Tennis News
At 2012 u-16 Asia/Oceania Junior Davis and Fed Cup Final Qualifying, Bendigo, Australia

Junior Davis Cup - Group C
(3) India bt Malaysia 3-0

R1 - Sahil Deshmukh bt Low Kar Win 46 60 62
R2 - Sumit Nagal bt Colin Wong 61 61
R3 - Sumit Nagal/ Fatehdeep Singh bt Ahmad Faez/ Colin Wong 62 62

(3) India vs Hong Kong 1-0
R1 - Sahil Deshmukh bt Chak Pong Lam 63 36 4-3 Retd.
R2 - Sumit Nagal vs Ho Hin Pak
R3 - Sahil Deshmukh/ Sumit Nagal vs Chak Pong Lam/ Ho Hin Pak


Junior Fed Cup - Group A
(1) India bt Philippines 3-0

R1 - Snehadevi Reddy bt Roxanne May Resma 60 63
R2 - Rutuja Bhosale bt Maria Angela Sunga 62 61
R3 - Rutuja Bhosale/ Simran Kaur Sethi bt Katrina Orteza/ Roxanne May Resma 62 61

(1) India bt Vietnam 2-0

R1 - Simran Kaur Sethi bt Pham Thuy Thuong 60 60
R2 - Snehadevi Reddy bt Si Boi Ngoc 60 60
R3 - Rutuja Bhosale/ Simran Kaur Sethi vs Si Boi Ngoc/ Dao Minh Trang

Very dominating start in u-16 Fed cup by our girls ... After winning first match comfortably against Malaysia they r leading 2-0 against Vietnam before rain-break.

In boys Davis cup, as expected Sumit Nagal won his match comfortably but Sahil;s struggle against these lower ranked players is worrisome for India ... Next he will face tougher challenge of Chinese player.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) bt Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,630) 64 64
[R2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ) 61 76(3)

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) vs (1) Uladzimir Ignatik (BLR,279)
[QF] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (8) Mikhail Vasiliev (RUS,495)

Doubles
[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Vladyslav Manafov (UKR)/ Yaraslau Shyla (BLR) 16 63 7-10

Karan and Vishnu r in the quarters ... Next they r facing former top-250 players.
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

[R2] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) bt Marin Bradaric (CRO,973) W/O
[R2] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708) vs Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1114)
[R2] Rupesh Roy (IND,979) vs (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830)
[R2] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,985) 62 62
[R2] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) vs Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903)
[R2] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) bt (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) 63 64
[R2] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) vs (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479)

Good to see our 3 players r in the quarters in this rain affected tournament.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) bt Sourabh Varma (IND,41) 21-15 17-21 21-11
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) bt Yuhan Tan (BEL,47) 21-11 21-14
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,42) l (Q) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,51) 21-16 18-21 19-21
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Pui Yin Yip (HKG,19) 21-14 21-6
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) bt Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,13) 21-17 21-19
[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) l (4) Yanjiao Jiang (CHN,6) 9-21 11-21
[R1] (Q) Neha Pandit (IND,128) bt Jing Yi Tee (MAS,63) 21-18 9-21 21-19

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) bt (1) Jae Sung Jung (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR) w/o
[R1] Bennet Antony (IND)/ Suraj P. H. (IND) l Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR) 17-21 12-21
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l Bodin Issara (THA)/ Maneepong Jongjit (THA) 12-21 11-21
[R1] Mayank Behal (IND)/ Manjush Mohan K. K. (IND) l (3) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN) 9-21 7-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA) 15-21 10-21
[R1] (Q) Gopi Raju G.(IND)/ Shivam Sharma (IND) l V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Khim Wah Lim (MAS) 7-21 15-21
[R1] Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND)/ Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND) l (4) Mohammad Ahsan (INA)/ Bona Septano (INA) 12-21 13-21
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Jishnu Sanyal (IND) l Adam Cwalina (POL)/ Michal Logosz (POL) 13-21 17-21
[R1] Manish Gupta (IND)/ Gaurav Venkat (IND) bt (Q) Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND) 21-14 15-21 21-15
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) l Yixin Bao (CHN)/ Qianxin Zhong (CHN) 13-21 13-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt (7) Lok Yan Poon (HKG)/ Ying Suet Tse (HKG) w/o
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Duanganong Aroonkesorn THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 21-19 11-21 10-21
[R1] Jyotshna P. (IND)/ Thulasi P. C. (IND) l Hye Won Eom (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR) 13-21 4-21

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt Muhammad Rijal (INA)/ Debby Susanto (INA) 20-22 21-18 22-20
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Xia Huan (CHN) 18-21 19-21
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN) 21-16 19-21 11-21
[R1] Gaurav Venkat (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) bye
[R1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l (7) Shintaro Ikeda (JPN)/ Reiko Shiota (JPN) 9-21 19-21
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l (3) Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR) 18-21 15-21
[R1] Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND)/ Jyotshna P. (IND) l Hanbin He (CHN)/ Yixin Bao (CHN) 13-21 13-21
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) l Danny Bawa Chrisnanta (SIN)/ Yu Yan Vanessa Neo (SIN) 11-21 21-17 15-21

Really creditable upset win by Neha over Malaysian player .. As expected interesting match between Ajay and Sourabh ... Kashyap also entered into the second round.

Terrific start for Sindhu, who take early 11-5 lead and then from 12-13 she take 17-13 lead which was enough to won the first game ... In the second game both players were exchanging lead till the end ... Sindhu won last 3 points from 18-19 and scripted big win.

Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa scored excellent fighting win over Indonesian pair in well fought match.

Very dominating win by Sania against Pui Yin Yip but sad to see Guru again missed opportunity to win some matches in this Indian super series.

After this loss against unseeded Chinese pair Jwala and Diju will need wild-card for Olympics.

Tennis News
At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Chinese Taipei

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,308) l (6) Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,146) 62 57 60

Marco Chiudinelli didnot give chance to Yuki settled in the match ... He broke Yuki twice in the first set ... In the second set also Marco Chiudinelli take early control breaking Yuki in 1st game and 5th game to lead 4-1 ... But from here Yuki produced excellent fight back ... He broke Marco in 6th and 8th games to make it 4-all and then take crucial break in 12th game for winning the second set ... After Yuki's excellent comeback in the second I was expecting exciting last set but surprisingly Yuki got bagelled in the third set ... Shocking melt-down.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R1] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) bt (Q) Marko Danis (SVK,1148) 57 64 60

[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) vs Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,630)
[R2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ)

Surprisingly tough match for Karan against qualifier.
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At 2012 u-16 Asia/Oceania Junior Davis and Fed Cup Final Qualifying, Bendigo, Australia
Junior Davis Cup - Group C
(3) India - Sumit Nagal, Sahil Deshmukh, Fatehdeep Singh
Vishal Uppal (Captain)
(5) China , Malaysia and Hongkong

Junior Fed Cup - Group A
(1) India - Rutuja Bhosale, Snehadevi Reddy, Simran Kaur Sethi
Sai Jayalakshmy Jayaram (Captain)
(7) New Zeland, Philippines and Vietnam

In boys we r third seeded behind Korea and Japan ... In girls we r top-seeded as Rutuja is only girl in top-100 in this tournament ... Hopefully we will perform as per our high rankings to qualify for Finals.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open 2012, New Delhi

[Q1] Akshit Mahajan (IND,313) l Vladimir Ivanov (RUS,54) 16-21 14-21
[Q1] Sameer Verma (IND,151) bt Ivan Sozonov (RUS,84) 21-16 21-19
[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,56) bt Nandagopal K. (IND,171) 21-8 21-16
[Q1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,90) l Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (SIN,63) 21-14 24-26 19-21
[Q1] Rohit Yadav (IND,243) bt Vladimir Malkov (RUS,81) 23-21 19-21 21-16
[Q1] Anup Sridhar (IND,100) l Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,49) 18-21 15-21
[Q1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,80) bt Srikanth K. (IND,251) 21-12 21-18
[Q1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) bye
[Q1] Sayali Gokhale (IND,118) l Sabrina Jaquet (SUI,79) 20-22 21-23
[Q1] Thulasi P. C. (IND,86) l Lianne Tan (BEL,51) 17-21 18-21
[Q1] Tanvi Lad (IND,134) l Elizabeth Cann (ENG,50) 20-22 15-21
[Q1] Neha Pandit (IND,128) bt Trupti Murgunde (IND,UNR) 21-11 11-2 Retd
[Q1] Mohita Sahdev (IND,211) bye

