Badminton News
At $200K Malaysia Super Series 2010, Kuala Lumpur

[QF] (7) Saina Nehwal (IND,7) l Xin Wang (CHN,10) 21-14 8-21 11-21

Saina started well winning first game but Xin Wang overpowered her in remaining 2 games ... Last 2 games score was disappointing.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

Doubles
[R2] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) l (11) Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 16 36
[R2] Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) bt (7) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 62 36 76(2)

[R2] (10) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) bt Timea Bacsinszky (SUI)/ Tathiana Garbin (ITA) 76(3) 63

[QF] (10) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) vs (7) Alisa Kleybanova (RUS)/ Francesca Schiavone (ITA)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (1) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Carsten Ball (AUS) 75 75

Sania and Virginia scored straight sets victory in second round ... First set they won in tie-break but they controlled second set to move in to pre-quarter finals.

Today Somi AGAIN struggled with his serve and seeded Aussie pair take full advantage of it for easy victory over Indian pair ... Rajeev and his partner Butorac scored upset win over seeded Polish team.

Top-seed Lee and Cara needed their experience to pulled tight win over local pair in first round of MXD.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, the defending champions at the 2010 Australian Open, withdrew due to Mahesh's torn calf muscle injury.

Australian Open 2010 - Junior Qualifying

[Q2] Sumeet Shinde (IND,179) l (10) Bruno Semenzato (BRA,136) 57 26
[Q2] Saurabh Singh (IND,174) vs (4) Jaden Grinter (NZL,93)
[Q2] (5) Sai Kartik Nakireddi (IND,105) l Jea Moon Lee (KOR,179) 67(4) 36

[Q2] Ankita Raina (IND,183) l (1) Marianne Jodoin (CAN,74) 16 36
[Q2] Natasha Palha (IND,274) l (9) Abigail Tere-Apisah (PNG,131) 36 46
[Q2] Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,267) l Alexandra Nancarrow (AUS,UNR) 57 36
[Q2] Prerna Bhambri (IND,186) l Elizaveta Ianchuk (UKR,1053) 67(4) 46
[Q2] Sharmada Balu (IND,159) l Li-Yun Tan (SIN,254) 46 46
[Q2] Aishwarya Agrawal (IND,221) l (6) Eri Hozumi (JPN,121) 64 26 26
[Q2] (10) Rishika Sunkara (IND,132) bt Stefani Stojic (AUS,UNR) 61 62

[Q3] ((10) Rishika Sunkara (IND,132) bt (7) Ursa Jeman (SLO,122) 46 63 64

Looking at junior qualifying scores it look massacre of our players on tennis court.

At last some good news, Rishika Sunkara qualified for main draw with comeback win over Ursa Jeman.

Chess News
At 2010 Corus Chess, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A: Round 5 - 21st January
Peter Leko - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Fabiano Caruana - Leinier Dominguez ½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Sergey Karjakin ½-½
Jan Smeets - Vladimir Kramnik 0-1
Loek van Wely - Alexei Shirov 0-1
Nigel Short - Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Magnus Carlsen ½-½

Group B: Round 5 - 21st January
Wesley So - Pentala Harikrishna ½-½
Varuzhan Akobian - Parimarjan Negi 0-1

Group C: Round 5 - 21st January
Mariya Muzychuk - Soumya Swaminathan 1-0
Benjamin Bok - Abhijeet Gupta ½-½

Another quite draw for Anand ... After 5 rounds Anand is still searching for his first win, other hand Alexei Shirov scored his 5th win in 5th game to lead by 1½ pts ... In Group B, Wesley So hold Hari to draw but Negi scored exciting win over Varuzhan Akobian playing with blacks ... In Group C, Abhijeet hold Bok playing with blacks but Soumya's struggled continue and she lost 4th match in 5 rounds.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round XI

Viva Kerala l Pune F.C. 0-3

Goal Scored - Arata Izumi (PFC) 11' & 54', Sergey Tokov (PFC) 90'

Pune FC scored third win a row and all their wins came in away matches ... In round 11 match they scored emphatic win over Viva.
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Dempo S.C bt Sporting Clube-de Goa 3-1

Goal Scored - Clifford Miranda (DSC) 20', Joaquim Abranches (DSC) 29', Peter Carvalho (DSC) 61' and Bisheshwor Singh (SCG) 36'

Dempo showed clinical performance against Sporting, this win helped them to regain top-spot in standing ... Now they r ahead by 2 points over Mahindra.
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Chiragh United SC dw JCT, Phagwara 1-1

Goal Scored - Josimar da Silva Martins (CU) 15' and Penn Ikechukwu Orji (JCT) 36'

Inexperienced JCT side managed to hold Chirag United in 1-1 draw.
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East Bengal bt Churchill Brothers 3-2

Goal Scored - Yusif Yakubu (EB) 10' & 38', Baichung Bhutia (EB) 53' and Ogba Kalu Nnanna (CB) 9', Vashum (CB) 13'

In well contested match East Bengal gave first defeat to Churchill Brothers.
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Air India bt Salgaocar S.C 2-1

Goal Scored - Avnit Singh Shergill (AI) 26', Vijith Shetty (AI) 79' and Ravinder Singh (SSC) 45'

So with this Airmen won their first home match.
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Mahindra United V Mohun Bagan 1-2

Goal Scored - Mohammed Rafi (MU) 9' and Marcos Pereira (MB) 58', Sueoka Ryuji (MB) 75'

Mohun Bagan scored very important win over leader Mahindra and joined them with 20 points ... This was Mahindra's first loss in ongoing I League.
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Mumbai FC bt Shillong Lajong FC 3-1

Goal Scored - Bashiru Abbas Mohammed (MFC) 22', Abhishek Yadav (MFC) 73', Subhas Chakraborty (MFC) 86' and Daniel Bidemi (SL) 50'

Shillong again lost against another Mumbai team

Badminton News
At $200K Malaysia Super Series 2010, Kuala Lumpur

[R2] Chetan Anand (IND,16) l (Q) Wei Feng Chong (MAS,56) 15-21 21-19 18-21
[R2] (7) Saina Nehwal (IND,8) bt Ai Goto (JPN,26) 21-19 21-12

[QF] (7) Saina Nehwal (IND,7) vs Xin Wang (CHN,10)

Good win by Saina ... After close first game she dominated second to move in to quarter final of this Super Series tournament ... WR #10 Xin Wang defeated WR #3 Danish Tine Rasmussen in second round ... Xin Wong is showing tremendous improvement in her game if we checked her results from last year ... Saina faced her last year in Malaysia Open GP, where as qualifier Wang defeated her in easy straight games in quarters, 14-21 10-21 ... So tough match for Saina.

Chetan again disappointed with his performance and failed to take advantage of weak draw in Super Series.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

Doubles
[R1] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Leos Friedl (CZE)/ David Skoch (CZE) 63 61
[R1] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) l Michael Kohlmann (GER)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 46 46
[R1] Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Thomaz Bellucci (BRA)/ Andre Sa (BRA) 63 64
[R1] (10) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) bt (WC) Yayuk Basuki (INA)/ Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN) 64 62

[R2] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs (11) Simon Aspelin (SWE)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)
[R2] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Lucas Arnold Ker (ARG)/ Horia Tecau (ROU)
[R2] Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) vs (7) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)
[R2] (10) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) vs Timea Bacsinszky (SUI)/ Tathiana Garbin (ITA)

Lee and Lukas scored easy victory against Czech pair ... Rajeev and Butorac also moved to second round with win over Brazilian pair.

Sania and Virginia also had winning start against veteran pair, who fought well in first set but didn't put much fight in second set after getting early break.

Forgettable start for Mahesh and Max Mirnyi for 2010 doubles partnership ... 4th seed pair knocked in first round in straight sets ... I would say zero match practice together before Australian Open cost them early exit.

