Tennis News
At $740K Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia

[R1] (3) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Darya Kustova (BLR)/ Olga Savchuk (UKR) 63 57 10-6

Sania and Nuria started with win though they r stretched to match tie-break by their opponents.
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At Asia-Pacific Wild-Card play-Off for Australian Open 2013, Nanjing, China

[Q3] (1) Sanam Singh (IND,360) bt De Zhu (CHN,UNR) 63 61

[Q4] (1) Sanam Singh (IND,360) vs Yuqing Ning (CHN,1534)

Doubles
[R1] (1) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki Bhambri (IND) bye
[R1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND) / Sanam Singh (IND) vs (Q) Zhaoyi Cao (CHN)/ Andy Lau (HKG)
[R1] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs (WC) Yuqing Ning (CHN)/ Zhuoyang Qiu (CHN)

[R1] Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Ankita Raina (IND) vs Ting Li (CHN)/ Qiang Wang (CHN)

Expected easy wins for Sanam after receiving bye in the first 2 qualifying rounds.

In the doubles, top-seed Yuki and Divij having favorable draw but Vishnu and Purav can face Chinese top pair of Xin Gao and Zhe Li in the quarters.
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At $25K Lagos Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R1] Kyra SHROFF (IND,536) l (WC) Zarah RAZAFIMAHATRATRA (MAD,UNR) 67(5) 06
[R1] Rishika SUNKARA (IND,631) bt Maria SAKKARI (GRE,582) 63 62
[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,681) l (5) Christina DINU (ROU,301) 16 16
[R1] Shivika BURMAN (IND,861) l Jia Xiang LU (CHN,613) 46 36
[R1] (Q) Nikita DESHMUKH (IND,UNR) l (3) Conny PERRIN (SUI,295) 06 06
[R1] (Q) Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) l (Q) Ester MASURI (ISR,UNR) 16 26

Doubles
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) vs Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS)/ Alexandra Riley (USA)
[R1] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt Shivika Burman (IND)/ Nour Azzouz (EGY) 62 60
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) l (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Jia Xiang Lu (CHN) 26 63 4-10

Poor start for our girls in the singles ... Only Rishika scored win, that's also upset win, over Greece player in dominating manner.

Badminton News
At $400K Denmark Open 2012, Odense

[Q1] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Ivan Sozonov (RUS,84) 21-7 21-7

[Q2] Anand Pawar (IND,51) bt Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,52) 21-19 21-16

[R1] (Q) Anand Pawar (IND,51) vs (5) Sho Sasaki (JPN,6)
[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,27) vs (7) Pengyu Du (CHN,9)
[R1] Sourabh Varma (IND,32) vs (6) Peter Hoeg Gade (DEN,8)
[R1] (3) Saina Nehwal (IND,4) vs Yeon Ju Bae (KOR,12)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs Angga Pratama (INA)/ Ryan Agung Saputra (INA)
[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Ashwini Ponnappa (IND) vs Markis Kido (INA)/ Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth (INA)

Tough draw for our men in Danish Super Series Premier tournament.

Anand Pawar scored good win over similar ranked Malaysian to qualify for main-draw.

Golf News
At $750K Venetian Macau Open, Macau

Final Standing
1 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 63 68 69 68 -16 $118,875.00
5 Shiv Kapur (IND) 70 67 70 67 -10 $30,750.00
T38 Himmat Rai (IND) 69 70 74 70 -1 $4,950.00
T47 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 70 71 71 73 +1 $3,375.00

24 yrs old Gaganjeet Bhullar completed a commanding start-to-finish victory at the Venetian Macau Open on Sunday ... He played final round with a three-under-par 68 to secure his second Asian Tour title in five starts and in a month ... He held off the big challenges from American Jonathan Moore, who finished two shots back in second place after a 65, and Thai youngster Thitiphun Chuayprakong, who closed with a 70 to share third place with Bangladeshi Siddiku.

Gaganjeet was leading from the first day in this Macau open ... In the beginning of the final round he was leading by 2 strokes and was leading by 3 strokes after 9 holes but bogeys on 10 and 13 holes gave chance to his opponents ... Despite the pressure from Moore , Bhullar responded like a true champion ... He putted a six-foot par putt on 17 to hold on to a one-shot lead into the last hole and then delivered like a champion with a 12-foot birdie to become the first Indian winner of the Venetian Macau Open.

