Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Courtesy Hindustan Times and Deccan Chronicle

Women's Freestyle 58kg - Bronze medal match
Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Aisuluu Tynybekova (KYR) 8-5

Women's Freestyle 58kg Repechage
[R2] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Orkhon Purevdorj (MGL) 12-3

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 58kg Qualification
[R32] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Malin Mattsson (SWE) 5-4
[R16] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Mariana Cherdivara (MDA) 5-5 (PP- Decision by Points)

[QF] Sakshi Malik (IND) l Valeriia Koblova Zholobova (RUS) 2-9

Badminton
[QF] Srikanth Kidambi (IND,11) l Dan Lin (CHN,3) 6-21 21-11 18-21

Women's Golf - Day 1
T7 Aditi Ashok (IND) -3

Athletics - Women's 800m Round 1 heat 3
6. Tintu Luka (IND) 2:00:58 (SB)

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 48kg Qualification
[R16] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Emilia Vuc (ROM) 11-0

[QF] Vinesh Phogat (IND) l Sun Yunan (CHN) victory by injury

SAKSHI MALIK WON BRONZE MEDAL IN WOMEN'S FREESTYLE 58KG ... First any color medal for us ... What a bout Sakshi played, simply legendary ... I am remembering one famous line for Sakshi - 'Heroes Are Just Ordinary People Who Do Extraordinary Things In Extraordinary Times.'

In Bronze medal match, Sakshi started on back-foot against Aisuluu Tynybekova ... Aisuluu pinned Sakshi couple of times for taking 0-5 lead after first 3 minutes ... With two back-to-back pin down Sakshi made it 4-5 at 4:30 mins mark ... When 15 seconds remaining she captured 1 more point for 5-all ... And then when 2 seconds remaining she earned 2 more points which Aisuluu challenged ... Sakshi earned 1 more point for Aisuluu failed challenge for completing one of the best comeback victory.

In the repechage second round Sakshi faced Mongolian wrestler, who defeated her earlier this year at Asian qualification tournament ... Sakshi was very attacking on the mat ... She multiple times pinned down Purevdorj for convincing win for moving into Bronze medal match.

Earlier Sakshi surprised everyone after reaching in the quarters ... In the first round she was 0-4 down against her WR #3 and European champion Swedish opponent when 2 minutes remaining ... After that she turned table as she took score to 3-4 and then when 7 seconds remaining she scored 2 points for tight win ... In PQF she faced Moldovan wrestler ... In this match also Sakshi was 1-3 down but after that Sakshi won 4 points in a row for 5-3 lead ... This time Moldovan wrestler caught her at 5-all before end of the bout ... Sakshi declared winner as she won more continuous points (four) ... In the quarter Sakshi faced tough Russian opponent ... In this bout she was outperformed but got chance of playing repechage as Russian wrestler into the final.
Srikanth gave valiant efforts against Lin Dan in his loss ... After losing the first game easily Srikanth dominated the second for taking match into decider ... In the final game Srikanth took early couple of points lead, at that time he had 13-10 lead ... Lin Dan used all his experience and took lead ... Lin Dan converted 2nd match point in fighting win.

Aditi Ashok played excellent golfing round for ending first day inside top-10 with three under score.

Tintu Luka gave her season best timing but that wasn't enough for qualifying for semi-final in 800m.

In the quarter-final Vinesh's knee got twisted as her Chinese opponent was getting on top of her ... Vinesh was seriously injured as she stretchered out ... Before that Vinesh scored dominating win over Romanian wrestler when match was stopped in the second period when she took 11-0 lead ... So after this win we had lots hope but Vinesh was unlucky to get injured.

Squash News

At World Doubles Championship 2016,, Darwin, Australia

Women's Doubles
[SF] (1) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND) l (2) Rachael Grinham (AUS)/ Donna Urquhart (AUS) 5-11 10-11 (29m)

Mixed Doubles
Pool A
(5) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) l (4) Donna Urquhart AUS)/ David Palmer (AUS) 11-7, 5-11, 8-11 (41m)

Pool B
(2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (6) Catalina Pelaez (COL)/ Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) 11-4, 11-5
(2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (11) Jenny Haley (WAL)/ Joel Makin (WAL) 11-9, 11-7 (21m)
(2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (3) Joelle King (NZL)/ Paul Coll (NZL) 11-10, 8-11, 11-8 (46m)

[SF] (2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (5) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) 10-11, 11-7, 11-6 (37m)

[F] (2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) vs (3) Joelle King (NZL)/ Paul Coll (NZL)

In women's doubles semis Dipika and Joshana lost against 2nd seed Aussie pair in straight game.

In MXD, Dipika and Saurav scored comeback win over their Indian compatriots Joshana and Sandhu for entering into the semis ... In the final they r facing New Zealand pair Joelle King and Paul Coll, they defeated same pair in tight match in pool ... Before that Dipika and Saurav scored three more wins in the pool but Joshana and Sandhu lost in their last pool match.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Courtesy of Google

Badminton
[QF] P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) bt Yihan Wang (CHN,2) 22-20 21-19

[SF] P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) vs Nozomi Okuhara (JPN,6)

Wrestling - Men’s Greco-Roman 98kg Qualification
[R16] Hardeep Singh (IND) l Ildem Cenk (TUR) 1-2

Sindhu is in a medal round with stunning win over London Games silver medalist Yihan Wang of China ... With this win, Sindhu became the second Indian badminton player to reach an Olympic semifinal after Saina Nehwal achieved the feat at London Olympics.

