Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Shooting - 10m Air Rifle Men's Qualification
7 Abhinav Bindra (IND) 625.7 pts (104.3, 104.4, 105.9, 103.8, 102.1, 105.2)
23 Gagan Narang (IND) 621.7 pts (105.3, 104.5, 102.1, 103.4, 101.6, 104.8)

Courtesy TOI

10m Air Rifle Men's Final
4 Abhinav Bindra (IND) 163.8 pts (shoot-out 10 and scored 10.5)

Shooting - Men's Trap qualification Day 2
16 Manavjit Singh Sandhu 115 (23, 23, 22, 25)
19 Kynan Chenai 114 (22, 23, 22, 24, 23)

Archery - Women's Individual
[R64] (43) Laxmirani Manjhi (IND) l (22) Alexandra Longová (SVK) 1-7 (25-27, 26-28, 26-26, 24-27)

Men's Hockey - Pool B
India l Germany 1-2 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 23' PC and Niklas Wellen (GER) 18', Christopher Ruhr (GER) 70'

Swimming - Women's 200m Freestyle heats
41 Shivani Kataria 2:09.30s

Swimming - Men's 200m Butterfly heats
28 Sajan Prakash 1:59.37s

Women's Hockey
India l Great Britain 0-3 (0-2)
Goal Scorers - Giselle Ansley (GBR) 25' PC, Nicola White (GBR) 28', Alexandra Danson (GBR) 33'

Turn to be really heartbreaking day for us ... As Abhinav missed a medal in shoot-off and our men's hockey team lost against current Olympics champion Germany.

Abhinav and Gagan started well but they struggled into middle rounds ... At that time both were outside top-8, in the last round Abhinav scored superbly to qualify for the final on 7th position ... Gagan ended outside top-20 ... In the final Abhinav started slowly but then he recovered and scored one after another 10.7s hit ... At one time he was only 0.5 points away from top position ... But in last few shots he struggled and scored couple of 9.8s, which costed him his positions ... In 5th elimination he hit 10.2 and Ukrainian Serhiy Kulish hit 9.9 ... Both were tied for 163.8 pts ... In shoot-off Abhinav hit only 10 and Serhiy Kulish managed 10.5 for moving ahead ... Kulish won the Silver but heartbreaking loss for Abhinav.

Manavjit Singh Sandhu started well managed 25/25 hits in 4th round but managed only 22 hits in the fifth and final to end up on 16th position ... Kynan Chenai remained in 19th position only.

Laxmirani lost one-sided match against Slovak Alexandra Longová.

We played excellent match against Germany ... After matching Germans pace in the first quarter we were down early in 2nd quarter ... But excellent penalty corner conversion from Rupinder brought us on equal ... In the third quarters we missed chances and in the fourth quarter both teams were matching each other ... In the final couple of minutes we became defensive and Germans were trying hard ... One long wild hit in D went in the goal with deflection from Rehr when 3 seconds on the clock ... Next we r facing Argentine team.

Sajjan Prakash finished 28/29 in the 200 mtrs butterfly while Shivani finished 41/42 in the 200 mtrs freestyle.

Indian women hockey team fell short against Great Britain as they lost their second Pool B match 0-3 ... They conceded two quick goals in the second quarter and failed to convert penalty corners in the fourth quarter.

Tennis News

At $125K Qingdao Challenger, China (clay)

[Q3] (4) Jeevan Nendincheziyan (IND,628) bt (6) Sheng Hao Zhou (CHN,1105) 62 64
[Q3] (5) Kunal Anand (IND,881) l (1) Danilo Petrovic (SRB,352) 26 36

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,388) bt Evgeny Karlovskiy (RUS,475) 26 64 62
[R1] (Q) Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND,628) vs Soon Woo Kwon (KOR,334)

Prajnesh scores good comeback win over Russian Karlovskiy ... After losing the first set he made excellent comeback for winning next two sets.

Jeevan joins Prajnesh and KU in main-draw with convincing win over his Chinese opponent ... In main-draw he is having tough challenge of top-350 Korean Soon Woo Kwon.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Shooting - Women's 10m Air Pistol
14 Heena Siddhu (IND) (94, 95, 96, 95) 380 pts

Shooting - Men's Trap qualifying Day 1
17 Manavjeet Singh Sandhu (IND) 68 hits
19 Kynan Chenai (IND) 67 hits

Archery - Women's team
[R16] India bt Colombia 5-3 (52-51, 49-50, 52-52, 52-44)

[QF] India l (2) Russia 4-5 (48-55, 53-52, 53-50, 53-55) 23-25 in shoot-off

Courtesy TOI

Women's Hockey
India vs Japan 2-2 (0-2)
Goal Scorers - Rani Rampal (IND) 33' PC, Lilima Minz (IND) 40' PC and Emi Nishikori (JPN) 15' PC, Mei Nakashima (JPN) 28'

Courtesy TOI

All-round Gymnastics Women's qualifications
8 Deepa Karmakar - Women's Vault Qualification Subdivision 3 - 14.850 (In the final)
Deepa Karmakar - Women's Floor Exercise Qualification Subdivision 3 - 12.033
Deepa Karmakar - Women's Uneven Bars Qualification Subdivision 3 - 11.666
Deepa Karmakar - Women's Balance Beam Qualification Subdivision 3 - 12.866
Deepa Karmakar - Women's Individual All-Around Qualification Subdivision 3 - 23:00

Heena Siddhu not able to produced her best performance and her consistent 95 around rounds helped her only to finish on 14th.

In Trap our both shooters started badly ... After end of day 1 Manavjeet Singh Sandhu is on 17th place with 68 hits, he is 3 hits behind top 6 shooters ... Kynan Chenai is one hit behind Manavjeet ... Tomorrow we need our both shooters to hit like 50/50 for having any chance of qualifying for the final.

Indian women managed draw against higher ranked Japanese women in entertaining match ... We scored our both goals through penalty corners so that means our women are still waiting for their first field goal in Olympics ... Early our women were struggling against Japanese women ... We were 0-2 down at half time by goals from Emi Nishikori and Mei Nakashima ... 'As usual we failed to capitalize on chances they created and gave penalty corner when 10 seconds were remaining on the clock in the first quarter ... After half-time our women played attacking hockey and earned panlty corners one after another ... We converted two of them but in last 20 minutes both teams failed to break deadlock ... In the last quarter Japanese women were attacking on our goals ... Savita was excellent in front of the goal and her Japanese counterpart also defended well.

Indian women archers started with victory against Colombian women ... Frankly it was battle between who shoot poor and Colombia won that battle ... Our single archer failed to hit 10 in this match ... Need to improve a lot if we want to play in medal round.

Indian women archer lost to Russian women in shoot-off ... After losing the first set our women made strong comeback winning next two sets but Russian women played excellent fourth set to take match into shoot-off ... In shoot-off Bombayla Devi's 7 cost us dearly ... On the final shot Dipika needed 10 for catching Russian but she managed only 8.

Dipa Karmakar has finished eighth in the qualifying to reach the finals of the vault event ... With that, she also becomes first Indian to make apparatus finals of artistic Gymnastics ... In her first attempt Dipa scored 15.100 (Difficulty 7.000, Execution 8.100) ... In her second Dipa scored - 14.600 (Difficulty 6.000, Execution 8.600).

Tennis News

At $721K Abierto Mexicano Los Cabos 2016, Los Cabos, Mexico

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (1) Feliciano Lopez (ESP)/ Marcel Granollers (ESP)

Tough match but with their recent performance we can expect upset from Divij-Purav.

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At $100K Aptos Challenger, USA

[R1] (5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) vs Qualifier

RamK is 5th seed and facing qualifier in the first round at Aptos.

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At $125K Qingdao Challenger, China (clay)

[Q1] (4) Jeevan Nendincheziyan (IND,628) bye
[Q1] (5) Kunal Anand (IND,881) bye

[Q2] (4) Jeevan Nendincheziyan (IND,628) bt (WC) Runhao Hua (CHN,NR) 62 61
[Q2] (5) Kunal Anand (IND,881) bt Huxian Wang (CHN,1809) 64 62

[Q3] (4) Jeevan Nendincheziyan (IND,628) vs (6) Sheng Hao Zhou (CHN,1105)
[Q3] (5) Kunal Anand (IND,881) vs (1) Danilo Petrovic (SRB,352)

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,388) vs Evgeny Karlovskiy (RUS,475)
[R1] (PR) Karunuday Singh (IND,1144) vs Xin Gao (CHN,593)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs Xin Gao (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN)
[R1] (PR) Karunuday Singh (IND)/ Kento Takeuchi (JPN) vs (2) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)

Hopefully one or both of Jeevan and Kunal qualify for main-draw ... In the doubles Jeevan is top-seed with his Japanese partner but they r facing tough match against in-form Chinese pair Xin Gao-Ze Zhang, who defeated them in semis at last week's Chengdu challenger.

