Tennis News
At Australian Open 2009, Melbourne

[Q1] (28) Somdev Devvarman (IND,154) bt Prakash Amritraj (IND,209) 64 36 64

[Q1] Sunitha Rao (IND,196) vs Melanie Oudin (USA,173)
[Q2] (28) Somdev Devvarman (IND,154) vs Lukasz Kubot (POL,207)

Very evenly contested match ... Som had 3 breaks in the match other hand Kash had 2 breaks ... Som started match breaking Kash's serve, then again he broke Kash's serve in 5th game to lead 4-1 but Kash broke next game to bring it back on 4-2 ... After that both player hold their serves so Somi won first set 6-4 in 47 minutes ... In second set Kash broke Som's serve in 4th game and that was the only break in second set ... Kash won second set 6-3 in 41 minutes ... Third set also was closely fought ... Where only break came when Kash was serving for stay in the match at 4-5.

So it was close match as we expected but Som came top in it ... After tomorrow's break Som will face Polish doubles specialist Lukasz Kubot in second qualifying round.

Sunitha having tough match against 17 yrs old Oudin, who is on her best ranking #173 ... Moreover Sunitha is less on match practice ... Let's hope best for her.
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At US$480,750 Heineken Open, Auckland, New Zealand

[R1] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) bt David Martin (USA)/ Igor Kunitsyn (RUS) 61 46 12(10)

[QF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) vs Nicolas Almagro (ESP)/ Ivan Navarro (ESP)

Lee and Lipsky had tough match after winning first set easily ... In super tie-break they needed to save one match point before moving to quarters, where they r facing Spanish team.
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At US$$484,750 Medibank International, Sydney, Australia

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt Bruno Soares (BRA)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 75 57 10(7)

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Pavel Vizner (CZE)

Good win in hard fought almost 2 hours long match ... Next they r facing experienced tricky pair. -----------------------------------------------------------
At US$220K Moorilla Hobart International, Hobart, Australia

[QF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Francesca Schiavone (ITA) l Edina Gallovita (ROU)/ Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP) 57 16

So lost opportunity of having some important match practice before Australian Open.