In the first game Yihan was taking couple of points lead 3-0 and 11-8 but Sindhu was catching her ... At 20-18 Sindhun missed couple of game points but she converted third when Yihan missed the line ... In the second game Sindhu took early lead, 8-3, and at break 11-8 ... Yihan tried amazing comeback when Sindhu was leading 18-13, Yihan won next 6 points to lead 18-19 ... Sindhu kept her nerves and won next 3 points for aone of the best win of her career ... In the semis she is facing WR #6 Japanese Nozomi Okuhara.

Turkish wrestler scored early couple of points and after that he defended only ... Hardeep failed to score point and lost bout by a point.

Squash News

At World Doubles Championship 2016,, Darwin, Australia

Women's Doubles
Pool A
(1) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND) bt (5) Sarah Cardwell AUS)/ Christine Nunn (AUS) 11-8, 11-8
(1) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND) bt (4) Delia Arnold (MAS)/ Rachel Arnold (MAS) 11-7, 11-10 (20m)
(1) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND) bt (8) Aika Azman (MAS)/ Teh Min Jie (MAS) 11-5, 11-5

[SF] (1) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND) vs (2) Rachael Grinham (AUS)/ Donna Urquhart (AUS)

Men's Doubles
Pool A
(9) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND)/ Ramit Tandon (IND) l (5) Andrés Herrera & Juan Camilo Vargas (COL) 11-8, 7-11, 10-11
(9) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND)/ Ramit Tandon (IND) l (1) Ryan Cuskelly (AUS)/ Cameron Pilley (AUS) 6-11, 6,11 (25m)
(9) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND)/ Ramit Tandon (IND) bt (8) Sanjay Singh Chal MAS)/ Ivan Yuen (MAS) 6-11, 11-4, 11-10
(9) Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND)/ Ramit Tandon (IND) l (4) David Palmer AUS)/ Zac Alexander (AUS) 5-11,8-11

Mixed Doubles
Pool A
(5) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) bt (9) Delia Arnold (MAS)/ Sanjay Singh Chal (MAS) 11-9, 10-11, 11-10
(5) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) bt (8) Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL)/ Campbell Grayson (NZL) 11-9, 11-5 (22m)
(5) Joshna Chinappa (IND)/ Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu (IND) bt (1) Rachael Grinham (AUS)/ Cameron Pilley (AUS) 9-11, 11-6, 11-9 (43m)

Pool B
(2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (7) Tesni Evans (WAL)/ Peter Creed (WAL) 11-8, 5-11, 11-5 (38m)
(2) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND)/ Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt (10) Rachel Arnold (MAS)/ Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAS) 11-7, 11-4 (20m)

In World doubles championship Indian pairs r playing well ... In women's doubles Dipika and Joshana r top-seed and they r in the semis with straight games win over their opponent pairs in the pool.

In MXD, Joshana and Sandhu won three matches of their pool including win over top-seed Aussie pair in three games ... In other pool Dipika and Saurav r second seeds and scored two straight wins.

In men's doubles Sandhu and Tandon managed only one win from four matches.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Badminton
[R16] Srikanth Kidambi (IND,11) bt Jan O Jorgensen (DEN,5) 21-19 21-19
[R16] P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) bt Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,8) 21-13 21-15

[QF] Srikanth Kidambi (IND,11) vs Dan Lin (CHN,3)
[QF] P. V. Sindhu (IND,10) vs Yihan Wang (CHN,2)

Athletics - Men’s Triple Jump - Group B
15. Ranjith Maheshwary (IND) 16.13m

Athletics - Women’s 200m Heat 5
6. Srabani Nanda (IND) 23.58s

Athletics - Women’s Discus Throw - Group B
9. Seema Punia Antil (IND) 57.58m

Athletics - Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Final
10. Lalitha Babar (IND) 9:22.74s

Wrestling - Men’s Greco-Roman 85kg Qualification
[R16] Ravinder Khatri (IND) l Viktor Lorincz (HUN) 9-0 (first period)

Boxing - Men's Middleweight (75kg)
[QF] Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) l Bektemir Melikuziev (UZB) 0-3 (27-30, 27-30, 27-30)

Srikanth scored superb upset win over WR #5 Danish player Jan O Jorgensen in 42 minutes ... Srikanth played very attacking game in this match and kept his cool on important points as both players were neck to neck in both games ... In the quarters he is facing his old foe Dan Lin.

Sindhu also joined Srikanth in quarters with impressive dominating win over Tzu Ying Tai in 40 mins ... In both games Sindhu took control and didn't gave any chance to Tai but Sindhu is also facing big Chinese challenge in next match ... She is facing Chinese top player former WR #1 and current WR #2 Yihan Wang.

In steeplechase final Lalitha failed to better her national record but gave decent time to finish on respectable 10th position ... Our other athletes kept getting out in qualification and first round ... In triple jump Ranjith manged only one jump over 16 mtrs which was only 16.13 mtrs ... In 200m heat Srabani Nanda managed only 23.58s timing to finished 6th in her heat ... Disappointing throw from Seema Punia, who failed to cross 58 mtrs mark in qualifying.

In wrestling bad start as in Greco-Roman, Ravinder Khatri lost bout in the first period as his Hungarian opponent took 9 pts lead.