[Q2] Sameer Verma (IND,151) l Vladimir Ivanov (RUS,54) 21-17 23-25 14-21
[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,56) l Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,51) 12-21 14-21
[Q2] Rohit Yadav (IND,243) l Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (SIN,63) 13-21 13-21
[Q2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,80) l Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,49) 21-19 19-21 21-23
[Q2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) bt Sabrina Jaquet (SUI,79) 19-21 21-13 21-18
[Q2] Neha Pandit (IND,128) bt Mohita Sahdev (IND,211) 21-17 22-24 21-14

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs Sourabh Varma (IND,41)
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) vs Yuhan Tan (BEL,47)
[R1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,42) vs Qualifier
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Pui Yin Yip (HKG,19)
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,27) vs Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,13)
[R1] (Q) Arundhati Pantawane (IND,69) vs Jie Yao (NED,18)
[R1] (Q) Neha Pandit (IND,128) vs Jing Yi Tee (MAS,63)

[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs (1) Jae Sung Jung (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR)
[R1] Bennet Antony (IND)/ Suraj P. H. (IND) vs Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs Bodin Issara (THA)/ Maneepong Jongjit (THA)
[R1] Mayank Behal (IND)/ Manjush Mohan K. K. (IND) vs (3) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA)
[R1] (Q) Gopi Raju G.(IND)/ Shivam Sharma (IND) vs V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Khim Wah Lim (MAS)
[R1] Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND)/ Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND) vs (4) Mohammad Ahsan (INA)/ Bona Septano (INA)
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Jishnu Sanyal (IND) vs Adam Cwalina (POL)/ Michal Logosz (POL)
[R1] Manish Gupta (IND)/ Gaurav Venkat (IND) vs (Q) Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND)
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) vs Yixin Bao (CHN)/ Qianxin Zhong (CHN)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt (7) Lok Yan Poon (HKG)/ Ying Suet Tse (HKG) W/O
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Duanganong Aroonkesorn THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA)
[R1] Jyotshna P. (IND)/ Thulasi P. C. (IND) vs Hye Won Eom (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Muhammad Rijal (INA)/ Debby Susanto (INA)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Xia Huan (CHN)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN)
[R1] Gaurav Venkat (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) bye
[R1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) vs (7) Shintaro Ikeda (JPN)/ Reiko Shiota (JPN)
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs (3) Yong Dae Lee (KOR)/ Jung Eun Ha (KOR)
[R1] Hemanagendra Babu T. (IND)/ Jyotshna P. (IND) vs Hanbin He (CHN)/ Yixin Bao (CHN)
[R1] Manu Attri (IND)/ Siki Reddy (IND) vs Danny Bawa Chrisnanta (SIN)/ Yu Yan Vanessa Neo (SIN)

As expected big Indian contingent is playing in this Indian Super series ... Good opportunity for our players to earn some important ranking points.

In the first qualifying round Prannoy lost big opportunity of upsetting higher ranked Singaporean ... He wasted 2 match points in the second after winning the first game easily ... Chen converted 4th match point and completed victory after 71 minutes ... Sameer Verma scored convincing upset win over top-100 Russian ... Another surprise winner was Rohit Yadav who also defeated top-100 Russian.

In the final qualifying Anand and Rohit lost easily against their respective opponents ... Sameer Verma and Sai Praneeth gave fighting performance against their higher ranked opponents ... Both players wasted 3 match points in their matches ... Sameer had 3 match points in the second game which he failed to convert and Sai Praneeth had 3 match points in the final game when he was leading 20-18 but he also failed to convert.

Arundhati Pantawane qualified for maindraw after comeback win over Swiss girl ... After losing the first game Arundhati dominated to win the second ... In the decider Swiss girl was leading 18-16 but Arundhati won last 5 points in a row to complete the victory ... Neha's win against Mohita was expected but Mohita gave fighting performance in this match and won the second game.

Interesting first round match between Ajay and Sourabh ... Our all Olympics bound doubles pair having tough first round matches.

Tennis News
At $2.7M Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, Spain

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bye

Surprised to see this week Mahesh is partnering Nenad ... Mahesh need good result to push his rank inside top-10.
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At $125K+H Kaohsiung Challenger, Chinese Taipei

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,308) vs (6) Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,146)

Doubles
[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij SHaran (IND) bt (WC) I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) 64 76(5)

Tough match for Yuki against top-150 Swiss player Chiudinelli.

In doubles Purav and Divij had a winning start against local wild-card pair.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F2 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R1] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,452) vs (Q) Marko Danis (SVK,1148)
[R1] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) bt (LL) Sardor Pulatov (UZB,1856) 61 61

[R2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,385) vs (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Ivan Sergeyev (UKR)/ Mikhail Vasiliev (RUS) 62 46 10-5

[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Vladyslav Manafov (UKR)/ Yaraslau Shyla (BLR)

Winnable first round matches for Karan and Vishnu and as expected Vishnu scored dominating win over local lucky-loser .. Next he is facing qualifier from Kyrgyzstan.

In doubles top-seed Karan and Vishnu needed STB to beat Ukrainian-Russian pair.
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At $10K India F5 Futures 2012, Madurai

[R1] (WC) (1) Vijayant Malik (IND,474) bt (WC) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1297) 63 63
[R1] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,708) bt Marko Rajic (SRB,1320) 62 62
[R1] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,516) bt Andre Gaspar Murta (POR,1293) 76(4) 63
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,985) bt (Q) Vignesh Veerabadran (IND,1724) 64 76(3)
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND,979) bt (Q) Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1442) 64 63
[R1] Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1212) l (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,830) 26 26
[R1] (Q) Fariz Mohammed (IND,UNR) l Joss Espasandin (SUI,1087) 36 26
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,952) 63 67(3) 63
[R1] (3) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,503) bt (Q) Peter Goldsteiner (AUT,1293) 36 64 62
[R1] (5) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,657) bt (Q) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1442) 64 75
[R1] (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) bt Goncalo Pereira (POR,957) 63 62
[R1] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Kunal Anand (IND,1498) 63 64
[R1] (WC) Rishabdev Raman (IND,UNR) l (2) Marc Giner (ESP,479) 36 16

Doubles
[R1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Mark Vervoort (NED) l Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA)/ Goncalo Pereira (POR) 67(6) 36
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) vs Vijay Kannan (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND)
[R1] (3) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt (WC) Rishabdev Raman (IND)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) 61 76(3)
[R1] (WC) Vignesh Veerabadran (IND)/ U M Gugan Verma (IND) l Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL)/ Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL) 36 26
[R1] Abhijeet Tiwari (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND)/ Ronak Manuja (IND) 75 63
[R1] (4) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs Andre Gaspar Murta (POR)/ Matthieu Vierin (ITA)
[R1] (WC) Elwin Antony (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) vs Peter Goldsteiner (AUT)/ Austin Karosi (USA)
[R1] (2) Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Rakshay Thakkar (IND) 62 61

Tough draw for Ashwin as he faced top-seed Vijayant and lost easily ... Expected winning start for Sriram Balaji, Jeevan, Balaji, Rupesh, Ranjeet and Vignesh Peranamallur ... Good upset win by Elwin Antony against Kunal.

Good win by Ramkumar over Kaza ... Vivek completed his first round match with a win.

Sad to see top-seed pair of Ramkumar and his Dutch partner lost in the first round.

Table Tennis News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Hong Kong

18-year-old Ankita Das became 1st Indian paddler and the only Indian woman player to book her berth for the London Olympics ... Ankita scored hard fought 4-3 win over her Indian teammate K Shamini.

Soumyajit Ghosh became 2nd Indian paddler  to qualify for the London Olympics ... He defeated his Indian teammate Anthony Amal Raj for the qualification ... Sharath lost to Amal Raj and thus lost the chance to face Soumyajit ... Sharath will now have to come through from the last qualification tournament in Doha (May 10-13) where two slots would be available.

Athletics News

At last Renjith Maheswary qualified for London Olympics with jump of 16.85 meters at Patiala in Fed Cup which is exact the 'B' standard qualification mark for the Olympics ... After his 17,03 meters jump in CWG Renjith is struggling in an international events.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[QF] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) l (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 26 06

Bad day for Lee and Radek, they managed to win only 26 pts in the match and Bryans won 51 pts ... This simply displayed Bryans domination in this 51 minutes match.

