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.