Uzbek boxer proved too strong for Vikas in quarter final ... Uzbek boxer was former World champion silver medalist and he plaed perfect bout without taking much risk.

Chess News

At 2016 Sinquefield Cup, Saint Louis, USA

Round One - 5 August 2016
Ding Liren (CHN,2755) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) ½-½
Wesley So (USA,2771) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) 1-0
Anish Giri (NED,2769) - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) - Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) ½-½
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) 1-0

Round Two - 6 August 2016
Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) 1-0
Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) - Anish Giri (NED,2769) 1-0
Ding Liren (CHN,2755) - Wesley So (USA,2771) ½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) 0-1

Round Three - 7 August 2016
Wesley So (USA,2771) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) ½-½
Anish Giri (NED,2769) - Ding Liren (CHN,2755) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) ½-½
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) ½-½
Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) - Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) ½-½

Round Four - 8 August 2016
Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) - Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) ½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) ½-½
Ding Liren (CHN,2755) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) ½-½
Wesley So (USA,2771) - Anish Giri (NED,2769) ½-½

Round Five - 9 August 2016
Anish Giri (NED,2769) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) - Wesley So (USA,2771) ½-½
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) - Ding Liren (CHN,2755) 1-0
Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) ½-½
Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) ½-½

Round Six - 11 August 2016
Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) 0-1
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) - Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) ½-½
Ding Liren (CHN,2755) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) 1-0
Wesley So (USA,2771) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) 1-0
Anish Giri (NED,2769) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) ½-½

Round Seven - 12 August 2016
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) ½-½
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) - Anish Giri (NED,2769) ½-½
Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) - Wesley So (USA,2771) ½-½
Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) - Ding Liren (CHN,2755) ½-½
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) ½-½

Round Eight - 13 August 2016
Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) - Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) 1-0
Ding Liren (CHN,2755) - Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) ½-½
Wesley So (USA,2771) - Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) ½-½
Anish Giri (NED,2769) - Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) ½-½
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) - Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) ½-½

Round Nine - 14 August 2016
Veselin Topalov (BUL,2761) - Levon Aronian (ARM,2784) ½-½
Peter Svidler (RUS,2751) - Viswanathan Anand (IND,2770) ½-½
Fabiano Caruana (USA,2807) - Anish Giri (NED,2769) 1-0
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA,2819) - Wesley So (USA,2771) ½-½
Hikaru Nakamura (USA,2791) - Ding Liren (CHN,2755) 1-0

The 2016 Sinquefield Cup is an elite international event, featuring 10 of the strongest chess players in the world. Over the course of nine rounds, these competitors will battle for $300,000 in prize money (first: $75,000, second: $50,000, third: $40,000, last: $15,000) plus points toward the Grand Chess Tour and the coveted title of 2016 Sinquefield Cup Champion

Anand finished on the second position in tie-break with 5 points ... He scored a win over French Grand master Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the second round with black pieces and drew other matches ... Wesley So won this tournament with 5½ points.

Final Standing

Courtesy of Chasebase

Tennis News

At $4.3M Western & Southern Open 2016, Cincinnati, USA

[R1] (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Florin Meargea (ROM) bye

Rohan and Florin r back at Cincinnati Masters in preparation for US open.

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At $2.8M Western & Southern Open 2016, Cincinnati, USA (WTA Premier 5)

[R1] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Barbora Strycova (CZE) bye

From Cincinnati tournament Sania and Martina r back on the court with their new respective partners.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Westende, Belgium

[R1] (8) Ankita Raina (IND,312) bt (Q) Klaartje Liebens (BEL,575) 46 64 64

Ankita scored superb comeback win over local Liebens ... Ankita was 46 0-3 down before she made comeback to win this match.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Golf - Men's Individual - Final Standing
T50 Shivsankar Prasad Chawrasia (IND) 71 71 69 78 +5
57 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 74 73 75 72 +10

Badminton - Women's Singles - Group G
Saina Nehwal (IND) l Maria Ulitina (UKR) 18-21 19-21

Badminton - Men's Singles - Group H
Srikanth Kidambi (IND) bt Henri Hurskainen (SWE) 21-6 21-18

Badminton - Women's Singles - Group M
P. V. Sindhu (IND) bt Michelle Li (CAN) 19-21 21-15 21-17

[R16] Srikanth Kidambi (IND,11) vs Jan O Jorgensen (DEN,5)
[R16] P. V. Sindhu (IND,8) vs Tzu Ying Tai (TPE,10)

Shooting - 50m Rifle 3 Pos. Men's Qualification
23 Chain Singh (IND) 1169-52x
33 Gagan Narang (IND) 1162-50x

Athletics - Women’s Marathon
89 O. P. Jaisha (IND) 2:47:19
120 Kavita Raut (IND) 2:59:29

Men's Hockey - Quarter Final
India l Belgium 1-3 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Akashdeep Singh (IND) 15' and Sebastien Dockier (BEL) 34' and 45', Tom Boon (BEL) 50'

Tennis - Mixed doubles Bronze Medal match
(4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Lucie Hradecka (CZE)/ Radek Stepanek (CZE) 16 57

Boxing - Men's Light Welter (64kg)
[R2] Manoj Kumar (IND) l Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (UZB) 0-3 (27-30, 27-30, 27-30)

Courtesy TOI

Gymnastics - Women's Vault Final
4. Dipa Karmakar (IND) 15.066

DIFFICULTY  EXECUTION  SCORE

1.  6.000      8.866               14.866
2.  7.000      8.266               15.266

This was day of missed opportunities and chances ... Most heart breaking was Dipa missing Vault Bronze medal by 0.15 pts ... Sania-Rohan had off-day (avoiding word 'choked') in Bronze medal match ... Men's hockey team no-match to Belgium's solid and perfect defense.