In the first set Bryans broke Radek's serve in 6th and Lee's serve in 8th game to won the set ... In the second set Bryans were more dominating and won this set without losing a single game.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) l Takuto Niki (JPN,501) 46 67(5)

Vijayant lost against Japanese giant-killer, who upset top seed, in well fought straight sets.
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 At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[SF] (5) Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB,683) bt (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) 61 75
[SF] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 64 67(3) 06

Doubles Final
(2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) 76(3) 67(5) 10-7

 Ashwin started well breaking Bradaric in 5th game and that single break helped him to won the first set ... In the second set Ashwin missed couple of break points and from tie-break Bradaric was controlling the points ... Ashwin was playing fifth week in a row and that take toll on him ... In the final set he was fighting though cramps and failed to won a single game.

In the doubles Jeevan and Vijay Sundar lifted title after beating Vivek and Rupesh in three tie-breaks.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

Doubles Final
(3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA) 62 64

Kyra with her Russian partner Yana Sizikova lifted doubles title at Oman ITF tournament ... In the final they defeated unseeded pair of Barbara Haas and Laetitia Sarrazin comfortably.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[R2] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Eduardo Schwank (ARG) 63 63

[QF] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Lee and Radek were leading with one set up when rain interrupted ... And won the second set comfortably after rain interruption.
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At $15K Chinese Taipei F2 Futures 2012, Kaohsiung

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) l John Millman (AUS,488) 46 26

Doubles
[QF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) l Mirza Basic (BIH) / Bowen Ouyang (CHN) 46 46

After encouraging yesterday's win over Danish player Yuki lost today against another challenger level player who is coming out of injury.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F1 Futures 2012, Namangan

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) l Ivan Sergeyev (UKR,529) 26 57

Karan lost in the quarters against lower ranked Ukrainian.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) bt (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN,1522) 67(4) 63 62
[QF] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs Takuto Niki (JPN,501)

Another good win for Vijayant against local qualifier ... Next he is facing Japanese Takuto Niki, who upset top-seed in the first round.
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At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[QF] (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) bt Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1141) 63 67(4) 60
[QF] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) l (5) Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB,683) 64 76(4)
[QF] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) bt (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,513) 76(4) 76(2)
[QF] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,699) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 64 62

Doubles
[SF] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB) 60 60
[SF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) 63 64

Surprising win for Ashwin against Jeevan but sad to see Sriram Balaji and Vijay Sundar lost their matches.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

[QF] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) l (5) Lou Brouleau (FRA,599) 61 26 26
[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) l Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA,1143) 36 26

Doubles
[SF] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt (1) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Anna Zaja (GER) 16 75 10-6
[SF] Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA) bt (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) 76(5) 63

Ankita lost in the singles quarters and doubles semis against French girl Laetitia Sarrazin ... Kyra started well against French girl Brouleau but from the second set Brouleau proved better player on the court ... Kyra in the final of doubles with with over top-seed pair.

Badminton News
At $150K Asia Championships 2012, Shandong, China

[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) l (8) Zhengming Wang (CHN,15) 9-21 18-21
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) l Xiao Jia Chen (CHN,40) 13-21 16-21

[R2] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Duanganong Aroonkesorn (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA) 17-21 12-21
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Sa Rang Kim (KOR)/ Hye In Choi (KOR) 14-21 21-11 17-21
[R2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Wai Hong Wong (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG) 19-21 7-21

Turned to be disastrous day at China as our all players lost their matches ... Only Diju and Jwala managed to take their opponents in the third game ... As expected this new player Xiao Jia Chen proved strong for Saina and so another bad loss for Saina against lower ranked Chinese opponent.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Viktor Troicki (SRB)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 46 46
[R2] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) vs Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Eduardo Schwank (ARG)

Disappointing start of clay season for Mahesh and Rohan.
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At $15K Chinese Taipei F2 Futures 2012, Kaohsiung

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) bt (8) FrederiK Nielsen (DEN,273) 63 64

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) vs John Millman (AUS,488)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) bt I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE) 64 36 13-11

[QF] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs Mirza Basic (BIH) / Bowen Ouyang (CHN)

Really good straight sets win by Yuki over very experienced challenger level Danish player FrederiK Nielsen ... Next he is facing Aussie Millman.

In doubles also Yuki had winning start in tight match with Yi.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F1 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R2] (3) (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) l Nikoloz Basilashvili (RUS,588) 57 64 46
[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt Deniss Pavlovs (LAT,624) 63 64

[QF] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs Ivan Sergeyev (UKR,529)

Vishnu's struggled against top 600 player continued ... This time also lost against Russian ... Good to see Karan scored impressive win against Pavlovs ... Next he is facing Ukrainian who upset 2nd seed Russian in the second round.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) bt (Q) Yuqing Ning (CHN,1721) 62 64

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN,1522)

Expected easy win for Vijayant against local qualifier ... Next he is facing another Chinese qualifier.
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At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[R2] (LL) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1444) l Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA,1141) 26 26
[R2] (Q) Fariz Mohammed (IND,UNR) l (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) 36 16
[R2] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) bt (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) 61 61
[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) l (5) Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB,683) 67(2) 57
[R2] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) bt Rupesh Roy (IND,942) 75 3-1 Retd
[R2] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,513) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) 64 63
[R2] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,699) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) 61 62
[R2] (2) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,498) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 36 67(4)

Doubles
[QF] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Mark Vervoort (NED) 63 46 10-6
[QF] Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB) bt Kunal Anand (IND)/ Chandril Sood (IND) 62 64
[QF] Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 63 36 10-4
[QF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Elwin Antony (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) 63 62

Expected results but surprising loss of Ranjeet ... Ashwin Vijayragavan was in position to scored upset win over Rupesh when Rupesh retired from the match ... Ramkumar gave fighting performance in his loss.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

[R1] Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Fiona Codino (FRA,UNR) 63 62
[R1] Barbara Haas (AUT,917) bt Disha Satish Agarwal (IND,UNR) 60 60
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt (7) Yana Sizikova (RUS,844) 57 60 64

[R2] (6) Anna Zaja (GER,808) bt Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) 60 75
[R2] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND,UNR) 62 63
[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt Jara Ghadri (GER,1234) 75 64

[QF] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) vs (5) Lou Brouleau (FRA,599)
[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) vs Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA,1143)

Doubles
[R1] Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) 62 64

[QF] (1) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Anna Zaja (GER) bt Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND)/ Shweta Rana (IND) 64 63
[QF] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Manya Nagpal (IND) 63 61
[QF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) bt Arantxa Andrady (IND)/ Samantha Koelliker (SUI) W/O

Ankita continued with her last week's form and upset 8th seed Russian in the first round ... She is with Kyra in the quarters.

Badminton News
 At $150K Asia Championships 2012, Shandong, China

[R2] (15) Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) l Nan Wei (HKG,110) 22-24 21-11 15-21
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) bt (11) Wing Ki Wong (HKG,19) 21-19 21-16
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,52) 21-9 21-12

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l (1) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN) 14-21 11-21
[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) l Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR) 13-21 14-21
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l (6) Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Kenichi Hayakawa (JPN) 14-21 18-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Vita Marissa (INA)/ Nadya Melati (INA) 21-18 17-21 7-21

[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) bt Kai Hsin Chiang (TPE)/ Pei-Ling Tsai (TPE) 21-13 14-21 21-16
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (Q) Chih Hsun Yang (TPE)/ Tsai Yi Wen (TPE) 16-21 12-21
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA) 21-16 21-18
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN) 15-21 16-21
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) bt Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Kyung Eun Jung (KOR) 21-16 13-21 21-18

[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) vs (8) Zhengming Wang (CHN,15)
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Xiao Jia Chen (CHN,40)

[R2] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Duanganong Aroonkesorn (THA)/ Kunchala Voravichitchaikul (THA)
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Sa Rang Kim (KOR)/ Hye In Choi (KOR)
[R2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Wai Hong Wong (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG)

Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant started with 3 games win over Taipei pair ... Jwala and Diju also scored straight games win.

Disappointed loss for Rupesh and Sanave and our other two men's pair lost against seeded pairs ... Also shocking loss of Jwala and Ashwini in the first round against Indonesian pair.

Disappointing loss for Ajay but excellent upset win by Sai over top 20 Wong in straight games ... Before this two times Sai lost against same player in straight games so sweet revenge for him.

Akshay Dewalkar and Pradnya Gadre scored very good win in MXD against Korean pair ... Fought back in the third after losing the second game.

Saina scored very comfortable win over Japanese player but next Saina and Sai r facing local Chinese opponents ... Sai is facing WR #15 Zhengming Wang and Saina is facing WR #40 Xiao Jia Chen.

