Badminton News
At $400K All England Badminton Championships 2013, Birmingham (Super Series Premier)

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,9) l (2) Long Chen (CHN,2) 16-21 10-21
[QF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) bt (6) Shixian Wang (CHN,6) 23-21 19-21

[SF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) vs (8) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,8)

Saina won see-saw battle against Shixian in long 73 minutes match and maintained her positive winning record against her ... In the first game Shixian take early 7-3 lead but Saina made it 7-all ... After that both players were neck to neck until 16-all ... This time Saina opened 3 points lead, 19-16, but Shixian caught her at 19-all ... Both players saved one game point each before Saina converted her second game point and winning the first game in extra points ... In the second game Shixian opened 6-1 then 7-2 lead but Saina caught with her at 8-all ... Shixian again opened 13-8 lead after winning 5 points in a row ... Saina responded strongly winning next 9 points to lead 17-13 and then 18-15 ... Shixian won next 4 points to lead 19-18 and then she won next 2 points from 19-all to take the second game ... In the decider both players were neck to neck until 7-all before Saina winning 7 points in a row to lead 13-7 ... After that Saina didn't give much chance to Shixian for fight back ... Shixian managed to reduce lead to 12-15 but Saina didn't lose the control of the game ... She converted 2nd match point for good victory ... Next Saina is facing young Thai Ratchanok Intanon ... In their last meeting in December at BWF Superseries Finals 2012, Ratchanok defeated Saina easily.

Kashyap failed to produce much fight against Chen ... Chen won it comfortably in 43 minutes.

Tennis News
At $5.03M Indian Wells Masters, USA

[R1] (8) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l Lisa Raymond (USA)/ Samantha Stosur (AUS) 76(8) 36 6-10
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) l Lukasz Kubot (POL)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 46 67(4)

Sania and Bethanie won the first set in very long tie-break but after that they failed to keep momentum against experienced Raymond and Stosur ... Raymond and Stosur won the second set with a break and then comfortably won match tie-break.

Rohan and Rajeev's pairing is struggling to make mark on the tour ... Here also they lost in straight sets against singles specialist Tipsarevic and Kubot ... After losing the first set they take the second in tie-break but failed to win it.
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At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[SF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA)/ Dominik Meffert (GER) 76(4) 64

[F] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (2) Chris Guccione (AUS)/ Matt Reid (AUS)

Divij and Purav r in the final at Kyoto challenger and facing 2nd seed Australian pair in the final ... After winning the first set in tie-break our pair won the second set with single break.
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At $10K India F2 Futures, Madurai,

Singles Quarter Finals
(1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU,236) bt (Q) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER,1066) 75 63
Filippo LEONARDI (ITA,734) bt Claudio FORTUNA (ITA,686) 5-0 Retd.
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,420) bt (6) Vijayant MALIK (IND,541) 60 63
(7) N. Vijay Sunder PRASHANTH (IND,563) bt (PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA,UNR) 64 63

Doubles Semi Finals
(1) Caio SILVA (BRA)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (4) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 62 36 13-11
Patrick CIORCILA (ROU)/ Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt Filippo LEONARDI (ITA)/ Giulio TORRONI (ITA) 64 75

Vijay Sunder scored big win over in-form Frenchman Wang in straight sets ... Expected win for Jeevan.

Badminton News
At $400K All England Badminton Championships 2013, Birmingham (Super Series Premier)

[R2] (Q) Sourabh Varma (IND,43) l (8) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,8) 19-21 19-21
[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,9) bt (7) Kenichi Tago (JPN,6) 21-18 21-12
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,16) l (4) Juliane Schenk (GER,4) 17-21 14-21
[R2] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) bt (Q) Belaetrix Manuputi (INA,41) 21-16 21-11

[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (8) Robert Mateusiak (POL)/ Nadiezda Zieba (POL) 17-21 16-21

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,9) vs (2) Long Chen (CHN,2)
[QF] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,3) vs (6) Shixian Wang (CHN,6)

In the first game Nguyen take early lead over Sourabh which he extended to 14-8 but Sourabh fought back and take 17-16 lead ... Nguyen won last 2 points from 19-all to captured the first game ... Same happened in the second game as Nguyen take early 4-1 lead which he extended to 10-5 then 17-11 ... This time also Sourabh caught with him at 18-all ... After that Sourabh saved a match point at 18-20 but Nguyen converted 2nd match point for close win in 42 minutes.

Kashyap scored impressive win over WR #6 Japanese Kenichi Tago in 37 minutes ... In the first game Kashyap take early 6-3 lead but Tago caught with him at 7-all ... Again Kashyap take lead but this time also Tago caught with him at 13-all ... Kashyap take 18-15 lead but again Tago caught with him at 18-all ... Kashyap won the first game after winning next 3 points ... In the second game Kashyap opned 7 points lead after winning 6 points in a row from 4-3, 10-3 ... After that Kashyap never lose the grip of the match and won this game comfortably ... Next he is facing WR #2 Long Chen, Kashyap defeated him in their last meeting at Indonesian Super Series 2012.

Sindhu started confidently take 5-1 lead but Schenk caught her at 6-all ... First time Schenk take lead in this game when she won 5 points in a row from 12-15 ... Sindhu managed to make it 17-all but after that Schenk won next 4 points for winning this game ... After early leads exchange Schenk opened 12-8 lead after winning 5 points in a row ... Schenk managed to keep that lead and won this game more convincingly.

Saina scored expected comfortable win against Indonesian qualifier ... In the first game Saina take early lead but Manuputi managed to make it 12-all after Saina's errors ... But after 13-all Saina take control and won this game losing another only 3 points ... More polished performance by Saina in the second game ... She take 7-1 lead after winning 7 points in a row which she increased to 12-2 ... Saina won this game comfortably ... In the quarters she is facing her favorite Wang, Shixian Wang ... Saina is having 3-1 win-loss record against her.

Jwala and Diju lost against Polish pair in straight games ... In their last meeting Jwala and Diju defeated same pair convincingly but they failed to repeat same performance here.

Tennis News
At $5.03M Indian Wells Masters, USA

Doubles
[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) vs Feliciano Lopez (ESP)/ Milos Raonic (CAN)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Lukasz Kubot (POL)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)
[R1] (7) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Benoit Paire (FRA)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)

Draw is out for men's doubles ... Rohan and Rajeev r in top draw ... They can face 8th seed Polish pair in the second round ... Our other 2 pairs r in bottom draw but in different half ... Lee and Jurgen can face 2nd seed Spanish pair in the quarters ... Mahesh and Daniel can face 5th seed Lindstedt and Zimo in the quarters.
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At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[QF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (ALT) Yuichi Ito (JPN)/ Takuto Niki (JPN) 6363
[QF] Yuki BHambri (IND)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) l (2) Chris Guccione (AUS)/ Matt Reid (AUS) 67(2) 67(2)

[SF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Andrea Arnaboldi (ITA)/ Dominik Meffert (GER)

Divij and Purav r in the semis with easy straight sets victory over local pair ... Next they r facing experienced pairing of Arnaboldi and Meffert.

In the first set Yuki and Yasutaka had 5 break points which they failed to convert and then lost the set in tie-break ... In the second set both pairs broke opponents once and in tie-break Yuki and Yasutaka take early mini-break but failed to keep that advantage ... They saved couple of match points but Aussie pair converted 3rd match point.
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At $10K India F2 Futures, Madurai,

Singles Second Round
(1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU,236) bt Laslo URRUTIA FUENTES (CHI,832) 63 63
(Q) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER,1066) bt (Q) Patrick CIORCILA (ROU,980) 76(6) 36 64
Filippo LEONARDI (ITA,734) bt (4) Thales TURINI (BRA,436) 57 64 63
Claudio FORTUNA (ITA,686) bt (5) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,506) 46 63 75
(6) Vijayant MALIK (IND,541) bt (Q) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,UNR) 61 46 64
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,420) bt Giulio TORRONI (ITA,733) 63 64
(7) N. Vijay Sunder PRASHANTH (IND,563) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,794) 63 61
(PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA,UNR) bt Maximilian DINSLAKEN (GER,748) 63 62

Doubles Quarter Finals
(1) Caio SILVA (BRA)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Mats MORAING (GER)/ Arata ONOZAWA (JPN) 62 36 11-9
(4) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Maximilian DINSLAKEN (GER)/ Tom SCHONENBERG (GER) 64 64
Patrick CIORCILA (ROU)/ Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt (3) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 76(4) 63
Filippo LEONARDI (ITA)/ Giulio TORRONI (ITA) bt Chandril SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 62 75

Jeevan needed to win 2 matches in a row as yesterday was wasted due to rain ... Only Vijayant and Vijay Sunder managed to join Jeevan in the quarters.