Our both golfers ended on disappointing note ... SSP carded one of worst round of the final day, +7 and Anirban failed to improve on his standing.

In Badminton, shocking loss of Saina against 60+ ranked Ukrainian in straight games citing injury ... So with this loss she missed knock-out stage.

Expected win by Shrikanth against his Swedish opponent, though he stretched Srikanth in the second ... In knock-out Shrikant is facing in-form Danish player Jan O Jorgensen.

Sindhu needed to fightback after losing first game against Michelle Li ... Sindhu played controlled game for winning next two games ... In knock-out she is facing tricky match against Taipei's Tzu Ying Tai.

In shooting, our disappointing performance continued as our bto shooters, Chain Singh and Gaggan Narag, failed to finish inside top-20 in 50m Rifle 3 Pos. Men's Qualification ... With that shooting event finished on sour note as our shooter failed to win a single medal.

For Jaisha and Kavita this Rio Marathon proved too demanding as their timing was off-mark by standard.

In hockey we lost this match due to poor performance by our team ... We failed to repeat performance of our matches against Dutch, Germany and Argentina ... We managed hardly 4/5 attacks on Belgium goal and failed to create single penalty corner chance ... Other hand non-stop attacking by Belgium ... They created so many chances it was surprising that they failed to score in first-half ... After their equalizer in the start of the second half gave clear indication of one way traffic ... Disappointed to see our performance as our team was looking like without any plan on the turf.

Sania-Rohan missed golden opportunity of winning the medal ... Yesterday they squandered big opportunity of closing the match after dominating the first set ... Today our both players were looking too much tensed and failed to control their nerves ... Czech pair took full advantage of it for winning the first set comfortably ... In the second our pair tried matching Czech pair but Sania took pressure in 11th game ... She committed two double faults for losing her serve and then match.

Uzbek boxer was better in the bout and so he won bout against Manoj Kumar after winning all three rounds.

Dipa Karmarkar is true champion and knows when to raise her game/ efforts ... In the final she was having outside chance of medal but in end she came agonizingly close of Bronze medal ... Her first vault was decent but on the second in Prudonova she went a bit deep while landing, if she landed with a perfect standing pose then had huge opportunity of winning the medal ... Dipa is a huge talent and we can hope medal from her in World championships and Tokyo Olympics.

Tennis News

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

Doubles Final
Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR) 76(4) 76(3)

Divij-Purav won their second ATP tournament of their career ... In the final they defeated seasoned doubles players in two tie-breaks for capturing this title ... Also this title win helped them to secure direct entry in doubles maindraw of US Open 2016.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Golf - Men's Individual Round 3
T22 Shivsankar Prasad Chawrasia (IND) 71 71 69 -2
T57 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 74 73 75 +9

Courtesy TOI

Rowing - Men's Single Sculls Final C
1. Dattu Baban Bhokanlal (IND) 6:54.96s

Shooting - Men's Skeet Qualification - Day 2
T8 Mairaj Ahmed Khan (IND) 121 (in shoot-off eliminated first for 5th/6th place)

Shooting - 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qualification - Day 2
7 Gurpreet Singh (IND) 581-24x (289+292)

Women's Hockey - Pool B
India l Argentina 0-5 (0-5)
Goal Scorers - Martina Cavallero (ARG) 16' PC and 29', Maria Granatto (ARG) 23', Carla Rebecchi (ARG) 26' PC, Agustina Albertarrio (ARG) 27'

Courtesy TOI

Athletics - Women’s 3000m steeplechase — Heat 2
4 Lalitha Shivaji Babar (IND) 9:19.76 (NR) (qualified for the final)

Athletics - Women’s 3000m steeplechase Heat 3
9 Sudha Singh (IND) 9:43.29s

Athletics - Women’s 400m Heat 1
6 Nirmala Sheoran (IND) 53.03s

Badminton
Women's Doubles - Group A
Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Sapsiree Taerattanachai (THA)/ Puttita Supajirakul (THA) 17-21, 15-21

Men's Doubles - Group D
Manu Attri (IND)/ Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND) bt Hiroyuki Endo (JPN)/ Kenichi Hayakawa (JPN) 23-21 21-11

Tennis - Mixed Doubles
[SF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Venus Williams (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) 62 26 3-10

This days bright spot were, Lalitha Babar qualifying for the final of steeplechase event and Dattu Bhokanlal winning Single Sculls Final C event. In the golf SSP was in top-15 till 16th hole with 4 under for the day but scored back to back bogeys on 17th and 18th to finished outside top-20 ... Anirban produced worst round of three rounds to finished on T57 position.

Dattu Bhokanlal gave his best timing in his four races for winning Final C, so with that he finished on 13th place in Men's Single Sculls.

In shooting, our both players finished in top-8 but in these events only top-6 gets qualified for the final ... Gurpreet finished on 7th position with 581 points in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, his only 90 round in 3rd series cost him dearly ... Mairaj produced 25 and 24 in last two series, he was tied for 5th place with 5 other shooters in Skeet ... In shoot-off he and French shooter eliminated first so he missed reaching the final.

