Cricket News -
At the Indian Premier League (IPL) - Bidding

Final IPL Teams List after completion of bidding -

Jaipur - Shane Warne (US$ 450,000), Graeme Smith (US$ 475,000), Younis Khan (US$ 225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$ 150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$ 475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$ 675,000), Munaf Patel (US$ 275,000), Justin Langer (US$ 200,000)

Chennai - MS Dhoni (US$ 1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$ 600,00), Matthew Hayden (US$ 375,000), Jacob Oram (US$ 675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$ 350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$ 325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$ 225,000), Albie Morkel (US$ 675,000), Suresh Raina (US$ 650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$ 200,000), Michael Hussey (US$ 350,000)

Mumbai - Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$ 975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$ 850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$ 550,000), Robin Uthappa (US$ 800,000), Lasith Malinga (US$ 350,000), Dilhara Fernando (US$ 150,000), Loots Bosman (US$ 175,000)

Bangalore - Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$ 500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$ 900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$ 450,000), Mark Boucher (US$ 450,000), Cameron White (US$ 500,000), Wasim Jaffer (US$ 150,000), Dale Steyn (US$ 325,000), Nathan Bracken (US$ 325,000), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (US$ 200,000)

Hyderabad - Adam Gilchrist (US$ 700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$ 1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$ 575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$ 675,000), Scott Styris (US$ 175,000), VVS Laxman (US$ 375,000), Rohit Sharma (US$ 750,000), Chamara Silva (US$ 100,000), RP Singh (US$ 875,000), Chaminda Vaas (US$ 200,000), Nuwan Zoysa (US4 110,000)

Mohali - Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$ 475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$ 700,000), Brett Lee (US$ 900,000), Sreesanth (US$ 625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$ 925,000), Ramesh Powar (US$ 170,000), Piyush Chawla (US$ 400,000), Simon Katich (US$ 200,000), Ramnaresh Sarwan (US$ 225,000)

Kolkata - Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$ 425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$ 400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$ 700,000), Chris Gayle (US$ 800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$ 330,000), David Hussey (US$ 675,000), Ishant Sharma (US$ 950,000), Murali Kartik (US$ 425,000), Umar Gul (US$ 150,000), Tatenda Taibu (US$ 125,000)

Delhi - Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$ 625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$ 500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$ 650,000), AB de Villiers (US$ 300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$ 525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$ 225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$ 250,000), Manoj Tiwary (US$ 675,000), Gautam Gambhir (US$ 725,000), Glenn McGrath (US$ 350,000)

India's captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has been bought by the Chennai franchise for US$1.5 million.

The other first picks -
Adam Gilchrist has gone to Hyderabad for US$700,000
Muttiah Muralitharan to Chennai for US$600,000
Shane Warne to Jaipur for US$450,000
Shoaib Akhtar to Kolkata for US$425,000

So until now Chennai has already spent US$2.1 million and grabbed two big names.
----------------------- end of first round -----------------------

Mumbai joined the second round of bidding,
Sanath Jayasuriya for US$975,000 (his base price was US$250,000)
Harbhajan Singh for US$850,000 (base price US$250,000)

That means as an icon Tendulkar will stand to earn 15% more than the most paid player in the franchise (ie Jayasuriya) - which translates to US$ 1.12 million.

Anil Kumble by Bangalore for US$500,000 (base price - US$250,000)
Kumar Sangakkara by Mohali for US$700,000 (base price - US$250,000)
Mahela Jayawardene to Mohali for US$475,000

(Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf haven't found any bidders, so they have gone into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of second round -------------------------

Andrew Symonds became the 2nd most expensive player in the IPL, as Hyderabad bought him for US$1.35m (his base price being $2,50,000)
Brett Lee bought by Mohali for US$9,00,000 (base price: $3,00,000)
Brendon McCullum bought by Kolkata for $7,00,000 (base price: $1,75,000)
Jacob Oram bought by Chennai for $6,75,000 (base price: $2,00,000)
Daniel Vettori bought by Delhi for $6,25,000 (base price: $2,50,000)
Ricky Ponting bought by Kolkata for $4,00,000
Mathew Hayden by Chennai for $3,75,000.

(Mike Hussey joined Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of third round -------------------------

Jacques Kallis purchased by the Bangalore team for $900,000 that means Rahul Dravid (their icon player) becomes the fifth cricketer to break the million-dollar barrier.
Chris Gayle became Kolkata’s highest successful bid - $800,000
Stephen Fleming bought by Chennai for his base price of $350,000
Graeme Smith by Jaipur for $475,000
Herschelle Gibbs by Hyderabad for $575,000
Shaoib Malik by Delhi for $500,000
Shahid Afridi by Hyderabad for $675,000
Younis Khan by Jaipur for his base price of $225,000
Mohammad Asif by Delhi for $650,000
Zaheer Khan by Bangalore for $450,000
Sreesanth by Mohali for $625,000
----------------- end of fourth round -------------------------

Dinesh Karthik bought by Delhi for $525,000 (base price: $200,000)
Mark Boucher by Banglore for US$ 450,000
Ab de Villers by Delhi for $300,000 (base price: $200,000)
Parthiv Patel by Chennai for $325,000 (base price: $150,000)
Kamran Akmal bought by Jaipur for his reserve price of $150,000

(Tatenda Taibu joined Mike Hussey, Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of fifth round -------------------------

Irafn Pathan was Mohali’s big pick for $925,000
Morkel was bought by Chennai for $675,000 (base price: $225,000)
Camroon White for $500,000 by Bangalore (base price: $100,000)
Yusuf Pathan for $475,000 by Jaipur (base price: 100,000)
Scott Styris went to Hyderabad for $175,000
Ajit Agarkar by Kolkata for $350,000 (base price: $200,000)
Shaun Pollock by Mumbai for $550,000 (base price: $200,000)
Farveez Maharoof by Delhi for $225,000 (base price: $150,000)
Tillakaratne Dilshan by Delhi for $250,000 (base price: 150,000)
Joginder Sharma by Chennai for $225,000 (base price: $100,000).
----------------- end of sixth round -------------------------

Robin Uthappa by Mumbai for US$ 800,000 (base price: $200,000)
Rohit Sharma by Hyderabad for US$ 750,000 (base price: $200,000)
Gautam Gambhir by Delhi for US$ 725,000 (base price: $200,000)
Mohammad Kaif by Jaipur for US$ 675,000 (base price: $125,000)
Manoj Tiwary by Delhi for US$ 675,000 (base price: $100,000)
David Hussey by Kolkata for US$ 675,000 (base price: $125,000)
Suresh Raina by Chennai for US$ 650,000 (base price: $125,000)
VVS Laxman by Hyderabad for US$ 375,000 (base price: $150,000)
Wasim Jaffer by Banglore for US$ 150,000
Chamara Silva by Hyderabad for US$ 100,000

(Ramnaresh Sarwan, Simon Katich, Justin Langer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ashwell Prince & Loots Bosman joined Tatenda Taibu, Mike Hussey, Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of seventh round -------------------------

Ishant Sharma bought by Kolkata for $950,000 (base price: $150,000)
RP Singh bought by Hyderabad for $875,000 (base price: $200,000)
Piyush Chawla by Mohali for $400,000 (base price: $125,000)
Dale Steyn by Banglore for $325,000 (base price: 150,000)
Murali Kartik by Kolkata for $425,000 (base price: $200,000)
Munaf Patel by Jaipur for $275,000 (base price: $100,000)
Nathan Bracken bought by Bangalore for $325,000 (base price: $225,000)
Makhaya Ntini by Chennai for $200,000
Lasith Malinga by Mumbai for $350,000 ($200,000)
Chaminda Vaas by Hyderabad for $200,000
Ramesh Powar by Mohali for $170,000 (base price: $150,000)
Umar Gul by Kolkata for his base price of $150,000
Dilhara Fernando by Mumbai for $150,000
Nuwan Zoysa by Hyderabad for $110,000 (base price: $100,000)
----------------- end of eighth round -------------------------

So now as per rule teams allowed to bid below the base price for unsold players (reserve pool).

Glenn McGrath bought by Delhi for US$ 350,000
Michael Hussey by Chennai for US$ 350,000
Simon Katich by Mohali for $200,000
Ramnaresh Sarwan by Mohali for $225,000
Shivnarine Chanderpaul bought by Bangalore for $200,000
Loots Bosman by Mumbai for $175,000
Justin Langer to Jaipur for $200,000.

No takers for Mohammad Yousuf & Ashwell Prince so they were withdrawn ... Today of the 79 players, 77 players were sold at the base price or above.

Tennis News -
At $2.5M Qatar Total Open, Doha (Tier I)

[R1] MIRZA Sania (IND,32) l GOVORTSOVA Olga (BLR,50) 64 67(5) 2-3 Retd. (cramping)

Sania retired in singles and withdraw from doubles ... It was clear indication that she still doesn't recover from her injury ... Wrong decision of rushing back from serious injury, now one can only hope this does not result into longer break.
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At $185K Copa Colsanitas Santander, Bogota, Colombia (Tier III)

[R1] RAO Sunitha (IND,182) l (7) GALLOVITS Edina (ROU,71) 16 26
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At $15K Brownsville futures, Texas, USA

[R1] (8) SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND,419) l PALMANSHOFER Christoph (AUT,690) 26 46

Doubles -
[R1] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) bt (2) OBRADOVIC Vladimir (SRB)/ SITAK Artem (RUS) 64 61

[QF] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) vs ALBOT Radu (MDA)/ GRIGOROV Alexei (RUS)

After his recent training stint with Harshul I was personally hoping better performance from Sunil in singles ... May be yesterday was one of bad day in the office ... But I hope these days don't show up frequently in future.
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At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

[R1] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) bt (WC) IBRAHIM Sabath (NGR,UNR) 61 63
[R1] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) bt SNELEN Rachel (USA,UNR) 62 61
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) bt (WC) ABINU Fatimah (NGR,919) 60 61
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND,1023) l CAZEAUX Amandine (FRA,UNR) 16 16

[R2] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) vs CHENG Natalia (BRA,1053)
[R2] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) vs MINIERI Giannina (CHI,UNR)
[R2] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) vs (5) SHLOMO Keren (ISR,726)
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Hockey News -
Men's Hockey Olympics 2008 Qualifiers,

Indian team for Olympic qualifier is selected ... Defender Diwakar Ram is only new face in the team.