Badminton News
At $400K All England Badminton Championships 2013, Birmingham (Super Series Premier)

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) l Zhengming Wang (CHN,19) 21-15 18-21 10-21
[R1] (Q) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,26) 10-21 21-14 24-22
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,11) bt Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,31) 21-17 21-18
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,16) bt Busanan Ongbumrungpan (THA,17) 21-13 21-18
[R1] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,2) bt Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,20) 21-8 18-21 21-16

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Fran Kurniawan (INA)/ Shendy Puspa Irawati (INA) 18-21 10-21
[R1] (Q) Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l Jian Guo Ong (MAS)/ Yin Loo Lim (MAS) 8-21 13-21
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Peter Kaesbauer (GER)/ Isabel Herttrich (GER) 21-9 21-17

[R2] (Q) Sourabh Varma (IND,43) vs (8) Tien Minh Nguyen (VIE,9)
[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,11) vs (7) Kenichi Tago (JPN,6)
[R2] Sindhu P. V. (IND,16) vs (4) Juliane Schenk (GER,4)
[R2] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,2) vs (Q) Belaetrix Manuputi (INA,41)

[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs (8) Robert Mateusiak (POL)/ Nadiezda Zieba (POL)

Sapsiree Taerattanachai stretched Saina to three games ... Saina won the first game easily but Sapsiree fought back and won close second game ... Saina kept her focus in the third and won the match ... Next she is facing Indonesian qualifier ... Top-seed Xuerui Li lost in the first round against Korean Yeon Ju Bae.

Sindhu scored comfortable win over her Thai opponent Busanan Ongbumrungpan ... Next she is facing WR #4 Juliane Schenk ... After injury break Kashyap was playing his first match ... He played crucial points well enough to win his match in straight games ... Next he is facing WR #6 Japanese Kenichi Tago.

Sourabh continued with his upset wins ... He defeated Indonesian Rumbaka in three games ... Rumbaka take 7-0 lead and won the first game easily ... In the second game Sourabh take early 4-1 lead which he kept increasing 13-5 then 15-8 ... Rumbaka saved 3 game points from 11-20 but Sourabh converted 4th game point ... In the third game Sourabh take 8-2 lead winning 6 points in a row but Rumbaka fought back winning next 5 points, 7-8 ... After that Sourabh take 10-7 then 14-11 and 18-16 lead but all the time Rumbaka caught him ... Sourabh had 3 match points at 20-17 but Rumbaka won next 4 points to lead 21-10 ... Sourabh also scored 2 match points before converting 4th match point for winning this match in an hour ... Next he is facing WR #9 Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen.

Jwala and Diju played their first match after London Olympics and scored comfortable win over German pair ... Next they r facing 8th seed Polish pair ... Our other two mixed doubles pair lost easily against their respective Asian pairs.

Football News
At AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers 2014, Yangon, Myanmar

Pool A
India l Myanmar 0-1
Goal Scored - Soe Min Oo (MYA) 75'

We needed only draw for topping the group and qualifying for the AFC challenge cup as Taipei side hold Myanmar in their previous match ... But our team failed miserably against host nation ... We missed many chances in both half and Soe Min Oo scored only goal of the match when 15 minutes were remains ... Now our team need to hope they r lucky enough to qualify as second best team from 2nd place five teams from other groups.

Tennis News
At $5.03M Indian Wells Masters, USA

Doubles
[R1] (8) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Lisa Raymond (USA)/ Samantha Stosur (AUS)

Women's doubles draw is out, Sania and Bethanie r in bottom draw with 2nd seed Czech pair ... They r 8th seed but having tricky first round against good pairing of former WR #1 Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur.
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At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,266) l (6) Michal Przysiezny (POL,178) 76(4) 36 57

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Liang-Chi Huang (TPE)/ Suk-Young Jeong (KOR) 61 63

[QF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (ALT) Yuichi Ito (JPN)/ Takuto Niki (JPN)
[QF] Yuki BHambri (IND)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) vs (2) Chris Guccione (AUS)/ Matt Reid (AUS)

Both players were holding their service games at ease ... Like the way Yuki was serving in this match ... In tie-break Yuki take mini-breaks on 5th and 9th points to lead 6-3 ... Przysiezny take one mini-break on 10th point but Yuki won next point on his serve and won the first set ... Yuki started to struggle in on his serve in the second set ... Yuki saved 2 break points from 15-40 in 3rd game but lost his serve in 5th game from 40-15 ... Michal again broke Yuki in 9th game and won the second set with double break ... In the final set first time in the match Yuki had break point on Michal's serve in 1st game ... But Michal hold with huge serving, then in 3rd game also Yuki take it to deuce ... This time also Michal hold with huge serving ... After that both players holding their service games comfortably ... But in 12th game while serving for staying in the match Yuki failed to hold his serve.

Comfortable winning start for top-seed Purav and Divij ... Next they r facing local pair ... Yuki and his Japnese partner r facing 2nd seed Aussie pair.

Badminton News
At $400K All England Badminton Championships 2013, Birmingham (Super Series Premier)

[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,51) l (1) Rajiv Ouseph (ENG,34) 22-20 21-23 7-21
[Q1] Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Brice Leverdez (FRA,49) 22-20 23-21
[Q1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,37) l (4) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,39) 17-21 21-13 10-21

[Q1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) bt Adam Cwalina (POL)/ Przemyslaw Wacha (POL) 21-18 21-15
[Q1] (2) Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l Bodin Issara (THA)/ Pakkawat Vilailak (THA) 16-21 18-21
[Q1] (4) Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) bt Sarah Thomas (WAL)/ Carissa Turner (WAL) 21-8 21-12
[Q1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l (3) Sang Joon Lee (KOR)/ So Young Kim (KOR) 21-19 9-21 19-21
[Q1] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) bt Chia Bin Lu (TPE)/ Ya Lan Chang (TPE) 21-12 21-13

[Q2] Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt (1) Rajiv Ouseph (ENG,34) 21-13 21-18

[Q2] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l Bodin Issara (THA)/ Pakkawat Vilailak (THA) 14-21 10-21
[Q2] (4) Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l Lauren Smith (ENG)/ Gabrielle White (ENG) 13-21 13-21
[Q2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) bt Chun Hei Lee (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG) 22-24 21-14 21-18

[R1] (Q) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) vs Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,26)
[R1] (Q) Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Jian Guo Ong (MAS)/ Yin Loo Lim (MAS)

Anand missed big chance of upsetting Rajiv Ouseph ... In the first two games Anand was taking lead and then Rajiv were catching him ... Still Anand won the first game after converting 2nd game point ... In the second game at one time Anand had 16-11 lead but Rajiv fought back winning next 5 points ... Anand saved a game point at 19-20 but then he failed to convert match point at 21-20 ... Rajiv converted 2nd game point ... In the final game Anand failed to raise his game and lost it tamely (may be fitness issue in long matches).

Arun and Aparna won the close first game but in the second game seeded Korean pair runaway and won it comfortably ... In the final game both pairs were neck to neck but Koreans opened 3 points lead after winning 5 points from 8-10 ... Arun and Aparna managed to catch them at 15-all ... Koreans take 19-17 lead but again Indian pair made it 19-all but Koreans converted first match point and won this long 53 minutes match.

In the other match Sourabh was falling behind in the early stage but the take big 19-13 lead ... Leverdez won next 6 points to make it 19-all but Sourabh converted 2nd game point ... In the second game also both players went neck to neck, whenever someone take 2/3 points lead then other player was catching him ... Sourabh failed to convert match point at 20-19 but then he also saved a game point at 20-21 ... Sourabh won next 3 points converting 2nd match point for this tight 41 minutes victory.

Guru lost his match against Thai opponent ... After losing the first game Guru fought back and won the second game comfortably ... Guru failed to keep momentum in the final game and lost thisa game winning only 10 points.

Tarun and Arun lost in straight games against lower ranked Thai pair in the first qualifying round.

Ashwini and Pradnya started confidently and won the first qualifying match losing only 20 points against Wales pair ... But they failed to repeat same performance against local pair in the final qualifying ... They lost their match against British pair without giving much fight.

Akshay and Pradnya entered as alternate pairing mixed doubles qualifying ... In the first qualifying they defeated higher ranked Taipei pair comfortably in straight games ... In the final qualifying they faced another higher ranked Hong Kong pair ... After losing the first game in extra points Akshay and Pradnya gave solid performance to win next two games ... In the main-draw they r facing Malaysian pair.

Pranaav and Akshay won their men's doubles qualifying match against Polish pair in straight game but in the final qualifying match Thai pair proved too strong for them.

In the final qualifying match Sourabh faced top-seed Rajiv ... In the first game from 4-7 Rajiv won next 8 points to lead 12-7 but after that Sourabh won 12 points in a row to take 19-12 lead ... Sourabh won this game losing another point ... In the second game from 3-6 down Sourabh won 6 points in a row to take 9-6 lead ... After that Sourabh kept his lead throughout the game ... Rajiv tried fightback after wining 3 points in a row from 14-19 but Sourabh kept his cool and completed victory in 33 minutes ... Good draw for Sourabh as he is facing WR #26 Indonesian Dionysius Hayom Rumbak.

Prajakta Sawant failed to get visa so Jwala withdrew from women's doubles qualifying ... Also Sai skipped this tournament.