Our women hockey team got outperformed by Argentine team in their one-sided win ... Argentina scored all 5 goals in second quarter and in last two quarters missed to increase winning margin ... So our team ended with four losses and one draw.

In Athletics, Lalitha Babar run a superb race and bettered national record by 7/8 seconds in 3000m Steeplechase ... And while doing that she qualified for the final with 7th best timing in all qualifier ... Sudha Singh struggled and managed time 9:40s ... In 400m Nirmala managed only 53 secs to finish her heat on 6th place.

Jwala-Ashwini failed to end their campaign on winning note and they lost their match in straight sets against Thai pair ... Other hand Manu Attri and Sumeeth scored upset win over WR#8 Japanese pair in straight game ... So with that they ended their Olympics campaign on winning note.

In the tennis Sania and Rohan missed opportunity of playing in Gold medal match as they lost against American pair Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram in match tie-break ... In the first set Indian pair broke Venus two times for winning it ... In the second American pair broke Sania twice for winning it ... In match tie-break from 1-3 American pair won 9 points in a row for this excellent win ... Moon balling backfired on Sania and our pair failed to raise their game on this crucial juncture ... In match tie-break our pair missed couple of easy volleys, missing simple smash or failing to put pressure on their opponent ... Sania-Rohan still having chance of winning medal against Czech pair for Bronze medal.

Football News

At FIFA International Friendly 2016, Thimphu, Bhutan

Bhutan l India 0-3 (0-3)
Goal Scored - Sumit Passi (ND) 15', Jeje Lalpekhlua (IND) 18', Holicharan Narzary (IND) 21'

Dominating win by India against Bhutan ... India took control of the match scoring 3 goals in first 20 minutes ... And kept that lead through out the match for comfortable win.

Squash News

At $15K Women's Australian Open 2016,, Melbourne, Australia

[R1] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt (WC) Jessica Turnbull (AUS,86) 11-1, 11-5, 11-8 (24m)
[QF] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt (7) Misaki Kobayashi (JPN,48) 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 (37m)
[SF] (1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt (Q) Hana Ramadan (EGY,89) 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-4 (35m)

Final
(1) Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND,19) bt (8) Mayar Hany (EGY,46) 10-12, 11-5, 11-6, 11-4 (40m)

Good to see Dipika is started to winning these types of title ... In her last three matches she needed to make comeback after losing the first game.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Archery - Men's Individual
[R16] (5) Atanu Das (IND) vs (12) Seungyun Lee (KOR) 4-6 (28-30, 30-28, 27-27, 27-28, 28-28)

Badminton
Women's Doubles - Group A
Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Eefje Muskens (NED)/ Selena Piek (NED) 16-21 21-16 17-21

Men's Doubles - Group D
Manu Attri (IND)/ Sumeeth Reddy B. (IND) l Biao Chai (CHN)/ Wei Hong (CHN) 13-21 15-21

Athletics - Men’s 800m Round 1 — Heat 3
5 Jinson Johnson (IND) 1:47:27s

Athletics - Women's Shot Put
23 Manpreet Kaur (IND) 17.06 mtrs.

Athletics - Men's Discuss Throw
16 Vikas Gowda (IND) 58.99 mtrs.

Athletics - Men’s 20km race walk
13 Manish Singh Rawat (IND) 1:21:21s (2:07)
Gurmeet Singh (IND) DQ
Ganapathi Krishnan (IND) DQ

Athletics - Men's Long Jump
24 Ankit Sharma 7.67 mtrs.

Athletics - Men’s 400m Round 1 — Heat 2
6 Mohammad Anas (IND) 45.95s

Athletics - Women’s 100m Round 1 — Heat 5
7 Dutee Chand (IND) 11.69s

Rowing - Men’s Single Sculls Semis C/D 2
2 Dattu Baban Bhokanlal (IND) 7:19.02 mins (Qualified for Final C)

Men's Hockey - Pool B
India dw Canada 2-2 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - Akashdeep Singh (IND) 33' PC, Ramandeep Singh (IND) 40' and Scott Tupper (CAN) 33' PC and 52' PC

Shooting - 50m Rifle Prone Men's Qualification
13 Gagan Narang (IND) 623.1 pts
36 Chain Singh (IND) 619.6 pts

Shooting - Men's Skeet Qualification - Day 1
10 Mairaj Ahmed Khan (IND) 72

Shooting - 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men’s Qualification - Day 1
13 Gurpreet Singh (IND) 289-10x

Golf - Men's Individual Round 2
T27 Shivsankar Prasad Chawrasia (IND) 71
T50 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 74

Courtesy Ibtimes

Tennis - Mixed Doubles
[QF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Andy Murray (GBR)/ Heather Watson (GBR) 64 64

[SF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Venus Williams (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA)

Courtesy TOI

Boxing - Men's Middleweight (75kg) Preliminaries
[R2] Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) bt Sipal Onder (TUR) 3-0 (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)

[QF] Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) vs Bektemir Melikuziev (UZB)

Atanu Das loses close match against Korean in well fought match ... Atanu was matching Korean but missed his arrows (like 9 instead of 10) at couple of crucial time and that cost him this match ... Tough luck to face Korean in pre-quarterfinal ... So with this loss our challenge got over in Archery.

In shooting till 5th series Gagan was in top-8 but in last series he struggled and managed 102, whch cost him his entry in the final.