Goalkeepers - Bharat Chetri, Baljit Singh.
Defenders - Dilip Tirkey, V R Raghunath, Wiiliam Xalxo, Diwakar Ram
Midfielders - Gurbaj Singh, Prabodh Tirkey (captain), Bimal Lakra, Sardara Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Kanth
Forwards - Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Shivendra Singh, Bharat Chikara, Ajeethesh Rai

Standbys - Sreejesh (goalkeeper), Samir Baxla (defender), S V Sunil, Birendra Lakra, Roshan Minz, Cheeyanna (all forwards)

Officials - Joaquim Carvalho (chief coach), M P Singh (coach), M Ramesh Parameswsaran (assistant coach), Ganguly Prasad (trainer-SAI, Bangalore), Sreekanth Iyengar (physio), Prasanna (video analyst), Nagaraj (masseur), M M Somayya (technical director) and R K Shetty (manager).
---------------------------------------------------------------
Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 4 - Tuesday, February 19th

Anand ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1 Levon Aronian
Alexei Shirov 1-0 Veselin Topalov
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Peter Leko

So with these results after 4 rounds Anand, Topalov and Aronian tied at top with 2.5 pts

Tennis News -
At $185K Copa Colsanitas Santander, Bogota, Colombia (Tier III)

[R1] RAO Sunitha (IND,182) vs (7) GALLOVITS Edina (ROU,71)

Doubles -
[R1] JOZAMI Betina (ARG)/ RAO Sunitha (IND) vs ALVES Maria Fernanda (BRA)/ HLAVACKOVA Andrea (CZE)

Very pleasant surprise !!! She also playing doubles with Argentinian partner ... But outing will be tough as this tournament is on clay.
--------------------------------------
At $25K Clearwater Challenger, Florida, USA

[Q2] (16) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) l (WC) STEPHENS Sloane A (USA,UNR) 46 64 16

I had uneasy feeling about this match and it turned true.
--------------------------------------
At $15K Brownsville futures, Texas, USA

[R1] (8) SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND,419) vs PALMANSHOFER Christoph (AUT,690)

Doubles -
[R1] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) vs (2) OBRADOVIC Vladimir (SRB)/ SITAK Artem (RUS)
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

Doubles -
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND)/ EDWARDS Tegan (RSA) l CONFALONIERI Valentine (ITA)/ MOSKAL Ksenia (RUS) 26 62 (7)10
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND)/ EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND) l (4) CHIAPARINI Fabiana (BRA)/ ROSSI Nathalia (BRA) 46 46
[R1] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) bt HANDLER Natalie (ISR)/ SELAKOVIC Nevena (SRB) 60 63

[QF] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) vs BSOUL Laura (GER)/ SHEMON Alison (AUS)

Tennis News -
At $15K India F1 Futures, Kolkata (Clay)

(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER,329) bt Aditya MADKEKAR (IND,664) 75 61
(Q) Simeon IVANOV (BUL,941) bt (Q) Chin-Yu HUANG (TPE,UNR) 60 60
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,759) bt (WC) Vijayant MALIK (IND,1311) 76(5) 60
(5) Peng SUN (CHN,493) bt Yu Jr. WANG (CHN,609) 26 62 63

(4) Matteo VOLANTE (ITA,458) bt Divij SHARAN (IND,658) 64 63
(WC) Vaja UZAKOV (UZB,905) bt Tushar LIBERHAN (IND,787) 26 63 64
Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE,683) bt Vijay KANNAN (IND,726) 63 63
(WC) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,1009) bt (7) Karan RASTOGI (IND,511) 63 61

(6) David SAVIC (SRB,500) bt (Q) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,1101) 62 64
(Q) Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE,1219) bt Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,722) 63 16 63
Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,603) bt (Q) Huai-En CHANG (TPE,1016) 64 61
(3) Todor ENEV (BUL,457) bt (Q) Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE,1269) 64 60

(LL) GIDE Rohan (IND,1491) bt Navdeep SINGH (IND,740) 64 57 75
(WC) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,1219) bt (Q) Valentin DIMOV (BUL,1401) 61 64
Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,584) bt (Q) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,1158) 76(1) 62
(2) Guillermo ALCAIDE (ESP,340) bt Ashutosh SINGH (IND,591) 62 61

Doubles -
Huai-En CHANG (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) bt (1) (WC) Mustafa GHOUSE (IND)/ Purav RAJA (IND) 76(5) 63
(WC) Kamala KANNAN (IND)/ Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) bt Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE)/ Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR) 64 64

Hsin-Han LEE (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE) bt (4) David SAVIC (SRB)/ Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 64 46 10(6)
Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) bt Divij SHARAN (IND)/ NAVDEEP SINGH (IND) 63 64

(WC) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Shuang-Qiang LIANG (CHN)/ Yu Jr. WANG (CHN) 62 61
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (3) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)/ ASHUTOSH SINGH (IND) 76(5) 64

Alexander SATSCHKO (GER)/ Matteo VOLANTE (ITA) bt Guillermo ALCAIDE (ESP)/ Karan RASTOGI (IND) 63 76(4)
(2) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ) bt Yu CHANG (CHN)/ Peng SUN (CHN) 62 64

Aqeel Khan skipped Kolkata futures, mostly due to an election in Pakistan ... But entering as lucky loser Rohan Gide take full advantage of it beating 750 places higher fellow Indian Navdeep Singh ... Also wildcard Ranjeet made winning start and confirming atleast 1 Indian in quarter-finals ... I m little surprised by Vishnu's win over Karan, but considering Karan's poor phase of results this wasn't unexpected also .. So now our only 4 players r in second round ... But atleast our 1 player will be in quarters ... But I luv our 3 players in quarters .. We can hope good performance from Vivek and Vishnu.

In doubles pair of Vishnu and Vinod scored upset win over seeded pair of Vivek and Ashutosh in straight sets ... Also our top seed pair lost but our second string players scored fancied win over their senior opponents.

Tennis News -
At $2.5M Qatar Total Open, Doha

[R1] MIRZA Sania (IND,32) vs GOVORTSOVA Olga (BLR,50)

Doubles -
[R1] MIRZA Sania (IND)/ SCHIAVONE Francesca (ITA) vs KIRILENKO Maria (RUS)/ SZAVAY Agnes (HUN)

IMO, If she is still not fully recover from her injury then she should atleast avoid to play doubles in the same event in which she is making comeback.
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At $25K Clearwater Challenger, Florida, USA

[Q1] (16) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) bt SEMA Erika (USA,363) 63 67(3) 64

[Q2] (16) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) vs (WC) STEPHENS Sloane A (USA,UNR)

Surprisingly tough $25K challenger, where #245 Croatian is top seed in qualifying ... Neha began this tournament with hard fought victory against Japanese player ... Now she is facing 15 yrs old local girl, Sloane Stephens ... She looks talented as she defeated 4th seed #249 Serbian player, Ana Jovanovic, in straight sets ... But with her current good form Neha is capable of taking care of Stephens ... Go Neha.
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At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

[Q1] BASAVARAJU Akshitha (IND,UNR) bt RILEY Alexandra (USA,UNR) 76(3) 60

[Q2] BASAVARAJU Akshitha (IND,UNR) l KHARCHENKO Anastasia (UKR,UNR) 36 16

Maindraw -
[R1] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) vs (WC) IBRAHIM Sabath (NGR,UNR)
[R1] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) vs SNELEN Rachel (USA,UNR)
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) vs (WC) ABINU Fatimah (NGR,919)
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND,1023) vs CAZEAUX Amandine (FRA,UNR)

Doubles -
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND)/ EDWARDS Tegan (RSA) vs CONFALONIERI Valentine (ITA)/ MOSKAL Ksenia (RUS)
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND)/ EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND) vs (4) CHIAPARINI Fabiana (BRA)/ ROSSI Nathalia (BRA)
[R1] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) vs HANDLER Natalie (ISR)/ SELAKOVIC Nevena (SRB)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 3 - Sunday, February 17th

Magnus Carlsen 0-1 Anand
Peter Leko ½-½ Alexei Shirov
Veselin Topalov 1-0 Vassily Ivanchuk
Levon Aronian ½-½ Teimour Radjabov

Anand bounced back from his round two loss with a fine black-pieces win in 59th move against the Norwegian wonder boy Magnus Carlsen ... Veselin Topalov scored his second victory against Vassily Ivanchuk, to take the lead in this event ... The other two games were drawn.

Standing after 3rd Round -

1 Veselin Topalov BUL 2½ pts
2 Vishwanathan Anand IND 2 pts
T3 Levon Aronian ARM 1½ pts
T3 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 1½ pts
T3 Peter Leko HUN 1½ pts
T6 Teimour Radjabov AZE 1 pts
T6 Alexei Shirov ESP 1 pts
T6 Magnus Carlsen NOR 1 pts

So now after today's rest day Anand will be playing against Radjabov with white-pieces.

Golf News -
At Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open, Indonesia - Final Standing

2 Jeev Milkha SINGH 65 66 65 67 -17 € 91919.85
T7 Jyoti RANDHAWA 68 70 66 62 -14 € 21344.32
T10 Arjun ATWAL 67 67 66 67 -13 € 15332.61
T40 Gaurav GHEI 71 67 67 69 - 6 € 5129.26
T44 Shiv KAPUR 69 67 69 70 - 5 € 4301.96

Watched all drama on the TV ... Jeev was leading tournament with 2 strokes, he was -19, after 15 holes buth then Jeev played poor tee shots on 16th and 18th ... Those were the shots which set bogeys ... I think, Jeev played extra defensive game after leading by 2, other hand Chilean Felipe Aguilar kept pressure on Jeev with attacking holes ... Some how Jeev lost his nerves in last few holes to losing great opportunity of winning another European title.

Jyoti was excellent, he repeated yesterday's performance with avoiding double bogeys ... Amazing golfing round by him.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Salgaocar SC dw Dempo SC 1-1

Goal Scored - Joe Rodrigues (Sal) 29' and Ranty Martins (DSC) 37'
----------------------------------

Viva Kerala l East Bengal 1-3

Goal Scored - Ebin Rose (VK) 45+' and Syed Rahim Nabi (EB) 20', Alvito D'Cunha (EB) 57', Edmilson M Pardal (EB) 87'

MoM - Syed Rahim Nabi (EB)

Salgaoncar give hope to other team holdind Dempo 1-1 ... So title race is extended to final round ... But with East Bengal's victory Viva and Salgaocar destined to relegate to 2nd division in next season.

So now Dempo and Churchill having last showdown with weaker opponents ... Though Air men having capabilities to surprise any team ... Dempo only needs victory, but Churchill needs huge victory … JCT and Mohun Bagan both having chance to finish 3rd on this inaugural I league.

