Tennis News
At French Open 2013, Paris (red clay)

[Q1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,188) vs (21) Matteo Viola (ITA,132)

Tough match for Somi as he lost against same opponent at Indian Wells qualifying winning only 4 games.
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At $690K Brussels Open (WTA Premier), Belgium (Red Clay)

[R1] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Jie Zheng (CHN) bt Eva Hrdinova (CZE)/ Lindsay Lee-Waters (USA) 62 64

[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Jie Zheng (CHN) vs Liga Dekmeijere (LAT)/ Oksana Kalashnikova (GEO)

Good winning start for Sania and Jie Zheng ... Next they r facing Dekmeijere and Kalashnikova.
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At $25K ITF Women's Tpurnament, Tarakan, Indonesia

[Q1] (3) Ankita RAINA (IND,461) bye
[Q2] (3) Ankita RAINA (IND,461) bt Sharmada BALU (IND,1019) 63 63

[R1] (Q) Ankita RAINA (IND,461) vs (WC) Deria NUR HALIZA (INA,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Natasha PALHA (IND)/ Varunya WONGTEANCHAI (THA) vs (3) Hao Chen TANG (CHN)/ Ran TIAN (CHN)

Good to see our girls r trying bigger event in Asia.
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At $10K Spain F11 Futures, Vic

[Q1] (2) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt David SUBIRA TABOADA (ESP,UNR) 61 75
[Q1] (4) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1040) bt Alex MORILLA (ESP,UNR) 61 60
[Q1] Dhruv GOYAL (IND,UNR) l Nicholas BAEZ (USA,UNR) 26 06
[Q1] Nishant GOEL (IND,UNR) l Go Mazhar NAKAMICHI (JPN,UNR) 26 26

[Q2] (2) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Oriol GARROBE GUILERA (ESP,UNR) 62 60
[Q2] (4) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1040) l David JORDA SANCHIS (ESP,UNR) 46 46

[Q3] (2) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt Olivier DUBERVILLE (FRA,UNR) 36 62 61

[R1] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,804) vs Francesco PICCO (ITA,683)
[R1] (Q) Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,979) vs (2) Gerard GRANOLLERS-PUJOL (ESP,287)
Doubles Final


This week Ashwin qualify for main-draw in SPanish futures but facing tough match against 2nd seed ... Ramkumar is also having tough match against higher ranked Italian.
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At $10K Thailand F1 Futures, Bangkok

[R1] Karunuday SINGH (IND,900) bt Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,657) 63 62
[R1] (3) Saketh MYNENI (IND,300) vs (Q) Kenny BUM (CAM,1411)

Doubles
[R1] Patrick DAVIDSON (USA)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Roy HOBBS (SIN)/ Kelsey STEVENSON (CAN) 75 61

[QF] Patrick DAVIDSON (USA)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) vs (ALT) Jaymon CRABB (AUS)/ Dominik HRBATY (SVK)

Comfortable win for Karunuday against his Japanese opponent ... Saketh is also having winnable match.

Badminton News
At Sudirman Cup 2013, Bukit Jalil, Malaysia

Mixed Team - Level 1 -Group A
(1) China bt India 5-0

[XD] Zhang Nan/ Zhao Yunlei bt Kona Tarun/ Ponnappa Ashwini 21-10 21-13
[MS] Chen Long bt Parupalli Kashyap 21-11 21-9
[MD] Liu Xiaolong/ Qiu Zihan bt Dewalkar Akshay/ Chopra Pranaav Jerry 25-23 21-18
[WS] Wang Yihan bt P.V. Sindhu 19-21 21-16 21-14
[WD] Yu Yang Yu Yang/Wang Xiaoli bt. Ponnappa Ashwini/ Gadre Pradnya 21-18 21-11

Indonesia bt India 4-1
[MD]Pratama Angga/ Saputro Rian Agung bt. Dewalkar Akshay / Chopra Pranaav Jerry 21-13 21-10
[WS] Fanetri Lindaweni bt. P.V. Sindhu 21-15 21-10
[MS] Rumbaka Dionysius Hayom l Parupalli Kashyap 18-21 14-21
[WD] Polii Greysia/Maheswari Nitya Krishinda bt. Ponnappa Ashwini / Gadre Pradnya 21-19 22-20
[XD] Ahmad Tontowi / Natsir Liliyana bt. Vishnu Arun /Balan Aparna 21-13 21-14

Saina skipped this tournament due to hairline fracture to her little toe ... In her absence we had disastrous outing ... After losing Chines 0-5 our challenge came to end this mixed team event with loss against Indonesians, 1-4 ... This turned poor outing in the Sudirman Cup, where we won only one match from ten matches.

Tennis News
At €3.2M Rome Masters, Italy (red clay)

[F] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 26 36

Rohan and Mahesh failed to produce much fight against top-seed Bryans, who lifted their 88th doubles title ... In the first set Bryans lost only 4 points on their serve and converted 2 break point chances from four ... In the second set Bryans lost 5 points on their serve and broke Rohan-Mahesh's service game in 8th game for comfortable win in 52 minutes.
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At € 468K Dusseldorf Open, Germany

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Andre Begemann (GER)/ Martin Emmrich (GER)

This week Rohan is playing with Purav at Dusseldorf Open ... Good initiative by Rohan.

Archery News
At 2013 World Cup Stage 1, Shanghai, China

Recurve Mixed Team Final
India (Deepika Kumari/ Jayanta Talukdar) l USA (Brady Ellison/ Khatuna Lorig) 146-154

Recurve Women Individual Final
Deepika KUMARI (IND) l Ok-Hee YUN (KOR) 4-6 (29-27, 27-28, 29-28, 28-29, 26-27)

Compound Women Team Bronze medal match
India bt Italy 228-223

[SF] India l USA 227-228
[QF] India bt Mexico 230-224
[R1] India bye

Deepika failed to win a gold from two finals ... In the individual final Deepika lost close match against Ok-Hee, where almost each set win by the player by 1 point ... Deepika was leading 4-2 before losing last two sets against Ok-Hee.

In recurve mixed team final American pair proved too strong for Deepika Kumarai and Jayanta Talukdar ... American pair won by 8 points.

Our Compound women team won bronze medal beating Italian girls ... Good result for Trisha Deb, Gagandeep Kaur and P. Lily Chanu ... Before this they defeated Mexican girls in the qurters before losing by 1 point to American girls in the semis.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 8 (May 17, 2013) in Sandnes
Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) - Wang Hao (CHN,2743) 0-1
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) - Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) 1-0
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) - Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) 1-0
Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) - Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) 1-0

Round 9 (May 18, 2013) in Stavanger
Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) - Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) ½-½
Wang Hao (CHN,2743) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) 1-0
Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) 0-1
Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) ½-½
Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) ½-½

In bizzare 8th round four matches had result ... The leader Karjakin lost against Svidler but more shocking result created by Chinese GM Wang Hao, who take advantage of misplay by Carlsen in end game and defeated WR #1 after long 79 moves ... Nakamura also scored win over struggling Radjabov ... In Gruenfeld opening Anand played very attacking game and scored victory in 45 moves where he sacrificed three pawns and a knight ... After this round Anand was only 1/2 point behind leader Karjakin with Carlsen.

In the final round Anand tried for a win but instead he blundered on 14 move and gave big win for Chinese GM Wang Hao in 38 moves ... This loss pushed him down on 6th position in the final standing ... Nakamura finished on 3rd position with another win.

Tennis News
At €3.2M Rome Masters, Italy (red clay)

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Tomas Berdych (CZE)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) w/o

[SF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) 63 76(3)

[F] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (1) Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Rohan and Mahesh r in the final at Rome Masters and they will face in-form Bryans ... In the quarters they received bye in the quarters against Czech pair ... In the semis they scored straights sets win though the second set went in tie-break against Gonzalez and Lipsky, who upset Lee and Jurgen in the second round.

Tennis News
At €3.2M Rome Masters, Italy (red clay)

[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Dominic Inglot (GBR)/ Jonathan Marray (GBR) 62 63

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Tomas Berdych (CZE)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE)

Comfortable straight sets win for Rohan-Mahesh against British pair ... Next they r facing Czech pair.
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At $2.36M Rome WTA Premier Tournament, Italy

[QF] (6) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (1) Sara Errani (ITA)/ Roberta Vinci (ITA) 46 36

Sania and Bethanie gave decent performance against top-seed Italian pair, who proved too strong for them.