Tennis News
At $5.03M Indian Wells Masters, USA

[Q1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,250) l (23) Matteo Viola (ITA,123) 26 26

Somi had a decent draw in Indian Wells qualifying against in-form Italian Viola ... But in this match Somi struggled with his service games ... He lost his service games six times and broke opponent's twice ... One of poor show from Somi after long time.
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At $35K Kyoto Challenger, Japan

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,266) bt Liang-Chi Huang (TPE,315) 64 62

[R2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,266) vs (6) Michal Przysiezny (POL,178)

Doubles
[R1] Yuki BHambri (IND)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) bt (ALT) Hiroyasu Ehara (JPN)/ Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN) 62 76(3)

Yuki started cautiously and in the first set he played without taking much risk ... Simply played average tennis keeping ball into play ... Take crucial break in 10th game and then dominated the second set ... He broke Huang twice before winning the first round match ... Next he is facing 6th seed Polish Przysiezny.

In the doubles also Yuki had winning start with his partner against local alternate pair.
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At $10K India F2 Futures, Madurai,

Singles First Round
(1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU,236) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,936) 63 61
Laslo URRUTIA FUENTES (CHI,832) bt (Q) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE,1221) 64 62
(Q) Patrick CIORCILA (ROU,980) bt (Q) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND,UNR) 63 62
(Q) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER,1066) bt (8) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,616) 60 76(4)
(4) Thales TURINI (BRA,436) bt (WC) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1072) 4-0 Retd.
Filippo LEONARDI (ITA,734) bt (WC) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1127) 64 36 63
Claudio FORTUNA (ITA,686) bt (Q) Kunal ANAND (IND,1379) 60 75
(5) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,506) bt (Q) Libor SALABA (CZE,1245) 62 62
(6) Vijayant MALIK (IND,541) bt Austin KAROSI (USA,963) 62 75
(Q) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Rakshay THAKKAR (IND,1551) 62 63
Giulio TORRONI (ITA,733) bt Caio SILVA (BRA,761) 5-1 Retd.
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,420) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,792) 61 75
(7) N. Vijay Sunder PRASHANTH (IND,563) bt (WC) Elwin ANTONY (IND,1494) 60 67(6) 63
Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,794) bt Augusto LARANJA (BRA,628) 61 26 62
Maximilian DINSLAKEN (GER,748) bt (WC) Chandril SOOD (IND,1111) 61 61
(PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA,UNR) bt (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,313) 64 67(6) 64

Doubles First Round
(1) Caio SILVA (BRA)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Claudio FORTUNA (ITA)/ Allan Gomes OLIVEIRA (BRA) 62 46 10-7
Mats MORAING (GER)/ Arata ONOZAWA (JPN) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Jatin DAHIYA (IND) 75 60
(4) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Sagar MANJANNA (IND) / Rakshay THAKKAR (IND) 75 62
Maximilian DINSLAKEN (GER)/ Tom SCHONENBERG (GER) bt Libor SALABA (CZE)/ Tak Khunn WANG (FRA) 75 36 10-4
Patrick CIORCILA (ROU)/ Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 76(5) 62
(3) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt Austin KAROSI (USA)/ Laslo URRUTIA FUENTES (CHI) 61 76(6)
Chandril SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 64 75
Filippo LEONARDI (ITA)/ Giulio TORRONI (ITA) bt (2) Augusto LARANJA (BRA) / Thales TURINI (BRA) 62 46 10-8

Good upset win from Ramkumar against higher ranked Brazilian opponent in three sets ... Balaji also gave fighting performance against Wang.

Football News
At AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers 2014, Yangon, Myanmar

Pool A
India bt Guam 4-0 (0-0)
Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri 49' and 90+', Clifford Miranda (IND) 67', Jewel Raja (IND) 80'

Not so impressive performance against lowly ranked Guam ... Our team won 4-0 and all goals scored in the second half ... Myanmar defeated Guam in their first match 5-0.

Badminton News
At $400K All England Badminton Championships 2013, Birmingham (Super Series Premier)

[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,51) vs (1) Rajiv Ouseph (ENG,34)
[Q1] Sourabh Varma (IND,42) vs Brice Leverdez (FRA,49)
[Q1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,55) vs Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,52)
[Q1] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,37) vs (4) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,39)

[Q1] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) vs Adam Cwalina (POL)/ Przemyslaw Wacha (POL)
[Q1] (2) Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs Bodin Issara (THA)/ Pakkawat Vilailak (THA)
[Q1] (4) Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Sarah Thomas (WAL)/ Carissa Turner (WAL)
[Q1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Serithammarak Artima (THA)/ Peeraya Munkitamorn (THA)
[Q1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) vs (3) Sang Joon Lee (KOR)/ So Young Kim (KOR)

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs Zhengming Wang (CHN,19)
[R1] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,11) vs Jen Hao Hsu (TPE,31)
[R1] Sindhu P. V. (IND,16) vs Busanan Ongbumrungpan (THA,17)
[R1] (2) Saina Nehwal (IND,2) vs Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,20)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Fran Kurniawan (INA)/ Shendy Puspa Irawati (INA)
[R1] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Peter Kaesbauer (GER)/ Isabel Herttrich (GER)

As expected big Indian contingent for All England ... Hoping better performance by Saina in this prestigious tournament.

Tennis News
At 1.78M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE


Doubles Final
Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) bt (3) Robert Lindstedt (SWE)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 76(6) 76(6)

Mahesh won his fifth Dubai Championship (interestingly) with fifth different partner ... In the final he and Llodra defeated 3rd seed Lindstedt and Zimo in two tight tie-breaks ... 52nd doubles title for Mahesh and 25th for Llodra.

Mahesh and Llodra had couple of break points in 1st game on Lindstedt's serve but failed to convert it ... Mahesh failed to hold his serve in 4th game but Mahesh and Llodra broke Lindstedt saving set point when he was serving for the set at 5-3 ... In tie-break Lindstedt and Zoma had 3 set points at 6-3 but Mahesh and Llodra won next 5 points for winning this set ... The second set went in tie-break without any service break ... In tie-break after 1-3 down Mahesh and Llodra won next 4 points but this time Lindstedt and Zimo fought back and had set point at 6-5 ... Mahesh and Llodra won next 3 points for completing well fought title win.
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At $50K Sydney 1 Challenger, Australia

[SF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Alex Bolt (AUS)/ Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 67(3) 46

Divij and Purav lost in the semis against Australian youngsters.
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At $10K India F1 Futures, Chennai

Singles Final
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) l (1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU) 67(3) 57

Jeevan gave fighting performance against former top-100 Romanian Crivoi ... In the first set both players hold their respective service games but Crivoi was played perfect tie-break ... In the second set Jeevan failed to hold his serve when he was serving for staying in the match at 5-6.

Football News
At AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers 2014, Yangon, Myanmar

Group A
India bt Chinese Taipei 2-1 (1-0)
Goal Scored - Jewel Raja (IND) 40', Robin Singh (IND) 90+' and Lee Tai-lin (TPE) 58'

Myanmar bt Guam 5-0

At half-time Indian team is leading by solitary goal from Raja in 40th minute ... Taipei equalized in 58th minute through Lee Tai-lin ... Robin Singh gave India all 3 points with header in injury time ... Despite dominating the match we struggled for this win due to poor finishing in-front of the goal.

Chess News
At Zurich Chess Challenge 2013, Switzerland

6th round - 1st March 2013
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) 1-0 GM Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757) 1-0 GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740)

Another young talent is emerging after Magnus Carlsen ... 20 yrs old Italian-American Fabiano Caruana won the Zurich tournament by a full point ... In the final round he defeated Gelfand in the Catalan game ... The game was moving towards draw but Gelfand made couple of crucial errors after 50th move and Caruana take full advantage of it and won this game in 58 moves.

Anand needed victory to improve from his last position ... Anand and Kramnik started with the Ruy Lopez opening but Kramnik outplayed Anand early ... Kramnik was in better position but he played big blunder move 21. Qb8 and also didn't exchange queens ... Anand take this opportunity and won this game in 27 moves ... With this win Anand finished on sole 2nd position with 3 points.

Final Standing
1. GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757) 4.0 pts
2. GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) 3.0 pts
T3. GM Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810) 2.5 pts
T3. GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740) 2.5 pts

Badminton News
At $120K YONEX German Open 2013, Mülheim an der Ruh

[QF] Anand Pawar (IND,51) l (2) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,15) 9-21 11-21

Ponsana gave one sided defeat to Anand in 30 minutes ... In this match Anand managed to win only 20 points ... Still creditable for Anand to reaching in the quarters of GP Gold tournament.

