Asian Games 2018

At the 18th Asian Games - Jakarta Palembang 2018 - Day 6, Indonesia

PC to Sachin Tendulkar twitter handle

Rowing - Men's Quadruple Sculls
Gold - India (Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash, Sukhmeet Singh) 6:17.13s
Silver - Indonesia 6:20.58s
Bronze - Thailand 6:22.41s

PC to Lakshya FB page

Rowing - Men's Lightweight Double Sculls
Gold - Masayuki Miyaura (JPN)/ Masahiro Takeda (JPN) 7:01.70s
Silver - Byunghoon Kim (KOR)/ Minhuk Lee (KOR) 7:03.22s
Bronze - Rohit Kumar (IND)/ Bhagwan Singh (IND) 7:04.61s

PC to Lakshya FB page

Rowing - Men's Lightweight Single Sculls
Gold - Hyunsu Kim (KOR) 7:12.86s
Silver - Hin Chun Chiu (HKG) 7:14.16s
Bronze - Dushyant (IND) 7:18.76s

Rowing - Men's Lightweight Eight
4. India 6:15.00s

Rowing - Women's Four
6. India (Sanjukta Dung Dung, Annu, Navneet Kaur, Yamini Singh) 7:43.49s

PC to Divij's FB page

Tennis - Men's Doubles Gold Medal match
Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Aleksandr Bublik (KAZ)/ Denis Yevseyev (KAZ)

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Uesugi Kaito (JPN)/ Shimabukuro Sho (JPN) 46 63 10-8
[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Chengpeng Hsieh (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua Yang (TPE) 63 57 10-1
[R16] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt Kadchapanan Nuttanon (THA)/ Wishaya Trongcharoenchaikul (THA) 63 61
[R32] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) bt David Agung Susanto (INA)/ Ignatius Anthony Susanto (INA) 63 63

PC to Prajnesh's FB page

Tennis - Men's Singles
[SF] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,161) l Denis Istomin (UZB,75) 26 26

[QF] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,161) bt Soonwoo Kwon (KOR,273) 67(2) 64 76(6)
[R16] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,161) bt Nam Hoang Ly (VIE,515) 63 57 64
[R32] Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,161) bt M Rifqi Fitriadi (INA,1486) 62 60

Kabbadi - Women's Team Gold Medal match
India l Iran 24-27

PC to Heena Sidhu FB page

Shooting - 10m Air Pistol Women
Gold - Qian Wang (CHN) 240.3 pts. GR
Silver - Minjung Kim (KOR) 237.6 pts.
Bronze - Heena Sidhu (IND) 219.2 pts.
5. Manu Bhaker (IND) 176.2 pts.

Shooting - 300m Standard Rifle Men
4. Harjinder Singh (IND) 560 pts.
5. Amit Kumar (IND) 559 pts.

Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Balance Beam Final
5. Dipa Karmakar (IND) 12.500 pts.

Swimming - Men's 50m Breaststroke Final
7. Sandeep Sejwal (IND) 27.98sec

In Rowing, after yesterday's disappointment, our rowers lifted three medals ... In Men's Quadruple Sculls, Sawarn Singh, Dattu Bhokanal, Om Prakash and Sukhmeet Singh won a gold ... In Men's Lightweight Double Sculls, Rohit Kumar and Bhagwan Singh won a bronze and in Men's Lightweight Single Sculls, Dushyant won a bronze.

In the tennis, Rohan and Divij gave a first gold medal in the tennis of this Asian games ... In the final, they defeated Kazakh pair comfortably ... Prajnesh lost easily against Istomin in the semis, so with that, he also confirmed a bronze.

In shooting under Women's 10m Air Pistol event, Heena Sidhu lifted a bronze ... She was an early behind but raised her shooting to win a medal ... Young Manu Bhaker finished on the 5th position, this tournament turned out to be a learning experience for our talented shooter ... Manu is capable of winning the Olympic medal ... Before that in the qualifying, Manu finished on the 3rd position with 574 pts. and Heena finished on the 7th position with 571 pts.
In 300m Standard Rifle Men, our both shooters, Harjinder Singh and Amit Kumar, finished outside medal as they finished on the 4th and the 5th respectively.

Our disappointing performance continued in Kabaddi ... In the women final Iran defeated Indian women in a close match ... Iran becomes the first team to beat India in women's kabbadi.

Dipa Karmakar finished in the 5th position in the final of Women's Balance Beam.

In Men's 50m Breaststroke final, Sandeep Sejwal finished on the 7th position,

We have 6 Gold, 5 Silver and 14 Bronze.

Tennis News

At US Open 2018, New York, USA

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,98) vs Pierre Hugues Herbert (FRA,74)

The US Open draw is out and Yuki having another favorable draw in the grand slam ... He is facing Frenchman Pierre Hugues Herbert, in their earlier meeting at Maharashtra ATP 2018 tournament, Yuki was lost in close three sets ... But this time I am not sure about Yuki's match fitness as he skipped complete US hard court season after Wimbledon due to injury.

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At $691K Winston-Salem Open 2018, North Carolina, USA

[SF] (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) 64 26 10-8

[F] (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (2) Jean-Julien Rojer (NED)/ Horia Tecau (ROU)

Leander and Cerretani r in the final with another match tie-break win over Aisam and Artem ... In the final, they r facing the 2nd seeds Rojer and Tecau.

Asian Games

At the 18th Asian Games - Jakarta Palembang 2018 - Day 5, Indonesia

P.C. to FB page

Shooting - Men's Double Trap
Gold - Hyunwoo Shin (KOR) 74 hits
Silver - Shardul Vihan (IND) 73 hits
Bronze - Hamad Ali Al Maari (QAT) 53 hits

Shooting - Women's Double Trap
6. Shreyasi Singh (IND) 121 hits
7. Varsha Varman (IND) 120 hits

P.C. to Ankita Raina FB page

Tennis - Women's Singles
[SF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,189) l (1) Shuai Zhang (CHN,34)46 67(6)

[QF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,189) bt Eudice Wong Chong (HKG,612) 64 61
[R16] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,189) bt Eri Hozumi (JPN,243) 61 62
[R32] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,189) bt Beatrice Gumulya (INA,753) 62 64

Kabaddi - Men's Team
[SF] India l Iran 18-27

Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Vault Final
7. Aruna Budda Reddy (IND) 12.775 pts.
8. Pranati Nayak (IND) 12.650 pts.

Swimming - Men's 200m Backstroke Final
6. Srihari Nataraj (IND) 2:02.83sec NR

Swimming - Men's 50m Butterfly Final
8. Virdhawal Khade (IND) 24.48sec

In shooting under Men's Double Trap, 15 yrs. old Shardul Vihan won a silver ... He lost by a single hit against experienced Korean shooter ... Before that in the qualifying, Shardul hits 141 for topping it.
In the Women's Double Trap, our shooters Shreyasi Singh and Varsha Varman finished on the 6th and the 7th positions.

In the tennis, Ankita wins her first medal in Asian games ... She lost the semis to top-35 Chinese girl Shuai Zhang after giving a credible fight ... Before that Ankita scored some confident wins ... For reaching the semis helped her to grab a bronze.

In Kabaddi, the first time we failed to win a gold in men's event ... After losing to South Korea in the group we faced Iran in the semis ... Iranian team proved a better defensive unit and we lost easily for getting a bronze.

In the Artistic Gymnastics women's vault final, our two girls finished in top-8, Aruna on the 7th and Pranati on the 8th position.

In the Swimming Men's 50m Butterfly, In heat Veerdhawal clocked new national record of 24.09sec to qualify for the final but ended in the 8th position in the final ... Srihari Nataraj finished on the 6th position in Men's 200m backstroke final after creating a new national record of 2:02.83sec.


