Badminton News

At $1M Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017, United Arab Emirates (Superseries Premier)

Men's Singles - Group B
1. Viktor Axelsen (DEN,1)
2. Kidambi Srikanth (IND,4)
3. Chou Tien Chen (TPE,7)
4. Shi Yuqi (CHN,8)

Women's Singles - Group A
1. Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2)
2. Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3)
3. He Bingjiao (CHN,9)
4. Sayaka Sato (JPN,15)

As expected, Srikanth and Sindhu qualified for year-end Superseries Finals ... Srikanth is in a Group B with Axelsen and Sindhu is in a Group A with Yamaguchi.

Hockey News

At Odisha Hockey World League Final 2017, Bhubaneswar, India

Bronze Medal match
India bt Germany 2-1 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - SV Sunil (IND) 20' Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 54' PC, and Mark Appel (GER) 36'

India beat Germany 2-1 to win a second straight bronze at the last edition of HWL Final ... German players won the heart as they played with only available 11 players (other missed due to illness), means no rotation through substitution ... They fought throughout the match ... Both teams showed intensity on the field, despite our first goal, Germans were compact in the defence and superior in the attack ... They had a seven penalty corners which goalkeeper Suraj Karkera's blocks and moreover their first choice dragflicker and captain Martin Haner was missing in action due to illness ... After conceding a goal we converted the 4th penalty corner in the last quarter through Harmanpreet and then kept a goal advantage for a win.

Australia defeated Olympics champion Argentina 2-1 for winning the HWL Final and also Australia replaced Argentina at the top spot in team's rankings.

Tennis News

At $15K Egypt F37 Futures 2017, Cairo

Doubles Final
Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Aryan Goveas (IND) bt Adrian Exposito (ESP)/ Diego Matos (BRA) 75 63

[SF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Aryan Goveas (IND) bt (1) Karol Drzewiecki (POL)/ Szymon Walkow (POL) 76(5) 64
[QF] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Aryan Goveas (IND) bt Roman Boychuk (UKR)/ Oleg Khotkov (UKR) 36 62 10-8
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Aryan Goveas (IND) bt Ivan Krivic (CRO)/ Neven Krivokuca (CRO) 63 62

Arjun and Aryan lifted their first futures doubles title ... In the final, they defeated Spanish-Brazilian pair in the straight sets on the clay.

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At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Solapur, India

Doubles Final
(2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) bt Maya Jansen (USA) / Erin Routliffe (NZL) 75 16 10-6

[SF] (2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) bt (4) YeXin Ma (CHN)/ Kaylah McPhee (AUS) 63 67(7) 10-8
[QF] (2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) bt Qianxin Kong (CHN)/ Jiakang Li (CHN) 61 76(4)
[R1] (2) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Ching-Wen Hsu (TPE) bt Sindhu Janagam (IND)/ Arthi Muniyan (IND) 60 61

Pranjala lifted her 4th ITF doubles title of the year in Solapur partnering Ching-Wen Hsu ... They fought hard in the last two matches to come victorious.

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At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Pune, India

[Q1] (16) Zeel Desai (IND,610) bt Snehal Mane (IND,1223) 63 63
[Q1] Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,751) bt (14) Albina Khabibulina (UZB,604) 26 63 64

[Q2] (16) Zeel Desai (IND,610) bt (2) Samantha Murray (GBR,435) 75 26 64
[Q2] Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,751) bt Emily Webley-Smith (GBR,545) 62 26 75

Zeel and Dhruthi qualified for the main-draw with an upset wins over British players ... Zeel defeated former WR #165 Samantha Murray and Dhruthi defeated top-550 Emily Webley-Smith in the three sets.

Golf News

At $500K Omega Dubai Ladies Classic 2017, Dubai, UAE (LET 2017)

T5 Aditi Ashok (IND) 71 68 68 69 -12 € 13,428.88

After so-so first round Aditi responded strongly in next three rounds to finish in top-5 in this year-end LET tournament.

Hockey News

At Odisha Hockey World League Final 2017, Bhubaneswar, India

Semi Finals
India l Argentina 0-1 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Gonzalo Piellat (ARG) 17' PC

Australia bt Germany 3-0 (0-0)

Argentina converted their lone penalty corner of the night to edge past fighting India 1-0 ... Argentina adjusted to these demanding, persistent rain, wet conditions and defended exceptionally well ... After scoring a goal in an early part of the second quarter, they used crowding defense tactic ... And that gave them desired results ... In the fourth quarter, our players tried hard and did seven circle penetrations but their goalkeeper and defenders were solid ... In this quarter, we had more than 80% possession but failed to score goal ... Still, fighting and quality performance by our team and showing us, they r belong in these top teams ... We r playing against Germany for the Bronze medal.

