Badminton News
At $650KK Indonesia Open 2012, Jakarta
(Super Series Premier)
[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) bt Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,16) 21-15 21-14
[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt (3) Shixian Wang (CHN,4) 21-17 21-23 21-19

[SF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs (7) (7) Simon Santoso (INA,9)
[SF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Ji Hyun Sung (KOR,10)

Kashyap showed his yesterday's win over WR #3 Long Chen wasn't fluke ... Today he defeated Danish Hans-Kristian Vittinghus comfortably in 39 minutes ... In the first game he take lead early lead, 6-3 ... He kept that lead afterwards and won last 4 points to win this game ... In the second game Kashyap opened couple of points lead from 9-all but won 6 points from last 7 points to win it comfortably ... In the semis he is facing Indonesian top player, WR #9 Simon Santoso.

Shixian Wang take early couple of points lead but Saina caught with her at 8-all ... After that both players were traded single point lead until 14-all ... Then Saina take 2 points lead, 16-14, but Shixian Wang won next 2 points to make it 16-all ... Saina won next 4 points to make it 20-16 and converted 2nd game point and win this game ... In the second game Saina opened early 6-1 lead and she managed to keep that lead through out the game ... Shixian Wang managed to come close 16-18 and 17-19 ... But from 20-17 down Shixian Wang saved 3 match points to make it 20-all ... Saina needed to save a game point but Shixian Wang converted 2nd game point and take match into the decider ... In the third game Saina take early 3-0 lead but Shixian Wang caught with her at 6-all ... Again Saina take lead after winning next 4 point but this time also Shixian Wang won next 5 points to lead 10-11 ... From 13-all Saina again opened couple of points lead, which she kept and increased to 19-15 ... This time also Shixian Wang made it 19-all but this time Saina won next 2 points and won this match converting 4th match point ... Huge confidence boosting victory for Saina.

Though Saina wasted 3 match points in the second game still impressed with Saina and her team ... This was one of longest match from women side ... Match was going for more than one and half hours, exactly 95 minutes ... Definitely improved fitness level for Saina, who matches her game with Shixian Wang in the third game also.

Next in the semis Saina is facing WR #10 Korean Ji Hyun Sung ... Saina is having perfect 3-0 win-loss record against her.

Tennis News
At the London Olympics 2012, Bangalore

Unnecessary drama is going on for selection of doubles pairing for the London Olympics ... As inside top-10 Leander Paes, #7, is having direct qualification ... Other hand Rohan Bopanna, #12, and Mahesh Bhupathi, #14 r also inside ITF qualification as total of their ranking should be inside 50 ... Rohan and Mahesh already conveyed that they r not interested in partnering Lee ... For the Olympics they r playing together from January but AITA selected Lee and Mahesh as partner for the London Olympics ... Mahesh and Rohan immediately announced that either of them is not ready to play with Lee ... Other hand Lee messed up opportunity of trying out partnership with other young Indian player like Vishnu Vardhan or Yuki Bhambri or if fit then Somdev Devvarman on the grass ... As this week he is playing with South African Kevin Anderson ... I hope AITA handle this situation carefully and give India good chance of winning 2 medals with proper combination for the Olympics.

My choice of pairing r -
1. Leander Paes with Yuki Bhambri/ Vishnu Vardhan/ (if fit) Somdev Devvarman
2. Mahesh Bhupathi/ Rohan Bopanna

and for Mixed doubles -
Mahesh Bhupathi/ Sania Mirza
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At €625,300 AEGON Championships, London, Great Britain

[R1] Leander Paes (IND)/ Kevin Anderson (RSA) bt Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 67(1) 75 10-5

[R2] Leander Paes (IND)/ Kevin Anderson (RSA) l (7) Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 62 46 7-10

[QF] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l (1) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) 67(7) 46

At last Leander's first round match got over on the Friday ... They needed match tie-break to overcome challenge of the French pair ... After losing the first set in tie-break Lee and Kevin needed to win the second tight set ... In match tie-break they were better than their opponents ... They r playing their second match of the day later today.

In their second round match Lee and Kevin started positively and won the first set with double break ... But in the second set Serbians take crucial break in 7th game and that was enough to won this second set ... In match tie-break Serbians take lead with double mini-break 5-1 after that Lee and Kevin tried to comeback but Serbians kept advantage and won this matchto enter into the quarters.

In the first set Mahesh and Rohan saved four break points but wasted 2 set points before top-seeds converting their set point ... In the second set Mirnyi and Nestor take crucial break in 10th game when Indians were serving for staying in the match ... Hoping for upset win for our pair.
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At $10K India F9 Futures, Bangalore

[SF] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) l (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) 63 67 (8) 46
[SF] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (5) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,488) 64 67(3) 63

Doubles Final
(2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) vs 46 63 10-7

Big missed opportunity for Jeevan against top-seed Ti Chen ... After winning the first set Jeevan had 2 match points in ti-break in the second ... In the third set also after down 3-5 Jeevan broke to make it 4-5 but he failed to hold his serve in 10th game.

Ranjeet tried fight back after losing the first set ... He managed to win the second but in the final set Vishnu take early break and kept advantage to win it.

Jeevan and Ranjit scored comeback win in match tie-break over last two week's winner and top-seed pair of Balaji and Arun-Prakash.
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At $10K Spain F16 Futures, Martos

[R1] (Q) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1057) l (4) Taro DANIEL (JPN,432) 36 16

One-sided win by Japanese over Ramkumar.

Badminton News
At $650KK Indonesia Open 2012, Jakarta (Super Series Premier)

[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) bt (1) Long Chen (CHN,3) 21-17 21-14
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) l Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,21) 15-21 14-21
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt (Q) Aprilla Yuswandari (INA,45) 21-17 14-21 21-13
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,26) l (8) Juliane Schenk (GER,7) 14-21 14-21

[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Xia Huan (CHN) 13-21 21-14 18-21

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,16)
[QF] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (3) Shixian Wang (CHN,4)

Huge upset win by Kashyap against top-seed Chinese Long Chen ... This was his first top 5 win ... Kashyap scored very comfortable win ... In the first game he take control from 8-all after taking 3 points lead and managed to keep it ... In the second game Kashyap take control from 9-all taking 5 points lead and kept increasing to win this match in 44 minutes.

Another unnecessary tough outing for Saina ... She should have won this match easily instead after winning the first game she lost concentration ... Indonesian qualifier take full advantage to won it before Saina winning the third.

Diju and Jwala gave fighting performance in their loss against Chinese pair ... Ajay and Sindhu's respective opponents proved lot better than them.

Next Saina is facing first Wang challenge and Kashyap is facing Danish challenge ... Our both players r having 2-1 win-loss record against their respective opponents.

Tennis News
At €625,300 AEGON Championships, London, Great Britain

[R1] Leander Paes (IND)/ Kevin Anderson (RSA) vs Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nicolas Mahut (FRA) 4-4 (match suspended due to rain)

[R2] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)/ Jamie Murray (GBR) 63 76(5)

Mahesh and Rohan scored good win against Baghdatis and Jamie Murray in grass season opener ... Giving another strong case for their selection as pair for London Olympics.
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At $75K+H Monza Challenger, Italy

[QF] (1) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Andrey Golubev (KAZ)/ Yuri Schukin (KAZ) 67(4) 57

This week Purav and Rameez failed to repeat last week's result and lost in well fought two sets against Kazakh pair.
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At $75K Nottingham-2 Challenger, England

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauryna Grigelis (LTU) l Dudi Sela (ISR)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE) 46 57

Two first round losses against different partner in the first round for Divij.
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At $10K India F9 Futures, Bangalore

[QF] (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,908) 76(7) 63
[QF] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) bt Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA,1081) 61 62
[QF] (5) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,488) bt (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) 62 63
[QF] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (6) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) 60 64

Doubles
[SF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (4) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 57 62 10-8
[SF] (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) 64 64

Ashwin fought hard against top-seed ... Jeevan, Ranjeet and Vishnu scored comfortable win over their respective opponents ... Surprised to see Ranjeet's easy win over Vijayant.

