Tennis News -
At $185K Copa Colsanitas Santander, Bogota, Colombia (Tier III)

[QF] JOZAMI Betina (ARG)/ RAO Sunitha (IND) l (1) BENESOVA Iveta (CZE)/ MATTEK Bethanie (USA) 26 63 7(10)
--------------------------------------
At $15K Brownsville futures, Texas, USA

[QF] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) bt ALBOT Radu (MDA)/ GRIGOROV Alexei (RUS) 64 26 10(7)

[SF] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) vs (WC) BATTISTONE Brian (USA)/ BATTISTONE Dann (USA)
--------------------------------------
At $15K India F1 Futures, Kolkata (Clay)

Quarter Finals -
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER,329) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,759) 75 61
Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE,683) bt (WC) Vaja UZAKOV (UZB,905) 62 46 60

(6) David SAVIC (SRB,500) bt Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,603) 75 64
Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,584) bt (WC) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,1219) 62 61

Doubles Semi Finals -
Huai-En CHANG (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) bt Hsin-Han LEE (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE) 62 75
(2) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ) bt Vinod SRIDHAR (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) 57 64 10(4)
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

[QF] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) l (Q) PIVEN Anna (UKR,UNR) 46 67(2)

Doubles -
[QF] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) l BSOUL Laura (GER)/ SHEMON Alison (AUS) 46 16
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Squash News -
At Asian Sr. Team Championships 2008 - Kuwait

Men Pool 'C'
India bt Qatar 3-0

(3) Siddharth Suchde bt (2) Mohd Masoud Al Mar 9-2 9-1 9-0 (22m)
(4) Naresh Kumar bt (4) Khalid Ebrahim Al 9-3 9-3 9-0 (21m)
(1) Saurav Ghosal bt (1) Abdulrahman Salem 9-3 9-3 9-2 (29m)

India bt Japan 3-0

(2) Ritwik Bhattacharya bt (2) Takanori Shimizu 9-2 9-2 9-3 (39m)
(3) Siddharth Suchde bt (3) Yuta Fukui 9-1 8-10 9-4 8-10 9-7 (69m)
(1) Saurav Ghosal bt (1) Jun Matsumoto 9-1 9-3 9-1 (31m)

[QF] India bt Korea 2-0

(2) Ritwik Bhattacharya bt (3) Lee Se-Hyun 9-0 9-0 9-5 (18m)
(3) Naresh Kumar bt (4) Lee Seung-Taek 10-8 5-9 9-4 9-6 (59m)

[SF] India l Malaysia 0-2

(2) Ritwik Bhattacharya l (2) Ong Beng Hee 9-10 (1-2) 8-10 (0-2) 3-9 (41m)
(1) Saurav Ghosal l (1) Mohd Azlan Bin Iskandar 9-6 5-9 0-9 4-9 (62m)

Men 3rd place - India l Pakistan 1-2

Saurav Ghosal bt Yasir Ali Butt 10-8 (2-0) 4-9 9-5 9-1
Siddarth Suchde l Bilal Zaman 2-9 9-7 10-9 (2-1) 5-9 1-9
Ritwik Bhattcharya l Majid Khan 4-9 9-1 9-5 3-9 1-9


Women Pool 'A'
India l Malaysia 0-3

(2) Anwesha Reddy l (3) Delia Arnold 9-5 3-9 0-9 3-9 (37m)
(3) Surbhi Misra l (4) Low Wee Wern 2-9 3-9 7-9 (26m)
(1) Joshna Chinappa l (1) Nicol David 2-9 0-9 2-9 (34m)

India bt Macau 3-0

(2) Anwesha Reddy bt (2) Maria Estela Gageo 9-0 9-0 9-0 (9m)
(4) Harita Om Prakash bt (3) Sam Hei Tong 9-0 9-0 9-1 (10m)
(1) Joshna Chinappa bt (1) Chan Si Man 9-0 9-0 9-1 (14m)

India l Korea 0-3

(2) Anwesha Reddy l (2) Ahn Eun-Tschan 9-7 10-9 (2-1) 4-9 6-9 0-9 (55m)
(3) Surbhi Misra l (3) Song Sun-Mi 2-9 8-10 5-9 (24m)
(1) Joshna Chinappa l (1) Park Eun-Ok 9-0 3-9 3-9 1-9 (26m)

Women 5th place - India bt China 2-0

Joshna Chinappa bt Wu Zhen Zhen 9-6 9-0 9-1
Surbhi Misra bt Xiu Chen 9-0 9-2 9-0

Tennis News -
At US$436K SAP Open, San Jose, California, USA

[R1] BOPANNA Rohan (IND)/ QURESHI Aisam-Ul-Haq (PAK) l (3) MIRNYI Max (BLR)/ MURRAY Jamie (GBR) 46 46
[R1] (2) BHUPATHI Mahesh (IND)/ KNOWLES Mark (BAH) bt LEVINSKY Jaroslav (CZE)/ STEPANEK Radek (CZE) 62 63

[QF] (2) BHUPATHI Mahesh (IND)/ KNOWLES Mark (BAH) vs LIPSKY Scott (USA)/ MARTIN David (USA)

Good start for Hesh and Mark ... But Bops and Aisam had tough match against last week's Delray Beach International Tennis Championships winners.
--------------------------------------
At $185K Copa Colsanitas Santander, Bogota, Colombia (Tier III)

[R1] JOZAMI Betina (ARG)/ RAO Sunitha (IND) bt ALVES Maria Fernanda (BRA)/ HLAVACKOVA Andrea (CZE) 06 64 10(8)

[QF] JOZAMI Betina (ARG)/ RAO Sunitha (IND) vs (1) BENESOVA Iveta (CZE)/ MATTEK Bethanie (USA)

Good comeback victory for Sunitha and her Argentinian partner ... Now they r having top seed pair in quarters.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

[R2] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) bt CHENG Natalia (BRA,1053) 64 67(0) 64
[R2] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) l MINIERI Giannina (CHI,UNR) 62 36 36
[R2] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) l (5) SHLOMO Keren (ISR,726) 36 76(7) 46
---------------------------------------------------------------
Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 5 - Wednesday, February 20th

Peter Leko 0-1 Anand
Veselin Topalov 0-1 Magnus Carlsen
Levon Aronian ½-½ Alexei Shirov
Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk

Anand continue with his good form with black-pieces ... He defeated Leko in 45 moves, this was his 3rd victory in 3 games with black-pieces ... With this win Anand takes sole lead with 3½ pts ... So now after today's rest day Anand will face Veselin Topalov, again Anand will be playing with black-pieces.

