Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

Final
(4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) 36 63 62

Yesterday Leander Paes lifted his 6th doubles Grand slam title and 3rd US Open title ... Partnering Czech Lukas Dlouhy this was his second grand slam title of the year, they already won French Open 09 ... Lee and Lukas completed superb comeback victory after losing first set ... So this was also missed chance for Mahesh Bhupathi to win his 5th doubles grand slam title ... In last 7 yrs he didn't win any Mens doubles title, his last Mens doubles title was at 2002 US Open with Max Mirnyi.

Last year also Leander reached finals of Mens doubles and Mixed doubles finals and after losing Mens doubles title he won Mixed doubles title, this year he did vice-versa winning Mens doubles title after losing Mixed doubles title.

Mahesh and Knowles had a good start by breaking Paes in the 2nd game to take 2-0 lead but Lee and Lukas immediately broke Mark's serve and make it 2-all ... Mahesh and Mark again broke Lee's serve in 6th game and this time Mark hold to gave them lead of 5-2 ... Then Mahesh served for the set with easy hold.

In second set also Mahesh and Knowles had excellent start .. They broke Dlouhy serve in the first game and then Mahesh hold his serve to 2-0 lead ... But then Lee played really very inspiring game on net and from backside of the court to brought them into the match ... They won next 4 games to lead first time in the match ... Lee played amazing service returns on Mahesh's serve in 6th game and converted 5th break point for first time breaking Mahesh's serve in the match to lead 4-2 ... I feel this was turning point of the match as after that Lee and Lukas were complementing each other games ... In next service game Mahesh and Mark again broke Lee's serve to bring it on serves ... But again Lee and Lukas broke Mark's serve and then Lukas hold his serve to won second set on third set point.

In third set Lee and Lukas were playing with the momentum, errors from Mark and Mahesh gave crucial break for Lee and Lukas ... In next game Lee and Lukas saved 3 break point chances before holding their serve ... In 7th game they again broke Mark's serve and then hold their serve on luv to scored very entertaining and emotional victory.

Motorsport News
At 2009 Formula 1 Monza Race, Italy

Adrian Sutil finished on 4th position in Monza race and give true indication how much Force India car improved in last few weeks ... On consecutive weeks they were in battle for podium finish, though this time they missed but Adrian Sutil was matching Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen on the track ... Both were fighting for 4th place but Lewis Hamilton crashed his car on corner in last lap to gave Kimi podium finish and Sutil deserving 4th place.

So this finish opened point account of Adrian Sutil, who recieved 5 points for 4th position finish ... But Force India's other driver Vitantonio Liuzzi retired on 22nd lap.
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Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

Junior
[QF] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) l Chase Buchanan (USA,212) 36 67(4)

Chase Buchanan scored upset win over Yuki ... In last 2 matches Yuki couldn't reproduced same game which he showed in first 2 rounds ... Disappointing loss as hoping if not title then at least appearance in the final ... But may be junior matches moved to indoor courts hampered Yuki's game as he didn't have experience of playing on indoor courts.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

MXD Final
(3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Cara Black (RSA) l (WC) Carly Gullickson (USA)/ Travis Parrott (USA) 26 46

Junior
[R3] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) bt Jack Sock (USA,1015) 64 63

[QF] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) vs Chase Buchanan (USA,212)

Lee and Cara were struggling from start of the match ... They tried comeback in second set but Parrott was too strong near the net and Carly Gullickson matched his game with her good service games and game from back of the court ... So overall deserving victory for wild card American pair, who completed their dream like US Open with mixed doubles title win.

So this was first time where Yuki tested by his unheard opponent ... This match was going on for an hour in that Yuki broke Sock's serve 5 times from 12 chances but Sock also broke Yuki's serve twice from 4 chances ... Next Yuki is facing American Chase Buchanan, who was ranked #6 in Junior WR ranking in March 2009 ... This is his first junior tournament of the year as he stopped playing in juniors from January 2009 ... He regularly played in US futures and this year he received wild card for US Open men's main draw ... Where he lost against Tsonga ... So this can be good match for Yuki.
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At $50K+H Seville Challenger, Spain (yellow clay)

[SF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt (1) Santiago Ventura (ESP)/ Reuben Ramirez-Vidalgo (ESP) 62 63

[F] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Alberto Brizzi (ITA)/ Simone Vagnozzi (ITA)

Very impressive convincing win by Harsh and Huey against top-seed local pair ... So they r in their second consecutive Challenger final, that's also on clay ... Now it would be great if they finishes of with title this week.
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At $50K St Remy de Provence Challenger, France

[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Olivier Charroin (FRA) bt Nicholas Mahut (FRA)/ Sebastien De Chaunac (FRA) 63 64