Top two seeds r in the doubles final.
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At $10K Germany F5 Futures, Munich-Unterfohring (red clay)

[R1] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,719) bt (Q) Dmytro KOVALYOV (UKR,UNR) 26 62 76(3)

[R2] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,719) l (6) Jose STATHAM (NZL,365) 46 46

Vijay Sundar needed comeback win and the final set tie-break to overcome unranked Ukrainian but lost against in the second round against Statham.

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At $10K Spain F16 Futures, Martos

[QF] Blake MOTT (AUS)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) l (3) Marcos ESPARCIA OMEDAS (ESP)/ Gerard GRANOLLERS-PUJOL (ESP) 06 26

In doubles Ramkumar and his partner failed to produce fight.

Badminton News
At $650KK Indonesia Open 2012, Jakarta (Super Series Premier)

[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) bt Kevin Cordon (GUA,33) 21-19 19-21 21-16
[R1] (Q) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) l Hyun Il Lee (KOR,7) 13-21 21-11 20-22
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) bt Viktor Axelsen (DEN,22) 21-16 21-14
[R1] (Q) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) l (7) Simon Santoso (INA,9) 18-21 14-21
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,26) bt Maria Febe Kusumastuti (INA,33) 13-21 21-18 21-19
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Sayaka Sato (JPN,15) 21-12 14-21 21-17

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l (3) Mathias Boe (DEN)/ Carsten Mogensen (DEN) 14-21 13-21
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l (Q) Melvira Oklamona (INA)/ Khaeriah Rosmini (INA) 21-23 19-21 19-21
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (2) Qing Tian (CHN)/ Yunlei Zhao (CHN) 13-21 17-21
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA) 16-21 10-21
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR) 14-21 21-11 21-16

[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs (1) Long Chen (CHN,3)
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) vs Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,21)
[R2] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (Q) Aprilla Yuswandari (INA,45)
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,26) vs (8) Juliane Schenk (GER,7)

[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Tao Jiaming (CHN)/ Xia Huan (CHN)

Good comeback win by Diju and Jwala against Korean pair ... After losing the first game they came back strongly in the second and kept momentum to win the final game.

From 7-all Cordon increased lead to 9-15 but after that Kashyap fought back and made it 18-all ... Kashyap won the first game winning last 2 points ... In the second game Kashyap take 2/3 points lead from 6-all and maintained most part of the game ... Cordon made it 18-all and then won last 3 points to win this second game ... In the third game Cordon take early 3-8 lead but Kashyap caught with him at 11-all ... Kashyap won last 6 points in a row from 15-16 and completed victory in 65 minutes.

Ajay scored comfortable straight games victory over similar ranked Danish player in 33 minutes.

In the first game Saina take control from 6-all and increased to 15-7 which was enough to won this game ... In the second game also Saina take control from the start and increased it to 12-5 but after that Saina lost her concentration and lost this game after winning only 2 more points ... In the decider Saina opened 8-1 lead and kept increasing it ... Sayaka Sato saved 3 match points but Saina converted fourth match point and completed victory in 57 minutes.

Excellent comeback by Pradnya and Prajakta from 9-15 down in the first game ... They caught with their local qualifier at 18-all and converted 3rd game point .. But in next two games Pradnya and Prajakta wasted advantage ... In both games they were leading but failed to win it ... In the second game they were only 2 points away from the victory at 19-17 ... Chinese WR #2 pair proved too strong for Jwala and Ashwini, who failed to produce much fight in this match.

As expected top-10 Indonesian Simon Santoso proved better player, still Sourabh gave fight in the first game.

Against Guru also top 10 Korean Hyun Il Lee started positively and won the first game comfortably ... But in the second game from 4-8 down Guru won next 6 points to lead 10-8 and again from 10-9 Guru won next 8 points to win this game easily ... In the third game Lee take 2-4 early lead and kept that couple of points advantage most of the part but from 14-18 Guru won next 4 points to make it 18-all ... Guru saved a match point at 19-20 but Lee converted 2nd match point to win this match in 61 minutes ... Impressive performance by Guru against WR #7 Lee.

Sindhu scored excellent comeback win over local girl ... After losing the first game she won next two games in closely fought match ... Next she is facing 8th seed German Juliane Schenk.

Next Saina is facing local qualifier Aprilla Yuswandari but Kashyap is facing WR #3 and top seed Chinese Long Chen ... Ajay is facing local Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka, who upset WR #6 Japanese Sho Sasaki when he won third game 24-22 ... Diju and Jwala r facing Chinese pair.

Tennis News
At $200K AEGON Classic, Birmingham, England

[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) l Iveta Benesova (CZE)/ Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS) 57 36

Disappointing loss considering Sania and Shvedova r good doubles players ... In the firs Set Sania and Shvedova were leading 5-3 before losing this set and next set.
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At $75K+H Monza Challenger, Italy

[R1] (1) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Julio Silva (BRA)/ Viniclus Trevisan (BRA) 62 61

[QF] (1) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Andrey Golubev (KAZ)/ Yuri Schukin (KAZ)

Very comfortable win for Purav and Rameez against wild-card Brazilian pair ... Next they r facing Kazakh pair, whom they defeated last week in match tie-break.
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At $10K India F9 Futures, Bangalore

[R2] (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) bt (WC) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND,UNR) 60 61
[R2] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,908) bt (7) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) 62 Retd.
[R2] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) bt (Q) Jatin DAHIYA (IND,UNR) 60 60
[R2] Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA,1081) bt (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1801) 76(2) 46 76(1)
[R2] (5) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,488) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1039) 60 61
[R2] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) bt Kunal ANAND (IND,1536) 61 67(1) 64
[R2] (6) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt (WC) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) 63 64
[R2] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1235) 62 63

Doubles
[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) 64 36 10-8
[QF] (4) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 76(1) 57 10-4
[QF] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 57 63 10-5
[QF] (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Krishik DIVAKAR (IND)/ Sagar MANJANNA (IND) 63 64

Good to see our all seeded players enter into the quarters ... Jeevan, Ranjeet, Balaji and Vishnu scored comfortable wins ... Kunal Anand stretched Vijayant to three sets ... Ashwin's 7th seed Thai Kittiphong retired from his match after losing the first set ... Ajai Selvaraj gave creditable fight against higher ranked Thai opponent, he lost his match losing 2 tie-breaks.

In the doubles all 4 seeded pairs enter into the semis.
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At $10K Spain F16 Futures, Martos

[R1] (Q) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1057) bt (Q) Sergio MAGRO MORENO (ESP,1251) 63 64

Doubles
[QF] Blake MOTT (AUS)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) vs (3) Marcos ESPARCIA OMEDAS (ESP)/ Gerard GRANOLLERS-PUJOL (ESP)

Good to see Ramkumar started with win over fellow qualifier.

Badminton News
At $650KK Indonesia Open 2012, Jakarta (Super Series Premier)

[Q1] (3) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Yong Zhao Ashton Chen (SIN,59) 21-17 21-17
[Q1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) l Andre Kurniawan Tedjono (INA,48) 19-21 14-21
[Q1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) bt Yuhan Tan (BEL,50) 19-21 21-8 21-16
[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,61) l Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,65) 23-21 10-21 9-21

[Q2] (3) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif (MAS,57) 21-15 21-19
[Q2] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) bt (4) Eric Pang (NED,51) 21-15 21-6

[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,23) vs Kevin Cordon (GUA,33)
[R1] (Q) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) vs Hyun Il Lee (KOR,7)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,25) vs Viktor Axelsen (DEN,22)
[R1] (Q) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) vs (7) Simon Santoso (INA,9)
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,26) vs Maria Febe Kusumastuti (INA,33)
[R1] (5) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Sayaka Sato (JPN,15)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (3) Mathias Boe (DEN)/ Carsten Mogensen (DEN)
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs (Q) Melvira Oklamona (INA)/ Khaeriah Rosmini (INA)
[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (2) Qing Tian (CHN)/ Yunlei Zhao (CHN)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Yeon Seong Yoo (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR)

Sourabh Varma and Guru qualified in the main-draw for this big Super Series Premier tournament from the qualifying but both r facing top-10 player in the first round ... Kashyap and Ajay having favorable draw in the first round ... Sindhu is also having winnable match in the first round ... Saina is having Japanese test in the first round ... In doubles Jwala and Ashwini r facing WR #2 Chinese pair.