Tennis News -
At $15K India F1 Futures, Kolkata (Clay)

Second Round -
(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER,329) bt (Q) Simeon IVANOV (BUL,941) 61 63
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,759) bt (5) Peng SUN (CHN,493) 75 63

(WC) Vaja UZAKOV (UZB,905) bt (4) Matteo VOLANTE (ITA,458) 46 63 62
Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE,683) bt (WC) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,1009) 63 67(5) 61

(6) David SAVIC (SRB,500) bt (Q) Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE,1219) 62 60
Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,603) bt (3) Todor ENEV (BUL,457) 63 75

(WC) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,1219) bt (LL) GIDE Rohan (IND,1491) 76(4) 60
Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,584) bt (2) Guillermo ALCAIDE (ESP,340) 64 63

Doubles Quarter Finals -
Huai-En CHANG (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) bt (WC) Kamala KANNAN (IND)/ Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND)
Hsin-Han LEE (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE) bt Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) 61 62

Vinod SRIDHAR (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (WC) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 36 63 10(1)
(2) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ) bt Alexander SATSCHKO (GER)/ Matteo VOLANTE (ITA) 36 64 10(7)

Terrific upset win by Vivek ... These days its rarity that our men’s players defeat higher rank players ... That’s also Chinese No. 1 .. Now Vivek having toughest opponent in German top seed.

Cricket News -
At the Indian Premier League (IPL) - Bidding

Final IPL Teams List after completion of bidding -

Jaipur - Shane Warne (US$ 450,000), Graeme Smith (US$ 475,000), Younis Khan (US$ 225,000), Kamran Akmal (US$ 150,000), Yusuf Pathan (US$ 475,000), Mohammad Kaif (US$ 675,000), Munaf Patel (US$ 275,000), Justin Langer (US$ 200,000)

Chennai - MS Dhoni (US$ 1.5 million), Muttiah Muralitharan (US$ 600,00), Matthew Hayden (US$ 375,000), Jacob Oram (US$ 675,000), Stephen Fleming (US$ 350,000), Parthiv Patel (US$ 325,000), Joginder Sharma (US$ 225,000), Albie Morkel (US$ 675,000), Suresh Raina (US$ 650,000), Makhaya Ntini (US$ 200,000), Michael Hussey (US$ 350,000)

Mumbai - Sachin Tendulkar (icon), Sanath Jayasuriya (US$ 975,000), Harbhajan Singh (US$ 850,000), Shaun Pollock (US$ 550,000), Robin Uthappa (US$ 800,000), Lasith Malinga (US$ 350,000), Dilhara Fernando (US$ 150,000), Loots Bosman (US$ 175,000)

Bangalore - Rahul Dravid (icon), Anil Kumble (US$ 500,000), Jacques Kallis (US$ 900,000), Zaheer Khan (US$ 450,000), Mark Boucher (US$ 450,000), Cameron White (US$ 500,000), Wasim Jaffer (US$ 150,000), Dale Steyn (US$ 325,000), Nathan Bracken (US$ 325,000), Shivnarine Chanderpaul (US$ 200,000)

Hyderabad - Adam Gilchrist (US$ 700,000), Andrew Symonds (US$ 1.35 million), Herschelle Gibbs (US$ 575,000), Shahid Afridi (US$ 675,000), Scott Styris (US$ 175,000), VVS Laxman (US$ 375,000), Rohit Sharma (US$ 750,000), Chamara Silva (US$ 100,000), RP Singh (US$ 875,000), Chaminda Vaas (US$ 200,000), Nuwan Zoysa (US4 110,000)

Mohali - Yuvraj Singh (icon), Mahela Jayawardene (US$ 475,000), Kumar Sangakkara (US$ 700,000), Brett Lee (US$ 900,000), Sreesanth (US$ 625,000), Irfan Pathan (US$ 925,000), Ramesh Powar (US$ 170,000), Piyush Chawla (US$ 400,000), Simon Katich (US$ 200,000), Ramnaresh Sarwan (US$ 225,000)

Kolkata - Sourav Ganguly (icon), Shoaib Akhtar (US$ 425,000), Ricky Ponting (US$ 400,000), Brendon McCullum (US$ 700,000), Chris Gayle (US$ 800,000), Ajit Agarkar (US$ 330,000), David Hussey (US$ 675,000), Ishant Sharma (US$ 950,000), Murali Kartik (US$ 425,000), Umar Gul (US$ 150,000), Tatenda Taibu (US$ 125,000)

Delhi - Virender Sehwag (icon), Daniel Vettori (US$ 625,000), Shoaib Malik (US$ 500,000), Mohammad Asif (US$ 650,000), AB de Villiers (US$ 300,000), Dinesh Karthik (US$ 525,000), Farveez Maharoof (US$ 225,000), Tillakaratne Dilshan (US$ 250,000), Manoj Tiwary (US$ 675,000), Gautam Gambhir (US$ 725,000), Glenn McGrath (US$ 350,000)

India's captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, has been bought by the Chennai franchise for US$1.5 million.

The other first picks -
Adam Gilchrist has gone to Hyderabad for US$700,000
Muttiah Muralitharan to Chennai for US$600,000
Shane Warne to Jaipur for US$450,000
Shoaib Akhtar to Kolkata for US$425,000

So until now Chennai has already spent US$2.1 million and grabbed two big names.
----------------------- end of first round -----------------------

Mumbai joined the second round of bidding,
Sanath Jayasuriya for US$975,000 (his base price was US$250,000)
Harbhajan Singh for US$850,000 (base price US$250,000)

That means as an icon Tendulkar will stand to earn 15% more than the most paid player in the franchise (ie Jayasuriya) - which translates to US$ 1.12 million.

Anil Kumble by Bangalore for US$500,000 (base price - US$250,000)
Kumar Sangakkara by Mohali for US$700,000 (base price - US$250,000)
Mahela Jayawardene to Mohali for US$475,000

(Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf haven't found any bidders, so they have gone into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of second round -------------------------

Andrew Symonds became the 2nd most expensive player in the IPL, as Hyderabad bought him for US$1.35m (his base price being $2,50,000)
Brett Lee bought by Mohali for US$9,00,000 (base price: $3,00,000)
Brendon McCullum bought by Kolkata for $7,00,000 (base price: $1,75,000)
Jacob Oram bought by Chennai for $6,75,000 (base price: $2,00,000)
Daniel Vettori bought by Delhi for $6,25,000 (base price: $2,50,000)
Ricky Ponting bought by Kolkata for $4,00,000
Mathew Hayden by Chennai for $3,75,000.

(Mike Hussey joined Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of third round -------------------------

Jacques Kallis purchased by the Bangalore team for $900,000 that means Rahul Dravid (their icon player) becomes the fifth cricketer to break the million-dollar barrier.
Chris Gayle became Kolkata’s highest successful bid - $800,000
Stephen Fleming bought by Chennai for his base price of $350,000
Graeme Smith by Jaipur for $475,000
Herschelle Gibbs by Hyderabad for $575,000
Shaoib Malik by Delhi for $500,000
Shahid Afridi by Hyderabad for $675,000
Younis Khan by Jaipur for his base price of $225,000
Mohammad Asif by Delhi for $650,000
Zaheer Khan by Bangalore for $450,000
Sreesanth by Mohali for $625,000
----------------- end of fourth round -------------------------

Dinesh Karthik bought by Delhi for $525,000 (base price: $200,000)
Mark Boucher by Banglore for US$ 450,000
Ab de Villers by Delhi for $300,000 (base price: $200,000)
Parthiv Patel by Chennai for $325,000 (base price: $150,000)
Kamran Akmal bought by Jaipur for his reserve price of $150,000

(Tatenda Taibu joined Mike Hussey, Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of fifth round -------------------------