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At $75K Gatineau Challenger, Canada

[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,150) vs Luke Saville (AUS,247)

Saki is facing Luke in the first round of Gatineau Challenger.

Squash News

At $10K Women's Victorian Open 2016, Melbourne, Australia

[R1] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt (Q) Teh Min Jie (MAS,65) 11-6, 11-6, 11-2 (24m)

[QF] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt (8) Megan Craig (NZL,53) 11-6, 11-6, 11-2 (24m)

[SF] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt Nouran El Torky (EGY,54) 11-4, 11-4, 11-2 (24m)

[F] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) l (2) Millie Tomlinson (ENG,44) 11-6, 4-11, 11-3, 7-11, 9-11 (80m)

Disappointing loss for Dipika in the final after leading 2-1 games  ... More importantly Dipika was only player in the tournament who was top-40 ranked player.

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At $10K Men's Victorian Open 2016, Melbourne, Australia

[R1] Ravi Dixit (IND,188) l (Q) Vincent Droesbeke (FRA,162) 10-12, 10-12, 8-11 (33m)
[R1] (3) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND,84) bt (Q) Connor Sheen (ENG,283) 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 (26m)
[R1] (Q) Sandeep Ramachandran (IND,197) bt Rohan Toole (AUS,248) 8-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 (36m)
[R1] (8) Kush Kumar (IND,102) bt Ko Youngjo (KOR,141) 11-4, 11-2, 7-11, 11-7 (42m)

[R2] (3) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND,84) bt Lance Beddoes (NZL,110) 11-7, 11-8, 5-11, 11-6 (47m)
[R2] (8) Kush Kumar (IND,102) bt (Q) Sandeep Ramachandran (IND,197) 11-5, 11-8, 11-8 (18m)

[QF] (3) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND,84) bt (7) Evan Williams (NZL,87) 9-11, 11-2, 11-2, 11-7 (51m)
[QF] (8) Kush Kumar (IND,102) bt (4) Reiko Peter (SUI,80) 10-12, 5-11, 11-3, 11-4, 11-6 (60m)

[SF] (3) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND,84) l (1) Joe Lee (ENG,52) 8-11, 4-11, 10-12 (59m)
[SF] (8) Kush Kumar (IND,102) l (2) Rex Hedrick (AUS,57) 5-11, 7-11, 5-11 (45m)

Kush Kumar scored nice upset win over top-80 Swiss player in the quarters before losing to top-60 Aussie player in the final ... Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu also performed as per his seeding as he lost in the semis against top-50 type British player Joe Lee.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Courtesy TOI

Men's Single Scull (2000 mtrs) - Heat 1
3. Dattu Bhokanal (IND) 7:21.67s

10m Women's Air Rifle - Qualification
34 Apurvi Chandela (IND) 411.6 pts
43 Ayonika Paul (IND) 407 pts

Courtesy TOI

Tennis - Men's Doubles
[R16] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Lukasz Kubot (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 46 67(6)

Tennis - Women's Doubles
[R16] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) l Shuai Peng (CHN)/ Shuai Zhang (CHN) (6)67 75 57

Table Tennis - Men's Singles
[R1] Soumyajit Ghosh (IND) l Padasak Tanviriyavechakul (THA) 1-4 (8-11, 6-11, 14-12, 6-11, 11-13)
[R1] Sharath Kamal Achanta (IND) l Adrian Crișan (ROM) 1-4 (8-11, 12-14, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11)

Table Tennis - Women's singles
[R1] Mouma Das (IND) l Daniela Monteiro Dodean (ROM) 0-4 (2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11)
[R1] Manika Batra (IND) l Katarzyna Grzybowska (POL) 2-4 (12-10, 6-11, 12-14, 11-8, 4-11, 12-14)

Courtesy Hockey India

Men's Hockey - Pool B
India bt Ireland 3-2 (2-0)
Goal Scorers - VR Raghunath (IND) 15' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 27' PC and 49' PC and Jermyn John (IRL) 45' PC, Conor Harte (IRL) 56'

Courtesy TOI

10m Men's Air Pistol - Qualification
6. Jitu Rai (IND) 580 pts
20. Gurpreet Singh (IND) 576 pts

Final
8. Jitu Rai (IND) 78.7 pts

Wiegtlifting - Womens 48 kg.
11. Saikhom Meerabai Chanu (IND) DNF

Dattu Bhokanal finishes 3rd in Heat 1 of Men's Single Scull and advances to quarter finals.

Poor start in shooting as Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul way outside in qualification for the final.

Raghunath and Rupinder converted three out of seven penalty corners India earned in the match to secure their first win in an opening clash at the Olympics since Sydney Games 2000 ... After dominating first 2 quarters we were scratchy in last two ... We made poor defending inside the circle and gifted many penalty corners to Irish team ... On which they converted for giving us big headache ... We somehow managed to kept the lead for a win.

Lee and Rohan crashed out of the men's doubles event in the first round to end India's hopes ... The duo lost in straight sets to Poland’s Marcin Matkowski and Lukasz Kubot with that Lee' seven Olympics legacy comes to an end ... In the first set from 3-4 Polish pair won next 3 games for winning the set ... In the second set our pair needed to hold their serve when serving for the set at 6-5 but Polish pair broke Indians for taking it into tie-break ... Our pair was down 1-4 but they tried fightback and had a set point at 6-5 but Polish saved that and converted first match point for a win.

Sania-Parthana surprised everyone with their gritty performance as they lose very close match against seasoned Chinese pair in 2 hours and 44 minutes ... After losing close tie-break our pair fought back for winning the second ... Our pair tried hard in the decider but Chinese pair used their experience for completing victory as they targeted Prarthana.

Indian challenge in table tennis ends as all four competitors fall in the first round.

Jitu and Gurpreet struggled early but in end they made amazing comeback ... Gurpreet finished inside top-20 and Jitu hit seven 10 in a row on his last seven shots for qualifying the final on 6th place ... In the final Jitu took pressure of his first Olympics and eliminated first but still good performance from him in his non-favorite event.

India's Saikhom Mirabai Chanu put up a highly disappointing performance as she could not get an overall total in women's 48kg after failing to lift the weight in any of her three attempts in clean and jerk section ... Out of six chances Mirabai could pick the weight up just once, which was in snatch ... Mirabai got only her second attempt correct out of the three chances lifting 82 kg.

Tennis News

At $618K BB&T Atlanta Open 2016, USA

[SF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Andres Molteni (ARG) / Horacio Zeballos (ARG) 67(6) 64 7-10

Divij-Purav lost their match against Argentine pair in match tie-break ... After losing the first set our pair fought back for winning the second ... But again Argentine pair proved better pair for our pair in match tie-break.

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At $100K Granby Challenger, Canada

Doubles Final
(3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) l Guilherme Clezar (BRA)/ Alejandro Gonzalez (COL) 63 16 10-12

Saki-Sanam lose in the final against South American pair in closely fought match tie-break ... After winning the first set they failed to keep momentum, though they tried hard in match tie-break but failed to overcome challenge of Clezar and Gonzalez ... Still good to see their performance as both r playing together after long time span.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Archery - Men's individual qualification
5 Atanu Das (IND) 683 pts

[R32] (5) Atanu Das (IND) vs Jitbahadur Muktan (NEP)

Archery - Women's individual qualification
20 Deepika Kumari (IND) 640 pts
24 Bombayla Devi Laishram (IND) 638 pts
43 Laxmirani Majhi (IND) 563 pts

Archery - Women's team qualification
7 India 1734 pts

In very high scoring qualifying Atanu Das finished on 5th position in qualification ... Overall great performance in the second half by him ... His scoring was 23 10's 16 X's for 683 Points ... Korean Woojin Kim scored world record in qualification with 700 points ... Atanu is facing Nepalese opponent in knock-out.

Disappointing patchy performance by our women archers ... Dipika was at one time topping the standing but with poor shots and one missed shot ended on 20th place .. But if she perform well then till semis she has avoided Korean archer ... In team event also 7th finish means we can play Korean in the final only but that is too much asking with these performances by our women archers.