We have 4 Gold, 4 Silver and 10 Bronze.

Tennis News

At $691K Winston-Salem Open 2018, North Carolina, USA

[R1] (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (3) Ben McLachlan (JPN)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER) 64 36 11-9
[QF] (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Maximo Gonzalez (ARG)/ Marc Lopez (ESP) 61 16 10-8

[SF] (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK)/ Artem Sitak (NZL)

Lee and Cerretani in the semis of the Winston-Salem Open and they r playing against Aisam and Artem ... Yesterday, they played two matches and won both in the match tie-break ... In the first round, they scored an upset win over the 3rd seeds in a close match ... In the quarters, they defeated Gonzalez and Lopez in another close match tie-break.

Asian Games 2018

At the 18th Asian Games - Jakarta Palembang 2018 - Day 4, Indonesia

P.C. to Olympic Gold Quest FB page

Shooting - 25m Pistol Women
Gold - Rahi Sarnobat (IND) 34 pts. GR (shoot-off)
Silver - Naphaswan Yangpaiboon (THA) 34 pts. GR
Bronze - Minjung Kim (KOR) 29 pts.
6. Manu Bhaker (IND) 16 pts.

Wrestling - Men's Greco-Roman 87 kg - Bronze medal
Harpreet Singh (IND) l Azamat Kustubayev (KAZ) 3-6 (Decision by Points)

[SF] Harpreet Singh (IND) l 0-10 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 38 secs.)
[QF] Harpreet Singh (IND) bt Masato Sumi (JPN) 8-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 1:30 mins.)
[R16] Harpreet Singh (IND) bt Heageun Park (KOR) 4-1 (Decision by Points)

P.C. to Moneycontrol website

Wushu - Women's Sanda - 60kg
[SF] Roshibina Devi Naorem (IND) l Yingying Cai (CHN) 0-1

P.C. to Moneycontrol website

Wushu - Men's Sanda - 56kg
[SF] Santosh Kumar (IND) l Truong Giang Bui (VIE) 0-2

P.C. to Moneycontrol website

Wushu - Men's Sanda - 60kg
[SF] Surya Bhanu Partap Singh (IND) l Erfan Ahangarian (IRI) 0-2

P.C. to Moneycontrol website

Wushu - Men's Sanda - 65kg
[SF] Narender Grewal (IND) l Foroud Zafari (IRI) 0-2

Wushu - Men's Taijiquan and Taijijian All-Round Final
4. Gyandash Singh Mayanglambam (IND) 9.70 pts.

Artistic Gymnastics - Women's Team Final
7. India 138.050 pts. (Dipa Karmakar, Pranati Nayak, Aruna Budda Reddy, Pranati Das, Mandira Chowdhury)

Swimming - Men's 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay Final
8. India 3:25.34sec (Aaron Dsouza, Anshul Kothari, Sajan Prakash, Virdhawal Khade)

In shooting under 25m Pistol Women event, Rahi Sarnobat won a gold in a close shoot-off with Thai shooter Yangpaiboon ... Rahi won it in the third shoot-off as both shooters were missing multiple shots ... Both shooters created game record of 34 hits but in the shoot-off both were off the mark ... Rahi also becomes the first Indian women shooter to win gold in a women's event at the Asian Games ... As before this, our women won 4 silver and 6 bronze medals ... Young Manu Bhaker finished on the 6th as she struggled to score in the final but before that she shot brilliantly in the qualifications to qualify for the final in the top spot ... Manu's score of 593 wasn't just a Games Record but it's also one point above the Olympic Games Record of 592 ... Rahi qualified for the final on the 7th position with 580.

In Men's Greco-Roman 87 kg category, Harpreet lost close bronze medal bout against Kazakh wrestler Kustubayev ... Before that, he defeated last Asian games silver medalist Japanese wrestler, Masato Sumi, comfortably but lost convincingly in the semis against last Asian games gold medalist Rustam Assakalov.

In Wushu, our four players lost in the semi-final of Sanda in their weight categories ... So with that we assured 4 more bronze medals ... Impressed with young 17 yrs. old Roshibina Devi in Women's 60 kg category ... Gyandash Singh Mayanglambam finished on the 4th position in Men's Taijiquan and Taijijian All-Round event final.

In the Artistic Gymnastics women's team final, our girls finished on the creditable 7th position.

In the Swimming Men's 4x100m freestyle relay, our team finished on the last position clocked 3:25.34sec timing.

Indian men's hockey team breaks their own 86 year old record of biggest margin ... Previous best was 24-1 and to day they defeated Hong Kong team 26-0.

We have 4 Gold, 3 Silver and 8 Bronze.

Asian Games 2018

At the 18th Asian Games - Jakarta Palembang 2018 - Day 3, Indonesia

P.C. to Sai Media twitter handle

Shooting - 10m Air Pistol Men
Gold - Saurabh Choudhary (IND) 240.7 pts. GR
Silver - Tomoyuki Matsuda (JPN) 239.7 pts.
Bronze - Abhishek Verma (IND) 219.3 pts.

P.C. to Sai Media twitter handle

Shooting - 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men
Gold - Zicheng Hui (CHN) 453.3 pts.
Silver - Sanjeev Rajput (IND) 452.7 pts.
Bronze - Takayuki Matsumoto (JPN) 441.4 pts.

Shooting - Trap Mixed Team
6. India (Shreyasi Singh and Lakshay Sheoran) 16/25

P.C. to Sai Media twitter handle

Wrestling - Women's Freestyle 68 kg - Bronze medal
Divya Kakran (IND) bt Wenling Chen (TPE) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 1:29sec.)

[QF] Divya Kakran (IND) l Tumentsetseg Sharkhuu (MNG) 1-11 (Victory by Technical Superiority)

P.C. to Sai Media twitter handle

Sepaktakraw - Men's Team Regu
[SF] India l Thailand 0-2 (Sandeep Kumar, Akash Yumnam, Henary Singh Wahengbam, Harish Kumar)

P.C. to Sai Media twitter handle

Swimming - Men's 50m Freestyle
4. Virdhawal Khade (IND) 22.47sec.

In shooting under Men's 10m Air Pistol event, 16 yrs. old Saurabh Choudhary wins a gold beating World Champions, Olympic medalists and Olympians ... This was Saurabh's first senior international event ... He was behind double World Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda but Matsuda had poor, 8.9 pts., second lost shot and Saurabh took an advantage with hitting 10.2 pts. shot to lead ... Matsuda hit 10.3 pts on the final shot and Saurabh responded with 10.4 pts. shot to deserving gold medal ... His senior caompatriot Abhishek Verma won a bronze with 219.3 pts. ... Before that in the qualifying, Saurabh qualified on the top position with 586 pts. and Abhishek qualified for the 6th poisition with 580 pts.
In Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions final, an experienced Sanjeev Rajput won a silver, he becomes only third athlete from India to claim a shooting medal at four different Asian Games ... In the final, most of the time Sanjeev was leading but in the standing he hit 8.4 pts. shot and that put him away from a gold medal ... He won a silver with 452.7 pts. ... Before that in the qualifying, he qualified in the 7th position with 1160 pts.

In women's freestyle wrestling, Divya Kakran won a bronze beating Taipei wrestler comfortably in the medal match ... Before that, she lost in her first match against Mongolian superior wrestler 1-11.

India collects their first medal in sepaktakraw in Asian Games history ... They lifted a bronze after losing the semis against Thai team in Men's Team Regu.

In swimming, Virdhawal Khade missed a medal by whisker in Men's 50m Freestyle ... He came in the 4th position as losing a bronze by 0.01 second ... In the heat, he clocked a new nation record in the Men's 50m Freestyle with the timing of 22.43sec.