Irafn Pathan was Mohali’s big pick for $925,000
Morkel was bought by Chennai for $675,000 (base price: $225,000)
Camroon White for $500,000 by Bangalore (base price: $100,000)
Yusuf Pathan for $475,000 by Jaipur (base price: 100,000)
Scott Styris went to Hyderabad for $175,000
Ajit Agarkar by Kolkata for $350,000 (base price: $200,000)
Shaun Pollock by Mumbai for $550,000 (base price: $200,000)
Farveez Maharoof by Delhi for $225,000 (base price: $150,000)
Tillakaratne Dilshan by Delhi for $250,000 (base price: 150,000)
Joginder Sharma by Chennai for $225,000 (base price: $100,000).
----------------- end of sixth round -------------------------

Robin Uthappa by Mumbai for US$ 800,000 (base price: $200,000)
Rohit Sharma by Hyderabad for US$ 750,000 (base price: $200,000)
Gautam Gambhir by Delhi for US$ 725,000 (base price: $200,000)
Mohammad Kaif by Jaipur for US$ 675,000 (base price: $125,000)
Manoj Tiwary by Delhi for US$ 675,000 (base price: $100,000)
David Hussey by Kolkata for US$ 675,000 (base price: $125,000)
Suresh Raina by Chennai for US$ 650,000 (base price: $125,000)
VVS Laxman by Hyderabad for US$ 375,000 (base price: $150,000)
Wasim Jaffer by Banglore for US$ 150,000
Chamara Silva by Hyderabad for US$ 100,000

(Ramnaresh Sarwan, Simon Katich, Justin Langer, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ashwell Prince & Loots Bosman joined Tatenda Taibu, Mike Hussey, Glenn McGrath & Mohammad Yousuf into the reserve pool.)
----------------- end of seventh round -------------------------

Ishant Sharma bought by Kolkata for $950,000 (base price: $150,000)
RP Singh bought by Hyderabad for $875,000 (base price: $200,000)
Piyush Chawla by Mohali for $400,000 (base price: $125,000)
Dale Steyn by Banglore for $325,000 (base price: 150,000)
Murali Kartik by Kolkata for $425,000 (base price: $200,000)
Munaf Patel by Jaipur for $275,000 (base price: $100,000)
Nathan Bracken bought by Bangalore for $325,000 (base price: $225,000)
Makhaya Ntini by Chennai for $200,000
Lasith Malinga by Mumbai for $350,000 ($200,000)
Chaminda Vaas by Hyderabad for $200,000
Ramesh Powar by Mohali for $170,000 (base price: $150,000)
Umar Gul by Kolkata for his base price of $150,000
Dilhara Fernando by Mumbai for $150,000
Nuwan Zoysa by Hyderabad for $110,000 (base price: $100,000)
----------------- end of eighth round -------------------------

So now as per rule teams allowed to bid below the base price for unsold players (reserve pool).

Glenn McGrath bought by Delhi for US$ 350,000
Michael Hussey by Chennai for US$ 350,000
Simon Katich by Mohali for $200,000
Ramnaresh Sarwan by Mohali for $225,000
Shivnarine Chanderpaul bought by Bangalore for $200,000
Loots Bosman by Mumbai for $175,000
Justin Langer to Jaipur for $200,000.

No takers for Mohammad Yousuf & Ashwell Prince so they were withdrawn ... Today of the 79 players, 77 players were sold at the base price or above.

Tennis News -
At $2.5M Qatar Total Open, Doha (Tier I)

[R1] MIRZA Sania (IND,32) l GOVORTSOVA Olga (BLR,50) 64 67(5) 2-3 Retd. (cramping)

Sania retired in singles and withdraw from doubles ... It was clear indication that she still doesn't recover from her injury ... Wrong decision of rushing back from serious injury, now one can only hope this does not result into longer break.
--------------------------------------
At $185K Copa Colsanitas Santander, Bogota, Colombia (Tier III)

[R1] RAO Sunitha (IND,182) l (7) GALLOVITS Edina (ROU,71) 16 26
--------------------------------------
At $15K Brownsville futures, Texas, USA

[R1] (8) SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND,419) l PALMANSHOFER Christoph (AUT,690) 26 46

Doubles -
[R1] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) bt (2) OBRADOVIC Vladimir (SRB)/ SITAK Artem (RUS) 64 61

[QF] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) vs ALBOT Radu (MDA)/ GRIGOROV Alexei (RUS)

After his recent training stint with Harshul I was personally hoping better performance from Sunil in singles ... May be yesterday was one of bad day in the office ... But I hope these days don't show up frequently in future.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

[R1] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) bt (WC) IBRAHIM Sabath (NGR,UNR) 61 63
[R1] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) bt SNELEN Rachel (USA,UNR) 62 61
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) bt (WC) ABINU Fatimah (NGR,919) 60 61
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND,1023) l CAZEAUX Amandine (FRA,UNR) 16 16

[R2] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) vs CHENG Natalia (BRA,1053)
[R2] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) vs MINIERI Giannina (CHI,UNR)
[R2] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) vs (5) SHLOMO Keren (ISR,726)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hockey News -
Men's Hockey Olympics 2008 Qualifiers,

Indian team for Olympic qualifier is selected ... Defender Diwakar Ram is only new face in the team.

Goalkeepers - Bharat Chetri, Baljit Singh.
Defenders - Dilip Tirkey, V R Raghunath, Wiiliam Xalxo, Diwakar Ram
Midfielders - Gurbaj Singh, Prabodh Tirkey (captain), Bimal Lakra, Sardara Singh, Ignace Tirkey, Vikram Kanth
Forwards - Rajpal Singh, Prabhjot Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Shivendra Singh, Bharat Chikara, Ajeethesh Rai

Standbys - Sreejesh (goalkeeper), Samir Baxla (defender), S V Sunil, Birendra Lakra, Roshan Minz, Cheeyanna (all forwards)

Officials - Joaquim Carvalho (chief coach), M P Singh (coach), M Ramesh Parameswsaran (assistant coach), Ganguly Prasad (trainer-SAI, Bangalore), Sreekanth Iyengar (physio), Prasanna (video analyst), Nagaraj (masseur), M M Somayya (technical director) and R K Shetty (manager).
---------------------------------------------------------------
Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 4 - Tuesday, February 19th

Anand ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1 Levon Aronian
Alexei Shirov 1-0 Veselin Topalov
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Peter Leko

So with these results after 4 rounds Anand, Topalov and Aronian tied at top with 2.5 pts

Tennis News -
At $185K Copa Colsanitas Santander, Bogota, Colombia (Tier III)

[R1] RAO Sunitha (IND,182) vs (7) GALLOVITS Edina (ROU,71)

Doubles -
[R1] JOZAMI Betina (ARG)/ RAO Sunitha (IND) vs ALVES Maria Fernanda (BRA)/ HLAVACKOVA Andrea (CZE)

Very pleasant surprise !!! She also playing doubles with Argentinian partner ... But outing will be tough as this tournament is on clay.
--------------------------------------
At $25K Clearwater Challenger, Florida, USA

[Q2] (16) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) l (WC) STEPHENS Sloane A (USA,UNR) 46 64 16

I had uneasy feeling about this match and it turned true.
--------------------------------------
At $15K Brownsville futures, Texas, USA