Good dominating win against tricky French pair for Rohan and Olivier.
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At $10K ITF Womens Tournament, Bangalore, India

Semi Final
(1) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND) bt (4) Keren SHLOMO (ISR) 64 62
(5) Sanaa BHAMBRI (IND) l (7) Dalila JAKUPOVIC (SLO) 36 46

So another Indian futures final for Poojashree ... But Sanaa couldn't make all Indians final.
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At $ 10K Burundi F1 Futures (clay)

[R1] (4) Rupesh ROY (IND,694) bt Sunday EMMANUEL (NGR,996) 76(2) 76(3)
[R1] (Q) Himananshu MALI (IND,UNR) bt Issa CUMA (BDI,NR) 75 76(5)

[R2] (4) Rupesh ROY (IND,694) bt Mauricio ALVAREZ-GUZMAN (CHI,1341) 64 64
[R2] (Q) Himananshu MALI (IND,UNR) l (7) Marco DIERCKX (BEL,898) 36 46

[QF] (4) Rupesh ROY (IND,694) bt (6) Motaz ABOU EL KHAIR (EGY,856) 60 61

[SF] (4) Rupesh ROY (IND,694) vs (2) Adam VEJMELKA (CZE,565)

Rupesh is playing on clay at Burundi and happy to see he is performing as per his seedings ... Hoping for upset win against Vejmelka.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[SF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 64 36 76(6)
[SF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt (5) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Andy Ram (ISR) 64 62

Junior
[R2] John Morrissey (IRL)/ Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) l Marton Fucsovics (HUN)/ Cheng Peng Hsieh (TPE) 64 36 (4)10

Very tentative start for Lee in the first set ... He was struggling with backhand slice returns on Bryans service games ... But otherhand Lukas was playing excellent game ... He single handedly broke Bryan's serve in 7th game and then they hold their serve to won first set ... In first game of second set our pair had break point on Bob Bryan's serve but they failed to convert it ... Bryans broke Lee's serve in 4th game and that single break was enough for them to grab second set ... In third set Lukas saved couple of break points in first game ... Bryans didn't lose a single point on their serve in their first 3 service games ... In 7th game Lee was down 0-40 due to some unforced errors, he really needed to dig deep to come out of this hole ... He saved 4 break points before holding his serve ... At that time Dlouhy was making too many errors ... At 5-4 on Bob's serve Lee and Lukas had first match point on 30-40 but Lukas hit weak return in the net ... Then set moved to tie-break as both pairs hold their serves ... Lee and Lukas started tie-break on bang ... They broke Bob's service twice to lead 5-0 ... On 5-2 Lukas won first point on his serve to gave 4 match points ... And from here real fun began ... Again Lukas made unforced errors in this crucial moment ... Bryans returned mini-break to make it 6-3 and then Bob won next 2 points on his own serve to make it 6-5 ... Then Bob hit superb return on Lee's serve to make it 6-all ... Then Lee hold his next serve, this was their 6th match point ... Next on Mike's serve Lukas hit 2 excellent lobs and that created chance for Lee, who won point with backhand volley on middle of the court ... With that Lee and Lukas in the final of US Open ... Lee and Lukas also take revenge of last year's final loss against Bryans.

Otherhand very easy victory for 3rd seed Mahesh and Mark against 5th seed Mirnyi and Ram ... Mahesh and Mark dominated this 1 hour 16 minutes match ... In this match they faced 2 break points and save both, but they created 4 break points chances on Mirnyi and Ram's service games and converted 3 .. So in the US Open 2009 final Mahesh and Lee r facing eachother with their respective partners.

But in Juniors doubles Sudanwa lost with Irish partner in super tie-break.
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At $50K+H Seville Challenger, Spain (yellow clay)

[QF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Jose Checa-Calvo (ESP)/ Gabriel Trujillo-Soler (ESP) 76(5) 75

[SF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs (1) Santiago Ventura (ESP)/ Reuben Ramirez-Vidalgo (ESP)

Very good win by Harsh and Huey over local pair ... So this 3 weeks European clay tour gives Harsh more success than he expected ... He will be back around #140 in next week's doubles ranking.
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At $10K ITF Womens Tournament, Bangalore, India


Quarter Final
(1) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND) bt Treta BHATTACHARYYA (IND) 60 Retd
(4) Keren SHLOMO (ISR) bt (8) Chun-Yan HE (CHN) 62 64
(5) Sanaa BHAMBRI (IND) bt (3) Isha LAKHANI (IND) 62 75
(7) Dalila JAKUPOVIC (SLO) bt Elodie ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA) 26 63 64