Badminton News 
At $150K Asia Championships 2012, Shandong, China

[R1] (15) Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) bt Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,35) 21-19 21-19
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,89) l (7) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,10) 6-21 20-22
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,152) l (4) Simon Santoso (INA,9) 19-21 14-21
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) bt Niluka Karunaratne (SRI,51) w/o
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,31) l (2) Long Chen (CHN,3) 9-21 13-21

[R2] (15) Ajay Jayaram (IND,29) vs Nan Wei (HKG,110)
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,81) vs (11) Wing Ki Wong (HKG,19)
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Kaori Imabeppu (JPN,52)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (1) Biao Chai (CHN)/ Zhendong Guo (CHN)
[R1] Rupesh Kumar (IND)/ Sanave Thomas (IND) vs Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Sa Rang Kim (KOR)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs (6) Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Kenichi Hayakawa (JPN)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Vita Marissa (INA)/ Nadya Melati (INA)
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Kai Hsin Chiang (TPE)/ Pei-Ling Tsai (TPE)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (Q) Chih Hsun Yang (TPE)/ Tsai Yi Wen (TPE)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA)
[R1] Pranav Chopra (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Noriyasu Hirata (JPN)/ Miyuki Maeda (JPN)
[R1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Ki Jung Kim (KOR)/ Kyung Eun Jung (KOR)

No upsets on the first day ... Our all players lost their matches against higher ranked opponents ... Only Ajay and Sai Praneeth faced lower ranked opponents and they r in the second round.

Tennis News
At $3.6M Monte-Carlo Masters, Monaco

[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye
[R1] (5) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) bye

[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Viktor Troicki (SRB)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)

Lee and Radek r in top-draw with Bryans and Mahesh and Rohan r in bottom draw with Mirnyi and Nestor.
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At $15K Chinese Taipei F2 Futures 2012, Kaohsiung

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,293) vs (8) FrederiK Nielsen (DEN,273)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Cheng-Peng Hsieh (TPE)

Tough first round match for Yuki but he need to win these matches to push his ranking towards top-250.
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At $15K Uzbekistan F1 Futures 2012, Namangan

[R1] (3) (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) bt Vladimir Ivanov (EST,511) 26 76(3) 63
[R1] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt (Q) Oybek Abdurahimov (UZB,UNR) 60 60

[R2] (3) (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,355) vs Nikoloz Basilashvili (RUS,588)
[R2] (5) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs Deniss Pavlovs (LAT,624)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Vitali Reshetnikov (RUS)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Vladyslav Klymenko (UKR)/ Artem Smirnov (UKR) 67(5) 62 4-10

Vishnu needed to play qualifying due to late entry ... He comfortably won two qualifying matches and had a tricky first round against Estonian player ... Scored good comeback win after losing the first set ... In the second set also Vishnu needed to win tie-break before winning the third set ... Karan gave double bagel to his unranked opponent.

In doubles top-seed Vishnu and his Russian partner lost in STB against Ukrainian pair.
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At $15K China F6 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs (Q) Yuqing Ning (CHN,1721)

Doubles
[R1] Vijayant Malik (IND)/ Daniel Yoo (KOR) l (2) Takuto Niki (JPN)/ Arata Onozawa (JPN) 75 46 9-11
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At $10K India F4 Futures 2012, Trichy

[R1] (LL) Rakshay Thakkar (IND,1444) bt (WC) Neeraj Elangovan (IND,1440) 46 75 61
[R1] (Q) Fariz Mohammed (IND,UNR) bt Marko Rajic (SRB,1321) 76(4) 76(2)
[R1] (WC) Vijay Kannan (IND,1618) l (8) Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL,872) 26 36
[R1] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) bt (Q) Vignesh Veerabadran (IND,1721) 63 64
[R1] (Q) Vivek Shokeen (IND,1332) bt Joss Espasandin (SUI,1087) 64 63
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,903) bt Goncalo Pereira (POR,953) 60 64
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND,942) bt (7) Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL,824) 76(4) 61
[R1] (Q) Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND,1797) bt (Q) Ronak Manuja (IND,UNR) 63 62
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) bt (WC) Rishabdev Raman (IND,UNR) 75 64
[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,513) bt (WC) Elwin Antony (IND,UNR) 63 64
[R1] (6) N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,699) bt (Q) Kunal Anand (IND,1496) 63 60
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (IND,1208) 36 63 63
[R1] (Q) Tejas Chaukulkar (IND,UNR) l (PR) Marin Bradaric (CRO,1049) 26 36
[R1] (2) Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND,498) bt (Q) Andre Gaspar Murta (POR,1294) 62 61

Doubles
[R1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND)/ Mark Vervoort (NED) bt Neeraj Elangovan (IND)/ Ashwin Vijayragavan (IND) 67(4) 63 11-9
[R1] Rupesh Roy (IND)/ Vivek Shokeen (IND) bt Gaetan De Lovinfosse (BEL)/ Yannick Vandenbulcke (BEL) 64 63
[R1] (3) Vijay Kannan (IND)/ Arun-Prakash Rajagopalan (IND) l Marin Bradaric (CRO)/ Arsenije Zlatanovic (SRB) 64 61 5-10
[R1] Kunal Anand (IND)/ Chandril Sood (IND) bt Rakshay Thakkar (IND)/ Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 76(4) 63
[R1] Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND) bt Joss Espasandin (SUI)/ Goncalo Pereira (POR) 76(1) 67(5) 10-5
[R1] (4) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt Lorenzo Frigerio (ITA)/ Matthieu Vierin (ITA) 63 62
[R1] Elwin Antony (IND)/ Fariz Mohammed (IND) bt Andre Gaspar Murta (POR)/ Bruno Pedrosa (POR) 63 63
[R1] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt Rishabdev Raman (IND)/ Ajai Selvaraj (IND) 61 57 12-10

Fariz Mohammed earned his first ATP point with upset win over Serbian ... Rakshay take advantage of receiving lucky loser spot instead of top-seed Chilean and defeated Elangovan to earned important ranking point ... Vivek Shokeen scored upset win over higher ranked Swiss player ... Rupesh also scored upset win over 7th seed Belgian player ... All other wins were expected.
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At $10K Oman ITF Tournament, Muscat

[R1] Arantxa Andrady (IND,UNR) l Alina Mikheeva (RUS,UNR) 46 46
[R1] Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) vs (WC) Fiona Codino (FRA,UNR)
[R1] Manya Nagpal (IND,UNR) l (3) Julia Samuseva (RUS,660) 16 16
[R1] Vijayalakshmi R (IND,UNR) l Ushna Suhail (PAK,UNR) 06 26
[R1] Disha Satish Agarwal (IND,UNR) vs Barbara Haas (AUT,917)
[R1] Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND,UNR) bt Ekaterina Pushkareva (RUS,1161) 75 57 63
[R1] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt Robyn Beddow (GBR,979) 60 61
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) vs (7) Yana Sizikova (RUS,844)
[R1] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) l Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA,UNR) 36 63 06

[R2] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) vs Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND)/ Shweta Rana (IND) bt Jara Ghadri (GER)/ Jasmin Ladurner (ITA) 46 6-5 Retd.
[R1] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) bt Tyra Kotuwattegedera (SUI)/ Alina Mikheeva (RUS) 64 60
[R1] Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Manya Nagpal (IND) bt Robyn Beddow (GBR)/ Rika Yamamoto (JPN) 60 76(6)
[R1] Ashmitha Easwaramurthi (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) vs Barbara Haas (AUT)/ Laetitia Sarrazin (FRA)
[R1] Arantxa Andrady (IND)/ Samantha Koelliker (SUI) bt Disha Satish Agarwal (IND)/ Vijayalakshmi R (IND) 60 61
[R1] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) bye

[QF] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND)/ Shweta Rana (IND) vs (1) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA)/ Anna Zaja (GER)
[QF] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND)/ Yana Sizikova (RUS) vs Nour Azzouz (EGY)/ Manya Nagpal (IND)
[QF] (2) Ankita Raina (IND)/ Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS) vs Arantxa Andrady (IND)/ Samantha Koelliker (SUI)

Expected winning start for Kyra Shroff ... Ashmitha Easwaramurthi also scored very good fighting upset win over Russian girl.

Tennis News
At $10K UAE ITF Tournament, Fujairah

[F] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) l (2) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA,605) 36 26

Doubles
[F] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) l (4) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS)/ Anna ZAJA (GER) 46 16

Ankita lost in the final against 2nd seed Oman girl Fatma Al Nabhani but still creditable performance from her to reached in the final ... In doubles final Kyra and Fatma lost against 4th seed pair.