Tennis News
At €625,300 AEGON Championships, London, Great Britain

[R1] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye
[R1] Leander Paes (IND)/ Kevin Anderson (RSA) vs Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Nicolas Mahut (FRA)

This week Lee is playing with South African Kevin Anderson and they r facing French pair in the first round ... Mahesh and Rohan r fifth seed and r having the first round bye.
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At $200K AEGON Classic, Birmingham, England

[R1] (2) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) vs Iveta Benesova (CZE)/ Alla Kudryavtseva (RUS)

This week Sania is having good doubles partner, 2 grandslam winner Yaroslava Shvedova.
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At $75K Nottingham-2 Challenger, England

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Lauryna Grigelis (LTU) vs Dudi Sela (ISR)/ Jimmy Wang (TPE)

Divij is playing with another different partner at Nottingham-2 challenger.
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At $75K+H Monza Challenger, Italy

[R1] (1) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Julio Silva (BRA)/ Viniclus Trevisan (BRA)

Purav and Rameez decided to play another tournament on the clay ... They r top-seed in this Monza challenger.
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At $35K Furth Challenger, Germany

Doubles Final
(2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Arnau Brugues-Davi (ESP) / Joas Sousa (POR) 57 76(4) 11-13

Purav and Rameez lost in very closely fought match against unseeded pair in the final ... After losing the first set they fought back to win the second but failed to capitalize in match tie-break.
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At $10K India F9 Futures, Bangalore

[R1] (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS,1322) 62 61
[R1] (WC) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Manpreet Singh CHAWLA (IND,UNR) 62 60
[R1] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,908) bt Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS,965) 63 64
[R1] (7) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) bt (Q) Yogesh PHOGAT (IND,UNR) 64 62
[R1] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) bt Siddharth RAWAT (IND,1076) 76(6) 75
[R1] (Q) Jatin DAHIYA (IND,UNR) bt Saurabh PATIL (IND,1437) 63 61
[R1] (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1801) bt (WC) Vishwanath SAVADI (IND,UNR) 62 63
[R1] Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA,1081) bt (8) Francesco VILARDO (ITA,835) 36 62 76(6)
[R1] (5) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,488) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,942) 75 63
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1039) bt Kenny BUN (CAM,1092) 62 46 64
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND,1536) bt (Q) Aaditya TEWARI (IND,UNR) 64 63
[R1] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND,1543) 61 62
[R1] (6) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt (Q) Elwin ANTONY (IND,1901) 63 76(1)
[R1] (WC) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) bt (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) 64 63
[R1] Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1235) bt (Q) Krishik DIVAKAR (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (Q) Bharatram BALAJEE (IND,UNR) 61 62

Doubles
[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Siddharth RAWAT (IND)/ Aaditya TEWARI (IND) 62 75
[R1] Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) bt Shahbaaz KHAN (IND)/ Sumeet SHINDE (IND) 67(5) 64 10-5
[R1] (4) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Kenny BUN (CAM)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 62 63
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) 26 62 10-7
[R1] Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) bt (WC) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND)/ Venkat IYER (IND) 76(3) 63
[R1] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND) bt Krishna KARSOLIA (IND)/ Neishit VAKIL (IND) 61 62
[R1] Krishik DIVAKAR (IND)/ Sagar MANJANNA (IND) bt (WC) Ravi Shankar SATHIYARAJ MITRA (IND)/ Ganga SINGH (IND) 61 36 10-6
[R1] (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND)/ Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (WC) Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Vishwanath SAVADI (IND) 64 62

Karan missed this week due to injuries and Saketh decided to skip as from next week he is going to play in German futures series on the clay ... In this week's draw last week's finalists Vijayant and Vishnu r in the same draw.

Siddharth Rawat gave fighting performance against Jeevan ... Player to watch in the future tournaments ... Venkat Iyer earned another ranking point, Jatin Dahiya and Tejas Chaukulkar earned their first ranking point with a win.
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At $10K Spain F16 Futures, Martos

[Q1] (3) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1057) bye
[Q2] (3) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1057) bt Antonio MARQUEZ-CONTRERAS (ESP,UNR) 76(1) 76(1)
[Q3] (3) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1057) bt Philipp ALEKSANYAN (RUS,UNR) 76(4) 63

[R1] (Q) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,1057) vs (Q) Sergio MAGRO MORENO (ESP,1251)

Doubles
[R1] Blake MOTT (AUS)/ Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) bt Roberto ORTEGA-OLMEDO (ESP)/ Adam SANJURJO HERMIDA (ESP) 76(7) 76(6)

This week Ramkumar playing on hard court in Spain ... He needed to win close matches against unranked players for qualifying main-draw ... Also had winning start in the doubles with his Australian partner in two tie-breaks.

Volleyball News
At the 2012 World Olympic Qualifications, Berlin, Germany

#30 India l #5 Cuba 0-3 (12-25 22-25 20-25)
#13 Germany bt #23 Czech Republic 3-1 (25-22 23-25 25-23 25-21)

Expected loss against WR # 5 Cuba but our players fought well in last 2 sets ... Other hand Germany won their third match in a row and captured the Olympic ticket to London 2012.

Badminton News
At $120K SCG Thailand Open 2012, Bangkok

Women's Singles Final
(1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt (2) Ratchanok Inthanon (THA,11) 19-21 21-15 21-10

Ratchanok take control of the first game from 7-all ... From 12-19 down Saina tried fightback and came close to her at 19-20 but Ratchanok converted 3rd game point ... In the second game Saina opened early 3 points lead 5-2 ... Saina kept that advantage till end to won this game ... In the final game Saina take control from the start and won it comfortably to won this final in 66 minutes ... This was Saina's second title of the year after Swiss Open title in March.

Volleyball News
At the 2012 World Olympic Qualifications, Berlin, Germany

#30 India l #23 Czech Republic 0-3 (19-25 13-25 23-25)
#13 Germany bt #5 Cuba 3-2 (25-21 25-17 21-25 17-25 20-18)

So with the second loss in two days what a theoretical chance was there get over ... Again our players failed to produce any sizzling performance ... Overall very disappointing.

Tennis News
At $75K Nottingham-2 Challenger, Great Britain

[Q1] (2) Yuki Bhambri (IND,218) l Colin Ebelthite (AUS,569) 36 63 36

Not a great preparation for Wimbledon qualifying ... Yuki lost in his first match on UK grass against lower ranked Australian ... It would be good if Yuki had couple of wins on UK grass before Wimby qualifying which can boost his confidence.

In the first set he lost his serve early to trailed 0-3 and that break was enough for Colin to win this set ... In the second set Yuki take crucial break in 4th game to lead 4-1 and with that single break he won this set ... In the decider Colin take crucial break in 8th game ... In 9th game on Colin's serve Yuki saved 2 match points but Colin converted 3rd to complete victory.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, Mysore

Singles Final
(2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (7) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) 76(7) 63

Vishnu lifted another Indian futures title beating Balaji ... Balaji gave fighting performance in the final, he is showing improvement week after week ... The first set went to tie-break when both players hold their respective service games but Blaji needed to save couple of break points ... The tie-break was also long one as both players were serving well and Vishnu take crucial mini-break to won it ... In the second set Vishnu take crucial break in 8th game to won this match.

Badminton News
At $120K SCG Thailand Open 2012, Bangkok

[SF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt (3) Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,17) 24-22 21-11

[F] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (2) Ratchanok Inthanon (THA,11)

Porntip take early 9-2 lead over Saina ... After that Saina crawled back and caught with her at 16-all ... Porntip had 3 games points at 20-19, 21-20 and 22-21, but Saina saved those and converted her first game point to won this long game after 24 minutes ... In the second game Sania take control from the start from 2-all she increased lead to 10-4 ... After that Saina was increasing lead and won this game comfortably and move into the final in 41 minutes ... In the final Sania is facing 2nd seed and WR #11 local girl Ratchanok Inthanon.

