Tennis News

At $1,340,000 Tier 1 Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis Tournament, Tokyo, Japan

[Q1] UBEROI, Shikha (IND,772) l (WC) MIYAMURA, Miki (JPN,581) 61 46 25 retd.

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At $25K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

First Round -

Ankita Bhambri (IND,566) bt Ima Bohush (BLR,516) 63 75

Sanaa Bhambri (IND, 523) bt Sabina Sharipova (UZB,UNR) 60 63

(Q) Parija Maloo (IND,708) bt (Q) Shahdozaxon Hatamova (UZB,UNR) 64 26 64

Isha Lakhani (IND,333) bt (Q) Diana Narzikulova (UZB,UNR) 61 62
(LL) Prerana-Mythri Appineni (IND,685) l Nicole Clerico (ITA,503) 46 36

[R2] (3) Isha Lakhani (IND,333) vs Lesya Tsurenko (UKR,458)
[R2] Ankita Bhambri (IND,563) vs Ekaterina Dranets (RUS,512)
[R2] Sanaa Bhambri (IND, 523) vs Nicole Clerico (ITA,503)
[R2] (Q) Parija Maloo (IND,708) vs (2) Pemra Ozgen (TUR,326)

Doubles -
[R1] Prerana-Mythri Appineni (IND) / Parija Maloo (IND) bt (WC) Nigina Rakhmonova (UZB)/ Diera Saidmukhamedova (UZB) 75 63
[R1] Sanaa Bhambri (IND) / Ankita Bhambri (IND) bt Alisa Ogorodova (UZB)/ Anastasiya Vasylyeva (UKR) 60 62
[R1] Ima Bohush (BLR) / Lesya Tsurenko (UKR) bt (2) Isha Lakhani (IND)/ Pemra Ozgen (TUR) 76(5) 63

[QF] Prerana-Mythri Appineni (IND) / Parija Maloo (IND) vs (1) Nicole Clerico (ITA)/ Ksenia Palkina (KGZ)
[QF] Sanaa Bhambri (IND) / Ankita Bhambri (IND) vs Albina Khabibulina (UZB)/ Alexandra Kolesnichenko (UZB)

Good start for our girls, as after longtime I m seeing Ankita's win over higher ranked opponent.

Overall very good start for Indian contingent ... In doubles Prerana-Mythri and Parija having tough quarters again top-seed ... Bhambri sis having good chance to move into doubles semis.

Its interesting to see how our girls perform against these higher ranked opponents in second round ... I m really surprised to see so many Uzbek 16 to 18 yrs old girls in this challenger ... Uzbek must have proper talent scouting and training.

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At $50K+H Todi Challenger, Italy (Red Clay)

[Q1] (8) MANKAD Harsh (IND,550) l KATLIAROU Pavel (BLR,945) 3-3 Ret. (ankle rollover)

Doubles -

[R1] MANKAD Harsh (IND)/ RAJA Purav (IND) vs (WC) DUSTOV Farrukh (UZB)/ KARAGIANNIS Niko (GRE)

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At $50K Waco Challenger, TX, USA

[Q1] (6) GIDE Rohan (IND,1322) l (WC) BRUCHE Marc (GER,UNR) 63 67(2) 36

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At $15K Great Britain F15 Futures, Nottingham

[R1] Navdeep Singh (IND,833) vs Joshua Milton (GBR,942)

Doubles -
[R1] (3) Navdeep Singh (IND)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) Bye
[QF] (3) Navdeep Singh (IND)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) vs David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR)
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At $50K Waco Challenger, TX, USA

[R1] (8) RAM Rajeev (USA,182) vs MONROE Nicholas (USA,289)

Doubles -
[R1] AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ POLANSKY Peter (CAN) l (4) FRANCIS Alberto (USA)/ MONROE Nicholas (USA) 64 36 (9)11

[R1] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ WIDOM Todd (USA) vs OUDSEMA Scott (USA)/ SMYCZEK Tim (USA)

For Stephen close loss against 4th seed pair.

Squash News 

At $15k Ornano International 2008, Bordeaux, France

[R1] (6) Saurav Ghosal (IND,45) bt David Vidal (ESP,122) 11-9 11-8 11-5 (38m)

[R1] (7) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,58) bt (Q) Lewis Walters (ENG,130) 11-3 12-10 11-8 (25m)

[QF] (6) Saurav Ghosal (IND,45) bt (1) Renan Lavigne (FRA,27) 7-11 15-13 11-5 11-5

[QF] (7) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,58) l (3) Davide Bianchetti  (ITA,30) 8-11 3-11 8-11

[SF] (6) Saurav Ghosal (IND,45) bt (5) Amr Swelim (EGY,41) 10-12 11-2 11-2 3-11 14-12 (74m)

Final -

(6) Saurav Ghosal (IND,45) bt (3) Davide Bianchetti  (ITA,30) 11-6 11-6 9-11 11-9

Saurav Ghosal won the biggest title of his career by winning the inaugural $15K Ornano International Open, defeating 3rd seed Italian Davide Bianchetti in the final at Bordeaux ... While winning title he scored 3 upsets win and in that 2 over top-30 players ... When last time Ghosal & Bianchetti met that time Saurav lost 1-3 against Davide, but this time he managed to turn table on this experianced player with smart game ... For Saurav this turned out to be good build up tournament for the World Open next month.

Golf News
At Mercedes-Benz Championship, Cologne, Germany - Final Standing

T11 Jeev Milkha Singh 73 70 73 68 - 4 €34466.67
T73 S S P Chowrasia 79 76 79 79 +25 €3050.00
77 Jyoti Randhawa 77 83 79 81 +32 €2600.00

Jyoti scored another disastrous round, he managed 9 over in the last round … He finished on last position scoring +32 ... I don't remember last time when Jyoti take more than 300 shots to complete his 4 rounds.

SSP also joined Jyoti for 300+ club in this Mercedes-Benz Championship ... He scored 7 over last round ... Interestingly 20 golfers finished with 300 or + score ... In this list u will find players like Retief Goosen and Bernhard Langer.

Jeev scored unblemish round scoring birdies on 5th, 13, 14th & 15th holes ... Jeev finished on 4 under to scored very good result in this tough condition ... This 4 under helped Jeev to move into top 15.
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At Albertsons Boise Open, Boise, Idaho - Final Standing (Nationwide Tour)

T18 Arjun Atwal 66 68 73 68 -9 $9,787.50

After first 2 rounds Arjun was in top 5 but again 3rd round let him down and he lost another opportunity of solid finish and entering into top-25 Nationwide Money leaders.

Badminton News
At $170K Yonex Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold 2008, Sinhuang

Final -
(2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) bt Lydia Li Ya Cheah (MAS,72) 21-8 21-19

Saina becomes the first Indian woman to win a golden grand prix tournament ... With this victory Saina will climbed upto her best singles ranking, #12.

Saina won in 2 straight games ... After winning first game easily, 21-8, Saina was down by 6 pts in second game but then she showed spirited comback to catch her opponent at 16-16 and then won her first Gold GP title with winning second game 21-19 ... In first game Saina was a totally dominating stuff ... Once she won the first game, she relied more upon the inconsistent Lydia to make mistakes.
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At $5K Waikato International 2008, Hamilton, New Zealand

Final -
(2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) l (1) John Moody (NZL,84) 16-21 20-22

Ajay couldn't repeat last week's title winning performance but still creditable performance by Ajay to reached the final.