Australian Open 2010 - Junior Qualifying

[Q1] Sumeet Shinde (IND,179) bt Damian Farinola (AUS,1297) 26 75 64
[Q1] Saurabh Singh (IND,174) bt Andrew Zedde (AUS,UNR) 64 63
[Q1] (5) Sai Kartik Nakireddi (IND,105) bt Matt Roso (AUS,UNR) 46 75 64

[Q1] Ankita Raina (IND,183) bt Samantha Harris (AUS,UNR) 16 76(4) 60
[Q1] Natasha Palha (IND,274) bt Sandy Vo (AUS,504) 63 64
[Q1] Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,267) bt Bernadette Massih (AUS,948) 57 75 64
[Q1] Prerna Bhambri (IND,186) bt (14) Khristina Blajkevitch (CAN,142) 61 76(3)
[Q1] (11) Kyra Shroff (IND,133) l Chelsea Te Tai (NZL,1033) 16 57
[Q1] Sharmada Balu (IND,159) bt Ashleigh Hancock (AUS,UNR) 67(4) 76(4) 62
[Q1] Aishwarya Agrawal (IND,221) bt Azra Hadzic (AUS,623) 36 76(4) 62
[Q1] Ashvarya Shrivastava (IND,346) l Ksenia Gospodinova (RUS,164) 36 62 26
[Q1] (10) Rishika Sunkara (IND,132) bt Gussie O'Sullivan (AUS,UNR) 63 62
[Q1] Prathana Thombare (IND,225) l Nao Tada (JPN,370) 06 75 46

[Q2] Sumeet Shinde (IND,179) vs (10) Bruno Semenzato (BRA,136)
[Q2] Saurabh Singh (IND,174) vs (4) Jaden Grinter (NZL,93)
[Q2] (5) Sai Kartik Nakireddi (IND,105) vs Jea Moon Lee (KOR,179)

[Q2] Ankita Raina (IND,183) vs (1) Marianne Jodoin (CAN,74)
[Q2] Natasha Palha (IND,274) vs (9) Abigail Tere-Apisah (PNG,131)
[Q2] Rashmi Teltumbde (IND,267) vs Alexandra Nancarrow (AUS,UNR)
[Q2] Prerna Bhambri (IND,186) vs Elizaveta Ianchuk (UKR,1053)
[Q2] Sharmada Balu (IND,159) vs Li-Yun Tan (SIN,254)
[Q2] Aishwarya Agrawal (IND,221) vs (6) Eri Hozumi (JPN,121)
[Q2] (10) Rishika Sunkara (IND,132) vs Stefani Stojic (AUS,UNR)

So our many juniors r in second qualifying round ... Good upset win by Prerna Bhambri and many comeback wins.

Badminton News
At $200K Malaysia Super Series 2010, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,16) bt (Q) Kwong Beng Chan (MAS,62) 21-19 21-16
[R1] (7) Saina Nehwal (IND,8) bt (Q) Li Lian Yang (MAS,230) 21-10 21-12

[R2] (7) Saina Nehwal (IND,8) vs Ai Goto (JPN,26)

Winning start for Chetan and Saina for 2010 season ... Both won their respective first round matches at Malaysia Super Series.

At last minute Dan Lin withdrew from this Super Series so Chetan's bottom draw is open ... Hopefully Chetan will use this opportunity to go deep in this tourney.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

Doubles
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) 64 16 67(6)
[R1] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA) 57 64 75

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (1) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Carsten Ball (AUS)
[R1] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Carly Gullickson (USA)/ Bernard Tomic (AUS)

Mixed doubles draw is out .. Tough draw for Sania and Mahesh to defend their title ... They can face top-seed Lee and Cara in second round if both pairs win their respective first round matches.

Somi and Kash fought hard from the start ... Their American opponents were experienced doubles players and our pair needed to fight for winning every point ... After 1 set all in third set, American pair broke Somi's serve in 4th game to take lead but our pair immediately broke their service in next game ... At 3-4 on Somi's serve our pair saved 3 break points from 0-40 to won that game ... Again in 10th game while serving for staying in the match they were down 3 match point, 0-40, on Kash's serve ... This time also they saved those match points to won this game ... Immediately in next game they broke American pair's serve and then while serving for the match they converted 4th match point to won match ... Excellent victory for them.

Bops and Aisam started well winning first set with single break ... But Rik De Voest and Scott Lipsky came back strongly winning second set ... Third set went to tie-break as both pairs were serving well ... In tie-break until 6-all nobody gave mini-break ... On Rohan's serve Rik De Voest and Scott Lipsky got mini-break to lead 6-7 and they promptly converted this match point to won this match.

Chess News
At 2010 Corus Chess, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A: Round 4 - 19th January
Viswanathan Anand - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Nigel Short ½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk - Loek van Wely 1-0
Alexei Shirov - Jan Smeets 1-0
Vladimir Kramnik - Sergey Tiviakov ½-½
Sergey Karjakin - Fabiano Caruana ½-½
Leinier Dominguez - Peter Leko ½-½

Group B: Round 4 - 19th January
Parimarjan Negi - Wesley So ½-½
Pentala Harikrishna - Arkadij Naiditsch 1-0

Group C: Round 4 - 19th January
Soumya Swaminathan - Li Chao 0-1
Abhijeet Gupta - Peng Zhaoqin ½-½

Another uneventful draw for Anand against American GM Hikaru Nakamura playing with whites ... Other hand Alexei Shirov scored 4th win in 4th game to lead Group A with a full point ... In Group B, Hari scored upset win over top-seed Arkadij Naiditsch playing with whites and Negi managed draw against Wesley So ... In Group C, Dutch woman GM Peng Zhaoqin hold Abhijit Gupta and Soumya's struggle in this high standard tournament is continued.

Chess News
At 2010 Corus Chess, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A: Round 3 - 18th January
Leinier Dominguez - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Peter Leko - Sergey Karjakin ½-½
Fabiano Caruana - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Alexei Shirov 0-1
Jan Smeets - Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1
Loek van Wely - Magnus Carlsen 0-1
Nigel Short - Hikaru Nakamura 0-1

Group B: Round 3 - 18th January
Anna Muzychuk - Pentala Harikrishna 0-1
Arkadij Naiditsch - Parimarjan Negi ½-½

Group C: Round 3 - 18th January
Robin Swinkels - Soumya Swaminathan 1-0
Stefan Kuipers - Abhijeet Gupta 0-1

3rd draw in a row for Anand ... Alexei Shirov scored 3rd victory to remained ½ clear of Magnus Carlsen ... In Group B, Hari scored his first victory with blacks ... Negi managed draw against top-seed German GM Arkadij Naiditsch playing with blacks ... In Group C, Abhijeet Gupta scored his first victory playing with blacks ... Soumya's struggled continue, she lost against local grand master.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,57) l (26) Aravane Rezai (FRA,23) 46 26

Sania played aggressive game in the first set ... Her serve was good and with only single break Aravane Rezai won first set ... In second set Sania broke Aravane Rezai's serve in second game to lead 2-0 but from here Aravane Rezai won next 6 games in a row breaking Sania thrice to won this match.

Chess News
At 2010 Corus Chess, Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands

Group A: Round 2 - 17th January
Viswanathan Anand - Nigel Short ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura - Loek van Wely 1-0
Magnus Carlsen - Jan Smeets 1-0
Vassily Ivanchuk - Sergey Tiviakov ½-½
Alexei Shirov - Fabiano Caruana 1-0
Vladimir Kramnik - Peter Leko ½-½
Sergey Karjakin - Leinier Dominguez ½-½

Group A: Round 1 - 16th January
Sergey Karjakin - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Leinier Dominguez - Vladimir Kramnik ½-½
Peter Leko - Alexei Shirov 0-1
Fabiano Caruana - Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½
Sergey Tiviakov - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Jan Smeets - Hikaru Nakamura ½-½
Loek van Wely - Nigel Short 1-0

After 2 rounds Anand is still searching for first win ... In first round he drew his game playing with blacks against 2009 winner Sergey Karjakin ... In second round British grandmaster Nigel Short managed to hold him playing with blacks after 57 moves ... So Anand in T4th position with 1 pt and Alexei Shirov leading with 100% winning record.

In Group B, Playing with whites Parimarjan Negi drew his second game against WGM Anna Muzychuk, the lowest Elo rating opponent in the group ... He is on 1 pt ... Also playing with whites Pentala Harikrishna opened his account after drawing his game with David Howell .. He lost first game against local 15 yrs old GM Anish Giri, who is leading the standing.

In Group C, Abhijeet Gupta drew his second game playing with whites against Ukrainian WGM Marya Muzychuk ... He is on 1 pt ... Soumya Swaminathan opened her account after drawing against local lowly ranked Sjoerd Plukkel.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

Doubles
[R1] (3) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Leos Friedl (CZE)/ David Skoch (CZE)
[R1] (4) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Michael Kohlmann (GER)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Scott Lipsky (USA)
[R1] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Somdev Devvarman (IND) vs James Cerretani (USA)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA)

[R1] (10) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) vs (WC) Yayuk Basuki (INA)/ Kimiko Date Krumm (JPN)

Somi and Prakash received Asian pair wild card for Australian Open ... So they r having good chance of making use of it ... Rohan and Aisam can face top-seed Bryans if they wins first round.

Sania and Virginia Ruano Pascal r 10th seed and r in same top draw of top seeds ... In first round they r facing 39 yrs old experienced Asian wild card pair, who r making comeback.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

[Q3] (27) Somdev Devvarman (IND,161) l (12) Blaz Kavcic (SLO,126) 36 67(4)

Somi's struggle with his service games continued in this match ... In 5th game he broke Kavcic's serve in 5th game but after that he lost 4 games on row, where his serve broken twice, to lose first set ... In second set also Somi got broken early and was down 1-3 ... In 5th game he was 15-40 down on his serve, then he saved 2 break points to hold his serve and broke Kavcic's serve in next game to make it 3-all ... Then again he broke Kavic to lead 5-3 but again while serving for the set his service let him down ... He got broken and then second set went into tie-break where initially they exchanged mini-breaks ... But Kavcic take important mini-break on 8th point to lead 3-5 and that turned out crucial as he served it out to won this match.