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At $10K Czech Republic F1 Futures, Most (clay)

[R2] (Q) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,894) l (4) Miloslav MECIR (SVK,280) 26 46

Miloslav Mecir scored comfortable win over Prajnesh.

Archery News
At 2013 World Cup Stage 1, Shanghai, China

Recurve Mixed Team
[R1] India (Deepika Kumari/ Jayanta Talukdar) bt Australia (Semra Ferguson/ Taylor Worth) 143-135
[QF] India (Deepika Kumari/ Jayanta Talukdar) bt Japan (Takaharu Furukawa/ Kaori Kawanaka) 145-143
[SF] India (Deepika Kumari/ Jayanta Talukdar) bt Mexico (Aida Roman/ Juan Rene Serrano) 146-140

[F] India (Deepika Kumari/ Jayanta Talukdar) vs USA (Brady Ellison/ Khatuna Lorig)

Recurve Women Individual
[R1] Deepika KUMARI (IND) bye
[R1] Bombayla Devi LAISHRAM (IND) bye
[R1] Dola BANERJEE (IND) bt Azzaya BAYANDUUREN (MGL) 6-2
[R1] Rimil BURIULY (IND) bye

[R2] Deepika KUMARI (IND) bye
[R2] Bombayla Devi LAISHRAM (IND) l Mackenzie BROWN (USA) 3-7
[R2] Dola BANERJEE (IND) bt Jiaxin WU (CHN) 6-4
[R2] Rimil BURIULY (IND) l Un Ju KANG (PRK) 0-6

[R3] Deepika KUMARI (IND) bt Ming CHENG (CHN) 6-5 (26-28, 28-28, 24-27, 27-26, 28-23, T10-T9)
[R3] Dola BANERJEE (IND) l Jing XU (CHN) 2-6

[PQF] Deepika KUMARI (IND) bt Lisa UNRUH (GER) 6-5 (27-22, 24-27, 25-25, 23-27, 26-25 T8-T5)

[QF] Deepika KUMARI (IND) bt Anastasia PAVLOVA (UKR) 6-4 (25-27, 28-26, 26-25, 25-28, 28-26)

[SF] Deepika KUMARI (IND) bt Hyun-Jung JOO (KOR) 7-3 (26-26, 28-27, 25-27, 29-26, 28-26)

[F] Deepika KUMARI (IND) vs Ok-Hee YUN (KOR)

Recurve Men Individual
[R1] Atanu DAS (IND) bye
[R1] Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) bye
[R1] Rajib BASUMATARY (IND) l Muhamad Fareez ROSLI (MAS) 0-6
[R1] Rahul BANERJEE (IND) bt Jor Shing CHAN (HKG) 6-2

[R2] Atanu DAS (IND) l Chol JON (PRK) 0-6
[R2] Jayanta TALUKDAR (IND) l Alberto ZAGAMI (ITA) 5-6
[R2] Rahul BANERJEE (IND) bt Bolot TSYBZHITOV (RUS) 6-2

[R3] Rahul BANERJEE (IND) l Seungyun LEE (KOR) 2-6

This year's first World cup at Shanghai again Deepika Kumari is performing like champion ... She is in the final of Recurve Women Individual event scoring some exciting win over Chinese and Korean opponents ... In Round three she was 1-5 down before making amazing comeback to win tie-break ... In pre-quarterfinal also she needed tie-break win against her German archer Lisa Unruh ... Deepika scored dominating win over 2008 Olympics Gold medalist Korean Hyun-Jung Joo ... In the final she is facing another Korean Ok-Hee Yun, who was also multiple medalists at Beijing Olympics.

Deepika Kumari is in the final of mixed recurve team event with Jayanta Talukdar ... In the quarters they won by only 2 points against strong Japanese pair but in the semis they defeated Mexican pair convincingly ... In the final they r facing American pair.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 7 (May 15, 2013) in Sør Hidle
Wang Hao (CHN,2743) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) ½-½
Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) - Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) 0-1
Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) ½-½
Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) 0-1
Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) 1-0

Teimour Radjabov had a off-day and Anand take advantage of it after winning it in 34 moves ... Anand is sharing 3rd position with Levon Aronian, 4.0, but they r 1½ points behind leader Karjakin ... Karjakin kept his half point lead over Carlsen when he defeated Hikarua Nakamura

Tennis News
At €3.2M Rome Masters, Italy (red clay)

[R2] (8) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) 67(4) 67(3)

Lee's poor results in doubles continues though Lee-Jurgen lost in two tie-breaks ... This is a one of the worst start of the season for Leander, who fail to reach the final of any tournament.
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At $2.36M Rome WTA Premier Tournament, Italy

[R2] (6) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Francesca Schiavone (ITA)/ Samantha Stosur (AUS) 64 63

[QF] (6) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (1) Sara Errani (ITA)/ Roberta Vinci (ITA)

Very good straight sets win by Sania and Bethanie against tricky experienced pairing of Schiavone and Stosur ... Next they r facing WR #1 Italian pair in the quarters.
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At $75K+H Busan Challenger, Korea

[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS)/ Dudi Sela (ISR) 36 26

Divij and Purav failed to raise their game against Dudi Sela and his partner in this one-sided loss.
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At $50K Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan (Red clay)

[QF] Ti Chen (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (2) Radu Albot (MDA)/ Jordan Kerr (AUS) 64 16 4-10

After winning the first set Vishu-Ti failed to keep momentum and 2nd seed pair came back strongly winning next set easily ... Match tie-break also dominated by 2nd seed pair.
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At $10K Spain F14 Futures, Valldoreix (clay)

[R2] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,804) l Marc LOPEZ JAEN (ESP,713) 64 46 67(2)

Good fighting performance in his loss by Ramkumar.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 6 (May 14, 2013) in Sandnes
Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) - Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) 1-0
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) - Wang Hao (CHN,2743) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) - Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) ½-½
Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) - Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) 1-0
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) ½-½

Sergey Karjakin recovered well by holding a difficult position with black against Anand ... Anand came close to win but failed to convert and they drew after 57 moves ... Carlsen scored another win against Teimour Radjabov with White ... Carlsen is becoming champion in long game and this time also he won this long game after 68 moves ... Aronian scored really crushing victory in 24 moves against Hammer ... In other matches Wang Hao with Black hold Topalov and Svidler drew with Nakamura with White.

Tennis News
At $2.36M Rome WTA Premier Tournament, Italy

[R1] (6) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Shuko Aoyama (JPN)/ Liga Dekmeijere (LAT) 61 63

[R2] (6) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Francesca Schiavone (ITA)/ Samantha Stosur (AUS)

Expected easy winning start for Sania and Bethanie but next they r facing tough pairing of Stosur and Schiavone.
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At $50K Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan (Red clay)

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,408) l Marc Giner (ESP,261) 36 26

Expected loss in the singles for Vishnu against his Spanish opponent ... In the first set Vishnu broke his Giner twice but other hand Giner broke him thrice ... In the second set Giner broke Vishnu twice but Vishnu failed to broke him despite 4 break point chances.
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At $10K Czech Republic F1 Futures, Most (clay)

[Q1] (2) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,894) bye
[Q2] (2) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,894) bt Moritz DETTINGER (GER,NR) 62 67(3) 62
[Q3] (2) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,894) bt David NOVOTNY (GER,NR) 61 61

[R1] (Q) Prajnesh GUNNESWARAN (IND,894) bt Torsten WIETOSKA (GER,654) 64 61

Prajnesh is coming out of injury and he is really enterprising to select Czech futures on the clay ... He qualified for maindraw and scored creditable win over higher ranked German opponent on the European clay.
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At $10K Spain F14 Futures, Valldoreix (clay)

[R1] Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,804) bt (Q) Ricardo OJEDA LARA (ESP,892) 36 62 64

After three first round losses in Spanish futures Ramkumar scored a win this week ... Happy to see he is keeping his head high despite all those losses.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 5 (May 13, 2013) in Sandnes
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) ½-½
Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) - Wang Hao (CHN,2743) 1-0
Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) ½-½
Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) ½-½
Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) - Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) 0-1

Leader Karjakin lost his first match with White despite taking early initiative in a Ruy Lopez against Carlsen ... He failed to handle complications on the board in end game and lost in 46 moves ... Lower rated local player Jon Ludvig Hammer scored win over Chinese Wang Hao in 49 moves ... Other three games ended in a draw ... Anand decided to stick with a Najdorf but agreed draw after 30 moves.