Gaganjeet Bhullar - “This is going to take a long time to sink in. I hit the ball so good. I was just in the perfect zone. More than that, it was self-belief. This is my first wire-to-wire Asian Tour title. I think it was more that I had to prove to myself that I’m a good front runner. I had to believe in myself. I did it and it was really special.”

“I thought I was going to play relaxed in the last few holes. But Jonathan played really well. He holed a long putt on 17 … I saw that. I had a good tee shot, missed on the left but the first putt, I hit it over the hole. Trust me, it wasn't an easy putt (coming back). I had to visualize the ball going into the hole a few times and that’s what I did. I think the putt on 17 was the putt of the tournament. The whole week, I just struck the ball really well. Mentally, I was focused and I was in the zone. I knew I would win it easily,”

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

(4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) 67(7) 63 10-5

Lee and Radek returned well and won 50% points on Mahesh and Rohan's 2nd serve which helped them to capture their 3rd title of the season and Lee's 51st ATP tour doubles title ... Leander kept his perfect record against Mahesh in the final, 3-0 ... This was his 3rd win over Mahesh, interestingly all with Czech partners ... Last 2 titles he won against Mahesh with Lukas Dlouhy at 2009 US Open and 2010 Miami Masters.

Here in the first set both pairs traded single break but Rohan and Mahesh played important points well to win tight tie-break ... In the second set Lee and Radek saved 2 break points and converted 1 from 4 break point to win this set from 3-all ... In the match tie-break Lee and Radek take early control and won it rather comfortably.

Leander Paes - "Today was a bit more of a personal match for us three Indians. Radek came in and he made it fun for me. He relaxed, laughed, joked. Said, 'stay smooth, relaxed and have a hungry intensity'. I come up and make it fun for him and try and take over whenever I can."

"We've had a great year. It started off with a big bang. To do well early in a partnership is something that can happen. But to continue playing well right through the whole year shows the quality of tennis that we play."
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At €550K Erste Bank Open, Vienna, Austria

[R1] (PR) Somdev Devvarman (IND,534) vs (WC) Ernests Gulbis (LAT,155)

Surprised to see Sommy's entry in Stockholm open ... He is playing with injury protected ranking ... His opponent Gulbis is talented player but erratic player ... Hopefully Somi makes sure that Gulbis need to play more balls.
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At $740K Kremlin Cup, Moscow, Russia

[R1] (3) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Darya Kustova (BLR)/ Olga Savchuk (UKR)

In her last WTA tournament of the year Sania is again playing with Nuria ... They r facing Darya Kustova and Olga Savchuk in the first round.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) l Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Mischa Zverev (GER) 46 63 10-8

After losing the first set Prkash and Groth fought back to win the second ... In match tie-break Prkash and Groth were leading 5-2 but then they lost the grip over it ... Though they saved a match point but failed to save 2nd match point.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Nigeria

[R1] Kyra SHROFF (IND,536) vs (WC) Zarah RAZAFIMAHATRATRA (MAD,UNR)
[R1] Rishika SUNKARA (IND,631) vs Maria SAKKARI (GRE,582)
[R1] Nidhi CHILUMULA (IND,681) vs (5) Christina DINU (ROU,301)
[R1] Shivika BURMAN (IND,861) vs Jia Xiang LU (CHN,613)
[R1] (Q) Nikita DESHMUKH (IND,UNR) vs (3) Conny PERRIN (SUI,295)
[R1] (Q) Arantxa ANDRADY (IND,UNR) vs (Q) Ester MASURI (ISR,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Dalila Jakupovic (SLO)/ Kyra Shroff (IND) vs Sofia Dmitrieva (RUS)/ Alexandra Riley (USA)
[R1] Ester Masuri (ISR)/ Rishika Sunkara (IND) vs Shivika Burman (IND)/ Nour Azzouz (EGY)
[R1] Nidhi Chilumula (IND)/ Ushna Suhail (PAK) vs (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Jia Xiang Lu (CHN)

Big Indian contingent for Nigerian ITF tournament.