Tennis News
At $10K UAE ITF Tournament, Fujairah

[SF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt Haas Barbara (AUT,917) 63 26 63

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) 76(8) 63
[QF] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) l Matilda Hamlin (SWE,872) 26 26

[R2] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Smriti Joon (IND,UNR) 60 62
[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt (8) Anna Tyulpa (RUS,748) 64 62
[R2] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt Evgeniya Svintsova (RUS,866) 63 61

[R1] (Q) Smriti Joon (IND,UNR) bt (LL) Sofia Sabljarevic (SRB,UNR) 75 62
[R1] Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Shweta Rana (IND,UNR) 46 62 62
[R1] Ankita Raina (IND,1091) bt (Q) Alina Mikheeva (RUS,UNR) 62 60
[R1] (4) Kyra Shroff (IND,665) bt (Q) Samantha Koelliker (SUI,UNR) 63 63
[R1] (Q) Disha Satish Agarwal (IND,UNR) l Anastasia Rudakova (RUS,1014) 06 06
[R1] (Q) Arantxa Andrady (IND,UNR) l (2) Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA,605) 26 16

Doubles
[F] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) vs (4) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS)/ Anna ZAJA (GER)

[SF] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) bt (3) Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) 63 62

[QF] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) bt Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND)/ Ushna SUHAIL (PAK) 61 61
[QF] (3) Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) bt Samantha KOELLIKER (SUI)/ Katie RUCKERT (USA) 76(7) 67(4) 10-7

[R1] (1) Fatma AL NABHANI (OMA)/ Kyra SHROFF (IND) bye
[R1] Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND)/ Ushna SUHAIL (PAK) bt Tyra KOTUWATTEGEDERA (SUI)/ Sofia SABLJAREVIC (SRB) 62 76(3)
[R1] (3) Ankita RAINA (IND)/ Evgeniya SVINTSOVA (RUS) bt Shweta RANA (IND)/ Rika YAMAMOTO (JPN) 61 64
[R1] Barbara HAAS (AUT)/ Laetitia SARRAZIN (FRA) bt Arantxa ANDRADY (IND)/ Robyn BEDDOW (GBR) 61 63

Impressive run by Ankita Raina to reach in her first final of $10K ITF tournament at UAE ... Ankita scored some impressive wins over foreign players ... In the semi-final she scored 3 sets win over talented 16 yrs old Austrian girl Haas Barbara.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Bantamweight (56 kg) - Final
Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Wessam Salamana (SYR) 18-11

Light Heavyweight (81 kg) - Final
Sumit Sangwan (IND) bt Djakhon Kurbanov(TJK) 14-9

Shiva ended his impressive run at Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament with winning Gold beating Syria's Asian Games bronze medallist Wessam Salamana in the final ... In the first round both boxers started cautiously still Shiva won this round 5-4 ... Shiva continued with his good performance and won the second round 5-3 ... In the final round he dominated Salamana to win this round 8-4.

Sumit also won Gold beating Tajikistan's Asian Games winner Djakhon Kurbanov ... In the first round both boxers applied defensive tactics still Sumit won this round 2-1 ... Both boxers played cautiously, Sumit warned by referee for his defensive tactics ... This round ended with 5-all so Sumit was still leading by a single point after the second round, 7-6 ... In the third round Kurbanov received warning by referee ... Surprised by boring bout from Tajikistan's Djakhon Kurbanov ... In the third round Sumit scored more points and won it 7-3 to completed the victory.

Creditable performance from our young boxers Shiva and Sumit to win the gold in this Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament ... So 2 golds from 2 finals for us.

Tennis News
At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) l Alexey Kedryuk (KAZ,753) 67(3) 26

Karan lost against Alexey Kedryuk in the straight sets ... In the first set Karan take Alexey in tie-break but after that Alexey proved strong for him ... Though Kedryuk was very experienced but still these singles losses r not giving positive indication about Karan's singles career.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R2] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) l (1) Christopher Rungkat (INA,411) 26 06
[R2] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) l (Q) Dominik Schulz (GER,1496) 46 67(6)

Rohan's poor form in the singles continued in Vietnam also.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) l (3) Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Nicolas Renavand (FRA) 67(5) 46

Expected tough match but Divij and Lauren lost in straight sets after giving fighting performance.
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At $15K China F5 Futures, Chengdu

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) l Daniel Yoo (KOR,531) 46 67(2)

Vijayant failed to overcome challenge of experienced Korean ... Though he gave fight but lost in the straight sets.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Bantamweight - 56 kg
[SF] Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Satoshi Shimizu (JPN) 31-17

[F] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs Wessam Salamana (SYR)

Middleweight - 75 kg
[SF] Vijender Singh (IND) l Nursahat Pazziyev (TKM) 7-10

Light Heavyweight - 81 kg
[SF] Sumit Sangwan (IND) bt Ihab Almatdault (JOR) 24-12

[F] Sumit Sangwan (IND) vs Djakhon Kurbanov(TJK)

Heavyweight - 91 kg
[SF] Manpreet Singh (IND) l Ali Mazaheri (IRI) 6-13

Super Heavyweight - +91 kg
[SF] Paramjeet Samota (IND) l Soumar Ghosoun (SYR) 12-23

18 yrs old Shiva Thapa become 6th boxer to qualify for London Olympic and also become youngest Indian boxer to qualify for Olympic ... He defeated experienced Japanese boxer in very convincing fashion ... After first round Shiva was 6-7 down but he take control from the second ... Showing tremendous attacking skill he won the second round 15-6 to take lead 21-13 ... In the third round also he dominated and won it 10-4 to complete very creditable win ... In the final he is facing another experienced boxer Syria's Asian Games bronze medallist Wessam Salamana.

Another young boxer 18 yrs old Sumit Sangwan qualify for London Olympic becoming 7th boxer ... Sumit defeated Jordan boxer Ahmad Suleiman Al-Teimat, who trained at Cuba, 24-12 ... Sumit won all three rounds ... He won the first round 5-3 but won convincingly in the second round 11-4 and then in the third also he controlled to win it 8-5 ... In the final he is facing Tajikistan's Asian Games winner Djakhon Kurbanov.

Disappointed loss for Vijender against Turkmenistan's Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist Nursahat Pazziyev ... All three rounds won by young Turkmenistan's boxer by a single point, 3-2, 3-2 and 4-3 ... Expected gold from Vijender.

Iranian multiple Asian champion Ali Mazaheri proved strong for Manpreet Singh ... With this loss Manpreet's dream of qualifying for Olympic is broken ... After the first round Manpreet was leading 3-2 but after that Ali Mazaheri didn't give any chance to him ... Ali won next two rounds 5-2 and 6-1 to move into the final.

Syria's Asian Championships silver medallist Sumar Ghossoun proved too strong for Paramjeet Samota ... Ghossoun won all three rounds, 6-3, 10-4 and 7-5.

So after this Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament our total seven boxers are qualified for London Olympics ... This is our biggest contingent for boxing ... Really creditable performance.

London Olympic Qualifiers - Boxing

Men's Light Flyweight (49 kg) - Devendro Singh
Men's Bantamweight (56 kg) - Shiva Thapa
Men's Lightweight (60 kg) - Jai Bhagwan
Men's Light Welterweight (64 kg) - Manoj Kumar
Men's Welterweight (69 kg) - Vikas Krishan Yadav
Men's Middleweight (75 kg) - Vijender Singh
Men's Light Heavyweight (81 kg) - Sumit Sangwan

Tennis News
At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[R2] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ,1472) 61 57 62

[QF] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs Alexey Kedryuk (KAZ,753)

Surprisingly three setters for Karan against qualifier ... Next he is facing very experienced and former top 275 ranked local player Alexey Kedryuk ... With Karan's current form this is tough one.
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At $10K Qatar F1 futures 2012, Doha

[R2] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1797) l (6) Cristian RODRIGUEZ (COL,781) 26 06

6th seed Colombian proved too strong for Ashwin.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[QF] (3) N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Rohan Gajjar (IND) l Constantin Belot (FRA)/ Kevin Botti (FRA) 76(3) 36 6-10

Balaji and Gajjar lost their doubles match against unseeded French pair in STB.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers

[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) bt Laurynas Grigelis (LTU)/ Giuseppe Menga (ITA) 76(3) 76(4)

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) vs (3) Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Nicolas Renavand (FRA)

Divij and Lauren won their quarter-final in two tight tie-breaks ... Next they r facing 3rd seed French pair, in this very experienced and former top-40 singles and doubles player Marc Gicquel is playing.
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At $15K China F5 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) bt Yan Bai (CHN,892) 67(5) 6-5 Retd.

