (IND) l Aaron Chia (MAS)/ Wooi Yik Soh (MAS) 21-23 19-21

[R1] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ N. Sikki Reddy (IND) l Wen Mei Li (CHN)/ Yu Zheng (CHN) 9-21 8-21

[R1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ N. Sikki Reddy (IND) l Chi-Lin Wang (TPE)/ Chi Ya Cheng (TPE) 14-21 14-21
[R1] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Joshua Hurlburt-Yu (CAN)/ Josephine Wu (CAN) 21-19 21-19

[R2] Parupalli Kashyap (IND,25) vs (7) Viktor Axelsen (DEN,6)
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,11) vs (4) Anders Antonsen (DEN,5)

[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) vs (6) Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Yuta Watanabe (JPN)

[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (5) Seung Jae Seo (KOR)/ Yujung Chae (KOR)

Kashyap started with a comfortable win against a similar ranked Thai opponent ... Next, he is facing the WR #6 Axelsen.
Sai scored an excellent comeback win after losing the first game against Sugiarto ... Next, he is facing the WR #5 Antonsen.

A bad loss for Sindhu against a lowly ranked Yu Po Pai ... Prannoy also lost in straight games against a similar ranked Gemke ... Sameer also lost against a lower-ranked Cheuk Yiu Lee in straight games.
A crushing loss for Saina in 24 minutes against a Chinese youngster ... Day by day it looks difficult that Saina will ever come out of this slump.
Satwik started with 2 wins ... In the men's doubles, he and Chirag scored a comfortable win over an American pair ... In the MXD, he and Ashwini scored straight games win ... Next, he is facing seeded pairs with his respective partner.
Ashwini and Sikki failed to challenge their Chinese opponents ... Pranaav and Sikki lost easily against a Taipei pair ... Manu and Sumeeth lost in a close 2 games against a Malaysian pair.

Tennis News

At $54K+H Kobe Challenger 2019, Japan

[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,552) l Patrik Niklas-Salminen (FIN,534) 67(8) 36

[R2] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bt Jumpei Yamasaki (JPN,462) 64 61

[R3] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs (8) Jay Clarke (GBR,180)

Doubles
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP) bt Brydan Klein (GBR)/ Goncalo Oliveira (POR) w/o

[QF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP) vs (2) Andre Goransson (SWE)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA)

A comfortable win for Ram against a local player ... Next, he is facing a British youngster Jay Clarke.
Arjun lost against a similar ranked Finnish player in straight sets ... But in the doubles, he and Lopez Perez received a walkover due to wrist injury to Oliveira ... In the quarters, they r facing the 2nd seed Rungkat and Goransson.

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At $100K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Shenzen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,184) vs (Q) Fang Ying Xun (CHN,234)

Ankita is facing Fang Ying Xun in the first round.

Shooting News

At 14th Asian Championship 2019, Doha, Qatar

10m Air Rifle Men
Gold - Yukun Liu (CHN) 250.5 pts.
Silver - Haonan Yu (CHN) 249.1 pts
Bronze - Deepak Kumar (IND) 227.8 pts

10m Air Pistol Women
Gold - Manu Bhaker (IND) 244.3 pts. WRJ, AsRJ
Silver - Qian Wang (CHN) 242.8 pts
Bronze - Ranxin Jiang (CHN) 220.2 pts

On the first day of the Asian Championship, we manage to secure one more quota for the Tokyo Olympic in the Air Rifle men category ... Deepak Kumar won bronze behind 2 Chinese shooters to secure quota place ... Before that, he qualified on the 3rd position with 626.8 pts.
Manu Bhaker lifted gold in the 10m Air Pistol Women category ... She created Junior World and Junior Asian record in the final with 244.3 pts. ... Yashaswini Singh Deswal also qualified for the final but finished on the 6th position with 157.4 pts. ... Manu qualified for the final with creating new Asian qualifying, Junior World qualifying and Junior Asian qualifying records with 584 pts. and Yashaswini qualified on the 4th position with 578 pts.
In the 10m Air Rifle Women final, a young Elavenil Valarivan finished on the 5th position with 187.1 pts. ... Before that, she qualified for the final on the 4th position scoring 629.0 pts.