Second Round
(1) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND) bt Aishwarya AGRAWAL (IND) 61 3-0 Retired
Treta BHATTACHARYYA (IND) bt (6) Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) 62 46 62
(4) Keren SHLOMO (ISR) bt Rishika SUNKARA (IND) 75 64
(8) Chun-Yan HE (CHN) bt Shivika BURMAN (IND) 61 36 63
(5) Sanaa BHAMBRI (IND) bt Nimisha MOHAN (IND) 63 64
(3) Isha LAKHANI (IND) bt Prerna BHAMBRI (IND) 63 60
(7) Dalila JAKUPOVIC (SLO) bt Sheethal GOUTHAM (IND) 26 63 61
Elodie ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA) bt Moe KAWATOKO (JPN) 75 60

First Round
(1) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND) bt Subbadharmi SUNDARAM (USA) 60 60
Aishwarya AGRAWAL (IND) bt Nicola MOONEY (GBR) 63 63
Treta BHATTACHARYYA (IND) bt Tegan EDWARDS (RSA) 63 64
(6) Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) bt Anushree THAMMANNA (IND) 16 61 60
(4) Keren SHLOMO (ISR) bt Stephanie THEILER (SUI) 61 62
Rishika SUNKARA (IND) bt Ashvarya SHRIVASTAVA (IND) 26 76(3) 64
Shivika BURMAN (IND) bt Natalia PEREPADENKO (ESP) 4-4 Retd
(8) Chun-Yan HE (CHN) bt Jade HOPPER (AUS) 76(3) 63
(5) Sanaa BHAMBRI (IND) bt Adnya NAIK (IND) 62 62
Nimisha MOHAN (IND) bt Shweta KAKHANDKI GADIGEPPA (IND) 64 60
Prerna BHAMBRI (IND) bt Asha NANDA KUMAR (IND) 63 62
(3) Isha LAKHANI (IND) bt Kumari-Sweta SOLANKI (IND) 61 62
(7) Dalila JAKUPOVIC (SLO) bt Carla VENTICINQUE-TORRES (ESP) 61 60
Sheethal GOUTHAM (IND) bt Prathana PRATHAP (IND) 61 60
Elodie ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA) bt Jasmin STEINHERR (GER) 61 6
Moe KAWATOKO (JPN) bt (2) Anastasia MALHOTRA (JPN) 63 63

It looks Poojashree's opponents r happy to retired in fear of getting double bagel ... ;) Good win by Sanaa over Isha ... Now interesting to see if Poojashree and Sanaa able to make it another all Indian final.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[QF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt (7) Wesley Moodie (RSA)/ Dick Norman (BEL) 63 57 64
[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) 64 46 76(4)

[SF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)
[SF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs (5) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Andy Ram (ISR)

MXD
[SF] (1) Maheash Bhupathi (IND)/ Liazel Huber (USA) l Carly Gullickson (USA)/ Travis Parrott (USA) 36 46
[SF] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Cara Black (RSA) bt (5) Kevin Ullyett (ZIM)/ Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) 62 36 10(5)

[F] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Cara Black (RSA) vs Carly Gullickson (USA)/ Travis Parrott (USA)

Junior
[R2] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) bt Sandro Ehrat (SUI,47) 60 61

[R3] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) vs Jack Sock (USA,1015)

[R1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) l Evan King (USA)/ Denis Kudla (USA) 63 26 (6)10
[R1] John Morrissey (IRL)/ Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) bt Gonzales Austin (USA)/ Bjorn Fratangelo (USA) 46 63 10(5)

[R2] John Morrissey (IRL)/ Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) vs Marton Fucsovics (HUN)/ Cheng Peng Hsieh (TPE)

Yuki is crushing his opponents in early rounds ... Today he won in 44 minutes breaking his Swiss opponent's serve 6 times and saved only a single break point which he faced on his own serve ... With this performance Yuki is showing his improvement in last few months and his experience of playing on men's tour.

Lee and Lukas won first set little easily saving few break points on their serve and started with break in second set to up 2-0 ... But Norman and Moodie came back strongly breaking Lukas's serve ... They again saved break point on Norman's serve and broke Lukas's serve in 12th game to won second set ... In decider again Lee and Lukas started breaking Norman's serve in first game ... With another break on Norman's serve Lee and Lukas were leading 5-1 ... After Moodie comfortably holding his serve Lukas couldn't managed to hold his serve for win match ... Norman saved match point on his serve to make score 5-4 ... This time Lee served out to win match in 2 hours 10 minutes.

In semis they r facing top-seed Bryans ... To win match against them Lukas also need to serve better.