Volleyball News
At the 2012 World Olympic Qualifications, Berlin, Germany

#30 India l #13 Germany 0-3 (16-25 19-25 15-25)
#5 Cuba bt #23 Czech Republic 3-1 (27-29 25-23 25-23 25-21)

Only top team will qualify for the London Olympics ... WR #30 India is in tough group with host WR #13 Germany, 2010 World Championship silver medalists WR #5 Cuba and WR #23 Czech Republic.

In the first match German team scored very comfortable win over Indians ... They outperformed us in the all the departments ... Next we r facing Czech team, who gave fighting performance against Cuban team in their first match.

Tennis News
At $35K Furth Challenger, Germany

[SF] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (4) Andrey Golubev (KAZ)/ Yuri Schukin (KAZ) 67(4) 64 13-11

[F] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Arnau Brugues-Davi (ESP)/ Joas Sousa (POR)

Excellent comeback win by Purav and Rameez against Kazakh pair ... After losing thew first set our pair won the second with a single break ... They had see-saw battle in match tie-break, which our pair won after saving match p[oints ... Next they r facing unseeded pair of Brugues-Davi and Sousa.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, Mysore


[SF] (7) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt (8) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) 46 76(10) 75
[SF] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) 67(7) 62 76(4)

Doubles Final
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 36 61 10-6

Excellent comeback wins by Balaji and Vishu against their respective opponents ... Balaji was 3-5 down in the decider before winning next four games to complete the victory ... Vijayant was unlucky to pull biggest upset but happy to see Vishnu prevailed big challenge from Vijayant ... Vishnu was also 3-5 down in the decider before taking the set in tie-break and winning it.

After his long singles semi-final Balaji managed to win the doubles title ... This was his second title in two weeks with Arun-Prakash.

Badminton News
At $120K SCG Thailand Open 2012, Bangkok

[QF] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) l Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,65) 6-21 8-21
[QF] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) l Chen Yuekun (CHN,158) 15-21 17-21
[QF] Sameer Verma (IND,128) l (Q) Huan Gao (CHN,305) 16-21 13-21
[QF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt (8) Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,36) 21-10 22-20

[SF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (3) Porntip Buranaprasertsuk (THA,17)

Saina take control of the game winning the first 8 points and kept that momentum to won this game ... Taerattanachai produced fight in the second game ... From 2-4 down Taerattanachai won next 6 points to take lead ... She managed to keep that lead most part of the game but from 9-16 Saina fought back and managed to catch with her at 19-all ... Saina converted the first match point after saving a game point ... In the semis Sania is facing another local Thai player, WR #17 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk.

Sony Dwi Kuncoro proved too strong for Sourabh ... He lost in 30 minutes winning only 14 points in two games ... His brother Sameer gave decent performance against upcoming Chinese player but lost in straight games ... Sai Praneeth also failed to overcome Chinese challenge and lost in straight games.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles Final
(7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (POL)/ Santiago Gonzalez (MEX) 76(3) 61

Juniors
[QF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) l Andrew Harris (AUS)/ Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 26 75 9-11

Sania and Mahesh lifted their second mixed doubles title before this they won the Australian Open in 2009 ... This was Mahesh's 8th mixed doubles grandslam title and overall 12th grandslam title ... This win boost their chances of claiming mixed doubles pairing for the Olympics.

Unseeded Jans-Ignacik and Gonzalez take early break on Sania's serve to lead 3-1 but while serving for the set at 5-4 Gonzalez failed to hold his serve and then Sania and Mahesh won tie-break with double min-break ... In the second set it was one way traffic, Sania and Mahesh won it comfortably breaking opponent's serve twice.

Arjun with his Peruvian partner lost close match against AUssie pair ... After losing the first set they fought hard to won the second but lost match tie-break against Aussies.
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At $75K Aegon Trophy Challenger, Nottingham, England

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Tatsuma Ito (JPN) l (WC) David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR) 67(5) 36

Divij and Ito failed to overcome challenge of local pair on the grass.
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At $35K Furth Challenger, Germany

[QF] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Adam Hubble (AUS)/ Jose (Rubin) Statham (NZL) 76(6) 36 10-8

[SF] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (4) Andrey Golubev (KAZ)/ Yuri Schukin (KAZ)

Purav and Rameez needed to dig deep for overcoming challenge from Hubble and Statham ... After winning the first set Purav and Rameez lost the second ... In match tie-break Hubble and Statham gave big fight but Purav and Rameez kept cool to win this tie-break ... Next they r facing tough challenge of Kazakh pair.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, Mysore

[QF] (8) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) bt (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) 62 76(5)
[QF] (7) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) 36 62 76(3)
[QF] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) bt Saketh MYNENI (IND,590) 63 36 61
[QF] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1076) 62 76(5)

Doubles
[SF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 64 64
[SF] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt Venkat IYER (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) 75 76(4)

So this week Vijayant proved better in his duel with Saketh ... Also happy for Bala for his first win over Jeevan ... Good friendly rivalry is building between our Indian players ... Good fighting performance by Sidharth in his loss against Vishnu.

Athletic News
At the World Race Walking Cup, Saransk, Russia

Our steeple chase runner Sudha Singh has qualified for the 2012 London Games, breaking her own 3,000m steeple chase national record in the VIII Meeting Iberoamericano de Atletismo ... Sudha Singh qualified with a timing of 9:47.70 secs to break her national record of 9:49.25 secs set at the Shanghai Diamond League last month ... Her timing was better than the London Olympics 'B' standard timing of 9:48.00.

Badminton News
At $120K SCG Thailand Open 2012, Bangkok

[R3] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt (7) Alamsyah Yunus (INA,29) 18-21 21-13 22-20
[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) bt Choong Hann Wong (MAS,131) 13-21 21-18 22-20
[R3] Sameer Verma (IND,128) bt Teck Zhi Soo (MAS,241) 21-18 21-18
[R2] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Li Han (CHN,39) 21-17 21-13
[R2] (4) Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) l Lin Wang (CHN,106) 12-21 23-25

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l (6) Ricky Karanda Suwardi (INA)/ Muhammad Ulinnuha (INA) 22-24 13-21
[R1] Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND) l (Q) Calvin Jia Hong Ong (MAS)/ Wee Gleen Tan (MAS) 12-21 6-21
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy N. (IND) l (1) Xia Huan (CHN)/ Jinhua Tang (CHN) 10-21 13-21
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) l Amelia Alicia Anscelly (MAS)/ Fie Cho Soong (MAS) 19-21 12-21

[QF] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) vs Sony Dwi Kuncoro (INA,65)
[QF] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) vs Chen Yuekun (CHN,158)
[QF] Sameer Verma (IND,128) vs (Q) Huan Gao (CHN,UNR)
[QF] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs (8) Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,36)

Saina scored good win against Chinese Li Han in straight games ... Li Han take early couple of points lead but Saina managed to make it 12-all and from 17-all she won next 4 points to won this game ... In the second game Saina controlled from the start and won it comfortably.

Former WR #1 opened early 3 points lead which Sindhu managed to reduce at 10-11 but from here Lin Wang dominated and won the first game ... In the second game Lin Wang take 5-0 lead but Sindhu caught with her at 7-all and opened 16-12 lead ... Lin Wang caught with her 16-all, still Sindhu had 2 game points at 20-18 but Lin Wang saved total 5 game points before converting first match point.

Sameer Verma take full advantage of weak draw and move into the quarters ... In the first game he take 12-6 lead but Malaysian Soo caught with him at 13-all ... Sameer opened couple of points lead and maintained to won this game ... In the second game Sameer take lead from the start and increased to 16-9 but Malaysian fought back and made it 18-all ... Sameer won last 3 points to won this match.

