Tennis News

At €5.2M Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 2018, Monaco

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Juan Sebastián Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL) 64 64

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs (3) Oliver Marach (AUT)/ Mate Pavic (CRO)

Roahn-Edouard r in the semis with straight sets win over Colombian pair ... In the semis, they r facing the 3rd seed pairing of Pavic and Marach.

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At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[QF] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,116) l Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ,242) 26 57
[QF] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,266) l (3) Quentin Halys (FRA,118) 46 36

Prajnesh gave decent fighting performance against claycourt specialist Frenchman Halys ... Halys took an early break to lead 1-4, but Prajnesh took advantage of Halys's loose service game in the 7th game and broke him, 3-4 ... Halys broke Prajnesh in the 10th game for winning the set ... In the second set, Halys broke Prajnesh in the 2nd game to lead 0-3 and kept that advantage for winning the match ... Prajnesh hurried to finish the points and other hand Halys played steady tennis for this win ... With this loss, it would be difficult for Prajnesh to qualify for French open qualifying.

RamK struggled with his overall game against Nedo and he took full advantage of it beating RamK in straight sets ... RamK struggled his serve and backhand wasn't working ... Nedo broke him in the 5th and the 7th games for winning the first set comfortably ... In the second set, RamK improved his game but Nedo played consistent tennis and broke him in the 11th game and then held his serve for a win.

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At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2018, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] (WC) Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND,929) bt (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,963) 64 61
[R2] (WC) Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND,929) bt (Q) Jelena Stojanovic (AUS,821) 63 63
[QF] (WC) Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND,929) bt (4) Julia Terziyska (BUL,552) 75 2-2 retd

[SF] (WC) Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND,929) vs Dasha Ivanova (USA,674)

Sai Samhitha Chamarthi had a terrific run in Egypt futures ... With three good wins she is in the semis and facing higher ranked American, Dasha Ivanova.

Tennis News

At €5.2M Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 2018, Monaco

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt (7) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 36 64 11-9

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Juan Sebastián Cabal (COL) / Robert Farah (COL)

A superb comeback victory by Roahn-Edouard against the 7th seed Murray and Soares ... After losing the first set Rohan-Edouard fought back to win the second ... In the match tie-break, Soares-Murray had 3 match points at 6-9 but Rohan-Edouard won next 5 points for an excellent win.

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At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[R2] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,116) bt Vaclav Safranek (CZE,257) 75 61
[R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,266) bt Alex Bolt (AUS,177) 76(5) 61

[QF] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,116) vs Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ,242)
[QF] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,266) vs (3) Quentin Halys (FRA,118)

Impressive win by Prajnesh and RamK for entering into the quarters ... Prajnesh having a tough match against clay court specialist Frenchman and RamK having a winnable match against Nedo.

Prajnesh faced in-form Alex Bolt and both players held their service games for taking into the tie-break ... In the tie-break, Prajnesh was 0-4 down with a double mini-break but he made a superb comeback and won next 6 points and converted the 2nd set point for winning the set ... In the second set, Prajnesh dominated from the start as he broke Alex in the 2nd and the 4th games to lead 5-0 and then comfortably held his serve in the 7th game for winning the match.

In the first set, Safranek was putting pressure on RamK's serve ... He broke RamK in the 5th game to lead 2-3 ... RamK broke Safranek in the 10th game when Safranek was serving for the set ... He again broke Safranek in the 12th game for winning the set ... In the second set, RamK broke Safranek in the 2nd game to lead 3-0 ... He again broke Safranek in the 6th game and held his serve in the next for straight sets win ... RamK raised his game from 3-5 down in the first set, as he won 10 out of next 11 games.

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At $100K Sarasota Challenger 2018, Florida, USA

[QF] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Luke Bambridge (GBR)/ Jonny O'Mara (GBR) 57 26

Jeevan-Purav struggled against British pair and lost in straight sets.

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At $125K Zhengzhou Women's Tennis Open 2018, China

[QF] Prarthana Thombare (IND)/ Fang Ying Xun (CHN) l (3) Naomi Broady (GBR)/ Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 16 16

One sided loss for Prarthana and Fang against their 3rd seed opponents.

Tennis News

At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,116) bt (WC) Yibing Wu (CHN,337) 46 62 63
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,266) bt Cem Ilkel (TUR,244) 64 64

[R2] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,514) l Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,319) 46 26
[R2] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,116) vs Vaclav Safranek (CZE,257)
[R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,266) vs Alex Bolt (AUS,177)

Doubles
[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Kamil Majchrzak (POL)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) 75 46 5-10

A gutsy comeback win by RamK against Chinese wonder-kid Yibing ... In their previous meeting in Davis Cup, Yibing defeated RamK so he had psychological advantage ... He started well and won the first set, but after that RamK made strong comeback ... He won next two sets comfortably for entering into the second round ... Next, he is facing Czech player Safranek.
Prajnesh continued with his good performance from our Davis Cup tie ... He scored straight sets win over Turkish player Ilkel ... Next, he is facing Aussie Alex Bolt.

Spaniard Ortega-Olmedo proved too strong to Sasi in the second round.

In the doubles, Vishnu-Bala lost after winning the first set ... Their Polish-Japanese opponents made a comeback for winning the second set and they comfortably won the match tie-break against Indian pair.

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At $100K Sarasota Challenger 2018, Florida, USA

[R1] Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA)/ Sathi Reddy Chirala (IND) l Luke Bambridge (GBR)/ Jonny O'Mara (GBR) 26 16

[QF] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Luke Bambridge (GBR)/ Jonny O'Mara (GBR)

An expected loss of Sathi with Andrea against British pair.

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At $125K Zhengzhou Women's Tennis Open 2018, China

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Su Jeong Jang (KOR) l (4) Yingying Duan (CHN)/ Yafan Wang (CHN) 46 36

Yingying with his partner Wang defeated Ankita and Su in straight sets.

Tennis News

At €5.2M Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 2018, Monaco

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) bt Karen Khachanov (RUS)/ Milos Raonic (CAN) 61 75

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs (7) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Bruno Soares (BRA)

Roahn-Edouard started with comfortable straight sets win against Raonic- Khachanov ... Next, they r facing the 7th seed Murray and Soares.

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At $125K Zhengzhou Women's Tennis Open 2018, China

[R1] (Q) Ankita Raina (IND,194) l (5) Yingying Duan (CHN,103) 36 75 36

Doubles
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Su Jeong Jang (KOR) bt (WC) Ran Tian (CHN)/ Kai-Lin Zhang (CHN) 61 61

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Su Jeong Jang (KOR) vs (4) Yingying Duan (CHN)/ Yafan Wang (CHN)
[QF] Prarthana Thombare (IND)/ Fang Ying Xun (CHN) vs (3) Naomi Broady (GBR)/ Yanina Wickmayer (BEL)

Ankita gave another gutsy performance against higher ranked Yingying ... After losing the first set Ankita was a match point down at 3-5, from here Ankita tried superb comeback ... She won next 4 games for winning the set ... But Yingying recovered to win the decider ... Ankita will get another chance against Yingying as she and her Korean partner scored dominating win in the doubles ... They r facing 4th seed Yingying and Yafan in the quarters.

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At $100K Sarasota Challenger 2018, Florida, USA

[R1] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Robert Galloway (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA) 63 36 10-7

Purav-Jeevan scored a win in the match tie-break against wild-card pair.

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At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[R2] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,514) vs Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,319)

Doubles
[R1] Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 36 75 11-13

[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Kamil Majchrzak (POL)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN)

RamK and Roberto lost against Chinese top pair in a closely fought match tie-break.

Tennis News

At ATP and WTA latest rankings,

After big title win at Taipei, Yuki climbed to his career best ranking, WR #83 ... And with this he secures place in next three grand slams main-draw; French Open, Wimbledon and US Open ... Reaching final also helped Ramkumar to climb his career best ranking, WR #116 ... This rank will helped him to get top-16 rankings in French Open qualifying ... Ankita Raina also climbs to her career best ranking on WTA tour, WR #194, after her consistent performance ... She also almost secure qualifying entry at French Open and Wimbledon.

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At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[R1] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,514) bt Ze Zhang (CHN,248) 64 64

Doubles
[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Aoran Wang (CHN)/ Hao Wu (CHN) 67(7) 76(4) 10-8

Sasi entered as a lucky loser and utilized this opportunity ... He defeated Chinese top player Ze Zhang in straight sets ... In the both sets, both players exchanged early breaks but Sasi took crucial break in the 10th game for a win.

Bala-Vishnu scored hard fought win over local Chinese pair in the match tie-break.

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At $125K Zhengzhou Women's Tennis Open 2018, China

[R1] Prarthana Thombare (IND)/ Fang Ying Xun (CHN) bt Xiaodi You (CHN)/ Lin Zhu (CHN) 63 76(2)

Prarthana scored a victory with her Chinese partner Fang Ying Xun against Chinese pair.

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At $100K Sarasota Challenger 2018, Florida, USA

[R1] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Robert Galloway (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA)
[R1] Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA)/ Sathi Reddy Chirala (IND) vs Luke Bambridge (GBR)/ Jonny O'Mara (GBR)

Jeevan and Purav r playing together in Sarasota Challenger and they r facing local wild-card pair ... Another Indian Sathi Reddy Chirala receive wild-card with Italian in the doubles draw.