Round 18 - 23rd/24th February 2008
Viva Kerala vs Dempo
East Bengal vs Sporting Clube de Goa
JCT Phagwara vs Salgaocar
Mahindra United vs Mohun Bagan
Churchill Brothers vs Air India

Tennis News -
At US$436K SAP Open, San Jose, California, USA

[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,286) l K.J. Hippensteel (USA,779) 46 67(3)

Doubles -
[R1] BOPANNA Rohan (IND)/ QURESHI Aisam-Ul-Haq (PAK) vs (3) MIRNYI Max (BLR)/ MURRAY Jamie (GBR)
[R1] (2) BHUPATHI Mahesh (IND)/ KNOWLES Mark (BAH) vs LEVINSKY Jaroslav (CZE)/ STEPANEK Radek (CZE)

Bops and Aisam r back as partner this week .. They r having tough match against 3rd seed pair of mad max and Jamie Murray.
Mahesh and Mark r back on tour after good outing at Australian Open ... They r 2nd seed in SAP Open.
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At $15K India F1 Futures, Calcutta, Feb 18th-24th (clay)

Qualifying Round One -
Purav RAJA (IND) (1) bt Rahil MAKHARIA (IND) 61 61
Chin-Yu HUANG (TPE) bt Jason ALPEN (AUS) 63 62
Simeon IVANOV (BUL) (2) bt Mustafa GHOUSE (IND) 64 64
Rohan GIDE (IND) (10) bt Neishit VAKIL (IND) 61 61
Huai-En CHANG (TPE) (3) bt Matthew CURIC (AUS) 62 63
Yannick NELORD (IND) (14) bt Saurav SUKUL (IND) 62 64
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) (4) bt Jakob C RICHARDSON (AUS) 60 60
Kamala KANNAN (IND) (12) bt Kaushik RAJU (IND) 61 62
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) (5) bt Rafique PARUTI (IND) 61 60
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) (9) 61 76(8)
Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) (6) bt Divyanshu SINGH (IND) 46 64 63
Shuang-Qiang LIANG (CHN) (11) bt Joel ANDRIOLO (AUS) 76(7) 75
Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE) (7) bt Saif ALI (IND) 64 46 63
Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) (15) bt Alon MOSES (IND) 61 63
Valentin DIMOV (BUL) (8) bt Vikram REDDY B (IND) 64 75
Yu CHANG (CHN) (13) bt Harshvardhan THIRANI (IND) 60 61

Qualifying Final Round -
Chin-Yu HUANG (TPE) bt Purav RAJA (IND) (1) 63 64
Simeon IVANOV (BUL) (2) bt Rohan GIDE (IND) (10) 62 61
Huai-En CHANG (TPE) (3) bt Yannick NELORD (IND) (14) 63 46 63
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) (4) bt Kamala KANNAN (IND) (12) 76(5) 36 62
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) (5) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 46 63 61
Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) (6) bt Shuang-Qiang LIANG (CHN) (11) 75 64
Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE) (7) bt Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) (15) 61 63
Valentin DIMOV (BUL) (8) bt Yu CHANG (CHN) (13) 62 16 62
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Athletics News -

India topped the medals tally in the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha on Saturday ... India won 5 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze medals to edge China (5-2-2) and last edition's champion, Kazakhstan (4-6-4) in the final standings.

The Indian medal winners -
Gold -
Men P. J. Vinod (heptathlon-5561 points).
Women Sinimol Paulose (800m-2:03.43; 1500m-4:15.42); Preeja Sreedharan (3000m-9:12.26); 4x400m relay team (Mandeep, Manjeet, Sini, Chitra)-3:37.46.
Silver -
Men Chatholi Hamza (800m-3:41.18), Surender Singh (3000m-7:49.47), Amarjeet Singh (triple jump-16.24m), Om Prakash (shot put-18.37), 4x400m relay team (Aboobacker, Vinay Chaudhary, Gurvinder Pal Singh, Virender Kumar Pankaj)-3:16.53.
Women Sushma Devi (800m-2:04.66, 1500m-4:21.78); Kavita Raut (3000m-9:26.01); Anju George (Long Jump-6.38).
Bronze -
Women Mandeep Kaur (400m-54.28), V. Leelavathy (60m hurdles-9.21); M. A. Prajusha (long jump-6.09)

Final day's results -

Men
3000m: 1. Sultan Zaman (Qatar) 7:49.31, 2. Surender Kumar Singh (India) 7:49.47, 3. James Kurui (Qatar) 7:50.56; Shot put: 1. Ahmed Gholoum (Kuwait) 18.55, 2. Om Prakash (India) 18.37, 3. Yao Yong Guang (China) 18.16; Heptathlon: 1. P. J. Vinod (India) 5561, 2. Hadi Sepehrzad (Iran) 5515, 3. Hiromasa Tanaka (Japan) 5306; 4x400m relay: 1. Saudi Arabia 3:14.25, 2. India 3:16.53, 3. Qatar 3:17.93.

Women
800m: 1. Sinimol Paulose (India) 2:03.43, 2. Sushma Devi (India) 2:04.66, 3. Margarita Matsko (Kazakhstan) 2:04.85; 4x400m relay: 1. India 3:37.46 , 2. Kazakhstan 3:38.10, 3. Thailand 3:43.22.
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Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 2 - Saturday, February 16th
Vishy Anand 0-1 Levon Aronian
Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Veselin Topalov
Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0 Peter Leko
Alexei Shirov ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

As per report, Anand fell to a terrible blunder on move 30 in his game against Levon Aronian. Similarly Peter Leko lost the thread around move 38 against Vassily Ivanchuk and gave up the full point. Radjabov spoilt a promising game against Veselin Topalov to a draw, while Shirov and Carlson never really left the draw window.
In third round, Anand is playing with blacks against Magnus Carlsen.
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Squash News -
At 14th Asian Senior Squash Championships 2008, Kuwait (13-21 Feb 2008)

[SF] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) l (2) Rebecca Chiu (HKG,13) 0-9 2-7 (Conceded her match stating slippery court.)

Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

2008 Morelia-Linares tournament is started yesterday, its schedule is from February 15th to 23rd February in Morelia, Mexico, and from 28th February to 7th March in Linares, Spain ... Viswanathan Anand is defending champion ... This year two players are different from last year's edition, Morozevich and Svidler are substituted by Radjabov and Shirov.

Morelia/Linares 2008 field -
1 Vishwanathan Anand 2799
2 Veselin Topalov 2780
3 Alexei Shirov 2755
4 Peter Leko 2753
5 Vassily Ivanchuk 2751
6 Levon Aronian 2739
7 Teimour Radjabov 2735
8 Magnus Carlsen 2733

Round 1 - Friday, February 15th
Alexei Shirov 0-1 Vishy Anand
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Peter Leko 1-0 Teimour Radjabov
Veselin Topalov 1-0 Levon Aronian

The Mexican half of the Morelia-Linares tournament has started with a bang ... Anand beat Alexei Shirov with the black pieces, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov won their games against Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian respectively with white ... Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk drew in 39.

Good positive start for Anand, in second round he is playing Levon Aronian with whites.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Athletics News -
At 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha

Sinimol Paulose produced another scintillating performance to win women's 800m and qualify for the World Indoor Athletics Championship in Valencia … She clocked timing of 2:03.43s, that was a new championship record and well below qualifying mark for the World Indoor Athletics Championship, i.e. 2:04.00s.

Sushma Devi won silver with timing of 2:04.66s, but was unlucky to miss the qualifying mark by less than a second.

Now India won three gold, six silver and four bronze in this tournament.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Air India l Mahindra United 0-1

Goal Scored - Yusuf Yakubu (MU) 82'

MoM - Yusuf Yakubu (MU)
------------------------------------

JCT dw Mohun Bagan 1-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (JCT) 58' and Habibur Rehman Mondal (MB) 28'

MoM - Sunil Chhetri (JCT)
------------------------------------

Sporting Clube de Goa dw Churchill Brothers 1-1

Goal Scored - Fredy Mascernahas (SCG) 73' and Odafa Onyeka Okolie (CB) 12'

MoM - Chandrashekhar Minta (SCG)

Squash News -
At 14th Asian Senior Squash Championships 2008, Kuwait (13-21 Feb 2008)

Mens Singles -
[R3] (3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) bt (9/16) Max Lee (HKG,122) 9-3 9-1 9-1 (48m)
[R3] (9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) bt (5/8) Mohd. Nafiizwan (MAS,86) 6-9 9-3 7-9 9-5
9-6 (106m)

[QF] (3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) l (9/16) Abdullah Kh. Al-Mezayen (KUW,UNR) 10-8 (2-0) 4-9 1-9 3-9 (72m)
[QF] (9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) l (2) Ong Beg Hee (MAS,18) 2-9 3-9 10-8 (2-0) 2-9 (62m)

Womens Singles -
[R2] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) bt (9/16) Maria Toor Pakay (PAK,77) 9-1 9-6 9-2 (31m)
[R2] (9/16) Anwesha Reddy (IND,128) l (3/4) Sharon Wee (MAS,21) 1-9 4-9 6-9 (34m)

[QF] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) bt (3/4) Sharon Wee (MAS,21) 9-5 4-9 9-7 9-5 (55m)

[SF] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) vs (2) Rebecca Chiu (HKG,13)

Another poor result for Saurav, last few months Saurav is stagnant in 40-50 ranking and no clear indication of improvement ... I feel he need to change his coaching, little Egyptian flavor could be useful to his game.

Siddharth produced good fighting performance against top-20 player.

Superb performance by Joshna to beat top-20 player ... I m sure with this win we can expect some good result from her in near future ... Now in semis she is facing top10 type Hong kong player.
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Golf News -
At Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open, Indonesia - Third Round

T2 SINGH Jeev Milkha 65 66 65 -14
T10 ATWAL Arjun 67 67 66 -10
T28 RANDHAWA Jyoti 68 70 66 -6
T37 KAPUR Shiv 69 67 69 -5
T37 GHEI Gaurav 71 67 67 -5

Jeev is loving this course at Cengkareng Golf Club ... Today he scored another -5 round, that moved him to T2 position and 2 strokes behind Chilean leader Felipe Aguilar.

Jeev made 6 birdies and a bogey in his round ... Arjun scored -4 round to moved inside top 10, he scored 5 birdies and a bogey ... Gaurav scored -3 round to moved inside top 40, he scored 5 birdies and couple of bogeys ... Today only Shiv dropped from yesterday's standing ... He scored -1 round with 2 birdies and a bogey.

Today Jyoti had most entertaining round ... He played attacking golf to scored 9 birdies, couple of double bogeys and a bogey in his round ... Jyoti must be disappointed scoring only -4 after this effort, but this round helped him to move inside top 30.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletics News -
At the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha

Preeja Shreedharan won second gold medal for India in the women's 3000m race with a championship record of 9:12.26s ... Kavita Raut won silver with timing of 9:26.01s.

Chatholi Hamza won silver in men's 1500m race with timing 3:41.18s.