Tennis News
At 1.78M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[SF] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) bt Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) 63 67(2) 10-5

Mahesh and Llodra enter into the final with match tie-break win over Rohan and Rajeev ... Mahesh and Llodra won the first set with a single break ... In the second set also they were break up early, 3-1 ... But while serving for the match at 5-4 they failed to hold and then Rohan and Rajeev won the tie-break easily ... In match tie-break Mahesh and Llodra take early 4-2 lead which they kept increasing.
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At $10K India F1 Futures, Chennai

Singles
[SF] (1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt (4) Thales TURINI (BRA)
[SF] (3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA) 76(2) 26 62

Doubles Final
(1) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 64 06 10-7

Excellent win by Jeevan against in-form former top-500 Frenchman Wang ... In the first set Jeevan broke Wang when he was serving for the set at 4-5 and then won the set in tie-break ... Wang fought back in the second winning with double break but then Jeevan dominated the final set and enter into the final ... In the final he is facing former top100 Romanian Crivoi.

Chess News
At Zurich Chess Challenge 2013, Switzerland

5th round - 28 February 2013
GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740) ½-½ GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) GM Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810) ½-½ GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757)

Caruana maintained his ½ points lead after exciting draw with Kramnik in 49 moves ... Anand needed to play his best defensive game after poor opening ... He hold Gelfand after 40 moves.

Badminton News
At $120K YONEX German Open 2013, Mülheim an der Ruh

[R3] (10) Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) l (8) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,24) 16-21 13-21
[R3] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Hsuan Yi Hsueh (TPE,78) 21-15 21-13

[R2] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Chris Adcock (ENG)/ Gabrielle White (ENG) 13-21 15-21
[R2] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l (4) Kyung Eun Jung (KOR)/ Ha Na Kim (KOR) 13-21 16-21

[QF] Anand Pawar (IND,51) vs (2) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,15)

Only Anand Pawar managed to win his match against Taipei player ... Anand scored comfortable win and reaching quarter-final will help him to re-enter into top-50 world ranking ... Ajay failed to raise his game against Sugiarto.

Ashwini failed to repeat their performance with her partners and lost in straight games.

Tennis News
At 1.78M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[QF] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) bt (4) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 46 64 10-8
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) bt Victor Hanescu (ROU)/ Lukas Rosol (CZE) 46 75 10-4

[SF] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) vs Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA)

Rohan and Mahesh scored win in match tie-breaks with their respective partners ... After losing the first set Mahesh and Llodra won the second set ... Mahesh and Llodra won very close match tie-break against 4th seed Poles ... Rohan and Rajeev also lost the first set but fought back to win the second ... They won match tie-break comfortably ... In the semis Rohan and Rajeev r facing Mahesh and Llodra.
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At $50K Sydney 1 Challenger, Australia

[QF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Artem Sitak (NZL)/ Jose (Rubin) Statham (NZL) 64 64

[SF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Alex Bolt (AUS)/ Nick Kyrgios (AUS)

Good comfortable straight sets victory over All Blacks pair by Purav and Divij ... Next they r facing in-form young Aussie pair in the semis.
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At $15K Kazakhstan F2 Futures, Aktobe

[SF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Mohamed Safwat (EGY) l (2) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 46 46

With this end of disappointing one week in Kazakh for Yuki.
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At $10K India F1 Futures, Chennai

Singles Quarter Finals
(1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt (WC) Elwin ANTONY (IND) 63 61
(4) Thales TURINI (BRA) bt (5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 63 57 60
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (7) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 26 61 62
(PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA) bt (6) Vijayant MALIK (IND) 63 61

Doubles
[SF} (1) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (ALT) Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE)/ Petar TOMIC (SRB) 75 64
[SF] (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (ALT) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE)/ Chih-Jen HO (TPE) 63 63

Only Jeevan remains in the singles semis ... Other and terrific run from former top-500 young Frencman Tak Khun Wang, who scored another upset win over Indian player.

Chess News
At Zurich Chess Challenge 2013, Switzerland

4th round - 27 February 2013
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) 0-1 Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757)
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740) ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810)

Fabiano Caruana surprsied Anand with his deep preparation ... He outplayed Anand move by move and won this match in 45 moves playing with Black ... Kramnik missed opportunity of winning a full point against Gelfand ... Their match ended in a draw after 46 moves ... Caruana is leading with ½ pts and Anand is on last position.

Tennis News
At 1.78M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[R2] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,315) l (4) Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG,7) 46 46

Doubles
[R1] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) bt Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/ Viktor Troicki (SRB)63 63
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) bt (2) Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) 64 64

[QF] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) vs (4) Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) vs Victor Hanescu (ROU)/ Lukas Rosol (CZE)

Somi failed to convert 3 break point chance on Del Potro's serve but Del Porto converted first break point ... For winning the first set that a single break advantage was enough for Del Porto ... Del Porto broke Somi in 1st game of the second set after long game ... Del Porto kept this one break advantage and won this match with clinical performance ... In the second set Del Porto didn't face a single break point.

Winning start for defending champions Mahesh and Rohan with their respective partners ... Mahesh and Llodra scored comfortable win over Serbian pair ... Rohan managed to keep upper hand over his ex-partner Aisam ... On Sunday he defeated Aisam and Rojer in the title match pairing Colin Fleming ... Here Rohan is back with Rajeev and they also defeated Aisam and Rojer in straight sets.
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At $50K Sydney 1 Challenger, Australia

[R2] Sanam Singh (IND,295) l James Duckworth (AUS,238) 26 67(5)

Doubles
[QF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Artem Sitak (NZL)/ Jose (Rubin) Statham (NZL)

After losing the first set easily Sanam had his chances in the second ... He failed to hold his service when serving for the set at 5-4, Sanam lost his serve on luv ... Then he lost tie-break to lose the match ... So old trend continues, again Sanam failed to show consistency in his results after excellent upset.
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At $15K Kazakhstan F2 Futures, Aktobe

[R2] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND,257) l Marek Semjan (SVK,452) 26 46

Doubles
[QF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Mohamed Safwat (EGY) bt Nurdaulen Baimakhanov (KAZ)/ Alexey Kedryuk (KAZ) 63 63

[SF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Mohamed Safwat (EGY) vs (2) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)

These stupid long breaks from the tour is really not helping Yuki ... Yuki failed to create much challenge to last week's finalist Marek Semjan ... This was Yuki's only 4th match on the tour in new season.

In the doubles Yuki and Safwat scored comfortable win over local pair ... Next they r facing 2nd seed Chinese pair.
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At $10K India F1 Futures, Chennai

Singles Second Round
(1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt Laslo URRUTIA FUENTES (CHI) 62 61
(WC) Elwin ANTONY (IND) bt (Q) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 67(6) 64 62
(4) Thales TURINI (BRA) bt (Q) Mats MORAING (GER) 75 67(8) 76(8)
(5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (WC) Mohd Assri MERZUKI (MAS) 64 62
(7) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND) 62 64
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Giulio TORRONI (ITA) 60 62
(6) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (Q) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER) 64 61
(PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA) bt (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) 62 76(3)

Doubles Quarter Finals
(1) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 76(2) 76(5)
(ALT) Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE)/ Petar TOMIC (SRB) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 46 63 13-11
(ALT) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE)/ Chih-Jen HO (TPE) bt (3) Augusto LARANJA (BRA)/ Thales TURINI (BRA) 63 26 10-6
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (WC) Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 61 46 10-7

Frenchman proved too strong for 2nd seed Balaji ... Elwin also scored upset win over Vivek.

Badminton News
At $120K YONEX German Open 2013, Mülheim an der Ruh

[R2] (10) Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) bt Richi Takeshita (JPN,114) 21-17 21-16
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt (6) Viktor Axelsen (DEN,22) 21-11 22-20
[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,93) l (2) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,15) 10-21 16-21

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt (5) Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA) 23-25 21-16 21-17
[R1] (Q) Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l Chun Hei Lee (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG) 10-21 17-21
[R1] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) bt Samantha Barning (NED)/ Eefje Muskens (NED) 22-20 21-11
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) l V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Khim Wah Lim (MAS) 16-21 17-21

[R3] (10) Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs (8) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,24)
[R3] Anand Pawar (IND,51) vs Hsuan Yi Hsueh (TPE,78)

[R2] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Chris Adcock (ENG)/ Gabrielle White (ENG)
[R2] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs (4) Kyung Eun Jung (KOR)/ Ha Na Kim (KOR)

Ashwini having winning start in mixed and women's doubles ... In mixed double she defeated WR #11 Indonesian pair after losing the first game in close 53 minutes match with her partner Tarun Kona ... Next they r facing experienced British pair ... In women's doubles both pairs were 14-all before Dutch pair take 18-14 lead ... Ashwini and Pradnya won 5 points in a row to win the first game from 17-20 after saving 3 game points ... After winning the first game they dominated the second game and completed victory in 26 minutes ... Next they r facing WR #9 Korean pair.

Anand scored upset win over top-25 Danish player Viktor ... In the first game from 4-8 down Anand lost only 3 more points before winning the game ... In the second game both players were nect to neck until 17-all ... Anand had 3 match points at 20-17 which Viktor saved it before Anand converting 4th match point ... Next he is facing experienced Taipei player Hsuan Yi Hsueh ... Ajay scored comfortable straight sets win over his Japanese opponent but next having tough match against Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto ... Boonsak Ponsana scored easy victory over Arvind.