Yesterday, Indian men's hockey team defeated Indonesian team 17-0 and today, Indian women's team defeated Kazakhstan women's team 21-0 in one-sided match.

We have 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze.

Tennis News

At $691K Winston-Salem Open 2018, North Carolina, USA

[R1] (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (3) Ben McLachlan (JPN)/ Jan-Lennard Struff (GER)

After skipping Asian games, Lee is playing with Cerretani in Winston-Salem Open and they r playing against the 3rd seeds McLachlan and Struff.

Asian Games 2018

At the 18th Asian Games - Jakarta Palembang 2018 - Day 2, Indonesia

P.C. to OGQ twitter handle

Women's Freestyle 50 kg - Gold Medal
Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Yuki Irie (JPN) 6-2 (Decision by Points)

[SF] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Yakhshimuratova Dauletbike (UZB) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 1:15)
[QF] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Kim Hyungjoo (KOR) 11-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 1:37)
[R16] Vinesh Phogat (IND) bt Yanan Sun (CHN) 8-2 (Decision by Points)

Women's Freestyle 62 kg - Bronze Medal
Sakshi Malik (IND) l Sim Rim Jong (PRK) 2-12 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 2:42)

[SF] Sakshi Malik(IND) l Aisuluu Tynybekova (KGZ) 7-9 (Decision by Points)

[QF] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Ayaulym Kassymova (KAZ) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 0:35)
[R16] Sakshi Malik (IND) bt Salinee Srisombat (THA) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 1:54)

Women's Freestyle 57 kg - Bronze Medal
Pooja Dhanda (IND) l Katsuki Sakagami (JPN) 1-6 (Decision by Points)

[SF] Pooja Dhanda (IND) l Myong Suk Jong (PKR) 0-10 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 2:09)

[QF] Pooja Dhanda (IND) bt Nabira Esenbaeva (UZB) 12-1 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 2:51)
[R16] Pooja Dhanda (IND) bt Mutiara Ayuningtias (INA) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 1:04)

Men's Freestyle 125 kg
Sumit Malik (IND) l Davit Modzmanashvili (UZB) 0-2 (Decision by Points)

[Repechage R2] Sumit Malik (IND) bt Oleg Boltin (KAZ) 7-0 (Decision by Points)

[R16] Sumit Malik (IND) l Parviz Hadibasmanj (IRI) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 1:54)

P.C. to OGQ twitter handle

Shooting - Men's 10m Air Rifle
Gold - Haoran Yang (CHN) 249.1 pts. GR
Silver - Deepak Kumar (IND) 247.7pts.
Bronze - Shaochuan Lu (TPE) 226.8 pts.
4. Ravi Kumar (IND) 205.2 pts.

Shooting - Women's 10m Air Rifle
5 Apurvi Chandela (IND)

P.C. to OGQ twitter handle

Shooting - Men's Trap
Gold - Kunpi Yang (TPE) 48 hits EWR
Silver - Lakshay Sheoran (IND) 43 hits
Bronze -Daemyeong Ahn (KOR) 30 hits
4. Manavjit Singh Sandhu (IND) 26 hits

Shooting - Women's Trap
6 Seema Tomar (IND) 12 hits

Swimming - Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay
7. India 7:37.07sec (Srihari Nataraj, Saurabh Sangvekar, Avinash Mani, Neel Roy)

In shooting under Men's 10m Air Rifle event, Deepak Kumar won a silver but Ravi Kumar finished on the 4th in the final ... In the final, Deepak Kumar was behind early but he recovered and produced consistent shooting for winning a silver ... Ravi eliminated on the 4th position ... Before that in the qualifying, Ravi Kumar qualified on the 4th position with 626.7 pts. and Deepak Kumar qualified in the 5th position with 626.3 pts. ... In Women's 10m Air Rifle, Apurvi Chandela finished in the 5th position in the final ... In the qualifying, she qualified on the 2nd position with 629.4 pts.
In Men's Trap final, young talented Lakshay Sheoran wins a silver medal for India with 43 hits ... Taipei's Kunpi Yang equaled the world record in the final with 48 hits from 50 shots ... Manavjit Singh Sandhu failed to win a medal as he finished on the 4th position ... Manavjit Singh qualified for the final on the top position with 119 hits and Lakshay on the 4th with 119 hits only ... In the Women's Trap, Seema Tomar finished on the 6th position in the final with 12 hits ... Before that, she qualified for the 6th position in the tie-break with 116 hits and 3 in the tie-break.

In women's freestyle wrestling, Vinesh Phogat becomes the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Asian Games gold as she beat Japan's Yuki Irie 6-2 in the 50kg women's Freestyle final ... Before that, she won her matches comfortably to reach the final ... Sakshi and Pooja lost their respective semi-finals in their respective categories ... Pooja lost her bout against superior Japanese opponent and Sakshi got dominated by her North Korean wrestler in another bout... In men's freestyle 125 kg, Sumit lost his first bout comfortably against Iranian wrestler ... He got a chance to play in the repechage, he won that bout to gave himeself a bronze medal match ... Sumit lost close match against Uzbek Davit Modzmanashvili.

In swimming, our Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay team reached in the final ... They finished the 7th position but almost 32 seconds behind winner Japanese team.

In the badminton team event, our women and men teams lost in the quarter-finals against higher seeded Japanese and Indonesian teams respectively.

We have 2 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze.

Asian Games 2018

At the 18th Asian Games - Jakarta Palembang 2018 - Day 1,, Indonesia

P.C. to Bajrang Punia twitter handle

Men's Freestyle 65 kg - Gold Medal
Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Daichi Takatani (JPN) 11-8 (Decision by Points)

[SF] Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Batmagnai Batchuluun (MGL) 10-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 0:56)
[QF] Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Abdulqosim Fayziev (TJK) 12-2 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 0:31)
[R16] Bajrang Punia (IND) bt Sirojiddin Khasanov (UZB) 13-3 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 1:58)

Men's Freestyle 86 kg - Bronze Medal
Pawan Kumar(IND) l Uitumen Orgodol (MGL) 1-8 (Decision by Points)

[Repechage R2] Pawan Kumar(IND) bt Fahriansyah (INA) 11-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 2 - 1:04)

[QF] Pawan Kumar(IND) l Hassan Yazdanicharati (IRI) 11-0 (Victory by Technical Superiority, Period 1 - 2:06)
[R16] Pawan Kumar(IND) bt Vuthy Heng (CAM) 8-0 (Victory by Fall, Period 1 - 2:31)

PC to OGQ FB page

Shooting - 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team
Gold - Chinese Taipei (Yingshin Lin and Shaochuan Lu) 494.1 pts. GR
Silver - China (Ruozhu Zhao and Haoran Yang) 492.5 pts.
Bronze - India (Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar) 429.9 pts

Swimming - Men's 100m Backstroke
7. Srihari Nataraj (IND) 56.19sec

Swimming - Men's 200m Butterfly
5. Sajan Prakash (IND) 1:57.75sec

The 18th Asian games has started in Indonesia ... Young Neeraj Chopra was our flag-bearer for opening ceremony ... I am going to cover medals and some notable performances from these game.