Golf News

At $2M Lotte Championships 2018, Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii, USA

T44 Aditi Ashok (IND) 73 70 74 75 +4 $8,120.00

The last two rounds didn't help Aditi to finish inside top-25, but still decent outing.

Tennis News

At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

Singles Final
(4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) bt (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) 63 64

Doubles Final
(ALT) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Mathew Ebden (AUS)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS) 46 75 6-10

Yuki wins his 7th challenger title and the biggest one ... This title win will push his ranking to his career best, inside top-85.

Yuki took the 1st break of the match in the 4th game, 3-1, but RamK immediately broke back, 3-2 ... Yuki took medical time-out and he immediately broke RamK in the 6th game to lead 4-2 ... After that, both players held their respective service games for Yuki winning the set ... In the second set, RamK started playing well ... Impressed with his overall game improvement, his backhand is lot better and he was looking comfortable playing it ... RamK tried but failed to break Yuki's serve ... Yuki broke him in the 9th game when RamK lost his focus disputing a line call ... Yuki held his serve for winning a biggest challenger title.

Prajnesh-Saki lost the final against Aussies in the match tie-break ... After losing the first set they were double break up at 4-1 but lost next four games, 4-5 ... They took a crucial break in the 11th game and then Prajnesh held after saving 2 break points for winning the set ... In the match tie-break, our pair was mini-break up at 3-1 but after that, sudden slumped in their game and they lost next 7 points, 3-8 ... I think, that was nailed their loss.

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At €5.2M Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters 2018, Monaco

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) vs Karen Khachanov (RUS)/ Milos Raonic (CAN)

A tricky match for Rohan-Edouard against Raonic and Khachanov.

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At $125K Zhengzhou Women's Tennis Open 2018, China

[Q1] (1) Ankita Raina (IND,197) bt Hiroko Kuwata (JPN,339) 63 61
[Q2] (1) Ankita Raina (IND,197) bt Ling Zhang (HKG,324) 76(3) 67(4) 63

[R1] (Q) Ankita Raina (IND,197) vs (5) Yingying Duan (CHN,103)

Doubles
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Su Jeong Jang (KOR) vs (WC) Ran Tian (CHN)/ Kai-Lin Zhang (CHN)
[R1] Prarthana Thombare (IND)/ Fang Ying Xun (CHN) vs Xiaodi You (CHN)/ Lin Zhu (CHN)

Ankita qualified for main-draw after hard fought win against Zhang ... In the main draw, she is facing top-100 type Chinese girl, Yingying Duan.

In the doubles, Ankita is playing with her Korean partner, Su Jeong Jang and they r facing local wild-card pair ... Prarthana is playing with Chinese partner, Xun and they r also facing Chinese pair.

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At $50K+H Nanchang Challenger 2018, China

[R1] (4) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs (WC) Yibing Wu (CHN,333)
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,263) vs Cem Ilkel (TUR,241)

Doubles
[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Aoran Wang (CHN)/ Hao Wu (CHN)
[R1] Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)

Only RamK and Prajnesh r in the main-draw ... RamK is having a tricky match against Chinese youngster Yibing, who defeated him in DC tie ... Prajnesh is facing Turkish Ilkel.

In the doubles, Bala and Vishnu r top-seed and facing local wild-card pair ... RamK and his Spanish partner facing a tough challenge of experienced Zhang-Gong.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

P.C. to gc2018.com

Badminton - Women's Singles Gold Medal Match
Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Pusarla Venkata Sindhu (IND) 21-18 23-21

Badminton - Men's Singles Gold Medal Match
Srikanth Kidambi (IND) l Lee Chong Wei (MAS) 21-19 14-21 14-21

Badminton - Men's Doubles Gold Medal Match
Satwik Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) l Marcus Ellis (ENG)/ Chris Langridge (ENG) 13-21 16-21

Squash - Women's Doubles
Gold - Joelle King (NZL)/ Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL)
Silver - Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)
Bronze - / Donna Urquhart (AUS)

Squash - Women's Doubles Gold Medal Match
Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND) l Joelle King (NZL)/ Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL) 9-11 8-11

Table Tennis - Men's Singles
Gold - Ning Gao (SGP)
Silver - Quadri Aruna (NGR)
Bronze - Achanta Sharath Kamal (IND)

Table Tennis - Men's Singles Bronze Medal Match
Achanta Sharath Kamal (IND) bt Samuel Walker (ENG) 4-1 (11-7, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10)

Table Tennis - Mixed Doubles
Gold - Mangyu Yu (SGP)/ Ning Gao (SGP)/
Silver - Tin-Tin Ho (ENG)/ Liam Pitchford (ENG)
Bronze - Manika Batra (IND)/ Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND)

Table Tennis - Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal Match
Manika Batra (IND)/ Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) bt Mouma Das (IND)/ Achanta Sharath Kamal (IND) 3-0 (11-6, 11-2, 11-4)

We have ended CWG Gold Coast on a good note ... These are our second highest Gold medals tally OUTSIDE India and overall third highest Gold medals tally ... But interesting stats shared by #IndianOlympics and @BrandNachiketa (on twitter) - 15 of the 30 Golds at #Manchester2002 came from Shooting Pairs (8); Weightlifting Snatch (3) and Weightlifting Clean and Jerk (3); those events currently discontinued ... Without them, we had 15 Gold medals in Manchester ... Similarly, 15 of the 38 Golds at #Delhi2010 came from Shooting Pairs(7), Archery (3), Greco-Roman Wrestling (4) and Tennis (1) ... So comparing it with #GC2018 gives us an updated figure of 23 Gold medals from Delhi.

Based on currently active events
#GC2018 (26) improvement over
#Delhi2010 (23) and
#Manchester2002 (15)

More importantly, this time we are seeing really many positives and talents, who can bring a lot of glory in near future ... Impressed with youngsters like - Manika Batra in Table Tennis; Neeraj Chopra in Javelin; Manu Bhaker, Anish Bhanwala and Mehuli Ghosh in shooting; Gaurav Solanki, Manish Kaushik, Naman Tanwar and Amit Panghal in boxing; Bajrang Punia, Pooja Dhanda and Divya Kakran in wrestling; Hima Das, Jinson Johnson and Tejswin Shanker in athletics; Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty in badminton.

Saina again showed her supremacy over Sindhu and defeated her in tightly fought straight games to lift CWG Gold medal ... Srikanth's poor performance in the big tournament continued, as he failed to repeat his team tournament's performance against Lee Chong Wei ... Srikanth lost after winning the first game, Lee dominated last two games ... Satwik-Chirag lost against experienced British pair in straight games ... Chirag looked nervous on the court and Britsh pair took advantage of it ... Still, good performance by our young pair and Saina.

In Squash women's doubles, Dipika and Joshna settled with Silver as New Zealand pair defeated them in straight games in the Gold medal match.

Manika Batra won her fourth medal of this CWG partnering Sathiyan Gnanasekaran ... They won Bronze beating compatriots Sharath Kamal and Mouma Das convincingly in MXD.

Achanta Sharath Kamal won Bronze beating British paddler, Samuel Walker, in men's singles.

Tennis News

At €501K Grand Prix Hassan II 2018, Marrakech, Morocco

[SF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) l (1) Nikola Mectic (CRO)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) 36 63 9-11

Divij and Jan-Lennard tried fightback after losing the first set ... But in closely fought match tie-break Peya-Mectic prevailed.

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At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[SF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) bt (8) Tatsuma Ito (JPN,155) 36 63 64
[SF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) bt (7) Go Soeda (JPN,153) 76(9) 64

[F] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) vs (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132)

Doubles
[SF] (ALT) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt (WC) Yu Hsiou Hsu (TPE)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE) 26 64 14-12

[F] (ALT) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Mathew Ebden (AUS)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS)

All Indian final at Santaizi Challenger ... RamK moved into the final with straight sets win over experienced Go Soeda ... In this match RamK was struggled with his game but he was serving superbly ... In the first set, no one got break point ... In the tie-break, RamK had couple of mini-breaks but he failed to convert ... He took another mini-break on the 19th point and won point on his serve for winning the set ... In the second set, only break came in the 3rd game ... RamK broke Soeda and after that held his service game comfortably for a win ... This win will push his ranking inside top-120.

In this match also slow start for Yuki ... Yuki lost his serve in the 6th game, 2-4, after that both players held their service games ... After losing the first set Yuki broke Ito in the 2nd game to lead 3-0, but lost his serve in the 5th game, 3-2 ... Yuki again broke Ito in the 8th game , 5-3 and held his serve for winning this set ... In the final set, Yuki broke Ito in the 3rd game, 2-1, but after Ito's medical timeout he lost his serve in the next game, 2-all ... Yuki again broke Ito in the 5th game, 3-2 ... After that both players held their respective service games ... Ito tried to put extra pressure on Yuki's last two service games but Yuki managed to hold and completed another comeback win ... With this win Yuki has secured the main draw entries in French Open and Wimbledon.