Chess News
At São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final, Bilbao

Round 10 - Saturday, October 13
Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
Levon Aronian ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Sergey Karjakin

Anand ended tournament in disappointing note as another draw with Karjakin playing with White ... All other matches also shared the point.

Magnus Carlsen takes title when he defeated co-leader Fabiano Caruana in blitz tiebreak winning both matches, 2-0 ... Other hand Anand finished on 5th position, only ahead of Francisco Vallejo.

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[SF] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Marin Cilic (CRO)/ Marcelo Melo (BRA) 60 62
[SF] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Colin Fleming (GBR)/ Ross Hutchins (GBR) 67(4) 63 10-8

Lee-Radek and Mahesh-Rohan scored contrasting win to enter in the final of Shanghai Masters ... First time 3 Indians r playing in the Masters doubles final.

Lee and Radek scored dominating win over Cilic and Melo in 58 minutes ... They won the first set without losing a single game ... In the second set also Lee and Radek broke opponent's serve thrice but lost their serve once.

In other semi-final Mahesh and Rohan had a perfect day with their serve as they didn't face a single break point ... Still Mahesh and Rohan needed comeback after losing the first set in tie-break ... The second set they won with a single break and then won close match tie-break for the victory in 1 hour 36 minutes.

Chess News
At 5th São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final, Bilbao

Round 9 - Friday, October 12
Sergey Karjakin 1-0 Francisco Vallejo
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Viswanathan Anand
Fabiano Caruana 1-0 Levon Aronian

In 9th round all White wins ... Magnus Carlsen played creatively and aggressively against Anand and scored his first win over the world champion in classical time-controls in 30 moves ... Fabiano Caruana defeated Levon Aronian in 39 moves and managed to keep pace with Carlsen ... In other match Karjakin defeated Vallejo 38 moves.

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[QF] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Milos Raonic (CAN) 75 67(4) 10-5
[QF] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN) 76(7) 64

Good win by Mahesh and Rohan against 2nd seed Mirnyi and Nestor ... In the first set Rohan and Mahesh saved 4 break points but they served well in tie-break to win it ... In the second set they take crucial break in 10th game (only break of the match) converting 3rd match point.

Lee and Radek scored good win in tight match against Melzer and Raonic ... In the first set Lee and Radek take crucial break in 11th game to win it ... In the second set both pairs traded a break but in tie-break Melzer and Raonic serves helped to win it ... But our pair managed to turn table on this big serving pair in match tie-break to win it comfortably.
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At $15K Australia F10 Futures, Margaret River

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,392) l (6) Adam Feeney (AUS,411) 64 26 36

Saketh gave fighting performance from last week against Feeney but still he lost after winning the first set.

Chess News
At São Paulo / Bilbao Grand Slam Final, Bilbao

Round 6 - Monday, October 8
Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Fabiano Caruana
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Levon Aronian

Round 7 - Tuesday, October 9
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Francisco Vallejo
Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Sergey Karjakin
Levon Aronian ½-½ Viswanathan Anand

Round 8 - Thursday, October 11
Francisco Vallejo ½-½ Levon Aronian
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Fabiano Caruana
Sergey Karjakin ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

After 8 rounds Anand is still searching for his first win in the Grand Slam Final tournament which is now moved in Bilbao from São Paulo for the second leg ... Other hand WR #1 Magnus Carlsen showed excellent form winning 2 matches with white from 3 played in the second leg ... He take revenge beating leader Caruana in 6th round and then defeated Vallejo to share lead with Fabiano Caruana after 8 rounds.

Tennis News
At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[R1] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Treat Conrad Huey (PHI)/ Jonathan Marray (GBR) 76(9) 64
[R2] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Kevin Anderson (RSA)/ Sam Querrey (USA) 64 64

[QF] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Milos Raonic (CAN)
[QF] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs (2) Max Mirnyi (BLR)/ Daniel Nestor (CAN)

Treat and Jonathan stretched Mahesh and Rohan in the first set but after winning long tie-break our pair recovered to win the next set with a single break ... Next they r facing 2nd seed Nestor and Mirnyi.