Tennis News

At $100K Granby Challenger, Canada

[SF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt (2) Jarryd Chaplin (AUS)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA) 63 63

[F] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Guilherme Clezar (BRA)/ Alejandro Gonzalez (COL)

Saki-Sanam score dominating win over 2nd seed Chaplin and Krueger in straight sets for entering into the final ... In the final they r facing unseeded South American pair.

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At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[QF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) bt Alessandro Bega (ITA)/ Ante Pavic (CRO) 61 60

[SF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) l Xin Gao (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 46 36

Jeevan and his partner won quarter final easily but in the semis they fail to overcome local Chinese challenge for losing in straight sets.

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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

[QF] Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,706) l (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,473) 57 46

So Frenchman beats three Indians in a row for entering into the semis.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Bantamweight - 56kg Men
[R1] Shiva Thapa (IND) vs (1) Robeisy Eloy Ramirez (CUB)

Light welterweight - 64kg Men
[R1] Manoj Kumar (IND) vs Evaldas Petrauskas (LTU)

Middleweight - 75kg Men
[R1] Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) vs Charles Conwell (USA)

Tough draw in the boxing for Indians ... Shiva Thapa is facing 2012 London Olympics flyweight category Gold medalist Cuban boxer Robeisy Ramirez ... These two boxers having history, in Youth Olympics 2010, Thapa lost to Ramirez in the finals to settle for a silver ... Two months before that bout, Thapa had lost to Ramirez in the 54kg final of the World Youth Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Manoj Kumar is facing 2012 London Olympics Bronze medalist Evaldas Petrauskas in the first round ... Vikas Krishan is facing 18 yrs old American boxer.

Tennis News

At $618K BB&T Atlanta Open 2016, USA

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)/ Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) w/o (Stakhovsky - left leg)

Lucky break for Indian pair as they received walkover from Ukrainian pair for reaching in the semis.

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At $100K Granby Challenger, Canada

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Tristan Lamasine (FRA)/ Vincent Millot (FRA) 67(5) 76(2) 11-9

[SF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (2) Jarryd Chaplin (AUS)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA)

Really hard fought comeback win for Saki-Sanam against French pair in this long match ... In a way this was a good test for assessing Saki's fitness and Sanam's confidence ... After losing the first set in tie-break our pair needed to dig deep before winning the second set tie-break comfortably ... In match tie-break also both pairs were neck to neck before our pair completed win in a tight situation ... Next they r facing 2nd seed Aussie-American pair.

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At $25K USA F26 Futures, Decatur, IL

[R1] (1) Ramkumar RAMANATHAN (IND,199) l (Q) Dominik KOEPFER (GER,986) 63 36 46

Disappointing loss of RamK against German qualifier.

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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

[R2] Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,706) bt (8) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,640) 61 63
[R2] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,729) l (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,473) 46 06

[QF] Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,706) vs (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,473)

Sasi scores comfortable upset win over Japanese 8th seed but next he is facing top-500 Frenchman, who defeated two Indians in first 2 rounds.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Men's Doubles
[R16] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Lukasz Kubot (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL)

Women's Doubles
[R16] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) vs Shuai Peng (CHN)/ Shuai Zhang (CHN)

With lack of chemistry any match is tough for Lee and Rohan ... Sania-Prarthana having almost no chance against strong Chinese pair.

Also on day one our archers will be on course for qualification in individual and women's team ranking.

Tennis News

At $618K BB&T Atlanta Open 2016, USA

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (4) Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL) 63 76(5)

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR)/ Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR)

Another good win by Divij-Purav against seasoned doubles specialists Erlich and Fyrstenberg ... In this match our pair saved all six break points and converted two on their opponents serve ... Next they r having tricky match against big serving Ukrainian pair.

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At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) bt Ti Chen (TPE)/ Enrique Lopez-Perez (ESP) 75 76(5)

[QF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs Alessandro Bega (ITA)/ Ante Pavic (CRO)

Good tight win by Jeev and Chu-Huan against experienced players like Ti Chen and his partner ... Next they r facing European pair.

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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

[R1] Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713) bt (WC) Stefan VUJIC (AUS,2133) 64 62
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,729) bt (Q) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,1019) 76(3) 63
[R1] (SE) Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) l (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,477) 26 57

[R2] Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,706) vs (8) Arata ONOZAWA (JPN,640)
[R2] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,729) vs (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,473)

So this week Rishab fails to repeat last week's performance of win over Escoffier ... Mohit Mayur starts win a good win against very experienced Nam ... Sasi also starts with expected win.

Tennis News

At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[R1] (PR) Karunuday Singh (IND,1443) l (WC) Rigele Te (CHN,971) 57 46

KU also fails to take advantage of weaker field and lost in straight sets against very lowly ranked local player.

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At $100K Granby Challenger, Canada

[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Hiroki Moriya (JPN)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN) 64 62

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Tristan Lamasine (FRA)/ Vincent Millot (FRA)

Comfortable winning start in the doubles for Saki and Sanam against Japanese pair ... Next they r facing French pair, Lamasine is top-100 doubles player.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R1] Snehadevi S REDDY (IND,450) l (1) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS,357) 26 61 16

Doubles
[R1] Snehadevi S REDDY (IND)/ Natasha PALHA (IND) l Pei-Chi LEE (TPE)/ Varunya WONGTEANCHAI (THA) 36 36

So our challenge is over in the first round only ... Snehadevi gave fighting performance against top-seed ... But she and Natasha lost easily in the doubles.

Tennis News

At $100K Granby Challenger, Canada

[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,150) l Andrey Golubev (KAZ,195) 16 36

Doubles
[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Hiroki Moriya (JPN)/ Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN)

As I was predicted this wasn't a easy match for Saki against former top-50 Golubev ... But Wasn't expected this one-sided scoreline ... Saki failed to convert a single break point and other hand Golubev was returning comfortably on Saki's serve.

Saki is playing in the doubles with Sanam ... Hopefully Saki inject confidence in Sanam with few wins in the doubles.

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At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,390) l (Q) Takuto Niki (JPN,509) 63 36 26

Though on paper Prajanesh should win this match but Niki is experienced and former top-300 player ... Niki got a chance after losing the first set and he took that opportunity as he won last two sets.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R1] Snehadevi S REDDY (IND,450) vs (1) Yana SIZIKOVA (RUS,357)

Doubles
[R1] Snehadevi S REDDY (IND)/ Natasha PALHA (IND) vs Pei-Chi LEE (TPE)/ Varunya WONGTEANCHAI (THA)

Snehadevi having tough match against top-seed ... Natasha lost in the final qualifying against experienced Ip ... Natasha and Snehadevi playing in the doubles.

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At $10K Vietnam F2 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

[R1] (8) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713) vs (WC) Stefan VUJIC (AUS,2133)
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,729) vs (Q) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,1019)
[R1] (SE) Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) vs (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,477)

Not easy matches for our players ... Rishab defeated Escoffier last week but thus week will be more tougher .. Also experienced and former top-450 ranked Hyun-Woo Nam could be tricky one for Mohit Mayur.

Tennis News

At $618K BB&T Atlanta Open 2016, USA

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (4) Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)

Divij-Purav r facing 4th seed experienced players Erlich and Fyrstenberg.

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At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs Ti Chen (TPE)/ Enrique Lopez-Perez (ESP)

Jeevan is playing at Chengdu with Chu-Huan Yi and they r 3rd seeds.

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At $10K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

[R1] Shivika BURMAN (IND,837) l Anastasiya SAITOVA (RUS,1133) 36 67(4)
[R1] Dhruthi TATACHAR VENUGOPAL (IND,704) bt Anna PRIBYLOVA (RUS.901) 64 63
[R1] Sri Vaishnavi PEDDI REDDY (IND,698)bt (WC) Lina QOSTAL (MAR,NR) 62 61
[R1] Shweta Chandra RANA (IND,1066) bt (Q) Rio KITAGAWA (JPN) 76(4) 63

[R2] Dhruthi TATACHAR VENUGOPAL (IND,704) bt (4) Fanny OSTLUND (SWE,580) 36 60 63
[R2] Sri Vaishnavi PEDDI REDDY (IND,698) bt (7) Mirabelle NJOZE (GBR,629) 64 63
[R2] Shweta Chandra RANA (IND,1066) l (3) Victoria MUNTEAN (FRA,445) 16 26

[QF] Dhruthi TATACHAR VENUGOPAL (IND,704) bt Sri Vaishnavi PADDI REDDY (IND,698) 64 61

[SF] Dhruthi TATACHAR VENUGOPAL(IND,704) bt Natalie KALLMUNZEROVA (CZE,1108) 61 63

Singles Final
Dhruthi TATACHAR VENUGOPAL(IND,704) bt (1) Victoria MUNTEAN (FRA,445) 76(6) 36 63

Dhruthi lifts her first ITF title beating top-450 French girl Victoria Muntean ... In the first set Dhruthi was a break down at 5-6 and French girl Victoria had a set point on her serve at 40-30 ... Dhruthi saved that to break her and then in tie-break Dhruthi saved another set point at 5-6 before converting her first set point ... Victoria fought back for winning the second but Dhruthi recovered in the third and won it for exciting win.