[R2] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs Daniel Yoo (KOR,531)

As expected tough match for Vijayant ... He lost the first set in tie-break and keep fighting in the second ... His Chinese opponent retired from the match in 12th game of the second set ... Next Vijayant is facing another experienced player, Korean Daniel Yoo, who was top-350 in 2011.

Tennis News
At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) bt (WC) Kairat Kosherov (KAZ,1717) 61 60

[R2] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs (Q) Daniiar Duldaev (KGZ,1472)
Expected comfortable winning start for Karan.
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At $10K Qatar F1 futures 2012, Doha

[R1] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1797) bt Alexander LAZOV (BUL,1267) 75 46 76(6)

Doubles
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) l Alexei FILENKOV (RUS)/ Denys MYLOKOSTOV (UKR) 46 46

Ashwin scored superb comeback win in the singles ... After winning the first set Aswin was up with break at 3-2 but lost his serve twice to lose the second set ... In the third he was 0-3 then 1-4 down but fought back and won tight tie-break to earned another ranking point. Last couple of weeks hot pair lost in the first round.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) l (6) Kittipong Wachiramamowong (THA,566) 67(2) 36
[R1] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) bt (WC) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,UNR) 75 62

[R2] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) vs (1) Christopher Rungkat (INA,411)
[R2] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) vs (Q) Dominik Schulz (GER,1496)

So only Rohan and Kaza managed to win their first round in the singles.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND,779) l (5) (WC) Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy (FRA,225) 26 26

Doubles
[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) vs Laurynas Grigelis (LTU)/ Giuseppe Menga (ITA)

Lost easily against Frenchman.
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At $15K China F5 Futures, Chengdu

[R1] (6) Vijayant Malik (IND,470) vs Yan Bai (CHN,892)

Tough match for Vijayant against local player, who was top 350 in 2011.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Bantamweight - 56 kg
[QF] Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Worapoj Petchkoom (THA) 16-10

[SF] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs Satoshi Shimizu (JPN)

Young Shiva Thapa scored another exciting win over experienced Thai boxer Worapoj Petchkoom, who was Athens Olympic Games silver medallist ... Shiva is a one win away from qualifying for London Olympic.

Shiva won first 2 rounds 5-3 and 7-2 to opened 7 points lead ... This lead was enough though Worapoj Petchkoom tried fightback in the third round but managed to win round by a single point, 5-4 ... In the semis he is facing another experienced boxer, Japanese Satoshi Shimizu.

Tennis News

After latest rankings update chances r high that Indian top singles player will be out top 200 in few weeks ... Somdev is still out due to shoulder injury and his rank is tumbling down to #197 ... Sania's single rank is also come down to #182 though she still hold top 10 position in women's doubles, #9.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F3 Futures 2012, Shymkent

[R1] (1) Karan Rastogi (IND,473) vs (WC) Kairat Kosherov (KAZ,1717)

This week Karan is top-seed but he need title win to improve his confidence.
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At $10K Qatar F1 futures 2012, Doha

[R1] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1797) vs Alexander LAZOV (BUL,1267)

Doubles
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) vs Alexei FILENKOV (RUS)/ Denys MYLOKOSTOV (UKR)

Ashwin continued with his good form and qualify for main-draw at Qatar.
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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,981) bt (Q) De-Long Zhu (CHN,1512) 67(5) 64 62
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,945) vs (6) Kittipong Wachiramamowong (THA,566)
[R1] (5) Rohan Gajjar (IND,537) vs (WC) Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,UNR)
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,663) l Constantin Belot (FRA,693) 36 36

Doubles
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) l (1) Dane Propoggia (AUS)/ Jose Statham (NZL) 16 26
[R1] (3) N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Rohan Gajjar (IND) bt (WC) Mach Dan Huynh Ho (VIE)/ Nam Hoang Ly (VIE) 63 63

[QF] (3) N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Rohan Gajjar (IND) vs Constantin Belot (FRA)/ Kevin Botti (FRA)

Kaza started with win over Chinese qualifier but Sriram Balaji lost against similar ranked French player ... Sriram Balaji need to win these matches to move in the ranking.

In doubles Sriram Balaji and Rohan had a winning start.
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At $15K+H France F7 Futures, Angers

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND,779) vs (5) (WC) Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy (FRA,225)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauren Rochette (FRA) bye

Divij is playing futures in France but having tough match in the singles against local top-225 player ... In doubles he recieve bye in the first round with his French partner Rochette.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Middleweight - 75 kg
[QF] Vijender Singh (IND) bt Chuluuntumur Tumurkhuyag (MGL) 27-17

[SF] Vijender Singh (IND) vs Nursahat Pazziyev (TKM)

Light Heavyweight - 81 kg
[QF] Sumit Sangwan (IND) bt Hyeong Kyu Kim (KOR) 22-12

[SF] Sumit Sangwan (IND) vs Ahmad Suleiman Al-Teimat (JOR)

Heavyweight - 91 kg
[QF] Manpreet Singh (IND) bt Chyngyz Borbashev (KGZ) 8-4 RSC

[SF] Manpreet Singh (IND) vs Ali Mazaheri (IRI)

Vijender Singh become fifth boxer to qualify for London Olympic ... Vijender defeated Mongolian Chuluuntumur Tumurkhuyag in quarter-final ... Vijender had a slow start, he was 4-6 down after the first round but gained lead after winning second round 13-11 ... In the final round he didn't give any chance to Mongolian after dominating it, he won this round 14-6 ... In the semi-final he is facing Turkmenistan's Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist Nursahat Pazziyev.

Manpreet Singh scored another impressive win against Borbashev ... Manpreet was leading 8-4 in the first round when refree stopped the match ... So 2 consecutive RSC win for Manpreet ... Next he is facing former multiple Asian champion Iranian Ali Mazaheri, who also won with RSC.

18 yrs old Sumit Sangwan continues with impressive performance ... He is only one win away from qualifying for London Olympic ... In the quarters he scored authoritative win against regaining Asian Champion South Korean Kim Hyeong Kyu ... After the first round both boxers were tied 4-all but from the second round Sumit take control winning it 7-3 ... In the final round Sumit dominated Kim to won it 11-5 ... Next in the semis he is facing Jordan boxer Ahmad Suleiman Al-Teimat, who was training at Cuba for 15 days before this tournament.

Tennis News
At 2012 Davis Cup - Asia/Oceania - Group I, Namangan, Uzbekistan (Indoor clay)

India l Uzbekistan 2-3

Day 1
[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,446) l Denis Istomin (UZB,43) 36 26 46
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,295) l Farrukh Dustov (UZB,262) 46 46 36

Day 2
[R3] Leander Paes (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Murad Inoyatov (UZB)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) 67(4) 46 63 36

Day 3
[R4] Yuki Bhambri (IND,295) bt Denis Istomin (UZB,43) 67(1) 76(3) 76(3)
[R5] Rohan Bopanna (IND,UNR) bt Sarvar Ikramov (UZB,630) 62 67(0) 61

Yuki scored his first top-50 win beating Istomin in closely fought tie-breaks ... Though this win was in dead rubber still very important win for Yuki because it was on clay against better player who love to play on the clay.

In last rubber Rohan played and won his match in 3 sets against Sarvar Ikramov to gave India 2nd win of this tie.,

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Flyweight - 52 kg
[R2] Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh (IND) l Tugstsogt Nyambayar (MGL) 10-30

Bantamweight - 56 kg
[R2] Shiva Thapa (IND) bt Mohammad Khaiber (AFG) 15-7

[QF] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs Worapoj Petchkoom (THA)

Suranjoy singh lost in one-sided match against World championship silver medalist Mangolian Tugstsogt Nyambayar ... Mangolian boxer won all 3 rounds, he won first 2 rounds 6-2 and 9-4 ... Nyambayar dominated final round to won it 15-4 ... So with that Suranjoy failed to fulfill his Olympic dream.

Shiva Thapa gave clinical performance to scored victory over Afghan boxer and book place in the quarter-final ... Thapa won all 3 rounds, 5-2, 5-3 and 5-2 ... Next in the quarters he is facing Thailand's Athens Olympic Games silver medallist Worapoj Petchkoom.