Lee and Radek also started with straight sets win over big serving pair ... Next they r facing another big serving pair of Melzer and Raonic.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[R1] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (1) Robert Farah (COL)/ Steve Johnson (USA) 36 36

[QF] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Mischa Zverev (GER)

Purav and Drew failed to produce fight against top-seed.
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At $15K Australia F10 Futures, Margaret River

[R2] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,392) bt (Q) Paul Kramberger (AUS,UNR) 61 61

[QF] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,392) vs (6) Adam Feeney (AUS,411)

Doubles
[QF] Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) l (2) Matthew Barton (AUS)/ Michael Look (AUS) 16 46

Expected comfortable win for Saketh against unranked Australian ... As expected repeat match against Adam Feeney, who is on 7 matches winning streak ... In doubles Saketh and his American partner failed to repeat last week's performance against 2nd seed Aussie pair.

Tennis News
At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) bt Stefano Ianni (ITA)/ Matteo Viola (USA) 57 76(5) 12-10

Excellent comeback win in very close match by Prakash and Groth against Ianni and Viola ... HAppy to see Prakash is making progress on the tour after such a long injury break.
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At $15K Australia F10 Futures, Margaret River

[R1] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,385) bt (WC) Blake Mott (AUS,1937) 62 63

[R2] (3) Saketh Myneni (IND,385) vs (Q) Paul Kramberger (AUS,UNR)

Doubles
[R1] Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) bt Brian Grooms (USA)/ Blake Mott (AUS) 60 62

[QF] Patrick Davidson (USA)/ Saketh Myneni (IND) vs (2) Matthew Barton (AUS)/ Michael Look (AUS)

Expected comfortable winning start for Saketh in the singles and doubles.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

For 5th position
India l South Korea 0-3 (23-25 12-25 19-25)

South Koreans defeated in the straight games ... We finished on creditable 6th position but we r still far behind these top 5 Asian volleyball nations.

Hockey News
At Champions Trophy 2012, Australia

As usual big list of probables ... Hockey India announced the names of 48 probables for the Indian men's hockey team ... Interestingly this time Hockey India also included few players, who were a part of the World Series Hockey (WSH), as standbys ... But again only 6 defenders in 48 players list and 23 forwards ... Moreover HI selected same bunch of players which helped us to achieve unthinkable at Olympics ... CRAP.

List of 48 Probables
Goalkeepers - Bharat Chetri (Karnataka), PR Sreejesh (Tamil Nadu), PT Rao (Services), Tarun Thimmanna (Karnataka), Srenivas Rao (AP)
Fullbacks - VR Raghunath (Karnataka), Ignace Tirkey (Services), Sandeep Singh (Haryana), Rupinderpal Singh (Tamil Nadu), Harbir Singh (Punjab), Lovedeep Singh (Chandigarh)
Midfielders - Sardar Singh (Haryana), Kothajit Singh (Manipur), Birendra Lakra (Jharkhand), Manpreet Singh (Punjab), MB Aiyappa (Karnataka), Bipin Karketta (Orissa), Pradeep Mor (Haryana), Gurmail Singh (Haryana), Amit Rohidas (Orissa), Sampath Kumar Maylaram (AP), Shirish Bisen (UP), Barkat Singh (University), Vivek Dhar (Railways), Jonny Jasrotia (Services)
Forwards - SV Sunil (Services), Gurvinder Singh Chandi (Punjab), Sarvanjit Singh (Punjab), Chinglensana Singh (Railways), Shivendra Singh (Air India), Danish Mujtaba (UP), Tushar Khandker (UP), SK Uthappa (Karnataka), Pradhanna Sommanna (Air India), Nithin Thimmaiah (Karnataka), Yuvraj Walmiki (Maharasthra),Dharamvir Singh (Punjab), Akashdeep Singh (Punjab), MG Poonacha (Railways), Prabhdeep Singh (Punjab), PL Thimmanna (Karnataka), Sukhdev Singh (Services), Lovepreet Singh (Services), Sanjay Bir Singh (Railways), Gurpreet Singh (University), Sanwan Ali (Services), Vikramjit Singh (Punjab), Karamjit Singh (Haryana)

Standbys
Goalkeepers - Kamaldeep Singh (Punjab), Gurpreet Singh (Air India)
Defenders - Gurjinder Singh (Punjab), Harpreet Singh (Haryana)
Midfielders - Manjit Kullu (Railways), Ravi Pal (Punjab), Vikas Sharma (UP), Vikas Pillai (Air India), Devinder Valmiki (Maharastra)