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At $10K Vietnam F1 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

Singles Final
Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) l (1) Seong Chan HONG (KOR,439) 16 26

Hong proves too strong for Rishab but still overall good week for Rishab and Sasi.

Tennis News

At $100K+H Biella Challenger, Italy (Clay)

Doubles Final
(3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (1) Andrej Martin (SVK)/ Hans Podipnik-Castillo (CHI) 64 64

Lee lifts Biella Challenger title with his German partner Andre Begemann beating top-seed pair comfortably ... Lee-Andre saved few break points on their serves and converted their first break point chance on Podipnik-Castillo's serve in 9th game for winning the first set ... In the second set Lee-Andre broke Andrej is 5th game for taking 4-2 lead ... And kept that advantage for completing straight sets victory

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At $75K+H Segovia Challenge, Spain

Doubles Final
(3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Joaquin Munoz-Hernandez (ESP)/ Akira Santillan (JPN) 63 46 10-8

Divij-Purav lift their 3rd challenger title of the year when they defeated Munoz-Hernandez and Santillan in match tie-break at Segovia ... Overall this is 5th challenger title for Purav-Divij pairing ... Individually this was Divij's 11th and Purav's 9th challenger title ... Next they r playing at Atlanta ATP.

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At $125K Chengdu Challenger, China

[R1] (PR) Karunuday Singh (IND,1443) vs (WC) Rigele Te (CHN,971)
[R1] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,390) vs Qualifier

Prajnesh and KU r playing in big Chengdu challenger ... KU used his protected ranking #471 for gaining direct entry in main-draw.

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At $10K Vietnam F1 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

[SF] (8) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713) l (1) Seong Chan HONG (KOR,439) 06 26
[SF] Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) bt Renta TOKUDA (JPN,1020) 61 64

Rishab is in the final with convincing win over his Japanese opponent Toduka ... In the final he is facing Korean Davis cupper Hong, who defeated Sasi losing only 2 games.

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At $100K Granby Challenger, Canada

[Q1] Sanam Singh (IND,473) l Hiroyasu Ehara (JPN,601) 26 16

Sanam was back on the court ... Hopefully he will be fully fit from his shoulder injury ... But not a great comeback as he lost one-sided match.

Tennis News

At $2.7M Roger Cup 2016, Montreal, Canada (WTA Premier 5)

[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) l Christina McHale (USA)/ Asia Muhammad (USA) 46 36

Disappointing loss of Sania-Martina against young American pair.

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At $100K+H Biella Challenger, Italy (Clay)

[SF] (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (2) James Cerretani (USA)/ Philipp Oswald (AUT) 63 64

[F] (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (1) Andrej Martin (SVK)/ Hans Podipnik-Castillo (CHI)

Leander also in the final with his German partner Andre Begemann ... They scored straight sets win over 2nd seed Cerretani and Oswald ... In the final they r facing top-seed Slovak-Chilean pair.

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At $50K Lexington Challenger,, USA

[SF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l (4) Luke Saville (AUS)/ Jordan Thompson (AUS) 57 26

Jeevan-RamK fail to overcome challenge of 4th seed Aussie pair in the semis.

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At $10K Vietnam F1 Futures, Thu Dau Mot City

[R1] (8) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713) bt (Q) Jake DELANEY (AUS,952) 46 63 60
[R1] Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,737) l (7) Gengo KIKUCHI (JPN,647) 36 46
[R1] Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) bt (Q) Maciej SMOLA (POL,1052) 62 63

[R2] (8) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713)bt (Q) Shunrou TAKESHIMA (JPN,2149) 64 61
[R2] Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) bt (2) Antoine ESCOFFIER (FRA,477) 62 61

[QF] (8) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713) bt (3) Kento TAKEUCHI (JPN,484) 62 76(0)
[QF] Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) bt (7) Gengo KIKUCHI (JPN,647) 63 63

[SF] (8) Sasi Kumar MUKUND (IND,713) vs (1) Seong Chan HONG (KOR,439)
[SF] Rishab AGARWAL (IND,965) vs Renta TOKUDA (JPN,1020)

Terrific run for Rishab and Sasi in this Vietnam futures ... Rishab and Sasi really good win over top-500 players for reaching to the semis.

Tennis News

At $2.7M Roger Cup 2016, Montreal, Canada (WTA Premier 5)

[R2] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) bt Naomi Broady (GBR)/ Shelby Rogers (USA) 61 61

[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) vs Christina McHale (USA)/ Asia Muhammad (USA)

Expected comfortable winning start for Sania and Martina against young British-American pair ... In the quarters they r facing another young pairing of McHale and Muhammad.

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At $50K Lexington Challenger, USA

[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,196) l Andrew Whittingtton (AUS,207) 67(4) 64 46

Doubles
[QF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt (2) Dean O'Brien (RSA)/ Ruan Roelofse (RSA) 64 62

[SF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (4) Luke Saville (AUS)/ Jordan Thompson (AUS)

RamK misses huge opportunity of completing win in straight sets as he was two breaks up before losing the first set in tie-break ... RamK took early lead and was up 41 with double break ... Andrew fought back winning next 4 games breaking RamK twice, 4-5 ... RamK managed to take the set in tie-break but here Andrew proved strong ... In the second set also RamK took a break and was serving for the set at 5-3 but this time also he failed to hold his serve in 9th game ... But this time RamK broke Andrew in 10th game for winning this set ... In the final set Andrew broke RamK in 5th game and kept that advantage for winning the set and match.

In the doubles Jeevan and RamK scored dominating upset win over 2nd seed South African pair ... In the semis they r facing 4th seed Aussie pair.

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At $75K+H Segovia Challenge, Spain

[SF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (2) Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Andreas Siljestrom (SWE) 64 76(2)

Divij-Purav's terrific run continue ... They defeated 2nd seed Swedish pair in tight two sets for entering into the final.

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At $100K Astana Challenger, Kazakhstan

[QF] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) l Alexander Bublik (RUS)/ Daniil Medvedev (RUS) 67(10) 36

Hoping for couple of more wins after their upset win over top-seed in the first round ... But Russian pair dug deep for winning in straight sets.

Tennis News

At $4.1M Roger Cup 2016, Toronto, Canada

[R2] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) l Tomas Berdych (CZE)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) 16 46

4th seed Rohan and Rojer lose in straight sets against Olympics bound Czech pair.

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At $100K+H Biella Challenger, Italy (Clay)

[QF] (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Fabricio Neis (BRA)/ Joao Souza (BRA) 64 57 10-8

Lee-Begemann in the semis after winning their quarters against Brazilian pair in match tie-break.

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At $75K+H Segovia Challenge, Spain

[QF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Pablo Irigaray Guarne (ESP)/ Oscar Mancineiras Cornella (ESP) 64 60

[SF] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (2) Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Andreas Siljestrom (SWE)

Divij-Purav r in the semis with comfortable win over local wild-card pair ... Next they will face 2nd seed Swedish pair.

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At $50K Lexington Challenger,, USA

[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Brydan Klein (GBR)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS) 76(5) 46 12-10

[QF] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (2) Dean O'Brien (RSA)/ Ruan Roelofse (RSA)

Hard fought win for Jeevan and RamK against in-form good players Klein and Whittington ... In the quarters our pair is facing 2nd seed South African pair.

Tennis News

At $100K+H Biella Challenger, Italy (Clay)

[R1] (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Michael Linzer (AUT)/ Enrique Lopez-Perez (ESP) 61 64

[QF] (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Fabricio Neis (BRA)/ Joao Souza (BRA)

Comfortable winning start for Lee with his partner Begemann ... Next they r facing Brazilian pair.

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At $100K Astana Challenger, Kazakhstan

[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) bt (1) Konstatin Kravchuk (RUS)/ Denys Molchanov (UKR) 63 46 10-7

Terrific big upset by Vishnu and Matsui in match tie-break against top-seed Eastern European pair.

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At $75K+H Segovia Challenge, Spain

[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Alex De Minaur (AUS)/ Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP) 63 76(7)

Purav-Divij get stretched in the second set tie-break after winning the first set easily ... Still good winning start for them.