Somi had big opprtunity of qualifying for main draw with this weak draw ... I feel this time he lost that opportunity due to poor service games ... I wish Somi's team look into this matter as early as possible,

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round X

Chiragh United SC dw Dempo SC 1-1

Goal Scored - Edmilson Marques (CU) 67' and Peter Carvalho (DSC) 59'

In last match of 10th round Chiragh United drew their match with Dempo ... So both teams remain on second place with 19 pts behind leader Mahindra United with 20 pts.
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Air India l Mohun Bagan 0-5

Goal Scored - Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto (MB) 45+' P, 47', 62' & 69', Kalia Perumal Kulothungan (MB) 58'

Jose Barreto scored 4 goals in this huge win for Mohun Bagan ... Their next match against Mahindra will be cracker.
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Salgaocar SC l Pune FC 1-3

Goal Scored - Mandjou Keita (SSC) 77' and Edmar Figueira (PFC) 24' & 81', Arata Izumi (PFC) 74'

Pune FC scored their successive second win in away match ... This helped them to move middle of the table.
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Viva Kerala bt JCT 1-0

Goal Scored - Reuben Senyo (VK) 21'

Early goal helped Viva to garner full points from this match.
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Mahindra United bt Shillong Lajong 5-0

Goal Scored - Paresh Shivalkar (MU) 9' & 14', Mohammed Rafi (MU) 35', Subair Muritala Ali (MU) 49' (PS) & 57'

Very dominating win by Mahindra against young talented Shillong Lajong side ... With this win Mahindra moved to the top of I League standing.
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Mumbai FC dw East Bengal 0-0

Mumbai FC managed draw with Kolkata giant.
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Sporting Clube de Goa dw Churchill Brothers SC 0-0

Sporting Clube de Goa also managed to hold mighty Churchill Brothers to goalless draw.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

[Q2] (27) Somdev Devvarman (IND,161) bt Tobias Kamke (GER,258) 26 61 8-6

[Q3] (27) Somdev Devvarman (IND,161) vs (12) Blaz Kavcic (SLO,126)

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,56) vs (26) Aravane Rezai (FRA,27)

Somi started badly as his serve broken in first game ... In this set Somi was struggling with his serve and other hand Kamke was holding his serve easily ... Kamke again broke Somi's serve in 7th game and then hold his next serve to win first set easily ... Second set started on similar way ike first set ... Kamke broke Somi's serve in first game ... But from second game suddenly Somi started to play better (mostly he found his correct range on his shots) ... He won next 6 games on a row in that broke Kamke's serve thrice to won second set ... In third set again Somi broke Kamke's serve in first game and third game to take early lead 3-0 ... But Kamke made exceptional fight back breaking Somi's serve twice to make it 3-all ... Then both players hold their next service games on luv to make it 4-all ... Somi again broke Kamke's serve in 9th game and was serving for the match ... Again Kamke broke Somi's serve to make it 5-all ... After Kamke's hold Somi was serving for staying in the match and he hold easily ... In 13th game Somi broke Kamke's serve after saving 2 game points ... And this time he hold his service game @30 to moved in to final qualifying round ... In third set match was very close as anybody could win ... I really surprised to see that Somi wasted 2 breaks advantage in the beginning and got broken while serving for the match in 10th game ... From Chennai Open it is evident that Somi is struggling with his serve ... He need to take care of this before next matches to go deep here at Australian Open.

Main draw is out and Sania had tough draw facing Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai, who is good form.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,200) l (25) Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA,156) 57 46

As expected Prakash fought well against Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin ... In first set both players didn't get break point until 11th game ... Roger-Vasselin broke Kash's serve in 11th game to won first set ... But second set was different where we saw too many breaks ... Kash broke Roger-Vasselin's serve in 2nd game but then Roger-Vasselin broke Kash's serve in next and 5th game to take control of the set ... And then served well to win his service games easily ... I m bit disappointed as I was hoping upset from Kash after his recent good performance at Chennai Open qualifying.

Chess News
At World Team Chess Championship, Bursa, Turkey

Final Standing

Rank Team Gam. + = - MP Pts. Res. SB.
1 RUSSIA 9 7 1 1 15 24 0 127,75
2 UNITED STATES 9 6 1 2 13 21½ 0 103,00
3 INDIA 9 6 1 2 13 21 0 103,25
4 AZERBAIJAN 9 5 2 2 12 22 0 93,75
5 ARMENIA 9 5 2 2 12 20½ 0 97,00
6 GREECE 9 4 0 5 8 18 0 68,50
7 ISRAEL 9 3 1 5 7 17 0 53,50
8 BRAZIL 9 2 0 7 4 12½ 0 23,50
9 EGYPT 9 1 1 7 3 12 0 23,75
10 TURKIYE 9 1 1 7 3 11½ 0 23,00

Format for this World Team Chess Championship was, for winning tie team will get 2 points and for draw both teams will get 1 point.

In last match India defeated Brazil 3½ - ½ and in other match US drew with Azerbaijan ... So after last round India ties with US in match points, i. e. 13 pts, but US won silver medal on tie-break (may be due to ½ pt extra in total points calculation) and India managed to win bronze medal ... So at least we performed as per our 3rd ranking.

Brazil ½ - 3½ (3) India
GM Leitao Rafael 2620 ½ : ½ GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2653
GM Fier Alexandr 2601 0 : 1 GM Harikrishna P 2672
GM Milos Gilberto 2618 0 : 1 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2654
GM Diamant Andre 2497 0 : 1 GM Geetha Narayanan Gopal 2584

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

[Q1] (27) Somdev Devvarman (IND,161) bt (WC) James Duckworth (AUS,1712) 62 62
[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,330) l Jan Minar (CZE,245) 63 36 36
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,200) bt Andre Begeman (GER,231) 46 61 63

[Q2] (27) Somdev Devvarman (IND,161) vs Tobias Kamke (GER,258)
[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,200) vs (25) Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA,156)

In first set Kash was down with early break and lost it ... But from second set he turned tide and started dominating ... He won second set easily and broke Begeman in first game on third set ... He saved couple of break points on his next service game and also in 8th game but again he broke Begeman in 9th game to moved in to second qualifying round ... Next Kash is facing seeded Frenchman Roger-Vasselin with whom he has losing record ... But hopefully he will overcome this challenge.

Yuki broke Minar's serve in 4th game, then he had 3 set point on Minar's serve at 3-5 (0-40), but he could not convert those ... He held serve in 9th game to won first set ... In second set Minar broke Yuki's serve in 8th game to won second set 3-6 after saving 2 break points in 9th game ... In third set Minar broke Yuki's serve early to take 1-2 lead ... Then Minar again broke Yuki to take lead 1-4 with double break ... But Yuki kept fighting and broke Minar's serve in 6th game ... But Minar again broke Yuki in 9th game to won set and match ... In 9th game Yuki was up 40-0 but somehow lost 5 points on a row to handover the game and match ... But still very fighting performance by Yuki against experienced player.

Somi started match with breaking Aussie's serve and that trend continued in rest of set as he won first set 6-2 ... He kept his upper hand in second set to scored comfortable win to move in to second qualifying round ... His next German opponent is tricky as he is having lot more experience of playing at this level.
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At $355.5K Auckland Open, New Zealand

[QF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) l Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) 26 36

Very one-sided victory for Brunstrom and Rojer against 2nd seed ... They dominated in every aspect of the game ... Not right preparation for Australian Open for our pair.
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At $220K Hobart International 2010, Australia

[QF] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) l Sara Errani (ITA)/ Roberta Vinci (ITA) 36 57

Disappointing result for Sania and Ruano Pascal ... They r also not having right preparation for Australian Open.
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At $25K Pingguo ITF Womens Tournament, China

[R1] VENKATESHA Poojashree (IND,340) l (LL) ZHANG Nan-Nan (CHN,1106) 16 46

Another disappointing outing for Poojashree ... Forgettable China visit for her.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010, Melbourne

[Q1] (27) Somdev Devvarman(IND,161) vs (WC) James Duckworth (AUS,1712)
[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,330) vs Jan Minar (CZE,245)
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,200) vs Andre Begeman (GER,231)

Somi having favorable draw ... Facing Australian wild-card in first round .. And having Slovenian #126 Blaz Kavcic is highest seeded in his draw.

Though Prakash and Yuki having tricky first round matches still they r also having good draw ... Kash having Frenchmen #134 David Guez and #156 Edouard Roger-Vasselin r seeded players ... And Yuki also having Frenchmen #129 Josselin Ouanna, whom Yuki can face if he manage to win first round, and #141 Sebastien De Chaunac r seeded players.
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At $220K Hobart International 2010, Australia

[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) bt Edina Gallovits (ROU)/ Marie-Eve Pelletier (CAN) 62 61

[QF] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) vs Sara Errani (ITA)/ Roberta Vinci (ITA)

Very comfortable win for Sania and Virginia Ruano Pascal ... They needs match practice before Australian Open as last week they lost in first round ... Today they played like second seed to scored dominating win ... Next they r facing Italian pair.
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At $355.5K Auckland Open, New Zealand

[R1] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Jaroslav Levinsky (CZE)/ Travis Parrott (USA) 75 64

[QF] (2) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO)

Lee and Lukas had tough match than they expected ... But they managed to win this match taking breaks at crucial moment ... In second set they saved 4 break point chances and converted only 1 they got.