Mahesh and Mark won first set taking important break in 9th game ... In second set Mahesh and Mark were up with early break but Ljubicic and Llodra broke back to bring on serve ... Ljubicic and Llodra again broke them in 10th game to won second set ... Third set was very tight where no pair gave any chance to other but Mahesh and Mark used their experience in tie-break to moved into semis ... They will face pair of Mad Max and Ram who defeated 2nd seed Nestor and Zimo winning decider 6-0.

In MXD semis, Lee and Cara scripted another victory in super tie-break after again losing second set ... But Mahesh and Huber wasn't that lucky, they lost match in straight sets against unseeded American pair.

In Junior double top-seed pair of Yuki and Huang lost first round match in super tie-break after winning first set against local pair ... Sudanwa did reversal with his Irish partner defeating local pair after losing first set.
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At $50K+H Seville Challenger, Spain (yellow clay)


[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Andoni Vivanco-Guzman (ESP)/ James Ward (GBR) W/O

[QF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Jose Checa-Calvo (ESP)/ Gabriel Trujillo-Soler (ESP)

Lucky break to Harsh and Huey, who recieved walkover in first round ... Next they r facing Spanish pair who defeated 4th seed pair in first round.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R3] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Julian Knowle (AUT)/ Jurgen Melzer (AUT) 75 64
[R3] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Dudi Sela (ISR) 64 64

[QF] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs (7) Wesley Moodie (RSA)/ Dick Norman (BEL)
[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs Ivan Ljubicic (CRO)/ Michael Llodra (FRA)

MXD
[QF] (1) Liezel Huber(USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (8) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 64 63
[QF] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (7) Rennae Stubbs (AUS)/ Robert Lindstedt (SWE) 75 63 10(6)

[SF] (1) Maheash Bhupathi (IND)/ Liazel Huber (USA) vs Carly Gullickson (USA)/ Travis Parrott (US)
[SF] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Cara Black (RSA) vs (5) Kevin Ullyett (ZIM)/ Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)

Junior
[R1] Sudanwa Sitaram (IND,72) l Alexander Domijan (USA,17) 36 63 57

Lee and Lukas scored tight sets victory over tricky Austrian pair in 1 hr 26 mins ... In this match they converted 3 break point chances from 5 and saved 2 break point chances from 3 on their own serve ... They r facing Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman in quarters, whom they defeated to lift French Open title.

Mahesh and Mark also moved into quarter beating Lu and Sela in 71 minutes ... Though they won match in straight sets but it was close ... Mahesh and Mark converted 5 break point chances from 6 against 3 converted by Lu and Sela from 5.

Super performance by Lee and Mahesh in MXD with their respective partners to reached semis ... Mahesh and Huber scored straight sets victory over Zimo and Mattek ... But Lee and Cara stretched to super tie-break by their Aussie-Swedish opponent.

Terrific match by Sudanwa against Jr WR #17 ... I was also hoping he pulled this one after leading 4-2 in the final set ... But Domijan fought back in the match, still very creditable performance by Sudanwa, who saved first match point but lost to second ... Sudanwa should think of joining US college tennis to improve his game and fitness, may be Bhupathi help him to do that as he is training at his academy.
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At $50K+H Seville Challenger, Spain (yellow clay)

[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) vs Andoni Vivanco-Guzman (ESP)/ James Ward (GBR)

Hopefully they will continue with their good run from last week.
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At $50K St Remy de Provence Challenger, France

[R1] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Olivier Charroin (FRA) bye

So this is last practice tournament before South Africa Davis cup tie for Rohan.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Daniel Nestor (Canada) l Carly Gullickson (USA)/ Travis Parrott (USA) 16 46

Junior
[R1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) bt Jordan Cox (USA,38)

With this one-sided loss Sania's challenge got over in US Open ... She must be disappointed with her performance in this final grand slam of the year.

What a start for Yuki to dismissed this year's Junior Wimbledon finalist in the first round ... He literally thrashed his opponent with his improved game ... He broke Cox's serve twice in the first set and thrice in second set.
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At $35K+H Como Challenger, Italy (clay)

Final
(3) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) l (4) Marco Crugnola (ITA)/ Alessandro Motti (ITA) 67(3) 26

Missed title by Harsh and Huey ... Though creditable performance by this pair but was hoping title from them after reaching the final.
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Volleyball News
At 2009 FIVB Boys Youth Volleyball World Championship, Jesolo - Bassano del Grappa, Italy

For 7th Position
India bt Italy 26-28 25-23 25-21 25-16

So again we defeated host Italy to grab 7th position, I would luv if we finished on higher position as we had our chances in matches against Argentina and Spain ... But still creditable finish on 7th position, this finish was our second best result in u-17 World Championship after we finished on 2nd position in 2003 championship.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R2] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Nicolas Almagro (ESP)/ Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) 62 63
[R2] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Rik de Voest (RSA) l Robert Kendrick (USA)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 26 63 57
[R2] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt Jesse Levine (USA)/ Ryan Sweeting (USA) 75 62