Our account opened with a bronze in shooting under 10m Air Rifle mixed team event ... Apurvi Chandela and Ravi Kumar won a bronze behind Chinese Taipei and China shooters ... They qualified for the final on the 2nd place with 835.3 points ... Our 16 yrs. old young shooter, Manu Bhaker, failed to win a medal in her first Asian games event ... She participated with Abhishek Verma in 10m Air Pistol mixed team event ... They finished on the 6th position with 759 pts. and missed the final by whisker.
In swimming, Srihari Nataraj clocked a new national record with 55.86sec to finish 8/28 and makes to the finals ... He became the first Indian swimmer to reach 100m backstroke and finished on the 7th position in the final ... In Men's 200m Butterfly, Sajan Prakash clocked the 3rd best timing in the heat, 1:58.12sec to qualify for the finals ... Sajan finished on the 5th position in the final with a new national record timing of 1:57.75sec.

Overall disappointing performance by us in freestyle wrestling ... Only Bajrang Punia won a gold medal for India in 65 kg category .. Pawan Kumar lost lopsidedly in a bronze medal match against Mongolian wrestler Orgodol ... Our other all wrestlers lost early and failed to get chance for repechage ... Sushil Kumar lost in the first match against Bahrain wrestler, Adam Batirov, 5-3 ... He was way slower in his bout ... In the last Asian games, we won 1 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze in the freestyle wrestling.

Bajrang Punia showed his technical superiority in his matches ... He won all his matches till semi-final after taking 10 points lead ... In the final, his Japanese opponent tried fight back but Bajrang showed his defensive skill and maintained lead for completing a win.

After the first day, we have 1 Gold and 1 Bronze.

Football News

The FIFA Rankings - 16th August 2018,

#96 India 1242 pts.

The FIFA replaced its much-criticised previous formula and declared new ranking under ELO type formula ... The FIFA removed an annual average points and weightage of the points on basis of which part of world it played etc. ... India has climbed one place to 96th under the new FIFA ranking ... Good to see that we didn't drop and probably a little over-ranked but it is better ... The German team affected more as they were WR#1 in old formula but because they failed to cross group stage in the WC they slide to #15 and the World Cup winner France becomes new #1 team.

Tennis News

At $100K Vancouver Challenger 2018, Canada

[QF] (3) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Marc Polmans (AUS)/ Max Purcell (AUS) 64 67(5) 4-10

Purav and Austin lost in the match tie-break after winning the first set against Aussie pair.

Tennis News

At $50K+H Gwangju Challenger 2018, South Korea

[R2] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) l (6) Maverick Banes (AUS,284) 36 36

Doubles
[QF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) l Benjamin Lock (ZIM)/ Rubin Statham (NZL) 26 57

Sid lost in straight sets against Banes.
Arjun and Matsui partnership didn't work in last two weeks ... Again unceremonious loss for them against Statham and Lock despite had seeded.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[QF] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) l Patcharin Cheapchandej (THA,625) w/o

Rutuja gave a walkover to her Thai opponent ... I heard, she had an upset stomach, hopefully, she gets fully recover before her Asian Games singles match

Tennis News

At $50K+H Gwangju Challenger 2018, South Korea

[R1] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) bt (WC) Hong Chung (KOR)/ Sang-Woo Noh (KOR) 76(2) 75

[QF] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) vs Benjamin Lock (ZIM)/ Rubin Statham (NZL)

Arjun and Matsui started with close straight sets win over Koreans ... In the quarters, they r facing Statham and Lock.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R2] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) bt (Q) Jia Qi Ren (CHN,1026) 76(10) 62

[QF] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) vs Patcharin Cheapchandej (THA,625)

After winning 22 points long the tie-break Rutuja dominated the second set against Chinese qualifier ... In the quarters, she is facing local player, Cheapchandej.

Tennis News

At $100K Vancouver Challenger 2018, Canada

[R1] (3) Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Ruan Roelofse (RSA)/ Luke Saville (AUS) 63 64

Purav and Krajicek started with straight sets win over Roelofse and Saville.

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At $50K+H Gwangju Challenger 2018, South Korea

[R1] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) bt (WC) Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR,370) 75 67(5) 62
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,346) l (3) Alexander Bublik (KAZ,172) 64 67(6) 67(2)

[R2] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) vs (6) Maverick Banes (AUS,284)

Sid scored an upset win over higher ranked Korean for entering into the second round ... After winning the first set Sid lost the second set in the tie-break ... But he recovered to win the final set comfortably ... In the second round, he is facing top-300 Aussie Maverick Banes.

Arjun missed a huge opportunity of upsetting former top-100 Bublik in close match ... Arjun won the first set breaking Bublik in the 10th game ... In the second set tie-break he had a match point at 6-5 but lost next 3 points to lose the set ... Bublik dominated the final set tie-break for a close win.

Tennis News

At $50K+H Gwangju Challenger 2018, South Korea

[Q1] (7) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) bye
[Q2] (7) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) bt (WC) Woo Hyeok Jung (KOR,UNR) 60 63
[Q3] (7) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) bt Matej Sabonov (CRO,896) 64 61

[R1] (Q) Sidharth Rawat (IND,624) vs (WC) Cheong-Eui Kim (KOR,370)
[R1] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,375) l (8) Renta Tokuda (JPN,307) 63 26 36
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,346) vs (3) Alexander Bublik (KAZ,172)

Doubles
[R1] Marcel Granollers (ESP)/ Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND) l Xin Gao (CHN)/ Fajing Sun (CHN) 46 57
[R1] (3) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) vs (WC) Hong Chung (KOR)/ Sang-Woo Noh (KOR)

Sid qualified for the main draw and having a first round match against top-400 local player ... Mukund lost in the singles and the doubles against higher ranked players ... Arjun having a tough match against top-175 Kazakh player, Alexander Bublik ... In the doubles, he and Matsui r playing against local wild card pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R1] (Q) Mahak Jain (IND,667) l Hua-Chen Lee (TPE,642) 57 36
[R1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) bt (WC) Chanikarn Silakul (THA,1192) 62 62

[R2] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) vs (Q) Jia Qi Ren (CHN,1026)

Rutuja started with a comfortable win and playing Chinese qualifier in the second round ... Mahak qualified for the main draw but lost against similar ranked Taipei player in the first round.

Badminton News

At $75K YONEX-SUNRISE Vietnam Open 2018, Ho Chi Minh City

Men's Singles Final
Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) l Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA,79) 14-21 10-21

Ajay failed to repeat his previous rounds performance and lost the final easily against Shesar Hiren Rhustavito ... Still, a good run for Ajay and Mithun in this $75K tournament.

Tennis News

At $25K Indonesia F3 Futures 2018, Jakarta

PC to Indian Tennis Daily FB page

[R1] (Q) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) bt Connor Farren (USA,885) 26 76(12) 63
[R2] (Q) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) bt Aaron Schmid (SUI,993) 36 63 64
[QF] (Q) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) bt (Q) Ajeet Rai (NZL,1158) : 67(3) 76(2) 76(3)
[SF] (Q) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) bt (7) Jeremy Beale (AUS,726) 76(4) 60

Singles Final
(Q) Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha (IND,1111) bt Michael Look (AUS,803) 63 61

A 23 yrs. old Niki Poonacha lifted his first Futures title as a qualifier in Indonesia ... In the final, he defeated experienced former top-325 Aussie player, Michael Look, comfortably ... In the first round, Niki saved a multiple match points in the second set tie-break before turning the match against Farren ... In the quarters also, he had a marathon match against similar ranked young Kiwi player, Ajeet Rai, which he won in three tie-breaks ... Niki trains at Rohan Bopanaa Tennis Academy in Bangalore.

Badminton News

At $75K YONEX-SUNRISE Vietnam Open 2018, Ho Chi Minh City

[SF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) bt (7) Yu Igarashi (JPN,49) 21-14 21-19
[SF] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) l Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA,79) 17-21 21-19 14-21

[F] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) vs Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA,79)

Ajay in the final with a comfortable straight games win over top-50 Japanese player, Yu Igarashi ... In the final he is facing higher ranked Indonesian Shesar Hiren Rhustavito, who defeated Mithun in three games.