Tennis News
At $50K Tulsa Challenger, Oklahoma, USA

[F] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) l (2) FISHER Ashley (AUS)/ HUSS Stephen (AUS) 67(4) 36

Rajeev and Bobby los against 2nd seed.
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At $50K+H Todi Challenger, Italy (Red Clay)

[Q1] RAJA Purav (IND,865) l TORRONI Giulio(ITA,886) 26 57
[Q1] (8) MANKAD Harsh (IND,550) vs KATLIAROU Pavel (BLR,945)
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At $25K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q1] (2) Prerana Appineni (IND,683) l Diera Saidmukhamedova (UZB,UNR) 57 57
[Q1] (3) Parija Maloo (IND,708) bt Daria Tuaeva (UZB,UNR) 60 60
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At $50K Waco Challenger, TX, USA

[Q1] (6) GIDE Rohan (IND,1322) vs (WC) BRUCHE Marc (GER,UNR)
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Golf News
At Mercedes-Benz Championship, Cologne, Germany - Third Round (European Tour)

T25 Jeev Milkha Singh 73 70 73 PAR
T73 S S P Chowrasia 79 76 79 +18
T76 Jyoti Randhawa 77 83 79 +23
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At Albertsons Boise Open, Boise, Idaho - Third Round (Nationwide Tour)

T25 Arjun Atwal 66 68 73 -6

Chess News
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Tenth Round -
Veselin Topalov - Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0
Levon Aronian - Teimour Radjabov 0-1
Magnus Carlsen - Viswanathan Anand ½-½

Final Standing -
1 Veselin Topalov 6½ pts
2 Magnus Carlsen 5 pts
3 Levon Aronian 5 pts
4 Vassily Ivanchuk 5 pts
5 Teimur Radjabov 4½ pts
6 Viswanathan Anand 4 pts

In this tournament only Anand remained winless ... Poor performance here will cost him around 14 ELO pts and in unofficial live rating Anand is dropped to 5th in standing with 2783.2 ELO pts ... Veselin Topalov is leading with 2790.6 ELO pts, 7 pts ahead Anand.
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Motor Sports
At Formula1 2008, Monza

Fisichella delievered what he promised ... He helped Force India to qualify first-time for 2nd qualifying stage ... He is qualified on 12th position ahead of Kimi, who r qualified on 14th position, and Lewis Hamilton, who r qualified for on 15th.
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At GP2 Series 2008, Monza

In qualifying Karun qualified on 10th and Senna on 12th ... But in Feature race he finished on 11th position and Senna on 5th position.

On the last race of the season Karun's race got over in the first lap ... Karun finished season on 10th position with 31 pts.

iSports International finished on 2nd position in team standing behind Barwa Campos Team, who ended on 105 pts ... In driver standing Bruno Senna also finished on 2nd position behind Giorgio Pantano of Racing Engineering, who finished on 76 pts ... In both championships iSports team and driver fall short by 8 pts.

Badminton News
At $170K Yonex Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold 2008

[SF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) bt Pia Zebadiah Bernadet (INA,76) 21-7 21-14

Final -
(2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) vs Lydia Li Ya Cheah (MAS,72)

Saina scored very easy victory over Pia to move into her first GP Gold final ... Now she is facing Malaysian Lydia in the final to win her first GP Gold tournament title.
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At $5K Waikato International 2008, Hamilton, New Zealand

Womens Singles -
[QF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Leanne Choo (AUS,199) 21-16 21-12

[SF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) l Misaki Matsutomo (JPN,203) 18-21 18-21

Mens Singles -
[QF] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) l Shu Wada (JPN,233) 19-21 21-12 9-21
[QF] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Delius Tang (NZL,UNR) 21-8 21-10

[SF] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt (3/4) Joe Wu (NZL,150) 21-14 21-15

Final -
(2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) vs (1) John Moody (NZL,84)

Neha couldn't cross another Japanese hurdle but Ajay is in position to win back to back title at New Zealand.

Tennis News
At $50K Tulsa Challenger, Oklahoma, USA

[SF] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) bt MONROE Nicholas (USA)/ WARBURG Sam (USA) 62 76(11)
[SF] (4) AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ SIRIANNI Joseph (AUS) l (2) FISHER Ashley (AUS)/ HUSS Stephen (AUS) 36 46

[F] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) vs (2) FISHER Ashley (AUS)/ HUSS Stephen (AUS)

Rajeev with Bobby reached in the final But Stephen challenge got over in the semis.
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At $15K India F7, New Delhi

Singles Final -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt (7) Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) 61 76(1)

Badminton News
At $170K Yonex Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold 2008

[R3] P Kashyap (IND,66) l Tommy Sugiarto (INA,58) 14-21 14-21

[QF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) bt Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,43) 21-19 16-21 21-16
[SF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) vs Pia Zebadiah Bernadet (INA,76)

Kashyap couldn't manage to build on his top-20 win ... But other hand Saina continue her march towards her first-ever Grand Prix Gold title.
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At $5K Waikato International 2008, Hamilton, New Zealand

Womens Singles -
[R2] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) l (2) Rachel Hindley (NZL,96) 7-21 22-24
[R2] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt (3/4) Yu Wakita (JPN,117) 21-17 21-14

[QF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) vs Leanne Choo (AUS,199)

Mens Singles -
[R3] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Rei Sato (JPN,UNR) 16-21 21-18 21-18
[R3] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) l Bjorn Seguin (NZL,317) 17-21 20-22
[R3] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt (3/4) Ethan Haggo (NZL,167) 22-20 21-16

[QF] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) vs Shu Wada (JPN,233)
[QF] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) vs Delius Tang (NZL,UNR)

Neha scored good win over higher ranked Japanese player ... Other hand Prakash also scored good win over higher seed opponent.

Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Semi-Finals -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) l Yifan Hou (CHN,2557) 2-4

In first game Yifan Hou won in 39 moves playing with whites ... But in second game tie-break Humpy again showed her resistance to beat Hou ... But 14 yrs old Hou Yifan won both Blitz games to gave heart-breaking loss to Humpy.
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At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Ninth Round -
Vassily Ivanchuk - Levon Aronian ½-½
Teimour Radjabov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Viswanathan Anand - Veselin Topalov ½-½

Another disappointing result for Anand ... Topalov managed draw with blacks with Anand.

Tennis News
At $15K India F7, New Delhi

Singles Semi Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt (6) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) 62 61
(7) Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) bt Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,1295) 63 62

Doubles Final -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 62 62

Prajnesh terrific run ended by Aqeel but still creditable performance by Prajnesh to reached semis ... In doubles final this time Ashutosh and Sunil managed to turn table on Divij and Vishnu with very easy victory.
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At $50K Tulsa Challenger, Oklahoma, USA

[QF] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) bt BRUGUES-DAVI Arnau (ESP)/ STEPHENS Philip (GBR) 62 62
[QF] (4) AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ SIRIANNI Joseph (AUS) bt (WC) GRAY Will (USA)/ ROWE Ryan (USA) 76(5) 46 12(10)

[SF] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) vs MONROE Nicholas (USA)/ WARBURG Sam (USA)
[SF] (4) AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ SIRIANNI Joseph (AUS) vs (2) FISHER Ashley (AUS)/ HUSS Stephen (AUS)

Stephen and his Australian partner pulled very close match to move into semis ... Rajeev and Bobby had easy passage in semis.