Badminton News
At $120K YONEX German Open 2013, Mülheim an der Ruh

[Q1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) bt Hannes Kaesbauer (GER)/ Kira Kattenbeck (GER) 21-15 21-10

[Q2] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) bt (4) Sam Magee (IRL)/ Chole Magee (IRL) 21-19 21-12

[R1] (15) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,37) l (Q) Bin Qiao (CHN,142) 17-21 11-21
[R1] (10) Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) bt Brice Leverdez (FRA,49) 21-12 21-18
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Michael Lahnsteiner (AUT,80) 22-20 16-21 21-16
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,93) bt Anup Sridhar (IND,108) 21-17 21-15

[R2] (10) Ajay Jayaram (IND,32) vs Richi Takeshita (JPN,114)
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,51) vs (6) Viktor Axelsen (DEN,22)
[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,93) vs (2) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,15)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (5) Riky Widianto (INA)/ Puspita Richi Dili (INA)
[R1] (Q) Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) vs Chun Hei Lee (HKG)/ Hoi Wah Chau (HKG)
[R1] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) vs Samantha Barning (NED)/ Eefje Muskens (NED)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs V Shem Goh (MAS)/ Khim Wah Lim (MAS)

Arun and Aparna qualified for main-draw with upset win over Irish pair ... In the single Guru lost against Chinese qualifier ... Anand struggled against lower ranked Austrian player ... Ajay and Arvind started with straight games win over their respective opponents.

Tennis News
At 1.78M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,315) bt (Q) Igor Kunitsyn (RUS,167) 61 64

Before this match Somdev lost in all three meetings against Kunitsyn but those losses were in 2008/09 ... In this match Somdev started aggressively and take early break to lead 3-1 ... He again broke Kunitsyn in 6th game and won the first set in 22 minutes ... In the second set also Somi started with breaking Kunitsyn's serve in 1st game to lead 2-0 but Kunitsyn broke him in 4th game to make it 2-all ... Kunitsyn improved level of game in this set but Somi take advantage of couple of errors from Kunitsyn and broke him in 7th game to lead 4-3 ... This break proved important as Somi hold his next 2 service games and completed the victory ... With this win Somi earned 45 ranking points which will push his ranking inside top-250 ... Somi will be India's #1 on next ranking updates on 4th March ... In the second round Somi will face winner between WR #7 Del Potro and #36 Baghdatis.
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At $50K Sydney 1 Challenger, Australia

[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,295) bt (1) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,137)

[R2] Sanam Singh (IND,295) vs James Duckworth (AUS,238)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Colin Ebelthite (AUS)/ Stephane Robert (FRA) 76(3) 46 10-6

Sanam scored huge upset win over top-150 Sugita in the straight sets ... This was close match over 2 hours ... After winning the first set in tie-break Sanam take 5-2 lead in the second before winning it ... Really good win against talented and top-seed Yuichi Sugita ... Now he need to show consistency with his results

Divij and Purav needed match tie-break for victory against French-Aussie pair ... After winning the first set in tie-break Divij and Purav lost the second before winning match tie-break.
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At $15K Kazakhstan F2 Futures, Aktobe

[R1] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND,257) bt (PR) Richard Becker (GER,830) 75 61

[R2] (3) Yuki Bhambri (IND,257) vs Marek Semjan (SVK,452)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Mohamed Safwat (EGY) bt Kaysar Bekimov (KAZ)/ Yan Sabanin (RUS) 64 61

[QF] (4) Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Mohamed Safwat (EGY) vs Nurdaulen Baimakhanov (KAZ)/ Alexey Kedryuk (KAZ)

Expected winning start for Yuki in the singles and doubles ... Next he is facing last week's finalist Semjan.
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At $10K India F1 Futures, Chennai

Singles First Round
(1) Victor CRIVOI (ROU) bt Filippo LEONARDI (ITA) 62 62
Laslo URRUTIA FUENTES (CHI) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 64 61
(WC) Elwin ANTONY (IND) bt Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) 46 5-3 Retd.
(Q) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt (8) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN) 26 63 63
(4) Thales TURINI (BRA) bt Caio SILVA (BRA) 2-2 Retd.
(Q) Mats MORAING (GER) bt (WC) Chandril SOOD (IND) 63 75
(WC) Mohd Assri MERZUKI (MAS) bt (Q) Katsushi FUKUDA (JPN) 64 64
(5) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Augusto LARANJA (BRA) 64 26 75
(7) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt (Q) Kunal ANAND (IND) 76(3) 63
Sidharth RAWAT (IND) bt (Q) Patrick CIORCILA (ROU) 76(7) 62
Giulio TORRONI (ITA) bt (Q) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 63 36 75
(3) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (Q) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE) 64 62
(6) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt Claudio FORTUNA (ITA) 26 63 64
(Q) Tom SCHONENBERG (GER) bt (WC) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 62 75
(PR) Tak Khunn WANG (FRA) bt Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND) 76(4) 62
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Maximilian DINSLAKEN (GER) 60 63

Doubles First Round
(1) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Austin KAROSI (USA)/ Libor SALABA (CZE) 61 46 10-7
Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Chandril SOOD (IND) 61 61
(ALT) Jui-Chen HUNG (TPE)/ Petar TOMIC (SRB) bt (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND)/ Rakshay THAKKAR (IND) 75 63
Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Patrick CIORCILA (ROU)/ Victor CRIVOI (ROU) 64 75
(ALT) Ting Yu CHUANG (TPE)/ Chih-Jen HO (TPE) bt Filippo LEONARDI (ITA)/ Giulio TORRONI (ITA) 62 57 10-3
(3) Augusto LARANJA (BRA)/ Thales TURINI (BRA) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND)/ Tak Khunn WANG (FRA) 62 64
(WC) Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) bt Claudio FORTUNA (ITA)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 64 62
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 62 61

After long time Vivek scored upset win as an qualifier against Japanese 8th seed.

Chess News
At Zurich Chess Challenge 2013, Switzerland

3rd round - 25 February 2013
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) ½-½ GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757) ½-½ Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810)

Gelfand hold Anand in 42 moves with Najdorf though Anand had upperhand in later stage ... Kramnik used sharp Benoni but Caruana failed to take advantage and this ended in draw after 53 moves ... So after three rounds all players r on 1½ points.

Football News
At the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 (Qualifiers), Yangon, Myanmar

Goalkeepers - Subrata Paul (Prayag United), Sandip Nandy (Churchill Brothers), Karanjit Singh (Salgaocar SC)
Defenders - Nirmal Chhetri, Syed Rahim Nabi (both from Mohun Bagan), Denzil Franco (Churchill Brothers), Gouramangi Singh (Prayag United), Rowilson Rodrigues (Dempo SC), Shouvik Ghosh (Pailan Arrows), Raju Gaikwad (East Bengal), Gurjinder Singh (Pune FC)
Midfielders - Lenny Rodrigues (Churchill Brothers), Lalkamal Bhowmick, CK Vineet (both from Prayag United), Arata Izumi (Pune FC), Mehtab Hossain (East Bengal), Francisco Fernandes (Salgaocar SC), Alwyn George (Pailan Arrows), Jewel Raja Shaikh (Mohun Bagan), Clifford Miranda (Dempo SC)
Forwards - Sunil Chhetri (Churchill Brothers) Robin Singh (East Bengal), Jeje Lalpekhlua (Pune FC)

Coach - Wim Koevermans

Team is announced for the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 (Qualifiers) which kicks-off in Yangon on March 2, 2013 ... India have been clubbed with hosts Myanmar, Chinese Taipei and Guam in Group ‘A’ ... We will play Chinese Taipei in the first match on 2nd March.

Chess News
At Zurich Chess Challenge 2013, Switzerland

2nd round - 24 February 2013
GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740) ½-½ GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757)
GM Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810) ½-½ GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780)

1st round - 23 February 2013
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757) ½-½ GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780)
GM Vladimir Kramnik (RUS,2810) ½-½ GM Boris Gelfand (ISR,2740)

In Catalan game Anand defended well to hold Kramnik after 41 moves ... Caruana missed chance of winning the game with late mistake and Gelfand hold him after 40 moves.

Before this in the first round Anand and Caruana played exciting draw in Sicilian Najdorf opening after 65 moves ... Gelfand hold Kramnik after 59 moves.

Squash News
At the 16th Asian Junior Team Squash Championship, Seoul, Korea

Boys Final
India l Pakistan 0-2
Mahesh Mangoankar l Sayed Ali Mujtaba Shah Bokhari 2-3 (5-11, 11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 7-11)
Kush Kumar vs Ammad Fareed (Didn't play)
Deepak Mishra l Bilal Zakir 0-3 (7-11, 6-11, 9-11)



Girls Final
India bt Hong Kong, China 2-1
Anaka Alankamony bt Ho Ka Po 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-6)
Aparajitha Balamurukan bt Choi Uen Shan 3-0 (11-7, 11-9, 11-9)
Lakshya Ragavendran l Ho Tze Lok 0-3 (6-11, 4-11, 6-11)

Indian squash team won a Gold and Silver medal in the 16th Asian Junior Team Squash Championship.