Top seed Bryans lost in the first round ... Next Lee and Lukas r facing little unknown European pair.

Tennis News
At $220K Hobart International 2010, Australia

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,56) l (WC) Alicia Molik (AUS,186) 46 62 36

After checking draw I thought this was tough match up for Sania though these days Alicia play less singles ... In this match Sania committed 9 double faults ... She faced 7 break point chances and managed to save 2 and had 8 break point chances on Alicia's serve but converted only 4 ... In third set Alicia broke her service thrice ... Overall not a good preparation for Australian Open.

Golf News
At Royal Trophy 2010, Thailand Day3 - Singles

Asia l Europe 7½ - 8½

Charlie Wi bt Simon Dyson 1 up
Wenchong Liang dw Colin Montgomerie A/S
Koumei Oda bt Alexander Noren 5&3
Jeev Milkha Singh bt Robert Karlsson 2&1
Prayad Marksaeng l Pablo Martin 2&1
Ryo Ishikawa l Peter Hanson 5&4
Gaganjeet Bhullar l Soren Kjeldsen 2&1
Thongchai Jaidee dw Henrik Stenson A/S

Europe defeated Asia by 1 point advantage which they gathered on 2nd day ... Today Jeev scored victory over Robert Karlsson but Gaganjeet lost to Soren Kjeldsen with same score ... 2 matches were well fought until last hole ... On 18th hole Wenchong Liang scored 25 feets birdie and put pressure on Colin Montgomerie ... But Montgomerie also matched him scoring more than 20 feet birdie to drew match ... In last match between Thongchai Jaidee and Henrik Stenson, Jaidee take lead on 17th hole scoring birdie ... But on last hole Jaidee failed to scored PAR and Stenson won the hole to helped Europe to win Royal Trophy third time.

Tennis News
At $372.5K Brisbane International, Australia

Final
(1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) l Jeremy Chardy (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA) 36 67(5)

French pair started well breaking Lee's serve in first game then again they broke Lee's serve in 9th game to won first set in 29 mins ... In second set also French pair started well, they broke Lukas's serve in 2nd game ... But then both pairs traded breaks, at 5-4 Lukas had 3 set points on his servr but French pair saved those with 3 double faults from Lukas to take set in tie-break where French pair prevailed to lift title in 1 hr 17 mins match ... In this match Lukas was struggle with his game and Lee also wasn't in his regular super sharp mode near net.
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At $220K Hobart International 2010, Australia

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,57) vs (WC) Alicia Molik (AUS,198)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) vs Edina Gallovits (ROU)/ Marie-Eve Pelletier (CAN)

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

Doubles
[SF] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 36 64 (5)10

Today Sanam played in patches, some time he was incredible and some time very ordinary ... They lost first set after leading 3-1, then they lost 5 games in a row ... In second set they broke Tipsarevic's serve in 5th game but Sanam couldn't manage to hold his next service game to make it 3-all ... Again in next game they broke Lu's serve and then hold their service games to won second set.

In super tie-break our pair started well taking mini-break on Lu's serve but Lu and Tipsarevic broke back on next point on Somi's serve ... Then Lu and Tipsarevic take control winning both points on Sanam's serve, 2-5 ... Our pair broke back one mini-break on Lu's serve to make it 3-6 ... But they again broke Sanam's serve twice to won super tie-break 10-5.

Golf News
At Royal Trophy 2010, Thailand
Day1 - Foursomes

Asia vs Europe 3.5 - 4.5

Ryo Ishikawa/ Koumei Oda bt Pablo Martin/ Colin Montgomerie 3 & 2
Jeev Milkha Singh/ Gaganjeet Bhullar dw Soren Kjeldsen/ Peter Hanson All Square
Charlie Wi/ Wenchong Liang l Alexander Noren/ Robert Karlsson 4 & 2
Prayad Marksaeng/ Thongchai Jaidee bt Simon Dyson/ Henrik Stenson 3 & 1

Jeev and Gaganjeet must be unhappy with their performance as they missed chance of winning full point ... They were up by 2 when last 4 holes were remaining ... But Jeev also made 5 foot PAR on last hole to keep match All Square.

Overall good start for Asia as they r leading with a point after first day.

On second day Europe played solid golf to won 3 matches ... Simon Dyson and Colin Montgomerie defeated Indian pair keeping 2 holes ... From Asia only Charlie Wi and Wenchong Liang won their match ... Tomorrow in singles Asia's task is cut to defend their titles.

Tennis News
At $372.5K Brisbane International, Australia

[SF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER) 64 06 10(7)

Lee and Lukas moved into final winning match in super tie-break ... After winning first set they got bagel in second but it looks like they played solid super tie-break to won this semi-final against good pair.
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At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR) 64 36 (2)10

[SF] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)

British team showed more understanding on court than seeded Indian pair to scored upset win ... After losing first set British team dominated rest of the match.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round IX

Mahindra United bt Sporting Clube de Goa 2-1

Goal Scored - Khangembam Thoi Singh (MU) 88', Paresh Shivalkar (MU) 90+' and Elijah Oriade Obagbemiro Junior (SCG) 44'

Sporting Clube de Goa were on verge on well earned win over Mahindra until 87' min ... But Mahindra managed to score equalizer on 88th min and winner in stoppage time to scored unlikely victory.
-----------------------------------------

JCT l Pune FC 1-2

Goal Scored - Penn Orje (JCT) and S Venkatesh (PFC) 6', Edmar Figuria (PFC) 44'

Pune FC scored their maiden win in I league ... All 3 goals scored in first half and both teams played good football.
-----------------------------------------

Shillong Lajong FC dw Viva Kerala 1-1

Goal Scored - Anil Gurung (SL) 90+' and Sirajuddeen C (VK) 66'

Shillong Lajong managed draw scoring goal in injury time.
------------------------------------------

Chirag United SC bt East Bengal 1-0

Goal Scored - Edmilson Marques Pardal (CU) 66'

Chirag United scored upset win over their city giant.
-----------------------------------------

Air India l Dempo SC 1-3

Goal Scored - N.D. Opara (AI) 16' and Climax Lawrence (DSC) 19', Sunil Chetri (DSC) 36', Joaquim Abranches (DSC) 79'

Air India take early lead but then Dempo showed their class to scored comfortable win.
-----------------------------------------
Mohun Bagan AC dw Churchill Brothers SC 2-2

Goal Scored - Jose Marcio Ramirez Barreto (MB) 35' & 49' and Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 12' & 76'

Today I League resume after 7 weeks break .. In first match Churchill Brothers hold Mohun Bagan ... Odafe Okolie and Jose Barreto scored two goals each in this drawn match.
-----------------------------------------

Mumbai FC bt Salgaocar SC 2-1

Goal Scored - Gurpreet Singh (MFC) 2', Kayne Vincent (MFC) 84' and Mandjou Keita (SSC) 61'

Substitute Kayne Vincent helped Mumbai FC to scored win against Salgaocar scoring late goal.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA) 63 76(5)

[QF] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Rogier Wassen (NED) 62 63
[QF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Carlos Moya (ESP) l (2) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Santiago Ventura (ESP) 57 16

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR)

Ex-current UVa players pair continued their winning run at Chennai Open ... After upsetting 4th pair in first round they scored easy victory against Jeff Coetzee and Rogier Wassen to moved into semis.

Mahesh and Rohan completed first round win in few minutes after winning tie-break to moved in to quarters ... They r facing British pair.
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At $372.5K Brisbane International, Australia

[QF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Ashley Fisher (AUS)/ Stephen Huss (AUS) W/O (due to knee injury to Fisher)

[SF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER)

So smooth sailing for top-seed pair in semis due to Fisher's knee injury ... Now they r only seeded pair left in the draw.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R2] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,126) l (4) Janko Tipsarevic (SRB,38) 26 16

Doubles
[R1] (1) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) l Yves Allegro (SUI)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 63 46 (5)10
[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs James Cerretani (USA)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA) 63 5-5 (match stopped due to rain)
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Carlos Moya (ESP) bt Dudi Sela (ISR)/ Robby Ginepri (USA) 62 46 10(5)

[QF] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Rogier Wassen (NED)
[QF] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Carlos Moya (ESP) vs (2) Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Santiago Ventura (ESP)

Serbian Tipsarevic proved too strong for Somi in this 78 mins match ... Somi had his moments in this match he was break down in first set when he broke Tipsarevic's serve in 4th game to make it 2-all ... But from there match was belong to Tipsarevic, Somi didn't match his powerful shots from baseline and quick-hands near the net ... Must be learning experience for Somi against top-40 player.