Chess News 

At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Semi-Finals -

Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) - Yifan Hou (CHN,2557) 1-0 (1-1)

Pia Cramling (SWE,2544) - Alexsandra Kosteniuk (RUS,2510) ½-½ (½-1½)

Today Humpy played with vengeance and defeated Yifan Hou ... Excellent performnace by Humpy under pressure ... Now definitely advantage Humpy in tie-break ... Russian Alexsandra Kosteniuk reached final drawing second game.

Tennis News
At $15K India F7, New Delhi

Singles Quarter Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Rupesh ROY (IND,1102) 62 62
(6) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) bt (4) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,502) 61 62

(7) Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) bt (WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) 67(8) 64 75
Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,1295) bt (2) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) 76(4) 64

Doubles Semi Finals -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt (3) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) 75 63
Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (WC) Mithun MURALI (IND)/ Yannick NELORD (IND) 46 62 10(5)

Shockingly one-sided lost for Sunil, agree he wasn't in good form but still very disturbing score.

Prajnesh keep impressing with his performance from his Spain stint ... Today he scored his best win from his small career.

Badminton News 

At $170K Yonex Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold 2008

[R1] P Kashyap (IND,66) Bye

[R2] P Kashyap (IND,66) bt (2) Sairul Amar Ayob (MAS,20) 18-21 23-21 21-14

[R1] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) bt Mingtian Fu (SIN,70) 21-19 21-19

[R3] P Kashyap (IND,66) vs Tommy Sugiarto (INA,58)

[R2] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) bt Kwan Yi Mong (HKG,99) 21-8, 21-12

[QF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,14) VS Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,43)

Saina and P Kashyap r playing at Chinese Taipei Grand Prix Gold ... Saina is showing newly gained confidence in her game ... She is in quarters and in chance of another match with Indonesian Yulianti ...Yesterday Kashyap scored biggest victory of his small career defeating top-20 Malaysian player, Sairul Amar Ayob ... After losing first game Kashyap played superb match to won next game with little margin and then easily over-powered his opponent in the next.

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At $5K Waikato International 2008, Hamilton, New Zealand

Womens Singles -

[R1] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) bt Anna Rankin (NZL,363) 21-18 21-5

[R1] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Melissa Yin (NZL,UNR) 21-4 21-6

[R2] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) vs (2) Rachel Hindley (NZL,96)

[R2] Neha Pandit (IND,148) vs (3/4) Yu Wakita (JPN,117)

Mens Singles -

[R1] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) Bye

[R1] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt Praveen Tayalan (NZL,) 21-15 21-8

[R1] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) Bye

[R2] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Jeremy Liu (NZL,) 21-6 21-8

[R2] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) bt Evan Lee (NZL,) 21-14 23-21

[R2] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt Simon Koo (NZL,) 22-20 21-16

[R3] (2) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) vs Rei Sato (JPN,UNR)

[R3] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) vs Bjorn Seguin (NZL,317)

[R3] [R2] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) vs (3/4) Ethan Haggo (NZL,167)

Chess News 

At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Semi-Finals -

Yifan Hou (CHN,2557) - Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) 1-0

Alexsandra Kosteniuk (RUS,2510) - Pia Cramling (SWE,2544) 1-0

Yifan Hou continued her giant killing in this World Championship ... Yesterday she defeated Humpy, who played closed Ruy Lopez, in 55 moves playing with whites ... Now top-seed Humpy having big task to win next game playing with black to give her chance in tie-break.

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At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain

(Category XXII tournament)

Eighth Round -

Vassily Ivanchuk - Teimour Radjabov 1-0

Viswanathan Anand - Levon Aronian 0-1

Veselin Topalov - Magnus Carlsen 1-0

Anand messed a perfectly good white game with a terrible blunder immediately after the first time control and lost after a 75-move struggle to survive ... Veselin Topalov defeated Magnus Carlsen's Sicilian Modern Dragon in 48 moves ... Vassily Ivanchuk pulled of win against Teimour Radjabov after a terrible time scramble.

Billiards News 

At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Time Format)

Final -

Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 2368 - 2020

Session 1 - Pankaj 1274 and Devendra 154

Session 2 - Pankaj  538 and Devendra 879

Session 3 - Pankaj  556 and Devendra 987

Breaks

Pankaj - 219, 327, 219, 219, 289, 153, 100

Devendra - 338, 364, 557, 208, 103

After first session Devendra was down by more than 1000 pts but then in next 2 sessions he fought hard ... But his first session poor performance costed him the World title ... So with that Pankaj retained World Billiards (time format) title third time in a row.

Highest breaks in this World Championship scored by Geet Sethi in group stage, 885 & 750 in first 2 matches.

Tennis News
At $225K Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, Bali, Indonesia

Shikha Uberoi (IND)/ Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) l Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Marta Domachowska (POL) 63 16 (4)10

After winning first set Shikha and her Canadian partner could,'t manage to take advantage.
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At $50K Tulsa Challenger, Oklahoma, USA

[R1] RAM Rajeev (USA,181) l RUSSELL Michael (USA,301) 62 57 36

Doubles -
[R1] (4) AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ SIRIANNI Joseph (AUS) bt BAKER Jamie (GBR)/ MARRAY Jonathan (GBR) 75 67(4) 10(6)

[R1] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) bt FRANCIS Alberto (USA)/ KIM Kevin (USA) 62 62

[QF] (1) RAM Rajeev (USA)/ REYNOLDS Bobby (USA) vs BRUGUES-DAVI Arnau (ESP)/ STEPHENS Philip (GBR)

[QF] (4) AMRITRAJ Stephen (IND)/ SIRIANNI Joseph (AUS) vs (WC) GRAY Will (USA)/ ROWE Ryan (USA)

Rajeev had winnable match but lost in 3 sets ... Stephen and Austalian scored very fighting win against experianced Britishers.

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At $15K India F7, New Delhi

Singles First Round -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Rohan GAJJAR (IND,822) 46 75 62
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,922) bt Shivang MISHRA (IND,1551) 61 61
(Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,UNR) bt (Q) I-Ta CHEN (TPE,UNR) 62 60
Rupesh ROY (IND,1102) bt (8) Divij SHARAN (IND,804) 75 63

(4) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,502) bt (Q) Suresh KRISHNA (IND,UNR) 64 60
Tushar LIBERHAN (IND,1066) bt (Q) Prateek BHAMBRI (IND,UNR) 63 62
Yasir KHAN (PAK,1551) bt (WC) Navinder Pal SINGH (IND,UNR) 63 46 60
(6) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND,1477) 76(5) 61

(7) Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) bt (Q) Whit LIVINGSTON (USA,1717) 76(11) 61
(Q) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Karunuday SINGH (IND,UNR) 63 64
(WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) bt (Q) Mithun MURALI (IND,UNR) 63 62
Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) bt (3) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) 63 75

Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,1295) bt (5) Ashutosh SINGH (IND,648) 76(5) 46 76(7)
(WC) Ronak MANUJA (IND,UNR) bt Vaja UZAKOV (UZB,825) 76(6) 63
(Q) Nikunj SIWACH (IND,UNR) bt Yannick NELORD (IND,1627) 26 75 64
(2) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt Rahil MAKHARIA (IND,1627) 61 62

Quarter Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,922) 64 64
Rupesh ROY (IND,1102) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,UNR) 63 64

(4) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,502) bt Tushar LIBERHAN (IND,1066) 36 64 64
(6) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) bt Yasir KHAN (PAK,1551) 62 63