Saki-Prajnesh r in the final with comeback win over local wild-card pair ... After losing the first set easily our pair fought back for winning the second ... Both pairs were neck to neck in the match tie-break but our pair manged to win it .. In the final, they r facing Aussie pair.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Athletics - Men's Javelin Throw
Gold - Neeraj Chopra (IND) 86.47m (SB)
Silver - Hamish Peacock (AUS) 82.59m
Bronze - Anderson Peters (GRN) 82.20m

Boxing - Women's 45-48kg Final Bout
MC Mery Kom (IND) bt Kristina O'Hara (ENG) 5-0 (30-27, 30-27, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27

Boxing - Men's 52kg Final Bout
Gaurav Solanki (IND) bt Brendan Irvine (NIR) 4-1 (29-28, 30-25, 29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Boxing - Men's 75kg Final Bout
Vikas Krishan (IND) bt Dieudonne Wilfried Seyi Ntsengue (CMR) 5-0 (30-27, 29-28, 29-28, 30-27, 29-28)

Boxing - Men's 46-49kg Final Bout
Amit Panghal (IND) l Galal Yafai (ENG) 1-3 (28-29, 27-30, 29-28, 28-28, 28-29)

Boxing - Men's 60kg Final Bout
Manish Kaushik (IND) l Harry Garside (AUS) 2-3 (29-28, 27-30, 27-30, 28-29, 29-28)

Boxing - Men's +91kg Final Bout
Satish Kumar (IND) l Frazer Clarke (ENG) 0-5 (27-30, 28-29, 28-29, 28-29, 28-29)

Shooting - Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Gold - Sanjeev Rajput (IND) 454.5 pts(GR)
Silver - Grzegorz Sych (CAN) 448.4 pts
Bronze - Dean Bale (ENG) 441.2 pts

Table Tennis - Women's Singles
Gold - Manika Batra (IND)
Silver - Mengyu Yu (SGP)
Bronze - Tianwei Feng (SGP)

Table Tennis - Women's Singles Gold Medal Match
Manika Batra (IND) bt Mengyu Yu (SGP) 4-0 (11-7, 11-6, 11-2, 11-7)

Table Tennis - Men's Doubles
Gold - Paul Drinkhall (ENG)/ Liam Pitchford (ENG)
Silver - Achanta Sharath Kamal (IND)/ Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND)
Bronze - Harmeet Desai (IND)/ Sanil Shankar Shetty (IND)

Table Tennis - Men's Doubles Gold Medal Match
Achanta Sharath Kamal (IND)/ Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) l Paul Drinkhall (ENG)/ Liam Pitchford (ENG) 2-3 (5-11, 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11)

Table Tennis - Men's Doubles Bronze Medal Match
Harmeet Desai (IND)/ Sanil Shankar Shetty (IND) bt Yew En Koen Pang (SGP)/ Shao Feng Ethan Poh (SGP) 3-0 (11-5, 11-6, 12-10)

Squash - Mixed Doubles
Gold - Donna Urquhart (AUS)/ Cameron Pilley (AUS)
Silver - Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND)
Bronze - Joelle King (NZL)/ Paul Coll (NZL)

Squash - Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Match
Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) l Donna Urquhart (AUS)/ Cameron Pilley (AUS) 8-11 10-11

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 50 kg Nordic
Gold - Vinesh Phogat (IND)
Silver - Jessica MacDonald (CAN)
Bronze - Miesinnei Genesis (NGR)

[M1] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Miesinnei Genesis (NGR) 6-5 (Victory by Points)
[M2] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Rupinder Kaur (AUS) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[M3] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Jessica MacDonald (CAN) 13-3 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

Wrestling - Men's Freestyle 125 kg Nordic
Gold - Sumit Malik (IND)
Silver - Korey Jarvis (CAN)
Bronze - Tayab Raza (PAK)

[M1] Sumit Malik (IND) bt Claude Kouamen Mbianga (CMR) (Victory by Injury)
[M2] Sumit Malik (IND) bt Korey Jarvis (CAN) 6-4 (Victory by Points)
[M3] Sumit Malik (IND) bt Tayab Raza (PAK) 10-4 (Victory by Points)
[M4] Sumit Malik (IND) bt Sinivie Boltic (NGR) w/o (Victory by Injury)

Wrestling - Men's Freestyle 86 kg
Gold - Muhammad Inam (PAK)
Silver - Melvin Bibo (NGR)
Bronze - Somveer Kadian (IND) and Syerus Eslami (ENG)

Men's Freestyle 86 kg Bronze
Somveer Kadian (IND) bt Alexander Moore (CAN) 7-3 (Victory by Points)

[R16] Somveer Kadian (IND) bt Taebontangaroa Kookoo (KIR) 4-0 (Victory by Fall)
[QF] Somveer Kadian (IND) l Muhammad Inam (PAK) 0-10 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[Repechage R2] Somveer Kadian (IND) bt Jayden Lawrence (AUS) 7-0 (Victory by Fall)

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 62 kg Nordic
Gold - Aminat Adeniyi (NGR)
Silver - Michelle Fazzari (CAN)
Bronze - Sakshi Malik (IND)

[M1] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Berthe Emillene Etane Ngolle (CMR) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[M2] Sakshi Malik (IND) l Michelle Fazzari (CAN) 8-11 (Victory by Points)
[M3] Sakshi Malik (IND) l Aminat Adeniyi (NGR) 3-6 (Victory by Points)
[M4] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Tayla Ford (NZL) 6-5 (Victory by Points)

Badminton - Women's Doubles Bronze Medal Match
Sikki N. Reddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Setyana Mapasa (AUS)/ Gronya Somerville (AUS) 21-19 21-19

Badminton - Men's Singles Bronze Medal Match
H. S. Prannoy (IND) l Rajiv Ouseph (ENG) 21-17 23-25 9-21

Badminton - Mixed Doubles Bronze Medal Match
Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Satwik Rankireddy (IND) l Liu Ying Goh (MAS)/ Peng Soon Chan (MAS) 19-21 19-21

Hockey

Hockey - Men's Bronze Medal Match
India l England 1-2 (1-1
Goal Scored - Varun Kumar (IND) 22' PC and Sam Ward (ENG) 7' PC and 43' PC

Hockey - Women's Bronze Medal Match
India l England 0-6 (0-1)
Goal Scored - Hollie Pearne-Webb (ENG) 27' PC, Sophie Bary (ENG) 44', 49' and 56', Laura Unsworth (ENG) 55', Alexandra Danson (ENG) 57'

In Javelin Throw, Neeraj Chopra lifted Gold with season's best throw of 86.47m ... His all four legal throws were over 80 meters, showed his determination and consistency ... Vipin Kashana finished on the 5th position with 77.87m throw.

In Boxing, legendary Mary Kom lifted her first CWG Gold medal beating British boxer Kristina O'Hara comfortably ... Young Gaurav Solanki gave us a second Gold medal, he defeated Northern Ireland's Brendan Irvine in well fought bout in 52kg final ... Vikas Krishan won Gold beating Cameroon boxer in 75 kg ... Manish Kaushik was unlucky to lose close bout, 2-3, against local boxer Harry Garside in 60kg final ... Amit Panghal also lost close bout against British boxer Galal Yafai in 46-49kg final ... Satish Kumar gave decent fight to British boxer in his loss in +91 kg final.

In shooting, India won another Gold medal when Sanjeev Rajput won Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions final with new Game Record ... Chain Singh finished on the 5th position with 419.1 pts, he eliminated by 0.2 pts ... In the qualifying Sanjeev topped and scored qualifying Game Record of 1180 pts ... Chain Singh finished the 2nd with 1166 pts.

Young Manika Batra is THE FIND of this CWG ... 22 yrs old paddler won Women's Singles Gold medal beating higher ranked Singaporean girl, Mengyu Yu (who was former top 10 player) convincingly ... Before this in the semis, Manika again defeated WR #4 Tianwei Feng from 2-3 down ... Manika won closely fought last 2 games against Feng ... This is her 2nd Gold medal after the team Gold medal and she also won Silver in Women's doubles with Mouma Das ... She is in MXD Bronze medal match with Sathiyan and they r facing another Indian pair Sharath and Mouma Das ... In men's doubles, Kamal and Sathiyan lost in five games against British pair, so they won Silver ... After losing the first game Kamal-Sathiyan fought back after down in the second and the third games to win it ... But they failed to keep momentum in next game and tried fightback in the fifth after 3-8 down ... Harmeet Desai and Sanil Shetty won Bronze beating their Singaporean opponents in straight games ... Encouraging performance by our paddlers.

In Men's freestyle, Sumit Malik won Gold in Men's Freestyle 125 kg ... This played in Nordic format and Sumit's two African opponents got injured in their previous bouts, so gave walkover ... Before that, he defeated Pakistani and Canadian wrestlers on points ... In 86 kg category, Somveer Kadian won Bronze against young Canadian wrestler, Alexander Moore, he was behind after first period but recovered well to win the match ... Before that, he lost against Pakistani wrestler, Muhammad Inam, convincingly ... Then, he defeated Aussie wrestler to move in to Bronze medal match.

In Women's freestyle, Vinesh Phogat won Gold in Women's Freestyle 50 kg, beating a tough Canadian Jessica MacDonald convincingly in her final Nordic system match ... Disappointing results for Sakshi Malik as she won Bronze ... She lost her two bouts and scored a close win over Tayla Ford for Bronze medal.

In Mixed Doubles Squash, Dipika-Saurav lost in the final against Aussie pair in close two games.

In Badminton, Ashwini-Sikki lifted Bronze beating local pair in a close match in Women's doubles ... Bad scheduling by the organizers cost Ashwini her second medal as she played four matches in a day ... Her MXD bronze medal match was her 4th match of the day ... She was visibly tired and Satwik was also played three matches in a day ... Despite tiredness they tried their best against Malaysian pair but in end, lost their match ... Prannoy lost in bronze medal match against Rajiv Ouseph ... Prannoy won the first game and was in the control in the second ... But after losing the second game in extra points he failed to motivate himself in the final game.