In doubles Yuki and Carlos Moya started with upset win over Dudi Sela and Robby Ginepri in super tie-break ... They won first set easily but lost second, in super tie-break they dominated to win this match ... Next they r facing 2nd seed pair.

Mahesh and Rohan won first set and both pair r 5-all in second when match stopped ... It will continue on Thursday.

In other match top-seed pair of Rajeev Ram and Eric Butorac lost in first round.
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At $220K ASB Classic, Auckland, New Zealand

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,57) l (4) Francesca Schiavone (ITA,17) 06 36

This 1 hr 11 mins match was lot closer than score suggest ... In this match Schiavone had 9 break points and she converted 6, other hand Sania had 11 break point chances and she converted only 2.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R1] (WC) Rohan Bopanna (IND,392) l (4) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI,21) 16 46
[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,126) bt Rainer Schuettler (GER,85) 75 62
[R1] (Q) Prakash Amritraj (IND,212) l Michael Russell (USA,83) 36 16

[R2] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,126) vs (4) Janko Tipsarević (SRB,38)

Excellent start for Somdev in Chennai Open ... In first set he was down with break at 2-5 but then he won next 5 games breaking Schuettler twice to won first set ... Second set Somi started positively breaking Schuettler in first game, then again he broke Schuettler in 5th game ... Converted 3rd match point to won match in 1 hour 36 mins ... After down by break Somi had excellent service games ... Somi converted 5 of 10 BP chances to dominating the match ... Next Somi facing tough opponent 4th seed Janko Tipsarević.

After showing good performance in qualifying surprisingly Prakash overpowered by American Michael Russell in 1 hour 6 minutes match ... He didn't give any chance to Kash.

Rohan couldn't do much against Wawrinka, who showed clinical performance to won match in 50 mins.
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At $220K ASB Classic, Auckland, New Zealand

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,57) bt Stefanie Voegele (SUI,75) 57 61 75

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND,57) vs (4) Francesca Schiavone (ITA,17)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Virginia Ruano Pascal (ESP) l (WC) Dominika Cibulkova (SVK)/ Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 16 67(6)

Nice to see winning start in year 2010 ... Also good to see tight comeback victory against Swiss player ... Next round is usual tough one, lets hope she perform well.

New pair of Sania and Virginia Ruano Pascal started with loss ... They lost first set very easily and in second set they tried but couldn't overcome their wild card opponents.
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At $372.5K Brisbane International, Australia

[R1] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) bt Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Sam Querrey (USA) 75 63

[QF] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Ashley Fisher (AUS)/ Stephen Huss (AUS)

Winning start for year 2010 for Lee and Lukas ... They finished this match in 2 sets and r facing Aussie pair in quarters.
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At $50K Quanzhou ITF Womens Tournament, China

[R1] Poojashree Venkatesha (IND,324) l (LL) Yi Zhong (CHN,948) 16 26

Doubles
[R1] Poojashree Venkatesha (IND)/ Ting Li (CHN) l (1) Yuliya Beygelzimer (UKR)/ Zi Yan (CHN) 16 06

Chinese lucky loser Yi Zhong toyed Poojashree to score one-sided victory.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[R1] (8) Rajeev Ram (USA,79) l Thiemo De Bakker (NED,96) 16 16

Doubles
[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (4) Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) 62 75

Former and current UVa players, Somi and Sanam, scored big upset beating experienced doubles players ... They finished match is straight sets.

Rajeev played late night match (almost at midnight) and Dutch players crushed him.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[Q3] Prakash Amritraj (IND,212) bt Lars Poerschke (GER,277) 76(5) 63
[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,335) l Louk Sorensen (IRL,293) 26 76(8) 26

Excellent straight sets victory by Kash to qualify for main draw in style ... Kash broke back to make it 5-all after being broken in the opening game and then winning tight first set in tie-break ... Then he broke Poerschke's served twice and saving few break points on his own serve to produced consistent performance to won second set ... Kash can be dangerous floater in main draw with 3 wins under belt before first round main draw.

After losing first set Yuki fought back against more experienced Irishman Sorensen ... In second set tie-break also he was down with mini-break at 0-3 but he fought back to won this set after saving a match point to take match in to decider ... Yuki started third set on positive note breaking Sorensen's serve in first game but then he couldn't continue same tempo and Sorensen stamped his superiority breaking Yuki's serve thrice, 2nd, 6th and 8th game ... Still creditable performance from Yuki, he got 6 ranking points for reaching in final qualifying.
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At $50K Quanzhou ITF Womens Tournament, China

[Q1] Kumari-Sweta Solanki (IND,819) bt Xiaomeng Cheng (CHN,UNR) 63 63
[Q2] Kumari-Sweta Solanki (IND,819) l Yue Yuan (CHN,UNR) 36 16

[R1] Poojashree Venkatesha (IND,324) vs (LL) Yi Zhong (CHN,948)

Doubles
[R1] Poojashree Venkatesha (IND)/ Ting Li (CHN) vs (1) Yuliya Beygelzimer (UKR)/ Zi Yan (CHN)

Poojashree having favorable draw in singles but in doubles she and her Chinese partner facing very experienced doubles players ... Zi Yan was top-5 doubles player in 2006 and currently she is #23.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,212) bt (6) Peter Polansky (CAN,185) 46 63 76(9)
[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,335) bt (1) Illya Marchenko (UKR,120) 76(2) 63

[Q3] Prakash Amritraj (IND,212) vs Lars Poerschke (GER,277)
[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,335) vs Louk Sorensen (IRL,293)

What a start for Indian tennis in new year!!! Yuki scored biggest win of his small career beating top-120 Ukrainean player in straight sets ... In first set he kept cool to won tie-break but second set he won more solidly.

Other hand Kash needed to dig deep to scored comeback win ... He lost first set but won second set to take match in decider ... In third set no player faced break point until 11 games ... But at 5-6 while serving to remained in the set Kash faced 2 break points, he managed to save those 2 match points to take set in tie-break ... In tie-break also he saved couple of more match points before winning long tie-break.

In final qualifying both having tricky matches ... Hopefully they will win those to qualify for maindraw.

Tennis News
At $450K 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, India

[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,335) bt Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,483) 75 64
[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,212) bt Vishnu Vardhan (IND,390) 75 63
[Q1] Rohan Gajjar (IND,477) l (6) Peter Polansky (CAN,185) 36 67(8)
[Q1] (WC) Mohit Mayur Jayaprakash (IND,UNR) l Jan Minar (CZE,244) 46 26
[Q1] (WC) Sanam Singh (IND,789) l (4) Marsel Ilhan (TUR,155) 57 63 26
[Q1] (WC) Karan Rastogi (IND,1050) l James Ward (GBR,270) 26 46
[Q1] (WC) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND,906) l Noam Okun (ISR,258) 26 36

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,212) vs (6) Peter Polansky (CAN,185)
[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,335) vs (1) Illya Marchenko (UKR,120)

[R1] (WC) Rohan Bopanna (IND,392) vs (4) Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI,21)
[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND,126) vs Rainer Schuettler (GER,85)
[R1] (8) Rajeev Ram (USA,79) vs Thiemo De Bakker (NED,96)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Yves Allegro (SUI)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)
[R1] (WC) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (4) Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Scott Lipsky (USA)
[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs James Cerretani (USA)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA)
[R1] (WC) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Carlos Moya (ESP) vs Dudi Sela (ISR)/ Robby Ginepri (USA)

Expected winning start for Prakash ... Gajjar and Mayur lost against higher ranked opponents ... In remaining lot only Yuki managed to move second round, but Sanam produced fighting performance against top-150 type player whom he stretched to 3 sets ... But overall disappointing stuff as only our 2 players win who faced Indians in first round.

Tough maindraw for our players as Somi facing seasoned German Rainer Schuettler ... Rohan having more tough challenge against former top-10 Swiss player Wawrinka ... In doubles Harsh missed cut playing with Istomin.
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At $220K ABS Classic, Auckland, New Zealand

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,57) vs Stefanie Voegele (SUI,75)

Sania starting her preparation for Australian Open with ABS Classic.
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At $372.5K Brisbane International, Australia

[R1] (1) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Sam Querrey (USA)

Good to see Lee and Lukas preparing for Australian Open playing at Brisbane.

Happy New Year!!!

I m back with blogging for 2010 and hoping our Indian players give us more occasions to enjoy their triumph!

Hockey News

Hockey India on released the names of 38 probables for a training camp which started in Lucknow from December 29 for the preparations of next month's South Asian Games in Dhaka and they also released a list of 22 senior players who have started training in Pune from yesterday under chief coach Jose Brasa for the upcoming tournaments.

Surprisingly Prabodh Tirkey and Ignace Tirkey's names are missing from the list.