[R1] (8) SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND,419) vs PALMANSHOFER Christoph (AUT,690)

Doubles -
[R1] SIPAEYA Sunil-Kumar (IND)/ YOO Daniel (KOR) vs (2) OBRADOVIC Vladimir (SRB)/ SITAK Artem (RUS)
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

Doubles -
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND)/ EDWARDS Tegan (RSA) l CONFALONIERI Valentine (ITA)/ MOSKAL Ksenia (RUS) 26 62 (7)10
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND)/ EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND) l (4) CHIAPARINI Fabiana (BRA)/ ROSSI Nathalia (BRA) 46 46
[R1] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) bt HANDLER Natalie (ISR)/ SELAKOVIC Nevena (SRB) 60 63

[QF] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) vs BSOUL Laura (GER)/ SHEMON Alison (AUS)

Tennis News -
At $15K India F1 Futures, Kolkata (Clay)

(1) Alexander SATSCHKO (GER,329) bt Aditya MADKEKAR (IND,664) 75 61
(Q) Simeon IVANOV (BUL,941) bt (Q) Chin-Yu HUANG (TPE,UNR) 60 60
Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,759) bt (WC) Vijayant MALIK (IND,1311) 76(5) 60
(5) Peng SUN (CHN,493) bt Yu Jr. WANG (CHN,609) 26 62 63

(4) Matteo VOLANTE (ITA,458) bt Divij SHARAN (IND,658) 64 63
(WC) Vaja UZAKOV (UZB,905) bt Tushar LIBERHAN (IND,787) 26 63 64
Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE,683) bt Vijay KANNAN (IND,726) 63 63
(WC) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,1009) bt (7) Karan RASTOGI (IND,511) 63 61

(6) David SAVIC (SRB,500) bt (Q) Rohan GAJJAR (IND,1101) 62 64
(Q) Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE,1219) bt Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,722) 63 16 63
Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,603) bt (Q) Huai-En CHANG (TPE,1016) 64 61
(3) Todor ENEV (BUL,457) bt (Q) Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE,1269) 64 60

(LL) GIDE Rohan (IND,1491) bt Navdeep SINGH (IND,740) 64 57 75
(WC) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,1219) bt (Q) Valentin DIMOV (BUL,1401) 61 64
Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,584) bt (Q) Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,1158) 76(1) 62
(2) Guillermo ALCAIDE (ESP,340) bt Ashutosh SINGH (IND,591) 62 61

Doubles -
Huai-En CHANG (TPE)/ Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) bt (1) (WC) Mustafa GHOUSE (IND)/ Purav RAJA (IND) 76(5) 63
(WC) Kamala KANNAN (IND)/ Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) bt Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE)/ Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR) 64 64

Hsin-Han LEE (TPE)/ Tsung-Hua YANG (TPE) bt (4) David SAVIC (SRB)/ Vaja UZAKOV (UZB) 64 46 10(6)
Rohan GAJJAR (IND)/ Aditya MADKEKAR (IND) bt Divij SHARAN (IND)/ NAVDEEP SINGH (IND) 63 64

(WC) N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) bt Shuang-Qiang LIANG (CHN)/ Yu Jr. WANG (CHN) 62 61
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (3) Vivek SHOKEEN (IND)/ ASHUTOSH SINGH (IND) 76(5) 64

Alexander SATSCHKO (GER)/ Matteo VOLANTE (ITA) bt Guillermo ALCAIDE (ESP)/ Karan RASTOGI (IND) 63 76(4)
(2) Vijay KANNAN (IND)/ Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ) bt Yu CHANG (CHN)/ Peng SUN (CHN) 62 64

Aqeel Khan skipped Kolkata futures, mostly due to an election in Pakistan ... But entering as lucky loser Rohan Gide take full advantage of it beating 750 places higher fellow Indian Navdeep Singh ... Also wildcard Ranjeet made winning start and confirming atleast 1 Indian in quarter-finals ... I m little surprised by Vishnu's win over Karan, but considering Karan's poor phase of results this wasn't unexpected also .. So now our only 4 players r in second round ... But atleast our 1 player will be in quarters ... But I luv our 3 players in quarters .. We can hope good performance from Vivek and Vishnu.

In doubles pair of Vishnu and Vinod scored upset win over seeded pair of Vivek and Ashutosh in straight sets ... Also our top seed pair lost but our second string players scored fancied win over their senior opponents.

Tennis News -
At $2.5M Qatar Total Open, Doha

[R1] MIRZA Sania (IND,32) vs GOVORTSOVA Olga (BLR,50)

Doubles -
[R1] MIRZA Sania (IND)/ SCHIAVONE Francesca (ITA) vs KIRILENKO Maria (RUS)/ SZAVAY Agnes (HUN)

IMO, If she is still not fully recover from her injury then she should atleast avoid to play doubles in the same event in which she is making comeback.
--------------------------------------
At $25K Clearwater Challenger, Florida, USA

[Q1] (16) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) bt SEMA Erika (USA,363) 63 67(3) 64

[Q2] (16) UBEROI Neha (USA,332) vs (WC) STEPHENS Sloane A (USA,UNR)

Surprisingly tough $25K challenger, where #245 Croatian is top seed in qualifying ... Neha began this tournament with hard fought victory against Japanese player ... Now she is facing 15 yrs old local girl, Sloane Stephens ... She looks talented as she defeated 4th seed #249 Serbian player, Ana Jovanovic, in straight sets ... But with her current good form Neha is capable of taking care of Stephens ... Go Neha.
-------------------------------------------
At $10K Nigeria F1 2008, Benin City

[Q1] BASAVARAJU Akshitha (IND,UNR) bt RILEY Alexandra (USA,UNR) 76(3) 60

[Q2] BASAVARAJU Akshitha (IND,UNR) l KHARCHENKO Anastasia (UKR,UNR) 36 16

Maindraw -
[R1] (3) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND,698) vs (WC) IBRAHIM Sabath (NGR,UNR)
[R1] (8) GOSWAMI Parul (IND,894) vs SNELEN Rachel (USA,UNR)
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND,UNR) vs (WC) ABINU Fatimah (NGR,919)
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND,1023) vs CAZEAUX Amandine (FRA,UNR)

Doubles -
[R1] EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND)/ EDWARDS Tegan (RSA) vs CONFALONIERI Valentine (ITA)/ MOSKAL Ksenia (RUS)
[R1] BURMAN Shivika (IND)/ EASWARAMURTHI Ashmitha (IND) vs (4) CHIAPARINI Fabiana (BRA)/ ROSSI Nathalia (BRA)
[R1] (2) APPINENI Prerana-Mythri (IND)/ GOSWAMI Parul (IND) vs HANDLER Natalie (ISR)/ SELAKOVIC Nevena (SRB)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 3 - Sunday, February 17th

Magnus Carlsen 0-1 Anand
Peter Leko ½-½ Alexei Shirov
Veselin Topalov 1-0 Vassily Ivanchuk
Levon Aronian ½-½ Teimour Radjabov

Anand bounced back from his round two loss with a fine black-pieces win in 59th move against the Norwegian wonder boy Magnus Carlsen ... Veselin Topalov scored his second victory against Vassily Ivanchuk, to take the lead in this event ... The other two games were drawn.