In hockey, our poor performance completed as our both teams lost against British teams ... Our higher ranked men gave another pathetic performance to lose against British side ... British women team defeated our women convincingly in Bronze medal match ... In last period they scored 4 goals for this one-sided victory.

A terrific run by Jinson Johnson in men's 1500m, he broke 23 yrs old national record of Bahadur Prasad with a timing of 3:37.86s to finish on the 5th position ... In Men's Triple Jump, Arpinder Singh finished on the 4th position with 16.46m jump.

On the tenth day we won 8 golds and guaranteed our highest finish on the medal table of the Commonwealth games ... So we are having 25 golds, 16 silvers and 18 bronzes.

Tennis News

At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[QF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) bt (Q) Chien-Hsun Lo (TPE,917) 64 62
[QF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) bt (3) Dudi Sela (ISR,98) 64 62

[SF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) vs (8) Tatsuma Ito (JPN,155)
[SF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs (7) Go Soeda (JPN,153)

Our both players in the semis with identical scores ... RamK scored a fluent and solid win over experienced Dudi Sela ... RamK broke Dudi in the 7th game and the comfortably held his service games for winning the first set ... In the second set, from 2-all RamK took control ... He broke Dudi in the 5th and the 7th games with comfortably holding his own serve for a victory ... Next, he is facing experienced Japanese player, Go Soeda.

In this match also Yuki struggled with rhythm ... He broke Lo in the 1st game but lost his serve in the next, 1-all ... Yuki again broke Lo in the 3rd game and then held his service games for winning the first set ... In the second set, Yuki broke Lo in the 5th and the 7th games and held his service games for comfortable victory ... He is also facing Japanese opponent, Tatsuma Ito.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Shooting - Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions
Gold -Tejaswini Sawant (IND) 457.9 pts(GR)
Silver - Anjum Moudgil (IND) 455.7 pts
Bronze - Seonaid McIntosh (SCO) 444.6 pts

Shooting - 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men's
Gold - Anish Bhanwala (IND) 30 pts (GR)
Silver - Sergei Evglevski (AUS) 28 pts
Bronze - Sam Gowin (ENG) 17 pts

Wrestling - Men's freestyle - 65 kg
Gold - Bajrang Punia (IND)
Silver - Kane Charig (WAL)
Bronze - Charlie Bowling (ENG) and Amas Daniel (NGR) (NGR)

Men's Freestyle 65 kg Gold Medal
Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Kane Charig (WAL) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

[R16] Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Brahm Richards (NZL) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[QF] Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Amas Daniel (NGR) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[SF] Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Vincent De Marinis (CAN) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

Wrestling - Men's freestyle - 97 kg
Gold - Martin Erasmus (RSA)
Silver - Mausam Khatri (IND)
Bronze - Alexios Kaouslidis (CYP) and Jordan Steen (CAN)

Men's Freestyle 97 kg Gold Medal
Mausam Khatri (IND) l Martin Erasmus (RSA) 2-12 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

[QF] Mausam Khatri (IND) bt Alexios Kaouslidis (CYP) 12-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[SF] Mausam Khatri (IND) bt Soso Tamarau (NGR) 10-7 (Victory by Points)

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 57 kg Nordic
Gold - Odunayo Adekuoroye (NGR)
Silver - Pooja Dhanda (IND)
Bronze - Emily Schaefer (CAN)

Women's Freestyle 57 kg Gold Medal
Pooja Dhanda (IND) l Odunayo Adekuoroye (NGR) 5-7 (Victory by Points)

[Group B M1] Pooja Dhanda (IND) bt Emily Schaefer (CAN) 12-5 (Victory by Points)
[Group B M2] Pooja Dhanda (IND) bt Ana Moceyawa (NZL) 8-0 (Victory by Fall)
[SF] Pooja Dhanda (IND) bt Joseph Essombe Tiako (CMR) 11-5 (Victory by Points)

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 68 kg Nordic
Gold - Blessing Oborududu (NGR)
Silver - Danielle Lappage (CAN)
Bronze - Divya Kakran (IND)

Women's Freestyle 68 kg Bronze Medal
Divya Kakran (IND) bt Sherin Sultana (BAN) 4-0 (Victory by Fall)

[Group B M1] Divya Kakran (IND) bt Gaelle Alakame Anzong (CMR) 10-8 (Victory by Fall)
[Group B M2] Divya Kakran (IND) l Danielle Lappage (CAN) 2-12 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[SF] Divya Kakran (IND) l Blessing Oborududu (NGR) 1-11 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

Boxing - Men's 91kg Semifinal
Naman Tanwar (IND) l Jason Whateley (AUS) 0-4 (28-28, 27-29, 26-30, 26-30, 27-29)

Boxing - Men's 56kg Semifinal
Hussamuddin Mohammed (IND) l Peter McGrail (ENG) 0-5 (27-30, 28-29, 28-29, 26-30, 27-30)

Boxing - Men's 69kg Semifinal
Manoj Kumar (IND) l Pat McCormack (ENG) 0-5 (27-30, 27-30, 27-30, 27-30, 26-30)

Table Tennis - Women's Doubles
Gold - Tianwei Feng (SGP)/ Mengyu Yu (SGP)
Silver - Manika Batra (IND)/ Mouma Das (IND)
Bronze - Ying Ho (MAS)/ Karen Lyne (MAS)

Table Tennis - Women's Doubles Gold Medal Match
Manika Batra (IND)/ Mouma Das (IND) l Tianwei Feng (SGP)/ Mengyu Yu (SGP) 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11)

Table Tennis - Women's Doubles Bronze Medal Match
Sutirtha Mukherjee (IND)/ Pooja Sahasrabudhe (IND) l Ying Ho (MAS)/ Karen Lyne (MAS) 1-3 (13-15, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11)

In shooting, Tejaswini Sawant won Gold in Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions, this was her second medal after Silver, which she won yesterday ... Here, she had a tough challenge from her compatriot Anjum Moudgil, but Tejaswini prevailed and won it with Game Record ... In the qualifying, Anjum dominated and qualified for the final with new Qualifying Game Record, 589 pts and Tejaswini qualified on the third position with 582 pts.

15 yrs old Anish Bhanwala won Gold medal in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men's event beating Australian shooter ... When matter most he hit 5/5 in the final round to win Gold with new record ... Neeraj Kumar finished on the 5th position with 13 pts as he eliminated 2nd in the final ... Anish and Neeraj qualified for the final on the top 2 positions with 580 pts and 579 pts.

In Men's freestyle, Bajrang Punia was technically too strong for these wrestlers and in CWG he won Gold of Freestyle 65 kg without losing a single point ... In the final also, he completed win in the first period against Wales wrestler Kane Charig ... Mausam Khatri won Silver in Freestyle 97 kg ... He reached in the final with couple of good wins ... In the final, his South African opponent, Martin Erasmus, proved too strong to handle.

In women's freestyle, For Gold medal Pooja Dhanda lost a close match against strong Nigerian wrestler in Women's Freestyle 57 kg ... Pooja defeated Cameroon wrestler Joseph Essombe Tiako in the semis on points ... Before that, she also scored couple of good wins in her Group ... Divya Kakran won Bronze beating Bangladeshi wrestler comfortably in the Women's Freestyle 68 kg ... Before, she lost the semi-final against Nigerian wrestler ... In group, She won a match and lost another match against superior Canadian wrestler.

In boxing, Naman Tanwar confirmed Bronze after losing to his Aussie opponent in the semis in 91kg category ... Hussamuddin Mohammed also confirmed Bronze after losing his bout to British boxer in 56kg category Another Bronze medal in 69kg category as Manoj Kumar lost easily against British boxer.

In table tennis, higher ranked Singaporean pair proved too strong for our pair, Manika Batra and Mouma Das in the Women's Doubles final ... Our other pair also lost in Bronze medal match against Malaysian pair.

Shreyasi Singh finished in the fifth position in the Women's Trap Finals.

So after end of the ninth day, we remain on the third position and already we win highest number of golds in CWG history ... We win 17 golds, 11 silvers and 14 bronzes.

Snooker News

At World Championship Qualifying 2018, Sheffield, England

[R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,82) l Zhao Xintong (CHN,78) 8-10 (70-24, 97(51)-14, 31-67, 61(53)-16, 14-92, 1-90(90), 64-63, 0-128(118), 63-23, 10-76(76), 58-21, 63-15, 1-95(95), 42-74, 71-21, 5-85(60), 23-65, 13-65(50))

Aditya lost in a close match against similar ranked Chinese Xintong after 18 frames ... Aditya was taking a frame lead from the beginning but Xintong was more consistent on the table as he scored a century break and five 50+ breaks, other hand Aditya managed only two 50+ breaks ... Xintong won last three frames from 7-8 down and in that, he scored two 50+ breaks for completing victory.

Tennis News

At €501K Grand Prix Hassan II 2018, Marrakech, Morocco

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt (3) Marcus Daniell (NZL)/ Dominic Inglot (GBR) 67(5) 60 11-9

[SF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) vs (1) Nikola Mectic (CRO)/ Alexander Peya (AUT)

Divij scored a really good win with his in-form partner Struff against the 3rd seed pair ... In the super tiebreak, our pair was 5-9 down .... They saved 4 match point and won the match after winning 6 points in a row.