[R3] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Julian Knowle (AUT)/ Jurgen Melzer (AUT)
[R3] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Dudi Sela (ISR)

MXD
[R2] (1) Liezel Huber(USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Jill Craybas (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA) 63 63
[R2] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Flavia Pennetta (ITA)/ Dusan Vemic (SRB) 64 64

Junior
[R1] (1) Yuki Bhambri (IND,1) vs Jordan Cox (USA,38)
[R1] Sudanwa Sitaram (IND,72) vs Alexander Domijan (USA,17)

Very comfortable win by Lee and Lukas over Spanish pair to moved into third round ... This is good performance by them as they entered into this US Open playing only one tournament togethar on hard court after Wimbledon.

In second set Lee and Lukas were 3-0 up and had couple of break point chances to move 4-0 but they messed those and gave chance to Spanish team to comeback on serve at 4-3 ... Again they broke opponent in nexst game to win set and match.

Mahesh and Mark also won comfortably in second set after winning first set tightly ... In MXD our seeded pairs had easy passage to next round.

Junior draw is out ... Yuki playing his second junior grandslam of the year after missing French Open and Wimbledon due to injury ... He is facing local boy in first round ... Sudanwa is only other Indian in singles draw, he is facing top-20 local boy in first round.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R2] (14) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Francesca Schiavone (ITA) l Gisela Dulko (ARG)/ Shahar Peer (ISR) 26 61 57

MXD
[R1] (1) Liezel Huber(USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Vania King (USA)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA) 75 60

[R2] (1) Liezel Huber(USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Jill Craybas (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA)

In somewhat upset Sania and Schiavone lost in 3 sets ... After losing first set they won second easily but couldn't maqnage to kept that winning momentum in third.

Top-seed Huber and Mahesh started with win ... After closely fought first set they blanked opponents in second set.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R2] (Q) Somdev Devverman (IND,162) l (23) Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER,24) 36 46 60 26

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO) 63 64
[R1] (14) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Francesca Schiavone (ITA) bt Ekaterina Dzehalevich (BLR)/ Renata Voracova (CZE) 57 75 61

[R2] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Nicolas Almagro (ESP)/ Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP)
[R2] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Rik de Voest (RSA) vs Robert Kendrick (USA)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)
[R2] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs Jesse Levine (USA)/ Ryan Sweeting (USA)
[R2] (14) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Francesca Schiavone (ITA) vs Gisela Dulko (ARG)/ Shahar Peer (ISR)

MXD
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Daniel Nestor (Canada) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/ Ashley Fisher (AUS) 63 61
[R1] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Patty Schnyder (SUI)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) 64 36 11(9)

[R2] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Flavia Pennetta (ITA)/ Dusan Vemic (SRB)

Second set was close but Somdev blanked Kohlschreiber in third set ... We should give credit to Kohlschreiber, who dominated first and fourth sets ... Still very encouraging performance by Buji ... Who will climb around 140 in new ATP ranking.

Match was very close, check points difference Somdev lost points battle by 111-116 ... He also managed to convert only 4 of the 20 break point chances he created ... But I m very happy with his performance, he is showing he can compete with top-50 players.

After losing first set 57 Sania and Schiavone were 3-5 down but they made comeback to win next 4 games ... Third set they totally dominated to move into third.

Mahesh and Mark started with very clinical win against Cerretani and Zovko ... In MXD Sania and Nestor scored very one-sided victory over their opponent ... In other match Lee and Cara struggled against tricky pair of Schnyder and Moodie ... After winning first set Schnyder and Moodie dominated the match ... They won second set and in super tie-break Lee and Cara were leading 5-1 but again Schnyder and Moodie made comeback ... But Lee and Cara managed to win crucial last couple of points to scored win.
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At $10K India F9 Futures, New Delhi

At $10K India F9 Futures, New Delhi

Final
(2) Young-Jun KIM (KOR) bt (6) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) 63 61

Semi Finals
(6) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) bt Ashutosh SINGH (IND) 16 64 63
(2) Young-Jun KIM (KOR) bt (4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 62 62

Kim won 2nd title in 3 weeks easily beating his Japanese opponent.

Before that Indian challenge got over in singles semis ... Ashutosh managed to stretch it to third set bur Ranjeet lost in easy 2 sets against Kim.

Rohan Gajjar won doubles title with Britisher Chris Eaton beating top-seed pair of Vishnu Vardhan and Ashutosh Singh in 2 tie-breaks, 76(6) 76(3).