Standing after 3rd Round -

1 Veselin Topalov BUL 2½ pts
2 Vishwanathan Anand IND 2 pts
T3 Levon Aronian ARM 1½ pts
T3 Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 1½ pts
T3 Peter Leko HUN 1½ pts
T6 Teimour Radjabov AZE 1 pts
T6 Alexei Shirov ESP 1 pts
T6 Magnus Carlsen NOR 1 pts

So now after today's rest day Anand will be playing against Radjabov with white-pieces.

Golf News -
At Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open, Indonesia - Final Standing

2 Jeev Milkha SINGH 65 66 65 67 -17 € 91919.85
T7 Jyoti RANDHAWA 68 70 66 62 -14 € 21344.32
T10 Arjun ATWAL 67 67 66 67 -13 € 15332.61
T40 Gaurav GHEI 71 67 67 69 - 6 € 5129.26
T44 Shiv KAPUR 69 67 69 70 - 5 € 4301.96

Watched all drama on the TV ... Jeev was leading tournament with 2 strokes, he was -19, after 15 holes buth then Jeev played poor tee shots on 16th and 18th ... Those were the shots which set bogeys ... I think, Jeev played extra defensive game after leading by 2, other hand Chilean Felipe Aguilar kept pressure on Jeev with attacking holes ... Some how Jeev lost his nerves in last few holes to losing great opportunity of winning another European title.

Jyoti was excellent, he repeated yesterday's performance with avoiding double bogeys ... Amazing golfing round by him.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Salgaocar SC dw Dempo SC 1-1

Goal Scored - Joe Rodrigues (Sal) 29' and Ranty Martins (DSC) 37'
----------------------------------

Viva Kerala l East Bengal 1-3

Goal Scored - Ebin Rose (VK) 45+' and Syed Rahim Nabi (EB) 20', Alvito D'Cunha (EB) 57', Edmilson M Pardal (EB) 87'

MoM - Syed Rahim Nabi (EB)

Salgaoncar give hope to other team holdind Dempo 1-1 ... So title race is extended to final round ... But with East Bengal's victory Viva and Salgaocar destined to relegate to 2nd division in next season.

So now Dempo and Churchill having last showdown with weaker opponents ... Though Air men having capabilities to surprise any team ... Dempo only needs victory, but Churchill needs huge victory … JCT and Mohun Bagan both having chance to finish 3rd on this inaugural I league.

Round 18 - 23rd/24th February 2008
Viva Kerala vs Dempo
East Bengal vs Sporting Clube de Goa
JCT Phagwara vs Salgaocar
Mahindra United vs Mohun Bagan
Churchill Brothers vs Air India

Tennis News -
At US$436K SAP Open, San Jose, California, USA

[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,286) l K.J. Hippensteel (USA,779) 46 67(3)

Doubles -
[R1] BOPANNA Rohan (IND)/ QURESHI Aisam-Ul-Haq (PAK) vs (3) MIRNYI Max (BLR)/ MURRAY Jamie (GBR)
[R1] (2) BHUPATHI Mahesh (IND)/ KNOWLES Mark (BAH) vs LEVINSKY Jaroslav (CZE)/ STEPANEK Radek (CZE)

Bops and Aisam r back as partner this week .. They r having tough match against 3rd seed pair of mad max and Jamie Murray.
Mahesh and Mark r back on tour after good outing at Australian Open ... They r 2nd seed in SAP Open.
--------------------------------------
At $15K India F1 Futures, Calcutta, Feb 18th-24th (clay)

Qualifying Round One -
Purav RAJA (IND) (1) bt Rahil MAKHARIA (IND) 61 61
Chin-Yu HUANG (TPE) bt Jason ALPEN (AUS) 63 62
Simeon IVANOV (BUL) (2) bt Mustafa GHOUSE (IND) 64 64
Rohan GIDE (IND) (10) bt Neishit VAKIL (IND) 61 61
Huai-En CHANG (TPE) (3) bt Matthew CURIC (AUS) 62 63
Yannick NELORD (IND) (14) bt Saurav SUKUL (IND) 62 64
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) (4) bt Jakob C RICHARDSON (AUS) 60 60
Kamala KANNAN (IND) (12) bt Kaushik RAJU (IND) 61 62
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) (5) bt Rafique PARUTI (IND) 61 60
N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) bt Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) (9) 61 76(8)
Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) (6) bt Divyanshu SINGH (IND) 46 64 63
Shuang-Qiang LIANG (CHN) (11) bt Joel ANDRIOLO (AUS) 76(7) 75
Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE) (7) bt Saif ALI (IND) 64 46 63
Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) (15) bt Alon MOSES (IND) 61 63
Valentin DIMOV (BUL) (8) bt Vikram REDDY B (IND) 64 75
Yu CHANG (CHN) (13) bt Harshvardhan THIRANI (IND) 60 61

Qualifying Final Round -
Chin-Yu HUANG (TPE) bt Purav RAJA (IND) (1) 63 64
Simeon IVANOV (BUL) (2) bt Rohan GIDE (IND) (10) 62 61
Huai-En CHANG (TPE) (3) bt Yannick NELORD (IND) (14) 63 46 63
Rohan GAJJAR (IND) (4) bt Kamala KANNAN (IND) (12) 76(5) 36 62
Vinod SRIDHAR (IND) (5) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND) 46 63 61
Hsien-Yin PENG (TPE) (6) bt Shuang-Qiang LIANG (CHN) (11) 75 64
Tzu-Yang LIN (TPE) (7) bt Srirambalaji NARAYANASWAMY (IND) (15) 61 63
Valentin DIMOV (BUL) (8) bt Yu CHANG (CHN) (13) 62 16 62
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Athletics News -

India topped the medals tally in the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha on Saturday ... India won 5 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze medals to edge China (5-2-2) and last edition's champion, Kazakhstan (4-6-4) in the final standings.

The Indian medal winners -
Gold -
Men P. J. Vinod (heptathlon-5561 points).
Women Sinimol Paulose (800m-2:03.43; 1500m-4:15.42); Preeja Sreedharan (3000m-9:12.26); 4x400m relay team (Mandeep, Manjeet, Sini, Chitra)-3:37.46.
Silver -
Men Chatholi Hamza (800m-3:41.18), Surender Singh (3000m-7:49.47), Amarjeet Singh (triple jump-16.24m), Om Prakash (shot put-18.37), 4x400m relay team (Aboobacker, Vinay Chaudhary, Gurvinder Pal Singh, Virender Kumar Pankaj)-3:16.53.
Women Sushma Devi (800m-2:04.66, 1500m-4:21.78); Kavita Raut (3000m-9:26.01); Anju George (Long Jump-6.38).
Bronze -
Women Mandeep Kaur (400m-54.28), V. Leelavathy (60m hurdles-9.21); M. A. Prajusha (long jump-6.09)

Final day's results -

Men
3000m: 1. Sultan Zaman (Qatar) 7:49.31, 2. Surender Kumar Singh (India) 7:49.47, 3. James Kurui (Qatar) 7:50.56; Shot put: 1. Ahmed Gholoum (Kuwait) 18.55, 2. Om Prakash (India) 18.37, 3. Yao Yong Guang (China) 18.16; Heptathlon: 1. P. J. Vinod (India) 5561, 2. Hadi Sepehrzad (Iran) 5515, 3. Hiromasa Tanaka (Japan) 5306; 4x400m relay: 1. Saudi Arabia 3:14.25, 2. India 3:16.53, 3. Qatar 3:17.93.