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At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[R2] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) bt Matthias Bachinger (GER,164) 64 64
[R2] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) bt Lloyd Harris (RSA,242) 76(3) 67(3) 76(5)
[R2] (PR) Saketh Myneni (IND,588) l (2) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,85) 26 46

[QF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) vs (Q) Chien-Hsun Lo (TPE,917)
[QF] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs (3) Dudi Sela (ISR,98)

Doubles
[QF] (ALT) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Ruben Gonzales (PHI)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) 75 64

Expected win for Yuki but good to see he handled Bachinger in straight sets, his next opponent is talented local qualifier.

RamK struggled to win this match against big server ... After winning the first set RamK had a chance to finish in two ... He lost the second set and last set also went to tie-break ... Next, he is facing tricky Dudi Sela.

Saki and Prajnesh scored another good win in the doubles against good doubles pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Osaka, Japan

[R2] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,197) l Na-Lae Han (KOR,282) 63 06 26

Surprising struggled after winning the first set ... I hope, this was only a bad day in the office for Ankita.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Wrestling - Men's freestyle -57 kg
Gold - Rahul Balasaheb Aware (IND)
Silver - Steven Takahashi (CAN)
Bronze - Muhammad Bilal (PAK) and Ebikewenimo Welson (NGR)

Men's Freestyle 57 kg Gold Medal
Rahul Aware (IND) bt Steven Takahashi (CAN) 15-7 (Victory by Points)

[R16] Rahul Aware (IND) bt George Ramm (ENG) 11-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[QF] Rahul Aware (IND) bt Thomas Cicchini (AUS) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[SF] Rahul Aware (IND) bt Muhammad Bilal (PAK) 12-8 (Victory by Points)

Wrestling - Men's freestyle -74 kg
Gold - Sushil Kumar (IND)
Silver - Johannes Botha (RSA)
Bronze - Curtis Dodge (WAL) and Jevon Balfour (CAN)

Men's Freestyle 74 kg Gold Medal
Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Johannes Botha (RSA) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

[R16] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Jevon Balfour 11-1 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[QF] Sushi Kumar (IND) bt Muhammad Asad Butt (PAK) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[SF] Sushil Kumar (IND) bt Connor Evans (AUS) (Victory by Fall)

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 53 kg Nordic
Gold - Diana Weicker (CAN)
Silver - Babit Kumari (IND)
Bronze - Bose Samuel (NGR)

[M1] Babit Kumari (IND) bt Bose Samuel (NGR) 2-1 (Victory by Points)
[M2] Babit Kumari (IND) bt Deepika Dilhani (Victory by Fall)
[M3] Babit Kumari (IND) bt Carissa Holland (AUS) (Victory by Fall)
[M4] Babit Kumari (IND) l Diana Weicker (CAN) 2-5 (Victory by Points)

Shooting - Women's 50m Rifle Prone
Gold - Martina Lindsay Veloso (SGP) 621.0 pts (GR)
Silver - Tejaswini Sawant (IND) 618.9 pts
Bronze - Seonaid McIntosh (SCO) 618.1 pts

Wrestling - Women's freestyle - 76 kg
Gold - Erica Wiebe (CAN)
Silver - Blessing Onyebuchi (NGR)
Bronze - Kiran (IND) and Georgina Nelthorpe (ENG)

Women's Freestyle 76 kg Bronze
Kiran (IND) bt Katouskia Pariadhaven (MRI) 10-0 (Victory by Fall)

[QF] Kiran (IND) bt Danielle Sino Guemde (CMR) 11-1 (Victory by Technical Superiority)
[SF] Kiran (IND) l Blessing Onyebuchi (NGR) 0-10 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

Athletics - Women's Discus Throw
Gold - Dani Stevens (AUS) 68.26m (GR)
Silver - Seema Punia (IND) 60.41m
Bronze - Navjeet Dhillon (IND) 57.43m

Wrestling has started and India picked up two Gold medals in Men's freestyle convincingly ... Sushil Kumar won his third CWG Gold medal in a row in 74 kg category ... Rahul Aware won Gold in 57 kg category beating Canadian wrestler ... Before that in the semis, Rahul had a tough bout against Pakistani wrestler ... In women's category, Babita Kumari won Silver as she lost against Canadian wrestler in Nordic format 53 kg category ... Kiran won Bronze in 76 kg category.

In shooting, Tejaswini won Silver in Women's 50m Rifle Prone category ... Singaporean shooter lifted Gold medal with Game Record.

In the athletics, India won Silver and Bronze .... Seema Punia threw 60m above in the first attempt and Navjeet's last throw helped her to win Bronze.

After eighth day, we are still holding third position wth 14 golds, 7 silvers and 10 Bronze.

Snooker News

At World Championship Qualifying 2018, Sheffield, England

[R1] Aditya Mehta (IND,82) vs Zhao Xintong (CHN,78) 5-4 (70-24, 97(51)-14, 31-67, 61(53)-16, 14-92, 1-90(90), 64-63, 0-128(118), 63-23)

A tough match is going on between Aditya and Xintong ... The match will resume tomorrow, this is a best of 19 frames match.

Tennis News

At €501K Grand Prix Hassan II 2018, Marrakech, Morocco

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) bt Wesley Koolhof (NED)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 76(3) 63

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) vs (3) Marcus Daniell (NZL)/ Dominic Inglot (GBR)

Divij started with a win with Jan-Lennard against Sitak-Koolhof ... Next, they r facing 3rd seed Daniell-Inglot.

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At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[R1] (LL) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,519) l Lloyd Harris (RSA,242) 46 67(3)

[R2] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) vs Matthias Bachinger (GER,164)
[R2] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs Lloyd Harris (RSA,242)
[R2] (PR) Saketh Myneni (IND,588) vs (2) Evgeny Donskoy (RUS,85)

Doubles
[R1] (ALT) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt (WC) Tung-Lin Wu (TPE)/ Cheng-Yu Yu (TPE) 64 75

[QF] (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS) 46 46
[QF] (ALT) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs Ruben Gonzales (PHI)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA)

Sasi got a chance as lucky loser and gave fighting performance against service machine Harris ... RamK is facing Harris in the second round ... Yuki also having tricky match against experienced Bachinger ... Saki is having a tough one against Donskoy.

In the doubles, Sak-Prajnesh started with straight sets win ... Next, they r facing experienced doubles players, Rungkat and Gonzales ... But Bala-Vishnu lost in the quarters against Aussie pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Osaka, Japan

[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,267) l (Q) Makoto Ninomiya (JPN,579) 46 46

[R2] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,197) vs Na-Lae Han (KOR,282)

Karman is struggling with her game as another first round loss against lower ranked Japanese opponent ... Ankita is facing Korean girl Na-Lae Han.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Shooting - Women's Double Trap
Gold - Shreyasi Singh (IND) (24+25+22+25) 96 hits +2 (S-Off)
Silver - Emma Cox (AUS) (23+28+27+18) 96 hits +1 (S-off)
Bronze - Linda Pearson (SCO) (24+25+18+20) 87 hits

Shooting - Men's 50m Air Pistol
Gold - Daniel Repacholi (AUS) 227.2 pts (GR)
Silver - Shakil Ahmed (BAN) 220.5 pts
Bronze - Om Prakash Mitharval (IND) 201.1 pts

Shooting - Men's Double Trap
Gold - David McMath (SCO) 74 hits (GR)
Silver - Tim Kneale (IOM) 70 hits
Bronze - Ankur Mittal (IND) 53 hits

Shreyasi Singh gave a pleasant as she lifted Gold in Women's Double Trap event ... After the third round, Shreyasi was 7 points behind leader Emma Cox ... In the final round, Shreyasi scored 25/30 hits and Emma managed only 18/30 hits ... So both were finished tied on 96 hits, in the square-off, Shreyasi hits her both targets and Emma managed to hit only one ... Varsha Varman missed a bronze by 1 hit as she finished on the 4th with 86 hits.

Very disappointing performance in the 50m Air Pistol Men's event from our shooters ... Om Prakash Mitharval again topped the qualifying with 549 pts ... Jitu Rai qualified for the final on the 6th position with 542 pts ... In the final, Jitu eliminated 1st due to poor shooting ... Om Prakash started with consisting shooting but again he chocked at a crucial moment ... He was leading with Daniel Repacholi when five shooters were remaining, 168.5 pts, and they had 2.7 pts lead over Shakil Ahmed ... Om Prakash did some pathetic shooting in next four shots - 8.6, 9.2 and in last two shots 7.2 and 7.6 to get eliminated on bronze medal stage.

Ankur Mittal won a Bronze in men's Double Trap event and Mohammad Ashab finished fourth ... Before that in qualifying, Mohammad Ashab tied for the top position with 137 hits and Ankur finished on the 5th with 133 hits.

18 yrs old Hima Das finished 6th in Women's 400M final clocking her personal best 51.32 sec ... Good impressive run ... In Men's high jump, Tejswin Shanker managed to clear 2.24m only for the 6th place, it was a lower jump than his PB of 2.28m.

After seventh day, we are in the third position with 12 golds, 4 silvers and 8 bronzes.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2018 - World Group Playoff,

A tough away tie against Serbia in September for us ... So most probably the court will be indoor hard court.

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At U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship 2018, Houston, Texas, USA

[R1] Fabrice Martin (FRA)/ Puraj Raja (IND) l Ken Skupski (GBR)/ Neal Skupski (GBR) 16 67(0)

Purav and Fabrice Martin lost in straight sets against Skupski brothers in the first round.