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At $50K Lexington Challenger,, USA

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,196) bt Luke Saville (AUS,230) 46 62 61

Doubles
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs Brydan Klein (GBR)/ Andrew Whittington (AUS)

RamK made strong comeback for dominating last 2 sets after losing the first set against quality player Luke Saville ... After losing the first set RamK played exceptionally well from back of the court for winning next two sets with double break.

RamK and Jeev r playing doubles against Klein-Whittington.

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At $50K+H Scheveningen Challenger,, Netherlands (Clay)

[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l (WC) Tallon Griekspoor (NED)/ Tim Van Ruthoven (NED) 63 26 8-10

Surprising loss of our pair against local wild-card pair after winning the first set.

Tennis News

At $4.1M Roger Cup 2016, Toronto, Canada

[Q2] (8) Saketh Myneni (IND,152) l (2) Radek Stepanek (CZE,119) 67(5) 76(5) 46

Doubles
[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) bye

Saki played superb fighting match against Radek in his loss in three sets ... After losing the first set in tie-break Saki was break down in the second 2-4 ... He broke back and took the set in tie-break for winning it ... In the decider Saki struggled with his serve and was 2 breaks down 0-4 ... After that he tried fightback and broke Radek in 6th game for 3-4 ... But Radek kept one break advantage for winning this match ... Good big match experience for Saki.

This week Rohan is playing with Rojer and they r 4th seed receiving bye in the first round.

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At $2.7M Roger Cup 2016, Montreal, Canada (WTA Premier 5)

[R1] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) bye

Sania-Martina receive first round bye at Roger cup.

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At $100K+H Biella Challenger, Italy (Clay)

[R1] (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Michael Linzer (AUT)/ Enrique Lopez-Perez (ESP)

Lee is playing with German partner Andre Begemann in Italian Biella Challenger ... They r facing Spanish-Austrian pair in the first round.

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At $100K Astana Challenger, Kazakhstan

[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,459) l (6) Mikhail Elgin (RUS,534) 26 63 36

Doubles
[R1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) vs (1) Konstatin Kravchuk (RUS)/ Denys Molchanov (UKR)

Vishnu lose in the final qualifying round after winning the first set ... In the doubles he and Matsui having tough match against top-seed.

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At $75K+H Segovia Challenge, Spain

[R1] (3) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Alex De Minaur (AUS)/ Roberto Ortega-Olmedo (ESP)

Divij-Purav r playing against Australian-Spanish pair.

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At $50K Lexington Challenger,, USA

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,214) vs Luke Saville (AUS,230)

RamK is facing experienced Australian Luke Saville in the first round.

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At $50K+H Scheveningen Challenger,, Netherlands (Clay)

[R1] N.Sriram Balaji (IND)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (WC) Tallon Griekspoor (NED)/ Tim Van Ruthoven (NED)

This week Bala with Vijay Sunder r playing doubles in Dutch challenger at Scheveningen ... They r facing local wild-card pair in the first round.

Hockey News

At America tour 2016, Manheim, Pennsylvania, USA

Fourth Game
India bt Canada 3-1 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Poonam Rani (IND) 19' PC, Renuka Yadav (IND) 32' PC, Anuradha Thokchom (IND) 58' and Natalie Sourisseau (CAN) 22'

Indian girls continue with their good performance and scored second win over Canadian girls in American tour.

Athletics News

At the U-20 World Championships 2016, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Gold - Neeraj Chopra (IND) 86.48m (JWR)

Young Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra creates history, becomes first Indian world champion in athletics ... Neeraj sets World U-20 and senior national records with throw of 86.48m that wins gold at U-20 Worlds ... The 18-year-old broke the old mark of 84.69 metres held by Latvian Zigismunds Sirmais by nearly two metres.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

In shocking development our Olympic bound World championship bronze medalist wrestler Narsingh Yadav fails dope test.

Tennis News

At $4.1M Roger Cup 2016, Toronto, Canada

[Q1] (8) Saketh Myneni (IND,152) bt (ALT) Fabrice Martin (FRA,978) 76(2) 62

[Q2] (8) Saketh Myneni (IND,152) vs (2) Radek Stepanek (CZE,119)

Saki is having opportunity of playing in Masters qualifying at Roger cup ... In the first qualifying round he has expected winning start ... Now in the final qualifying he is having real test against tough nut Radek.

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At $50K Binghamton Challenger,, USA

[SF] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,214) l Mitchel Krueger (USA,239) 26 46

RamK's terrific run in this Binghamton challenger ended after his straight sets loss against American Krueger ... Still overall good start of US hard court season for RamK.

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At $100K Astana Challenger, Kazakhstan

[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,459) bt Roman Khassanov (KAZ,1156) 63 63

[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,459) vs. (6) Mikhail Elgin (RUS,534)

Comfortable winning start for Vishnu.

Hockey News

At America tour 2016, Manheim, Pennsylvania, USA

Third Game
India bt Canada 5-2 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Vandana Katariya (IND) 9' and 51', Deepika (IND) 38' and 49', Poonam Rani (IND) 58' PC and Stephanie Norlander (CAN) 17' PC, Brienne Stairs (CAN) 42'

Indian girls scored impressive win against Canadian girls to score their second consecutive win of the tour ... In the first 3 quarters both teams matched each other but in the last quarter our girls pressed pedal hard and scored three goals.

Tennis News

At € 520K Swiss Open 2016, Gstaad

[SF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (1) Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Michael Venus (NZL) 63 67(4) 2-10

Divij-Purav miss big opportunity of entering into another ATP final ... After winning the first set they were break up in the second, 3-2 ... Pavic-Venus broke them in next game, 3-all, again our pair had 3 break points in 11th game which they failed to convert ... And from tie-break our pair lost the plot and they lose tie-break and match tie-break easily.

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At $50K Binghamton Challenger,, USA

[QF] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,214) bt Brydan Klein (GBR,260) 76(5) 67(3) 62

[SF] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,214) vs Mitchel Krueger (USA,239)

RamK is in the semis with another hard fought win over Klein ... In the first set RamK had 3 breakpoints on Klein's serve in 9th game but failed to convert it ... RamK played near perfect tie-break for winning it ... In the second set RamK broke Klein in 8th game to lead 5-3 but RamK failed to hold his serve while serving for the match ... Klein dominated tie-break for winning this set ... In the decider RamK broke Klein in 1st game and again he broke Klein in 5th game to lead 4-1 ... In this set Klein was struggling with fitness and RamK took full advantage for completing a win ... Next he is facing American Mitchel Krueger.

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At $100K Astana Challenger, Kazakhstan

[Q1] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,459) bye

[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,459) vs Roman Khassanov (KAZ,1156)

This week Vishnu is playing qualifying of big Astana challenger.

Cycling News

Cycling News,

According to the latest UCI rankings.the Indian men's junior team has moved to top of the table ... The Indian men's junior team has moved from a previous rank of 11th place to top of the table, with a tally of 1012.5 points ... At second is Poland, with 960 points, followed by Korea at third with 900 ... Junior men's team cyclist Sanuraj is ranked tenth in the individual Keirin category ... There was further improvement for India in the women juniors table too, where in the Team Sprint the cyclists moved up four places to occupy eighth place ... Cyclist Anu Chotia enjoys two top-20 rankings as per the UCI, at No 8 in the individual 500m time trial and 19th in the Sprint category ... In the Women Elite table, India are at 18th place while in the 500m time trial, Deborah Herold sits at sixth.

Tennis News

At € 520K Swiss Open 2016, Gstaad

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (3) Dominic Inglot (GBR)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) 76(6) 67(5) 10-7

[SF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (1) Mate Pavic (CRO)/ Michael Venus (NZL)

Divij-Purav score hard fought win over 3rd seed in match tie-break for entering into the semis ... Divij-Purav played really well against big serving opponents and won the first set in tight tie-break ... In this set both pairs exchanged two breaks of serve ... In the second set our pair broke 3rd seed in 3rd game but lost their serve in 6th game, 3-all ... 3rd seed pair won the second set tie-break ... Both pairs played amazing match tie-break ... Only a single mini-break came on 14th point by our pair for completing really good win ... In the semis they r facing top-seed Pavic and Venus.