Amarjeet Singh showed a creditable performance to won silver in men's triple jump by leaping 16.26m.

In women's 400m race, Mandeep Kaur only managed bronze with 54.28s timing.

Leelavathi Veerappan also didn't perform as well to won bronze in women's 60m hurdles with timing of 9.21 sec.

So India has so far won two gold, five silver and three bronze medals in 3 days competition.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hockey News -

A lot of backroom lobbying and some tough talking seem to have set things right for Indian hockey, at least for now. A day after saying he would be skipping the Olympic qualifiers in Chile, Rajpal Singh did a volte face on Wednesday by saying he will after all play in the Santiago qualifiers next month.

Nice comments by Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho - "I wouldn’t talk about any incident. But when it comes to discipline, everyone knows that I make no compromises. In my team, any player be it senior or junior is expected to maintain a code of conduct and I am very particular about it. It is natural that if someone tries to do something silly, I will pull him up."

About Rajpal - "As far as I am concerned, he is very much a part of my team. Boys make mistakes, and that is it."

Athletics News -
At the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha

Sinimol Paulose won the first gold medal for India at the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships by winning the 1500 metres ... Paulose clocked 4:15.42 seconds and qualified for the World Indoor Championships as her timings was better than qualifying timing, 4:16.00s.

Sushma Devi won the silver with 4:22.78s.

Anju George already won silver medal in long jump with 6:38m jump and MA Prajusha added another by winning the bronze medal with a jump of 6.09m ... This was MA Prajusha first international medal.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open, Indonesia

6 SINGH Jeev Milkha 65 66 -9
T15 ATWAL Arjun 67 67 -6
T30 KAPUR Shiv 69 67 -4
T45 GHEI Gaurav 71 67 -2
T45 RANDHAWA Jyoti 68 70 -2
---------- Projected cut @ -1 ---------------
T145 GANGJEE Rahil 74 74 +8
T152 JOHL Amandeep 75 76 +11

Squash News -
At 14th Asian Senior Squash Championships 2008, Kuwait (13-21 Feb 2008)

Mens Singles - First Round
(3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) bt Nasser Al Rashed (KUW,UNR) 9-3 9-1 9-2 (20m)
(5/8) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,63) bt Shallan Ahmed (KUW,UNR) 9-7 9-3 9-1 (19m)
(9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) bt Mohammad Reza Sadeghpour (IRI,260) 9-6 9-5 9-1 (44m)
(17/32) Naresh Kumar (IND,151) bt Anura Hewage (SRI,UNR) 9-0 9-3 9-5 (14m)

Second Round -
(3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) bt (17/32) Ali Alramezi (KUW,UNR) 9-2 9-2 9-2 (35m)
(9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) bt (17/32) Huang Cheng Yao (TPE,247) 9-1 9-3 9-2 (30m)
(5/8) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,63) l Mohammed Hajeyah (KUW,UNR) 4-9 9-3 5-9 9-6 8-10 (0-2) (93m)
(17/32) Naresh Kumar (IND,151) l (9/16) Wong Wai Hang (HKG,182) 1-9 4-9 1-9 (34m)

Third Round -
(3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) vs (9/16) Max Lee (HKG,122)
(9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) vs (5/8) Mohd. Nafiizwan (MAS,86)

Womens Singles - First Round -
Harita Om Prakash (IND,UNR) l (5/8) Chinatsu Matsui (JPN,51) 4-9 0-9 3-9 (32m)
Surbhi Misra (IND,156) l (3/4) Christina Mak (HKG,31) 0-9 6-9 7-9 (21m)
(9/16) Anwesha Reddy (IND,128) bt Hsieh Ssu Han (TPE,UNR) 9-1 9-0 9-1 (10m)
(5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) bt Wu Zhen Zhen (CIN,UNR) 9-0 9-4 9-1 (17m)

Second Round -
(5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) vs (9/16) Maria Toor Pakay (PAK,77)
(9/16) Anwesha Reddy (IND,128) vs (3/4) Sharon Wee (MAS,21)

Surprising but shocking defeat of Ritwik against unranked Kuwaiti player ... So now its all depend upon Saurav and Siddharth in men's section.
In womens it depend upon Joshna as Anwesha having tough opponent in top-25 Malaysian player.

Cricket News - Just for information.
ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2008, Malaysia (17th February to 3rd March 2008)

This is 7th edition of U-19 Cricket World Cup ... Pakistan & Australia won it twice and India & England managed to win it once.
Pakistan is last 2 times winner ... In 2006 they defeated us in the final in Sri Lanka ... So its interesting to see how we perform in this year's event.

Indian U-19 team - Virat Kohli (c), Abhinav Mukund, Ajitesh Argal, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Tanmay Srivastava, Manish Pandey, Taruwar Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Saurabh Tiwary, Duvvarapu Siva Kumar, Pradeep Sangwan, Siddharth Kaul, Einstein Napoleon, Perry Goyal, Sayyed Abdullah Iqbal


Group B - KL
(2) India
(7) West Indies
(10) South Africa
(15) Papua New Guinea

We r in tought Group B with South Africa and West Indies and playing our matches at Kuala Lumpur. The top 2 teams from each of the four groups will qualify for the Super League and will play-off against each other in quarter-finals ... The bottom 2 teams from each of the four groups will qualify to play in the Plate Championship and will also play-off against each other in quarter finals.

Our Group Stage matches -
17th February 2008 India vs Papua New Guinea at Kinrara Cricket Academy (KCA)
19th February 2008 India vs South Africa at Kinrara Cricket Academy (KCA)
22nd February 2008 India vs West Indies at Kinrara Cricket Academy (KCA)
Quarter-finals will be played on 24th and 25th February, 2008.

Official website of ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2008 - http://iccevents.yahoo.com/index.html

Tennis News -
At $10K Mallorca F2 Women's Futures, Spain (Clay)

[R1] KRETSCH Vanessa (GER)/ NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND) l COSTAS-MOREIRA Leticia (ESP)/ GABARRUS-ALONSO Maite (ESP) 57 06

Tennis News -
At $10K Mallorca Women's Futures, Spain (Clay)

[R1] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) l (5) VOGT Stephanie (LIE,478) 26 16

Currently Sandhya is finding tough to handle higher ranked players on clay.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hockey News -

In a shocking development, Rajpal Singh pulls out of Olympics qualifier ... He declared his decision in Perth to media where currently Indian team is training for Olympics qualifier ... Reason which he given to press is, he needs to work on his game to improve his performance.

Officially he still need to declare this decision to team management and IHF ... So now rift between team is coming out publicly but at a wrong time … This really sad day for Indian hockey ... :-(

I hope somebody will try to talk him out of this decision ... Rajpal's experience will be useful for us in Olympics qualifier.

Swimming News -
At Zoggs Queensland Championship 2008, Brisbane, Australia

Boys 16 Year Olds 50 Metre Butterfly -
1. Virdhawal Khade 25.75s

Boys 16 Year Olds 50 Metre Freestyle -
3. Virdhawal Khade 24.08s

Men Open 50 Metre Freestyle -
5. Virdhawal Khade 24.26s (best time was in heat 24.06s)

Men Open 50 Metre Butterfly -
3. Virdhawal Khade 25.83s

Men Open 50 LC Metre Breaststroke -
1. Sandeep Sejwal 30.16s

Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal r currently training in Australia ... They participated in Zoggs Queensland championship at Brisbane ... Virdhawal won gold in 16 yrs old category of the 50m butterfly clocking 25.75s and 19 yrs old Sejwal won gold in Men's category in the 50m breaststroke clocking 30.16s.
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Tennis News -
At $10K Mallorca F2 Women's Futures, Spain (Clay)

[R1] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) vs (5) VOGT Stephanie (LIE,478)

Doubles -
[R1] KRETSCH Vanessa (GER)/ NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND) vs COSTAS-MOREIRA Leticia (ESP)/ GABARRUS-ALONSO Maite (ESP)

Tennis News -
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008 (1st Round), Delhi, India

India bt Uzbekistan 3-2

Match 4 -
Rohan Bopanna (IND,287) l Denis Istomin (UZB,184) 64 64 46 67(1) 68

Match 5 -
Prakash Amritraj (IND,265) bt Farrukh Dustov (UZB,249) 63 36 63 62

In first match Istomin showed his class of handling pressure better than his Indian opponent ... After losing first 2 sets and down 2-4 in the third set he showed character to produce one of the memorable comeback in Davis cup matches ... Bops was struggling with his game after third set and then he played terrible tie-break double faulting 3 times.

Kash was playing his first live 5th rubber ... In this match Dustov played better tennis ... He was bending his knees while hitting shots but still he wasn't manage to read court's bounce ... In second set Kash suddenly lost his focus and made many UFEs ... But with help from Lee he managed to control his nerves and then played smart tennis to win next 2 sets to win this tie for India.

Now in April we r playing against Japan with home advantage ... That tie will be on grass court, so we can consider us as favorite for that tie.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At $2.5M Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Delhi, India - Final Standing

1 CHOWRASIA S.S.P 70 71 71 67 -9 € 280561.35
T4 SINGH Digvijay 70 70 74 70 -4 € 77772.85
T6 GHEI Gaurav 75 69 70 71 -3 € 44576.30
T15 ATWAL Arjun 70 70 72 76 PAR € 23230.85
T22 RANDHAWA Jyoti 65 77 75 73 +2 € 17507.31
T35 JOHL Amandeep 73 71 76 73 +5 € 12288.78
T38 GHOTRA Randhir Singh 74 73 70 77 +6 € 10773.73
T38 KAPUR Shiv 68 78 76 72 +6 € 10773.73
T44 MUNIYAPPA C 69 77 77 72 +7 € 9090.33
T48 KHAN Shamim 73 74 76 73 +8 € 7238.60
T55 KUMAR Ashok 72 73 75 77 +9 € 5723.54
61 SHER Ali 77 70 78 75 +12 € 4545.17
T64 KAHLON Harmeet 70 75 83 75 +15 € 3955.98
67 GANAPATHY Rahul 76 71 78 84 +21 € 3535.13

I luv when commentators called SSP as Simply Special Player or Performer and today he truly deserved that.

This was SSP's biggest prize money in his small career and we know he will repeat such performance on bigger stage in the future ... Today he played unblemished final round of -5 to win his first European title, -4 on front 9 and -1 on back 9 ... I watched some of live telecast of this event, he made superb couple of tricky Pars ... I liked his concentration and we knows how much he is good on green.