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,74) l (10) Flavia Pennetta (ITA,10) 06 06

[R1] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Rik de Voest (RSA) bt (14) Jordan Kerr (AUS)/ Ashley Fisher (AUS) 76(4) 64

Today Sania was humiliated by Flavia Pennetta ... She was got double bagels and I don't remember when last time she lost with such scoreline.

Onlookers reported Sania was getting killed in this match as she wasn't manage to keep ball on the court ... Too many unforced errors and Pennetta only needed to keep ball on the court as Sania was taking care of giving free points to her ... Sania lost first set in no-time ... Second set wasn't different, Sania didn't learn from her first set mistake ... And kept hitting ball all over the park ... Sania lost match in 50 minutes ... Pennetta won 54 points and from those 28 points were unforced errors from Sania ... This info definitely sum up the whole match.

I still believe Sania is better player than score suggest ... I really wish she does not demoralised with this defeat but she should take break from the tour ... And go to square one to remove these basic flaws from the game and improve fitness.
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At $35K+H Como Challenger, Italy (clay)

[QF] (3) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Ilya Bellyaev (RUS)/ Evgeni Donskoy (RUS) 76(2) 62

Harsh and Huey scored another good win against Russian pair ... Good showing on clay by our pair.
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At $10K India F9 Futures, New Delhi


Quarter Finals
(6) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) bt (Q) Karunuday SINGH (IND) 26 62 75
Ashutosh SINGH (IND) bt (5) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) 46 63 62
(4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (8) Rupesh ROY (IND) 61 62
(2) Young-Jun KIM (KOR) bt Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 36 64 61

Our only 2 players reached into semis .. Ranjeet scored very easy win over Rupesh ... Ashutosh defeated Rohan in 3 sets ... Jeevan won first set against Korean but then Kim played solid game to won next 2 ... Karunuday played excellent match against Kento Takeuchi ... He won first set easily and after losing 2nd set he fought well into third ... But Takeuchi won this match and taking full advantage of yesterday's lucky escape.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R1] (ALT) Rajeev Ram (USA,114) l (Q) Josselin Ouanna (FRA,103) 67(4) 46 63 46

[R1] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Victor Hanescu (ROU)/ Gabriel Trifu (ROU) 76(11) 76(4)
[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs James Cerretani (USA)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO)
[R1] (14) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Francesca Schiavone (ITA) vs Ekaterina Dzehalevich (BLR)/ Renata Voracova (CZE)

MXD
[R1] (1) Liezel Huber(USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Vania King (USA)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA)
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Daniel Nestor (Canada) vs Akgul Amanmuradova (UZB)/ Ashley Fisher (AUS)
[R1] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Patty Schnyder (SUI)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA)

Good to see they pulled off victory in 2 tight sets ... This time also they r participating in grandslam with lack of match practice ... So first few rounds r important for them.

In MXD, Mahesh and Huber r top seed, Lee and Cara r 2nd seed.
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Tennis News
At $10K India F9 Futures, New Delhi

Second Round
(Q) Karunuday SINGH (IND) bt (Q) Seong-Yoon CHUNG (KOR) 64 61
(6) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 16 6-5 Retd
Ashutosh SINGH (IND) bt Max JONES (GBR) 64 2-0 Retd
(5) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Rohan GIDE (IND) 5-1 Retd
(8) Rupesh ROY (IND) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND) 67(1) 62 61
(4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Johnny ARCILLA (PHI) 76(4) 26 60
Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (Q) Yew-Ming SI (MAS) 36 64 76(5)
(2) Young-Jun KIM (KOR) bt (Q) Mithun MURALI (IND) 61 64

Jeevan scored very good fighting comeback win against Malaysian ... Karunuday also moved to quarters scoring win over Korean qualifier ... Other results were expected, though some of them were due to retirements ... So 6 Indians r in quarters.
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At $10K ITF Tournament, Nothanburi, Thailand

[R2] Kumari-Sweta SOLANKI (IND,802) l Sophia MULSAP (THA,939) 46 26

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devverman (IND,162) bt Frederico Gil (POR,106) 63 64 63
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,74) bt Olga Govortsova (BEL,65) 62 36 63

[R2] (Q) Somdev Devverman (IND,162) vs (23) Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER,24)
[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,74) vs (10) Flavia Pennetta (ITA,10)

Today history is made first-time in open era our players are in second round of the grandslam tournament in Men's and Women's draw in same grandslam ... And after 1997 first-time our men's player reached second round at US Open ... Great day for Indian tennis.