Today order of play was 3-1-2 ... In the first match Lakshya Ragavendran failed to match attacking game of Ho Tze Lok and lost in straight games ... Then in-form Anaka Alankamony faced Hong Kong top player Ho Ka Po ... Anaka dominated from the start for a comfortable win ... In the final match Aparajitha faced Hong Kong No. 2 Choi Uen Shan ... Aparajitha struggled earlier in this week and lost her rubber in semi-final match but in the final she played confidently ... Aparajitha kept her focus and won crucial points for title win for Indians ... After 10 years Indian girls lifted the 16th Asian Junior Team Squash Championship.

In the boys final, Deepak Mishra failed to overcome challenge from his Pakistani opponent and lost in the straight games ... In the second match Mahesh faced Pakistani top player Ali Bokhari ... As per report this was very physical match and after 1-2 down Ali came back strongly ... His win gave Pakistan boys title.

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Men's - February 24th, 2013
India bt Bangladesh 5-1 (2-1)
Goal Scorers - Danish Mujtaba (IND) 15' and 64', Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 32' PC, Akashdeep Singh (IND) 50', Malak Singh (IND) 58' and Md Mamunur Rahman Chayan (BAN) 5' PC

Oman bt Fiji 7-3 (2-3)
Ireland bt China 4-0 (2-0)

Women's - February 24th, 2013
India bt Russia 1-0 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - Rami Rampal (IND) 50'

Japan bt Malaysia 4-0 (1-0)
Kazakhstan bt Fiji 4-0 (2-0)

In tense match Rani scored crucial goal in the second half to help her side claim top spot from the women’s Hero Hockey World League Round Two 2013 in Delhi ... In this match Russian defended well but Indians missed lot of penalty corners also ... Japan also won their match so India and Japan confirm their places to World League Round 3.

Indian men scored expected victory though Bangladesh surprised them with early lead ... Bangladesh frustrated our forwards with their stubborn defense ... We equalize through Danish in 15th minute but waited until end of the first-half to take lead ... We played more coordinated and orgainsed game in the second half which helped us to score 3 more goals ... Ireland defeated China to finished on the second and with that they qualify for the next phase of the competition with India.

India captain Sardar Singh was named as player of the tournament, receiving R200,000 for his efforts, sponsored by Hero ... VR Raghunath shared the top goalscorer prize – and a Hero cheque for R100,000 – with Ireland’s Alan Sothern for his eight goals in the competition ... Raghunath named defender of the tournament and Sothern getting the prize for best attacker ... David Harte was named the best goalkeeper while Rashel “Jimmy” Mahmud was the top midfield player.

Rani Ramphal was the top-scorer with seven goals while Jaspreet Kaur was the overall best defender and player of the tournament ... Fiji’s Susan Mudunatagi was honoured as goalkeeper of the tournament while Japanese veteran Sachimi Iwao was top midfielder and Malaysia’s Siti Rahmah Othman the best attacker.

Tennis News
At €598,535 Open 13, Marseille, France


Doubles Final
(2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) bt (1) Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) 64 76(3)

Rohan and Colin Fleming lifted Marseille open title beating top-seed Aisam and Rojer in 80 minutes ... In this match Rohan and Colin saved all 4 break points and take single break for winning the first set ... In the second set Rohan and Colin played solid tie-break for straight sets victory ... This was Rohan's 8th doubles title and 1st title of the year.
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At 1.78M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,315) vs (Q) Igor Kunitsyn (RUS,167)

Doubles
[R1] Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Michael Llodra (FRA)/ Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/ Viktor Troicki (SRB) [R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) vs (2) Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)

In doubles last year's winner r playing with their respective different partners ... Mahesh is playing with Llodra and facing tricky match against Serbian pair ... Rohan and Rajeev having tough opponents in the first round, today's his opponents in the final at Marseille open ... Somdev is facing Igor Kunitsyn in the first round.
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At $50K Sydney 1 Challenger, Australia

[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,1011) bt (WC) Jake Delaney (AUS,UNR) 64 62

[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND,1011) l Ryan Agar (AUS,841) 67(4) 46

[R1] Sanam Singh (IND,295) vs (1) Yuichi Sugita (JPN,137)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Colin Ebelthite (AUS)/ Stephane Robert (FRA)

After winning the first qualifying round Divij lost in the second against local player ... Sanam having tough first round against top-seed Sugita.

Squash News
At the 16th Asian Junior Team Squash Championship, Seoul, Korea

[Boys - SF] India bt Hong Kong, China 2-1
Mahesh Mangoankar bt Yeung Ho Wai 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-8)
Kush Kumar bt Wong Chi Him 3-1 (11-3, 11-2, 8-11 11-4)
Madhav Dhingra l Leung Chi Hin Henry 0-2 (5-11, 9-11)

[Girls - SF] India bt Malaysia 2-1
Anaka Alankamony bt Vanessa Raj Gnanasigamani 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-5)
Aparajitha Balamurukan l Rachel Mae Arnold 0-3 (4-11, 7-11, 5-11)
Lakshya Ragavendran bt Celine Yeap Shu wan 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 13-11)

[Boys - QF] India bt Iran 3-0
Mahesh Mangoankar bt Farzad Shokouhi 3-0 (11-8, 11-6, 11-2)
Kush Kumar bt Soheil Shameli 3-0 (11-2, 11-2, 15-13)
Deepak Mishra bt Alireza Shameli 2-0 (11-6, 11-2)

Boys Pool B
India bt China 3-0
Kush Kumar bt Liang Jun 3-0 (11-1, 11-2, 11-3)
Madhav Dhingra bt Yang Tian Xia 3-0 (11-1, 11-0, 11-0)
Deepak Mishra bt Wang Jia Xu 3-0 (11-1, 11-1, 11-1)

India bt Korea 3-0
Mahesh Mangoankar bt Ko Young Jo 3-0 (11-9, 13-11 11-1)
Kush Kumar bt Yoo Seung Ryung 3-1 (11-9, 11-5, 9-11, 11-6)
Madhav Dhingra bt Ryu Han Dong 3-0 (11-3, 11-0, 11-4)

India bt Jordan 3-0
Mahesh Mangoankar bt Ahmad Al Saraj 3-2 (11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 8-11, 11-6)
Kush Kumar bt Mohammad Al Khasawneh 3-0 (11-9, 11-6, 11-8)
Deepak Mishra bt Hamza Alzubaidi 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-7)

Girls Pool A
India bt Chinese Taipei 3-0
Aparajitha Balamurukan bt Lin Chiao Chi 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-1)
Harshit Kaur Jawanda bt Hung An Jung 3-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-4)
Lakshya Ragavendran bt Chu Yi Hsuan 3-0 (11-1, 11-0, 11-0)

India bt China 3-0
Anaka Alankamony bt Duan Si Yu 3-0 (11-0, 11-0, 11-1)
Aparajitha Balamurukan bt He Xin Ru 3-0 (11-1, 11-1, 11-0)
Lakshya Ragavendran bt Zhou Li Bo 3-0 (11-0, 11-0, 11-0)

India bt Korea 3-0
Anaka Alankamony bt Park Min Ju 3-0 (11-4, 11-2, 11-3)
Aparajitha Balamurukan bt An Ye Jin 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-3)
Harshit Kaur Jawanda bt Eum hwa Yeong 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-3)

India bt Japan 3-0
Anaka Alankamony bt Risa Sugimoto 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-8)
Aparajitha Balamurukan bt Satomi Watanabe 3-1 (11-5, 11-4, 6-11, 11-4)
Lakshya Ragavendran bt Hinako Sakai 3-0 (11-4, 11-2, 11-4)

This is the only second time that Indian boys and girls team have reached in the finals at the same tournament ... Before this it was happened in 2003 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Lakshya Ragavendran won the deciding match to take Indian girls into the finals at Asian Junior Team Championship ... Anaka Alankamony gave winning start against Malaysian top seed but Aparajitha Balamurukan lost her match against Malaysian no. 2 ... In the final Indian girls r facing Hong Kong.

Indian boys also entered the final beating Hong Kong 2-1 ... Kush Kumar gave winning start after losing 3rd game ... Mahesh Mangoankar won his match convincingly and secured our place in the final ... In the final match Madhav Dhingra lost in straight games ... In the final our boys r facing top-seed Pakistan.

Before this our boys and girls won their respective groups without losing a single match ... Our boys qualified for the quarters as Pool B winner and our girls qualified for the semis as Pool A winner.

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Men's - February 23rd, 2013
India bt China 4-0(2-0)
Goal Scorers - VR Raghunath (IND) 12' PC and 28', Dharamvir Singh (IND) 39', Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 43' PC

Bangladesh bt Fiji 8-4 (3-2)
Ireland bt Oman 7-2 (3-1)

Indian men showed impressive game to beat China ... With this win Indian men almost secured top spot and qualification for Round 3.