Tennis News
At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,175) l (8) Karol Beck (SVK,128) 16 36
[R1] (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,276) l Igor Kunitsyn (RUS,149) 36 46
[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,373) l (Q) Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR,228) 06 46

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki BHambri (IND) l (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Martin Emmrich (GER) 46 46

Turned terrible day for us as our all players lost their respective matches on Court 2 ... Only Vishnu gave some decent performance otherwise nothing to write about other matches ... Next week our these players r playing in Australian Open 2013 Asia-Pacific Wild Card Play Off in Nanjing, China ... There will be one wild card on offer each in Men's singles, Women's singles, Men's doubles and Women's doubles.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

5th–8th semifinals
India bt Iran 3-0 (25-18 25-8 25-15)

Our girls defeated Iranian girls and with that first-time our girls will be finish inside top-6 ... We r facing South Korea for 5th place match.

Tennis News
At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) bt Martin Emmrich (GER,1277)
[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt (4) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO,305) 62 60

[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,175) vs (8) Karol Beck (SVK,128)
[R1] (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,276) vs Igor Kunitsyn (RUS,149) 26 61 76(5)
[R1] (Q) Sanam Singh (IND,373) vs (Q) Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR,228)

Sanam dismantled top-300 type Georgian Basilashvili in 54 minutes ... He won the match losing only 2 games against in-form Basilashvili ... Sanam broke Basilashvili in 3rd game to take 3-1 lead ... From 3-2 Sanam was on rampage and won next 9 games to complete the victory ... Next he is facing fellow qualifier Ukrainian Oleksandr Nedovyesov.

Vishnu had a roller-coaster ride in his 2 hours and 4 minutes match ... He started badly when Emmrich broke him in 3rd and 5th games to win the first set ... In the second set Vishnu played solid tennis and broke Emmrich in 2nd game to lead 3-0 and then take another break in 6th game to win this set .. In the decider Vishnu had 3 breakpoints at 0-40 in 3rd game which he failed to convert ... Vishnu missed another break point in 7th game and then saved a break point on his own serve in 8th game ... Vishnu broke Emmrich in 11th game but failed to hold while serving for the match in the next game ... In tie-break both players won points on their own serve till 4-4 ... Then Vishnu take mini-break on 9th point to lead 5-4 but again while serving for the match at 6-4 he failed to convert ... This time Vishnu again take mini-break on Emmrich serve to win this tight match ... Next in main-draw he is facing experienced Russian Igor Kunitsyn.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

Quarter Final
India l Thailand 0-3 (13-25 21-25 15-25)

Thailand convincingly defeated Indian girls in the quarter-final ... Next we r facing Iranian girls for 5th to 8th placing match.

Tennis News
At $1.2M Japan Open, Tokyo

Doubles Final
(1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l (4) Alexander Peya (AUT)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 36 67(5)

In this match Lee and Radek struggled with their services so Peya and Soares take advantage of it ... In the first set they broke Lee and Radek 3 times to win it ... In the second set Lee and Radek take early break but Peya and Soares broke to bring it on serve at 3-all ... In tie-break also at crucial juncture, 5-5, Lee double faulted and opponent take advantage to win this match.

With this Lee and Radek qualify for 2012 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals ... 39 yrs old Lee has qualified for the 13th time ... In that 4 runner-ups, 3 times with Mahesh (in 1997, 1999 and 2000) and once with Zimonjic (in 2005)
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At $3.5M Shanghai Masters, China

[R1] (4) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bye
[R1] (7) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) bye

Our pairs r seeded so receive bye in the first round ... Rohan and Mahesh r in the same draw of 2nd seed Nestor and Mirnyi ... Lee and Radek r in the same draw with Bryans but before that they can have repeat match against Peya and Soares in the quarter ... In the second round also they will face tricky big serving unseeded pair, winner between Querrey-Anderson and Tsonga-Dolgopolov.
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At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[R1] Yuki BHambri (IND,174) vs (8) Karol Beck (SVK,128)

[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) bt Germain Gigounon (BEL,435) 67(5) 63 63
[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt Aleksandre Metreveli (GEO,929) 62 64

[Q3] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) vs Martin Emmrich (GER,1277)
[Q3] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) vs (4) Nikoloz Basilashvili (GEO,305)

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Yuki BHambri (IND) vs (3) Andre Begemann (GER)/ Martin Emmrich (GER)

In the main-draw Yuki is facing 8th seed Karol Beck ... Both r having 1-1 win-loss record ... Yuki defeated him in Chennai open and then Beck defeated him at Astana challenger.