Tennis News
At €3.2M Rome Masters, Italy (red clay)

[R1] (8) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) bye
[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye

Hoping for better Masters for Indian players ... Our both pairs r in bottom draw ... Mahesh-Rohan r in same draw with 4th seed Aisam-Rojer and Lee-Jurgen r in same draw with 2nd seed Granollers-Lopez.
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At $2.36M Rome WTA Premier Tournament, Italy

[R1] (6) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Shuko Aoyama (JPN)/ Liga Dekmeijere (LAT)

Sania and Bethanie r in top-draw with top-seed Italian pair.
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At $75K+H Busan Challenger, Korea

[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Alex Bogomolov Jr. (RUS)/ Dudi Sela (ISR)

Divij and Purav r 2nd seed at Busan but facing tricky pair in the first round.
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At $50K Samarkand Challenger, Uzbekistan (Red clay)

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,408) vs Marc Giner (ESP,261)

Doubles
[R1] Ti Chen (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Temur Ismailov (UZB)/ Sergey Shipilov (UZB) 63 16 10-5

This week only Vishnu is playing at Samarkand Challenger ... Facing tough Spanish opponent on the red clay in the first round ... In the doubles he is playing with Ti Chen and in the first round local wild-card pair stretched them to match tie-break.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 4 (May 12, 2013) in Bryne
Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) ½-½
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) - Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) 0-1
Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) - Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) 0-1
Wang Hao (CHN,2743) - Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) ½-½

In the fourth round Nakamura upset Anand playing with Black in 39 moves ... In last couple of months this was Nakamura's second win over Anand ... The game was a Ruy Lopez and Nakamura take advantage of mistakes from Anand ... Karjakin continued with his terrific run with win over Aronian with Black after 38 moves ... Svidler hold Carlsen after 43 moves ... Jon Ludvig Hammer opened his account after holding Topalov after 56 moves.

Tennis News
At $15K India F5 Futures, Rohtak


Singles Final
(3) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 61 62

Saketh completed double crown in this futures in style ... He won back to back title at $15k futures at Chandigarh and Rohtak ... This was his 6th futures title and pointes earned in these two weeks help to push his ranking around top-300.

In the singles final he defeated Ranjeet mere losing 3 games ... Saketh gave dominating performance in this futures, where his opponent failed to win more than 4 games in every match he played ... Now I m really hoping/ wishing that he translate his such winning performance on the challenger level.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 3 (May 10, 2013) in Sandnes
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) 1-0
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) - Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) ½-½
Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) ½-½
Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) - Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) 1-0
Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) - Wang Hao (CHN,2743) 1-0

Anand scored brilliant win over Topalov playing with White after 41 moves ... They played Najdorf, Anand take control of the game with very smart positioning ... After completion of 30 moves he was in position of victory ... Nakamura responded well to sharp game from Carlsen and drew after 38 moves ... Svidler hold Aronian playing with White after 31 moves ... Teimour Radjabov scored win over hapless Jon Ludvig Hammer after 45 moves ... Karjakin continued his incredible run with scoring third win in three matches ... He defeated Wang Hao after 39 moves.

Tennis News
At €3.36M Madrid Masters, Spain (red clay)

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Jeremy Chardy (FRA)/ Lukasz Kubot (POL) 26 46

Mahesh-Rohan lost easily against Chardy-Kubot in straight sets.
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At $125K Kunming Challenger, China,

[SF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (2) Samuel Groth (AUS)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 26 67(5)

Lost against 2nd seed Aussie pair in straight sets ... In the first set Aussie pair broke them thrice and our pair broke them one ... In the second set Aussie pair converted 1 from 4 break point chances and our pair managed to convert only 1 from 9 chances ... In tie-break our pair saved couple of match point on their serve from 3-6 but Aussie converted 3rd match point on their own serve.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[SF] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) l (7) Albot Radu (MDA,246) 16 0-3 Retd.

Ka$h had off day and he started with making numerous unforced errors ... Radu kept ball in the play and Ka$h was making errors ... After losing the first set easily Ka$h retired in the second after losing first 3 games.
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At $15K India F5 Futures, Rohtak

Singles Semi Finals
(4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (5) Vijayant MALIK (IND) 60 46 61
(3) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 62 62

Doubles Final
(1) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 64 63

Excellent dominated win by Saketh against Jeevan ... Ranjeet also surprised with his win over Vijayant.
Saketh and Arun-Prakash won the doubles title with straight sets victory.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 2 (May 9, 2013) in Sandnes
Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) ½-½
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) - Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) ½-½
Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) 1-0
Wang Hao (CHN,2743) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) 1-0
Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) - Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) 0-1

In the second round all focus was on the game between Carlsen and Anand ... Both played a Sicilian Moscow variation but middle game mistake from Anand gave advantage to Carlsen ... Carlsen failed to convert this advantage and game drew after 59 moves ... Radjabov hold Topalov after 40 moves ... Aronian defeated Nakamura after long 70 moves ... Hao Wang scored upset win over Svidler after 63 moves ... Karjakin take a lead with 2nd victory in two games beating Hammer in 54 moves.

Tennis News
At €3.36M Madrid Masters, Spain (red clay)

[R2] (8) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Tommy Haas (GER)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) 57 16
[R2] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt (ALT) Juan Monaco (ARG)/ Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 63 36 10-5

[QF] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Jeremy Chardy (FRA)/ Lukasz Kubot (POL)

Rohan and Mahesh needed match tie-break for a win against Argentine pair ... Next they r facing French-Polish pair, who scored upset win over 4th seed Aisam and Rojer in the second round.

But Lee and Jurgen lost against Lee's previous partner Radek and Tommy Haas in straight sets.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) bt Denis Matsukevitch (RUS,607) 76(6) 63

[SF] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) vs (7) Albot Radu (MDA,246)

In the first set both players exchanged early break but after that both hold their respective service games to take the set in tie-break ... In tight tie-break Denis saved a set point at 5-6 on his serve but Ka$h take mini-break on his next serve to take 7-6 lead ... Ka$h won next point on his serve for winning the first set ... In the second set Ka$h take early break and kept that lead till the end for straight sets win ... Next he is facing 7th seed Albot Radu for place in the final.

Now also stakes r high for next 2 matches as Wimbledon qualifying entry depend on these two victories ... Go Ka$h.
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At $15K India F5 Futures, Rohtak

Singles Quarter Finals
(5) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) 62 64
(4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (6) Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) 61 46 63
(3) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 63 60
(2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (Q) Anvit BENDRE (IND) 61 60

Doubles Semi Finals
(1) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Lakshit SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 64 62
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 36 61 10-5

Only upset was Balaji's loss against Vijayant but considering Balaji's recent poor form I would not call it upset.

Chess News
At Norway Tournament 2013,

Round 1 (May 8, 2013) in Stavanger
Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) - Wang Hao (CHN,2743) 1-0
Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) - Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) 1-0
Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) - Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) 1-0

Anand and Levon Aronian fought a good game after a very unconventional Ruy Lopez and they drew in 33 moves ... Carlsen tried hard for win but Topalov managed to hold him after 51 moves ... All other matches were having decisive results ... Karjakin defeated Radjabov after 41 moves ... Nakamura defeated Hao in 42 moves and Svidler defeated lower rated local player Hammer in 45 moves.

Tennis News
At €4M Madrid Open, Spian (WTA Premier)

[QF] (5) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)/ Lucie Safarova (CZE) 57 16

Sania and Bethanie failed to continue with their good form and lost in straight sets against Pavlyuchenkova and Safarova.
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At $125K Kunming Challenger, China,

[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Hsin-Han Lee (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE) 46 63 10-7

[QF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Marco Chiudinelli (SUI)/ Tatsuma Ito (JPN) w/o

Divij and Purav scored excellent fighting comeback win over Taiwani pair of Hsin-Han Lee and Hsien-Yin Peng ... In the quarters they receive lucky break as their opponents gave walkover due to broken tooth of Ito.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) bt (2) Amir Weintrub (ISR,185) 64 57 62

[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) vs Denis Matsukevitch (RUS,607)

Doubles
[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l (3) Radu Albot (MDA)/ Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR) 26 06

Prakash played to his potential and scored upset win over top-200 Israeli Amir Weintrub in thee sets ... After winning the first set Ka$h lost the second set but made excellent comeback and won the final set with double break ... In the quarters he is facing Russian 600+ ranked Denis Matsukevitch.