Digvijay and Gaurav scored -2 & -1 round to climb in top 5 and top 10 finish ... Arjun struggled to score +4 round to end tournament on PAR ... Ernie Els scored -1 round to finished on T6 position.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

East Bengal l Churchill Brothers 0-1

Goal Scored - Mboyo Iyomi (CB) 77'

MoM - Mboyo Iyomi (CB)
---------------------------------------------

JCT Phagwara bt Air India 2-0

Goal Scored - Eduardo Da Silva (JCT), Baljeet Singh Sahni (JCT)

MoM - Julius Akpale (JCT)

East Bengal fought hard against Churchill's, they were playing with 10 men for more than 60 mins as Jayanta Sen red carded in 29th mins ... But goal from Mboyo Iyomi sealed their fate.

In other match JCT scored convincing win against Air men to moved only 3 pts behind Dempo and Churchill Brothers.

Now Dempo needs no more slip up as Churchill r with them on points but Dempo is still leading the standing on goal difference.

Tennis News -
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008 (1st Round), Delhi, India

India vs Uzbekistan 2-1

Saturday, 9th February 2008
Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Denis Istomin (UZB)/ Farrukh Dustov (UZB) 63 63 64

Today Lee decided to opt for our top pair od Mahesh and Rohan ... And as expected they gelled well and showed solid but entertaining performance ... Uzbe also fought well from second set but our team was too good ... I think we only faced break point when Rohan was serving for the match ... From that we can guess how much powerful service game our pair played ... Rohan was showering aces, 12 in the match and Maheash was matching him with strong & powerful first serves ... On court ouer team was looking as happy joint family ... Thats really good sign for Indian tennis.

In third set, when Mahesh hit winner to break Dustov's serve he tried chest bump with Rohan ... But Rohan wasn't ready for that so it was funny looking attempt ... That was one of light moment which brought smile on Lee and Mahesh's faces
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At $2.5M Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Delhi, India - Third Round

T5 ATWAL Arjun 70 70 72 -4
T5 CHOWRASIA S.S.P 70 71 71 -4
T10 GHEI Gaurav 75 69 70 -2
T10 SINGH Digvijay 70 70 74 -2
T23 GHOTRA Randhir Singh 74 73 70 +1
T23 RANDHAWA Jyoti 65 77 75 +1
T42 JOHL Amandeep 73 71 76 +4
T42 KUMAR Ashok 72 73 75 +4
T55 KAPUR Shiv 68 78 76 +6
T58 KHAN Shamim 73 74 76 +7
T58 MUNIYAPPA C 69 77 77 +7
T63 GANAPATHY Rahul 76 71 78 +9
T63 SHER Ali 77 70 78 +9
69 KAHLON Harmeet 70 75 83 +12

Though Arjun and SSP lost chance of being top of the leaderboard but still they r in striking distance ... Currently they r 2 strokes behind the leader, who is -6.

Ernie also climbed inside top 10 and currently 4 strokes behind the leader ... Gaurav and Ghotra scored 2 under, the best round from Indians which helped them to climb inside top 10 and top 25 respectively.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Mahindra United bt Sporting Clube de Goa 3-0

Goal Scored - Yusuf Yakubu (MU) 32' & 51', Andrews Mensah Pomeyie (MU) 75'

MoM - Yusuf Yakubu (MU)
----------------------------------------

Salgaocar SC bt Viva Kerala 1-0

Goal Scored - Beevan D’Mello (Sal) 66'

MoM - Beevan D’Mello (sal)
------------------------------------------

Mohun Bagan dw Dempo SC

MoM - Beto (DSC)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Squash News -
At $30K Kolkata International, India

Final -
(5) Mansoor Zaman (PAK,35) bt (2) Ong Beng Hee (MAS,18) 11-8 11-7 4-11 11-8 (54m)

Mansoor continued his giant killing in the final to win over Beng Hee ... this was the first PSA Tour final in which these 2 have met ... Before that they have contested one Asian Junior Championship final (in 1999, won by Zaman), one Asian Games final (in 2002, won by Beng Hee), and three Asian Championships' finals (in 2000, 2002 and 2004, all won by the Malaysian).

Golf News -
At $2.5M Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Delhi, India - Second Round

T6 ATWAL Arjun 70 70 -4
T6 SINGH Digvijay 70 70 -4
T12 CHOWRASIA S.S.P 70 71 -3
T15 RANDHAWA Jyoti 65 77 -2
T31 GHEI Gaurav 75 69 PAR
T31 JOHL Amandeep 73 71 PAR
T44 KAHLON Harmeet 70 75 +1
T44 KUMAR Ashok 72 73 +1
T55 KAPUR Shiv 68 78 +2
T55 MUNIYAPPA C 69 77 +2
T64 KHAN Shamim 73 74 +3
T64 GANAPATHY Rahul 76 71 +3
T64 GHOTRA Randhir Singh 74 73 +3
T64 SHER Ali 77 70 +3
---------- Cut @ +3 ------------
T71 BHULLAR Gaganjeet 75 73 +4
T71 GANGJEE Rahil 72 76 +4
T71 KUMAR Sanjay 75 73 +4
T76 DAWAR Naman 74 75 +5
T81 SINGH MUNDY Uttam 75 75 +6
T88 KUMAR Mukesh 73 78 +7
T88 VIRK Jaiveer S 79 72 +7
T91 SINGH Arjun 75 77 +8
T91 SINGH Ranjit 75 77 +8
T100 MALIK Amardip 75 78 +9
T100 GUPTA Harendra P 79 74 +9
T102 SINGH Jeev Milkha 77 77 +10
T102 BHANDARI Vivek 78 76 +10
T107 LEHAL A S 75 80 +11
T109 KUMAR Vijay 76 81 +13
115 JHA Abhishek (am) 78 81 +15
T116 SINGH Simarjeet (am) 82 79 +17

Really happy to see Arjun in top of Indian contingent ... He is truly coming back to form which was missing last 2 years ... Sad to see poor rounds from Jyoti and Shiv, now they need to do lot of chasing in last 2 rounds to finish inside top 10 ... After yesterday's disappointing round by Jeev, I was hoping fighting performance from him ... But he repeated yesterday's score of +5 ... Ernie scored 2 under round to make cut and he is currently at T44 with +1 score.

Tennis News -
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008 (1st Round), Delhi, India

India vs Uzbekistan 1-1

Friday, 8th February 2008
Match 1 -
Rohan Bopanna (IND,287) bt Farrukh Dustov (UZB,249) 63 63 61

Match 2 -
Somdev Dev Varman (IND,784) l Denis Istomin (UZB,184) 36 46 26

Very poor quality match between Bops and Dustov ... Both players were making too many UFEs and mis-hits, but I m not blaming them for this poor show ... Delhi grass court sucks, the balls were taking unpredictable wierd bounces.

Second match was much more competitive than what score line suggested ... Both players were playing from baseline and showed tremendous skill ... But Denis showed what lacking in Buji's game, i.e. killing punch ... Buji retrieve anything but still couldn't find weapon to finish long rallies ... Hope he will add that missing tool in his game in remaining days of college.
-------------------------------------------
At $75K Midland challanger, Mi, USA

[R1] ALBANESE Lauren (USA)/ UBEROI Neha (USA) l PASTIKOVA Michaela (CZE)/ SROMOVA Hana (CZE) 46 26
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Squash News -
At $30K Kolkata International, India

Semi-Finals -
(5) Mansoor Zaman (PAK,35) bt (3) Omar Mosaad (EGY,27) 11-5 4-11 7-11 11-7 11-9 (45m)
(2) Ong Beng Hee (MAS,18) bt (6) Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY,41) 11-8 9-11 6-11 11-8 11-4 (70m)

Golf News -
At $2.5M Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Delhi, India - First Round

1 RANDHAWA Jyoti -7 65
T4 KAPUR Shiv -4 68
T7 MUNIYAPPA C -3 69
T17 ATWAL Arjun -2 70
T17 CHOWRASIA S.S.P -2 70
T17 KAHLON Harmeet -2 70
T17 SINGH Digvijay -2 70
T39 GANGJEE Rahil Par 72
T39 KUMAR Ashok Par 72
T51 KHAN Shamim +1 73
T51 JOHL Amandeep +1 73
T51 KUMAR Mukesh +1 73
T62 DAWAR Naman +2 74
T62 GHOTRA Randhir Singh +2 74
T77 SINGH MUNDY Uttam +3 75
T77 BHULLAR Gaganjeet +3 75
T77 GHEI Gaurav +3 75
T77 KUMAR Sanjay +3 75
T77 LEHAL A S +3 75
T77 MALIK Amardip +3 75
T77 SINGH Arjun +3 75
T77 SINGH Ranjit +3 75
T95 GANAPATHY Rahul +4 76
T95 KUMAR Vijay +4 76
T103 SHER Ali +5 77
T103 SINGH Jeev Milkha +5 77
T108 JHA Abhishek (am) +6 78
T108 BHANDARI Vivek +6 78
T112 GUPTA Harendra P +7 79
T112 VIRK Jaiveer S +7 79
118 SINGH Simarjeet (am) +10 82

Terrific start by Jyoti .. Shiv also continuing with his recent form and confidence ... But also impressed with Arjun's start with 2 under ... Nice to see SSP, Rahil, Digvijay, Harmeet and Ashok Kumar in top 40 ... But disappointed by Gaurav and more importantly with Jeev ... After last week's decent performance at Dubai Classic, I was hoping ddecent start from Jeev ... But now tomorrow he needs to change hisd approach of playing safe on this course and need to attack to produce good round to make cut ... Big Easy, who scored +3, also in trouble and need to put solid second round, which he is capable of.

Tennis News -
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008 (1st Round), Delhi, India

Friday, 8th February 2008
Match 1 -
Rohan Bopanna (IND,287) vs Farrukh Dustov (UZB,249)

Match 2 -
Somdev Dev Varman (IND,784) vs Denis Istomin (UZB,184)

Buji getting deserving chance of debut in Davis Cup due to stomach bug problem to Prakash ... He can be surprise package to upset Denis Istomin ... For India, Rohan playing first rubber is good news considering Buji's lack of experience in this format.
-------------------------------------------
At $ 170K WTA Pattaya Open, Thailand ( Tier IV)

[R2] (LL) Sunitha Rao (IND,193) l Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS,100) 46 46
-------------------------------------------
At $75K Midland challanger, Mi, USA

[R1] (Q) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) l HAYNES Angela (USA,201) 67(1) 76(9) 16

Good fighting performance in first 2 sets by Neha.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Mallorca, Spain

[R2] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) l (4) HERCOG Polona (SLO,390) 36 26
---------------------------------------------------------------
Squash News -
At $30K Kolkata International, India

Quarter-Finals -
(5) Mansoor Zaman (PAK,35) bt Shahid Zaman (PAK,57) 5-11 11-6 11-8 11-6 (40m)
(3) Omar Mosaad (EGY,27) bt (7) Saurav Ghoshal (IND,49) 11-8 4-11 11-9 1-11 (38m)
(6) Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY,41) bt (4) Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK,31) 6-11 11-3 7-11 11-1 11-7 (68m)
(2) Ong Beng Hee (MAS,18) bt (8) Farhan Mehboob (PAK,55) 12-10 11-8 11-6 (54m)

Only Omar Abdel Aziz produced upset ... And became 2nd Egyptian player to be in semis ... Saurav produced fight with winning a second game against top-30 Omar Mosaad.