(7) Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) bt (Q) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,UNR) 62 64
(WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) 76(3) 46 3-2 Retd

Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,1295) bt (WC) Ronak MANUJA (IND,UNR) 64 62
(2) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt (Q) Nikunj SIWACH (IND,UNR) 63 63

Doubles First Round -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Anshuman DUTTA (IND)/ Yasir KHAN (PAK) 60 62
Rahil MAKHARIA (IND)/ Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) bt (WC) Prateek BHAMBRI (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 64 46 10(8)

(3) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 61 62
Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt (WC) Ankit SACHDEVA (IND)/ Palash TIWARI (IND) 63 64

(WC) Mithun MURALI (IND)/ Yannick NELORD (IND) bt Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND)/ Karunuday SINGH (IND) 64 26 13(11)
(4) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Whit LIVINGSTON (USA)/ Shivang MISHRA (IND) 64 62

Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Aqeel KHAN (PAK)/ Rupesh ROY (IND) 63 63
(2) Tushar LIBERHAN (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt I-Ta CHEN (TPE)/ Hsin-Han LEE (TPE) 76(5) 75

Quarter Finals -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Rahil MAKHARIA (IND)/ Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 61 61
(3) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 61 63

(WC) Mithun MURALI (IND)/ Yannick NELORD (IND) bt (4) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 64 63
Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (2) Tushar LIBERHAN (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) 75 62

Ranjeet scored solid upset win over Korean Hyun-Woo Nam, mostly Ranjeet's first win over top-500 player ... Prajnesh scored also best win of his career beating fellow seeded player, Ashutosh Singh in a very long match ... Exciting stuff from both.

Other hand Sunil winning matches but not convincing performance from him ... Rupesh also managed after long time back to back win after upset win over Divij.

In doubles Divij Sharan and Vishnu Vardhan having purple patch in these Indian futures.

Billiards News
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Time Format)

Another all Indian show as only 2 foreigners managed to enter in quarters ... Due to draw Pankaj and Geet faced eachother in semis and again Pankaj showed his upperhand over Geet this time in time format ... Devendra Joshi having great World Championship ... He reached semifinal as an qualifier in points format, but in time format he is in the final challenging Pankaj.

Semi Finals -
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Geet Sethi (IND) 1269 - 1003
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 1228 - 820

Quarter Finals -
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 1756 - 783
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 1356 - 1293

Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 1182 - 966
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 1108 - 1102

Round of 16 -
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) 1892 - 727
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt B. Bhaskar (IND) 958 - 832
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) 1371 - 1086
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 2036 - 869

Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) 1660 - 767
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Prem Prakash (IND) 1879 - 792
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) 1023 - 864
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 1485 - 717

Group A
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 1483 - 655
Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 670 - 582
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 1589 - 561
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 1816 - 377
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 1527 - 528
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Prem Prakash (IND) 1735 - 703

Group B
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 1171 - 556
Boon Aun Keith (SIN) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 633 - 598
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 2191 - 254
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 1259 - 385
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 1477 - 332
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 1380 - 332

Group C
Calum Hossack (SCO) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) W/O
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) 1231 - 427
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Calum Hossack (SCO) 1424 - 320
Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) 988 - 540
Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) bt Calum Hossack (SCO) 1117 - 252
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) 1113 - 432

Group D
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Mohammed Aslam (SRI) 1312 - 505
Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 852 - 602
Larry Drennan (IRL) bt Mohammed Aslam (SRI) 781 - 485
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) 1025 - 647
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 1196 - 444
Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) bt Mohammed Aslam (SRI) 1019 - 638

Group E
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 1007 - 735
Shyam Jagtiani (IND) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 1040 - 537
Mohammed Asim (IND) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 812 - 698
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Mohammed Asim (IND) 2089 - 429
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 1834 - 368
Shyam Jagtiani (IND) bt Mohammed Asim (IND) 765 - 624

Group F
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 1015 - 497
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 1236 - 440
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 867 - 697
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 1115 - 444
Brijesh Damani (IND) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 1002 - 759
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) 856 - 674

Group G
Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 782 - 431
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Arvind Savur (IND) 1031 - 637
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 1247 - 454
Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) bt Arvind Savur (IND) 815 - 512
Arvind Savur (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 823 - 623
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) 1299 - 462

Group H
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Gary Norman (E-BOS) 1544 - 362
Aidan Murray (IRL) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 538 - 426
Aidan Murray (IRL) bt Gary Norman (E-BOS) 628 - 369
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 2102 - 159
Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) bt Gary Norman (E-BOS) 957 - 301
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 1939 - 167

Chess News
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Seventh Round -
Magnus Carlsen - Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1
Teimour Radjabov - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Levon Aronian - Veselin Topalov 1-0 

Anand managed another draw, but Carlsen lost against Ivanchuk playing with whites ... Aronian also scored victory with whites against Topalov, that means in standing now Anand and Radjabov r tied for the last position .

Tennis News
At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) l (3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP,18) 76(6) 26 57

What a match for Somdev ... Though he lost he gained very valuable experiance and lot of respect for his game ... Almagro managed to pull this match on his experiance ... But Buji gave his all in this his first match against top-20 player ... Simply awesome display in 2 hrs 26 mins match.

Awesome performance and feeling proud about Buji ... No more words only enjoying moment that at last we r having player who can compete at highest level against best in the world.

Match stats - Buji had excellent 1st serve percentage of 65% in against 54% by Almagro ... Almagro hit 11 aces with 4 DFs and Buji hit 5 aces ... Almagro created 11 break point chances and converted 5, other hand Buji created 6 BP chances and converted 2 ... Almagro won 119 pts in this long match and Buji managed to win 104 pts.

Badminton News
At $15K Yonex Belgian International 2008, Berchem

[R1] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Sven Eric Kastens (GER,112) 21-8 21-12
[R1] (5) Arvind Bhat (IND,42) bt (Q) Harry Wright (GBR,343) 21-16 18-21 21-19
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,78) bt Sune Gavnholt (DEN,121) 25-23 21-15

[R2] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Marcel Reuter (GER,138) 21-11 17-21 21-11
[R2] (5) Arvind Bhat (IND,42) bt Martin Bille Larsen (DEN,83) 19-21 21-15 21-11
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,78) bt Pavel Florian (CZE,109) 21-10 21-14

[QF] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Brice Leverdez (FRA,90) 21-11 21-18
[QF] (5) Arvind Bhat (IND,42) l Dieter Domke (GER,117) 22-20 18-21 12-21
[QF] Anand Pawar (IND,78) bt (3) Petr Koukal (CZE,39) 24-22 21-10

[SF] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Anand Pawar (IND,78) 21-16 16-21 22-20

[Final] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) l (1) Kenichi Tago (JPN,31) 16-21 21-15 19-21

Reaching final here helped Chetan to again grab top Indian men's shuttler position ... Anand also played well to upset top-40 player.
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At $5K Waikato International 2008, Hamilton, New Zealand

Womens Singles -
[R1] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) bt Poh-Lin Teo (NZL,UNR) 21-5 21-8
[R1] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Clare Chapple (NZL,323) 21-5 21-12

[R2] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) bt Melissa Yin (NZL,UNR) 21-8 21-4
[R2] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Melissa Leviana (NZL,369) 21-16 21-8

[QF] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) l Chie Umezu (JPN,145) 12-21 9-21
[QF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Misaki Matsutomo (JPN,247) 21-16 21-13

[SF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) l Ayaka Takahashi (JPN,247) 13-21 10-21

Mens Singles -
[R1] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Praveen Tayalan (NZL,438) 21-8 21-15
[R1] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt Te Ao Kura Van Selm (NZL,UNR) 21-17 21-9
[R1] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) bt Luke Charlesworth (NZL,UNR) W/O

[R2] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Brent Miller (NZL,UNR) 21-4 21-10
[R2] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt (5/8) Thomas Ellis (NZL,266) 21-11 21-9
[R2] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) bt Dhanny Oud (NZL,UNR) 21-17 21-15

[QF] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Rei Sato (JPN,UNR) 17-21 21-11 21-19
[QF] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt Dean Nuttall (NZL,335) 21-16 21-9
[QF] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) l (2) Joe Wu (NZL,151) 17-21 10-21

[SF] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt (5/8) Alistair Casey (SCO,222) 21-13 21-19
[SF] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt (2) Joe Wu (NZL,151) 21-14 21-13

[Final] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) 21-11 21-14

This was low International series tournament, still very good one for Ajay ... As this was his first international title and also very good performance by youngster Prakash Jolly, who was playing his first international event.

Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia


Quarter-Finals -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) bt Yang Shen (CHN,2445) 2-0


Humpy scored victory with blacks to move into semis ... Now she will meet another Chinese opponent Yifan Hou, who is having great run in this World Championship.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)


Sixth Round -
Vassily Ivanchuk - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Veselin Topalov - Teimour Radjabov ½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian 1-0


So another draw for Anand ... Anand is in position of losing top-spot in ELO rating ... Other hand Carlsen scored another victory against Aronian, this was his 3rd victory in this Grand Slam Masters.

Tennis News 

At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) vs (3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP,18)

[Q3] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt (2) Filippo Volandri (ITA,93) 63 46 63

Somdev Devvarman - SD and Filippo Volandri - FV

First set - FV started and managed to win after 30-40 down

0-1 FV broke SD's serve on 30

0-2 SD broke back on 30

1-2 SD hold on 15

2-2 SD broke after duece

3-2 SD hold after down 0-40

4-2 FV hold on 15

4-3 SD hold after down 0-30

5-3 SD broke on 15 to won first set in 41 mins

6-3

Second Set - SD started and hold after duece

1-0 FV hold on luv

1-1 FV broke Sd's serve on 30

1-2 FV hold on 15

1-3 FV broke on 15 ... At this time SD's 1st serve % was 26%

1-4 FV hold after saving 2 BPs

1-5 SD hold on 15

2-5 SD broke on 30

3-5 SD was down 15-40 but saved 2 set points to hold

4-5 FV hold on 15 to won second set

4-6

Third Set - SD started and FV broke on 30

0-1 FV hold after saving 1 BP

0-2 SD hold on 15

1-2 SD broke after duece

2-2 SD hold on luv

3-2 SD broke again after duece

4-2 SD hold on 30

5-2 FV hold on 15

5-3 SD served out luv game to qualify for maindraw of Bucharest Open

6-3

Buji scored a very exciting victory over former top-25 and very good clay court player Italian Filippo Volandri in 2 hrs 15 mins battle ... Somi was struggling with his serve, managed only 48% first serve percentage against 63% by Volandri ... Somi created 15 break point opportunities and converted 6, other hand Volandri created 11 BP opportuniites and managed to broke 4 times ... Match was close as Somi won 97 pts to 88 pts by Volandri ... Volandri double faulted 9 times and Somi double faulted 2 times and also served 3 aces ... Volandri was in good nick as recently he won 2 clay challengers and was in semis in 1.

Also what I like about this match that Somi had bad day with his serve and most of the time he was falling behind 0-30 or 15-30 ... But he still managed to coming back with his typical grinding way.

Argentine Maximo Gonzalez must have withdrawn from the tournament and so change in the draw ... Somi recieved toughest opponent in qualifiers/lucky losers ... He is facing 23 yrs old Wr No 18 Spanish Nicolas Almagro, who is very tough on clay ... This year Almagro won 2 ATP titles on clay beating Moya and Nalbandian in the final at Costa Do Sauipe and Acapulco respectively ... He was in the final at Valencia on clay ... Also he was quarter-finalist at French Open (where he lost against Rafa) and Rome Masters on clay ... Very solid record on the clay ... Tough match up for Somi but I feel this will be very good preparation against top-20 before Romanian Davis cup tie.

Motor Sports News 

At GP2 Series 2008, Spa, Belgium

Chandhok was fastest in qualifying with time of 2:15.459 was just 0.061 ahead of Senna ... But after finishing fastest in qualifying, Karun Chandhok was handed a 5 grid position penalty on top of his original 10 grid position penalty after today’s session in Spa when it was shown that he ignored the yellow flags on his final lap.

So Karun started from 15 on the grid and finished Feature race on 11th and he improved his position in Sprint race to finished on 8th ... Senna had terrible race he started from 1st position but finished on 12th behind Karun in first race and in second race he couldn't finish the race ... Due to poor results by both drivers, iSports lost its top postion in team championship.

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Golf News

At Utah Championship, Sandy, UT - Final Standing (Nationwide Tour)

T50 Arjun Atwal 69 68 74 67 -6  $1,897.50

Such finishes not helping Arjun to achieve his top-25 moneyleader list goal ... Now he is slide down to 32nd position in moneyleader list and around $20K less earning from 25th place golfer.

Tennis News
At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[Q2] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt Florin Mergea (ROU,592) 61 62
[Q3] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) vs (2) Filippo Volandri (ITA,93)

Somdev scored another easy victory against Romanian player in 58 mins but now he is having big task against top-100 Italian Filippo Volandri, true clay courter.
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At $225K Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, Bali, Indonesia

[Q1] (5) Shikha Uberoi (IND) Bye
[Q2] (5) Shikha Uberoi (IND) l (2) Sandy Gumulya (INA) 16 36

Doubles -
Shikha Uberoi (IND)/ Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) vs Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Marta Domachowska (POL)
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At $125K (+H) Orleans Challenger, France

[Q1] (7) Harsh Mankad (IND,546) bt (WC) Mohammed Affes (TUN,UNR) 64 62
[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,861) bt Kenny De Schepper (FRA,1420) 63 64

[Q2] Purav Raja (IND,861) l (2) Vladimir Obradovic (SRB,398) 46 46
[Q2] (7) Harsh Mankad (IND,546) l Jean-Kome Loglo (TOG,UNR) 46 63 67(5)

Harsh having tough time with his singles career ... He is low on confidence and these results really doesn't helping his cause.
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Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Quarter-Finals -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) - Yang Shen (CHN,2445) 1-0

Humpy started well with winning first match with whites against Chinese player.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Fifth Round -
Viswanathan Anand - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk - Veselin Topalov ½-½
Teimour Radjabov - Levon Aronian ½-½

Anand had another draw ... Lets hope after today's break he come out with a bang.

Tennis News
At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[Q1] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt (WC) Bogdan Andrii (ROU,UNR) 60 61

Somdev won match in flat 38 mins ... Bogdan Andrii was playing only his 2nd tournament after a year break (injury?) ... And he was most of futures type player through-out his career.

Buji need more match practice before our Davis Cup tie.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $125K (+H) Orleans Challenger, France

[Q1] (7) Harsh Mankad (IND,546) vs (WC) Mohammed Affes (TUN,UNR)
[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,861) vs Kenny De Schepper (FRA,1420)
----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles Final -

(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt (2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) 76(6) 61

Singles Semi Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt (3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) 61 61
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt (4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) 76(6) 63

Doubles Final -
Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) 63 46 10(7)

Nice tight win for Vishnu and Divij for this doubles title win ... I m hoping better singles performance by our guys in Delhi futures.