Tennis News

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[QF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) l (4) Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS,268) 64 46 36

Prajnesh failed to overcome the challenge of Kokkinakis ... Prajnesh won the first set and an early break up in the second set, 3-1 ... From here, Kokkinakis used his experience to fightback to win this match ... He broke Prajnesh in the 6th game for 3-all and then again broke him in the 10th game when Prajnesh was serving for staying in the set ... Kokkinakis played superb attacking game and was putting pressure on Prajnesh's second serve ... In the final set, Kokkinakis took a crucial break in the 6th game and kept that advantage for completing the win.

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At $60K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Jinan, China

[QF] (7) Ankita Raina (IND,195) l (2) Yafan Wang (CHN,93) 67(2) 46

Ankita lost after giving valiant efforts in the singles quarter-final against top-100 Chinese player ... In the first set, two times Ankita fought back from break down .. Ankita missed 3 set points on Wang's serve and then lost the tie-break easily ... In the second set, both players held their respective service games till the 9th game ... Yafan created 3 match points and converted third for completing the win.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[SF] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) l Xiyu Wang (CHN,384) 36 62 26

Doubles Final
(3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) bt (1) Naiktha Bains (AUS)/ Barbora Stefkova (CZE) 26 60 10-6

A fighting performance by Pranjala against the junior top-10 Chinese player, Xiyu Wang ... After losing the first set Pranjala tried fightback and won the second set but Wang completed the win after controlling the final set.

A huge notable upset win by Pranjala and Rutuja against the top-150 doubles Czech and Aussie players ... After losing the first set our pair made a strong comeback against Bains and Stefkova and won the second set without losing a single game ... Our pair continued with their momentum to win the match tie-break comfortably for a superb upset win ... This was their 2nd title in two weeks.

Badminton News

At $75K YONEX-SUNRISE Vietnam Open 2018, Ho Chi Minh City

[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) bt Xiaodong Sheng (CAN,146) 26-24 21-17
[QF] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) bt Zeqi Zhou (CHN,114) 17-21 21-19 21-11
[QF] (Q) Rituparna Das (IND,134) l Phittayaporn Chaiwan (THA,88) 19-21 14-21

[SF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) vs (7) Yu Igarashi (JPN,49)
[SF] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) vs Shesar Hiren Rhustavito (INA,79)

Ajay and Mithu enter into the semis in contrasting style ... Ajay completed win in straight games against Canadian after he stretched to extra points in the first game ... Mithun made an excellent comeback against similar ranked Chinese opponent after losing the first game ... In the semis, both players r playing against higher ranked opponents.

Rituparna's run ended in the quarters against Thai girl.

Tennis News

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[QF] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Marc Polmans (AUS)/ Max Purcell (AUS) 67(5) 26

The seeded Purav and Jeeval lost against the Aussie pair in straight sets.

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At $150K Jinan Challenger 2018, China

[QF] (ALT) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED) l Zhe Li (CHN)/ Di Wu (CHN) 63 36 5-10

Mukund-Niesten lost in the match tie-break against Zhe Li and Di Wu.

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At $60K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Jinan, China

[R2] (7) Ankita Raina (IND,195) bt En Shuo Liang (TPE,287) 36 76(15) 63

[QF] (7) Ankita Raina (IND,195) vs (2) Yafan Wang (CHN,93)

Doubles
[QF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt (2) Chen Liang (CHN)/ Qiu Yu Ye (CHN) 67(10) 75 11-9

[SF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) l (3) Shu-Ying Hsieh (TPE)/ Jing Jing Lu (CHN) 46 76(5) 5-10

A very punishing schedule for Ankita as she was on the court for more than 7 hours playing three matches ... She won her singles match in 3 hours after winning the second set marathon tie-break, in that she saved 5 match points, and then won the third set ... Then she played almost 2 hours and 25 mins. the doubles quarter-final against the 2nd seeds Chinese pair and scored hard-fought comeback win ... Immediately she and Gasanova played the semi-final against the third seeds Lu and Hsieh and lost in the match tie-break ... I am not expecting much from her in the singles quarter-final against top-100 Chinese player.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[QF] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) bt (Q) Dabin Kim (KOR,504) 63 67(3) 62

[SF] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) vs Xiyu Wang (CHN,384)

Doubles
[SF] (3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) bt (2) Hiroko Kuwata (JPN)/ Junri Namigata (JPN) 64 76(4)

[F] (3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) vs (1) Naiktha Bains (AUS)/ Barbora Stefkova (CZE)

Pranjala continues with her terrific run for entering into the semis ... In the semis, she is facing the junior top-10 Chinese player, Xiyu Wang, who defeated Karman in the second round.

Pranjala is in the final of the doubles with Rutuja, they defeated the higher ranked Japanese pair in straight sets ... They r having a tough final against the top-150 doubles Czech and Aussie players.

Badminton News

At $75K YONEX-SUNRISE Vietnam Open 2018, Ho Chi Minh City

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) bt Duc Phat Le (VIE,141) 21-19 21-12
[R1] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) bt Ryotaro Maruo (JPN,) 11-21 21-14 21-15

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) bt Gatjra Piliang Fiqihila Cupu (INA,283) 21-7 21-16
[R2] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) bt Saran Jamsri (THA,346) 21-19 21-12
[R1] (Q) Rituparna Das (IND,134) bt Shiori Saito (JPN,73) 21-13 21-14

[R3] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) bt (1) Ygor Coelho (BRA,38) 22-20 21-14
[R3] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) bt Adulrach Namkul (THA,110) 18-21 21-13 21-19
[R2] (Q) Rituparna Das (IND,134) bt (6) Shuo Yun Sung (TPE,55) 21-8 21-14

[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,93) vs Xiaodong Sheng (CAN,146)
[QF] Mithun Manjunath (IND,112) vs Zeqi Zhou (CHN,114)
[QF] (Q) Rituparna Das (IND,134) vs Phittayaporn Chaiwan (THA,88)

Our three players r in the quarters ... Ajay scored an upset win over the top-40 Brazilian ... Mithun is facing similar ranked Chinese Zhou ... Rituparna qualified for the main draw and she scored back to back win over the top-75 players ... Next. she is facing higher ranked Thai girl Chaiwan.

Tennis News

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[R2] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) bt JC Aragone (USA,276) 46 75 64

[QF] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) vs (4) Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS,268)

What a comeback win by Prajnesh from the brink of defeat ... After losing the first set he was down the match point 46 4-5 and 40-30 on Aragone's serve ... He saved and broke him in the 10th game and immediately on the 12th game for winning the second set ... In the final set, Prajnesh took a crucial break in the 10th game when Aragone was serving to stay in the match ... In the quarters, he is facing former top-70 talented Aussie youngster Thanasi Kokkinakis ... He is the 4th seed but looks lowly ranked due to this week's ATP ranking points change ... In 2017, he was finalist in Los Cabos Open but lost in the first round this year ... So those 150 points removed from his ranking points and he slides down 104 places this week.

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At $150K Jinan Challenger 2018, China

[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND,346) l James Ward (GBR,305) 36 16

Doubles
[R1] (ALT) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED) bt Nikola Milojević (SRB)/ Hiroki Moriya (JPN) 61 63

[QF] (ALT) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND)/ Miliaan Niesten (NED) vs Zhe Li (CHN)/ Di Wu (CHN)

Arjun failed to challenge James ward in his loss.
Sasi got a chance to play as a alternative pair with Niesten, ... Next, they r facing Zhe Li and Di Wu.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R2] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,200) l Xiyu Wang (CHN,384) 67(4) 67(8)
[R2] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) bt (Q) Hua-Chen Lee (TPE,609) 63 61

[QF] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) vs (Q) Dabin Kim (KOR,504)

Doubles
[QF] (3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) bt Genevieve Lorbergs (AUS)/ Kaylah Mcphee (AUS) 60 75

[SF] (3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) vs (2) Hiroko Kuwata (JPN)/ Junri Namigata (JPN)

Karman lost in the two tie-breaks against talented Chinese girl, who is top-10 Junior player ... Pranjala completed convincing win over Lee ... Next, she is facing Korean Dabin Kim.