Gurpreet and Mairaj needs solid rounds on their tomorrow's series ... Currently Mairaj on 10th position and Gurpreet on 13th in their respective events.

Dattu Bhokanlal finished second in D semi-final and he is qualified for C Final.

In Athletics disappointing start as Vikas failed to cross 59 mtrs mark in qualifying ... Manpreet managed only 17 above mtrs shot put ... Jinson Johnson gave good timing, 1:47.27s ... Manish Singh Rawat performed really well to clock 1:21:21s, which was gave him 13th finish but our other two walkers disqualified ... Dutee Chand finished 50th overall in women's 100m heat ... Ankit Sharma failed to cross 7.70 mtrs in long jump ... In 400m also Mohammad Anas failed to impress with his heat timing.

Disappointing result for Indian hockey ... After giving back to back two performances Indians failed to show similar intensity against Canada ... After first half score remained goalless ... In the third quarter we took lead but conceded immediately ... Then again took lead but Canadian skipper equalized through penalty corner ... Now we r having tough quarter-final against Belgium Group A topper.

Sania-Rohan r in medal round with impressive win over Andy Murray and Heather Watson in straight sets ... In the first set Rohan lost his serve in 2nd game to find 0-2 down ... But after that our pair broke Heather in 3rd and 7th games and kept that advantage for winning the first set ... In the second set only break came when our pair broke Andy's serve in 5th game and kept that advantage for winning the match ... Next they r facing American pair Venus Williams and Rajeev Ram for place in Gold medal match.

Vikas Krishan won the bout comfortably against his Turkish opponent Sipal Onder ... In the quarters he is facing tough challenge on talented Uzbek boxer, who is current Asian champion, Bektemir Melikuziev.

Tennis News

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

[SF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Adil Shamasdin (CAN)/ Jonathan Marray (GBR) 64 64

[F] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Ken Skupski (GBR)

Divij-Purav scored another good win over their Newport ATP conquerors in straight sets for entering into the second ATP doubles final ... After winning the first set with a single break Divij-Purav were double break up at 5-2 ... While serving for the match Divij failed to hold, 5-3 ... Purav were 3 break points down while serving for the match at 15-40 but our pair won next three points on big serve from Purav for entering into the final ... In the final they r facing Erlich and Skupski.

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At $75K Gatineau Challenger, Canada

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,150) l (5) Vincent Millot (FRA, 183) 67((5) 16

Doubles
[SF] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs (1) Tristan Lamasine (FRA)/ Franko Skugor (CRO)

In this match Saki was looking injured as he was taped and wasn't looking comfortable while playing his shots ... Frenchman Millot took advantage of it and he dominated the second after winning the first set tie-break ... If he is injured then Saki should skip his doubles semi-final.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Koksijde, Belgium (Clay)

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,312) l Quirine Lemoine (NED,317) 16 06

Disappointing loss after two good wins by Ankita ... Frankly baffling scoreline against similar ranked Dutch player.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Archery - Women's Individual
[R16] Deepika Kumari (IND) l Ya-Ting Tan (TPE) 0-6 (27-28, 26-29, 27-30)
[R16] Bombayla Devi Laishram (IND) l Alejandra Valencia (MEX) 2-6 (26-28, 26-23, 27-28, 23-25)

Badminton
Women's Doubles - Group A
Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l Misaki Matsutomo (JPN)/ Ayaka Takahashi (JPN) 15-21 10-21

Men's Doubles - Group D
Manu Attri (IND)/ Sumeeth Reddy B. (ND) l Mohammad Ahsan (INA)/ Hendra Setiawan (INA) 18-21 13-21

Women's Singles - Group M
Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND) bt Laura Sarosi (HUN) 21-8 21-9

Women's Singles - Group G
Saina Nehwal (IND) bt Lohaynny Vicente (BRA) 21-17 21-17

Men's Singles - Group H
Srikanth Kidambi (IND) bt Lino Munoz (MEX) 21-11 21-17

Men's Hockey - Pool B
India l Netherlands 1-2 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - VR Raghunath (IND) 38' PC and Rogier Hofman (NED) 32' PC, Mink van der Weerden (NED) 54' PC

Boxing - Bantamweight - 56kg Men
[R1] Shiva Thapa (IND) l (1) Robeisy Eloy Ramirez (CUB) 0-3 (27-30, 26-30, 26-30)

Golf - Men's Individual Round 1
T27 Shivsankar Prasad Chawrasia (IND) 71
T50 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 74

Women's Hockey - Pool B
India l USA 0-3 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Katherine Bam (USA) 14' and 42', Melina Gonzalez (USA) 52'

Tennis - Mixed Doubles
[R1] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Samantha Stosur (AUS)/ John Peers (AUS) 75 64

[QF] (4) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Andy Murray (GBR)/ Heather Watson (GBR)

Overall disappointing day as our archers, Shiva Thapa in boxing and our hockey team lost their respective matches.

Deepika Kumari failed to overcome strong challenge of Taipei's Ya-Ting Tan ... In this match Deepika managed only one 10 but other hand Tan scored six 10s.

Bombayla Devi also failed to overcome challenge of Mexican girl Alejandra Valencia and lost in four sets ... With that our challenge got over in women's archery.

In badminton expected results as our both pairs lost their respective matches against higher ranked opponent pairs ... In the singles winning start for Sindhu, Saina and Srikanth in contrasting fashion.