Tennis News
At 2008 US Open,

Mens Doubles Final -
(7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) l (2) Mike Bryan (USA)/ Bob Bryan (USA) 67(5) 67(10)

Lee and Lukas started well in the first set breaking Bob's serve in 3rd game but Bryans fought back breaking Lukas serve in 6th game, then Lee & Lukas saved few break points on their serves ... But in tie-break Bryans had mini-break on Lee's serve at 3-2, that mini-break was enough to grab first set in tie-break ... In first set Bryans were trying to hit maximum shots at Lukas as he was weakest vollyer in these 4 players ... They earned few important points by Lukas mistakes on the net.

In second set Bryans started well breaking Lukas's serve in 3rd game but Lee/ Lukas immediately broke Mike's serve in next game to make it 2-2 ... Then Lee saved 3 break points on is serve, Mike also saved a break point on his.

In tie-break Lukas made double fault at 1-2 giving mini-break to Bryans ... But Lee grabbed back mini-break on Mike's serve with powerful forehand crosscourt return at 4-2 ... Lee & Lukas saved 1 championship point at 6-5 but then Bryans save 1 set point at 7-6 ... Mike double faulted to give crucial mini-break to Lee and Lukas but Lee gave it back with another double fault ... But Lee got another set point with ace, then Bob responded with huge serve to make it 9-9 ... And on Bob's serve Lee hit amazing backhand crosscourt return to grab mini-break ... But Bob responded well with superb return to equal 10-10 ... On next point Lee made crucial mistake putting simple volley in the net giving match point to Bryans ... This time Mike managed crucial powerful first serve to win their 2nd US Open title and 6th grandslam title in 1 hr 54 mins..

Lee was in sublime form on the net with his quick hands, he played jaw dropping acrobatic volleys and soft touch volleys on the net ... Bryans won 100 pts to 86 pts by our pair ... Our pair did 9 UFEs and 7 UFEs by Bryans ... But main difference was 9 double faults by Lee and Lukas (Lukas did 6) and 3 double faults by Bryans.

Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Round 3 -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) bt Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN,2487) 1½-½
Dronavalli Harika (IND,2461) l Lilit Mkrtchian (2436,ARM) ½-1½

Humpy scored victory with whites to reach in final 8 but Harika lost with blacks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Fourth Round -
Magnus Carlsen - Teimour Radjabov 1-0
Veselin Topalov - Viswanathan Anand 1-0
Levon Aronian - Vassily Ivanchuk

Vishy lost playing blacks against Topalov ... I shocked to see Anand resign in 25 moves ... When the last time Anand resign game in 25 moves?

Anand is also in the spot of bother as he will be losing more ELO points ... Carlsen and Topalov scored their 2nd victory playing with whites ... This is not turning into right preparation for Anand to his World Championship match against Kramnik.

Billiards News 
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Final -
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Geet Sethi (IND) 6-1 (150(79)-90, 151(145)-0, 150(90)-24, 150(150)-0, 86(86)-150(150), 150(87)-72, 150(143)-12)

Pankaj gave dominating performance to scored easy victory against formidable Geet to win IBSF World Billiards Championship (point format) ... He scored four 100 breaks in 7 frames ... So this was his 5th World title at age of 23.

Chess News -
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Round 3
Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN,2487) - Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) ½-½
Dronavalli Harika (IND,2461) - Lilit Mkrtchian (2436,ARM) ½-½

Humpy and Harika lost to scored victory in first game of third round ... Harika had a marathon game with Mkrtchian, they agreed to draw after 81 moves.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Third Round -
Teimour Radjabov - Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½
Levon Aronian - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Veselin Topalov 0-1

Here I m putting 'Traditional scores' which will be used for calculating ELO rating ... In that Topalov is leading by ½ pt over others ... And After Topalov's victory with blacks over Carlsen, he is leading by 1 pt over Carlsen and by 2 pts over others as per Bilbao score.

Tennis News
At 2008 US Open,

LEE & CARA MXD CHAMPION AT 2008 US OPEN!!!

Mixed Doubles Final -
(5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Liezel Huber (USA)/ Jamie Murray (GBR) 76(6) 64

In closely fought first set, where no pair managed to break other's service, Lee and Cara won in tie-break after saving 2 set poits ... In second set on 5th game Lee and Cara broke Jamie's serve and take lead ... They had 3 break points on Huber's serve in 7th game but somehow Huber managed to hold her serve ... So with this only break in the match they won second set and the match ... Match was close as winner won battle 73-68 pts.

This is Lee's 4th MXD grandslam title and total 8th grandslam title ... Heartily congratulation to Lee and Cara for 2008 US Open Mixed Doubles title!!!

Also check nice interview of Lee and Cara on US Open site, where they mentioned they r planning to play together in all MXD grandslam events in 2009.

An Interview with Leander Paes and Cara ...

Billiards News
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Semi-Finals -

Geet Sethi (IND) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 5-3 (102-151(122), 95-151(143), 02-151(142), 150-126, 152(152)-57, 152(139)-16, 152(152)-112(108), 150(146)-0)

Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 5-3 (150-115, 91(84)-152(85), 150-142, 49-151(115), 98(89)-152(93), 151(96)-118, 151(131)-16, 150(105)-93(74))

Qualifier Devendra Joshi started well winning first 3 frames but then Geet showed his class winning next 5 ... Pankaj also scored similar scoreline victory over Rupesh in hard fought match.

Tennis News
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles Quarter Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) 63 61
(3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt (8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) 76(8) 61

(4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) bt (Q) I-Ta CHEN (TPE,UNR) 75 64
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) 61 63

Doubles Semi Finals -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt (4) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) 61 64

Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Aqeel KHAN (PAK)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 63 64

Indian challenge got over in singles but in doubles our pairs will play for the title.

Chess News -
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Second Round -
Vassily Ivanchuk - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Veselin Topalov - Levon Aronian ½-½
Viswanathan Anand - Teimour Radjabov ½-½

Anand managed draw after 34 moves ... All matches ended in a draw that helped Carlsen to keep his minimum 2 pts lead over others.

Tennis News -
At 2008 US Open,

[SF] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) bt Maximo Gonzalez (ARG)/ Juan Monaco (ARG) 62 60

Junior Boys -
[R2] (12) Yuki Bhambri (IND,18) l Filip Krajinovic (SRB,26) 67(5) 46

Wow ... 40 mins demolition job by Lee and Lukas ... They won 54 pts in this match and lost only 24 ... Didn't face single break point and converted 5 of 9 break point chances on Argentine service ... They won 11 games in a row from 1-2 down in the first set.

Heartily congratulation to Lee for another US Open doubles final this time with Lukas!!!

Yuki had a tough matchup against Wimbledon Junior semi-finalist ... Also Serbian was his hitting partner at NBTA, so both were knowing eachother game quite well ... So today Yuki lost in closely contested match against better player ... This year turned into learning curve for Yuki in Junior grandslam.