In the doubles, Pranjala is in the semis partnering Rutuja ... They scored a comfortable win over Aussie pair ... Next, they r facing the 2nd seed

Tennis News

At $150K Jinan Challenger 2018, China

[R1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,117) l Harri Heliovaara (FIN,349) 36 46
[R1] (Q) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) l Duck Hee Lee (KOR,239) 16 36

[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND,346) vs James Ward (GBR,305)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) l Zhe Li (CHN)/ Di Wu (CHN) 63 57 9-11

A shocking straight sets loss of RamK against experienced Harri Heliovaara ... Manish also failed to challenge Duck Hee Lee in his one-sided loss.
Arjun is having a tough match against experienced James Ward in the second round.

Turned to be a bad day for us as Arjun and Matsui also lost their doubles match against experience Chinese pair ... In the match tie-break, Arjun-Matsui had a match point at 9-8 on their own serve.

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At $150K+H Pullach Challenger 2018, Germany

[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Sander Gille (BEL)/ Joran Vliegen (BEL) 57 46

Another early loss for Bala and Vishnu against Belgian pair ... I think they will sooner move to the hard courts in US or Asia after completing their training by playing in European challengers.

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At $60K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Jinan, China

[R1] (7) Ankita Raina (IND,195) bt Jia-Qi Kang (CHN,597) 76(8) 75

[R2] (7) Ankita Raina (IND,195) vs En Shuo Liang (TPE,287)

Doubles
[R1] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) bt Hanyu Guo (CHN)/ Ying Zhang (CHN) 64 76(6)

[QF] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs (2) Chen Liang (CHN)/ Qiu Yu Ye (CHN)

Ankita scored a win in the tight two sets against Jia-Qi Kang in the first round ... Next, she is facing young Taiwani top-300 teenager En Shuo Liang.

In the doubles also Ankita started with a win partnering Gasanova ... They defeated Chinese pair in close straight sets ... Next, they r having a tough match against the 2nd seeds Chinese pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R1] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,200) bt Yuuki Tanaka (JPN,500) 63 62
[R1] (Q) Mihika Yadav (IND,1041) l (7) Ling Zhang (HKG,331) 76(6) 16 46

[R2] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,200) vs Xiyu Wang (CHN,384)

Karman started with a comfortable win over Tanaka ... Next, she is facing Chinese teenager Xiyu Wang ... Mihika gave a fighting performance against the 7th seed Ling Zhang ... Mihika won the first set in the tight tie-break but after that Zhang took control for winning the match.

Tennis News

At $150K Jinan Challenger 2018, China

[Q3] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) bt Rubin Statham (NZL,507) 06 62 64

[R1] (Q) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) vs Duck Hee Lee (KOR,239)
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,346) bt (7) Pedja Krstin (SRB,207) 76(6) 3-0 retd.

Manish scored an excellent comeback win over former top-300 and Davis Cup veteran Rubin Statham after losing the first set 0-6 ... He will face Korean Duck Hee Lee in the first round.

Arjun started with an upset win after his #207 Serbian opponent, Pedja Krstin, retired from the match in the second set ... The first set was very close as Arjun kept matching Krstin ... Arjun saved a set point before winning the first set in the tie-break ... When Krstin was broken in the second, he retired from the match.

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At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) bt (WC) Brandon Holt (USA,1196) 46 64 62

[R2] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,171) vs JC Aragone (USA,276)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt (WC) Hunter Johnson (USA)/ Yates Johnson (USA) 62 64

A slow start for Prajnesh against USC player, Holt ... But after losing the first set Prajnesh recovered for winning next two sets ... Next, he is facing JC Aragone.

An expected comfortable winning start for Jeevan and Purav against Johnson brothers.

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At $60K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Jinan, China

[R1] (7) Ankita Raina (IND,195) vs Jia-Qi Kang (CHN,597)

Doubles
[R1] Anastasia Gasanova (RUS)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs Hanyu Guo (CHN)/ Ying Zhang (CHN)

Ankita is facing Jia-Qi Kang in the first round ... In the doubles, she is partnering Gasanova and they r facing Chinese pair.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R1] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) bt Moyuka Uchijima (JPN,370) 62 46 64
[R1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) l Shiho Akita (JPN,459) 46 61 26

[R2] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) vs (Q) Hua-Chen Lee (TPE,609)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) bt Destanee Aiava (AUS)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND) 63 75

Pranjala scored a good win against higher ranked talented 16 yrs. old Moyuka Uchijima in three sets ... Next, she is facing a Taiwani qualifier, Hua-Chen Lee ... Rutuja lost against former top-300 Akita in three sets, Rutuja needs to win these matches.

In the doubles also Pranjala started with a win partnering Rutuja ... They defeated Karman and her partner Aiava in straight sets.

Badminton News

At TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018, Nanjing, China (Grade 1 - Individual Tournaments)

Women's Singles Final
(3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) l (7) Carolina Marin (ESP.8) 19-21 10-21

Another World Championships final loss for Sindhu ... Marin repeated her Rio Olympics 2016 performance to win the title against Sindhu ... Marin used her all-attack tactics against Sindhu, which helped her again Saina also ... In the beginning, Sindhu managed to nullify and Marin committed a lot of unforced errors ... Sindhu was leading 15-11 but after that, it was all Marin's show as she won 31 points from next 45 points ... She caught Sindhu at 15-all and took 18-20 lead ... She converted the 2nd game point for winning the first game ... In the second game, Sindhu failed to challenge Marin's attacking game ... She was down 0-5 and 2-11 at the break, so after that, it was an impossible task for Sindhu to crawl back ... Marin convincingly won the second game for her third World Championship ... Still, a really good World Championship for Sindhu as she becomes most successful Indian player to win four medals in this marque tournament, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes.

Golf News

At $1.25M Fiji Internationals 2018, Natadola, Fiji (European Tour 2018)

P.C. to Asian tour

1 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 70 69 69 66 -14 € 132,231
T43 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 73 74 72 71 +2 € 4,443

Gaganjeet Bhullar wins his first European Tour title on his 106th European Tour event and is now exempt until the end of next season after adding to his Challenge Tour win in 2011 and eight Asian Tour victories ... He entered the final day with a one-shot lead but found himself trailing late in the day as Australian Quayle came home in 29 on back-9 and set the target at 13 under in the clubhouse ... A brilliant chip-in eagle on the 17th moved Gaganjeet back into the lead and he held his nerve to par the last and sign for a 66 that gave him a one-shot victory over Quayle, who finished with a brilliant 63 ... Four-time Major Championship winner Ernie Els signed for a closing 65 to finish at 12 under alongside New Zealander Ben Campbel.

This was a tri-sanctioned event, European tour, Australian tour and Asian tour, so with this win, he becomes the first Indian to win on Australia PGA Tour ... Also becomes the most successful Indian on the Asian tour with 9 wins, which surpassed 8 wins each by Jyoti Randhawa and Arjun Atwal.