22 players for national camp under chief coach Jose Brasa

Goalkeepers - Adrian D'souza, PR Sreejesh

Defenders - Sandeep Singh, Diwakar Ram, Sardar Singh, Bharat Chikara

Midfielders - Gurbaj Singh, Vikram Pillay, Dhananjay Mahadhik, Vikas Sharma, Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandker, Birinder Lakra (Sr), Danish Mujtaba

Forwards - Shivendra Singh, Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Gurvinder Singh Chandi, SV Sunil, Deepak Thakur, Mandip Antil, Sarvanjit Singh

38 probables for South Asian Games under coaches Clarence Lobo and Gundeep Kumar

Goalkeepers - Harjeet Singh, Mrinal Chaubay, Jaswinder Singh, C Santosh Kumar

Defenders - V Raghunath, Innocent Kullu, Laxmi Karana, Manjit Kullu, Amit Rohidas, Irfan Ali.

Midfielders - Belsajar Horo, Vikas Pillay, Ajitesh Roy, Senthil Kumar, Birender Lakra (Jr), Amit Prabhakar, Sunil Ekka, Eliazer Lakra, Amardeep Ekka, Virenderjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Jasjeet Singh, Roshan Minz.

Forwards - Dharamvir Singh, Victo Singh, Pramod Kumar, Bikas Toppo, Adam Sinclair, Humza Mujtaba, Vinod Rayar, V Raja, Jai Karan, Lalit Upadhyay, Yuvraj Walmiki, Prabhdeep Singh, Satvir Singh, Mandeep Ghumman, Mohd Amir Khan.

Year 2009 showing some promises for Indian tennis ... In singles rise of Somdev Devvarman, who will definitely enter in top-100 in next few months .. And Yuki Bhambri, who is also showing lots of promise after winning junior Australian Open 2009 title ... He is having game (need little work on his service motion to avoid back injury) to be inside top-50 on ATP tour in couple of years as he is only 17 yrs old ... Sanam Singh showing improvement in his game under UVa tennis coach Brian Boland and can be in mix in a yer or two ... Rohan Bopanna showing consistency in doubles and remain inside top-100 after injury hit year ... He helped India with Somi to be in world group of Davis Cup.

In doubles Leander had excellent 2009 as he won 2 grand slam titles, French Open and US Open, with his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy ... Mahesh Bhupathi also won mixed doubles Australian Open title with Sania Mirza ... Harsh Mankad is also on verge of entering in top-100 doubles title, so if he get some lucky breaks then we can see him joining our other 3 on ATP tours doubles tournaments.

In ladies Sania Mirza showing despite her injury she is good enough to remain around top-50 WTA ranking ... For her this year brought lot of good memories ... After coming out of injury she won her first grand slam title in company of Mahesh and in July 09 she got engaged ... But still no woman player is showing any promises to join Sania ... Poojashree showing improvement but for her still long road to be inside top-250.

ATP 2009 year-end Singles Ranking

126 Devvarman Somdev 441
212 Amritraj Prakash 222
335 Bhambri Yuki 120
390 Vardhan Vishnu 96
392 Bopanna Rohan 95
477 Gajjar Rohan 66
483 Virali-Murugesan Ranjeet 65
614 Roy Rupesh 38
762 Malik Vijayant 19
764 Sharan Divij 19
789 Singh Sanam 16

ATP 2009 year-end Doubles Ranking

7 Bhupathi Mahesh 6,260
8 Paes Leander 5,890
83 Bopanna Rohan 935
104 Mankad Harsh 678
160 Amritraj Prakash 427
211 Raja Purav 318
330 Vardhan Vishnu 180
360 Sharan Divij 158
404 Gajjar Rohan 131
412 Singh Ashutosh 124
507 Devvarman Somdev 95

WTA 2009 year-end Singles Ranking

57 Mirza Sania 1119
339 Venkatesha Poojashree 117
555 Bhambri Sanaa 47
572 Uberoi Shikha 45
632 Chakravarthi Rushmi 38
739 Lakhani Isha 24
760 Burman Shivika 22
800 Maloo Parija 18
801 Goutham Sheethal 18
820 Solanki Sweta 17
831 Bhambri Prerna 16
845 Bhambri Ankita 15

WTA 2009 year-end Doubles Ranking

37 Mirza Sania 2170
280 Uberoi Shikha 203
387 Venkatesha Poojashree 120
457 Bhambri Sanaa 90
488 Chakravarthi Rushmi 78
601 Lakhani Isha 51
604 Solanki Sweta 51
736 Sunkara Rishika 29
748 Burman Shivika 28
773 Bhattacharyya Treta 26
813 Rao Sunitha 22
824 Bhambri Prerna 21

Tennis News
At $450K Aircel Chennai Open 2010, India

Wild cards for Chennai Open r declared ... As expected Somdev Devvarman received wild card in singles, he is also receive wild card for doubles with his UVa team-mate Sanam Singh ... Organizers take good decision giving second wild card to Rohan Bopanna over Yuki Bhambri ... As next Davis Cup World group tie is coming near so Rohan getting more match practice is important ... Third wild card went to Carlos Moya as he is making comeback after injury ... Carlos also received doubles wild card with Yuki Bhambri.

So Yuki missed singles wild card, but also Harsh Mankad get ignored by organizers for doubles wild card.
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At "Glam Slam Showdown of Champions" 2009, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Russia bt Asia 3-0

Elena Dementieva/ Maria Kirilenko bt Sania Mirza/Jie Zheng 64 57 10(8)
Maria Kirilenko bt Jie Zheng 63 46 64
Elena Dementieva bt Sania Mirza 64 76(0)

Though Sania lost her both matches but as from onlooker all players played high quality tennis ... So good fighting performance by Sania in her year end matches.
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At $75K ITF Women's Tournament, Dubai, UAE

[Q1] (6) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND,330) bt Ekaterina DRANETS (RUS,881) 64 62
[Q2] (6) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND,330) bt Viktoria YEMIALYANAVA (BLR,587) 76(4) 63
[Q3] (6) Poojashree VENKATESHA (IND,330) l (2) Natalia ORLOVA (RUS,267) 62 26 16

Last week Poojashree played $75K qualifying tournament and performed as per her ranking ... Good to see she is able to stretched top-250 type player to 3 sets.

Hockey News
At 2010 Hockey World Cup, New Delhi, India

India find themselves in tricky pool with Australia and Spain ... More pver arch-rival Pakistan and England also in their group.

Pool A: Germany, the Netherlands, Korea, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina
Pool B: Australia, Spain, England, Pakistan, India and South Africa

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

For 3rd position
India bt Argentina 3-2

Goal Scored - Vokkaliga Raghunath (IND) 35' PC, Gurbaj Singh (IND) 54', Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 69' PC and Facundo Callioni (ARG) 22' & 27'

Final
New Zealand bt Pakistan 4-2

After semi-final loss against Pakistan I was thinking mostly Argentina will crush us considering our previous record of these matches ... But while watching this match I had pleasant surprise ... In first half Argentina looks dominating and had good ball possession ... But our defenders and goal keeper Sreejesh were good to holding them ... But Argentina take control through Callioni's 2 field goals in few minutes ... Surprisingly from 0-2 down we started spirited comeback in last minutes of first half ... We received our first penalty corner on hooter of first half and Raghunath scored on that with powerful hit on left side of goal keeper ... In second half our team started positively but couldn't penetrate Argentina defense ... Good move from Tushar Khandekar created chance for Gurbaj and he scored on that ... After that our players kept attacking on Argentinian goal and got penalty corner in dying minutes ... This time Dhananjay Mahadik scored goal to give lead to India ... Argentina also got penalty corner in 70th minute but our players defended well to score good victory and top 3 finish.

New Zealand secured place in next year's Champions Trophy with victory over Pakistan, they were 2-all after first half.

Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009, Bangladesh

U23 INDIAN TEAM WINS SAFF CUP 2009 !!!

Final
India u23 bt Maldives 3-1 in penalty shoot-out (0-0 after FT)

Our u-23 boys did unthinkable to lift SAFF title beating full-side Maldives ... In the final Maldives were better on the field but our defenders and goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya were exceptional ... In end deserving winner with their fighting performance.

In begining our boys matching their game with Maldives national team and were 0-0 after end of first half ... After little boring first half more action happened in second half but Maldives created more chances than us ... Jewel Rana got injured in second half and that cost us in mid-field ... But goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya and our defenders managed to hold Maldives ... Sushil Kumar Singh missed only clear chance we had.

In extra-times also Sushil Kumar Singh missed few chances (where he needed to beat opponent's goal keeper) in front of the goal, other hand our goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya was very busy handling Maldives attack ... So match ended 0-0 after extra times.

Our goal keeper Arindam Bhattacharya declared Player of the tournament and also man of the match for the final.