Billiard News -
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Knockout stage (Round of 16)

Geet Sethi (IND) bt Suriya Suwannasingh (THA) 4-0 (152(130)-21, 153-82(72), 150-64, 150(146)-58)
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Prem Prakash (IND) 4-2 (36-151, 34-152(72), 151-109, 151(85)-72, 150-68, 151(99)-84)
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 4-2 (40-153, 151(89)-122, 86-151, 150(100)-74, 152-82, 151-17)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 4-3 (150-79, 150(82)-126, 150(143)-07, 37-150, 97-150(87), 32-150, 151(123)-19)

Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 4-1(151-135, 151-127, 151-44, 117-150, 151-40 )
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt B. Bhaskar (IND) 4-0 (150-100, 150(108)-73, 150(136)-149(147), 151(113)-29)
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 4-1(17-150, 150(150)-8, 150(86)-31, 150-10, 150-0)
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 4-2 (42-150(78), 129-150, 151-105, 152--60, 150(124)-20, 150(150)-41)

Quarter-Finals -

Geet Sethi (IND) bt Alok Kumar (IND) 4-2 (151(71)-21, 150(150)-7, 151(149)-02, 68-150(67), 5-150(143), 121-5(Conceded)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) 4-2 (150(87)-89, 0-150(83), 138(124)-151, 150(150)-8, 150(92)-70, 150(145)-0)
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 4-1 (113-150,152(152)-32, 150-142(140), 150(94)-44, 151-74)
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 4-1(151-54, 150(97)-141(104), 36-151(147), 150-(137)-05, 150(136)-61)

Most surprising performance in this tournament is from Devendra Joshi.

Tennis News
At $50K Alphen challenger, Netherlands (Red Clay)

[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Michel Koning (NED)/ Martijn van Haasteren (AHO) 46 57

Match was close but our pair ended on losing side.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles Second Round -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Divij SHARAN (IND,804) 62 75
Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) bt Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,1627) 62 63

(3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt (WC) Karunuday SINGH (IND,UNR) 64 64
(8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) bt Rupesh ROY (IND,1102) 63 76(1)

(Q) I-Ta CHEN (TPE,UNR) bt (Q) Mithun MURALI (IND,UNR) 64 61
(4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) bt Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) 64 64

Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) bt Rohan GAJJAR (IND,822) 62 64
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,922) 61 67(3) 76(5)

Doubles Quarter Finals -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt I-Ta CHEN (TPE)/ Hsin-Han LEE (TPE) 76(2) 63
(4) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) (WC) Christopher MARQUIS (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 64 62

Aqeel KHAN (PAK)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 57 75 10(7)
Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ)/ Rupesh ROY (IND) 26 63 11(9)

Tennis News -
At 2008 US Open,
[QF] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) bt Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 63 67(2) 63
[SF] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) vs Maximo Gonzalez (ARG)/ Juan Monaco (ARG)

MXD -
[SF] (5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Jonas Bjorkman (SWE) 64 64
[F] (5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Liezel Huber (USA)/ Jamie Murray (GBR)

Dlouhy-Paes converted 4 of 7 break point chances and dropped their own serve twice ... This is their second Grand Slam semifinal after also reaching the last four at Wimbledon.

Paes is also in the final of MXD with Cara Black ... There they face American- British pair for the title.

Chess News -
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Round 1 -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) bt Yorsa Alaa El Din (EGY,1959) 2-0
Dronavalli Harika (IND,2461) bt Vera Nebolsina (RUS,2350) 2-0
Nisha Mohota (IND,2354) l Nadezhda Kosintseva (RUS,2460) 0-2
Tania Sachdev (IND,2432) l Zongyi Tan (CHN,2387) ½ -½1

Round 2 -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) Bye
Dronavalli Harika (IND,2461) bt Anna Muzychuk (SLO,2504) 1-1 (in tie-break 1½ -½)

Harika scored upset win over higher Elo rated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

First Round -
Vishy Anand - Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½
Teimour Radjabov - Veselin Topalov ½-½
Levon Aronian - Magnus Carlsen 0-1

Anand managed draw with whites but Carlsen had excellent start with blacks.

Tennis News -
At €30K+H Brasov Challenger, Romania (Red Clay)

[R1] Somdev DevVarman (IND,243) l (8) David Marrero (ESP,199) 46 61 46

Buji had tough first round match against experianced clay court player on european clay ... Marrero played 25 out of 29 tournaments on clay so far this year, so performing best against him after 3 weeks break was too much asking ... Still Buji showed his known fighting quality winning 2nd set after losing 1st but this time he couldn't finished the match in his favour.

Billiards News -
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Rupesh Shah is defending champion in Point format and Pankaj Advani is defending champion in Time format ... Good start for Indians on first day.

Group A
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 3-0 (151(83)-53, 151-35, 150(134)-21)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Arvind Savur (IND) 3-0 (151-37, 150(94)-98, 151(118)-29)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 3-1 (151(91)-141, 151(101)-74, 02-150(83), 150(90)-02)
Arvind Savur (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 3-1 (151-129, 151-124, 109-150, 150(100)-38)
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Arvind Savur (IND) 3-0 (150-104, 150(70)-63, 150(83)-18)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 3-0 (150(71)-92, 151(63,73)-22, 152(71,63)-35)

Group B
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Calum Hossack (SCO) 3-0 (151(145)-05), 150(146)-0, 151(103)-17)
Suriya Suwannasingh (THA) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 3-1 (150-49, 150-146, 96-150, 150-91)
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) 3-0 (150-105, 152(81)-90, 150(83)-02)
Gary Oliver (NZL) bt Calum Hossack (SCO) 3-0 (150(82)-09, 152-66, 151-48)
Suriya Suwannasingh (THA) bt Calum Hosack (SCO) 3-0 (150-38, 150-36, 153-36)
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 3-2 (101-151, 151-98, 117(81)-151, 152(152)-0, 151(108)-107(105))

Group C
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 3-0 (151-27, 151-39, 150-24)
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Thanh B. Nguyen (VIE) 3-1 (150(87)-68, 150(114)-87, 80-150, 150-107)
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 3-0 (150(123)-15, 151(126)-67, 151-42) Thanh B. Nguyen (VIE) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 3-0 (150-110, 151-65, 152-27)
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Thanh B. Nguyen (VIE) 3-2 (77-151(112), 152(850-145(85), 151(84)-86, 128-151(89), 150(81)-94)
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 3-0 (152(127-6, 152-72, 151-65)

Group D
Mohd. Aslam (SRI) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 3-0 (150-94, 150-138, 151-139)
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 3-0 (150-66, 151-93, 153(153)-0)
Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) bt Mohd. Aslam (SRI) 3-1 (88-151, 151-116, 150-58, 150-53)
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 3-0 (152(71)-39, 152(102 unf)-55, 151-21)
Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 3-0 (151-27, 151-53, 150-72)
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Mohd. Aslan (SRI) 3-0 (151-69, 151-61, 150(120)-23)

Group E
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 3-0 (153-46, 152(72)-90, 150(110)-39)
Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 3-0 (151-70, 152-34, 150(137)-0)
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) 3-0 (153(149)-11, 151-116, 150-83)
Shyam Jagtiani (IND) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 3-1 (150-71, 150(115)-26, 121-150, 150-73)
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 3-0 (154(154)-18, 152(86)-105, 150-68)
Shyam Jagtiani (IND) bt Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) 3-1 (151-33, 150(89)-88, 71-151, 151-147)