Tennis News

At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Solapur, India

[QF] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,570) l (5) Olga Doroshina (RUS,439) 26 16

The last week's winner Doroshina proved too strong for Rutuja..

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At $15K Egypt F37 Futures 2017, Cairo

[R1] (8) Arjun Kadhe (IND,613) bt Aryan Goveas (IND,759) 61 60

[R2] (8) Arjun Kadhe (IND,613) l Alexander Weis (ITA,1147) 61 36 67(8)

Arjun needs to win these matches to underline his improved game ... He missed few match points in his loss against Italian Weis after winning the first set ... Before that, he defeated his countryman Aryan losing a single game.

Hockey News

At Odisha Hockey World League Final 2017, Bhubaneswar, India

Quarter Final
India bt Belgium 3-3 (0-0) 3-2 Suddendeath Shootout
Goal Scorers - Gurjant Singh (IND) 31', Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 35' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (ND) 46' PC and Loick Luypaert (BEL) 39' PC and 46' PC, Amaury Keusters (BEL) 53'

Australia bt Span 4-1 (1-1)
Argentina bt England 3-2 (2-1)
Germany bt The Netherlands 3-3 (1-2) 4-3 Penalty Shootout

The Indians surprised everyone with their unpredictable performance to beat Olympics silver medalist Belgium in the sudden death shootout to enter their only second ever semi-final of the Hockey World League Final ... The match ended 3-3 in regulation time and in shootout also the teams ended on an even at 2-2 ... The result was then decided by sudden death with Akash Chikte denying Belgium after Harmanpreet Singh scored, which turned out to be the winner ... In the semis, we r facing WR #1 Argentine team.

Tennis News

At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Solapur, India

[R2] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,570) bt (4) Ana Veselinovic (MNE,425) 46 64 5-2 retd.
[R2] (7) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,498) l Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (THA,596) 67(3) 75 26
[R2] Zeel Desai (IND,611) l (3) Dea Herdzelas (BIH,393) 26 75 36
[R2] (Q) Nandini Sharma (IND,UNR) l (6) Samantha Murray (GBR,440) 46 16

[QF] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,570) bt (5) Olga Doroshina (RUS,439)

Rutuja scored a comeback win over last week's finalist Veselinovic after losing the first set ... In the quarters, she is facing last week's winner Doroshina.

In the second round, Pranjala and Zeel lost in the three sets after losing the first set ...Murray proved better player for Nandini.

Tennis News

At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Solapur, India

[R1] (Q) Jennifer Luikham (IND, 1094) l (1) Diana Marcinkevica (LAT,287) 36 06
[R1] (7) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,498) bt (Q) Snehal Mane (IND,1222) 61 46 61
[R1] (WC) Mihika Yadav (IND,1057) l (8) Ching Wen Hsu (TPE,569) 76(5) 26 06
[R1] (Q) Nandini Sharma (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Maya Jansen (USA,UNR) 61 60
[R1] Natasha Palha (IND,746) l (6) Samantha Murray (GBR,440) 26 36
[R1] Ramya Natarajan (IND,1011) l (Q) Ho Ching Wu (HKG,1216) 57 64 46
[R1] (WC) Soha Sadiq (IND,UNR) l (2) Panna Udvardy (HUN,350) 16 26

[R2] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,570) vs (4) Ana Veselinovic (MNE,425)
[R2] (7) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,498) vs Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (THA,596)
[R2] Zeel Desai (IND,611) vs (3) Dea Herdzelas (BIH,393)
[R2] (Q) Nandini Sharma (IND,UNR) vs (6) Samantha Murray (GBR,440)

Nandini scored much needed win and as this is the third tournament where she has earned ranking points, she will be in the ranking on 18th December's list ... Snehad surprised Pranjala after winning the second set but Pranjala responded winning the third set easily.

In the second round, the tough matches for our players ... On the paper, Pranjala having winnable match against thai girl ... Rutuja is facing last week's finalist Veselinovic and Zeel is facing top-400 Dea Herdzelas ... Nandini is facing former-175 ranked Britisher Murray.

Hockey News

At Odisha Hockey World League Final 2017, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool B
India l Germany 0-2 (0-2)
Goal Scorers - Martin Häner (GER) 17', Mats Grambusch (GER) 20'

India lost 0-2 to Germany and finished last in Pool B with two defeats and one draw ... And mostly we will be facing in-form Belgium in the quarters.

Tennis News

At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Solapur, India

[R1] Zeel Desai (IND,611) bt Snehadevi S. Reddy (IND,1094) 62 36 4-2 retd.
[R1] (WC) Bhuvana Kalva (IND,UNR) l Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (THA,596) 36 63 16
[R1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,570) bt Yexin Ma (CHN,759) 63 62
[R1] (WC) AkankshaDileep Nitture (IND,UNR) l Ksenia Palkina (KGZ,606) 16 36

Good win by Rutuja against in-form Chinese player, Yexin Ma ... Zeel was up with the a break in the third set when Snehadevi retired from the match.