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At $50K Binghamton Challenger,, USA

[R2] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,214) bt (Q) Jose Statham (NZL,472) 26 64 76(3)

RamK needs to dig deep for scoring comeback win over experienced Statham in three sets ... In the first set from 2-3 RamK was outperformed by Statham ... In the second set RamK took crucial break in 9th game for winning this set ... In the final set RamK broke Statham in 3rd game but Statham broke him in 6th game for bringing back on the serve ... RamK again broke Statham in 11th game but while serving for the match he made unforced errors for losing his serve ... RamK played solid tie-break to take 5-0 lead and converted 3rd match point for good win.

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At $10K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Hong Kong

[QF] Kyra SHROFF (IND,660) l Hao Chen TANG (CHN,723) 26 67(1)

Overall disappointing performance by Indians in these Hong Kong series ... So with Kyra's loss Hong Kong leg get over.

Hockey News

At America tour 2016, Manheim, Pennsylvania, USA

Second Game
India bt USA 2-1 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Preeti Dubey (IND) 45' PC, Lilima Minz (IND) 55' PC and Jill Witmer (USA) 19' PC

First Game
India l USA 2-3 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Preeti Dubey (IND) 33', Deepika (IND) 38' and Kathleen Sharkey (USA) 6', Katie Bam (USA) 31' PC, Kelsey Kolojejchick (USA) 48'

Indian girls bounced back in the second game and defeated Champions trophy bronze medalist USA in tight match ... In the first match our girls lost very close match and in the second match also both teams were neck to neck ... In this match also USA took lead and were leading at half-time ... But this time our players converted two crucial penalty corners and then defended well for completing victory ... In tour's next match we r playing against Canadian girls.

Tennis News

At € 520K Konzum Croatia Open, Umang

[R1] Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (4) Nikola Mektic (CRO)/ Antonio Sancic (CRO) 06 26

Lee and Gabashvili failing to click as pair on the court and their Croation opponents took full advantage of it.

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At € 520K Swiss Open 2016, Gstaad

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Tristan Lamasine (FRA)/ Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 64 64

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (3) Dominic Inglot (GBR)/ Denis Istomin (UZB)

Divij-Purav start with straight sets win over French pair ... In both sets they had a single break for winning it ... Next they r facing 3rd seed Inglot and Istomin.

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At $50K Binghamton Challenger,, USA

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) bt Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,314) 63 64

Doubles
[R1] (3) Andrey Golubev (KAZ)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) l Liam Broady (GBR)/ Guilherme Clezar (BRA) 67(10) 26

Good winning start for RamK for his US hard court season ... He came out of jetleg for completing straight sets win over his Japanese opponent Uchiyama.

Jeev and his Kazakh partner lose their first round match in straight sets.

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At $50K Gimcheon Challenge, Korea

[R1] Cheong-Eul Kim (KOR)/ Sidharth Rawat (IND) l (4) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 06 26

Now officially Sid completes forgettable Korea tour.

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At $10K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Hong Kong

[R2] Kyra SHROFF (IND,660) bt (Q) Kanika VAIDYA (IND,962) 62 76(3)
[R2] (3) Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,372) l.(WC) Kwan Yau NG (HKG,1256) 0-1 retd.

[QF] Kyra SHROFF (IND,660) vs Hao Chen TANG (CHN,723)

Kyra proves better than Kanika in their face-off ... Next she is facing Chinese opponent ... But sad to see Prerna needs to retire from the match due to injury.

Hockey News

Triple Olympian and Moscow Olympic gold medalist Mohd Shahid, 56, has passed away at a Gurgaon hospital ... He was undergoing treatment for multiple defects ... RIP Mohd. Shahid.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup World Group - Play-off 2016, India

The Draw for the 2016 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-offs is out ... India will be hosting 6th seed Spain to fancy their chances to qualify for the elite group of nations ... Hoping for again grass court selection by our think tank and this time in Kolkata.

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At $250K Citi Open 2016, Washington DC, USA (WTA Premier)

[R1] (WC) Malkia Menguene (USA)/ Nidhi Surapaneni (IND) l Sanaz Marand (USA)/ Jessica Pegula (USA) 63 16 2-10

Really don't know much about Nidhi ... She and her American partner lost in the first round of Citi open.

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At $10K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Hong Kong

[R1] Kyra SHROFF (IND,660) bt Ying ZHANG (CHN,688) 26 76(8) 61
[R1] (Q) Kanika VAIDYA (IND,962) bt (4) Ching-Wen HSU (TPE,389) 76(10) 63
[R1] (3) Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,372) bt Yuenu LI (CHN,909) 63 62

[R2] (Q) Kanika VAIDYA (IND,962) vs Kyra SHROFF (IND,660)
[R2] (3) Prerna BHAMBRI (IND,372) vs.(WC) Kwan Yau NG (HKG,1256)

terrific upset win by Kanika over top-400 Taipei player ... Kyra also scored good comeback win over similar ranked Chinese girl.

Tennis News

At $50K Gimcheon Challenge, Korea

[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,584) l Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,381) 76(1) 46 26

Overall expected loss of Sidharth against his Japanese opponent but in that he gave fighting performance.

Golf News

At 145th Open Championship, Ayrshire, Scotland

T68 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 69 72 76 79 +12

Terrible last round for Anirban in British open, 8 over ... Consisted of 6 bogeys and a double bogey on last hole.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup Asia/ Oceania Group I 2016 - Second Round, Chandigarh, India

India bt Korea 4-1

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) bt Seong Chan Hong (KOR,427) 63 26 63 5-6 retd.
[R2] Saketh Myneni (IND,150) bt Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR,626) 61 36 64 36 5-2 retd.

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Hong Chung (KOR)/ Yunseong Chung (KOR) 63 64 64

Day Three
[R4] Rohan Bopanna (IND,UNR) bt Hong Chung (KOR,655) 36 64 64
[R5] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) l Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR,626) 36 75 67(2)

As expected Saki decided to skip return singles ... In his place Rohan played and showed his touch on grass ... He scored comeback win over top-650 type Korean Hong Chung ... In last match of the day Lim scored upset win over RamK ... So with that Indians miss chance of winning this tie 0-5.

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At € 520K Konzum Croatia Open, Umang

[R1] Teymuraz Gabashvili (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (4) Nikola Mektic (CRO)/ Antonio Sancic (CRO)

Lee is playing in Croatian open with Russian Gabashvili and they r facing 4th seed local pair in the first round.

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At € 520K Swiss Open 2016, Gstaad

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Tristan Lamasine (FRA)/ Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA)

Tough first round against French pair for Divij and Purav.

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At $50K Gimcheon Challenge, Korea

[R1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,584) vs Shuichi Sekiguchi (JPN,381)

Doubles
[R1] Cheong-Eul Kim (KOR)/ Sidharth Rawat (IND) vs (4) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN)

Sidharth having tough matches in the singles and doubles.

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At $50K Binghamton Challenger,, USA

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) vs Yasutaka Uchiyama (JPN,314)

RamK will be jet-lagged in his first round match.

Golf News

At $10M 145th Open Championship, Ayrshire, Scotland

T43 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 69 72 76 +4

Anirban had poor round of five over which put him on outside top 40 ... Need solid round to finish inside top 25.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup Asia/ Oceania Group I 2016 - Second Round, Chandigarh, India

India bt Korea 3-0

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) bt Seong Chan Hong (KOR,427) 63 26 63 5-6 retd.
[R2] Saketh Myneni (IND,150) bt Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR,626) 61 36 64 36 5-2 retd.

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Hong Chung (KOR)/ Yunseong Chung (KOR) 63 64 64

Our pair produce clinical win over Korean Chungs without much fuss and wrap the tie ... Our pair won first 2 sets with a single break advantage ... In the third they broke Hong in 1st game but Chungs broke Lee in 6th game for 3-all ... Immediately on next service game our pair broke Yunseong and then kept that advantage for winning the set, match and tie ... So with this win we r back in World group play-off match.

Also a 42nd Davis Cup doubles win for Leander, which equals Nicola Pietrangeli's record for most Davis Cup doubles victories.

Golf News

At $10M 145th Open Championship, Ayrshire, Scotland - Second Round

T22 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 69 71 -1

Anirban makes cut at British open and remain in top 25 after two rounds ... In the first round Anirban missed opportunities of scoring lower round than 2 under ... But in the second round under demanding condition Anirban played excellent round ... With 2 birdies and 3 bogeys he managed one over for remaining in top 25.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup Asia/ Oceania Group I 2016 - Second Round, Chandigarh, India

India vs Korea 2-0

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) bt Seong Chan Hong (KOR,427) 63 26 63 5-6 retd.
[R2] Saketh Myneni (IND,150) bt Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR,626) 61 36 64 36 5-2 retd.

Indians are in commanding position after first day with two victories in this Davis cup tie.