Women
800m: 1. Sinimol Paulose (India) 2:03.43, 2. Sushma Devi (India) 2:04.66, 3. Margarita Matsko (Kazakhstan) 2:04.85; 4x400m relay: 1. India 3:37.46 , 2. Kazakhstan 3:38.10, 3. Thailand 3:43.22.
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Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

Round 2 - Saturday, February 16th
Vishy Anand 0-1 Levon Aronian
Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Veselin Topalov
Vassily Ivanchuk 1-0 Peter Leko
Alexei Shirov ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

As per report, Anand fell to a terrible blunder on move 30 in his game against Levon Aronian. Similarly Peter Leko lost the thread around move 38 against Vassily Ivanchuk and gave up the full point. Radjabov spoilt a promising game against Veselin Topalov to a draw, while Shirov and Carlson never really left the draw window.
In third round, Anand is playing with blacks against Magnus Carlsen.
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Squash News -
At 14th Asian Senior Squash Championships 2008, Kuwait (13-21 Feb 2008)

[SF] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) l (2) Rebecca Chiu (HKG,13) 0-9 2-7 (Conceded her match stating slippery court.)

Chess News -
At Morelia-Linares 2008, Mexico & Spain

2008 Morelia-Linares tournament is started yesterday, its schedule is from February 15th to 23rd February in Morelia, Mexico, and from 28th February to 7th March in Linares, Spain ... Viswanathan Anand is defending champion ... This year two players are different from last year's edition, Morozevich and Svidler are substituted by Radjabov and Shirov.

Morelia/Linares 2008 field -
1 Vishwanathan Anand 2799
2 Veselin Topalov 2780
3 Alexei Shirov 2755
4 Peter Leko 2753
5 Vassily Ivanchuk 2751
6 Levon Aronian 2739
7 Teimour Radjabov 2735
8 Magnus Carlsen 2733

Round 1 - Friday, February 15th
Alexei Shirov 0-1 Vishy Anand
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Peter Leko 1-0 Teimour Radjabov
Veselin Topalov 1-0 Levon Aronian

The Mexican half of the Morelia-Linares tournament has started with a bang ... Anand beat Alexei Shirov with the black pieces, Peter Leko and Veselin Topalov won their games against Teimour Radjabov and Levon Aronian respectively with white ... Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk drew in 39.

Good positive start for Anand, in second round he is playing Levon Aronian with whites.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Athletics News -
At 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha

Sinimol Paulose produced another scintillating performance to win women's 800m and qualify for the World Indoor Athletics Championship in Valencia … She clocked timing of 2:03.43s, that was a new championship record and well below qualifying mark for the World Indoor Athletics Championship, i.e. 2:04.00s.

Sushma Devi won silver with timing of 2:04.66s, but was unlucky to miss the qualifying mark by less than a second.

Now India won three gold, six silver and four bronze in this tournament.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Air India l Mahindra United 0-1

Goal Scored - Yusuf Yakubu (MU) 82'

MoM - Yusuf Yakubu (MU)
------------------------------------

JCT dw Mohun Bagan 1-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (JCT) 58' and Habibur Rehman Mondal (MB) 28'

MoM - Sunil Chhetri (JCT)
------------------------------------

Sporting Clube de Goa dw Churchill Brothers 1-1

Goal Scored - Fredy Mascernahas (SCG) 73' and Odafa Onyeka Okolie (CB) 12'

MoM - Chandrashekhar Minta (SCG)

Squash News -
At 14th Asian Senior Squash Championships 2008, Kuwait (13-21 Feb 2008)

Mens Singles -
[R3] (3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) bt (9/16) Max Lee (HKG,122) 9-3 9-1 9-1 (48m)
[R3] (9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) bt (5/8) Mohd. Nafiizwan (MAS,86) 6-9 9-3 7-9 9-5
9-6 (106m)

[QF] (3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) l (9/16) Abdullah Kh. Al-Mezayen (KUW,UNR) 10-8 (2-0) 4-9 1-9 3-9 (72m)
[QF] (9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) l (2) Ong Beg Hee (MAS,18) 2-9 3-9 10-8 (2-0) 2-9 (62m)

Womens Singles -
[R2] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) bt (9/16) Maria Toor Pakay (PAK,77) 9-1 9-6 9-2 (31m)
[R2] (9/16) Anwesha Reddy (IND,128) l (3/4) Sharon Wee (MAS,21) 1-9 4-9 6-9 (34m)

[QF] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) bt (3/4) Sharon Wee (MAS,21) 9-5 4-9 9-7 9-5 (55m)

[SF] (5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) vs (2) Rebecca Chiu (HKG,13)

Another poor result for Saurav, last few months Saurav is stagnant in 40-50 ranking and no clear indication of improvement ... I feel he need to change his coaching, little Egyptian flavor could be useful to his game.

Siddharth produced good fighting performance against top-20 player.

Superb performance by Joshna to beat top-20 player ... I m sure with this win we can expect some good result from her in near future ... Now in semis she is facing top10 type Hong kong player.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open, Indonesia - Third Round

T2 SINGH Jeev Milkha 65 66 65 -14
T10 ATWAL Arjun 67 67 66 -10
T28 RANDHAWA Jyoti 68 70 66 -6
T37 KAPUR Shiv 69 67 69 -5
T37 GHEI Gaurav 71 67 67 -5

Jeev is loving this course at Cengkareng Golf Club ... Today he scored another -5 round, that moved him to T2 position and 2 strokes behind Chilean leader Felipe Aguilar.

Jeev made 6 birdies and a bogey in his round ... Arjun scored -4 round to moved inside top 10, he scored 5 birdies and a bogey ... Gaurav scored -3 round to moved inside top 40, he scored 5 birdies and couple of bogeys ... Today only Shiv dropped from yesterday's standing ... He scored -1 round with 2 birdies and a bogey.

Today Jyoti had most entertaining round ... He played attacking golf to scored 9 birdies, couple of double bogeys and a bogey in his round ... Jyoti must be disappointed scoring only -4 after this effort, but this round helped him to move inside top 30.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Athletics News -
At the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha

Preeja Shreedharan won second gold medal for India in the women's 3000m race with a championship record of 9:12.26s ... Kavita Raut won silver with timing of 9:26.01s.

Chatholi Hamza won silver in men's 1500m race with timing 3:41.18s.

Amarjeet Singh showed a creditable performance to won silver in men's triple jump by leaping 16.26m.

In women's 400m race, Mandeep Kaur only managed bronze with 54.28s timing.

Leelavathi Veerappan also didn't perform as well to won bronze in women's 60m hurdles with timing of 9.21 sec.

So India has so far won two gold, five silver and three bronze medals in 3 days competition.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hockey News -

A lot of backroom lobbying and some tough talking seem to have set things right for Indian hockey, at least for now. A day after saying he would be skipping the Olympic qualifiers in Chile, Rajpal Singh did a volte face on Wednesday by saying he will after all play in the Santiago qualifiers next month.