Tennis News

At €114.8K+H Bratislava-2 Challenger 2019, Slovakia

[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND,248) l Oscar Otte (GER,163) 16 26

Mukund is running around the globe for securing his place in the AO 2020 qualifying ... He played in a big Slovak challenger but lost in a one-sided match against the top-170 German Otte.

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At $100K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Shenzen, China

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,184) vs Qualifier

Doubles
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Bibiane Schoofs (NED) vs (1) Nao Hobino (JPN)/ Makato Ninomiya (JPN)

Ankita sneaks in the big ITF tournament and facing a qualifier ... In the doubles, she is with Bibiane Schoofs and they r having a tough match against the top-seed Japanese pair.

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At $54K+H Kobe Challenger 2019, Japan

[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,552) vs Patrik Niklas-Salminen (FIN,534)
[R1] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) bye

[R2] (9) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs Jumpei Yamasaki (JPN,462)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Purav Raja (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Enrique Lopez Perez (ESP) vs Brydan Klein (GBR)/ Goncalo Oliveira (POR)

Ram and Arjun r playing in Japan ... Ram is facing a tricky match against a local player ... Arjun is facing a similar ranked Finnish guy ... In the doubles, Ram and Purav r the 4th seed and they r facing Ratiwatanas ... Arjun is playing with Lopez Perez and they r facing Klein-Oliveira.

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At $54K+H Knoxville Challenger 2019, Tennessee, USA

[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs Marcos Giron (USA)/ Alex Lawson (USA)

Bala and Jeevan r the top-seed in the Knoxville challenger ... They r facing an American pair in the first round.

Badminton News

At $75K SaarLorLux Open 2019, Saarbrücken, Germany (BWF Tour Super 100)

[R1] Kiran George (IND,156) bt Hai Chao Liu (CHN,83) 21-17 21-13
[R1] (8) Lakshya Sen (IND,51) bye

[R2] Kiran George (IND,156) bt (6) Toma Junior Popov (FRA,77) 21-18 21-11
[R2] (8) Lakshya Sen (IND,51) bt Eetu Heino (FIN,89) 21-18 18-21 22-20

[R3] Kiran George (IND,156) bt Joran Kweekel (NED,140) 21-14 21-16
[R3] (8) Lakshya Sen (IND,51) bt Lars Schaenzler (GER,171) w/o

[QF] Kiran George (IND,156) bt Christo Popov (FRA,202) 21-14 23-21
[QF] (8) Lakshya Sen (IND,51) bt Max Weisskirchen (GER,192) 21-13 21-16

[SF] (8) Lakshya Sen (IND,51) bt Kiran George (IND,156) 21-13 14-21 21-9

Men's Singles Final
(8) Lakshya Sen (IND,51) bt Hong Yang Weng (CHN,102) 17-21 21-18 21-16

Lakshya lifted his second BWF Tour Super 100 title beating his Chinese opponent Hong Yang Weng ... In their last 2 meetings, he lost against Weng but here, after losing the first game he made a superb comeback for completing the win ... With this win, Lakshya will be ranked near the top-40 in updated rankings.

Lakshya Sen and Kiran George from Prakash Padukone Academy training with Morten Frost in Denmark for 3 months ... This week, both participated in the BWF Tour Super 100 in Germany ... Both faced each other in the semis and Lakshya scored 3 games win over Kiran.

Hockey News

At the Women's Tokyo Olympics qualifiers - Final Round, Bhubaneswar, India

P.C. to Hockey India twitter handle

Second Leg
India l USA 1-4 (0-4) On aggregate Indian women' team defeated US women's team 6-5
Goal Scorers - Amanda Magadan (USA) 5' PC and 28', Kathleen Sharkey (USA) 14', Alyssa Parker (USA) 20' and Rani Rampal (IND) 48'

In a nail-biting match, our women managed to overcome strong resistance from the US women to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic ... Today our eves' performance was exactly the opposite of yesterday's match ... They came under pressure from the beginning when the US women scored 1st goal in the 5th minute ... Indian women got panicked when US women scored the 2nd goal in the first quarter ... The second quarter also dominated by US women, they scored 2 more goals and at the half-time, both teams aggregated 5-all and advantage was with the US team ... In the first half, our team was dis-organized, struggled with their game plan and dis-oriented ... In the second half, our team played an improved game ... They defended well and put pressure on the US team ... A most crucial goal scored by our captain Rani Rampal at the beginning of the fourth quarter ... After that, US women tried hard but we defended well as a unit ... But I am still getting confused to see that our long ball clearance, in that, we lose possession and give an opportunity to the opponent for an attack.