But he lost doubles match with Vishnu in one sided match against third seed.
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At $15K India F5 Futures, Rohtak

Singles Second Round
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt (WC) Sagar AHUJA (IND) 76(4) 61
(5) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt Ronak MANUJA (IND) 61 61
(4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 64 26 62
(6) Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) bt (WC) Saurabh PATIL (IND) 60 61
Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 62 63
(3) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 60 63
(Q) Anvit BENDRE (IND) bt (Q) Arpit SHARMA (IND) 63 64
(2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND) 61 60

Doubles Quarter Finals
(1) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Arvind Vishnu BESTHA (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 63 62
Lakshit SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Shahbaaz KHAN (IND) 63 64
Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) 36 63 12-10
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (WC) Anvit BENDRE (IND)/ Kirksteen REBUYAS (PHI) 60 62

Happy to see young Anvit Bendre take advantage of this weak draw ... Otherwise all expected results.

Chess News
At Norway 2013 - Round-robin Blitz Tournament, Switzerland

Final Standing
1. Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2767) 6.5/9
2. Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2868) 6.0/9
3. Viswanathan Anand (IND,2783) 6.0/9
4. Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2775) 6.0/9
5. Peter Svidler (RUS,2769) 5.5/9
6. Teimour Radjabov (AZE,2745) 5.0/9
7. Jon Ludvig Hammer (NOR,2608) 3.5/9
8. Wang Hao (CHN,2743) 3.0/9
9. Levon Aronian (ARM,2813) 2.5/9
10. Veselin Topalov (BUL,2793) 1.0/9

Before Norway 2013 tournament organizers decided to play blitz tournament to decide pairing for the first round ... Russian Sergey Karjakin won this blitz tournament and Anand tied for the second place with Carlsen and Nakamura ... Carlsen grabbed the second place in tie-break ... From today round-robin Super tournament is beginning ... Anand is facing Levon Aronian in the first round with White and tomorrow in the second round he is facing his World championship challenger and WR #1 Magnus Carlsen with Black ... And in the third round Anand is facing Veselin Topalov with White, so in first 3 rounds he is facing top 3 rating players of the tournament ... Tough pairing for Anand.

Tennis News
At €4M Madrid Open, Spian (WTA Premier)

[R1] (5) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/ Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) 76(3) 46 10-4

Very good win for Sania and Bethanie against tough pairing of experienced Hantuchova and Medina Garrigues ... After winning the first set Sania and Behtanie lost the second but they played perfect match tie-break for excellent win.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,404) l (3) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS,187) 26 16
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) bt Antoine Benneteau (FRA,375) 46 75 61

[R2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) vs (2) Amir Weintrub (ISR,185)

Good comeback win by Ka$h after struggling with his service in the first set ... Benneteau broke Prakash in 3rd game but Ka$h immediately broke back to bring the set back on serve ... Benneteau again broke Ka$h in 5th game and take lead but this time also Ka$h broke back, 3-3 ... Benneteau broke Ka$h in 7th game so this was 5th time in a row that server failed to hold his serve ... After that both players hold their respective serves and Benneteau won the first set with one break advantage ... In the second set Ka$h saved 1 break point but both players won their respctive service games till 11th game ... Ka$h take crucial break in 12th game and won the second set ... In the final set Ka$h was serving well and he broke Benneteau in 4th and 6th games for winning this set comfortably ... Next he is facing 2nd seed Israeli Amir Weintrub ... This match is tough one but with consistent serving he can upset Weintrub, Ka$h has game to beat him.

Vishu lost in one-sided match against Kravchuk ... Kravchuk broke Vishnu twice and held his own serve comfortably for winning the first set ... In the second set Vishnu failed to hold his serve from 40-15 in 1st game ... Kravchuk again broke Vishnu in 5th game to take control of the match ... Kravchuk won the match in 61 minutes breaking Vishnu in 7th game.
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At $15K India F5 Futures, Rohtak

Singles First Round
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Lakshit SOOD (IND) 63 64
(WC) Sagar AHUJA (IND) bt (Q) Kirksteen REBUYAS (PHI) 75 61
Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt Jatin DAHIYA (IND) 46 64 63
(5) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (Q) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) 60 61
(4) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Kelsey STEVENSON (CAN) 76(6) 76(10)
Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) bt Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 62 60
(WC) Saurabh PATIL (IND) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 36 62 60
(6) Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) bt (Q) Saurabh SINGH (IND) 36 61 64
Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) bt (8) Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS) 63 61
Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND) 64 62
Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND) 62 64
(3) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (Q) Dhruv GOYAL (IND) 60 61
(Q) Anvit BENDRE (IND) bt (7) Austin KAROSI (USA) 36 63 75
(Q) Arpit SHARMA (IND) bt (Q) Aayush MINTRI (IND) 64 63
(WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND) bt (WC) Garry TOKAS (IND) 61 62
(2) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt (Q) Roy HOBBS (SIN) 61 61

Doubles First Round
(1) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Roy HOBBS (SIN)/ Austin KAROSI (USA) 60 75
Arvind Vishnu BESTHA (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) bt Jenner STEVENSON (CAN)/ Kelsey STEVENSON (CAN) w/o
Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Shahbaaz KHAN (IND) bt (4) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 64 36 10-8
Lakshit SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt (WC) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND)/ Ajay YADAV (IND) 46 76(1) 10-7
Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) bt Sagar MANJANNA (IND)/ Saurabh SINGH (IND) 75 61
Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt (3) Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 63 61
(WC) Anvit BENDRE (IND)/ Kirksteen REBUYAS (PHI) bt (WC) Anubhav Chaudhary CHAUDHARY (IND)/ Arpit SHARMA (IND) 62 64
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 62 64

Very weak draw in this $15K Rohtak futures ... Australian #1089 ranked Itzstein is 8th seed and #1535 Neeraj Elangovan is last direct accepted entry.

Lots of first time winners and also I think first time we r seeing all 16 players r Indians in the second round of $15K futures.

Tennis News
At €3.36M Madrid Masters, Spain (red clay)

[R1] (8) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) bye
[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye

This week at Madrid our both pairs r seeded ... Lee and Jurgen r in top draw with top-seed Bryans ... Mahesh and Rohan r in bottom draw and may face 4th seed Aisam and Rojer in the quarters.

Lee and Jurgen can face Radek Stepanek and Tommy Haas in the second round if Radek and Tommy wins their first round match against big serving pair of Raonic and Dimitrov.
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At €4M Madrid Open, Spian (WTA Premier)

[R1] (5) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)/ Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP)

WTA Premier tournament is also going on ... Bethanie and Sania r 6th seeded but facing really tricky mach on the clay against experienced Hantuchova and Medina Garrigues.
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At $125K Kunming Challenger, China,

(3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Hsin-Han Lee (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin Peng (TPE)

This week they r participating in another big $125K challenger at Kunming ... Facing Taipei pair in the first round.
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At $50K Karshi Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,404) vs (3) Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS,187)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,370) vs Antoine Benneteau (FRA,375)

Doubles
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Sanjar Fayziev (UZB)/ Nigmat Shofayziyev (UZB)

Vishnu having tough first round against 3rd seed Russian Kravchuk but Ka$h is facing similar ranked French opponent ... Easy winning start for Ka$h and Vishnu against local wild-card pair.

Badminton News
At $120K Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, Kuala Lumpur

Women's Singles Final
(1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) bt (5) Juan Gu (SIN,27) 21-17 17-21 21-19

Sindhu lifted her first Grand Prix Gold tournament title at Malaysia ... She defeated Singaporean Juan Gu in long 71 minutes match ... In the first game both were exchanged leads till 11-all ... After that Sindhu opened couple of points lead, which she kept till end and converted second game point ... In the second game both players were neck to neck till 15-all ... This time Juan opened 3 points lead, 18-15, which she kept for winning this game ... In the final game from 3-5 Juan opened 3 points lead after winning 5 points in a row ... Juan extended her lead to 13-7 then 15-10 but after that Sindhu produced excellent fightback ... She won next 4 points to made ir 14-15 and managed to catch Juan at 16-all ... From 17-18 Sindhu won next 3 points and converted 2nd match point for memorable victory.

Tennis News
At $15K India F4 Futures, Chandigarh


Singles Final
(5) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) 36 61 64

Saketh scored excellent fighting win despite struggling with his serve ... In the first set Vijayant broke Saketh in 4th game and kept that advantage for winning the first set ... In the second set Saketh broke Vijayant in 2nd game to lead 3-0 and then he again broke Vijayant in 6th game to won this set comfortably ... In the final set Vijayant broke Saketh in 2nd game to lead 2-0 but after that Saketh won next 4 games breaking Vijayant in 3rd and 5th games ... Saketh kept that one break advantage for comeback victory.