Tennis News
At 2012 Davis Cup - Asia/Oceania - Group I, Namangan, Uzbekistan (Indoor clay)

India l Uzbekistan 0-3

Day 1
[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,446) l Denis Istomin (UZB,43) 36 26 46
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,295) l Farrukh Dustov (UZB,262) 46 46 36

Day 2
[R3] Leander Paes (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Murad Inoyatov (UZB)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) 67(4) 46 63 36

In shocking display we lost doubles against Istomin and Inoyatov in 4 sets ... After ages we lost doubles rubber in the Davis cup ... I m shocked and surprised to see Lee and Rohan failed to get together in this crucial match ... With this loss we lose this tie and remain in Asia/Oceania - Group I.
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At $740K Family Circle Cup, Charleston, USA

[R2] (3) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (WC) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Luci Safarova (CZE) 76(2) 57 7-10

Our pair was one set up when yesterday match stopped due to rain but today after rain break Pavlyuchenkova and Safarova turned table on our pair ... They won the second set and STB and moved into the quarters.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Middleweight - 75 kg
[R1] Vijender Singh (IND) bt Ishak Waez (SYR) 11-5

[QF] Vijender Singh (IND) vs Chuluuntumur Tumurkhuyag (MGL)

Heavyweight - 91 kg
[R1] Manpreet Singh (IND) bt Yerbolat Tulyek (MGL) RSC

[QF] Manpreet Singh (IND) vs Chyngyz Borbashev (KGZ)

Manpreet Singh won the first round when referee stopped the contest in the first round against Mongolian boxer ... Next he is facing Kyrgyzstan's Chyngyz Borbashev.

Vijender scored expected comfortable victory over his Syrian opponent ... Vijender won the first 2 rounds 5-1 and 4-2 to take 9-3 lead ... In the last round he defended to complete the victory ... Vijender need to avoid this defending after leading because such can turn risky against better boxer and he lost few matches in the past due to defensive tactics ... Vijender needs to keep attacking until end of the match.

Tennis News
At 2012 Davis Cup - Asia/Oceania - Group I, Namangan, Uzbekistan (Indoor clay)

India vs Uzbekistan 0-2

Day 1
[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,446) l Denis Istomin (UZB,43) 36 26 46
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,295) l Farrukh Dustov (UZB,262) 46 46 36

Was hoping upset from Yuki but Yuki failed to deliver fighting performance on indoor clay ... Sanam gave decent performance against top-50 Istomin.
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At $740K Family Circle Cup, Charleston, USA

[R2] (3) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (WC) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Luci Safarova (CZE) 76() 1-2

Our pair won the first set in tie-break but match was stopped due to heavy rain in the second.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F2 Futures 2012, Astana

[SF] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) l (8) Alexey Vatutin (RUS,858) 57 36

Vatutin broke Karan in 11th game to won the first set ... In the second set Vatutin take early break and kept that lead to won the second set.

In whole tournament Karan struggled with all opponents and lost against below 850 ranked opponent ... Sad to see his struggle.
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At $10K Saudi Arabia F1 futures 2012, Riyadh

[F] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Joshua JONES (GBR)/ Matthew SHORT (GBR) 75 75

Ashwin lifted his first ITF futures title after winning doubles with his Australian partner Zach Itzstein ... They defeated British doubles pair in the final ... Though they won this match in straight sets still both sets were closely fought.
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At $10K Vietnam F1 futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[F] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (1) Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS)/ Jose STATHAM (NZL) 63 64

Sriram Balaji and Rohan lifted doubles title beating top-seed pair in straight sets ... Hopefully next week they perform better in the singles also.

Boxing News
At Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2012, Astana, Kazakhstan

Flyweight - 52 kg
[R1] Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh (IND) bt Dong-Myung Shin (KOR) 16-14

[R2] Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh (IND) vs Tugstsogt Nyambayar (MGL)

Bantamweight - 56 kg
[R1] Shiva Thapa (IND) bye

[R2] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs Mohammad Nooristani (AFG)

Middleweight - 75 kg
[R1] Vijender Singh (IND) vs Ishak Waez (SYR)

Light Heavyweight - 81 kg
[R1] Sumit Sangwan (IND) bt Van Toan Luong (VIE) 14-2

Heavyweight - 91 kg
[R1] Manpreet Singh (IND) vs Yerbolat Tulyek (MGL)

Super Heavyweight - +91 kg
[QF] Paramjeet Samota (IND) bye

[SF] Paramjeet Samota (IND) vs Soumar Ghosoun (SYR)

Suranjoy won very hard fought match against Korean .. He won the first 2 rounds 5-3 and 8-5 to lead 13-8 but he relaxed in the final round and Korean take advantage of it ... Korean tried fightback and won this round 6-3 but 5 points lead helped Suranjoy for victory ... Next Suranjoy is facing tough challenge from Mangolian Tugstsogt Nyambayar, who won silver medal at Milan AIBA World Championships in 2009.

18 yrs old Sumit Sangwan scored very dominating win over Vietnamese boxer ... He won all 3 rounds comfortably, 5-0 3-1 and 6-1 ... He will most probably play his next match against South Korean current Asian Champion Kim Hyeong Kyu ... Real test for him.

Favourable draw for Vijender in Middleweight ... Having good opportunity to reach in the semis.

In Super Heavyweight category Paramjeet Samota receive bye in the quarters and he is facing Syrian Soumar Ghosoun in the semis ... Winnable match for him.

Shiv Thapa's real test will start from quarters ... Manpreet Singh having tough matches from the second round.

Tennis News
At 2012 Davis Cup - Asia/Oceania - Group I, Namangan, Uzbekistan (Indoor clay)

Day 1
[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,446) vs Denis Istomin (UZB,43)
[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,295) vs Farrukh Dustov (UZB,262)

Day 2
[R3] Leander Paes (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Farrukh Dustov (UZB)/ Denis Istomin (UZB)

Day 3
[R4] Yuki Bhambri (IND,295) vs Denis Istomin (UZB,43)
[R5] Sanam Singh (IND,446) vs Farrukh Dustov (UZB,262)

Draw is out and Sanam will play first rubber against Istomin ... We need win from young Yuki on day one but very tough task for our these young players on indoor clay court ... If we manage to lead 2-1 after day two then may be our captain Misra can play gamble of playing Rohan in the final rubber against Dustov but before that we really need win from Yuki on day one.
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At $740K Family Circle Cup, Charleston, USA

[R1] (3) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ) 64 63

[R2] (3) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (WC) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Luci Safarova (CZE)

Sania and Elena made superb comeback after 0-3 down in the first set ... They scored straight sets victory over tricky pair but next they r facing wild-card pair of Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Czech Luci Safarova ... Our pair lost against same pair at Miami Masters so tough match for them.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F2 Futures 2012, Astana

[QF] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) bt (Q) Egor PUNTUS (BLR,UNR) 64 4-3 Retd

[SF] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) vs (8) Alexey Vatutin (RUS,858)

Karan won the first set with a single break in 9th game but his opponent retired in the second set ... In the semis Karan is facing 8th seed Russian player.
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At $10K Saudi Arabia F1 futures 2012, Riyadh

[SF] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Mohammad GHAREEB (KUW)/ Abdullah MAQDAS (KUW) 76(7) 57 10-7

[F] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) vs Joshua JONES (GBR)/ Matthew SHORT (GBR)

This was really good hard fought win by Ashwin and Zach against Kuwaiti Davis cup doubles pair ... In the final they r facing British pair, who upset 2nd seed pair in the first round.
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At $10K Vietnam F1 futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[SF] (3) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) l (1) Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS)/ Jose STATHAM (NZL) 16 46
[SF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt (WC) Minh-Quan DO (VIE)/ Quoc-Khanh LE (VIE) 62 61

[F] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs (1) Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS)/ Jose STATHAM (NZL)

Gajjar and Balaji r in the final with very convincing win over local wild-card pair ... In the final they r facing top-seed pair, who also scored comfortable win over 3rd seed Indian pair of Kaza and Vignesh.