Group F
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 3-0 (150-61, 152-86, 151-79)
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) 3-0 (151(88)-48, 150-74-13, 150-143)
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Alok Kumar (IND) 3-2 (96-150(91), 150(72)-48, 71-150(96), 150(72)-120, 150-74)
Aidan Murray (IRL) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) 3-1 (48-152, 150-50, 150-40, 150-79)
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 3-0 (150(85)-118, 152(79)-93, 154(73)-46)
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Philip Mumford (EN) 3-2 (first frame awarded to Alok as Phil reported late. 152-62, 121-150, 24-151, 151-76)

Group G
Brijesh Damani (IND) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 3-0 (151(73)-84, 82-151, 152-112, 150-39)
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 3-0 (150(93)-12, 150(142)-47, 150-31)
Brijesh Damani (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 3-0 (151-105, 151-144, 150(99)-08)
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 3-0 (150-37, 151(80)-10, 150(79)-87)
Raghoo Sinha (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 3-1 (150-45, 118-151, 151-59, 151-74)
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 3-1 (129-150, 150-67, 150-87, 152(116)-02)

Group H
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 3-2 (103-151, 153(111)-139, 148-151, 151-120, 152-120)
Md. Asim (IND) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 3-1 (152-110, 150-30, 138-152, 150-29)
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt Md. Asim (IND) 3-0 (150-48, 152-124, 151-109)
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 3-0 (151(73)-28, 150-112, 151(96)-60)
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 3-0 (151-38, 151(94)-107, 151(75)-32)
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Md. Asim (IND) 3-1 (150-144, 151-44, 141-151, 151-76)

Tennis News -
At 2008 US Open,

[R3] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) l Maximo Gonzalez (ARG)/ Juan Monaco (ARG) 26 64 64

MXD -
[QF] (5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Vladimira Uhlirova (CZE)/ Martin Damm (CZE) 75 62
[SF] (5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)

Junior Doubles -
[R1] (5) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Filip Krajinovic (SRB) l Takanyi Garanganga (ZIM)/ Karim-Mohamed Maamoun (EGY) 16 64 (7)10

Mahesh and Mark started well but from second set Argentine turned table on them ... In third set Argentine broke in first game but Hesh & Mark fought back to 4-4 ... Then Argentine pair again broke in 9th game and then hold to scored upset.

Good easy victory for Lee and Cara, now in semis they will play tricky pair Petrova/ Jonas Bjorkman ... But poor loss in Junior doubles for Yuki and his Serbian partner.

Robert Lindstedt and Jarkko Nieminen upset top-seed pair Nestor and Zimo, so they will play against our pair Lee and Lukas in quarters ... Lee & Lukas and Bryans r only seeded pairs remaining in US Open doubles draw.

Tennis News -
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles First Round -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Tushar LIBERHAN (IND,1066) 62 61
Divij SHARAN (IND,804) bt (Q) Ankit SACHDEVA (IND,UNR) 62 63
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,1627) bt (Q) Vikas CHAUHAN (IND,UNR) 62 62
Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) bt (5) Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND,502) 46 64 63
(3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt (Q) Whit LIVINGSTON (USA,1717) 63 62
(WC) Karunuday SINGH (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND,UNR) 63 61
Rupesh ROY (IND,1102) bt (WC) Ronak MANUJA (IND,UNR) 63 61
(8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) bt Vaja UZAKOV (UZB,825) 62 63
(Q) I-Ta CHEN (TPE,UNR) bt (LL) Chandril SOOD (IND,UNR) 63 62
(Q) Mithun MURALI (IND,UNR) bt Yasir KHAN (PAK,1551) 75 60
Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) bt (LL) Christopher MARQUIS (IND,UNR) 75 62
(4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) bt (WC) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,UNR) 67(5) 64 75
Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) bt (7) Ashutosh SINGH (IND,648) 67(2) 63 3-1 Retd
Rohan GAJJAR (IND,822) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND,1477) 75 62
Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,922) bt (Q) Shivang MISHRA (IND,1551) 62 62
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt (WC) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,1295) 63 64

Doubles First Round -
(1) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt Kamala KANNAN (IND)/ Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) 63 76(4)
I-Ta CHEN (TPE)/ Hsin-Han LEE (TPE) bt Whit LIVINGSTON (USA)/ Yannick NELORD (IND) 76(2) 62

(4) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 64 64
(WC) Christopher MARQUIS (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt (WC) Irfan HUSSAIN (IND)/ Yasir KHAN (PAK) 61 63

N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 76(2) 63
Aqeel KHAN (PAK)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (3) Tushar LIBERHAN (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) 63 67(5) 10(6)

Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND)/ Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) 63 64
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ)/ Rupesh ROY (IND) bt (WC) Mithun MURALI (IND)/ Karunuday SINGH (IND) 62 62

Good upset win by Murli in singles and in doubles pair of Jeevan & Aqeel scored upset win over 3rd seed.

But 2 players on whom we were banking to perform above expectations, Sunil and Ashutosh, lost in the first round.

Tennis News -
At 2008 US Open,

[R3] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) bt Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Ashley Fisher (AUS) 63 63

MXD -
[R2] (5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) W/O
[QF] (5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Vladimira Uhlirova (CZE)/ Martin Damm (CZE)

Junior Boys -
[R1] (12) Yuki Bhambri (IND) bt Denis Kudla (USA) 62 57 63

With early breaks in third game and then in 9th game Lee and Lukas won first set easily ... Then single break in 7th game Lee and Lukas scored their first straight sets victory in US Open ... They become first pair to moved into quarters and mostly face top-seed pair of Nestor and Zimo in quarters.

Yuki started well winning first set with 2 breaks but then he struggled with his serve and his opponent take advantage of it ... But Yuki fought hard to win match in third set.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Qualifying First Round -
(1) Shivang MISHRA (IND) bt Neishit VAKIL (IND) 60 61
Irfan HUSSAIN (IND) bt Aswin A S NAMBI (IND) 62 61
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt (2) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 62 57 75
Vikas CHAUHAN (IND) bt Bharath-Srinivasan PARTHASARATHY (IND) 62 63
Prateek BHAMBRI (IND) bt (3) Yannick NELORD (IND) 76(2) 63
Mithun MURALI (IND) bt Jagadeesan KUMAR (IND) 61 62
(4) Whit LIVINGSTON (USA) bt Rishabdev RAMAN (IND) 64 64
Chandril SOOD (IND) bt Veera Vasanth VENKATESH SRIRAMAREDDY (IND) 60 61
(5) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND) bt Nihal KAPOOR (IND) 63 26 61
Palash TIWARI (IND) bt Vishwanath SAVADI (IND) 60 60
Christopher MARQUIS (IND) bt Hari CHIDAMBARAM (IND) 62 62
Ankit SACHDEVA (IND) bt Pulkit MISHRA (IND) 62 61
I-Ta CHEN (TPE) bt Kamala KANNAN (IND) 63 76(6)
Suresh KRISHNA (IND) bt Bhishman DESAI (IND) 60 62
Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) bt Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND) 63 61
Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 64 Retd

Final Qualifying Round -
(1) Shivang MISHRA (IND) bt Irfan HUSSAIN (IND) 64 64
Vikas CHAUHAN (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 76(4) 64
Mithun MURALI (IND) bt Prateek BHAMBRI (IND) 26 63 64
(4) Whit LIVINGSTON (USA) bt Chandril SOOD (IND) 63 63
(5) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND) bt Palash TIWARI (IND) 75 63
Ankit SACHDEVA (IND) bt Christopher MARQUIS (IND) 46 75 61
I-Ta CHEN (TPE) bt Suresh KRISHNA (IND) 16 76(6) 61
Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) bt Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 26 63 64