Tennis News -
At $ 170K WTA Pattaya Open, Thailand ( Tier IV)

[R1] (LL) Sunitha Rao (IND,193) bt (LL) Junri Namigata (JPN,173) 64 61

[R2] (LL) Sunitha Rao (IND,193) vs Ekaterina Bychkova (RUS,100)

Doubles -
[R1] Andreja Klepac (SLO)/ Sunitha Rao (IND) l Anastasia Rodionova (RUS)/ Arina Rodionova (RUS) 46 57

I was going through Pattaya results and shocked to see Sunitha's name as lucky loser in singles maindraw ... And moreover she faced another Japanese lucky loser in first round and made winning start.

But lost in doubles against Rodionova sis ... Sunitha and Andreja had chance in second set to go ahead 5-4 with breaking Rodionova's serve but they couldn't managed to convert break point.
-------------------------------------------
At $75K Midland challanger, Mi, USA

[Q3] (1) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) bt COHEN Julia (USA,389) 75 26 62

[R1] (Q) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) vs HAYNES Angela (USA,201)

Good to see Neha performing as per seeding to reached maindraw of this tought Challenger.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Mallorca, Spain (Clay)

[R1] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) bt (Q) RODIER Charlotte (FRA,782) 64 62

[R2] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) vs (4) HERCOG Polona (SLO,390)

Sandhya is coming back to professional curcuit after long break on clay at Spain.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Squash News -
At $30K Kolkata International, India

Qualifying First Round -
Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY,89) bye
Naresh Kumar (IND,151) bt Ravi Dixit (IND,UNR) 11-7 11-6 11-9 (23m)
Mohamed El Keiy (EGY,211) bt Paramit Singh (IND,UNR) 11-4 11-6 11-3 (23m)
Jethro Binns (WAL,146) bt Navin Samarasinghe (IND,UNR) 11-4 11-5 11-7 (24m)
Jonas Laursen (DEN,197) bt Duncan Walsh (ENG,293) 6-11 12-10 8-11 11-6 15-13 (55m)
Gaurav Nandrajog (IND,133) bt Karan Malik (IND,UNR) 11-0 11-2 11-7 (16m)
Lucas Jelinek (CZE,184) bt Ramit Tandon (IND,UNR) 6-11 11-5 12-10 11-3 (34m)
Rob Sutherland (WAL,128) bye

Qualifying Final Round -
Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY,89) bt Naresh Kumar (IND,151) 12-10 11-2 11-9 (27m)
Jethro Binns (WAL,146) bt Mohamed El Keiy (EGY,211) 11-5 11-5 11-7 (24m)
Gaurav Nandrajog (IND,133) bt Jonas Laursen (DEN,197) 11-5 11-3 11-7 (23m)
Rob Sutherland (WAL,128) bt Lucas Jelinek (CZE,184) 11-7 11-9 11-2 (29m)

Maindraw -
Shahid Zaman (PAK,57) bt (1) Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS,16) 11-3 11-9 3-11 11-6 (39m)
(5) Mansoor Zaman (PAK,35) bt (Q) Jethro Binns (WAL,146) 12-10 11-9 13-15 11-8
(3) Omar Mosaad (EGY,27) bt (Q) Gaurav Nandrajog (IND,133) 11-8 11-7 11-9 (26m)
(7) Saurav Ghoshal (IND,49) bt (Q) Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY,89) 10-11 (0-2) 11-6 11-10 (2-0) 11-7 (55m)
(6) Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY,41) bt (Q) Rob Sutherland (WAL,128) 11-7 11-7 6-11 11-5 (34m)
(4) Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK,31) bt Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,63) 11-8 11-7 11-6 (33m)
(8) Farhan Mehboob (PAK,55) bt (WC) Siddarth Suchde (IND,131) 11-4 11-5 11-6 (34m)
(2) Ong Beng Hee (MAS,18) bt Amr Mansi (EGY,66) 11-7 11-8 11-2 (29m)

Gaurav qualified for maindraw, but frankly all Indians results were as per their current ranking ... Still not our single player produce any upset win in home tournament ... I wish Saurav do some wonders against WR #27 Omar Mosaad but chances r less ... :(

Other hand Pak players having rocking tournament as their 4 players r in quarters, with huge upset win of Shahid Zaman over WR # 16.

Tennis News -
At $75K Midland challanger, Mi, USA

[Q2] (1) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) bt PAZ Gabriela (VEN,592) 75 26 63

[Q3] (1) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) vs COHEN Julia (USA,389)

Doubles -
[R1] ALBANESE Lauren (USA)/ UBEROI Neha (USA) vs PASTIKOVA Michaela (CZE)/ SROMOVA Hana (CZE)
-------------------------------------------
At $ 170K WTA Pattaya Open, Thailand ( Tier IV)

[Q3] (4) RAO Sunitha (IND,195) l (8) YONEMURA, Akiko (JPN,235) 16 16
---------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Mohun Bagan bt Salgaocar SC 1-0

Goal Scored - Rose Berreto (MB) 34'

MoM - Sangram Mukherjee (MB)
--------------------------------------

Dempo SC dw Air India 0-0

MoM - Nirmal Chhetri (AI)

Tennis News -
At $ 170K WTA Pattaya Open, Thailand ( Tier IV)

[Q3] (4) RAO Sunitha (IND,195) vs (8) YONEMURA, Akiko (JPN,235)

Doubles -
[R1] KLEPAC Andreja (SLO)/ RAO Sunitha (IND) vs RODIONOVA Anastasia (RUS)/ RODIONOVA Arina (RUS)

Today all matches cancelled due to rain, so Sunitha will play her final qualifying round tomorrow.
----------------------------------------------
At US$600K WTA Bangalore Open, India (from March 3rd - 9th 2008)

Some of confirm entries -
Venus Williams (USA,6)
Serena Williams (USA,10)
Patty Schnyder (SUI,14)
Sybille Bammer (AUT,19)
Vera Zvonareva (RUS,25)
Maria Kirilenko (RUS,27)
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK,46)
Akiko Morigami (JPN,47)
Shuai Peng (CHN,50)
Meilen Tu (USA,51)
Meghann Shaughnessy (USA,55)
Casey Dellacqua (AUS,57)
Zi Yan (CHN,60)
Yung-Jan Chan (TPE,65)
Angelique Kerber (GER,72)
Yaroslava Shvedova (RUS,75)
Anastasia Rodionova (RUS,81)
Tzipora Obziler (ISR,83)
Olga Savchuk (UKR,85)
Anne Kremer (LUX,98)
Aiko Nakamura (JPN,102)
Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS,107)
Roberta Vinci (ITA,119)

Surprisingly missing name in the list is of India's Sania Mirza ... I wish Sania will play with wildcard here ... But right now it looks may be Doctors asked her to break from tour for more than 4 weeks to fully recover from torn adductor muscle injury.

Sania's response -
"I am not playing in Bangalore Open. I have been advised by my manager not to play (there) because a lot has been happening in the past few months. Everytime I have played in India there has been some kind of problem. So we just thought it was better not to play this time."
-------------------------------------------------
At $75K Midland challanger, Mi, USA

[Q1] (7) IYER Tara (IND,375) l WASHINGTON Mashona (USA,832) 63 36 36
[Q1] (1) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) bt LINGMAN Susanna (USA,691) 26 76(4) 64

[Q2] (1) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) vs PAZ Gabriela (VEN,592)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Dubai Desert Classic, UAE - Final Standing (EPGA Tour)

T19 SINGH Jeev Milkha 67 76 69 71 -5 € 19593.90
T25 KAPUR Shiv 68 72 69 75 -4 € 16697.41
T33 RANDHAWA Jyoti 67 74 75 70 -2 € 12636.65
----------------------------------------------
At FBR Open, Scottsdale, Ariz. - Final Standing (PGA Tour)

T43 Daniel Chopra 69 67 67 77 -4 $ 18,720.00
---------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

East Bengal bt Mahindra United 1-0

Goal Scored - Syed Rahim Nabi (EB) 5'
----------------------------------------------

Sporting Clube De Goa dw JCT Phagwara 0-0

MoM - Mickey Fernandes (SCG)
----------------------------------------------

Viva Kerala l Churchill Brothers 1-3

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeke Okolie (CB) 11' & 29', Mboyo Iyomi (CB) and S Shaleel (VK) 21'

MoM - Odafe Onyeke Okolie (CB)

Tennis News -
At $ 170000 WTA Pattaya Open, Thailand ( Tier IV)

[Q1] (4) RAO Sunitha (IND,195) bt (WC) LERTPITAKSINCHAI Nicha (THA,NR) 62 60
[Q1] UBEROI Shikha (IND,796) bt SCHAEFER Anne Priska (GER,797) 61 60

[Q2] (4) RAO Sunitha (IND,195) bt FAFALIOU Stamatia (GRE,616) 61 61
[Q2] UBEROI Shikha (IND,796) l ZHOU Yi-Miao (CHN,455) 26 26

[Q3] (4) RAO Sunitha (IND,195) vs (8) YONEMURA, Akiko (JPN,235)

Good to see Sunitha is started to win matches ... Surprisingly these were her first wins of season 2008.

Boxing News -
At 1st Asia Boxing Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Bangkok, Thailand

Bantam 54 kg -

[F] Akhil Kumar (IND) bt Worapoj Petchkoom (THA) 21-11 pts

This is a huge win over Athens Olympics silver medallist to win Gold medal in this Asia Boxing Olympic qualifying tournament ... And also considering he was coming out of career threatening wrist injury.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tennis News -
At Great Britain F3 Futures, Tipton

[F] (2) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) bt BREWER David (GBR)/ FLANAGAN Ian (GBR) 46 63 10(7)

Congrats to Purav for his second doubles title in 2 weeks ... Now he should find a way to translate this doubles success into singles.