Somdev started his first main draw grandslam match very positively ... From start he was keeping pressure on Gil's serve, he had couple of break point chances in 3rd game on Gil's serve but first break came after 3-all ... Somi broke Gil's serve to lead 4-3 and after holding his serve he again broke Gil's serve in 9th game to won first set ... In second set Som saved 2 break points on his serve but broke Som's serve in 3rd game to lead 1-3 ... Somi made comeback breaking Gil's serve in th game to make it 3-all ... And Somi broke Gil's serve in 10th game to won second set on 2nd set point ... Again Somi broke Gil's serve to won match is straight sets ... So winning debut for Somi in the grandslam main draw ... Next he is facing 23rd seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber, who is also like to play quick on the court.

Sania also started well breaking Olga's serve in 3rd game to lead 2-1 ... Then she again broke Olga in 5th game to lead 4-1 and with these 2 breaks Sania won first set 6-2 ... In second set Olga had good start breaking Sania's serve in 2nd game to lead 0-2 ... As per report both players played ugly tennis ... Both were struggling to hold their service with erratic shots so in end it turned out who will make less errors was going to win match ... After losing second set Sania won third to move into second round.
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At $35K+H Como Challenger, Italy (clay)

[R1] (3) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Treat Huey (PHI) bt Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA)/ Alberto Brizzi (ITA) 63 76(6)

Good winning start for Harsh and Huey on clay against local players.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[Q3] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) bt Jerzy Janowicz (POL,229) 63 52

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devverman (IND,161) vs Frederico Gil (POR,110)
[R1] (WC) Rajeev Ram (USA,117) vs (Q) Josselin Ouanna (FRA,103)

As expected Somi take little time to win against teenage Polish opponent ... This will be Somi's first maindraw appearence in grandslam ... Before this Somi failed to qualify for all 3 grandslams ... He also becomes the first Indian to qualify for the US Open mens' singles main draw since 2002.

Buji playing Portugese Frederico Gil ... Who is similar player like Somi, who is also counter puncher so not a easy match for Somi ... This year Gil having victories over players like Lubicic, Almagro, Karlovic etc.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[Q3] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) vs Jerzy Janowicz (POL,229) 63 5-2 (15-all)

Match was suspended due to heavy rain when Somi was only 3 points away from making history ... They predicted rains for 2 days, hopefully Somi's match get finished on Saturday otherwise we need to wait until Sunday for final result.

In this final qulifying match Somi started well breaking Janowicz serve into second game ... Somi saved one break point on his serve in 5th game but otherwise both players hold their serve easily ... So with single break Smi won first set ... In second set Somi was on hurry and Take double break to lead 4-1 and at 5-2 match was stopped due to heavy rain when he was serving for the match.
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At $75+H Manerbio Challenger, Italy (clay)

[SF] (3) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Frank Moser (GER) l Alessio Di Mauro (ITA)/ Simone Vagnozzi (ITA) 46 46

So Rohan and Frank lost against same pair who defeated Harsh and his Italian partner in first round ... Rohan and Franks were only seeded pair in the semis.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, New Delhi

Final
(2) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt (1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 64 63

In end very clinical performance by Yuki to lift another futures tite beating Vishnu ... Well done Yuki.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[Q2] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) bt Igor Sijsling (NED,305) 63 67(6) 63

[Q3] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) vs Jerzy Janowicz (POL,229)

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,71) vs Olga Govortsova (BEL,64)

Somdev started well breaking Sijsling's serve in 4th game and that single break was enough to win first set ... It looks Sijsling was matching Somi's game with duel from baseline ... He broke Somi's serve in 4th game and Somi was down 1-4 ... But Somi fought back and broke Sijsling's serve in 7th game .. Set was back on serve ... In tie-break Somi take minibreak in first point but afterwards Sijsling won 5 points on a row to gave himself 4 set points at 6-2 ... Somi saved all 4 set points to 6-all but again Sijsling won next point and grabbed 5th set point to take second set ... Sijsling was looking on roll as he broke Som's serve in first game but Somi roared back breaking Sijsling's serve in next game ... In 5th game Somi saved a break point on his serve and that turned to be turning point ... As in next game Somi broke Sijsling's serve to lead 4-2 and then hold serve easily to moved into final qualifying round ... In end match turned out to be very competitive than we expected ... Why I commented that Sijsling seems to having similar game as somdev's as in this match each players had hardly 3 or 4 unforced errors which is quite remarkable.