Indians lost in well fought match against Dutch side ... When last 6 seconds were remaining Indians received penalty corner and after that we received four more penalty corners but we failed to convert ... First half was little boring as we were only defending but action picked up in the second half ... Overall impressive performance by our boys ... Next match against Canada is important as that will decide standing for quarter-final.

Comprehensive win by Robeisy Eloy Ramirez against Shiva Thapa ... He was no match to Ramirez, who dominated from the start.

Anirban struggled on the golf course as he managed 74 only and SSP played better for completing round 71 ... But overall disappointing as top-25 managed 70 or lower and leader Marcus Fraser is leading by 11 strokes of Anirban.

USA dominated the proceedings throughout and end the group stage with four wins in four games, while India women r languishing at fifth with one point ... Another disappointing performance by Indian women hockey team.

In mixed doubles Sania-Rohan had a winning start against Aussie pair in straight sets ... Next they r having tricky match against WR #2 Andy Murray and his partner Heather Watson.

Tennis News

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

[QF] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Nicholas Monroe (USA)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 16 63 10-7

Another good comeback win by Divij-Purav against regular ATP doubles players. After losing first set convincingly Divij-Purav recovered for winning next and then they controlled match te-break for entering into the semis.

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At $100K Aptos Challenger, USA

[QF] Liam Broady (GBR)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) l (3) Stefan Kozlov (USA)/ Matt Reid (AUS) 26 26

One-sided loss for RamK and his partner against 3rd seed pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2016, Koksijde, Belgium (Clay)

[R2] Ankita Raina (IND,312) bt Fanni Stollar (HUN,318) 64 75

[QF] Ankita Raina (IND,312) vs Quirine Lemoine (NED,317)

Ankita scored tight straight sets win over similar ranked her Hungarian opponent ... Next she is facing another similar ranked player but this Dutch player defeated top-200 3rd seed German player.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Courtesy PTI

Shooting - 50m Men's Pistol
12 Jitu Rai (IND) 554-9x
25 Prakash Nanjappa (IND) 547-10x

Archery - Women's Individual
[R64] (24) Bombayla Devi Laishram (IND) bt (41) Laurence Baldauff (AUT) 6-2 (24-27, 28-24, 27-23, 26-24)
[R32] (24) Bombayla Devi Laishram (IND) bt (9) Lin Shih Chia (TPE) 6-2 (27-24, 27-24, 26-27, 28-26)

[R16] (24) Bombayla Devi Laishram (IND) vs (45) Kristine Esebua (GEO)

Weightlifting - Men's 77 kg - Group B
4 Sathish Kumar Sivalingam (IND) 329kg (148kg in snatch and 181kg in clean and jerk)

Judo - Men's 90 kg
[R32] Avtar Singh (IND) l Popole Misenga (ROT) Seoi-nage 5:00

Women's Hockey - Pool B
India l Australia 1-6 (0-2)
Goal Scored - Thokchom Anuradha (IND) 70' and Kathryn Slattery (AUS) 5' PC, Georgie Morgan (AUS) 9' PC, Jane Claxton (AUS) 35', Georgina Parker (AUS) 36', Jodie Kenny (AUS) 43' PS and 46' PC

Boxing - Men's Light Welter (64kg)
[R1] Manoj Kumar (IND) bt Evaldas Petrauskas (LTU) 2-1 (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)

[R2] Manoj Kumar (IND) vs Fazliddin Gaibnazarov (UZB)

Jitu Rai - "I let my country down. There was wind but I don't want to make any excuses."

Please someone tell this guy we are very proud of him and I m damn sure he will win 2 medals at Tokyo Olympics ... Jitu Rai, you are gentleman and THE champion.

Group B is meant for lower-ranked competitors who have registered lower entry weights and by finishing fourth even in this category, Sivalingam has no chance to be on the podium.

Australia have thrashed Indian women with an emphatic 6-1 win today ... Nothing more to write about it.

Manoj Kumar completed tight win over Evaldas Petrauskas in 2-1 favor ... Next having tough match against Uzbek Fazliddin Gaibnazarov.

Tennis News

At $75K Gatineau Challenger, Canada

[R2] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,150) bt Blake Mott (AUS,324) 63 62

Doubles
[QF] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Filip Peliwo (CAN)/ Brayden Schnur (CAN) 63 64

Saki in the singles quarter with comfortable win over Aussie youngster Blake Mott.

Saki-Sanam scored comfortable straight sets win over local Canadian pair for entering into the semis.

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At $125K Qingdao Challenger, China (clay)

[R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,388) l (6) Pere Riba (ESP,205) 64 06 26

Doubles
[R1] (PR) Karunuday Singh (IND)/ Kento Takeuchi (JPN) l (2) Mao-Xin Gong (CHN)/ Ze Zhang (CHN) 26 06

[QF] (1) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) l Danilo Petrovic (SRB)/ Tak Khunn Wang (FRA) 67(10) 67(1)

Prajnesh started well after winning the first set but afterwards one way traffic for his Spanish opponent, who dominated last two sets.

Indian challenge got over as our both players lost their respective doubles matches with their respective partners ... Jeevan and his partner lost match in tie-breaks.

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At $100K Aptos Challenger, USA

[R1] Liam Broady (GBR)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) bt John Lamble (USA)/ Bernardo Sarava (POR) 64 62

[QF] Liam Broady (GBR)/ Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND) vs (3) Stefan Kozlov (USA)/ Matt Reid (AUS)

In the doubles RamK and Broady started with comfortable win ... In the quarters they r facing 3rd seed Aussie-American pair.