Badminton News
At $120K Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, Kuala Lumpur

[SF] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,13) bt (3) Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,22) 21-17 21-11

[F] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,13) bt (5) Juan Gu (SIN,27)

In end Sindhu scored comfortable win in 34 minutes against her Thai opponent Sapsiree Taerattanachai ... In the first game Sapsiree take early lead which she extended to 16-10 but after that Sindhu fought back winning next 9 points and take 19-16 lead first time in this opening game ... She converted 1st game point and won this game ... In the second game Sindhu opened 4-0 lead which she kept increasing and won it comfortably ... In the final she is facing Singapore's Juan Gu, who upset 2nd seed Thai player in straight games.

Sindhu climbs to her personal best WR #13 ranking after last week's semi-finalist at Indian Super series ... This week also she is in the final of Malaysian Gold GP tournament where last year she was semi-finalist ... This performance will help her to reduce points margin between herself and #12 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk.

Tennis News
At €468K Portugal Open, Oeiras

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Andy Ram (ISR) l (1) Aisam Qureshi (PAK)/ Jean Julien Roger(NED) 64 36 4-10

This time Aisam-Jean Julien Roger managed to beat Rohan with his partner Andy Ram ... Rohan-Andy started well after winning the first set but after that they failed to keep momentum and lost match in one-sided match tie-break.
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At $100K+H Johannesburg Challenger, South Africa,

Doubles Final
Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) bt (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) 76(1) 76(1)

Divij-Purav saved early break point and after that both pairs hold their respective service games to take the set in tie-break ... Ka$h and Rajeev dominated tie-break, they won first 6 points in a row and then converted 1st set point .. In the second set Divij-Purav saved 2 break points in 5th game ... They again faced 2 break points in 11th game and this time also they saved it ... Divij-Purav had a set point (their first break point on Ka$h-Rajeeev's serve) in 12th game but they failed to convert it ... Again the first set score repeated in tie-break ... Ka$h- Rajeev won this again losing only a single point.

Congrats to Ka$h-Rajeev for their title win and again Divij-Purav showed consistency in their performance ... Hoping our this pair get chance to play in Wimbledon qualifying.
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At $15K India F4 Futures, Chandigarh

Singles Semi Finals
(7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 63 16 76(3)
(5) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (4) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 62 Retd.

Doubles Final
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (1) Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 63 64

Saketh won the first set and after that Vishnu retired from the match ... After that Vishnu played the doubles final with Arun-Prakash but they lost in the straight sets against 2nd seeded Sriram balaji and Ranjeet ... In the singles other semi-final Vijayant scored fighting win over Ranjeet where final set went in tie-break.

Badminton News
At $120K Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, Kuala Lumpur

[QF] (11) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) l Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS,81) 19-21 2-5 Retd.
[QF] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) bt (7) Hera Desi (INA,41) 21-17 21-17

[SF] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) vs (3) Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA,22)

Sindhu scored straight games victory over her Indonesian opponent ... In the semis she is facing Thai Taerattanachai.

Guru retired in the second game after losing the first game against Zainuddin.

Tennis News
At €468K BMW Open, Munich, Germany (red clay)

[QF] (2) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL) 36 36

One sided loss for Lee and Jurgen against Colombians in 45 minutes ... Our pair failed to create a single break point chance but faced 4 break points and Colombians broke them thrice ... This year Lee is still searching for solid partnership.
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At $100K+H Johannesburg Challenger, South Africa,

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Michal Przysiezny (POL)/ Denis Zivkovic (USA) 64 64
[SF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) bt (3) Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Goran Tosic (MNE) 63 26 10-5

Our both pairs scored contrasting win over their respective opponents ... So final is between Indian citizens against NRIs ... I m rooting for Divij and Purav.
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At $15K India F4 Futures, Chandigarh

Singles Quarter Finals
(7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) 64 60
(8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (Q) Rakshit RISHI (IND) 75 60
(4) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (6) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 76(5) 64
(5) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) 62 60

Doubles Semi Finals
(1) Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 62 61
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (4) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) 62 36 11-9

Shocking loss of Yuki against Vijayant, hoping no injury issue .. Saketh scored dominating win over Balaji ... Interesting semis between Vishnu and Saketh, though Saketh is favorite.

Badminton News
At $120K Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, Kuala Lumpur

[R3] (11) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) bt Riichi Takeshita (JPN,70) 21-19 21-16
[R3] Srikanth K. (IND,63) l (3) Daren Liew (MAS,13) 17-21 20-22
[R3] Sameer Verma (IND,190) l Yan Kit Chan (HKG,67) 15-21 19-21

[R2] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) bt Ngan Yi Cheung (HKG,102) 11-21 21-18 21-10

[QF] (11) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) vs Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS,81)
[QF] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) vs (7) Hera Desi (INA,41)

Again Sindhu struggled against lower ranked Cheung ... After losing the first game she worked hard to win the second ... After that comfortably win the decider ... In the quarters she is facing 7th seed Indonesian.

Guru scored expected win against his Japanese opponent in straight games ... Next he is facing local player Zainuddin in the quarters ... Srikanth and Sameer failed to repeat their performance from previous rounds and lost in straight games.

Tennis News
At €468K BMW Open, Munich, Germany (red clay)

[R1] (2) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Christopher Kas (GER)/ Oliver Marach (AUT) 62 16 10-6

[QF] (2) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL)/ Robert Farah (COL)

Lee and Jurgen needed match tie-break in their first round win but strong comeback in the match tie-break after losing the second set very easily ... Next they r facing Colombian pair.
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At €468K Portugal Open, Oeiras

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Andy Ram (ISR) bt Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Dominic Inglot (GBR) 5-3 Retd.

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Andy Ram (ISR) vs (1) Aisam Qureshi (PAK)/ Jean Julien Roger(NED)

Easy passage to the quarter-final after their opponents retired in the first set ... Next match is tricky one against top-seed.
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At $100K+H Johannesburg Challenger, South Africa,

[R2] (2) Rajeev Ram (USA,115) bt (WC) Wayne Montgomery (RSA,UNR) 64 62

[QF] (2) Rajeev Ram (USA,115) vs Mate Pavic (CRO,361)

Doubles
[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Fabiano De Paula (BRA)/ Thales Turini (BRA) 63 76(3)
[QF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) bt (1) Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Marcelo Demoliner (BRA) 75 64

[SF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Michal Przysiezny (POL)/ Denis Zivkovic (USA))
[SF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) vs (3) Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Goran Tosic (MNE)

Both pairs traded early breaks in the first set but Prakash and Rajeev take crucial break in 12th game for winning this set ... In the second set only break came in 10th game when top-seeds were serving for staying in the match.

Divij and Purav kept showing consistency in their performance and scored straight sets victory over Brazilian pair.
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At $15K India F4 Futures, Chandigarh

Singles Second Round
(1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Austin KAROSI (USA) 62 61
(7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND)62 61
(Q) Rakshit RISHI (IND) bt (LL) Sagar AHUJA (IND) 63 46 64
(8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt (Q) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 60 61
(6) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt (Q) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) 62 62
(4) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 63 76(1)
(5) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND) 75 62
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt Jatin DAHIYA (IND) 63 63

Doubles Quarter Finals
(1) Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Lakshit SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 36 76(2) 10-8
Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt (3) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) w/o
(4) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) 61 63
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Fariz MOHAMMED (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 75 61

Expected results in the singles and doubles.