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At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[R1] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) bt Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,320) 67(5) 63 63
[R1] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,133) bt (Q) Thomas Funcutt (AUS,643) 76(5) 67(0) 62
[R1] (PR) Saketh Myneni (IND,586) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,264) 46 76(2) 64

Doubles
[R1] Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS) 36 57

Yuki started slowly but after losing the first set he took control of the match to win next two sets easily ... RamK also struggled in 1st two sets against Aussie qualifier ... Both sets went to the tie-break and they were split between RamK and Funcutt ... RamK won the decider comfortably ... Most impressive win scored by Saki, though it was against Prajnesh ... After losing the first set Saki fought back to win the second set tie-break ... He kept momentum going for winning the third ...In this match, Saki's first serve worked as he won impressive 84% on the first serve and hit 13 aces with only 2 double faults.

RamK-Luca lost in the first round against Aussie pair.

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At $50K+H Barletta Challenger 2018, Italy

[R1] Sumit Nagal (IND,213) l Goncalo Oliveira (POR,214) 64 36 26

Sumit lost against similar ranked Portuguese player Oliveira in three sets ... Aftr winning the first set Sumit was a break up, 3-1, and had a break point to lead 4-1 but from here he lost the plot (his concentration) and complete meltdown.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Osaka, Japan

[R1] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,197) bt Hiroko Kuwata (JPN,339) 64 60

Ankita continues with her impressive form and scored straight sets win over Kuwata ... In the first set, Ankita was down double break at 0-3, but from here she turned the table and romped to a dominating victory.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Shooting - Women's 25m Pistol
Gold - Heena Sidhu (IND) 38 pts (GR)
Silver - Elena Galiabovitch (AUS) 35 pts
Bronze - Alia Sazana Azahari (MAS) 26 pts

Powerlifting - Men's heavyweight
Gold - Abdulazeez Ibrahim (NGR) 191 kg
Silver - Yee Khie Jong (MAS) 188 kg
Bronze - Sachin Chaudhary (IND) 181 kg

Heena Sidhu won a Gold in Women's 25m Pistol event with new Game Record to give Indian their 11th gold medal ... Annu Singh also reached the final but finished on the 6th position ... Before this, Annu and Heena qualified for the final after finishing on 2nd and 3rd positions after Precision and Rapid stages.

In 50m Rifle Prone Men's event, Gagan qualified for the final on the third position with 617 pts and Chain Singh on the 6th with 614.2 pts ... But both shooter failed to win medal in the final, Chain Singh finished on the 4th and Gagan finished on the 7th position.

Sachin Chaudhary won a Bronze in Men's heavyweight Powerlifting ... Good performance by him in tough field.

Muhammad Anas Yahiya finished fourth in the men's 400m finals bettering his national record by 0.01s, with the time of 45.31s ... A superb performance by Anas.

After six day, we are holding the third place with 11 golds, 4 silvers and 6 bronzes.

Tennis News

At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[Q3] (6) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,520) l Thomas Fancutt (AUS,648) 67(3) 63 46

Doubles
[R1] (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Ti Chen (TPE)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) 75 67(5) 10-8

Sasi lost in the final qualifying against Fancutt in three sets ... Fancutt will be facing RamK in the first round.

A hard fought win for Bala and Vishnu against tricky local pair in the match tie-break.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Osaka, Japan

[R1] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,197) vs Hiroko Kuwata (JPN,339)
[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,267) vs (Q) Makoto Ninomiya (JPN,579)

The first time in her career Ankita is ranked inside top-200 ... She is 5th seed and facing former top-150 player Kuwata ... Karman is facing local qualifier.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Badminton - Mixed Team Gold Medal Match

India bt Malaysia 3-1

[M1] Satwik Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Peng Soon Chan (MAS)/ LiuYing Goh (MAS) 21-14 15-21 21-15
[M2] Srikanth Kidambi (IND) bt Lee Chong Wei (MAS) 21-17 21-14
[M3] Satwik Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) l V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Wee Kiong Tan (MAS) 15-21 20-22
[M4] Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Soniia Cheah (MAS) 21-11 19-21 21-9

Table Tennis - Men's Team Gold Medal Match

India bt Nigeria 3-0

[M1] Achanta Sharath Kamal (IND) bt Bode Abiodun (NGR) 3-1 (4-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-9)
[M2] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) bt Segun Toriola (NGR) 3-1 (10-12, 11-3, 11-3, 11-4)
[M3] Harmeet Desai (IND)/ Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND) bt Olajide Omotayo (NGR)/ Bode Abiodun (NGR) 3-0 (11-8, 11-5, 11-3)

Shooting - Men's 10m Air Pistol
Gold - Jitu Rai (IND) 235.1 pts (GR)
Silver - Kerry Bell (AUS) 233.5 pts
Bronze - Om Prakash Mitharval (IND) 214.3 pts

Shooting - Women's 10m Air Rifle
Gold - Martina Lindsay Veloso (SGP) 247.2 pts (GR) Shoot-off 10.3 pts
Silver - Mehuli Ghosh (IND) 247.2 pts (GR) Shoot-off 9.9 pts
Bronze - Apurvi Chandela (IND) 225.3 pts

Weightlifting - Men's 105 kg
Gold - Sanele Mao (SAM) (154+206) 360 kg
Silver - Pradeep Singh (IND) (152+200) 352 kg
Bronze - Owen Boxall (ENG) (152+199) 351 kg

In Mixed team badminton, a superb upset win over mighty Malaysians by Indians to seal Gold ... In the first match, Satwik and Ashwini scored an upset win over Rio Olympics silver medalist Malaysian pair, Peng Soon Chan and LiuYing Goh, in three games ... In the second match, Srikanth scored his first win over Lee Chong Wei in their five meetings ... Srikanth scored a convincing win to give 2-0 lead ... Satwik and Chirag lost in the third match against their higher-ranked opponents ... But Saina completed a win in three games for clinching the tie for India.

Our men's table tennis team also on Gold medal beating Nigerian team convincingly, 3-0 ... In the semis, our paddlers defeated Singaporean team 3-2 and Nigerian team scored an upset team over British team.

Jitu Rai rose to occassion and won a Gold in the 10m Air Pistol Men's event with new Game Record ... The Aussie shooter, Kerry Bell won Silver and India's Om Prakash Mitharval managed to capture Bronze medal ... In the qualifying, Om Prakash Mitharval qualified for the final in the top position equalling qualifying Game Record of 584 pts.

Mehuli Ghosh won a Silver in very close final against Singaporean shooter Martina Lindsay Veloso ... Mehuli lost in the shoot-off as she managed only 9.9 pts and Veloso scored 10.3 pts ... But before that both players were tied after the final shot with 247.2 pts, which was a new Game Record ... Veloso took a lead in the final after her 6th shot and maintained that till end ... Before last two shots Veloso was 0.8 pts ahead of Mehuli, but Mehuli scored 10.9 pts on the final shot to tied with her at 247.2 pts ... A tough luck for Mehuli ... Apurvi Chandela won a Bronze ... Apurvi qualified for the final with new qualifying Game Record of 423.2 pts but failed to repeat same performance in the final.

In Men's 105 kg weightlifting, Pradeep Singh won Silver as he lifted total 352 kg ... Samoa lifter Sanele Mao won Gold in this event.

Smit Singh reached the final of Skeet but eliminated first in six finalists ... Gurdeep Singh finished on the 4th position with 382 kg total lift in Men's +105kg weightlifting ... Our shot putter, Tejinder Pal Singh Toor finished on the 8th position with a 19.42m throw.

After completion of the fifth day, we are moved to 3rd place with 10 golds, 4 silvers and 5 bronzes.

Tennis News

At €501K Grand Prix Hassan II 2018, Marrakech, Morocco

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) vs Wesley Koolhof (NED)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)

This week, Divij is playing Moroccan tournament and have a good partner in German Davis cupper, Jan-Lennard Struff ... They r facing Sitak and Koolhof in the first round.

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At U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship 2018, Houston, Texas, USA

[R1] Fabrice Martin (FRA)/ Puraj Raja (IND) vs Ken Skupski (GBR)/ Neal Skupski (GBR)

This week, Purav is playing at US Clay Court tournament with his old partner, Fabrice Martin ... They r facing Skupski brothers in the first round.

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At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[Q2] (6) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,520) bt Shao-Fan Liu (TPE,1255) 76(10) 76(4)

[Q3] (6) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,520) vs Thomas Fancutt (AUS,648)

Doubles
[R1] Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Matthew Ebden (AUS)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS)
[R1] (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Ti Chen (TPE)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE)

Sasi in the final qualifying with another hard fought win over lower ranked local player ... In the final qualifying, he is facing Australian Thomas Fancutt, who scored an upset win over the 2nd seed.

In the doubles, Vishnu-Bala r the 3rd seed and facing Taiwani pair ... RamK is partnering Margaroli and they r facing Aussie pair ... RamK and his partner can face Bala-Vishnu, is both pairs win their first round matches.