Tennis News
At Davis Cup - the Asia/Oceania Zone Group I relegation play-off, Bangalore, India

Indian Team
Somdev Devvarman, Yuki Bhambri, Leander Paes and Sanam Singh
Non-playing captain - SP Misra
Coach - Zeeshan Ali

Happy to see strong Indian Davis cup team for the tie against Indonesia in Bangalore from April 5-7 ... Also AITA selected Vijayant Malik and N Sriram Balaji as reserves while Ram Kumar Ramnathan was picked for practice ... Interestingly AITA stick with SP Misra as captain for the tie, initially AITA announced the Korea tie was supposed to be Misra's farewell tie.
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At $2M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE


Doubles Final
Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (2) Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) 64 26 10-7

Sania and Bethanie won the doubles title at the Dubai Tennis Championships defeating Petrova and Srebotnik in super tie-break ... After winning the first set Sania and Bethanie lost the second set easily ... In match tie-break Sania and Bethanie won it after coming back from 3-6 ... Sania and Bethanie has played 20 tournaments together and they have now won all four finals they have entered, including Brisbane last month ... It was the 12th title for Bethanie Mattek-Sands and the 16th title for Sania Mirza.

Sania Mirza - “When you play a final, it's not really just about tennis, it's a lot about nerves and it's about trying to keep positive. When we went down 0-4 [in the second set], I think we went a little passive and defensive. When you play people like Nadia and Kata, you have to be offensive. In the super tiebreak, anything can happen.”

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Women's - February 22nd, 2013
India l Japan 2-2 (0-2) (2-3 PS)
Goal Scorers - Soundraya Yendala (IND) PC 62', Napa Barla (IND) 64' and Shiho Sakai (JPN) 4' PC, Akiko Ota (JPN) 31' PC

Russia bt Kazakhstan 8-1 (2-0)
Malaysia bt Fiji 12-0 (4-0)

Indian women fought back in the second half after 0-2 down ... They made 2-all but lost against Japanese women in penalties ... Before last round both teams r tied with 10 points ... But India remain on top of the table by virtue of having won more games in the competition to date and so they r having chance of winning the competition on Sunday if they beat Russia.

Japan dominated the first half ... They were attacking and got 2 goals from penalty corners ... In the second half our team played more organised and were attacking on Japanese goal ... India scored their first goal through deflection by Soundraya in Jaspreet's hit ... In 2 minutes we equalized through Barla who received excellent pass from Rani ... In penalty shoot-out Soundarya Yendala and Rani Rampal scored while Chanchan Devi, captain Ritu Rani and Vandana Katariya were off target for India ... Mazuki Arai, Yuri Nagai and captain Rika Komazawa scored for Japan.

Tennis News
At €598,535 Open 13, Marseille, France

[SF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) bt (3) Julian Knowle (AUT)/ Filip Polasek (SVK) 75 61

Rohan and Colin had 2 break points (set points) at 4-5 but failed to convert but they didn't miss chance in 12th game and after breaking 3rd seed won the first set ... After winning the first set Rohan and Colin gave dominating performance in the second ... They broke opponents in 4th and 6th games and won the match in an hour.
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At $2M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[SF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Cara Black (ZIM)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) 62 75

Sania and Bethanie r in 2nd final of the year, this time this big Premier tournament ... In the semis after winning the first set comfortably they were 2-3 break down ... But Sania and Bethanie broke opponent in 6th game to make it 3-all and then again broke them when their opponents were serving for remain in the set ... Another straight sets victory over good pairing.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Muzzafarnagar, India

[QF] (Q) Prerna Bhambri (IND,639) l (2) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,264) 26 36

Prerna lost against Lertcheewakarn but still encouraging performance from her in this $25K tournament.

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Men's - February 21st, 2013
India bt Ireland 3-2 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 16' PC, RV Raghunath (IND) 39' PC, Dharamvir Singh (IND) 56' and Conor Harte (IRL) 27' PC, Eugene Magee (IRL) 51'

China bt Fiji 4-1 (1-0)
Bangladesh bt Oman 4-1 (0-0) (3-2)

Women's - February 21st, 2013
India bt Fiji 10-0 (4-0)
Goal Scorers - Soundarya Yendala (IND) 8' PC, Joydeep Kaur (IND) 12' PC, Roselin Dung Dung (IND) 14' and 46', Rani Rampal (IND) 22' and 61', Navjot Kaur (IND) 38', Jaspree Kaur (IND) 59' PS and 69' PC, Chanchan Devi (IND) 66'

Malaysia bt Kazakhstan 3-1 (3-0)
Japan bt Russia 1-1 (0-1) (3-2 PS)

Another expected win for Indian women but they fumbled lot in penalty corners drill ... Indian coach Hawgood need to work on penalty corners drill with our team as in last two matches those will be very important ... Russia hold Japan in the full-time before losing in tie-break.

Indian men were lucky to beat gritty Irish team ... In this match our players lacked in coordination and looked tired Other hand the Irishmen displayed fine exhibition in defending ... In this match our set pieces ratio was poor, we managed to convert only 2 from 6 penalty corners ... Irish team also earned 6 penalty corners ... Again our forwarders failed to score after so many D penetrations by Sardara Singh and Mandeep Singh.

Tennis News
At €598,535 Open 13, Marseille, France

[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) bt James Cerretani (USA)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 63 67(2) 10-7

[SF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) vs (3) Julian Knowle (AUT)/ Filip Polasek (SVK)

Rohan and Colin won the first set comfortably ... In the second our pair had couple of break points in the 1st game but failed to convert ... After that both pairs hold their serves comfortably to take the set in tie-break but Rohan and Colin lost tie-break easily ... Rohan and Colin were down with mini-break at 5-7 but after that they won next 5 points winning 2 points on opponent's serve ... Good victory, next they r facing 3rd seed Julian Knowle and Filip Polasek.
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At $2M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE

[QF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Lucie Safarova (CZE) 64 64

[SF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Cara Black (ZIM)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS)

Again straight sets win for Sania and Bethanie in the quarters and with this win they qualify for the semis Next they r facing experienced Cara Black and her partner Anastasia Rodionova.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Muzzafarnagar, India

[R2] Rishika Sunkara (IND,545) l (8) Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (THA,356) 46 46
[R2] (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,742) l (3) Aleksandrina Naydenova (BUL,275) 76(5) 26 36
[R2] (Q) Prerna Bhambri (IND,639) bt (6) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO,321) 57 61 63

[QF] (Q) Prerna Bhambri (IND,639) vs (2) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA,264)

Terrific comeback win by Prerna against top-325 Jakupovic ... Simply impressive stuff and definitely first-time she is in the quarters of $25K tournament ... Next she is facing 2nd seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn.

In other matches Nidhi started well after winning the first set against top-275 Bulgarian player Aleksandrina Naydenova but failed to keep momentum.

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Men's - February 20th, 2013
India bt Oman 9-1 (4-1)
Goal Scorers - VR Raghunath (IND) 3' PC and 39' PC, Dharamvir Singh (IND) 13' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 20' and 37' PC, Nithin Thimmaiah (IND) 15' and 60', Mandeep Singh (IND) 42', Gurjinder Singh (IND) 65' PC and Mohamed Hubais (OMA) 34' PC

Ireland bt Fiji 13-0 (5-0)
Bangladesh bt China 3-2 (2-2)

Expected win for Indians but we had a chance of scoring dozen more ... Disappointed that our players didn't go for big win and more over very lethargic defense in that Oman scored through penalty corner.

Bangladesh scored upset win over Chinese team.

Tennis News
At €598,535 Open 13, Marseille, France

[R2] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,354) l Bernard Tomic (AUS,46) 36 57

Tomic started positively breaking Somi in 1st game ... Somi needed to save 3 break points from 0-40 in 3rd game before holding the serve ... Somi missed 3 break points on Tomic's serve in 4th game ... Some broke back breaking Tomic's serve in 6th game, 3-all ... But after that Tomic blitzed through next three games breaking Somi twice and won the first set in 35 minutes ... In the second set both players were holding respective serves still 5th game ... Tomic broke Somi's serve in 6th game after converting 2nd break point to lead 4-2 ... In 9th game when Tomic was serving for the match at 5-3 Somi take break to bring set on the serves, 4-5 ... After that both players hold their respective service games but at 5-6 when Somi was serving for staying in the match Tomic take crucial break and won this match in 1 hour 13 minutes.
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At $2M Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, UAE)

[R1] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (5) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Liezel Huber (USA)

[QF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Lucie Safarova (CZE)

Happy to see Sania and Bethanie take advantage of lucky break as top-seed Vesnina-Makarova have withdrawn ... After straight sets win they r facing Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova in the quarters.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Muzzafarnagar, India

(1) Tadeja Majeric (SLO) bt (Q) Sharon Sanchana Paul (IND) 62 61
(Q) Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) bt (Q) Eetee Maheta (IND) 62 64
Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt Nicole Clerico (ITA) 63 63
(8) Nicha Lertpitaksinchai (THA) bt (Q) Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) 57 62 76(5)

(3) Aleksandrina Naydenova (BUL) bt (WC) Resha Chandak (IND) 60 60
(Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND) bt (WC) Sharmada Balu (IND) 75 60
Nicole Rottmann (AUT) bt (Q) Shweta Rana (IND) 63 60
(7) Veronika Kapshay (UKR) bt (WC) Ankita Raina (IND) 46 64 61

(5) Basak Eraydin (TUR) bt Melis Sezer (TUR) 64 63
Melanie Klaffner (AUT) bt Justyna Jegiolka (POL) 62 64
Peangtarn Plipuech (THA) bt (Q) Napatsakorn Sankaew (THA) 60 75
Tamara Curovic (SRB) bt (4) Sung-Hee Han (KOR) 61 64

(6) Dalila Jakupovic (SLO) bt (WC) Grisha Arora (IND) 60 60
(Q) Prerna Bhambri (IND) bt Kyra Shroff (IND) 63 61
So-Ra Lee (KOR) bt Anna Shkudun (UKR) 46 75 75
(2) Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA)bt Keren Shlomo (ISR) 64 36 75

Really good win by Rishika against higher ranked Italian Clerico ... Prerna also scored upset win over Kyra ... Prarthana and Ankita gave fighting performance against their seeded opponents.