Next Somi is playing 18 yrs old Polish Jerzy Janowicz also known as 'next Ivo Karlovic' on tour, who looks talented with his steady rise in ranking and more importantly if we checks his losses which are 57 or 67 in third set ... So Somi need to play his A game against this talented youngster.
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At $50K Almaty Challenger, Kazakhstan

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) bt Rylan Rizza (USA)/ Jose (rubin) Statham (NZL) 64 62

[SF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) l (2) Denys Molchanov (UKR)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 16 46

Purav and Sadik won their quarter-final match easily but they also lost their semis very easily against 2nd seed pair... But still good showing by Purav and Sadik in $50K challenger.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, New Delhi


Semi Finals
(1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (3) Young-Jun KIM (KOR) 4-2 Retd
(2) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Krishananth BALAKRISHNAN (AUS) 62 64

Vishnu overcome over Young-Jun Kim, who was on hot-streak winning 8 matches on a row in last 2 weeks, as he retired from the match ... Other hand Yuki scored easy straight sets victory over Australian Balakrishnan.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,253) l (31) Alejandro Falla (COL,159) 67(5) 64 36
[Q1] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) bt (16) Alex Bogomolov Jr (USA,133) 63 63

[Q2] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) vs Igor Sijsling (NED,305)

In first set until 3-all both players hold their serves ... Somi broken Bogy's serve in 7th game then hold his serve and again broke Bogy's serve to won first set ... In second set Somi started well breaking Bogy's serve in 2nd and 4th games to lead 4-0 ... Bogy broke Somi's serve in 5th game to make score 4-1 and tried fight back but after that Somi didn't give any chance to Bogy and hold his next service games easily to won match in straight sets.

From 3-all in first set Buji won 7 games on a row to take control of the match ... Clinical performance by Somi in which he broke his opponent 4/4, twice in each set to win matchin 75 minutes

I think Sijsling is an alternate payer who must taken Canas' spot, who most probably had 'no show' status at US Open qualifying.

Kash was early break down, he fought back breaking Falla's serve and taking set to tie-break ... But their he lost crucial points to lose set ... In second set Kash was break down to 1-4 but then he won next 5 games to won second set and I thought Kash's comeback ... But my excitement was for short period as again Kash found break down at 1-3 and that break was enough for Fella and he won set and match with 6-3 final set score.
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At $75+H Manerbio Challenger, Italy


[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Alessandro Motti (ITA) l Alessio Di Mauro (ITA)/ Simone Vagnozzi (ITA) 46 46
[R1] (3) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Frank Moser (GER) bt Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Philipp Oswald (AUT) 63 64

Bad start for Harsh's 3 weeks Europe tour ... Next 2 weeks Harsh will be playing with Somi's college partner, Treat Huey ... Rohan and Frank started with comfortable first round win.

Tennis News
At US Open 2009, New York

[Q1] Somdev Devverman (IND,161) vs (16) Alex Bogomolov Jr (USA,133)
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,253) vs (31) Alejandro Falla (COL,159)

Our both players aren't seeded in US Open qualifying draw becoz they failed to defend ranking points which they accumulated last year ... But still decent draw for them ... If Somi wins his first qualifying round match then he can meet former top-10 Argentine Guillermo Canas in second qualifying round ... Tough match-up but if player want to move up on ladder then he need to beat these type of players.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, New Delhi

First Round
(1) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 75 63
Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (Q) Yannick NELORD (IND) 63 63
Johnny ARCILLA (PHI) bt (Q) Yew-Ming SI (MAS) 46 75 61
(7) Peter LUCASSEN (NED) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND) 75 63
(3) Young-Jun KIM (KOR) bt Sean THORNLEY (GBR) 61 63
Rupesh ROY (IND) bt (WC) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 06 76(5) 6-6 Retd
Seung-Jae LEE (KOR) bt (Q) Seong-Yoon CHUNG (KOR) 62 62
(8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (Q) Hyun-Soo LIM (KOR) 61 60
(6) Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (Q) Sudanwa SITARAM (IND) 64 62
(Q) Jae-Won CHOI (KOR) bt (Q) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) 75 64
Krishananth BALAKRISHNAN (AUS) bt Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) 62 2-0 Retd
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt (4) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) 63 64
(5) Chris EATON (GBR) bt (WC) Vidhan VYAS (IND) 63 60
Kyle BRASSINGTON (GBR) bt Ashutosh SINGH (IND) 60 64
Shane LA PORTE (USA) bt (Q) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) 57 61 63
(2) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Tim BRADSHAW (GBR) 75 64

Though expected start for Indian players in singles ... Interestingly Karan Rastogi is playing first tournament after long injury break due to shoulder surgery ... He is playing doubles with Rohan Gajjar ... They had easy winning start defeating 4th seed Dutch pair ... Vivek scored huge upset win over 4th seed Japanese opponent ... After winning first set easily Jeevan lost second set in tiebreak but in third at 6-all he retired ... He is struggling with his fitness and that's worrying considering his college stint ... I was expecting his fitness level high as he is playing at college.