Tennis News
At € 1.995M Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell 2009, Spain

[QF] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt Lucas Arnold Ker (ARG)/ Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) 75 62

[SF] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

In this quarter-final match Mahesh and Mark saved 16 break points from 18 they faced ... And I think that was the key to their win ... In semis they r facing their old foe Bryans.
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At $15k India F3, New Delhi

Singles Final
(WC) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND,1460) bt (5) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,692) 76(1) 64

Doubles Final
(WC) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (4) Yuichi Ito (JPN)/ Raven Klaasen (RSA) 76(1) 76(7)

Yuki scored straight sets victory against Vishnu to lift his maiden title on Mens tour ... With this he becomes youngest ever Indian player at 16 years & 10 months to win futures tournament bettered Sanam Singh's record of 17 yrs & 11 months ... Match was close and in the beginning Yuki was playing very patchy game ... He broke Vishnu's serve in 2nd game to lead 2-0 in the first set but in next game he served 4 double faults to gifted his own service game to Vishnu ... Vishnu take crucial lead breaking Yuki's serve in 11th game and then he was serving for the match ... But in my view turning point of the match came at 30-15 in 12th game ... Yuki's forehand crosscourt shot called out by linsman but chair umpire Nitin Kannamwar overruled his decision and gave point to Yuki ... Vishnu tried to raise objection but Nitin Kannamwar sticked to his decision, so instead of facing 2 set points Yuki was 30-all ... Then he dominated game and won tie-break giving only 1 point to Vishnu ... From second set Vishnu was looking tired, mostly due to his 2 hrs 45 mins semi-final against top-seed ... Yuki broke his serve in 3rd game and then sustained the lead until end ... Yuki was cramping in the last game but he converted 3rd match point to win first futures title.

Impressed with Yuki's ability of playing important points ... He is having good solid groundstrokes and effective serve ... Definitely improvement in his game from last time I watched his match.

In doubles Indian wild-card pair Ashutosh and Srirambalaji won title beating 4th seed Japanese pair in 2 tie-breaks.
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Davis Cup 2009,

Tennis Australia says it will not allow its team to travel to India for a scheduled Davis Cup match in May due to security concerns.

Tennis Australia take this decision after ITF (The International Tennis Federation) on Friday rejected Australia's appeal against playing in India and upheld the decision to hold the match in Chennai as originally planned from May 8-10 ... The winner of the Asia-Oceania Group 1 third-round match will advance to the World Group playoffs in September.

Australians raising unnecessary controversy and I insist ITF should take strict action against them which they mentioned, ban from Davis Cup competition for a year and fined US $100,000 if it refuses to play its tie with India in Chennai.