Wong take early lead against Sai and kept increasing to won the first game ... In the second game Sai open 3 points lead from 7-all and kept that lead to won it ... In the final game Wong take big lead from the start 9-14 but Sai managed to reduce it, 14-16 ... From 14-18 Sai won next 6 points to lead 20-18 but failed to convert 2 match points, 20-all ... But Sai kept his cool and won next 2 points to complete excellent comeback victory in 55 minutes.

Yunus take early lead but Sourabh Varma made it 9-all and then take lead but from 18-15 down Yunus won next 6 points to won the first game ... In the second game Sourabh take early lead and kept increasing to won it comfortably ... In the decider from 6-all Yunus take 4 points lead which he managed to keep until 16-19 ... Sourabh made it 19-all and then saved a match point at 19-20 ... Sourabh converted first match point to complete superb comeback victory against top-30 Indonesian player in 68 minutes.

Next is real test for Sai and Sameer against Chinese players, though they r lower ranked ... Sourabh is facing another Indonesian player, this time former top-10 player Sony Dwi Kuncoro ... Saina is facing another Thai player for place in the semis.

Our all doubles pairs lost in the first round.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[SF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA) 64 62
[SF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (POL)/ Santiago Gonzalez (MEX) 67(2) 36

[F] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (POL)/ Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)

Juniors
[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) bt (3) Julien Cagnina (BEL)/ Luke Saville (AUS) 63 76(4)

[QF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) vs Andrew Harris (AUS)/ Nick Kyrgios (AUS)

Sania and Mahesh scored comfortable straight sets win over Voskoboeva and Bracciali but Lee and Elena failed to produce dream final when they lost in the semis ... When rain-break came Lee and Elena were leading 3-1 but after break from 5-2 they lost their service game twice and then lost tie-break with erratic play ... Gonzalez and Jans-Ignacik take full advantage of their erratic game and won the second set with double break.

Arjun and his Peruvian partner Jorge scored upset win over third seed pair and book their place in the quarters ... They will face Aussie pair.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, Mysore

[R2] (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) bt Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS,965) 61 63
[R2] (8) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1921) 61 60
[R2] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1039) 64 63
[R2] (7) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt Bowen OUYANG (CHN,774) 63 64
[R2] Saketh MYNENI (IND,590) bt (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1801) 76(2) 64
[R2] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) bt (WC) Vinod GOWDA (IND,1543) 60 61
[R2] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1076) bt (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,464) 26 62 63
[R2] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1235) 75 62

Doubles
[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (WC) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND)/ Sumeet SHINDE (IND) 62 62
[QF] Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) bt (4) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 76(2) 57 10-1
[QF] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt (WC) Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Yogesh PHOGAT (IND) 63 64
[QF] Venkat IYER (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) 16 63 10-6

Other than Karan's loss all other results in the singles were expected.
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At $35K Furth Challenger, Germany

[R1] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Peter Torebko (GER)/ Holger Zuehlsdorff-Pavlovic (GER) 62 61

[QF] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Adam Hubble (AUS)/ Jose (Rubin) Statham (NZL)

Easy win for Purav and Rameez against local wild-card pair ... Next they r facing Hubble and Statham in the quarters.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Karshi, Uzbekistan

[QF] Anastasia MUKHAMETOVA (RUS)/ Ankita RAINA (IND) l (4) Eugeniya PASHKOVA (RUS)/ Ekaterina YASHINA (RUS) 64 36 3-10

Ankita lost in doubles quarters with her Russian partner against 4th seed Russian pair.
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At $10K Morocco F3 Futures, Casablanca

[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,1057) l (1) Jerome Inzerillo (FRA,418) 67(3) 57

Fighting performance from Ramkumar against top-425 player.

Badminton News
At $120K SCG Thailand Open 2012, Bangkok

[R1] Srikanth K. (IND,202) bt Marius Myhre (NOR,253) 14-21 21-12 21-7
[R1] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Sukamta Evert (INA,137) 21-11 21-12
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) bt Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo (INA,144) 15-21 25-23 21-17
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,61) l (9) Brice Leverdez (FRA,36) 21-15 18-21 19-21
[R1] (14) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) l Soon Huat Goh (MAS,100) 21-18 14-21 13-21
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,128) bt (11) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,41) 21-10 22-20

[R2] Srikanth K. (IND,202) l (1) Dan Lin (CHN,2) 11-21 13-21
[R2] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Pakkawat Vilailak (THA,165) 15-21 21-17 21-15
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) bt (9) Brice Leverdez (FRA,36) 21-13 21-15
[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,128) bt Jiann Shiarng Chiang (MAS,178) 21-12 21-17
[R1] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Nichaon Jindapon (THA,53) 21-13 16-21 21-15
[R1] (4) Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) bt Mi Jin Jung (KOR,195) 21-9 15-21 21-14

[R3] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) vs (7) Alamsyah Yunus (INA,29)
[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) vs Choong Hann Wong (MAS,131)
[R3] Sameer Verma (IND,128) vs Teck Zhi Soo (MAS,241)
[R2] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Li Han (CHN,39)
[R2] (4) Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) vs Lin Wang (CHN,106)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (6) Ricky Karanda Suwardi (INA)/ Muhammad Ulinnuha (INA)
[R1] Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND) vs (Q) Calvin Jia Hong Ong (MAS)/ Wee Gleen Tan (MAS)
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy N. (IND) vs (1) Xia Huan (CHN)/ Jinhua Tang (CHN)
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Amelia Alicia Anscelly (MAS)/ Fie Cho Soong (MAS)
[R1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l Jian Guo Ong (MAS)/ Yin Loo Lim (MAS) 14-21 13-21

Good upset straight games win by Sameer in the first round over experienced top-50 Thai Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk but surprising loss of Guru against lowly ranked Malaysian.

Surprised to see Saina losing a game against Thai Nichaon Jindapon ... Sindhu also needed three games against lowly ranked Korean ... Sai Praneeth scored upset win over top-40 Frenchman in the straight games ... Sourabh needed comeback after losing the first game against lowly ranked Thai plyer ... Sameer scored comfortable win ... Srikanth gave decent performance against Dan Lin.

In next round Saina and Sindhu r having Chinese test ... Saina is facing #39 ranked Li Han and Sindhu is having bigger test as she is facing former WR #1 Lin Wang, who is making comeback after long break ... Sameer and Sai r having winnable matches but Sourabh is facing local top-30 player.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[QF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) 46 75 10-5

[SF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA)
[SF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (POL)/ Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)

Juniors
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) bt Alexios Halebian (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA) 64 76(3)

[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) vs (3) Julien Cagnina (BEL)/ Luke Saville (AUS)

Lee and Elena made excellent comeback after losing the first set and down with the break in the second set, 2-4, against top-seeds ... They won closely fought the second set after taking crucial break in 11th game before winning STB comfortably ... In the semis our both pairs r facing unranked pairs.

In junior doubles Arjun and his Paraguayan partner had a winning start against American pair ... Next they r facing 3rd seed Pair.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Karshi, Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) l (Q) Lin Zhu (CHN,591) 26 16
[R1] (Q) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) l (5) Valentyna Ivakhnenko (UKR,258) 57 06

Doubles
[QF] Anastasia MUKHAMETOVA (RUS)/ Ankita RAINA (IND) vs (4) Eugeniya PASHKOVA (RUS)/ Ekaterina YASHINA (RUS)

Decent performance by Kyra in the first set against top-250 type player.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[QF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (2) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 62 63

Juniors
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,93) l Nick Kyrgios (AUS,27) 36 36

[R2] Ratnika Batra (IND,64) l Antonia Lottner (GER,32) 16 26

Sania and Mahesh scored very comfortable win over 2nd seed Mike Bryan and Kveta Peschke and enter into the semis ... They r making strong case for the Olympics MXD pairing.