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At $10M The World Golf Championships - Bridgestone Invitational 2018, Akron, Ohio, USA (PGA Tour 2018)

T6 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 65 70 69 68 -8 $241,375.00
T69 Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 72 79 72 70 +13 $47,000.00

Anirban scored a superb 2 under final round which consisted of 4 birdies and 2 bogeys to finish inside top-10 in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational ... This was his fourth top-10 finish on 2018 PGA tour ... But Shubhankar struggled on this course and the second round 9 over pushed him to finish on the second last position in this strong field.

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At €3.25M Women's British Open 2018, Lancashire, England

T22 Aditi Ashok (IND) 72 72 73 68 -3 $32,070

Aditi stored her best round for the last day ... She had a flawless four-under round, which consisted of 4 birdies on the 6th, 7th, 8th and 16th holes ... And this helped her to finish her first inside top-25 finish in the Majors.

Tennis News

At $100K Aptos Challenger 2018, California, USA

[R1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,177) vs (WC) Brandon Holt (USA,1198)

Prajnesh is playing at Aptos challenger and he is the 8th seed ... He is facing the University of Southern California player Brandon Holt in the first round.

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At $150K+H Pullach Challenger 2018, Germany

[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Sander Gille (BEL)/ Joran Vliegen (BEL)

Bala and Vishnu r playing in a German challenger ... A tough field as they r unseeded and playing against Belgian pair.

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At $150K Jinan Challenger 2018, China

[Q2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,552) l (8) Wu Tung-Lin (TPE,470) 16 67(3)
[Q2] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,375) l Rubin Statham (NZL,507) 46 46
[Q2] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) bt (6) Blake Ellis (AUS,449) 62 62

[Q3] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) vs Rubin Statham (NZL,507)

Doubles
[R1] (4) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Toshihide Matsui (JPN) vs Zhe Li (CHN)/ Di Wu (CHN)

Only Manish enters in the final qualifying with a convincing win over the top-450 Aussie player, Blake Ellis ... Next, he is facing former top-300 Rubin Statham, who defeated Mukund in straight sets ... Sid also lost in straight sets against Tung-Lin.

In the doubles, Arjun is the 4th seed with Toshihide Matsui ... They r having a tricky match against experienced Chinese pairing of Zhe Li and Di Wu.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2018, Nonthaburi, Thailand

[R1] (1) Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,200) vs Yuuki Tanaka (JPN,500)
[R1] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,419) vs Moyuka Uchijima (JPN,370)
[R1] (Q) Mihika Yadav (IND,1041) vs (7) Ling Zhang (HKG,331)
[R1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,388) vs Shiho Akita (JPN,459)

Doubles
[R1] (3) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) vs Destanee Aiava (AUS)/ Karman Kaur Thandi (IND)

Karman is the top-seed and facing experience Japanese Tanaka ... Pranjala having a tough match against 16 yrs. old young talented Japanese, Moyuka Uchijima ... Mihika qualified to the main draw with a win over Zeel Desai but facing the 7th seed Ling Zhang ... Rutuja is facing former top-300 Akita in the first round.

In the doubles, Pranjala and Rutuja r the 3rd seeds but they r facing Karman and her Australian partner.

Badminton News

At TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018, Nanjing, China (Grade 1 - Individual Tournaments)

[SF] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt (2) Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) 21-16 24-22

[F] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) vs (7) Carolina Marin (ESP,8)

Back to back World Championships final for Sindhu ... The final will be Olympics final repeat against Spanish former WR #1 Carolina Marin.

In the semis, Sindhu defeated WR #2 Akane Yamaguchi in closely fought two games ... In this match also slow start for Sindhu as Yamaguchi opened 0-5 lead ... Sindhu caught her at 8-all and from 10-12 she won next 8 points to take the 18-12 lead ... Sindhu kept that lead for winning the game ... In the second game, Yamaguchi took control in the beginning and was leading 4-8 ... She was looking in the control at 12-19 but Sindhu had a different idea ... Once again she made an amazing comeback and won next 8 points and gave herself the 1st match point at 20-19 ... Yamaguchi saved that and had a game point at 20-21, but Sindhu saved that, 21-all ... Yamaguchi saved one more match at 22-all but Sindhu converted the third match point for an excellent win in 55 minutes.

Tennis New

At $1.8M Citi Open 2018, Washington DC, USA

[QF] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) l (4) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 64 16 6-10

Divij and Artem started with winning the first set against former WR #1 Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares ... But after losing the first set Murray-Soares took control of the match and won next two sets.

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At $150K Jinan Challenger 2018, China

[Q1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,547) bt Vasko Mladenov (BUL,865) 57 63 63
[Q1] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,375) bt Sami Reinwein (GER,752) 61 75
[Q1] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) bt Ryota Tanuma (JPN,563) 63 67(4) 61

[Q2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,552) vs (8) Wu Tung-Lin (TPE,470)
[Q2] (3) Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,375) vs Rubin Statham (NZL,507)
[Q2] Manish Sureshkumar (IND,584) vs (6) Blake Ellis (AUS,449)

[R1] (1) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,111) vs Harri Heliovaara (FIN,347)
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,346) vs (7) Pedja Krstin (SRB,207)

RamK is playing in China and he is the top-seed ... He is facing experienced Finnish player, Harri Heliovaara ... Arjun having a tough match against the 7th seed Serbian Krstin.

In the qualifying, Mukund started with a straight sets win over German and next, he will face Rubin Statham ... Manish started with three sets win over a similar ranked Japanese opponent ... Next, he is facing top-450 ranked Australian, Blake Ellis ... Sid completed win after losing the first set ... Next, he is facing top-475 Taiwani player.

Badminton News

At TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018, Nanjing, China (Grade 1 - Individual Tournaments)

[QF] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,26) l (6) Kento Momota (JPN,7) 12 12-21

[QF] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt (8) Nozomi Okuhara (JPN,6) 21-17 21-19
[QF] (10) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) l (7) Carolina Marin (ESP,8) 6-21 11-21

[QF] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) l (1) Siwei Zheng (CHN)/ Yaqiong Huang (CHN) 17-21 11-21

[SF] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt (2) Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) 21-17 21-19

Sindhu secure another medal in World Championship with straight games win over Nozomi Okuhara ... I was expecting a long match, though this was a long match but despite slow starts in both games Sindhu recovered for winning it ... In the first game, Sindhu was down 2-6 and then 5-8, but from 10-all Sindhu took a lead and kept that for winning the game ... In the second game, she was again down 0-5 and then 3-9 ... This time also Sindhu fought back to catch Okhuhara at 11-all ... After that both players were neck to neck till 19-all and from here Sindhu won next two points for completing a win in an almost hour ... Next, she is facing WR #2 another Japanese girl, Akane Yamaguchi.

The in-form Kento Momota proved too strong for Sai in this match.

A shocking one-sided loss to Saina against Carolina Marin in 30 mins ... Saina managed to win only 17 points, may be one of bad day for Saina.

Satwik and Ashwini gave a decent fight in the first game to the top-seed Chinese pair ... In the second game, Chinese pair was all over them ... Still, really good outing for our pair in this World Cup to reach the quarter-final.

Hockey News

At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Quarter Final
India 1 Ireland 0-0 (1-3 Penalty shoot-out)

Indian women missed a huge opportunity for creating history as they lost close quarter-final against Irish women ... Both teams failed to score in 60 minutes, but Indian women failed to raise their game for this big occasion ... On the field, Irish team was looking more composed and structured with their game, but we struggled to play our regular game ... In the penalty shoot-out, we failed to score on our first three hits and Irish women converted their last three penalties after missing first 2 ... Overall Irish women were deserving winner of the match.

Tennis News

At $715K Los Cabos Open 2018, Mexico

[QF] Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) l (4) Romain Arneodo (MON)/ Nicholas Monroe (USA) 57 46

Jeevan-Austin lost in straight sets against the 4th seed Monroe and Arneodo.