Boxing News -
At 1st Asia Boxing Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Bangkok, Thailand

Bantam 54 kg -

[R1] Akhil Kumar (IND) bt Javad Afrakhteh (IRI) RSCOS R3
[QF] Akhil Kumar (IND) bt Mukhit Amantayev (KAZ) RSCOS R3
[SF] Akhil Kumar (IND) bt Chol Jin Ryom (PRK) RSCOS R3

[F] Akhil Kumar (IND) vs Worapoj Petchkoom (THA)

Only Akhil Kumar managed to reach final so with that he becomes the second Indian boxer to qualify for olympics ... Other 3 Indian boxers lost in the semi-finals ... Akhil Kumar joined A L Lakra (57kg), who qualified from last year's World Championship in Chicago.

Another impressive thing about Akhil Kumar's win is, in this tournament he won every match with RSCOS (Referee Stop Contest Outscored) in R3 ... So now in the final he will face Athens Olympics silver medallist Thai boxer Worapoj Petchkoom.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tennis News -
At Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008), Bangkok, Thailand

7th Place Play-Off - India bt Hong Kong 2-1

Single 2 -
Shikha Uberoi (IND,796) bt Zi Jun Yang (HKG,UNR) 61 76(5)

Single 1 -
Isha Lakhani (IND,349) l Ling Zhang (HKG,411) 57 36

Doubles -
Sania Mirza (IND)/ Sunitha Rao (IND) bt Ling Zhang (HKG)/Zi Jun Yang (HKG) 76 62

Sania played that means this match was mostly for saving from relegation ... Otherwise no reason of playing with risk of more damaging her tore muscle ...So with Sania's presence on the court atlast we managed to win 1 tie ... And hopefully important one as stated on Fed site that now only Hong Kong will be relegated.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Dubai Desert Classic, UAE - Third Round (EPGA Tour)

T5 KAPUR Shiv 68 72 69 -7
T23 SINGH Jeev Milkha 68 75 69 -4
T52 RANDHAWA Jyoti 67 74 75 PAR

Tennis News -
At Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008), Bangkok, Thailand

GROUP A - India l Australia 0 - 3

Single 2 -
Isha Lakhani (IND,349) l Jessica Moore (AUS,238) 63 46 16

Single 1 -
Sunitha Rao (IND,195) l Casey Dellacqua (AUS,57) 36 57

Doubles -
Sunitha Rao (IND)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) l Casey Dellacqua (AUS)/ Rennae Stubbs (AUS) 67 06

We r playing with Hong Kong, China ... Loser of this match will get relegated as per Federation Cup site.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Dubai Desert Classic, UAE - Second Round (EPGA Tour)

T12 KAPUR Shiv 68 72 -4
T20 RANDHAWA Jyoti 67 74 -3
T36 SINGH Jeev Milkha 68 75 -1

Tennis News -
At Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008), Bangkok, Thailand

Singles 1
Isha Lakhani (IND,349) bt Sacha Jones (NZL,313) 67(7) 61 64

Singles 2
Sunitha Rao (IND,195) l Marina Erakovic (NZL,149) 06 67(7)

Doubles -
Isha Lakhani (IND)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) l Leanne Baker (NZL)/ Marina Erakovic (NZL) 26 26

Sania's unavailability and Sunitha's lack of form r hurting us badly ... Now we r in struggle of holding our position in Asia/Oceania Zone Group I.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Great Britain F3, Tipton

[R1] (Q) MANKAD Harsh (IND,UNR) l (5) Olivier CHARROIN (FRA,611) 3-4 (40-40) Retired

Doubles -
[QF] (2) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) bt EATON Chris (GBR)/ SKUPSKI Ken (GBR) 76(3) 62

[QF] (2) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) bt (4) KLIER David (GER)/ SCHOECK Thomas (GER) 61 76(4)

[F] (2) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) vs BREWER David (GBR)/ FLANAGAN Ian (GBR)

Harsh retired due to hamstring strain injury ... He was playing his 6th match in 5 days so it was already stressful to his taped knee ... Lets hope nothing serious.

Purav reached consecutive second final in doubles, hopefully he and his Czech partner repeats last week's title winning performance.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Dempo SC bt JCT 2-1

Goal Scored - Climax Lawrence (DSC) 43' & 89' and Sunil Chhetri (JCT) 18'
-------------------------------------

Mohun Bagan bt Churchill Brothers 2-1

Goal Scored - Bhaichung Bhutia (MB) 4', Habib ur Rehman Mondal (MB) 31' and Mboyo Iyomi (CB) 38'

MoM - Habib ur Rehman Mondal (MB)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Dubai Desert Classic, UAE

T2 RANDHAWA Jyoti 67 -5
T2 SINGH Jeev Milkha 67 -5
T13 KAPUR Shiv 68 -4

Tennis News -
At Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008), Bangkok, Thailand

GROUP A - India l Indonesia 1-2

Single 1
Shikha Uberoi (IND,796) bt Ayu Fani Damayanti (INA,600) 64 61

Single 2
Sunitha Rao (IND,195) l Sandy Gumulya (INA,239) 16 63 36

Doubles -
Sunitha Rao (IND)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) l Sandy Gumulya (INA)/ Ayu Fani Damayanti (INA) 76(7) 16 36

Indonesia upset India with 2-1 victory ... Shikha and Sunitha couldn't continued with their game after winning first set ... Now we r in dire strait as we need to win all our ties without losing any other match to move into the final ... Australia won their doubles match to won the tie 2-1 against New Zealand.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Great Britain F3, Tipton

[R2] (Q) MANKAD Harsh (IND,UNR) bt (Q) THORNLEY Sean (GBR,1276) 75 62

So this is 5th win in a 4 days ... Good to see his knee is holding after continous play ... So in last 2 weeks Harsh gathered 3 ranking points, he needs to go deep to improve his ranking inside top 1000 players.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Mahindra United dw Salgaocar Sports Club 2-2

Goal Scored - Mohd Rafi (MU) 25', K Thoi (MU) 63' and Malsawmtlunga Syhlo (Sal)

MoM - Malsawmtlunga Syhlo (Sal)
--------------------------------------
East Bengal dw Air India 0-0

MoM - Arnab Das Sharma (AI)

Tennis News -
At Federation Cup (Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008), Bangkok, Thailand

Groups r declared ... India is seeded 3rd and r in with top-seed Australia.

Group A
1. Australia (1)
2. India (3)
3. New Zealand
4. Indonesia

Group B
1. Chinese Taipei (2)
2. Thailand (4)
3. Uzbekistan
4. Hong Kong


Teams -
AUSTRALIA
Alicia Molik, Nicole Pratt, Casey Dellacqua, Rennae Stubbs
Captain - David Taylor

CHINESE TAIPEI
Yung Jan Chan, Su-Wei Hsieh, Chin-Wei Chan, Chia-Jung Chuang
Captain - Shi-Ting Wang

INDONESIA
Sandy Gumulya, Lavinia Tananta, Ayu Fani Damayanti, Vivien Silfany
Captain - Suzanna Anggarkusuma

THAILAND
Tamarine Tanasugarn, Nudnida Luangnam, Suchanun Viratprasert, Napaporn Tongsalee
Captain - Pracharapol Khamsaman

UZBEKISTAN
Akgul Amanmuradova, Iroda Tulyaganova, Vlada Ekshibarova, Albina Khabibulina
Captain - Samuk Abidov

NEW ZEALAND
Marina Erakovic, Sacha Jones, Ellen Barry, Leanne Baker
Captain - David Lewis

HONG KONG, CHINA
Ling Zhang, Zi Jun Yang, Po Kuen Lam, Ka Po Tong
Captain - Yat Wai Venant Shum

INDIA
Sania Mirza, Sunitha Rao, Isha Lakhani, Shikha Uberoi
Captain - Enrico Piperno
------------------------------------------------
At $50K Dallas Challenger, TX USA

[R1] AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ FLEISHMAN Zack (USA) l ROJER Jean-Julien (AHO)/ TORRES Marcio (BRA) 36 57

Tennis News -
At $50K China TCL Challenger, Guangzhou

[R1] BOPANNA Rohan (IND,292) l (5) UDOMCHOKE Danai (THA,153) 26 46

From score it looks that Danai toyed Rohan for straight sets victory ... So now only Kash is keeping our interest in this Chinese Challenger.

As per report Prakash withdraw from this Chinese challenger due to left wrist injury ... Crossing my fingers for not serious injury so he can play important Davis Cup tie against Uzbek
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Great Britain F3, Tipton

[R1] (Q) MANKAD Harsh (IND,UNR) bt (3) KRETSCHMER Gero (GER,594)63 75

Very good result for Harsh, as he lost against same German opponent in previous week ... So very hard fought victory for Harsh which will increase his confidence to perform better.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Sporting Clube De Goa bt Viva Kerala 3-0

Goal Scored - Harmanjot Khabra (SCG) 20', O.E.O. Junior (SCG) 33' & 60'

MoM - Luis Barreto (SCG)

This defeat taking Viva towards relegation zone as East Bengal showing improvement its warning sign for them ... Other hand East Bengal's improvement will be tested in their next home match against Air India ... Tomorrow with EB and Air-men match another Mumbai team is in action ... MU vs Salgaocar.

Tennis News -

So newly updated ranking after Australian Open 2008, Somdev Dev Varman jumped 253 places in singles ranking after US F1 title win to #784 ... With his reaching doubles third round performance Rohan first-time breaks into top-60 doubles ranking and his partner, Rajeev Ram, first-time jumped inside top-50 in doubles ranking, he is on #49 ... Aisam is in #78 in doubles and #129 in singles.

Sania climbed to #29 to become Asia's No. 1 ... Lee dropped 3 positions and Mahesh climbed 2 positions in doubles ranking.