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At $50K+H Barletta Challenger 2018, Italy

[R1] Sumit Nagal (IND,213) vs Goncalo Oliveira (POR,214)

Sumit is playing in Europe and facing similar ranked Portuguese player Oliveira in Barletta Challenger.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Table Tennis - Women's Team Gold Medal Match

India bt Singapore 3-1

[M1] Manika Batra (IND) bt Tianwei Feng (SGP) 3-2 (11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-9, 11-7)
[M2] Madhurika Patkar (IND) l Mengyu Yu (SGP) 0-3 (11-13, 2-11, 6-11)
[M3] Mouma Das (IND)/ Madhurika Patkar (IND) bt Yihan Zhou (SGP)/ Mengyu Yu (SGP) 3-1 (11-7, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7)
[M4] Manika Batra (IND) bt Yihan Zhou (SGP) 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-7)

Weightlifting - Women's 69 kg
Gold - Punam Yadav (IND) (100+122) 222 kg
Silver - Sarah Davies (ENG) (95+122) 217 kg
Bronze - Apolonia Vaivai (FIJ) (100+116) 216 kg

Shooting - Women's 10m Air Pistol
Gold - Manu Bhaker (IND) 240.9 pts (GR)
Silver - Heena Sidhu (IND) 234.0 pts
Bronze - Elena Galiabovitch (AUS) 214.9 pts

Shooting - Men's 10m Air Rifel
Gold - Dane Sampson (AUS) 245 pts (GR)
Silver - Abdullah Hel Baki (BAN) 244.7 pts
Bronze - Ravi Kumar (IND) 224.1 pts

Weightlifting - Men's 94 kg
Gold - Steven Kari (PNG) (154+216 (CR/GR)) 370 kg (equals GR)
Silver - Boady Santavy (CAN) (168(GR)+201) 369 kg
Bronze - Vikas Thakur (IND) (159+192) 351 kg

A terrific upset win by our women paddlers against higher ranked Singaporean team to win Gold ... They defeated mighty Singaporean women 3-1 in the final ... For us, a star performer was WR #58 Manika Batra, who defeated WR #4 Tianwei Feng from 1-2 down to give a solid start for us ... After losing the singles easily Madhurika Patkar paired with Mouma Das to beat higher ranked Singaporean pair ... In the 4th match, Manika defeated Yihan Zhou convincingly for winning the tie for India.

Punam Yadav won the Gold in Women's Weightlifting 69 kg, this was our fifth Gold medal in the Weightlifting ... Punam faced a stiff competition from Sarah, Poonam's second attempt of lifting 122 kg failed in the Clean and Jerk, but Sarah lifted it easily to take a lead ... In the final attempt, Punam lifted 122 kg to retake the lead ... Sarah tried to lift 128 kg in the final lift but couldn't, despite looking sure for the most part.

Our shooters have started their medals quest ... 16 yrs. old Manu Bhaker scripted another glorious chapter in her short career as she won the Gold in her first CWG in Women's 10m Air Pistol ... She won it creating new Game Record in the final and before that she bettered qualification Game Record by 2 points, 388 pts (the previous record was 386 pts) ... Manu was in the control from the start and won it comfortably ... Her senior compatriot, Heena Sidhu, won the Silver after fighting hard with the Aussie shooter, Elena Galiabovitch.

Disappointment in Men's 10m Air Rifel as Ravi Kumar managed to win only Bronze ... Deepak Kumar eliminated 3rd in the final to finish on the 6th position ... Deepak and Ravi dominated the qualifying and both shoot better than previous qualifying record ... Deepak Kumar created new Qualification Game Record with 627.2 pts and Ravi Kumar was behind him with 626.8 pts (the previous record was 623.6 pts by British shooter), but they failed to repeat the same performance in the finals.

In Men's 94 kg weightlifting, Vikas Thakur won the Bronze with his total 351 kg lift ... Other top 2 lifters were too good in this category as they lifted 18 kg and 19 kg more than Vikas.

In Women's Skeet finals, Saniya Sheikh finished on the fourth in the six-member final after shooting 30 successful shots out of 36 ... She missed her last two shots to miss medal round.

Khushbir Kaur finished a commendable fourth in the women's 20km race walk final, clocking 1:39:21, two minutes behind bronze medal winner Bethan Davies ... Our other walkers failed to produce favorable walk in men's and women's.

After the fourth day, we are holding the 4th place with 7 golds, 2 silvers and 3 bronzes.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2018 - Asia / Oceania 2nd Round, Tianjin, China

India bt China 3-2

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) l Yibing Wu (CHN,332) 67(4) 46
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,213) l Ze Zhang (CHN,247) 46 16

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 57 76(5) 76(3)
[R4] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) bt Di Wu (CHN,248) 76(4) 63
[R5] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,263) bt Yibing Wu (CHN,332) 64 62

What a comeback win by Indian team ... After first day, many of the fans written off our chances (including yours truly) of a win ... On the second day in the doubles, until late of the second set Chinese were in a control ... We were couple of points away (3-5 second set tie-break) from 0-3 drubbing for the first time in the Davis cup history in hands of the Chinese team ... But somehow our pair hangs there and dug really deep to fightback and won the doubles tie ... This was Lee's record breaking 43rd Davis cup doubles victory ... After that Mahesh's motivation made a charm as RamK defeated Di Wu after some hiccups in the middle to square the tie ... For the final rubber, Mahesh took a huge call and brought Prajnesh in place of Sumit ... Prajnesh played almost faultless tennis and dismantled Yibing ... Prajnesh solid start put pressure on Yibing and he never recovered from that ... So another chance for us playing in World group Play-off in September.

The Chinese changed a combination for the doubles and added in-form Ze Zhang in the place of Di Wu ... In the first set, we were early break up at 4-1 ... Chinese pair broke Lee in the 7th game to make it 4-all ... They again broke Lee in the 11th game, 5-6, and held after saving a break point for winning the set ... In the second set, we were up 2-0 but again Lee lost his serve, 2-1 ... Afterwards, both pairs held their respective service games, in the 12th game we missed couple of set points ... In the tie-break, Chinese took a mini-break on the 8th point for 3-5 but our pair showed their experience winning next 4 points, winning the 10th and the 11th points on Chinese serve, to take the match into the decider ... In the final set, we took an early 3-1 lead but this time Rohan lost his serve in the 6th game for 3-all ... After that both pairs held their respective service games for another tie-break ... We took a control from the start, we had a mini-break on the 1st point to lead 3-0 ... Then took another mini-break on the 9th point for 6-3 lead and converted the first match point for the important win ... With this doubles win Leander completes the most Davis cup doubles victories in the history.

In the fourth match, RamK faced Di Wu ... RamK started breaking Di in the 1st game to lead 2-0 ... After that RamK saved few break points on his service games ... He again broke Di in the 7th game to lead 5-2 and suddenly from here RamK's lost his focus ... He lost his serve twice while serving for the set in the 8th and the 10 the games, 5-all ... After that both players held their service game for taking in the tie-break ... RamK recovered and controlled the tie-break for winning the set ... In the second set, both players exchanged an early service breaks, twice ... RamK broke Di third time in the 6th game for taking 4-2 lead ... After that RamK held his service games twice for winning this rubber and bringing the tie to 2-all.

Mahesh took a very smart decision and introduced Prajnesh for the final rubber against in-form youngster Yibing Wu ... And Prajnesh delivered wholeheartedly in this match ... From the start he kept pressure on young Yibing, he broke Yibing in the 5th and the 7th games for 5-2 lead ... But lost his serve in the 8th game when serving for the set, Prajnesh held his serve in the 10th game for winning it ... Dominated start in the second set as Prajnesh broke Yibing in the 1st and thr 3rd games to lead 4-0 ... After that Prajnesh held his service games comfortably for memorable tie win for India.

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At $150K+H Santaizi Challenger 2018, Taipei, Taiwan

[Q1] (6) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,520) bt Wei-De Lin (TPE,1399) 76(2) 46 64
[Q1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,677) l (5) Shiuchi Sekiguchi (JPN,456) 46 57
[Q1] Sriram Balaji (IND,631) l Ray Ho (TPE,UNR) 67(4) 63 16

[Q2] (6) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,520) vs Shao-Fan Liu (TPE,1255)

[R1] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND,105) vs Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP,240)
[R1] (6) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs Qualifier
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,263) vs (PR) Saketh Myneni (IND,588)

Happy to see Yuki is still sticking to his plan of playing Santaizi challenger ... He will faced Spaniard Roberto Ortega-Olmedo ... RamK will facing an qualifier ... Prajnesh having a match against Saki.

In the qualifying, Sasi is seeded ... He started with a three sets win over local player Lin ... Facing another lower ranked local player in the second qualifying ... Vishnu lost against Sekiguchi in straight sets ... Junior WR #26 Ray Ho proved better against Bala, who lost in three sets.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Weightlifting - Men's 77 kg
Gold - Sathish Kumar Sivalingam (IND) (144+173) 317 kg
Silver - Jack Oliver (ENG) (145+167) 312 kg
Bronze - Francois Etoundi (AUS) (136+169) 305 kg

Weightlifting - Men's 85 kg
Gold - Ragala Venkat Rahul (IND) (151+187) 338 kg
Silver - Don Opeloge (SAM) (151+180) 331 kg
Bronze - Mohamad Fazrul Azrie Mohdad (MAS) (145+183) 328 kg

Sathish Kumar defended his Glasgow Gold in Men's Weightlifting 77 kg for India's 3rd Gold medal ... After the Snatch he was in the second position behind British lifter Jack Oliver, but in the Clean and Jerk he lifted 6 kg more than Jack to keep Commonwealth title with him.