After her excellent first round win Ratnika Batra lost against in-form German Antonia Lottner in the second round ... Arjun lost in the first round against higher ranked Australian.
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At $75K Aegon Trophy Challenger, Nottingham, England

[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,812) bt Manual Sanchez (MEX,703) 64 64
[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND, 812) l (6) Frederik Nielsen (DEN,259) 26 26

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Tatsuma Ito (JPN) vs (WC) David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR)

Divij played singles qualifying ... After scoring win against Mexican opponent in the first round veteran Danish player Frederik Nielsen proved too strong for him.
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At $35K Furth Challenger, Germany

[R1] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Peter Torebko (GER)/ Holger Zuehlsdorff-Pavlovic (GER)

Purav decide to play on red clay and partnering Aussie Rameez Junaid at Furth challenger.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Karshi, Uzbekistan

[Q1] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) bt Yevgeniya Rezepkina (KAZ,UNR) 61 60
[Q1] (8) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) bt Maftunabonu Saidova (UZB,UNR) 60 60
[Q1] (14) Ankita Raina (IND,831) bt Madina Khatamova (UZB,UNR) 60 60

[Q2] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) bt (14) Ankita Raina (IND,831) 64 06 76(9)
[Q2] (8) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) bt (16) Kamilla Farhad (AZE,1178) 61 61

[R1] (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) vs (Q) Lin Zhu (CHN,591)
[R1] (Q) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) vs (5) Valentyna Ivakhnenko (UKR,270)

Doubles
[R1] Anastasia MUKHAMETOVA (RUS)/ Ankita RAINA (IND) bt Kamilla FARHAD (AZE)/ Anastasiya PRENKO (TKM) 61 64

Good to see our players r playing outside of India in tougher tournaments ... Good to see Kyra and Nidhi qualified for main-draw ... Ankita was unlucky to face Kyra in the final qualifying but gave fighting performance ... Ankita r in the doubles quarter with her Russian partner ... In the singles Kyra having very tough match against top-275 Ukrainian player ... Nidhi is also facing Top-600 Chinese opponent.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, Mysore

[R1] (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) bt (WC) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND,UNR) 62 62
[R1] Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS,965) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,942) 61 62
[R1] (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1921) bt (Q) Viju GEORGE JR (USA,1801) 64 61
[R1] (8) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,908) 63 63
[R1] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) bt (Q) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) 60 62
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1039) bt (Q) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) 63 63
[R1] Bowen OUYANG (CHN,774) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS,1322) 63 76(3)
[R1] (7) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt (Q) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND,1742) 63 62
[R1] Saketh MYNENI (IND,590) bt (6) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,488) 63 64
[R1] (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1801) bt (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND,UNR) 61 76(3)
[R1] (WC) Vinod GOWDA (IND,1543) bt (WC) Suraj R PRABODH (IND,UNR) 62 62
[R1] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) bt Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,710) 63 62
[R1] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,464) bt Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA,1081) 64 64
[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1076) bt Francesco VILARDO (ITA,835) 64 64
[R1] Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1235) bt (Q) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (Q) Kunal ANAND (IND,1536) 61 62

Doubles
[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) 63 63
[R1] (WC) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND)/ Sumeet SHINDE (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 62 75
[R1] (4) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND)/ Aditya TEWARI (IND) 75 75
[R1] Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) bt Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA)/ Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 62 64
[R1] (WC) Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Yogesh PHOGAT (IND) bt (WC) Vishwanath SAVADI (IND)/ Darshan SRINIVASA (IND) 63 62
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt (3) Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 76(4) 36 10-8
[R1] Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND)/ Suraj R PRABODH (IND) 63 61
[R1] Venkat IYER (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt (2) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 46 63 10-8

Good upset win by Sidharth Rawat over Italian ... Expected win from Kaza ... Otherwise expected results in the first round ... Saketh scored comfortable win over Ranjeet ... In doubles, Venkat Iyer with his Chinese partner Bowen Ouyang scored comeback upset win over 2nd seed Jeevan and Vijayant ... Kunal and Ajai also defeated seeded pair of Ashwin and Zach.
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At $10K Morocco F3 Futures, Casablanca

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,1057) bt Adam Sanjurjo Hermida (ESP,809) 64 64

Happy for Ramkumar who scored his first win in this ongoing Moroccan futures series.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

For Bronze medal
India bt Great Britain 3-1
Goal Scorers - Shivendra Singh (IND) 43', Sandeep Singh (IND) 52' PC, Tushar Khandekar (IND) 69' and Ashley Johnson (GBR) 35' PC

India scored their first win against Britain in four recent matches to won bronze medal in Azlan Shah cup ... We were struggling on the field despite this victory ... Again our forward-line was inaccurate, lethargic and toothless in the D ... They failed to produce regular trapping and passing game ... British side take lead before half-time through Ashley Johnson flick ... In the second half Shivendra equalized after excellent pass from Uthappa ... Sandeep Singh gave lead converting 2nd penalty corner ... Tushar increased the lead in last couple of minutes ... For us Sardar Singh in mid-field, who declared the Man of the match and later as the Player of the Tournament, and Kothajit Singh were best players on the field.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Doubles
[R2] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) l Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) 46 16

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Mathilde Johansson (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA) 62 60
[R2] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Virginie Razzano (FRA)/ Nicolas Devilder (FRA) 76(4) 63

[QF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR)
[QF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (2) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Juniors
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,93) vs Nick Kyrgios (AUS,27)
[R1] Ratnika Batra (IND,64) bt (WC) Estelle Cascino (FRA,520) 60 61

[R2] Ratnika Batra (IND,64) vs Antonia Lottner (GER,32)

[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) vs Alexios Halebian (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA)
[R1] Ratnika Batra (IND)/ Su Jeong Jang (KOR) vs (1) Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)/ Taylor Townsend (USA)

Leander and his Austrian partner Alexander Peya lost easily against eastern European pair ... This was expected as Lee made make-shift pairing with Peya before French open due to Radek Stepanek's unavailability.

In mixed doubles Lee and Elena scored very dominating win over French pair losing only two games ... Mahesh and Sania also joined them in quarters with fighting win over French pair ... Our both pairs r facing top 2 seeds in the quarter-final.

In juniors, Ratnika Batra and Arjun Kadhe r playing in the main-draw ... Ratnika take full advantage of easy opponent and scored thumping win over local wild-card player losing only a single game ... In the second round she is facing tough German opponent, who upset WR #5 Russian player losing only 3 games ... Arjun is having tough match against top-30 Australian in the first round.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya


Singles Final
(4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) 63 64

Saketh lifted his second futures title after comfortable straight sets victory over top-seed Vijayant ... In the first set he take break in 2nd game and hold that lead to won this set ... In the second set also he broke Vijayant in the fifth game and that was enough to won this set and match.

Tennis News
At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[SF] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) 64 62
[SF] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) 76(0) 63

Doubles Final
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) 75 61

Saketh scored upset win over Ranjit ... In the first set Saketh was 5-3 leading but while serving for the set at 5-4 Ranjit broke back ... Saketh dominated tie-break and won it without losing a single point ... In the second set Saketh take crucial single break and won the match ... Vijayant scored comfortable win over Sriram Balaji to face Saketh in the final.

Sriram Balaji lifted doubles title with Arun-Prakash beating 2nd seed pair Saketh and Chinese Bowen Ouyang.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India bt Pakistan 2-1
Goal Scorer - Sandeep Sing (IND) 29' PC, Sunil SV (IND) 69' and Sohail Abbas (PAK) 61'

We were lucky to win this match ... In the first half we gave 4 penalty corners but Sohail failed to convert from them ... We earned one and Sandeep scored from that to give half-time lead ... We were better in the defense than our previous matches but again our forward-line disappointed ... Unnecessary crosses in the D when nobody was available to intercept those crosses ... Also many times our forwards fumbled in-front of the goal ... In the second half Pakistan was better team on the filed ... They were attacking continuously but unlucky to scored a goal ... Sohail converted 5th penalty corner to make it 1-all ... Indians earned 4 penalty corners but Raghunath and Sandeep failed to convert it ... Sunil scored when 87 seconds were remaining after excellent move from Birendra Lakra and we managed to win this tie ... So we will mostly play for 3/4th positions.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 61 57 36
[R1] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) bt Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Fabio Fognini (ITA) 61 67(2) 63

[R2] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) vs Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Denis Istomin (UZB)

Juniors
[Q1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,150) l (5) Ioana Loredana Rosca (ROU,56) 36 67(4)

Mahesh and Rohan started well breaking French's pair serve twice to won the first set ... But from the second set they found trouble of reading Frech pair's game and French pair take crucial break in 12th game to won the second set ... French pair again take early lead breaking Indians serve in 4th game and kept that lead to scored upset win over Indian pair.