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At $75K Lexington Challenger 2018, Kentucky, USA

[R2] Saketh Myneni (IND,342) l (LL) Ronnie Schneider (USA,529) 4-5 retd.

Saki retired from the match in the first set against Ronnie Schneider due to right arm injury ... Hoping for not a serious injury threat..

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At $100K+H Open Castilla Leon Villa de El Espinar Challenger 2018, Segovia, Spain

[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) l Carlos Boluda-Purkiss (ESP)/ Miguel Semmler (ESP) 67(5) 67(5)

The top-seeds Vishnu and Bala lost in two tie-breaks against Spanish pair ... I am surprised to see that they r sticking to play on clay instead travelling for big Asian challengers or playing in North America hard court season.

Badminton News

At TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018, Nanjing, China (Grade 1 - Individual Tournaments)

[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,26) bt Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus (DEN,23) 21-13 21-11
[R3] (5) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,6) l Daren Liew (MAS,38) 18-21 18-21

[R3] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt (9) Ji Hyun Sung (KOR,9) 21-10 21-18
[R3] (10) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) bt (4) Ratchanok Intanon (THA,4) 21-16 21-19

[R3] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) bt (7) Soon Huat Goh (MAS)/ Shevon Jemie Lai (MAS) 20-22 21-14 21-6

[QF] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,26) vs (6) Kento Mmomota (JPN,7)

[QF] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) vs (8) Nozomi Okuhara (JPN,6)
[QF] (10) Saina Nehwal (IND,10) vs (7) Carolina Marin (ESP,8)

[QF] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs (1) Siwei Zheng (CHN)/ Yaqiong Huang (CHN)

Sindhu scored a comfortable win over Korean Ji Hyun Sung and took a revenge of her loss at the Asian Championship in April ... Next, she is facing Nozomi Okuhara, so we can hope another long match between these two.

Sai scored an easy win over Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus, this was his first win against Vittinghus after three losses ... Next, he is facing Japanese Kento Mmomota.

Saina again showed her upper hand over Ratchanok Intanon and scored straight sets win to enter into the quarters.

Srikanth again failed to overcome Daren Liew after 5 years and lost in straight games ... A big opportunity missed by Srikanth.

After losing the first game Satwik and Ashwini made an excellent comeback to score a win against WR #7 Malaysian pair, Soon Huat Goh and Shevon Jemie Lai ... This was a repeat performance of Commonwealth Games 2018 ... Next, they r having a really tough match against the top-seed Chinese pair for winning the medal.

Tennis News

At $125K Chengdu Challenger 2018, China

[QF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Hiroki Moriya (JPN) l (4) Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Yaraslav Shyla (BLR) 46 46

>Arjun and Moriya lost in straight sets against experienced the 4th seed Elgin and Shyla.

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At $75K Lexington Challenger 2018, Kentucky, USA

[QF] Saketh Myneni (IND)/ N. Vijay Sunder Prashanth (IND) l Lloyd Harris (RSA)/ Max Purcell (AUS) 62 57 5-10

Saki and VSP lost after winning the first set against Harris and Purcell.

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At $100K+H Open Castilla Leon Villa de El Espinar Challenger 2018, Segovia, Spain

[R1] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Ivan Nedelko (RUS)/ Aldin Setkic (BIH) 60 63

[QF] (1) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Carlos Boluda-Purkiss (ESP)/ Miguel Semmler (ESP)

A dominating winning start for Vishnu and Bala in the 43 minutes ... Next, they r facing Spanish pair on the clay.

Badminton News

At TOTAL BWF World Championships 2018, Nanjing, China (Grade 1 - Individual Tournaments)

[R2] (11) Prannoy H. S. (IND,11) l Ygor Coelho (BRA,39) 21-8 16-21 15-21
[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,19) l (9) Lin Dan (CHN,9) 17-21 14-21
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,26) bt Luís Enrique Penalver (ESP,115) 21-18 21-11
[R2] (5) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,6) bt Pablo Abian (ESP,48) 21-15 12-21 21-14

[R2] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt Fitriani Fitriani (INA,41) 21-14 21-9

[R2] Manu Attri (IND)/ B. Sumeeth Reddy (IND) l (7) Takuto Inoue (JPN)/ Yuki Kaneko (JPN) 24-22 13-21 16-21
[R2] Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (IND)/ Chirag Shetty (IND) l (8) Kim Astrup (DEN)/ Anders Skaarup Rasmussen (DEN) 18-21 21-15 16-21

[R2] Ashwini Ponnappa (IND)/ N. Sikki Reddy (IND) l (2) Yuki Fukushima (JPN)/ Sayaka Hirota (JPN) 14-21 15-21

[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,26) vs Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus (DEN,23)
[R3] (5) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,6) vs Daren Liew (MAS,38)

[R3] (3) Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) vs (9) Ji Hyun Sung (KOR,9)

Sindhu scored a comfortable win over Fitriani ... Next, she is facing Korean Ji Hyun Sung, Sindhu lost against her in their last meeting at the Asian Championship in April.

Sai scored a comfortable win against his Spanish opponent ... He is facing Danish challenge of Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus, Sai has losing record 0-3 against him.

Srikanth surprisingly stretched to three games by his Spanish opponent ... Next, he is facing Malaysian Daren Liew, interestingly they never faced each other in last 5 years and before that Liew won both matches which they played in 2012 and 2013.

Bad loss for Prannoy against lowly ranked Brazilian after winning the first game comfortably ... Sameer also failed to overcome the challenge of Lin Dan.

In the doubles, our all players lost but Satwik-Chirag and Manu-Sumeeth gave a decent fight to their top-10 opponents.

Hockey News

At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Cross-Over Knockout
India bt Italy 3-0 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Lalremsiami (IND) 9', Neha Goyal (IND) 45' PC, Vandana Katariya (IND) 55' PC

Indian women in the quarter-final of World Cup beating Italian women in dominating style ... In the quarter, we are facing Irish team, with whom we lost in the Pool game .. We need to raise our game against Irish team.

In this match, our women were in the control from the beginning ... We took a lead through Lalremsiami field goal and afterward we missed few chances ... We kept the lead at the half-time and after that, we continued with our dominance ... In the last 15 minutes, we managed 2 more goals to give little indication of our solid performance.

Tennis News

At $1.8M Citi Open 2018, Washington DC, USA

[R1] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) bt (WC) Jamie Cerretani (USA)/ Leander Paes (IND) 76(2) 36 10-7

[QF] (Q) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Artem Sitak (NZL) vs (4) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Bruno Soares (BRA)

Divij and Artem needed the match tie-break for a win over Leander and Jamie Cerretani ... After losing the first set Lee-Jamie tried fightback and won the second, but they failed to keep momentum in the super tie-break ... Divij-Artem r facing former WR #1 Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.

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At $715K Los Cabos Open 2018, Mexico

[R1] (Q) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,186) l Cameron Norrie (GBR,74) 26 26

Doubles
[R1] Austin Krajicek (USA)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) bt Purav Raja (IND)/ Jackson Withrow (USA) 75 63

Prajnesh failed to challenge in-form Britisher Cameron Norrie and lost in straight sets.

Jeevan and Austin started with straight sets win over Purav and Jackson Withrow.

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At $250K Citi Open 2018, Washington DC, USA

[R1] Harriet Dart (GBR)/ Prarthana Thombare (IND) l (4) Alexa Guarachi (CHI)/ Erin Routliffe (NZL) 67(3) 57

Prarthana and her British partner lost after giving a decent fighting performance against the 4th seed Guarachi and Routliffe.