Penalty Shoot-out (Indians taking first kick)

Khangebam Jeevan Singh (IND) 1-0
Ibrahim Fazeel (MDV) 1-1
Denzil Franco (IND) 2-1
Ahmed Thoriq (MDV) 2-1 (Arindam saved to diving his left side)
Nirmal Chetri (IND) 2-1 (hit wide)
Mukhthar Naseer (MDV) 2-1 (Arindam saved to diving his right side)
Subodh Kumar (IND) 3-1
Ali Ashfaq (MDV) 3-1 (hit over the cross bar)

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Semi-Final - Saturday - 12 Dec 2009
New Zealand bt Argentina 3-2
India l Pakistan 3-6

Goal Scored - Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 8' PC & 62' PC, Diwakar Ram (IND) 67' PC and Rehan Butt (PAK) 2' 29' & 64', Sohail Abbas (PAK) 32' PC & 70' PS, Haseem Khan (PAK) 58'

Disappointing result for us ... Again we failed to click against our arch-rival Pakistan, mainly due to our mental block ... Match was fast paced as expected but Pakistan got a start which they were hoping but we equalised through penalty corner ... After that we missed too many chances to score and other hand Pakistan converted most of chances they got ... At half time Pakistan was up 3-1 ... In second half also we missed penalty corners and field goal chances ... Pakistan increased lead through Haseem Khan ... Both teams were trying too hard and that brought 4 goals in last 8 minutes.

Tennis News
At Australian Open 2010,

At Australian Open Sania Mirza will be pairing with former doubles number one Spanish Virginia Ruano Pascual ... Pascual having huge success in doubles winning 10 grand slam titles ... So good pairing for Sania, they will decide further on their pairing after evaluating their performance at Australian Open.

Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009, Bangladesh

Semi-Finals
Maldives bt Sri Lanka 5-1
India u23 bt Bangladesh 1-0

Goal Scored - Sushil Kumar Singh (IND) 63'

Our u23 boys scored deserving victory over local Bangladesh nantional side ... Our boys played better than them in all department ... We missed many chances but important goal scored by captain Sushil Kumar Singh on free-kick by Robert Lalthalma in second half ... In the final we r facing Maldives, who defeated us in group match ... This is 3rd time we r facing them in the SAFF cup final, until now it's 1-all.
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Boxing News
At President's Cup 2009, Baku, Azerbaijan

Flyweight (49-51 kg) Final
Suranjoy Singh (IND) bt Nordine Oubaali (FRA) 8-1

[QF] Suranjoy Singh (IND) bt Vincenzo Picardi (ITA) 6-4
[SF] Suranjoy Singh (IND) bt Braulio Avila (MEX) 10-4

Indian Suranjoy Singh won his flyweight final bout easily against French boxer Nordine Oubaali to lift title at President's Cup 2009 ... This was the only title Asia 1 team won in this event.

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Group A - Thrusday - 10 Dec 2009
New Zealand dw China 2-2
India bt Belgium 4-2

Goal Scored - Dhananjay Mahadik (IND) 19' PC, Shivendra Singh (IND) 32', Tushar Khandker (IND) 48', Prabhjot Singh (IND) 70' and Jerome Dekeyser (BEL) PS, Renaud Pangrazio (BEL)

Congrats to Brasa and our team for reaching semis ... But still job is half done, we need to win next 2 matches to qualify for Champions trophy ... From report it looks we won very hard fought match which our team was dominated ... We were up 1-0 after 19th mins then Belgium fought back scoring 2 goals in a minute to take a lead but Indians kept pushing and scored equaliser through Shivendra Singh's deflection who was unmarked in Belgium circle ... In second half both teams started aggressively but Indians kept their upper hand with properly build attacks and they defended also very well ... So with this win they topped Group A as in other match

On Saturday we r facing Pakistan in semis ... Hopefully we keep our this spirited performance against them.

Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009 - Group A, Bangladesh

India u23 l Maldives 0-2

Goal Scored - Goal Scored - Ahmed Thoriq (MDV) 16', Ibrahim Fazeel (MDV) 84'

Today we were having big test against Maldives but our young side failed to rise on this occassion ... We conceded early goal in first 15 mins and we never recovered from that ... Also our striker Balwant Singh recieved red card for stupid mistakes, he handled ball inside the box for first yellow card and recieved second yellow card for unnecessary diving inside Maldives penalty box.

In semis on 11th December we r facing tough challenge of local team, Bangladesh, who topped Group B.

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Group A - Tuesday - 08 Dec 2009
New Zealand bt Belgium 4-1
India bt China 4-1

Goal Scored - Prabhjot Singh (IND) 7' PC, Rajpal Singh (IND) 35', Sarwanjit Singh (IND) 56' PC, Shivendra Singh (IND) 70' and Xishang Jiang (CHN) 41' PS

Good win over Chinese team, with whom we struggled in recent past ... From start we kept attacking on Chinese goal, Prabhjot scored on rebound to give early lead ... After that though we had control over the match still we gave them some chances due to erratic and physical play from our players but we were lucky ... In this match also we showed our age old problem of individual game and long passes ... Hopefully we will take care of that in next game.

Squash News
At $152K Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2009, Mumbai, India

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,32) l (2) Amr Shabana (EGY,3) 6-11 11-6 5-11 10-12 (48m)

Creditable performance by Saurav against former WR #1 Amr Shabana ... Where he stretched Amr to 4 games in this 48 mins match.
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Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009 - Group A, Bangladesh

India u-23 bt Nepal 1-0

Goal Scored - Khangebam Jeevan Singh (IND) 18'

Our boys started well knowing winning this match will secure their place in semi finals ... Khangebam Jeevan Singh scored goal on heading after receiving ball from crossbar on free kick by Joaquim Abranches ... After that Nepalese tried hard to equalise but out defense stood tall ... With this win our boys secured their place in semis.

Hockey News
At BDO Men’s Champions Challenge I , Salta, Argentina

Group A - New Zealand (8), Belgium (9), India (12), China (13)
Group B - Pakistan (7), Argentina (10), Canada (11), South Africa (15)

Group A - Sunday - 06 Dec 2009
Belgium bt China 4-3
India dw New Zealand 2-2

Goal Scored - Tushar Khandekar (IND) 30', Shivendra Singh (IND) 51' and Dean Couzins (NZL) 47' PS, Andrew Hayward (NZL) 58' PC

New Zealand hold India in very closely contested match ... Blacks sticks were attacking from the start but Indian defence defended well under Sardara Singh ... Indians managed to take lead before half time ... In second half also Black Stickskept attacking ... They managed to earn Penalty stroke which they converted to make it 1-all ... Again we take lead through field goal but again Black sticks converted penalty corner to make it 2-all ... In this match both teams performed well.
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Squash News
At $152K Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2009, Mumbai, India

[R1] (WC) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,148) l (10) Alister Walker (ENG,13) 4-11 5-11 3-11 (29m)

Easy loss against British player.

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Mixed Doubles Final
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Joachim Fischer Nielsen (DEN)/ Christinna Pedersen (DEN) 14-21 18-21

In first game Danish pair take early lead wining 5 points from 1-2 and those lead was enough for them to grab first game ... Second game was lot closer than first one ... Danish pair take early lead 4-6 but Diju and Jwala managed to catch them at 8-all ... But again Danish pair take lead to 9-12, this time also Diju and Jwala caught them and take lead at 13-12 ... Then first time our pair take lead and were leading 16-14 but Danish pair made it 16-all and then won 3 points from 18-all to captured title in 37 mins.

Still creditable performance by Diju and Jwala. who reached final in their first appearance at World Super Series Masters.
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Golf News
At Golf Nippon Series JT Cup 2009, Japan - Final Standing

6 Jeev Milkha Singh 71 69 65 70 -5 ￥4,768,291

Shigeki Maruyama won in extra hole with 9 under score ... But today Jeev had so-so day, on front-9 he scored birdie on 5th hole ... On back-9 he started with back to back bogeys on 10th and 11th holes ... Then managed to birdie on 16th hole to finished on sole 6th position.

Jeev must be disappointed with his performance where he had chance of finishing in top 3 ... After excellent 5 under third round Jeev was in contention for the title but last PAR round let down for Jeev ... He was expecting much here as he won 2 titles here and another title win could help him to re-enter in top 50 GWR.

Squash News
At $152K Punj Lloyd PSA Masters 2009, Mumbai, India

[R1] Saurav Ghosal (IND,32) bt (15) Cameron Pilley (AUS,15) 11-8 11-2 10-12 11-8 (77m)
[R1] (WC) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,148) vs (10) Alister Walker (ENG,13)

[R2] Saurav Ghosal (IND,32) vs (2) Amr Shabana (EGY,3)

Saurav scored big win over top-15 Aussie player in this big PSA Masters tournament ... Good to see he scored win in long match at home tournament ... Next he is facing WR #3 and former WR # 1 Amr Shabana.
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Football News
At SAFF CUP 2009 - Group A, Bangladesh

India u-23 bt Afghanistan 1-0

Goal Scored - Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 86'

4 times champion Indian side started well in SAFF championship when they defeated Afghanistan 1-0 ... India’s second half substitute Jeje scored the goal just four minutes from time.