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At the Men's Tokyo Olympics qualifiers - Final Round, Bhubaneswar, India

Second Leg
India bt Russia 7-1 (3-1) On aggregate Indian men's team defeated Russian men's team 11-3
Goal Scorers - Lalit Upadhyay (IND) 17', Akashdeep Singh (IND) 23' PC and 29', Nilakanta Sharma (IND) 47', Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 48' PC and 59' PC, Amit Rohidas (IND) 60' PC and Alexey Sobolevskiy (RUS) 1'

Improved performance by our men's team as they qualify for Tokyo Olympic in style ... We conceded a goal in the 1st minute and was a goal down in the 1st quarter ... Our team responded well as they scored 3 goals in the 2nd quarter to lead at the half-time and then scored 4 more goals in the final quarter for a convincing win.

Tennis News

At $135.4K+H Shenzhen-2 Challenger 2019, China

Doubles Final
(PR) Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l (2) Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 26 57

In the final, Ram and Elgin failed to overcome the challenge of the 2nd seed Taipei pair as they lost in 2 sets.

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At $60K ITF Women Tournament 2019, Liuzhou, China

Doubles Final
(2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Rosalie Van Der Hoek (NED) l (1) Xinyu Jiang (CHN)/ Qianhui Tang (CHN) 46 46

This week also Ankita and Rosalie lost against the top-seed Chinese pair in the final.

Hockey News

At the Women's Tokyo Olympics qualifiers - Final Round, Bhubaneswar, India

First Leg
India bt USA 5-1 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Lilima Minz (IND) 28' PC, Sharmila Devi (IND) 40' PC, Gurjit Kaur (IND) 42' PC and 51' PS, Navneet Kaur (IND) 46' and Erin Matson (USA) 54' PS

What a performance by the Indian eves ... they out-performed a tricky American team in the first match ... 4 goals in 11 minutes in the third quarter turned this tie in our favor ... Our girls are in a good position to book the Tokoyo Olympic ticket.

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At the Men's Tokyo Olympics qualifiers - Final Round, Bhubaneswar, India

First Leg
India bt Russia 4-2 (2-1)
Goal Scorers - Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 5' PS, Mandeep Singh (IND) 24' and 53', SV Sunil (IND) 48' PC and Andrey Kuraev (RUS) 17', Semen Matkovskiy (RUS) 60' PC

Very disorganized and sloppy performance by a superior Indian team ... Our game was below-par and the Russian team played their one of the best match ... We managed to win despite struggle on the turf ... Hoping for improved performance by the Indian team in their second match.

Tennis News

At €5.79M Rolex Paris Masters 2019, France

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Denis Shapovalov (CAN) l Karen Khachanov (RUS)/ Andrey Rublev (RUS) 57 76(1) 8-10

Rohan and Shapo lost in a close match against Khachanov and Rublev in the match tie-break.

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At $135.4K+H Shenzhen-2 Challenger 2019, China

[SF] (PR) Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Toshihide Matsui (JPN)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 75 76(0)

[F] (PR) Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (2) Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE)

Ram and Elgin scored a tight 2 sets win over Vishnu and Matsui ... Elgin's experience helped Ram to win this match after winning crucial points ... In the final, they r facing the 2nd seed Taipei pair.

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At $60K ITF Women Tournament 2019, Liuzhou, China

[SF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Rosalie Van Der Hoek (NED) bt Ji-Hee Choi (KOR)/ Akiko Omae (JPN) 57 61 10-7

[F] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Rosalie Van Der Hoek (NED) vs (1) Xinyu Jiang (CHN)/ Qianhui Tang (CHN)

Ankita and Rosalie made an excellent comeback after losing the first set against Choi and Omae ... In the final, they r facing the top-seed Chinese pair ... It's a repeat of last week's finale, where the Chinese pair prevailed in the match tie-break.