Winning start for RamK on his debut match against Korean Seong Chan Hong ... After winning the first set RamK became tight in the second and committed numerous double faluts and unforced errors may be due to his first Davis cup match ... But he recovered well for winning the third set and in the fourth Seong Chan Hong got injured in 11th game while returning RamK's serve .... So he retired from the match for giving victory to RamK.

Saki also has floundered in his win on Davis cup debut ... Saki started dominating his opponent Lim and won the first set losing only a single game ... But Saki failed to keep same intensity in the second and lose the set ... In the third set Saki lost his serve in 1st game but he recovered and broke back ... With another break he took this set with a single break advantage ... Saki's struggled with his fitness in the fourth, he was cramping badly in this set ... Lim broke Saki in 5th and 9th games for winning the set ... In the final set Lim also struggled with cramps and Saki broke him in 1st game and then again broke Lim in 5th game for taking 4-1 lead ... At 5-2 when Saki was serving for the match Lim retired for giving victory to Saki.

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At $578K Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, Newport, USA

[SF] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Jonathan Marray (GBR)/ Adil Shamasdin (CAN) 36 46

Marray-Shamasdin prove better pair on the court as they defeated Indians in straight sets.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Aschaffenburg, Germany (Clay)

[QF] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) l Anna ZAJA (GER,348) 46 36

Anna proves better player on the clay than Ankita.

Tennis News

At Davis Cup Asia/ Oceania Group I 2016 - Second Round, Chandigarh, India

Day One
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) vs Seong Chan Hong (KOR,427)
[R2] Saketh Myneni (IND,150) vs Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR,626)

Day Two
[R3] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Hong Chung (KOR)/ Yunseong Chung (KOR)

Day Three
[R4] Saketh Myneni (IND,150) vs Seong Chan Hong (KOR,427)
[R5] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,217) vs Yong-Kyu Lim (KOR,626)

RamK is playing first match of the tie on his debut ... On paper our team is looking strong but in reality they r playing really talented young Koreans, who have career high junior rankings of #2 and #3 ... Yunseong Chung made the SF of the juniors Australian open this year and lost in the last-16 of junior Wimbledon ... So these kids can play on the grass ... Overall interesting tie to follow on the grass.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Aschaffenburg, Germany (Clay)

[R2] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) bt Giulia GATTO-MONTICONE (ITA,431) 62 63

[QF] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) vs Anna ZAJA (GER,348)

Very confident win in the second round against Italian girl for Ankita ... Next she is facing German girl Anna Zaja, who scored upset win over 3rd seed Chinese girl in the second round.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Athletics (36+3)

Men -
200M - Dharambir Singh
400M - Muhammad Anas
800M - Jinson Johnson
50KM walk - Sandeep Kumar, Manish Singh Rawat
20KM walk - Baljinder Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Irfan Kolothum Thodi
Marathon - Thonakal Gopi, Kheta Ram, Nitender Singh Rawat
Long Jump - Ankit Sharma
Triple Jump - Renjith Maheshwary
Discus - Vikas Gowda
Shot Put - Inderjeet Singh
4x400 relay - R Mohan Kumar, Ayyasamy Dharun, Mohammed Kunhi, Arokia Rajiv, Sumit Kumar, Jithin Paul (may be we send only 5 athletes and add already qualified Muhammad Anas in roster)

Women -
100M - Dutee Chand
200M - Srabani Nanda
400M - Nirmala Sheoran
800M - Tintu Luka
3000M steeplechase - Lalita Babar, Sudha Singh
Marathon - Kavita Raut, O. P. Jaisha
20KM walk - Khushbir Kaur, Sapna Punia
Shot Put - Manpreet Kaur
Discus - Seema Antil
4x400 relay - Jisna Mathews, M. R. Poovamma, Anilda Thomas, Debashree Majumdar, Ashwini Akkunji, Priyanka Panwar (may be we send only 4 athletes and add already qualified Nirmala Sheoran and Tintu Luka in roster)

Archery (4)

Mens individual - Atanu Das
Womens individual - Deepika Kumari, Laxmirani Majhi, Bombayla Devi

Badminton (7)

Mens singles - Srikanth Kidambi
Womens singles - Saina Nehwal, Pusarla Sindhu
Mens doubles - Manu Attri/ B. Sumeeth Reddy
Womens doubles - Jwala Gutta/ Ashwini Ponnappa

Boxing (3)

Mens 60 Kg - Shiva Thapa
Mens 64 kg - Manoj Kumar
Mens 75 kg - Vikas Krishnan

Hockey (32)

Mens team - PR Sreejesh (captain and GK), Harmanpreet Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Kothajit Singh, Surendar Kumar, VR Raghunath, SK Uthappa, Danish Mujtaba, Devender Walmiki, Manpreet Singh, Sardar Singh, Chinglensana Singh, SV Sunil (vice-captain), Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Nikkin Thimmaiah

Womens team - Savita (GK), Deep Grace Ekka, Sunita Lakra, Sushila Chanu (captain), Deepika (vice-captain), Namita Toppo, Navjot Kaur, Renuka Yadav, Monika, Rani Rampal, Preeti Dubey, Lilima Minz, Nikki Pradhan, Anuradha Devi, Poonam Rani, Vandana Kataria

Gymnastics (1)

Womens individual - Dipa Karmakar

Rowing (1)

Mens single Sculls - Dattu Baban Bhokanal

Shooting (12)

Men -
Rifle - Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Chain Singh
Pistol - Jitu Rai, Prakash Nanjappa, Gurpreet Singh
Shotgun - Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Kynan Chenai, Mairaj Ahmad Khan

Women -
Rifle - Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul
Pistol - Heena Siddhu

Table Tennis (4)

Men - Sharath Kamal Achanta, Soumyajit Ghosh
Women - Manika Batra, Mouma Das

Swimming (2)

200m butterfly - Sajan Prakash
200m freestyle - Shivani Kataria

Golf (3)
Men - Anirban Lahiri, Shiv Chawrasia
Women - Aditi Ashok

Judo (1)

Men's 90 kg - Avtar Singh

Tennis (4)

Men - Leander Peas, Rohan Bopanna
Women - Sania Mirza, Prarthana Thombre

Wrestling (8)

Mens freestyle - Sandeep Tomar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Narsingh Yadav
Women - Vinesh, Babita , Sakshi Malik
Greco Roman - Ravinder Khatri, Hardeep Singh

Weight lifting (2)

Men's 77 kg - Sathish Sivalingam
Women's 48 kg - Saikhom Mirabai Chanu

This is India's biggest contingent for Olympics ... We are sending 120 athletes (can be 123) to Rio ... Still not sure about medal contenders but hoping to crack in double figure in medal hauls for the first time

Tennis News

At $578K Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, Newport, USA

[QF] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)/ Giles Muller (LUX) 64 64

This is really good win in straight sets by Divij-Purav against very experienced players, who r having plenty of experience of playing on grass.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Aschaffenburg, Germany (Clay)

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) bt (Q) Guadalupe PEREZ ROJAS (ARG,563) 57 64 61

[R2] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) vs Giulia GATTO-MONTICONE (ITA,431)

Ankita scores comeback win over Argentine qualifier after losing the first set in the first round ... Next she is facing challenge of Italian girl.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Men’s squad
PR Sreejesh (captain and GK), Harmanpreet Singh (defender), Rupinder Pal Singh (defender), Kothajit Singh (defender), Surendar Kumar (defender), VR Raghunath (defender), SK Uthappa (midfielder), Danish Mujtaba (midfielder), Devender Walmiki (midfielder), Manpreet Singh (midfielder), Sardar Singh (midfielder), Chinglensana Singh (midfielder), SV Sunil (forward and vice-captain), Akashdeep Singh (forward), Ramandeep Singh (forward), Nikkin Thimmaiah (forward)
On standby - Pardeep Mor, Vikas Dahiya

Women’s squad
Savita (GK), Deep Grace Ekka (defender), Sunita Lakra (defender), Sushila Chanu (captain and defender), Deepika (vice-captain and defender), Namita Toppo (defender), Navjot Kaur (midfielder), Renuka Yadav (midfielder), Monika (midfielder), Rani Rampal (forward), Preeti Dubey (forward), Lilima Minz (midfielder), Nikki Pradhan (forward), Anuradha Devi (forward), Poonam Rani (forward), Vandana Kataria (forward),
On standby - Rajani Etimarpu & H. Lalruat Feli

India’s 16-member squads for Men and Women for Rio Olympics was announced.

In women's India’s forward line will be held by Rani Rampal with Deepika named vice-captain ... Sushila Chanu will captain the team in the absence of Ritu Rani.