Leander and Alexander Peya started confidently and won the first set breaking Italian pair's serve twice ... But our pair lost the second set in tie-break ... Still they managed to prevail over Italian pair after winning the third set with a single break ... Much required victory for this new pairing ... Next they r facing Russian-Uzbek pair in the second round.

This also means we will miss to play 2 pairs at the Olympics as only Lee will remain inside top-10 after the French open ... So interesting to see AITA's decision about who will partner Lee, Rohan or Mahesh?

In the junior qualifying Rutuja faced top-60 Romanian girl in the first round ... It was tough match against European player on the clay but Rutuja gave decent performance taking the second set in tie-break.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[QF] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt (6) Bowen OUYANG (CHN,765) 64 75
[QF] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,936) 62 64
[QF] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (5) Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,702) 63 64
[QF] (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt (LL) Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND,1888) 64 60

Doubles
[SF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 62 64
[SF] (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 63 76(3)

Happy to see that our all top 4 seeds played as per their seedings to reached in the semis in the single.

Chess News
At World Chess Championship 2012, Moscow, Russia

Final score

Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) bt Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) 2½ - 1½ in tie-break (after 6 - 6 tie in the classic chess)

Tie-break 4 - 30th May 2012
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) dw Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) ½-½ (6-6, Tie-break 2½—1½)

Tie-break 3 - 30th May 2012
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) dw Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) ½-½ (6-6, Tie-break 2-1)

Tie-break 2 - 30th May 2012
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) bt Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) 1-0 (6-6, Tie-break 1½—½)

Tie-break 1 - 30th May 2012
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) dw Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) ½-½ (6-6, Tie-break ½—½)

Viswanathan Anand remains the World Champion after this dog-fight ... In classic chess Gelfand matched Anand's preparation but in Rapid chess (tie-break) Anand showed his class and outperformed Gelfand to win this World championship match ... Deserving winner as Anand kept his nerves in this high tension rapid chess matches ... Anand clearly was better prepared and energized in the rapid playoff.

In the fourth game Gelfand used the Sicilian defense with the Najdorf Variation ... Despite Anand's novelty move on 13th, b3, Gelfand played very interestingly, creatively and constructively and Anand was struggling with lack of spaces on the board ... After that most of the game advantage was to black and Gelfand used the black king while attacking the white pieces ... But Boris was in usual time trouble and then Anand played excellent tactical chess game and managed superb bishop switch on 54th move and that confirmed draw after 56 moves.

In the third game Anand again decided to play with the Slav defense ... Gelfand surprised Anand with his 11th move, Qc2 ... Gelfand played strategically and take control of the game ... Anand was in trouble but Gelfand made blunder on 26th move he played Rxb8 instead of may be this game winning Nxe4 ... Gelfand again found himself in time trouble and due to that missed opportunity Anand managed to equalize on the board ... Despite time trouble Gelfand played brilliantly and managed draw after 59 moves ... Big missed opportunity for Gelfand.

In the second game, Gelfand also went for his favorite defense the Sicilian defense with the Rossolimo variation ... Anand surprised him with novelty moe on 7th, d4 ... Gelfand take lot of time to played next few moves ... In middle of the game Anand played safe instead of putting more pressure but Gelfand failed to utilize that due time trouble ... From around 30th move Gelfand played with less than a minute on the clock other hand Anand had 7+ minutes ... Gelfand tried hard for draw but Anand kept putting pressure and improving his position on the board ... Gelfand resigned after 77 moves.

In the first game Gelfand played with white ... Anand again played the Slav Defence ... After entertaining battle both agreed draw after 32 moves.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia


India l Argentina 2-3
Goal Scorer - Sardar Singh (IND) 48' PC, Raghunath (IND) 61' PC and Lucas (ARG) 37', Santiago (ARG) 38', Gonzalo Peillat (ARG) 57' PC

Indians failed to score in the first-half despite dominating it ... In the second half Argentina scored 2 goals in 2 minutes due to poor defending by Sandeep Singh ... After that Indians tried and earned 2nd penalty corner ... Sardar Singh scored on rebound after Raghunath's hit saved by the goal-keeper ... Argentina increased their lead to 2 goals when Peillat converted Argentina's first penalty corner ... In three minutes Indians earned their third penalty corner which Raghunath converted but failed to convert 4th penalty corner in 63rd minute.

Again poor finishing inside D and dodgy defense costed us a match ... With this loss our chances of reaching the final of the Azlan Shah cup r over.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Lucie Hradecka (CZE)/ Frantisek Cermak (CZE) 61 61
[R1] (4) Lisa Raymond (USA)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Natalie Grandin (RSA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 67(6) 64 6-10
[R1] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Raquel Kops-Jones (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA) 62 64

Lee and Elena started with solid win over Czech pair losing only 2 games ... Sania and Mahesh also started with comfortable win over American pair ... Shocking loss of 4th seed pair Rohan and Lisa in match tie-break against Hanley and Grandin ... In the first set tie-break Rohan and Lisa were leading 5-2 before losing that.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[R2] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1069) 63 64
[R2] (6) Bowen OUYANG (CHN,765) bt (Q) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R2] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) bt (Q) Elwin ANTONY (IND,1888) 64 63
[R2] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,936) bt (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) 60 62
[R2] (5) Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,702) bt Kunal ANAND (IND,1523) 61 60
[R2] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1344) 64 62
[R2] (LL) Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND,1888) bt (WC) Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND,UNR) 67(3) 63 4-1 Retd
[R2] (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,904) 63 64

Doubles
[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Ronak MANUJA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 61 46 10-7
[QF] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) 64 16 10-7
[QF] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 63 61
[QF] (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) 63 16 10-7

Expected results in the singles second round.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Doubles
[R1] (15) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l Nina Bratchikova (RUS)/ Edina Gallovits-Hall (ROU) 36 64 57

In the first set Sania and Bethanie had a break point in 7th game, 3-all, but failed to convert it and then lost their service game in 8th game to lose the first set ... In the second set they lost their serve in 3rd game but immediately broke back in next to make it 2-all ... Sania and Bethanie take crucial break in 10th game to won the second set ... In the third set Sania and Bethanie lost their serve in 3rd game but again they broke back to make it 2-all ... Sania and Bethanie lost 5th service game from 40-0 but they broke opponent's serve in 10th game when they were serving for the match to make it 5-all ... But Bratchikova and Gallovits-Hall easily broke Sania's serve in 11th game and then comfortably hold their service game to completed upset win.

Disappointing performance by Sania and Bethanie ... So with this first round loss Sania failed to defend her 1400 points as last year's finalist ... This also means she will be out of top 10 doubles rankings so she will miss direct entry in doubles for London Olympics.
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At $10K Spain F14 Futures, Madrid

[R1] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) l Lorenzo GIUSTINO (ITA,643) 67(5) 26

Though Mohit Mayur failed to earn a single ranking point still heartening performance from him against higher ranked opponents in this futures.

Chess News
At World Chess Championship 2012, Moscow, Russia

Game 12 - 28th May 2012
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) dw Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) ½-½ (6-6)

Anand played very attacking game in the final game ... Anand was going all out for the win ... Gelfand again started with Sicilian defense but Anand surprised him with b3 6th move ... Anand looks well prepared for this novelty ... After 22 moves Anand was a pawn up and he was slightly better and Gelfand had only 16 minutes for 18 moves but still Anand agreed draw.