Nice comments by Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho - "I wouldn’t talk about any incident. But when it comes to discipline, everyone knows that I make no compromises. In my team, any player be it senior or junior is expected to maintain a code of conduct and I am very particular about it. It is natural that if someone tries to do something silly, I will pull him up."

About Rajpal - "As far as I am concerned, he is very much a part of my team. Boys make mistakes, and that is it."

Athletics News -
At the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, Doha

Sinimol Paulose won the first gold medal for India at the 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships by winning the 1500 metres ... Paulose clocked 4:15.42 seconds and qualified for the World Indoor Championships as her timings was better than qualifying timing, 4:16.00s.

Sushma Devi won the silver with 4:22.78s.

Anju George already won silver medal in long jump with 6:38m jump and MA Prajusha added another by winning the bronze medal with a jump of 6.09m ... This was MA Prajusha first international medal.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Golf News -
At Jakarta Astro Indonesia Open, Indonesia

6 SINGH Jeev Milkha 65 66 -9
T15 ATWAL Arjun 67 67 -6
T30 KAPUR Shiv 69 67 -4
T45 GHEI Gaurav 71 67 -2
T45 RANDHAWA Jyoti 68 70 -2
---------- Projected cut @ -1 ---------------
T145 GANGJEE Rahil 74 74 +8
T152 JOHL Amandeep 75 76 +11

Squash News -
At 14th Asian Senior Squash Championships 2008, Kuwait (13-21 Feb 2008)

Mens Singles - First Round
(3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) bt Nasser Al Rashed (KUW,UNR) 9-3 9-1 9-2 (20m)
(5/8) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,63) bt Shallan Ahmed (KUW,UNR) 9-7 9-3 9-1 (19m)
(9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) bt Mohammad Reza Sadeghpour (IRI,260) 9-6 9-5 9-1 (44m)
(17/32) Naresh Kumar (IND,151) bt Anura Hewage (SRI,UNR) 9-0 9-3 9-5 (14m)

Second Round -
(3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) bt (17/32) Ali Alramezi (KUW,UNR) 9-2 9-2 9-2 (35m)
(9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) bt (17/32) Huang Cheng Yao (TPE,247) 9-1 9-3 9-2 (30m)
(5/8) Ritwik Bhattacharya (IND,63) l Mohammed Hajeyah (KUW,UNR) 4-9 9-3 5-9 9-6 8-10 (0-2) (93m)
(17/32) Naresh Kumar (IND,151) l (9/16) Wong Wai Hang (HKG,182) 1-9 4-9 1-9 (34m)

Third Round -
(3/4) Saurav Ghosal (IND,49) vs (9/16) Max Lee (HKG,122)
(9/16) Siddharth Suchde (IND,131) vs (5/8) Mohd. Nafiizwan (MAS,86)

Womens Singles - First Round -
Harita Om Prakash (IND,UNR) l (5/8) Chinatsu Matsui (JPN,51) 4-9 0-9 3-9 (32m)
Surbhi Misra (IND,156) l (3/4) Christina Mak (HKG,31) 0-9 6-9 7-9 (21m)
(9/16) Anwesha Reddy (IND,128) bt Hsieh Ssu Han (TPE,UNR) 9-1 9-0 9-1 (10m)
(5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) bt Wu Zhen Zhen (CIN,UNR) 9-0 9-4 9-1 (17m)

Second Round -
(5/8) Joshna Chinappa (IND,43) vs (9/16) Maria Toor Pakay (PAK,77)
(9/16) Anwesha Reddy (IND,128) vs (3/4) Sharon Wee (MAS,21)

Surprising but shocking defeat of Ritwik against unranked Kuwaiti player ... So now its all depend upon Saurav and Siddharth in men's section.
In womens it depend upon Joshna as Anwesha having tough opponent in top-25 Malaysian player.

Cricket News - Just for information.
ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2008, Malaysia (17th February to 3rd March 2008)

This is 7th edition of U-19 Cricket World Cup ... Pakistan & Australia won it twice and India & England managed to win it once.
Pakistan is last 2 times winner ... In 2006 they defeated us in the final in Sri Lanka ... So its interesting to see how we perform in this year's event.

Indian U-19 team - Virat Kohli (c), Abhinav Mukund, Ajitesh Argal, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Tanmay Srivastava, Manish Pandey, Taruwar Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Saurabh Tiwary, Duvvarapu Siva Kumar, Pradeep Sangwan, Siddharth Kaul, Einstein Napoleon, Perry Goyal, Sayyed Abdullah Iqbal


Group B - KL
(2) India
(7) West Indies
(10) South Africa
(15) Papua New Guinea

We r in tought Group B with South Africa and West Indies and playing our matches at Kuala Lumpur. The top 2 teams from each of the four groups will qualify for the Super League and will play-off against each other in quarter-finals ... The bottom 2 teams from each of the four groups will qualify to play in the Plate Championship and will also play-off against each other in quarter finals.

Our Group Stage matches -
17th February 2008 India vs Papua New Guinea at Kinrara Cricket Academy (KCA)
19th February 2008 India vs South Africa at Kinrara Cricket Academy (KCA)
22nd February 2008 India vs West Indies at Kinrara Cricket Academy (KCA)
Quarter-finals will be played on 24th and 25th February, 2008.

Official website of ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup 2008 - http://iccevents.yahoo.com/index.html

Tennis News -
At $10K Mallorca F2 Women's Futures, Spain (Clay)

[R1] KRETSCH Vanessa (GER)/ NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND) l COSTAS-MOREIRA Leticia (ESP)/ GABARRUS-ALONSO Maite (ESP) 57 06

Tennis News -
At $10K Mallorca Women's Futures, Spain (Clay)

[R1] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) l (5) VOGT Stephanie (LIE,478) 26 16

Currently Sandhya is finding tough to handle higher ranked players on clay.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hockey News -

In a shocking development, Rajpal Singh pulls out of Olympics qualifier ... He declared his decision in Perth to media where currently Indian team is training for Olympics qualifier ... Reason which he given to press is, he needs to work on his game to improve his performance.

Officially he still need to declare this decision to team management and IHF ... So now rift between team is coming out publicly but at a wrong time … This really sad day for Indian hockey ... :-(

I hope somebody will try to talk him out of this decision ... Rajpal's experience will be useful for us in Olympics qualifier.