Tennis News
At $35K+H St. Brieuc Challenger, France (clay)

[QF] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) l Olivier Patience (FRA)/ Nicolas Renavand (FRA) 46 26

This time this experienced French pair defeated Purav and Divij convincingly.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F2 Futures 2012, Astana

[R2] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) bt Vitaliy Kachanovskiy (RUS,1081) 64 64

[QF] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) vs (Q) Egor PUNTUS (BLR,UNR)

More comfortable win for Karan in the second round ... Next he is facing unranked Belarus player who upset 5th seed Russian in the second round.
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At $10K Vietnam F1 futures 2012, Ho Chi Minh City

[R2] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,977) l (7) Dane Propogia (AUS,661) 06 1-2 Retd
[R1] (6) Sriram Balaji (IND,662) l (Q) Daniel Geib (AUT,1311) 26 16

Doubles
[QF] (3) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Blake MOTT (AUS)/ Jack SCHIPANSKI (AUS) 67(5) 63 10-4
[QF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Hiromasa OKU (JPN)/ Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN) 62 63

[SF] (3) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) vs (1) Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS)/ Jose STATHAM (NZL)
[SF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs (WC) Minh-Quan DO (VIE)/ Quoc-Khanh LE (VIE)

Our higher ranked players struggle in the singles outside India continues ... In doubles our both pairs r into the semis.
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At $10K Saudi Arabia F1 futures 2012, Riyadh

[R2] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1606) l (2) Enrique LOPEZ-PEREZ (ESP,540) 57 46

Doubles
[QF] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Antonio GARCIA SANCHEZ (ESP)/ Hasier PASTOR (ESP) 63 64

[SF] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) vs Mohammad GHAREEB (KUW)/ Abdullah MAQDAS (KUW)

Good fighting performance from Ashwin against seeded Spanish player ... In doubles he is in the semis with his Australian partner and next they r facing tough Kuwaiti pair.

Tennis News
At $740K Family Circle Cup, Charleston, USA

[R1] (3) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ)

Tricky first round match for Sania and Elena.
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At $35K+H St. Brieuc Challenger, France (clay)

[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Augustin Gensse (FRA)/ Vincent Millot (FRA) 62 76(6)

[QF] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Olivier Patience (FRA)/ Nicolas Renavand (FRA)

Good winning start for Purav and Divij .. Next they r facing another French experienced pair in the quarters.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F2 Futures 2012, Astana

[R1] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) bt (Q) Fedor Doudtchik (BLR,1711) 63 76(4)

[R2] (2) Karan Rastogi (IND,477) vs Vitaliy Kachanovskiy (RUS,1081)

Win was lot closer than expected.
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At $10K Saudi Arabia F1 futures 2012, Riyadh

[R2] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1606) vs (2) Enrique LOPEZ-PEREZ (ESP,540)

Tough second round for Ashwin.
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At $10K Vietnam F1 futures 2012,

[R1] (3) Rohan Gajjar (IND,534) l Jack Carpenter (GBR,1115) 16 46
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,977) bt (WC) Pannhara Mam (CAM,UNR) 64 63
[R1] (6) Sriram Balaji (IND,662) bt Leon Frost (AUS,877) 62 63
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,941) l Robin Kern (GER,930) 64 16 26

[R2] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,977) vs (7) Dane Propogia (AUS,661)
[R1] (6) Sriram Balaji (IND,662) vs (Q) Daniel Geib (AUT,1311)

Winning start for Sriram Balaji and Kaza but Rohan's poor run continues.

Tennis News

ATP Doubles Rankings - 2nd April 2012
7 Leander Paes (IND) 6,015
8 Rohan Bopanna (IND) 4,790
15 Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) 3,770

After Miami Masters as expected Lee remain on #7 ... Other hand Rohan climb 4 positions to re-enter in top 10 and Mahesh drop 2 places ... Radek also enter into top -15 ... Only 100 points difference between 8 to 12 ranked players so top 10 race is very crowded and interesting for last 3 places
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At $35K+H St. Brieuc Challenger, France (clay)

[Q2] (7) Divij Sharan (IND) l Tomasz Bednarek (POL,1032) 63 26 67(2)
[Q2] Purav Raja (IND) l (1) Victor Crivoi (ROM,256) 26 46

Missed opportunity for Divij but other hand another fighting performance from Purav against top-250 type player.
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At $10K Kazakhstan F2 Futures 2012, Astana

[R1] Karan Rastogi (IND,) vs (Q) Fedor Doudtchik (BLR,1711)

Karan need to start winning more matches.
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At $10K Saudi Arabia F1 futures 2012, Riyadh

[R1] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,1606) bt (Q) Gregory HOWE (GBR,UNR) 62 61

Doubles
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt (4) Jan BLECHA (CZE)/ Lucas RENARD (SWE) 76(5) 64

[QF] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) vs Antonio GARCIA SANCHEZ (ESP)/ Hasier PASTOR (ESP)

Happy to Ashwin earned his first ATP point of 3 weeks after scoring win over British qualifier.

In doubles this week also Ashwin is playing with Zach and they scored upset win over 4th seed pair in the first round.
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At $10K Vietnam F1 futures 2012,

[R1] (3) Rohan Gajjar (IND,534) vs Jack Carpenter (GBR,1115)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak Sharma (IND,977) vs (WC) Pannhara Mam (CAM,UNR)
[R1] (6) Sriram Balaji (IND,662) vs Leon Frost (AUS,877)
[R1] Vignesh Peranamallur (IND,941) vs Robin Kern (GER,930)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Nuttanon KADCHAPANAN (THA)/ Perakiat SIRILUETHAIWATTANA (THA) 63 63
[R1] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) bt Constantin BELOT (FRA)/ Kevin BOTTI (FRA) 61 64

[QF] (3) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) vs Blake MOTT (AUS)/ Jack SCHIPANSKI (AUS)
[QF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Rohan GAJJAR (IND) vs Hiromasa OKU (JPN)/ Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN)

Expected winning start in doubles for Indian pairs.

Wrestling News
At Asian Qualifying Tournament 2012, Astana

Freestyle Women - 55Kg
[R1] Geeta (IND) bt Gulina Kubatbek Kyzy (KGZ) 8-0 (5-0)
[QF] Geeta (IND) bt Wilaiwan Thongkam (THA) 5-0 (3-0)
[SF] Geeta (IND) bt Aiym Abdildina (KAZ) 9-4 (3-1)

[F] Geeta (IND) bt Ji-eun Um (KOR) 0-0 (5-0 on technical points)

In Freestyle Women (55Kg) Geeta won the Gold and became the first Indian woman to qualify for London Olympic ... She also become 3rd wrestler to qualify with Yogeshwar Dutt and Amit Kumar.

After winning the first 2 matches easily in the semis Geeta was down 0-4 against Aiym ... Geeta fought back won the second round 3-0 but she was still 3-4 down ... Geeta dominated the final round to won it comfortably, 6-0, and book her ticket for London ... In the final she faced Korean wrestler ... Geeta won the final on technical points.

Tennis News
At $4.8M Miami Masters, USA

Final
(7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) bt (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) 36 61 10-8

Leander won his third straight title at Sony Ericsson Open ... Before this he won this title with Lukas Dlouhy in 2010 and Mahesh Bhupathi in 2011 ... He also became the 24th player in ATP history to win 50 doubles ATP titles.

After losing the first set Radek was facing 3 break points on his serve in 1st game of the second set ... Lee and Radek saved those and then broke Mirnyi and Nestor twice in the second to take match in super tie-break ... In STB they were 1-4 down before winning next six points to take a lead and completed the win in 82 minutes.

Radek Stepanek - "We fought through it, and we got on top of them in the second set all the way. We [were] the more aggressive, and, I would say, creative team in the [Match] Tie-break, as well. That's why we won."

Leander Paes - "[It's] really, really special. 50 tournaments takes a little doing. 600 matches takes a little bit of doing. Having done a three peat here in Miami is awesome. Next year, I hope to start another one."

Press Conference from Official website

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At $35K+H St. Brieuc Challenger, France (clay)

[Q1] (7) SHARAN Divij (IND,765) bt (WC) DUPUY Jean-Baptiste (FRA,673) 76(6) 62
[Q1] RAJA Purav (IND,1219) bt (5) NIESTEN Miliaan (NED,657) 46 64 75

[Q2] (7) SHARAN Divij (IND,765) vs BEDNAREK Tomasz (POL,1032)
[Q2] RAJA Purav (IND,1219) vs (1) CRIVOI Victor (ROM,256)

Doubles
[R1] (2) (7) SHARAN Divij (IND)/ RAJA Purav (IND) vs GENSSE Augustin (FRA)/ MILLOT Vincent (FRA)

Purav scored superb comeback fighting win over seeded Dutch player but in the final qualifying he is facing top-seed Romanian player ... Divij also moved in the final qualifying round ... He is facing Polish player in the final qualifying.

In the doubles Divij and Purav r 2nd seed and facing local French pair in the first round.