ATP Singles Ranking as on 28th January 2008 (Ranking, Name, Points)
267 Amritraj Prakash 145
288 Bopanna Rohan 131
416 Sipaeya Sunil Kumar 75
466 Rastogi Karan 59
564 Singh Ashutosh 39

ATP Doubles Ranking as on 28th January 2008
15 Paes Leander 2695
19 Bhupathi Mahesh 2390
56 Bopanna Rohan 943
216 Ghouse Mustafa 269
259 Amritraj Stephen 216

WTA Singles Ranking as on 28th January 2008
29 MIRZA SANIA 931.00
195 RAO SUNITHA 147.00
332 UBEROI NEHA 65.00
349 LAKHANI ISHA 62.00
375 IYER TARA 55.00

WTA Doubles Ranking as on 28th January 2008
23 MIRZA SANIA 1680.00
122 RAO SUNITHA 316.00
181 UBEROI NEHA 200.00
311 IYER TARA 90.00
391 BHAMBRI SANAA 59.00
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Great Britain F3, Tipton

[Q3] Harsh Mankad (IND,UNR) bt (1) Chris Eaton (GBR,657) 76(2) 61
[Q3] (3) Navdeep Singh (IND,743) l Sean Thornley (GBR,1273) 16 16
[Q3] (5) Purav Raja (IND,864) l Wojciech Starakiewicz (POL,UNR) 16 46

[R1] (Q) MANKAD Harsh (IND,NR) vs (3) KRETSCHMER Gero (GER,594)

Doubles -
[R1] (2) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) Bye

Very good quality win against tougher opponent ... But worrying part was, Harsh need to taped his knee after first set .... In first round Harsh playing against German player, who defeated him in the Great Britain F1.
-------------------------------------------
At $50K China TCL Challenger, Guangzhou

[Q2] SHOKEEN Vivek (IND,699) bt NAM Hyun-Woo (KOR,539) 67(7) 64 63
[Q3] SHOKEEN Vivek (IND,699) l (3) PETRAZZUOLO Giancarlo (ITA,389) 67(4) 16

Doubles -
[R1] AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND)/ GHOUSE Mustafa (IND) l FISCHER Martin (AUT)/ OSWALD Philipp (AUT) 75 36 (7)10

Vivek lost in the final qualifying round after producing couple of good wins ... Kash and Moose lost against Austrian pair ... Rohan's match is schedule for tomorrow against Danai.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Panama Championship - Final Standing (Nationwide Tour)

T2 Arjun Atwal 70 66 68 74 -2 $ 52,800.00

Considering his recent form in middle of controversy, we should saygood start for 2008 Nationwide season for Arjun to finished T2 ... He was only needed PAR round to capture the title, but I feel he tried to attack the course which produced 4 bogeys on front 9.

Chess News -
At Corus Chess 2008,

Round 13 - Sunday the 27th (grandmaster group A)
V. Ivanchuk - L. van Wely ½-½
J. Polgar - L. Aronian ½-½
V. Topalov - M. Adams ½-½
B. Gelfand - P. Eljanov 1-0
P. Leko - S. Mamedyarov 1-0
M. Carlsen - T. Radjabov ½-½
V. Anand - V. Kramnik ½-½


Round 13 - Sunday the 27th (grandmaster group B)
E. Bacrot - P. Harikrishna ½-½
H. Koneru - S. Movsesian ½-½

Anand had a very entertaining match with Kramnik, which ended in a draw after an exhilarating game of 61 moves ... Anand finished tournament on T3 with GM Radjabov on 7½ pts ... Armenian GM Levon Aronian and Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen won Corus Open 2008 with 8 pts.

Hari and Humpy managed draw respectively ... Hari ended tournament on 4th position with 7½ pts ... Humpy ended on 11th position with 5½ pts.

In grandmaster group C event, Parimarjan Negi lost his match against top seed Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, who also wins Group C event by 2 pts ... Negi ended tied on 2nd place with GM Dimitri Reinderman on 8 pts.

Tennis News -
At Australian Open 2008,

MXD Final -
Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l (5) Tiantian Sun (CHN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 67(4) 46

In the final Mahesh was struggling with his serve and that was major difference between these 2 teams ... But successful Australian Open for Mahesh, who reached semis in men’s doubles & final in MXD ... Sania must be happy with her performance, as she reached 3rd round of singles & women’s doubles and also final of MXD ... Rohan also had satisfied tournament, who reached singles qualifying final round and also reached third round of men’s doubles, this was his first-ever chance of playing maindraw of any grand slam tournament.
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At $50K China TCL Challenger, Guangzhou

[Q1] RASTOGI Karan (IND,469) l ELESKOVIC Ervin (SWE,560) 36 26
[Q1] SHOKEEN Vivek (IND,699) bt THOMPSON Nathan (USA,638) 36 64 62

[Q2] SHOKEEN Vivek (IND,699) vs NAM Hyun-Woo (KOR,539)

Maindraw -
[R1] BOPANNA Rohan (IND,292) vs (5) UDOMCHOKE Danai (THA,153)
[R1] AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND,278) vs (2) LU Yen-Hsun (TPE,112)

Doubles -
[R1] AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND)/ GHOUSE Mustafa (IND) vs FISCHER Martin (AUT)/ OSWALD Philipp (AUT)
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At $10K Great Britain F3, Tipton

[Q1] Harsh Mankad (IND,UNR) bt Ben Dunbar (GBR,UNR) 61 63
[Q1] (3) Navdeep Singh (IND,743) Bye
[Q1] (5) Purav Raja (IND,864) Bye

[Q2] Harsh Mankad (IND,UNR) bt (14) Edward Allinson (GBR,1058) 62 64
[Q2] (3) Navdeep Singh (IND,743) bt Rogan Egerton (GBR, UNR) 62 62
[Q2] (5) Purav Raja (IND,864) bt Frederik Sletting-Johnsen (NOR, 1303) 75 57 62

Excellent work by Harsh wining 2 matches in a day ... So now in the final qualifying round he will mostly play against top seed British Chris Eaton (#657) ... Good start for Navdeep and Purav also.
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Golf News -
At Qatar Masters, Doha, Qatar - Final Standing (EPGA Tour)

T7 RANDHAWA Jyoti 70 70 72 66 -10 € 37915.11
T47 KAPUR Shiv 73 68 74 69 - 4 € 8210.19
T56 SINGH Jeev Milkha 74 71 73 68 - 2 € 5259.65
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At Panama Championship - Third Round (Nationwide Tour)

1 Arjun Atwal 70 66 68 -6
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Hockey News -
At 8 Nations U21 Invitational Tournament, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Final -
India l Australia 2-3

Goal Scored - Diwakar Ram (IND) (PC) 16', Mandeep Antil (IND) 62' and Aaron Kleinschmidt (AUS) 44' & 52', Mathew Buttunni (AUS) 66'

For 3rd position -
Germany bt Holland 3-1

For 5th position -
Pakistan bt New Zealand 8-3

For 7th position -
Malaysia bt South Korea 2-1

The Australians upped their game yesterday and attacked from the word go ... And three goals in the second half did the trick against an Indian side who lacked the aggression to match the Australians ... The Indians were kept pegged in defence and goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh was the player to beat ... He saved no fewer than four clear attempts at goal and also warded off two penalty corner attempts by the Australians in the first half.

Diwakar Ram scored 12 goals in the tournament.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Air India dw Mohun Bagan 0-0

MoM - Alvito D’Cunah (MB)
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East Bengal bt Dempo Sports Club 1-0

Goal Scored - Mahesh Gawli (DSC) 68' (own goal)

Chess News -
At Corus Chess 2008,

Round 12 - Saturday the 26th (grandmaster group A)
L. van Wely - V. Anand ½-½
V. Kramnik - M. Carlsen 0-1
T. Radjabov - P. Leko ½-½
S. Mamedyarov - B. Gelfand ½-½
P. Eljanov - V. Topalov 1-0
M. Adams - J. Polgar 0-1
L. Aronian - V. Ivanchuk ½-½


Round 12 - Saturday the 26th (grandmaster group B)
P. Harikrishna - M. Krasenkow ½-½
W. Spoelman - H. Koneru 1-0

Anand only managed draw with van Wely ... But Carlsen scored surprising win over Kramnik, so now Anand is on T3 with 7 pts.

Hari is on sole 4th position with 7 pts, but Humpy dropped to 11th position.

In grandmaster group C event, Parimarjan Negi scored exciting win against Greece GM Efstratios Grivas ... Negi is still on 2nd with 8 pts and he is still 1 pts behind leader Caruana ... In last round Negi facing Caruana so if he wins this battle then Negi having chance to win the title.
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Hockey News -
At 8 Nations U21 Invitational Tournament, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

India dw Holland 3-3

Goal Scored - Diwakar Ram (IND) (PC) 12', 40' & 58' and Mirk van der Weerden (NED) (PC) 8' & 51', Bob de Voogd (NED) 56'

Other Matches -
Australia bt New Zealand 6-1
Germany bt Malaysia 3-1

India-Holland match was an exciting game, with lead changing hands three times ... As Netherlands knew that they had to beat Indians to reach in the final.

But Australia go through to the final as the tournament rules stipulate that should any of the teams be level on points, then the team who have won more matches will count more in the final standings.

Tennis News -
At $10K Great Britain F2 Futures, Sheffield

[F] (1) KRKOSKA Jiri (CZE)/ RAJA Purav (IND) bt (4) EATON Chris (GBR)/ SKUPSKI Ken (GBR) 76(7) 76(4)

Top seed pair of Raja and Czech Krkoska wins doubles title at Great Britain F2 in exciting battle against 4th seed local pair.
--------------------------------------------------
At Australian Open 2008,

Sania is playing with injury an inflamed upper hamstring on the left leg, today (Saturday) morning she was planning to do an MRI, but the result of the test will not stop her from playing the final.

Sania's father Imran Mirza - "Sania has an inflamed upper hamstring on the left leg. She got injured during her singles match against Venus Williams. She needs rest, but this is a Grand Slam final. She is willing to play on one leg if the situation demands. She is very determined and I'm hoping that the 48 hours rest before the final will help."
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Golf News -
At Qatar Masters, Doha, Qatar - Third Round (EPGA Tour)

T32 RANDHAWA Jyoti 70 70 72 -4
T51 KAPUR Shiv 73 68 74 -1
T66 SINGH Jeev Milkha 74 71 73 +2
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At Panama Championship - Second Round (Nationwide Tour)

2 Arjun Atwal 70 66 -4
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Churchill Brothers bt JCT 1-0

Goal Scored - Mboyo Iyomi (CB) 10'

MoM - Robert Lal (CB)

Chess News -
At Corus Chess 2008,

Round 11 - Friday the 25th (grandmaster group A)
L. Aronian - L. van Wely 1-0
V. Ivanchuk - M. Adams ½-½
J. Polgar - P. Eljanov 0-1
V. Topalov - S. Mamedyarov ½-½
B. Gelfand - T. Radjabov 0-1
P. Leko - V. Kramnik ½-½
M. Carlsen - V. Anand 0-1


Round 11 - Friday the 25th (grandmaster group B)
I. Cheparinov - P. Harikrishna 0-1
H. Koneru - D. Stellwagen ½-½

Anand scored exciting win against previous round's leader GM Magnus Carlsen to move T2 nd psition with 6½ pts.

Humpy managed draw to move on T8 with 5 pts and Hari scored victory to move to T4 with 6½ pts.

In grandmaster group C event, Parimarjan Negi managed draw against GM Dimitri Reinderman of Netherlands ... Now Negi moved to T2 with 7 pts, but he is still 1 pts behind leader Caruana.
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Golf News -
At Qatar Masters, Doha, Qatar - Second Round (EPGA Tour)

T11 RANDHAWA Jyoti 70 70 -4
T17 KAPUR Shiv 73 68 -3
T57 SINGH Jeev Milkha 74 71 +1