Badminton News
At $120K Malaysia Grand Prix Gold 2013, Kuala Lumpur

[Q1] Rituparna Das (IND,313) l (1) Aya Ohori (JPN,143) 22-20 7-21 21-23
[Q1] Ruthvika Shivani G. (IND,246) l Ayumi Mine (JPN,224) 16-21 18-21

[Q1] Guru Prasad D. (IND)/ Vineeth Manuel (IND) l Mohd Razif Abdul Latif (MAS)/ Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS) 7-21 12-21

[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,190) bt Wei Jian Al (MAS,223) 21-10 21-9
[R1] Abhimanyu Singh (IND,196) l Yan Kit Chan (HKG,67) w/o
[R1] Oscar Bansal (IND,251) l Beryno Jiann Tze Wong (MAS,157) 21-7 16-21 15-21
[R1] Srikanth K. (IND,63) bt Sung Min Park (KOR,84) 21-13 21-11
[R1] (11) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) bt Chao Huang (SIN,191) 21-19 14-21 21-17
[R1] Prannoy H. S. (IND,76) bt (5) Tommy Sugiarto (INA,18) w/o

[R1] Thulasi P. C. (IND,93) l Xue Yao (CHN,63) 18-21 5-21
[R1] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,92) l Maria Febe Kusumastuti (INA,51) 21-13 10-21 14-21
[R1] Tanvi Lad (IND,103) l Kana Ito (JPN,100) 8-21 14-21
[R1] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) bt Jiayuan Chen (SIN,48) 21-13 19-21 21-13

[R1] Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND) l Hardi Hardianto (INA)/ Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra (INA) 16-21 17-21

[R2] Srikanth K. (IND,63) bt (14) Suppanyu Avihingsanon (THA,50) 21-9 21-19
[R2] (11) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) bt Giap Chin Goh (MAS,144) 21-8 21-9
[R2] Prannoy H. S. (IND,76) l Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS,81) 21-15 14-21 15-21
[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,190) bt (4) Wei Feng Chong (MAS,12) 21-15 16-21 21-19

[R3] (11) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) vs Riichi Takeshita (JPN,70)
[R3] Srikanth K. (IND,63) vs (3) Daren Liew (MAS,13)
[R3] Sameer Verma (IND,190) vs Yan Kit Chan (HKG,67)

[R2] (1) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) vs Ngan Yi Cheung (HKG,102)

Sindhu is top-seed in this GP Gold tournament and she felt pressure in her first match ... Jiayuan Chen stretched her to three games.

In men's young 18 yrs old Sameer Verma scored sensational win over WR #12 Malaysian Wei Feng Chong in 55 minutes ... In the first game from 12-all Sameer take lead and won the game losing 3 points more ... In the second game from 5-all Sameer take lead ... He was leading 14-10 but from 14-16 Chong won next 7 points for winning this game ... In the decider Sameer take 8-4 lead which he kept until the end ... Chong tried fightback from 10-16 winning 4 points and from 14-20 he saved 5 match points but Sameer converted 6th match point for his biggest win ... Also young Srikanth continued with his promising performance ... He scored back to back solid wins against two experienced Asian players ... Guru is also in the third round.

Tennis News
At $100K+H Johannesburg Challenger, South Africa,

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,364) l Mate Pavic (CRO,361) 76(4) 46 46
[R1] (2) Rajeev Ram (USA,115) bt Ruan Roelofse (RSA,506) 67(4) 63 64

Doubles
[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Jean Andersen (RSA)/ Ruan Roelofse (RSA) 63 64

[QF] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Fabiano De Paula (BRA)/ Thales Turini (BRA)
[QF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) vs (1) Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)

Prakash lost in the three sets against Pavic ... In the first set both players broke opponent's serve once but Ka$h played solid tie-break ... In next two sets Pavic broke Ka$h service game early and kept that advantage for winning the match ... Prakash had 5 break points in 3rd set when Pavic was serving for the match at 4-5 but failed to convert.

Divij and Purav had solid winning start in their doubles match against local pair ... Next they r facing Brazilian pair.
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At $50K An-ning Challenger, China

[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,390) bt (7) Vincent Millot (FRA,206)

[R2] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,390) vs Danilo Petrovic (SRB,461)

Jeevan scored his first win at challenger level, that was also against top-200 type Frenchman on the red clay ... In the first set he was up 3-0 but Millot broke back to make it 3-4 but again Jeevan broke him and won the first set ... In the second set Millot broke Jeevan early and kept that advantage for winning this set ... In the final set both players traded early break but from 2-all Jeevan won next 4 games for excellent win ... Next he is facing Serbian opponent.
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At $50K Tallahassee Challenger, USA (green clay)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,184) l (7) Denis Kudla (USA,143) 67(4) 46

Buji completed another poor week with lost against Kudla in straight sets ... Next he will be playing Roland Garros qualies.

Tennis News
At $100K+H Johannesburg Challenger, South Africa,

[R1] (Q) Purav Raja (IND,994) l Jean Andersen (RSA,755) 36 46
[R1] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,1154) l (3) Vasek Pospisil (CAN,130) 26 46

Doubles
[R1] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) bt Thiago Alves (BRA)/ Augusto Laranja (BRA) 61 63

Purav and Divij lost in the first round of main-draw.

Prakash and Rajeev had comfortable winning start against Brazilian pair in the doubles.
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At $15K India F4 Futures, Chandigarh

Singles First Round
(1) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND) bt Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 63 61
Austin KAROSI (USA) bt (WC) Ranjeet SINGH (IND) 64 64
Vinayak Sharma KAZA (IND) bt Ronak MANUJA (IND) 76(5) 63
(7) Vijayant MALIK (IND) bt (Q) Anvit BENDRE (IND) 63 61
(LL) Sagar AHUJA (IND) bt (Q) Nischay RAWAL (IND) 64 16 64
(Q) Rakshit RISHI (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 06 64 75
(Q) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS) 75 64
(8) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 63 36 60
(6) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt (WC) Lakshit SOOD (IND) 75 63
(Q) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 3-0 Retd.
Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND) 62 2-0 Retd.
(4) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND) 76(4) 63
(5) Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (Q) Saurabh PATIL (IND) 75 61
Kunal ANAND (IND) bt (Q) Gurinder SINGH (IND) 75 75
Jatin DAHIYA (IND) bt (WC) Ojas RATHI (IND) 60 61
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND) bt (WC) Pranav SURI (IND) 62 64

Doubles First Round
(1) Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Deepinder BAINS (IND)/ Anubhav Chaudhary CHAUDHARY (IND) 64 60
Lakshit SOOD (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt (WC) Rohit SARWATE (IND)/ Ranjeet SINGH (IND) 60 62
(3) Yuki BHAMBRI (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 75 64
Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) bt (WC) Ronit Singh BISHT (IND)/ Ajay YADAV (IND) 36 63 10-4
Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ronak MANUJA (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 76(1) 62
(4) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Saketh MYNENI (IND) bt (WC) Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 61 64
Fariz MOHAMMED (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) bt Rutger CRAMER (NED)/ Neishit VAKIL (IND) 62 60
(2) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Shahbaaz KHAN (IND) 76(9) 64

Only upset of the first day was from qualifier Rakshit Rishi, who scored upset comeback victory against Selvaraj.

Sanam withdrew from his home futures (may be he is still injured.) ... Only one foreigner is still remain in the draw ... Qualifier Fariz Mohammed scored upset win over Aussie Itzstein ... Vivek, and Neeraj retired from their respective matches ... Vishnu needed tie-break in the first set to win against Vignesh.

Tennis News
At $795K Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany (red clay)

[F] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (WC) Mona Barthel (GER)/ Sabine Lisicki (GER) 46 57

Sania and Bethanie failed to win title and lost against local wild-card pair in the final ... German pair won the first set with a single break ... In the second set they take early break but Sania and Bethanie broke back and brought the set on serve ... German pair take crucial break in 11th game and then hold their serve for completing the victory.
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At €468K BMW Open, Munich, Germany (red clay)

[R1] (2) Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Christopher Kas (GER)/ Oliver Marach (AUT)

Leander and Melzer r playing at BMW open ... They r 2nd seed and facing Kas and Marach.
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At €468K Portugal Open, Oeiras

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Andy Ram (ISR) vs Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Dominic Inglot (GBR)

This week Rohan is playing with Andy Ram and they r facing Ram's previous partner Erlich and Inglot.
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At $100K+H Johannesburg Challenger, South Africa,

[Q1] (3) Purav Raja (IND,995) bye
[Q1] (4) Divij Sharan (IND,1155) bye

[Q2] (3) Purav Raja (IND,995) bt Lance Cohen (RSA,UNR) 61 62
[Q2] (4) Divij Sharan (IND,1155) bt Renier Moolman (RSA,UNR) 61 61

[Q3] (3) Purav Raja (IND,995) bt Phillip De Bruyn (RSA,UNR) 61 75
[Q3] (4) Divij Sharan (IND,1155) bt Ruben Alberts (RSA,UNR) 62 36 61

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,365) vs Mate Pavic (CRO,361)
[R1] (Q) Purav Raja (IND,995) vs Jean Andersen (RSA,755)
[R1] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND,1155) vs (3) Vasek Pospisil (CAN,130)
[R1] (2) Rajeev Ram (USA,115) vs Ruan Roelofse (RSA,506)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Jean Andersen (RSA)/ Ruan Roelofse (RSA)
[R1] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) vs Thiago Alves (BRA)/ Augusto Laranja (BRA)

Feeling sad that our other players failed to take advantage of this weak field of this big challenger in South Africa where main-draw cut-off was 758 ... Purav and Divij were high seeds in the qualifying and they performed as per their seeding for qualify in the main-draw.
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At $50K Tallahassee Challenger, USA (green clay)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,184) vs (7) Denis Kudla (USA,143)

Hoping better outing in this week's challenger on green clay.
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At $50K An-ning Challenger, China (red clay)

[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND,390) vs (7) Vincent Millot (FRA,206)

Tough match on the clay for Jeevan against Frenchman.