Vishnu had a tricky match against Belgian player and it proved that way ... Belgian won the first set in tie-break but after that Vishnu came back strongly to win next two sets ... Sanam won it comfortably against his lower ranked Georgian opponent ... In the final qualifying Vishnu is facing German Emmrich, who upset 7th seed in the first round and Sanam having tough match against top-300 type Georgian Basilashvili.

Only one pair able to qualify for the main-draw in the doubles of this tough challenger ... Yuki and Divij having tough match against 3rd seed German pair.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,919) l (2) Taro Daniel (JPN,336) 36 67(3)

Doubles
[R1] Drew Courtney (USA)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (1) Robert Farah (COL)/ Steve Johnson (USA)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs Stefano Ianni (ITA)/ Matteo Viola (USA)

I was hoping upset win for Prakash but Japanese Taro defeated him in the straight sets.

Prakash is playing in doubles with Aussie Groth and they r facing Italian pair ... Purav and Drew having tough match against top-seed pair.

Volleyball News
At 16th Asian Jr. Women’s Volleyball Championship, Ratchaburi, Thailand

Pool F
India l Japan 0-3 (14-25 8-25 10-25)

I would be happy if our girls finish on 7th position ... Japan also gave one-sided loss to our girls.

Tennis News
At 4.8M China Open, Beijing

Doubles Final
(5) Nuria Llagostera Vives (ESP)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l (3) Ekaterina Makarova (RUS)/ Elena Vesnina (RUS) 57 57

In the first set both pairs traded 5 breaks but crucial break taken by Makarova and Vesnina in 12th game to win this set ... Same story repeated in the second set ... Again both pairs traded 5 breaks and crucial break taken by Makarova and Vesnina in 12th game to win the match.

Still this was a good result for Sania considering her last few months performance on WTA tour.
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At $1.2M Japan Open, Tokyo

[SF] (1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Daniele Bracciali (ITA)/ Frantisek Cermak (CZE) 63 61

[SF] (1) Radek Stepanek (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (4) Alexander Peya (AUT)/ Bruno Soares (BRA)

Lee and Radek scored very comfortable win over unseeded Bracciali and Cermak losing only 4 games ... In the final they r facing 4th seed Peya and Soares.
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At $125K+H Tashkent Challenger, Uzbekistan

[Q1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,533) l (1) Oleksandr Nedovyesov (UKR,227) 46 67(3)
[Q1] Vijayant Malik (IND,428) l Alexander Bury (BLR,642) 36 26
[Q1] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) bt (WC) Sardor Rakhimov (UZB,UNR) 64 62
[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,1312) l Weerapat Doakmaiklee (THA,1260) 62 67(6) 36
[Q1] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) bt (WC) Pavel Tsoy (UZB,UNR) 62 62

[Q2] (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,267) vs Germain Gigounon (BEL,435)
[Q2] (5) Sanam Singh (IND,355) vs Aleksandre Metreveli (GRO,929)

Only Vishnu and Sanam managed win against local wild-card players ... After losing the first set Somi was up 3-0 in the second set ... After that he had 2 set points on his serve (40-15) at 5-3 but he lost 4 points in a row to lose the game and then lost match in tie-break.
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At $100K Tiburon Challenger, USA

[Q1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,919) bt Jason Jung (USA,593) 63 64
[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,1277) l (7) Ante Pavic (CRO,420) 36 76(3) 26

[Q2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,919) vs (2) Taro Daniel (JPN,336)

Expected win for Prakash against 600 around American in straight sets ... Next he is facing 2nd seed top-325 type Japanese player Taro Daniel.

Purav gave fighting performance against 7th ranked Croatian ... He fought back after losing the first set to win the second set in tie-break but Pavic proved strong for him in the decider.