So his means that the classical world champion will be decided through tie-break which will be played on Wednesday.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India bt Malaysia 3-2
Goal Scorer - Danish Mujtaba (IND) 9', Shivendra Singh (IND) 11' PC, Tushar Khandekar (IND) 41' and Muhammad Amin (MAS) 40' PC, Muhammad Fitri Saari (MAS) 58'

Indians survived as last 15 minutes they were under tremendous pressure from Malaysians ... India troubled with their dodgy defence and most of the last minute we were playing with one man less on the field due to back to back 2 yellow cards to Raghunath and Sandeep Singh ... Early Indians were in the control scoring 2 goals in 3 minutes and they maintained that lead till half-time ... After half-time Malaysians were trying hard and attacking from both flanks ... Within 5 minutes they earned penalty corner and scored from that ... On next minutes Indians scored through excellent move by Sardara Singh ... Malaysians kept pushing and earned couple of more penalty corners but failed to convert ... Muhammad Fitri Saari scored excellent individual goal from top of the circle in 58 minutes ... After that Malaysians tried and earned one penalty corner but Indians managed to keep lead ... So this was India's second victory from 4 matches.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

[R1] (15) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Nina Bratchikova (RUS)/ Edina Gallovits-Hall (ROU)
[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA)
[R1] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) vs Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Fabio Fognini (ITA)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Lucie Hradecka (CZE)/ Frantisek Cermak (CZE)
[R1] (4) Lisa Raymond (USA)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Natalie Grandin (RSA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)
[R1] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Raquel Kops-Jones (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA)

Lucky break for Sania and Bethanie ... When draw announced They were facing the Olympics bound experienced and 17h seed Argentine pair in the first round ... But 13th seed Russian pair Kuznetsova and Zvonareva withdrawn and 17th seed Argentine pair replaced them as seeded pair ... Rohan and Mahesh r 6th seed and facing French pair in the first round ... They r in top draw with Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor ... Radek is not playing with Lee due to his prior commitment so last minute Lee decided to pairing with Austrian Alexander Peya ... They r 7th seed and in bottom draw with Bryans ... In the first round they r facing Italian pair.

In mixed doubles our players r playing with their Australian open partners ... Lee and Rohan r in the top draw and can face in the semis but before that Lee and Vesnina can face top-seed Mirnyi and Huber in the quarters ... Rohan and Sania r in bottom draw and can face 2nd seed Bryan and Pescke in the quarters.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[R1] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt Viju GEORGE JR (USA,1728) 60 63
[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1069) bt (WC) Saurabh PATIL (IND,1426) 61 60
[R1] (Q) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS,1310) 46 62 62
[R1] (6) Bowen OUYANG (CHN,765) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1907) 76(5) 64
[R1] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) bt Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS,961) 46 62 63
[R1] (Q) Elwin ANTONY (IND,1888) bt Arvind Vishnu BESTHA (IND,1629) 61 63
[R1] (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Rishabdev RAMAN (IND,UNR) 63 76(5)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,936) bt (7) Francesco VILARDO (ITA,828) 62 36 64
[R1] (5) Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,702) bt (WC) Krishik DIVAKAR (IND,UNR) 64 60
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND,1523) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1072) 64 46 63
[R1] Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1344) bt (Q) Rynold TIMOTHY (IND,UNR) 62 61
[R1] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1225) 64 63
[R1] (WC) Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND,UNR) bt (LL) Ronak MANUJA (IND,1888) 62 62
[R1] (LL) Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND,1888) bt (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1793) 64 75
[R1] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,904) bt (Q) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND,1728) 63 61
[R1] (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND,1531) 64 60

Doubles
[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (WC) Bharatram BALAJEE (IND)/ Bharath-Srinivasan PARTHASARATHY (IND) 61 63
[R1] Ronak MANUJA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Yogesh PHOGAT (IND)/ Sidharth RAWAT (IND) 62 63
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt (4) Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 76(5) 16 10-7
[R1] Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) bt (WC) Arnav MOHANTY (USA)/ Arsav MOHANTY (USA) 60 61
[R1] Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) bt Arvind Vishnu BESTHA (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 64 76(3)
[R1] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 61 62
[R1] Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) bt (WC) Krishik DIVAKAR (IND)/ Sagar MANJANNA (IND) 63 62
[R1] (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND)/ Venkat IYER (IND) 61 62

Interesting to see how Saketh perform after long injury and training break.

Good upset win over higher ranked forigners by Kaza Sharma, Venkat Iyer and Kunal Anand ... Also happy to see new players like Sagar Manjanna and Rajat Maheshwari earning their first ranking point.
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At $10K Spain F14 Futures, Madrid

[R1] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) vs GIUSTINO, Lorenzo (ITA,643)

[Q3] (10) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) bt (1) David Perez Sanz (ESP,796) 76(7) 16 76(4)
[Q2] (10) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) bt Daniel GARCIA-GORDILLO (ESP,UNR) 63 62
[Q1] (10) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) bt Eduardo RICO BRUSI (ESP,UNR) 61 62

Excellent win in the final qualifying round against top-800 Spanish player on the clay for Mohit Mayur.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India l Great Britain 2-3
Goal Scorer - VR Raghunath (IND) 56' PC, SV Sunil (IND) 59' and Glen Kirkham (GBR) 28' PC, Ben Hawes (GBR) 44', Nick Catlin (GBR) 62'

Indians played better hockey on the field and showed more urgency but sloppy defending cost them the match ... Despite early chances which Indians failed to utilize Britisher take lead converting third penalty corner ... In the second half also our forwards failed to convert circle penetrations ... Britain doubled their lead in 44th minute through field goal ... Indians kept trying and earned first penalty corner in 55th minute which Raghunath converted and immediately after 3 minutes later SV Sunil deflected beautiful pass from Gurbaj Singh ... Britain strike back when sloppy defending by Indians in 62nd minute ... After that Indians tried hard to equalize ... They earned 2 penalty corners in last 3 minutes but failed to convert.

Chess News
At World Chess Championship 2012, Moscow, Russia

Game 11 - 26th May 2012
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) dw Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) ½-½ (5½-5½)

Important game for both players as only last 2 games were remaining ... This was last time Gelfand playing with white and Anand again used Nimzo Indian defense but on 8th played rare Bd7 move ... Gelfand played cautiously avoiding complication ... They agreed draw after 25 moves when Gelfand was under time pressure as only 12 minutes were remaining on his clock.

So tomorrow will be the last game and Anand is playing with white ... Interesting to see if Anand go all out with white or prefer the rapid playoffs.

Tennis News
At $637K Brussels WTA Open, Belgium (Red clay)

Doubles Final
(4) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (3) Jie Zheng (CHN)/ Alicja Rosolska (POL) 63 62

Sania won her 14th WTA doubles title and the first premier WTA tournament title of 2012

Sania and Bethanie were early break down, 0-2, but they broke back in 4th game to make it 2-all ... Sania and Bethanie again broke their opponent in 8th game and then hold to won the first set ... In the second set Sania and Bethanie broke Jie Zheng and Rosolska in 1st and 3rd game to take 4-0 lead and then hold their service game respectively to complete comfortable win in 70 minutes.

Much required title win for Sania as she gets 470 points and huge confidence boost before French open ... She is defending loads of point as last year's French open finalist so her direct double entry in the Olympics with top 10 finish is under pressure.
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At $10K Delhi ITF Tournament, India

Singles Final
(5) Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt (Q) Simran Kaur Sethi (IND) 62 64

Rishika Sunkara lifted her first $10K ITF title beating 15 yrs old talented Simran Kaur Sethi in the final ... Frankly great week for both players as Simran needed to qualify before reaching into the final.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India bt South Korea 2-1
Goal Scorer - Sandeep singh (IND) 11' PC, Utthappa (IND) 70'and Nam Hyun (KOR) 66' PC

South Koreans were looking more co-ordinated side on the field but Indians scored early through penalty corner ... Indians maintained that lead at half-time while keeping pressure on Koreans ... In the second half Koreans were better side on the field and Indians were disarray ... In the last 10 minutes Koreans kept building pressure and managed equalizer through penalty corner when 5 minutes were remaining ... But smart deflection by Utthappa on Tushar Khandekar's cross when 55 seconds were remaining help India to earned important 3 points.