R.V. Rahul won the fourth Gold medal for India in Men's Weightlifting 85 kg ... Rahul and Don Opeloge were tied for top position after the Snatch with 151 kg lift ... In the Clean and Jerk, Rahul lifted 187 kg which was a far better than Don for a win.

After end of the third day, India is on the 4th position with 4 golds, a silver and a bronze.

Golf News

At $11M The Masters 2018, Augusta, Georgia, USA

T58 Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 77 74 +7

In his first appearance on the Masters, Shubhankar missed a cut ... In the first round, he managed 5 over and in the second round his score was 2 over ... So he missed a cut by 2 shots as the cut applied at 5 over.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2018 - Asia / Oceania 2nd Round, Tianjin, China

India vs China 0-2

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) l Yibing Wu (CHN,332) 67(4) 46
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,213) l Ze Zhang (CHN,247) 46 16

China takes a hold of this tie after winning the first match ... China's gamble of playing Yibing was spot on as he defeated RamK in straight sets ... RamK struggled with his game and he wasn't moving well, may be due to cold weather ... He tried to finish points early but rushing towards net didn't work out.

Ze Zhang convincingly won his match against Sumit ... In the first set, Sumit tried to stretch Zhang, he broke Zhang when he was serving for the set, 3-5 ... Zhang won next six games, in that winning the first set and taking 0-5 lead in the second ... Overall lame performance from Sumit in this match ... A big mountain to climb for Indians on the second day, they need to win all three matches ... With their today's performance I doubt to win it all.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Kashiwa, Japan

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,212) l (2) Luksika Kumkhum (THA,103) 06 36

Ankita got overpowered by Thai girl Luksika Kumkhum ... Ankita managed to win only three games in this match ... Still, this quarter-final appearance will cement her place in top-200.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Weightlifting - Women's 53 kg
Gold - Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu (IND) (84+108) 192 kg (CGR)
Silver - Dika Toua (PNG) (80+102) 182 kg
Bronze - Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet (CAN) (81+100) 181 kg

Weightlifting - Men's 69 kg
Gold - Gareth Evans (WAL) (136+163) 299 kg
Silver - Indika Dissanayake (SRI) (137+160) 297 kg
Bronze - Deepak Lather (IND) (136+159) 295 kg

Sanjita Chanu gave us a second Gold in Women's Weightlifting 53 kg ... She won this event comfortably as she lifted 10 kg more than second place lifter ... Deepak Lather managed to with Bronze in Men's Weightlifting 69 kg category.

India ended the second day on the 5th position with 2 golds, a silver and a bronze.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup 2018 - Asia / Oceania 2nd Round, Tianjin, China

India vs China

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs Yibing Wu (CHN,332)
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,213) vs Ze Zhang (CHN,247)

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Di Wu (CHN)
[R4] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,132) vs Ze Zhang (CHN,247)
[R5] Sumit Nagal (IND,213) vs Yibing Wu (CHN,332)

Chinese team give surprise and playing young Yibing Wu on the first day ... He is facing RamK in the first rubber ... Sumit is facing an experienced Ze Zhang in the second match ... In the doubles, Gong and Di Wu r facing Lee-Rohan.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Kashiwa, Japan

[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,212) bt (Q) Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN,390) 62 61

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,212) vs (2) Luksika Kumkhum (THA,103)

Doubles
[QF] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) l Erina Hayashi (JPN)/ Momoko Kobori (JPN) 26 26
[QF] Alina Silich (RUS)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) l Kyoka Okamura (JPN)/ Ayaka Okuno (JPN) 46 76(2) 1-10

Ankita comfortably defeated Japanese Chihiro Muramatsu in straight sets ... I am impressed with Ankita's fitness as yesterday she was 4 hours and 30 mins on the court and still she managed to produce this dominating performance ... Next, she is having a tough match against WTA level player, Thai girl Luksika Kumkhum ... This is a tough match but this will also tell us Ankita's progress.

But in the doubles, Ankita and Chan lost easily against their Japanese opponents ... Karman and Silich lost in the match tie-break ... After winning the second set tie-break their Japanese opponents proved too strong in the match tie-break.

XXI Commonwealth Games

At the XXI Commonwealth Games - Gold Coast 2018, Australia

Weightlifting - Women's 48 kg
Gold - Saikhom Mirabai Chanu (IND) (86+110) 196 kg (CGR)
Silver - Marie Hanitra Roilya Ranaivosoa (MRI) (76+94) 170 kg
Bronze - Dinusha Gomes (SRI) (70+85) 155 kg

Weightlifting - Men's 56 kg
Gold - Azroy Hazalwafie (MAS) (117+144) 261 kg (GR)
Silver - Gururaja Poojary (IND) (111+138) 249 kg
Bronze - Chaturanga Lakmal (SRI) (114+134) 248 kg

As expected, Mirabai Chanu won Gold creating new Commonwealth record in Women's 48 kg weightlifting ... She was a lot better lifter than other lifters and lifted 26 kg more weight than the second place lifter ... Before that, Gururaja gave a first medal to India in 2018 Commonwealth Games, when he won Silver in Men's 56 kg weightlifting.

So after first day, India is on 7th position with a gold and a silver.

Tennis News

At $250K Abierto GNP Seguros 2018, Monterrey, Mexico

[R1] Nadia Podoroska (ARG)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) l (3) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Irina Khromacheva (RUS) 26 26

Prarthana and her partner Nadia Podoroska lost one-sided match against the third seed pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Kashiwa, Japan

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,212) bt (7) Fangzhou Liu (CHN,176) 16 64 75

[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,212) vs (Q) Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN,390)

Doubles
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) bt (1) Ksenia Lykina (RUS)/ Junri Namigata (JPN) 46 76(4) 10-5
[R1] Alina Silich (RUS)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) bt Haruna Arakawa (JPN)/ Ayano Shimizu (JPN) 75 36 10-4

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) vs Erina Hayashi (JPN)/ Momoko Kobori (JPN)
[QF] Alina Silich (RUS)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) vs Kyoka Okamura (JPN)/ Ayaka Okuno (JPN)

Ankita showed her improve confidence and tenacity in her long day on the court, almost 4 hours and 25 mins ... In the singles, she scored a comeback win against higher ranked Fangzhou Liu ... After losing the first set cheaply Ankita was a break down in the second set, 1-4 ... After that, Ankita won next 5 games for taking the match into the decider ... In the final set, Ankita was a break up at 4-2 but Liu tried fightback breaking Ankita in the 8th game and was leading 4-5 ... Ankita held her serve while serving for staying in the match and then broke Liu in the 11th game to lead 6-5 ... Ankita held her serve for winning the match in 2 hours and 35 mins ... Next, she is facing young Japanese Chihiro Muramatsu, who defeated Karman in the final qualifying.
In the doubles, Ankita and Chan scored an upset comeback win over top-seed pair in one hour and 25 mins ... Karman and her Russian partner Silich needed the match tie-break for their win over Japanese pair ... Next, Karman and Ankita r facing Japanese pairs with their respective partners.

Tennis News

At $250K Abierto GNP Seguros 2018, Monterrey, Mexico

[R1] Nadia Podoroska (ARG)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) vs (3) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Irina Khromacheva (RUS)

A tough match for Prarthana with her Argentine partner, Nadia Podoroska, against top-75 doubles players.

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At $50K+H Alicante Challenger 2018, Spain

[R1] (2) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Scott Clayton (GBR)/ David Pel (NED) 46 75 6-10

Divij and Begemann lost in the match tie-break against Pel and Clayton.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Kashiwa, Japan

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND)/ Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) vs (1) Ksenia Lykina (RUS)/ Junri Namigata (JPN)
[R1] Alina Silich (RUS)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) vs Haruna Arakawa (JPN)/ Ayano Shimizu (JPN)

Our both players having tough matches with their respective partners in the doubles.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Kashiwa, Japan

[Q2] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,273) l (13) Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN,389) 57 67(3)

[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,212) vs (7) Fangzhou Liu (CHN,176)

Karman struggled with her services and that cost her the match ... She lost in close two sets against Muramatsu.

Ankita is at her career best ranking, WR #212 ... She is facing former top-130 ranked Chinese girl, Fangzhou Liu.

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At ATP Rankings 2nd April 2018,

On the 2nd April updated ATP rankings list, our three players are climbed to their personal best rankings ... Ramkumar Ramanathan - WR #132, Sumit Nagal - WR #213 and Arjun Kadhe - WR #394 ... I wish, they will continue with their progress and achieve lot more in their career ... Yuki is also ranked WR #105, few places below of securing his place in the grand slam main-draw ... At wrong time an injury has struck, otherwise he was in a form of re-entering inside top-100 rankings.

Squash News

At PSA Men's Rankings April 2018,

Saurav Ghoshal has climbed to his personal best ranking, WR #13, after consistent performances in last few months ... I would love to see him crack inside top-10 world ranking.

Tennis News

At $50K+H Alicante Challenger 2018, Spain

[R1] (2) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Scott Clayton (GBR)/ David Pel (NED)

Divij has decided to skip Davis cup and playing in Alicante Challenger, partnering Andre Begemann.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Kashiwa, Japan

[Q1] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,273) bt Risa Ushijima (JPN,552) 63 61

[Q2] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,273) vs (13) Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN,389)

This week more tougher draw as Karman is top-seed in the qualifying ... She started with a comfortable win but having another tricky match against local player.