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles Semi Finals
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) l Juliane Schenk (GER,9) 18-21 18-21

Mixed Doubles Semi Finals
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Robert Mateusiak (POL)/ Nadiezda Kostiuczyk (POL) 21-19 21-11

In Final,
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Joachim Fischer Nielsen (DEN)/ Christinna Pedersen (DEN)

Diju and Jwala created history becoming first Indian pair to reached final at World Super Series Masters beating Polish team ... In first game Diju and Jwala take lead winning 5 points from 2-3 and they managed to kept lead most of the game ... But Polish pair caught them at 19-all still Diju and Jwala kept their cool and win next 2 points to grab first game ... Second game was total different story, our pair won first 7 points to take huge early lead ... From their Polish pair were never in this game, nearest they came to 4 points difference ... Diju and Jwala ended in style to won 6 points on a row from 15-11 to win match in 30 mins ... In the final they will face top-seed Danish pair.

Schenk taken early lead in first game Saina won 3 points on a row to make it 6-all but Schenk won 5 points on row from 8-all to open lead ... Saina tried to reduce margin but Schenk kept required lead to grab first game ... Second game was also repeat of first game where Schenk opened early lead and Saina made it 7-all winning 3 points on a row but from here Schenk opened up a lead and maintained that until winning match in 41 mins ... So Saina lost big opportunity of winning this tournament but at least she managed to repeat her last year performance.

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles - Group A Match 3
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) bt Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,37) 21-13 21-19

Mixed Doubles - Group B Match 3
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Songphon Anugritayawon (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 21-12 21-8

Saina scored straight games victory over Porntip in 33 mins to secure place in semis ... In first game Saina was in control from the start to win it easily ... second game was lot more closer where Saina take early lead 9-6 but Porntip fought back wining next 4 points and then she take lead over Saina after winning 3 points on a row from 10-all ... This time Saina fought back to make it 13-all and from 15-16 she won next 3 points to take control of the game ... Porntip saved couple of game points but Saina converted 3rd match point to won this match.

With Saina Indian mixed doubles pair Diju and Jwala also joined her in semis with very easy victory over Thai pair in just 20 mins ... They dominated match from start and didn't give any chance to their opponents to fight back.

In semis Saina mostly will face German WR #9 Juliane Schenk, who is in chance of winning Group B.

Diju and Jwala will face Polish pair Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk, who won Group A easily winning all matches without dropping any games.

Tennis News
At $10K Malaysia F6 Futures, Kuala Lumpur

[SF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) l Marin BRADARIC (CRO,723) 75 26 46

Rohan also lost against Croatian and with that I think Indian tennis players will take year-end break before next season.

Somi is currently doing physical training at Austin, Texas mostly with Roddick.

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles - Group A Match 2
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) bt Charmaine Reid (CAN,55) 21-14 21-9

Mixed Doubles - Group B Match 2
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Hendra Aprida Gunawan (INA)/ Vita Marissa (INA) 21-18 21-17

Much better performance today as Saina and our MXD team scored win in straight games ... Today Saina produced thumping win against Reid in 32 mins ... She dominated match from the start and never lose control over it.

Diju and Jwala also played well to beat Indonesian pair in straight games.

Tennis News
At $10K Malaysia F6 Futures, Kuala Lumpur

[QF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) bt (8) David RICE (GBR,521) 60 36 61

[SF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) vs Marin BRADARIC (CRO,723)

Doubles
[SF] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) l (3) Sergei Betov (BLR)/ Dmitri Zhyrmont (BLR) 63 36 (7)10
[SF] (2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) l Jesse Huta Galung (NED)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED) 26 26

Rohan Gajjar won to moved into semis and facing Croatian ... Hopefully he will take out him to move into the final ... Our challenge got over in doubles.

Badminton News
At BWF World Super Series Masters Finals 2009, Malaysia

Womens Singles - Group A Match 1
Saina Nehwal (IND,8) l Mew Choo Wong (MAS,20) 13-21 21-13 14-21

Mixed Doubles - Group B Match 1
V Diju (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Anthony Clark (ENG)/ Donna Kellogg (ENG) 15-21 16-21

Saina having good chance of winning this BWF World Super Series Masters Finals ... As all top ladies shuttlers decided to skip this so Saina is highest seeded.

But today bad day for Indians as Saina lost her match in 50 mins against local girl ... Other hand Diju and Jwala's struggled against English pair continued in this 27 mins match.

Tennis News
At $10K Malaysia F6 Futures, Kuala Lumpur

[R1] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt Adam JAYA (MAS,1439) 62 63
[R1] Divij SHARAN (IND,785) bt Manuel SANCHEZ (MEX,1327) 64 46 64
[R1] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) bt Yew-Ming SI (MAS,1482) 62 64
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,375) bt Mohammed FETOV (SUI,1177) 16 62 30 Retired

[R2] (3) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) l Colin O'BRIEN (IRL,628) 16 0-2 Retd
[R2] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) bt Divij SHARAN (IND,785) 61 64
[R2] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,375) l Marin BRADARIC (CRO,723) 63 67(5) 46

[QF] (4) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,476) vs (8) David RICE (GBR,521)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (ALT) Burnham Arlidge (GBR)/ Andrew Fitzpatrick (GBR) 75 76(5)
[R1] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (ALT) Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Tomislav Brkic (BIH) 46 63 10(7)
[R1] David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali Murugesan (IND) 60 64
[R1] (2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) bt (WC) Manuel Sanchez (MEX)/ Muhammad Ashaari Bin Zainal Abidin (MAS) 61 61

[QF] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 76(5) 57 10(8)
[QF] (2)Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) bt Peerakit Siributwong (THA)/ Peraklat Siriluethaittana (THA) 36 62 10(4)

[SF] Pirmin Haenle (GER)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) vs (3) Sergei Betov (BLR)/ Dmitri Zhyrmont (BLR)
[SF] (2) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Colin O'Brien (IRL) vs Jesse Huta Galung (NED)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED)

And again Vishnu lost against Croatian ... He had chance of finishing in 2 but failed to capitalised on that ... Ranjeet retired from his match so now only Rohan is in singles quarter finals after easy win over Divij.
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Australia F11 Futures 2009,

[R1] Karan RASTOGI (IND,1062) l (8) James LEMKE (AUS,490) 67(1) 26

After stretching Aussie opponent to tie-break Karan lost in straight sets.

Football News

For SAFF Cup our 20 members U23 squad is announced.

India Under-23
Goalkeepers - Arindam Bhattacharya (Churchill Brothers SC), Laxmikant Kattimani (Dempo SC)

Defenders - Nirmal Chetri (East Bengal Club), Denzil Franco (Mahindra United), Robert Lalthalma (Churchill Brothers SC), Dharmaraj Ravanan (Mahindra United), Rowilson Rodrigues (Churchill Brothers SC), Ravinder Singh (Air India), Thokchom Naoba Singh (Churchill Brothers SC)

Midfielders - Joaquim Abranches (Dempo SC), Manish Maithani (Mohun Bagan AC), Sheikh Jewel Raja (Dempo SC), Baldeep Singh Jr (JCT), Jagpreet Singh (JCT), Khangebam Jeevan Singh (East Bengal Club)

Forwards - Jeje Lalpeklua (Pune FC), Balwant Singh (JCT), Jagtar Singh (Tata Football Academy), Sushil Kumar Singh (Mahindra United)

Coach - Sukhvinder Singh (Coach)
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Draw of the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup to be played in Sri Lanka next February was held at Colombo ... Defending champions India r in 'Group of Death' ... They r in Group B with World Cup qualifiers North Korea, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan ... Other hand Group A looks weaker with teams Tajikistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and hosts Sri Lanka.

Tournament winner will gain a place in the 2011 Asian Cup, India is already qualified by winning the tournament last year ... So if we able to defend title then the runners-up will qualify for the continental championships in Qatar ... As we r already qualified so we r sending our U-23 team for exposure before Asiad.

Tennis News
At $125K Helsinki Challenger, Finland

Doubles Final
(3) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul_Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (WC) Henri Kontinen (FIN)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 62 76(7)

Another title for Rohan and Aisam ... Excellent straight sets win by Rohan and Aisam over local Davis Cup pair in the final ... Again it simply shows us that how much lethal these two as a pair!!!

So with this win Rohan climbed to #82 doubles ranking.

Golf News
At Omega Mission Hills World Cup, China - Final Standing (Foursomes)

1 Italy 64 66 61 68 -29
T2 Ireland 58 68 64 70 -28
T2 Sweden 64 65 62 69 -28
4 England 66 69 63 64 -26
5 Japan 62 71 64 69 -22

T14 India 67 68 65 72 -16

Jeev and Jyoti helped India to produce their best finish at World Cup team event ... They must be disappointed with finish as they were in chance of top 5 or atleast top 10 finish but in last round they only managed PAR round ... They had 3 birdies and 3 bogeys.
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Tennis News
At ATP World Tour Finals, London, England

Semi Finals
Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) l Mike Bryan (USA)/ Bob Bryan (USA) 46 46

Bryans defeated Mahesh and Mark in straight sets to moved into the final ... So with that Mahesh and Mark's 2 yrs doubles partnership got over ... As in 2010 Mahesh is decided to partner Max Mirnyi.
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At $125K Helsinki Challenger, Finland

Doubles Final
(3) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul_Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (WC) Henri Kontinen (FIN)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN)

Tricky match against Finland's doubles Davis Cup pair.