Olympics News

At Rio Olympics 2016, Brazil

Rowing - Men's single Scull quarter-final 4
4 Dattu Baban Bokhanal (IND) 6:59.89s

Shooting - Women's 25m Pistol
20 Heena Sidhu (IND) 576-16x

25m Pistol Women's Qualification Precision
Heena Sidhu (IND) 286-8x (95, 95, 96)

25m Pistol Women's Qualification Rapid
Heena Sidhu (IND) 290-8x (97, 97, 96)

Courtesy TOI

Archery - Men's Individual
[R64] (5) Atanu Das (IND) bt (60) Jitbahadur Muktan (NEP) 6-0 (29-26, 29-24, 30-26)
[R32] (5) Atanu Das (IND) bt (37) Adrian Andres Puentes Perez (CUB) 6-4 (28-26, 29-26, 26-27, 27-28, 29-28)

[R16] (5) Atanu Das (IND) vs (12) Seungyun Lee (KOR)

Men's Hockey - Pool B
India bt Argentina 2-1 (1-0)
Goal Scored - Chinglensana Kangujam Singh (IND) 8', Kothajit Khadangbam Singh (IND) 35' and Gonzalo Peillat (ARG) PC 49'

Boxing - Men's Middleweight (75kg) Preliminaries
[R1] Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) bt Albert shone Charles Conwell (USA) 3-0 (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

[R2] Vikas Krishan Yadav (IND) vs Sipal Onder (TUR)

Dattu Bokhanal finished inside 7 minutes but that didn't help him to make it to the final ... He will participate in Men's Single Sculls SemiFinal C/D.

Heena Sidhu finished disappointing #30 in Precision and #20 in Rapid in the final standing.

Atanu Das continues with his terrific form ... In the first round he defeated his Nepalese opponent dominantly without losing much sweat ... But in the second round his Cuban opponent stretched him to fullest ... After winning first 2 sets Atanu failed to connect 10 in next two sets and his Cuban opponent took advantage winning these two sets with better scoring ... In the final set Atanu hit 9 on the first shot and his Cuban opponent also replied with 9 ... In the second shot Atanu scored 10 and his Cuban opponent managed 9 ... On the final shot both archers shot 10 giving Atanu this set by a point ... In pre-quarterfinal Atanu having tough match against Korean Seungyun Lee.

Our hockey players continued with their excellent performance despite their loss against Germany ... Today Asian Champions India defeated Pan American Champions Argentina 2-1 ... In this match we played well as our defending were very good ... Again our forward-line missed to many chances but we took early lead through Chinglensana ... We kept that advantage at half-time and after half-time we doubled lead through Kothajit ... In the fourth quarter Argentine team fought back and converted penalty corner ... After that we defended well but we also missed few open goal chances ... Still this is our first win against Argentina in a decade in big FIH event.

Vikas Krishan starts with closely fought win on points over teenager American boxer Charles ... Next he is facing Turkish boxer Sipal Onder.

Tennis News

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

[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (1) Feliciano Lopez (ESP)/ Marcel Granollers (ESP) w/o (Granollers - illness)

Another really good lucky break for Divij and Purav as top-seed gave them walkover.

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At $100K Aptos Challenger, USA

[R1] (5) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,199) l (Q) Cameron Norrie (GBR,423) 36 67(10)

Disappointing loss against British qualifier ... RamK need to avoid such type of dip in the form and losses against these lower ranked players.

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At $125K Qingdao Challenger, China (clay)

[R1] (Q) Jeevan Neduncheziyan (IND,628) l Soon Woo Kwon (KOR,334) 67(3) 46
[R1] (PR) Karunuday Singh (IND,1144) l Xin Gao (CHN,593) 36 26

[R2] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,388) vs (6) Pere Riba (ESP,205)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) bt Xin Gao (CHN)/ Zhe Li (CHN) 46 63 10-6

[QF] (1) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Chu-Huan Yi (TPE) vs Danilo Petrovic (SRB)/ Tak Khunn Wang (FRA)

In the singles Jeevan and KU lose their matches in straight sets against their higher ranked opponents.

In the doubles good revenge by Jeevan and Chu-Huan against Chinese pair who scored upset win over them in last week ... Today after losing the first set Jeevan and Chu-Huan scored excellent comeback win ... Next they r facing European pair.

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At $75K Gatineau Challenger, Canada

[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,150) bt Luke Saville (AUS,247) 75 60

[R2] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,150) vs Blake Mott (AUS,324)

Doubles
[R1] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) bt Edward Corrie (GBR)/ David O'Hare (IRL) 63 57 10-4

[QF] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ Sanam Singh (IND) vs Filip Peliwo (CAN)/ Brayden Schnur (CAN)

Really good dominating win by Saki against talented Aussie Luke Saville in straight sets ... Next he is facing another Aussie youngster Blake Mott.

Saki-Sanam scored a win in match tie-break against British-Irish pair ... Next they r facing local pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament, Koksijde, Belgium (Clay)

[R1] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) bt (Q) Lisa MATVIYENKO (GER,656) 75 64

[R2] Ankita RAINA (IND,312) vs Fanni STOLLAR (HUN,318)

Expected winning start for Ankita against German qualifier ... Next she is facing similar ranked Hungarian opponent.

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.