Tennis News
At $795K Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany (red clay)

[SF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (WC) Angelique Kerber (GER)/ Andrea Petkovic (GER) 64 75

[F] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (WC) Mona Barthel (GER)/ Sabine Lisicki (GER)

Sania and Bethanie scored another straight sets victory against local pair ... In the final they r facing another local wild-card pair.
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At 2013 Junior Davis Cup (B16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

3rd Place Match
(4) India l (3) Australia 0-2

Vishu PRASAD l Oliver ANDERSON 06 16
Garvit BATRA l Akira SANTILLAN 16 64 57

Indian team rested Sumit in this final match and our boys lost against Aussie boys in 3rd place match.
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At 2013 Junior Fed Cup (G16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

9th Place Match
(3) India l (8) China 1-2

Vanshika SAWHNEY l Jia-Qi KANG 06 26
Pranjala YADLAPALLI bt Yue-Nv LI 62 61
Pranjala YADLAPALLI/ Vanshika SAWHNEY l Yue-Nv LI/ Si-Qi CAO 63 57 36

Our girls lost against Chinese girls in 9th place match ... They lost their doubles match after almost 3 hours.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Lucknow

Final
(1) Ankita RAINA (IND) l (8) Emi MUTAGUCHI (JPN) 63 67(2) 16

Ankita lost against the Japanese girl in the final ... Another missed chance of finishing match in straight sets but still Ankita is showing consistency in her game.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open, New Delhi (Super Series)

[SF] Anand Pawar (IND,53) l (6) Kenichi Tago (JPN,9) 16-21 11-21
[SF] (8) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) l (3) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6) 12-21 6-21

Indian challenge got over in the semis ... Anand lost in straight games but he gave fighting performance in his 44 minutes match ... Sindhu failed to create challenge to Ratchanok and lost in only 32 minutes.

Hockey News
At the tour of the Netherlands,

Goalkeepers - PT Rao, Nanak Singh
Defender - VR Raghunath (vice-captain), Rupinder Pal Singh, Harbir Singh Sandhu, Kothajit Singh, Gurmail Singh, Sandeep Singh
Midfielder - Sardar Singh (captain), Manpreet Singh, Dharamvir Singh, Danish Mujtaba, SK Uthappa
Forwards - S V Sunil, Chinglensana Singh, Nithin Thimmaiah, Akashdeep Singh, Yuvraj Walmiki

Team is announced for the tour of the Netherlands from April 27 to May 9 and surprisingly selectors selected 6 defenders ... Few more changes in the team ... Sandeep Singh is in place of mid-fielder Birendra Lakra, who made himself unavailable for selection due to his college exams, and Yuvraj is in place of injured striker Gurwinder Singh Chandi ... P R Sreejesh is also unavailable for the tour as he is getting married during that time.

Tennis News
At $795K Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Stuttgart, Germany (red clay)

[QF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Liezel Huber (USA)/ Janette Husarova (SVK) 75 64

[SF] Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs (WC) Angelique Kerber (GER)/ Andrea Petkovic (GER)

Sania and Bethanie in the semis ... They scored straight sets victory over Huber and Husarova in well contested match ... Next they r facing local wild-card pair.
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At 2013 Junior Davis Cup (B16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

Quarter Finals
(4) India bt China 2-0

Garvit BATRA bt Ting-Hui ZHANG 63 62
Sumit NAGAL bt Yi-Zhou LIU 62 60
Sumit NAGAL/ Garvit BATRA vs Yi-Zhou LIU/ Ting-Hui ZHANG

Semi Finals
(4) India l (1) Korea 0-2

Garvit BATRA l Duck Hee LEE 26 36
Sumit NAGAL l Seong Chan HONG 16 06

Boys won their singles matches comfortably against Chinese opponents ... With this Indian boys qualify for u16 Davis cup World group.

Their semi-final was important for getting seeding at World group ... Top seed Koreans proved too strong for our boys as they managed to win only 6 games in two matches ... That also means our only single team will be seeded in World group, u14 boys.
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At 2013 Junior Fed Cup (G16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

Play-Off 09-16
(3) India bt (2) Chinese Taipei

Vanshika SAWHNEY bt En-Pei HUANG 76(5) 64
Pranjala YADLAPALLI bt Ya-Ting CHANG 36 64 63
Pranjala YADLAPALLI/ Vanshika SAWHNEY vs En-Pei HUANG/ Yi-Chi MA

Girls won their match against 2nd seed Chinese Taipei ... Pranjala scored comeback win over Taipei #1 Ya-Ting Chang.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Lucknow

Semi Finals
(1) Ankita RAINA (IND) bt (4) Shweta RANA (IND) 64 61
(8) Emi MUTAGUCHI (JPN) bt (3) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) 63 61

Ankita is in her fourth final in a row with comfortable win but young former top-50 junior Japanese Emi is looking in good form.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open, New Delhi (Super Series)

[QF] (Q) Prannoy H. S. (IND,76) l (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1) 14-21 19-21
[QF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) l (7) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,11) 12-21 21-11 12-21
[QF] Anand Pawar (IND,53) bt Ajay Jayaram (IND,30) 21-6 21-16
[QF] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,62) l (6) Kenichi Tago (JPN,9) 17-21 21-19 11-21

[QF] (8) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) bt Yui Hashimoto (JPN,46) 21-16 21-16
[QF] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,92) l (3) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6) 21-14 7-21 16-21

[SF] Anand Pawar (IND,53) vs (6) Kenichi Tago (JPN,9)
[SF] (8) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) vs (3) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6)

Sindhu is in the semis of Indian Super series ... She defeated Japanese Yui in 47 minutes, who upset Saina in the second round ... In the first game Sindhu take early lead and kept increasing the lead ... Yui tried small comeback winning 9 points in a row after 7-19 down but Sindhu won next 2 points and won this game ... In the second game until 14-all both players were neck to neck ... After that Sindhu opened 3 points lead kept that advantage for winning the match ... Next she is facing Thai sensation Ratchanok Intanon.

Tago take early 3/4 points lead and kept through the first game ... In the second game Sai managed to put pressure on Tago ... At onetime he was leading 15-7 but Tago caught him at 17-all but from 19-all Sai won next 2 points and take match into the decider ... Tago proved too strong in the decider but still creditable performance by Sai ... Guru also lost in three games ... Guru made strong comeback in the match after losing the first game easily against Boonsak but he also failed to keep momentum in the decider.

Arundhati started positively against young Ratchanok but after wining the first game she failed to keep momentum ... Ratchanok won next two games for the victory ... Respected score by Prannoy in his loss against WR #1 Chong Wei Lee.

Anand Pawar scored upset win over Ajay ... I m really surprised by this dominating win by Anand in 30 minutes against Ajay ... In the first game Anand lost only 6 points ... Next he is facing Tago ... Hoping third time lucky for Indian player.

Tennis News
At 2013 Junior Davis Cup (B16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

Group D
(4) India bt (6) Chinese Taipei 2-0

Garvit BATRA bt Chao-Ting HSIEH 63 61
Sumit NAGAL bt Cing-Yang MENG 62 62
Sumit NAGAL/ Garvit BATRA vs Yu-Chang WANG/ Chao-Ting HSIEH

Our boys won their singles easily to top the group and qualify for the quarter-finals ... They r facing unseeded China for place in World group.
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At 2013 Junior Fed Cup (G16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

Play-Off 09-16
(3) India bt Sri Lanka 3-0

Vanshika SAWHNEY bt Thewni DWVARAJA 64 61
Pranjala YADLAPALLI bt Nethmie WADUGE 61 60
Pranjala YADLAPALLI/ Vanshika SAWHNEY bt Kavindya DE SILVA/ Thewni DWVARAJA 75 61

Expected win for Indian girls in 9-16 standing match against Sri Lanka ... Next they r facing 2nd seed Chinese Taipei.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Lucknow

Quarter Finals
(1) Ankita RAINA (IND) bt Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND) 75 62
(4) Shweta RANA (IND) bt Simran Kaur SETHI (IND) 75 16 61
(3) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) bt (6) Eetee MAHETA (IND) 64 60
(8) Emi MUTAGUCHI (JPN) bt (2) Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND) 60 60

Japanese Mutaguchi handed Nidhi double bagel loss.