In the men’s side, PR Sreejesh will be in goal and will lead the side with SV Sunil the vice captain ... Sardar Singh has released from the role of captain

Tennis News

At $578K Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, Newport, USA

[R1] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (PR) Victor Estrella-Burgos (DOM)/ John Paul Fruttero (USA)) 26 63 10-6

[QF] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)/ Giles Muller (LUX)

Good comeback win for Divij-Purav against Estrella-Burgos and Fruttero ... After losing the first set easily our pair made strong comeback for winning the second ... They kept their momentum in match tie-break for completing victory ... Next they r facing seasoned players pairing of Baghdatis and Muller.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Anirban Lahiri (WR #62)
SSP Chawrasia (WR #207)

Aditi Ashok WR #439

Anirban Lahiri and SSP Chawrasia had already sealed a spot for Rio Olympics earlier in the year but it has an official stamp on it now ... But newest and youngest entrant to the Indian contingent will be 18-year-old Aditi Ashok who qualifies with her ranking of 57 as of July 11 – the cutoff date for the Summer Games.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

In Men's Triple Jump - Renjith Maheswary 17:30m (Qualification mark - 16:85m)

In Men's 200m - Dharanbir Singh 20:45s (Qualification mark - 20:50s)

In Men's 800m - Jinson Johnson 1:45:98s (Qualification mark - 1:46:00s)

In the 3rd Indian Grand Prix our three more players qualify for Rio ... Also Indian men's 4x400 team qualifies for Rio clocking 3:00:91s joining Indian women's 4x400 team.
Frankly I am frightened by our players SO MUCH improved performance in Olympic year by our athletes ... For example 17.30m jump by Ranjit Maheshwari is a new national record and is the third best mark in the world this year behind 2 Americans ... But we know in Olympics he will be sick or fouled out like last time ... I really don't know what WADA is doing ... Sick and sucks!

Tennis News

At $578K Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, Newport, USA

[R1] (4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (PR) Victor Estrella-Burgos (DOM)/ John Paul Fruttero (USA))
[R1] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Ariel Behar (ISR) l Marcos Baghdatis (CYP)/ Giles Muller (LUX) 26 36

Divij-Purav r 4th seed at Newport ... Jeevan played with Israeli partner Behar but they faced tough first round against seasoned players ... Baghdatis-Muller pair dominated in their win over Jeev and his partner.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Sajan Prakash (Men's 200m Butterfly) and Shivani Singh (Women's 200m Freestyle) are selected to represent India at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games on wild-cards.

Tennis News

At Wimbledon Open 2016, London, Great Britain

Doubles
[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) l (5) Tímea Babos (HUN)/ Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) 26 46

Mixed Doubles
[R3] (16) Leander Paes (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) l Henri Kontinen (FIN)/ Heather Watson (GBR) 63 36 26

Junior
[R1] Charlotte Robillard-Millette (CAN)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) l (1) Olesya Pervushina (RUS)/ Anastasia Potapova (RUS) 67(4) 64 9-11

Indian challenge is over with Lee-Martina's loss in MXD ... They started well after winning the first set but in this match Martina was struggling with her game ... And from second set their opponents targeted Martina and she was making numerous errors from near net or missing simple overheads or hitting outside.

Surprisingly one-sided loss of Sania-Martina against Babos-Shvedova.

Karman-Charlotte started well against top-seed Russian pair after taking 4-2 lead but top-seed broke back and then won the first set in tie-break ... Karman-Charlotte fought back for winning the second set with a break ... In the final set both pairs tried hard as per match stat but Karman-Charlotte mostly had chance of closing the match as they broke Russian couple of times ... In 20th game Karman-Charlotte served back to back double faults from 30-all to lost the match ... Tough loss.

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At $50K+H Todi Challenger, Italy

[R2] (Q) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,231) l (2) Marco Cecchinato (ITA,130) 67(6) 46

RamK give good fighting performance against Cecchinato in this match ... In the first set both players were neck to neck till tie-break ... In tie-break RamK had 2 set points at 6-4 but he lost next 4 points for losing the set ... In the second set Cecchinato took crucial break in 5th game, 2-3 and that break was enough for winning this set.

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At $25K France F13 Futures, Bourg-En-Bresse (Clay)

[R2] (8) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,488) bt Laurent LOKOLI (FRA,523) w/o

[QF] (8) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,488) l (4) Jonathan EYSSERIC (FRA,347) 46 36

Doubles Final
[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Marat DEVIATIAROV (UKR) l Maxime HAMOU (FRA)/ Calvin HEMERY (FRA) 61 67(5) 8-10

Bala lost in the quarters against higher ranked Frenchman after receiving walkover from another French opponent ... In the doubles she and her doubles Ukrainian partner lose in match tie-break after winning the first set against French pair.

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At $50K Winnetka Challenger, USA

[QF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) l Stefan Kozlov (USA)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 64 57 9-11

But our top-seed pair of Divij-Jeev lost in the quarters in closely fought match.

Tennis News

At Wimbledon Open 2016, London, Great Britain

[QF] (1) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) vs Tímea Babos (HUN)/ Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ)

Mixed Doubles
[R3] (16) Leander Paes (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) vs Henri Kontinen (FIN)/ Heather Watson (GBR)

Juniors
[R1] Charlotte Robillard-Millette (CAN) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) bt (WC) Georgina Axon (GBR)/ Lauryn John-Baptiste (GBR) 67(6) 64 64

[R2] Charlotte Robillard-Millette (CAN) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) vs (1) Olesya Pervushina (RUS)/ Anastasia Potapova (RUS)

Good fighting comeback win by Karman with her Canadian partner Charlotte against local pair ... Next they r facing Russian pair.

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At $50K+H Todi Challenger, Italy

[R1] (Q) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,231) bt Enrique López-Pérez (ESP,211) 63 64

[R2] (Q) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,231) vs (2) Marco Cecchinato (ITA,130)

Doubles
[R1] Riccardo Ghedin (ITA)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt Steven Diez (CAN)/ David Pérez Sanz (ESP) 76(1) 61

[QF] Riccardo Ghedin (ITA)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (1) Marcelo Demoliner (BRA)/ Fabricio Ness (BRA)

RamK starts with straight sets win over his Spanish opponent ... After winning the first set he was down 2-4 in the second ... He fought back and won next four games in a row for completing win in straight sets ... Tough second round against in-form Marco.

In the doubles also winning start for RamK with his Italian partner.

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At $50K Winnetka Challenger, USA

[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) bt (WC) Strong Kirchheimer (USA)/ Konrad Zieba (USA) 64 64

[QF] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs Stefan Kozlov (USA)/ John-Patrick Smith (AUS)

Expected winning start for Divij and Jeev.

Tennis News

At Wimbledon Open 2016, London, Great Britain

Mixed Doubles<
[R2] (1) Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (WC) Neal Skupski (GBR)/ Anna Smith (GBR) 64 36 57
[R2] (16) Leander Paes (IND)/ Martina Hingis (SUI) bt Artem Sitak (NZL)/ Laura Siegemund (GER) 64 64

[R2] (13) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Anastasia Rodionova (AUS) l Juan Sebastián Cabal (COL)/ Mariana Duque (COL) 67(5) 36

Junior
[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,88) l Mariam Bolkvadze (GEO,UNR) 64 26 26

Turning to be disappointing day for Indians as our players but only saving grace was Lee's win with Martina in MXD ... Sania-Ivan fail to cross second round and lost in three sets against British pair after winning the first set ... Olympic bound Colombian pair prove better pair than Rohan-Rodionova in MXD third round ... Karman had tough match against top-500 WTA ranked Bolkvadze ... After winning the first set Karman failed to keep momentum in next two sets.

Lee-Martina scored comfortable straight sets win over Sitak and Siegemund.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Versmold, Germany

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,311) l Tereza SMITKOVA (CZE,224) 36 36

Ankita fails to challenge top-225 Czech player to lose in straight sets.

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At $25K France F13 Futures, Bourg-En-Bresse (Clay)

[R1] (8) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,488) bt Florent DIEP (FRA,905) 64 46 62

[R2] (8) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,488) vs Laurent LOKOLI (FRA,523)

Doubles
[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Marat DEVIATIAROV (UKR) bt Benjamin PIETRI (FRA)/ Johan Sebastien TATLOT (FRA) 64 64

[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Marat DEVIATIAROV (UKR) vs Maxime HAMOU (FRA)/ Calvin HEMERY (FRA)

Bala is playing in France and start with win in the singles and the doubles.