Swimming News -
At Zoggs Queensland Championship 2008, Brisbane, Australia

Boys 16 Year Olds 50 Metre Butterfly -
1. Virdhawal Khade 25.75s

Boys 16 Year Olds 50 Metre Freestyle -
3. Virdhawal Khade 24.08s

Men Open 50 Metre Freestyle -
5. Virdhawal Khade 24.26s (best time was in heat 24.06s)

Men Open 50 Metre Butterfly -
3. Virdhawal Khade 25.83s

Men Open 50 LC Metre Breaststroke -
1. Sandeep Sejwal 30.16s

Virdhawal Khade and Sandeep Sejwal r currently training in Australia ... They participated in Zoggs Queensland championship at Brisbane ... Virdhawal won gold in 16 yrs old category of the 50m butterfly clocking 25.75s and 19 yrs old Sejwal won gold in Men's category in the 50m breaststroke clocking 30.16s.
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Tennis News -
At $10K Mallorca F2 Women's Futures, Spain (Clay)

[R1] NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND,572) vs (5) VOGT Stephanie (LIE,478)

Doubles -
[R1] KRETSCH Vanessa (GER)/ NAGARAJ Sandhya (IND) vs COSTAS-MOREIRA Leticia (ESP)/ GABARRUS-ALONSO Maite (ESP)

Tennis News -
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008 (1st Round), Delhi, India

India bt Uzbekistan 3-2

Match 4 -
Rohan Bopanna (IND,287) l Denis Istomin (UZB,184) 64 64 46 67(1) 68

Match 5 -
Prakash Amritraj (IND,265) bt Farrukh Dustov (UZB,249) 63 36 63 62

In first match Istomin showed his class of handling pressure better than his Indian opponent ... After losing first 2 sets and down 2-4 in the third set he showed character to produce one of the memorable comeback in Davis cup matches ... Bops was struggling with his game after third set and then he played terrible tie-break double faulting 3 times.

Kash was playing his first live 5th rubber ... In this match Dustov played better tennis ... He was bending his knees while hitting shots but still he wasn't manage to read court's bounce ... In second set Kash suddenly lost his focus and made many UFEs ... But with help from Lee he managed to control his nerves and then played smart tennis to win next 2 sets to win this tie for India.

Now in April we r playing against Japan with home advantage ... That tie will be on grass court, so we can consider us as favorite for that tie.
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Golf News -
At $2.5M Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Delhi, India - Final Standing

1 CHOWRASIA S.S.P 70 71 71 67 -9 € 280561.35
T4 SINGH Digvijay 70 70 74 70 -4 € 77772.85
T6 GHEI Gaurav 75 69 70 71 -3 € 44576.30
T15 ATWAL Arjun 70 70 72 76 PAR € 23230.85
T22 RANDHAWA Jyoti 65 77 75 73 +2 € 17507.31
T35 JOHL Amandeep 73 71 76 73 +5 € 12288.78
T38 GHOTRA Randhir Singh 74 73 70 77 +6 € 10773.73
T38 KAPUR Shiv 68 78 76 72 +6 € 10773.73
T44 MUNIYAPPA C 69 77 77 72 +7 € 9090.33
T48 KHAN Shamim 73 74 76 73 +8 € 7238.60
T55 KUMAR Ashok 72 73 75 77 +9 € 5723.54
61 SHER Ali 77 70 78 75 +12 € 4545.17
T64 KAHLON Harmeet 70 75 83 75 +15 € 3955.98
67 GANAPATHY Rahul 76 71 78 84 +21 € 3535.13

I luv when commentators called SSP as Simply Special Player or Performer and today he truly deserved that.

This was SSP's biggest prize money in his small career and we know he will repeat such performance on bigger stage in the future ... Today he played unblemished final round of -5 to win his first European title, -4 on front 9 and -1 on back 9 ... I watched some of live telecast of this event, he made superb couple of tricky Pars ... I liked his concentration and we knows how much he is good on green.

Digvijay and Gaurav scored -2 & -1 round to climb in top 5 and top 10 finish ... Arjun struggled to score +4 round to end tournament on PAR ... Ernie Els scored -1 round to finished on T6 position.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

East Bengal l Churchill Brothers 0-1

Goal Scored - Mboyo Iyomi (CB) 77'

MoM - Mboyo Iyomi (CB)
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JCT Phagwara bt Air India 2-0

Goal Scored - Eduardo Da Silva (JCT), Baljeet Singh Sahni (JCT)

MoM - Julius Akpale (JCT)

East Bengal fought hard against Churchill's, they were playing with 10 men for more than 60 mins as Jayanta Sen red carded in 29th mins ... But goal from Mboyo Iyomi sealed their fate.

In other match JCT scored convincing win against Air men to moved only 3 pts behind Dempo and Churchill Brothers.

Now Dempo needs no more slip up as Churchill r with them on points but Dempo is still leading the standing on goal difference.

Tennis News -
At Asia/Oceania Zone Group I 2008 (1st Round), Delhi, India

India vs Uzbekistan 2-1

Saturday, 9th February 2008
Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Denis Istomin (UZB)/ Farrukh Dustov (UZB) 63 63 64

Today Lee decided to opt for our top pair od Mahesh and Rohan ... And as expected they gelled well and showed solid but entertaining performance ... Uzbe also fought well from second set but our team was too good ... I think we only faced break point when Rohan was serving for the match ... From that we can guess how much powerful service game our pair played ... Rohan was showering aces, 12 in the match and Maheash was matching him with strong & powerful first serves ... On court ouer team was looking as happy joint family ... Thats really good sign for Indian tennis.

In third set, when Mahesh hit winner to break Dustov's serve he tried chest bump with Rohan ... But Rohan wasn't ready for that so it was funny looking attempt ... That was one of light moment which brought smile on Lee and Mahesh's faces
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Golf News -
At $2.5M Emaar-MGF Indian Masters, Delhi, India - Third Round

T5 ATWAL Arjun 70 70 72 -4
T5 CHOWRASIA S.S.P 70 71 71 -4
T10 GHEI Gaurav 75 69 70 -2
T10 SINGH Digvijay 70 70 74 -2
T23 GHOTRA Randhir Singh 74 73 70 +1
T23 RANDHAWA Jyoti 65 77 75 +1
T42 JOHL Amandeep 73 71 76 +4
T42 KUMAR Ashok 72 73 75 +4
T55 KAPUR Shiv 68 78 76 +6
T58 KHAN Shamim 73 74 76 +7
T58 MUNIYAPPA C 69 77 77 +7
T63 GANAPATHY Rahul 76 71 78 +9
T63 SHER Ali 77 70 78 +9
69 KAHLON Harmeet 70 75 83 +12

Though Arjun and SSP lost chance of being top of the leaderboard but still they r in striking distance ... Currently they r 2 strokes behind the leader, who is -6.

Ernie also climbed inside top 10 and currently 4 strokes behind the leader ... Gaurav and Ghotra scored 2 under, the best round from Indians which helped them to climb inside top 10 and top 25 respectively.
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Football News -
At I-League 2007-2008, India

Mahindra United bt Sporting Clube de Goa 3-0

Goal Scored - Yusuf Yakubu (MU) 32' & 51', Andrews Mensah Pomeyie (MU) 75'

MoM - Yusuf Yakubu (MU)
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Salgaocar SC bt Viva Kerala 1-0

Goal Scored - Beevan D’Mello (Sal) 66'

MoM - Beevan D’Mello (sal)
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Mohun Bagan dw Dempo SC

MoM - Beto (DSC)
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Squash News -
At $30K Kolkata International, India

Final -
(5) Mansoor Zaman (PAK,35) bt (2) Ong Beng Hee (MAS,18) 11-8 11-7 4-11 11-8 (54m)

Mansoor continued his giant killing in the final to win over Beng Hee ... this was the first PSA Tour final in which these 2 have met ... Before that they have contested one Asian Junior Championship final (in 1999, won by Zaman), one Asian Games final (in 2002, won by Beng Hee), and three Asian Championships' finals (in 2000, 2002 and 2004, all won by the Malaysian).