Badminton News
At $200K India Open, New Delhi (Super Series)

[R2] (Q) Prannoy H. S. (IND,72) bt Taufik Hidayat (INA,26) 26-24 21-9
[R2] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,35) bt K. Srikanth (IND,64) 21-12 21-16
[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,30) bt Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka (INA,28) 21-15 21-12
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,55) bt (3) Yun Hu (HKG,5) 21-15 15-21 21-10
[R2] Sourabh Varma (IND,38) l (6) Kenichi Tago (JPN,8) 21-19 16-21 14-21
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,60) bt (Q) Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (MAS,81) 16-21 29-27 21-16

[R2] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,2) l Yui Hashimoto (JPN,44) 21-13 12-21 20-22
[R2] (8) Sindhu P. V. (IND,16) bt Sun Yu (CHN,83) 19-21 21-19 21-15
[R2] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,95) bt Neha Pandit (IND,150) 21-18 22-20
[R2] (Q) Saili Rane (IND,144) l (5) Yeon Ju Bae (KOR,14) 4-21 10-21

[R2] Manu Attri (IND)/ Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND) l (8) Xiaolong Liu (CHN)/ Zihan Qiu (CHN) 8-21 13-21
[R2] Pranaav Jerry Chopra (IND)/ Akshay Dewalkar (IND) l (3) Sung Hyun Ko (KOR)/ Yong Dae Lee (KOR) 17-21 12-21
[R2] (Q) Surender Rathee (IND)/ Neeraj Vashist (IND) l (2) Kien Keat Koo (KOR)/ Boon Heong Tan (KOR) 13-21 8-21
[R2] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (1) Misaki Matsutomo (JPN)/ Ayaka Takahashi (JPN) 14-21 22-20 12-21

[R2] Abhinav Prakash (IND)/ Kristi Das (IND) l (1) Tontowi Ahmad (INA)/ Liliyana Natsir (INA) 4-21 10-21
[R2] Gaurav Venkat (IND)/ Juhi Dewangan (IND) l Baek Choel Shin (KOR)/ Ye Na Jang (KOR) 9-21 12-21
[R2] Akshay Dewalkar (IND)/ Pradnya Gadre (IND) l (5) Robert Mateusiak (POL)/ Nadiezda Zieba (POL) 16-21 17-21
[R2] Diju V. (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l (4) Sudket Prapakamol (THA)/ Saralee Thoungthongkam (THA) 17-21 10-21

[QF] (Q) Prannoy H. S. (IND,76) vs (1) Chong Wei Lee (MAS,1)
[QF] Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,33) vs (7) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,11)
[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,30) vs Anand Pawar (IND,53)
[QF] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,62) vs (6) Kenichi Tago (JPN,9)

[QF] (8) Sindhu P. V. (IND,15) vs Yui Hashimoto (JPN,46)
[QF] Arundhati Pantawane (IND,92) vs (3) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6)

In shocking result top-seed Saina lost against her below-40 lower ranked Japanese player Yui Hashimoto in three games ... Saina dominated the first game and won it easily but from the second game Saina struggled ... From 5-all Yui take control of the game and won this losing only 7 more points ... In the final game both players were exchanging lead throughout the game ... From 16-all Saina opened couple of points lead and she had 3 match points at 20-17 ... Saina failed to convert all 3 match points ... She lost the match losing 5 points in a row ... Yui is facing Sindhu in the quarters.

Happy to see other Indians taking advantage of home advantage ... Anand Pawar scored his first top-5 win in his career beating WR #5 Hong Kong's Yun Hu ... In the first game Anand take control after winning 5 points in a row from 10-12 ... From 15-14 again he won 5 points in a row and then converted 2nd game point for winning the first game ... In the second game from 5-all Yun Hu take control and won it comfortably ... In the final game Anand take 4-0 early lead which he kept increasing and won this game losing mere 10 points for excellent victory.

Prannoy also scored huge win over Taufik Hidayat in straight games ... In the first game he take early couple of points lead but Taufik caught with him at 16-all ... Prannoy saved 3 game points before converting his 3rd game point for winning this game ... He dominated second game ... After taking 10-4 lead he never lost the control over the match.

Sai Praneeth needed to dig deep before completing victory over Malaysian qualifier ... After losing the first game Sai was leading 20-14 but Iskandar saved all 6 game points, 20-all ... Sai saved 5 match points before converting 8th game point for winning this second game ... In the final game Sai started with 3-0 which he extended to 8-3 and kept that lead throughout the game and won it comfortably converting 2nd match point.

Sindhu scored her another comeback victory over her Chinese opponent after losing the first game ... In the second game Sindhu was 13-18 down but fought back winning next 6 points to take 19-18 lead and won it ... In the final game Sun Yu take early lead but Sindhu caught with her at 9-all ... And from 15-14 Sindhu won next 5 points before converting 2nd match point.

Ajay Jayaram also scored straight games victory over higer ranked Indonesian Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka.Guru scored comfortable win over K. Srikanth ... Arundhati also scored straight games victory over Neha ... Sourabh started well with winning the first game against Tago but failed to keep momentum and lost next two games ... Bae proved too strong to young Saili Rane.

Ashwini and Pradnya gave fighting performance against WR #2 Japanese pair ... After winning the first game they were down 17-20, Ashwini and Pradnya saved 3 game points but Japanese pair converted 4th game point ... In the final game Japanese pair opened 9-2 lead and won it comfortably.

Tennis News
At 2013 Junior Davis Cup (B16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

Group D
(4) India bt Philippines 2-1

Garvit BATRA bt Stefan Agustin SUAREZ 61 61
Sumit NAGAL bt Alberto Jr LIM 60 62
Sumit NAGAL/ Garvit BATRA l Alberto Jr LIM/ Eric Jr OLIVAREZ 46 26

Our boys won their tie against Philippines ... Sumit and Garvit won their respective singles losing only 2 games but surprising loss for them in the doubles ... Tomorrow they will face 6th seed Chinese Taipei for deciding group winner.
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At 2013 Junior Fed Cup (G16) - Asia/Oceania Final Qualifying, Gimcheon, Korea

Group C
(3) India l (6) Hong Kong 1-2

Vanshika SAWHNEY l Kwan Yau NG 36 26
Pranjala YADLAPALLI bt Claire Yoonkee Choi SPACKMAN 76(3) 64
Pranjala YADLAPALLI/ Vanshika SAWHNEY l Kwan Yau NG/ Wing Chun LAW 57 63 16

Today Indian team played Vanshika in place of injured Snehadevi ... Vanshika lost her match against Hong Kong #2 Kwan Yau Ng ... After that Pranjala won her match against Hong Kong #1 Claire Yoonkee Choi Spackman but then our pair lost important doubles tie against Hong Kong pair in the third set ... With this loss we fail to qualify quarters.
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At $50K Savannah Challenger, USA (green clay)

[R2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,187) l Facundo Arguello (ARG,193) 36 46

Doubles
[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Ilija Bozoljac (SRB) l Tennys Sandgren (USA)/ Rhyne Williams (USA) 36 62 6-10

Turned disappointing challenger for Buji ... He lost in the singles in straight sets against Argentine ... Then in the doubles also Somi lost in the first round with Bozo in match tie-break.
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At $10K ITF Women's Tournament, Lucknow

Second Round
(1) Ankita RAINA (IND) bt Preethi UJJINI (IND) 61 60
Sai Samhitha CHAMARTHI (IND) bt Tanvee BOSE (IND) 61 60
(4) Shweta RANA (IND) bt Smriti JOON (IND) 63 64
Simran Kaur SETHI (IND) bt Shreya PASRICHA (IND) 36 64 61
(6) Eetee MAHETA (IND) bt Damini SHARMA (IND) 64 64
(3) Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND) bt Mahitha DADI REDDY (IND) 64 63
(8) Emi MUTAGUCHI (JPN) bt Bhuvana KALVA (IND) 60 63
(2) Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND) bt Sharon Sanchana PAUL (IND) 63 76(5)

Still one seeded Japanese player remains in the draw.