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Women's - February 19th, 2013
India bt Malaysia 3-0 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Vandana Katariya (IND) 9' PC and 38', Rani Rampal (IND) 65'

Japan vr Kazakhstan 11-0 (6-0)
Russia bt Fiji 9-0 (4-0)

Tired looking Indian women struggled to beat Malaysian girls but favourite Japanese team scored dominating win against Kazakhs.

Tennis News
At €598,535 Open 13, Marseille, France

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,354) bt Benoit Paire (FRA,38) 76(6) 67(7) 64

[R2] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,354) vs Bernard Tomic (AUS,46)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) bt Robin Haase (NED)/ Dick Norman (BEL) 64 62

Somdev played excellent match against in-form local player Benoit Paire ... After winning the first set in tight tie-break Somi had 3 match points in the second set tie-break, 6-3 ... But failed to convert on 2 Paire's serve and one on his serve to eventually lost the set ... In the final set Somi take a break in 5th game to lead 4-2 ... Somi missed break point in 7th game and then lost his serve in 8th game, 4-4 ... Somi again broke Paire in 9th game but this time he hold to scripted huge win in 2 hours 37 minutes ... Huge win for Somi as Benoit Paire was in top form this year making semi-final at Chennai ATP and final at Montpellier ATP ... Next he is facing Aussies youngster, Tomic.

Winning start for Rohan with his new partner, Fleming ... They scored comfortable win over Haase and Norman.
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At $15K Australia F2 Futures, Mildura (Grass)

[R1] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,300) l Chris Guccione (AUS,598) 57 26
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND,1008) l James Lemke (AUS,492) 57 46

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l (WC) Daniel Byrnes (AUS)/ Daniel Ferretti (AUS) 26 67(3)

Turned horrible day for Sanam and Divij ... They lost in the singles matches with their doubles match ... Sanam failed to raise his game against former top-70 player Chris Guccione.

Hockey News
At the Hockey World League Round 2, New Delhi, India

Men's - February 18th, 2013
India bt Fiji 16-0 (7-0)
Goal Scorers - V. R. Raghunath (IND) 3' PC, 15' PC and 41' PC, Rupinderpal Singh (IND) 5' PC and 35' PC, Nitin Thimmaiah (IND) 17', Gurjinder Singh (IND) 20' PC, Danish Mujtaba (IND) 28', 38' and 57', Kothajit Singh (IND) 47', Manpreet Singh (IND) 50', Malak Singh (IND) 51', Chenglensana Singh (IND) 54', Dharamvir Singh (IND) 56', Akashdeep Singh (IND) 62'

China bt Oman 4-0 (2-0)
Ireland bt Bangladesh 5-2 (0-0)

Women's - February 18th, 2013
India bt Kazakhstan 8-0 (4-0)
Goal Scorers - Jaspreet Singh (IND) 8' PC, 21' PC, 54' PC and 70' PS, Rani Rampal (IND) 15', 26' and 41', Soundarya Yendala (IND) 48' PC

Japan bt Fiji 14-0 (8-0)
Malaysia bt Russia 3-1 (1-0)

Indian women started with comfortable win over Kazakhs scoring four goals In each half ... But still they missed chance of big win as we had 15 penalty corners in the match.

Expected comfortable win For Indian men against Fijians ... Indians scored six goals through penalty corners ... Overall good match practice before bigger test in next matches.

Chess News
At Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic 2013, Germany

10th round - 17 February 2013
GM Daniel Fridman (GER,2667) ½-½ GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757)
GM Michael Adams (ENG,2725) ½-½ GM Georg Meier (GER,2640)
GM Arkadij Naiditsch (GER,2716) 0-1 GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780)

Viswanathan Anand lifted GRENKE Chess Classic title with last-round black-pieces win over German Arkadij Naiditsch, with 6.5/10 points and a 2808 performance ... Fridman holding co-leader after 9th round Caruana helped Anand but still Anand produced back-to-back wins for this long waited title ... Before this reasonably successful tournament for Anand was Wijk aan Zee 2011, where he finished sole second position behind Nakamura.

In this game Anand went for the Sicilian ... Anand take full advantage of mid-game mistake from Naiditsch ... He shocked Naiditsch with his variation, who resigned after 49 moves ... Other two games ended in a draw.


Final Standing
1. Viswanathan Anand (IND) 6½ pts
2. Fabiano Caruana (ITA) 6 pts
3. Michael Adams (ENG) 5 pts
4. Georg Meier (GER) 5 pts
5. Arkadij Naiditsch (GER) 4 pts
6. Daniel Fridman (GER) 3½ pts

Viswanathan Anand - “After Wijk aan Zee 2011 basically I went over a cliff and the next five tournaments were pretty awful”. Wijk aan Zee this year also went well until the last round, with the champion commenting, “I was hoping I wouldn’t do a Wang Hao today!”

“After Bilbao 2011 my big problem was getting interesting positions where I had chances. This year the new problem has been exploiting those chances – against Fridman here, Hou Yifan in Wijk aan Zee or last year against Nakamura and Adams at the London Chess Classic I’ve been gifting people half points. If it wasn’t for that my results would be much better. Still, it’s a hundred times better to have the second problem! I need to work on my technique.”

Tennis News
At €598,535 Open 13, Marseille, France

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,357) vs Benoit Paire (FRA,38)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Colin Fleming (GBR) vs Robin Haase (NED)/ Dick Norman (BEL)

Somi is receive last direct entry in the main-draw ... In the first round he is facing in-form Frenchman Benoit Paire.

Rohan is playing with Britisher Colin Fleming at Marseille ... They r 2nd seed and facing Haase/Dick Norman in the first round.

Chess News
At Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic 2013, Germany

9th round - 16 February 2013
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) 1-0 GM Daniel Fridman (GER,2667)
GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757) 0-1 GM Michael Adams (ENG,2725)
GM Georg Meier (GER,2640) 1-0 GM Arkadij Naiditsch (GER,2716)

First time all decisive games in the round ... Anand played perfect game against Fridman to won it in 46 moves and Adams helped him with win over leader Caruana in complex Catalan battle ... Adams take advantage of mid-game error from Caruana and won it in 54 moves ... Meier defeated Naiditsch after 47 moves ... After this round Anand is sharing top position with Caruana, 5½ points.

Chess News
At Baden-Baden GRENKE Chess Classic 2013, Germany

8th round - 15 February 2013
GM Daniel Fridman (GER,2667) ½-½ GM Michael Adams (ENG,2725)
GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2780) ½-½GM Georg Meier (GER,2640)
GM Arkadij Naiditsch (GER,2716) 0-1 GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA,2757)

Fabiano Caruana once again defeated Arkadij Naiditsch from a lost position and now in position to win the title as he is full point ahead of Anand ... Anand managed only draw against Georg Meier after 56 moves.

Snooker News
At £250K Welsh Open 2013, Newport, Wales

[QF] Pankaj Advani (IND,71) l Judd Trump (ENG,2) 2-5 (20-73, 19-72, 3-69, 78-39, 18-62 59-66, 98-0)

Pankaj's terrific run ended in the quarter-final against highly rated young Judd Trump ... Trump started confidently and take 3-0 lead quickly ... Trump won 4th frame also but in that Pankaj scored 39 points break ... Pankaj gained momentum and managed to win his first frame ... In 6th Trump take 59-1 lead but Pankaj had different plans ... He played tactical snooker game and with help of 2 small breaks of 26 and 33 points won this frame ... Trump played flawless game in 7th and with help of 69 points break he won the match comfortably.

Creditable performance by Pankaj to reached in quarters of this big quality tournament where he back to back defeated former world champions ... He also picked up highest pay cheque of his career, 10,000 pounds.