Golf News

At €1M AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open 2017, Mauritius (European Tour 2018)

2 Arjun Atwal (IND) 62 70 68 68 € 110,000
T16 Shiv Kapur (IND) 69 69 68 70 -8 € 12,950
T27 SSP Chawrasia (IND) 69 67 73 70 -5 € 9,020
T27 Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 68 72 71 68 -5 € 9,020
T40 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 70 71 67 73 -3 € 6,400

From the first round, Arun was leading this Mauritius Open and was moving towards his first title after a long time ... But in the play-off on the PAR-5 18th hole, he managed PAR but South African golfer Dylan Frittelli scored a birdie for winning the title.

Archery News

At Indoor Archery World Cup Stage 2 - Bangkok 2017, Thailand

Recurve Women’s
Gold - Sim Yeji (KOR)
Silver - Kim Surin (KOR)
Bronze - Deepika Kumari (IND)

Recurve Women’s Bronze medal match
(3) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (13) Sayana Tsyrempilova (RUS) 7-3 (29-29, 30-27, 30-27, 28-29, 30-28)

[SF] (3) Deepika Kumari (IND) l (2) Kim Surin (KOR) 5-6 (30-30, 30-29, 29-30, 29-29, 30-30, 9-10)
[QF] (3) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Ankita Bhakat (IND) 6-2 (30-27, 30-28, 29-29, 30-30)
[R2] (3) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Laishram Bombayla Devi (IND) 7-3 (27-28, 30-28, 29-29, 30-28, 30-25)
[R1] (3) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt Nivetha Ganesan (IND) 6-0 (30-24, 29-28, 30-27)

Deepika Kumari won the Bronze in the Indoor Archery World Cup beating Russian archer Tsyrempilova 7-3 ... Before that, Deepika reached into the semis beating three Indian archers ... In the semis, Kim Surin scored a thrilling 6-5 win over Deepika in the shoot-off (10-9) ... This match had very high-quality arrows hitting.

Snooker News

At £850K UK Championship 2017, York, England

[R2] Aditya Mehta (IND,81) l Luca Brecel (BEL,13) 3-6 (16-74(70), 6-76(55), 40-73(52), 84(57)-78, 38-72, 72(68)-1, 73(59)-0, 0-107(107), 0-118(114))

Aditya tried hard but Luca was a lot better on the green ... In this match, Luca Brecel scored two centuries and three 50+ breaks and Aditya managed three 50+ breaks.

Tennis News

At $25K Indonesia F8 Futures 2017, Jakarta

Singles Final
(2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,256) l (1) Duckhee Lee (KOR,217) 36 64 67(6)

Doubles Final
(1) Justin Barki (INA)/ N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (2) Sora Fukuda (JPN)/ Scott Puodziunas (AUS) 46 76(5) 10-4

Prajnesh lost close match against Duckhee Lee in the three sets ... After losing the first set he tried fightback winning the second ... In the final set also, he was an early break down 0-2 but broke back in the 4th game for 2-all ... In the tie-break, Prajnesh was leading 5-3 but lost focus from here to lose the match ... With these points he will be climbed around #245 ... So chances r high that he will be making cut for Australian open qualifying.

In the doubles, VSP with his Indonesian partner lifted the title ... They made an excellent comeback after losing the first set ... After winning the tie-break they dominated the match tie-break for the win.

Hockey News

At Odisha Hockey World League Final 2017, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool B
India l England 2-3(0-1)
Goal Scorers - Akashdeep Singh (IND) 47' PC, Rupinder Pal Singh (IND) 50' PC and David Goodfield (ENG) 25', Samuel Ward (ENG) 43' and 56'

Samuel Ward struck twice as England beat India 3-2 to record their first win ... Australia allowed us several chances to score on Friday but they couldn't as the forwards and the drag-flickers failed to apply the finishing touches ... Against England those opportunities were fewer for the majority of the game ... A mistake from India captain Harmanpreet Singh in the 43rd minute cost India dearly as England doubled their lead and that goal proved a crucial in end.

Winter Games News

At the Asian Luge Championships 2017, Altenberg, Germany

Picture Credit to Shiva Keshavan's FB page and Denistrapp.de

Gold - Shiva Keshavan (IND) 55.60 secs
Silver - Lien Te-An (TPE) 56.12 secs
Bronze - Kim Dong Kyu (KOR) 56.50 secs

Shiva Keshavan retained his Asian championship title with a time of 55.60 seconds ... Due to technical reasons, the Asian Luge Championships took place at Altenberg in Germany ... Keshavan will represent India at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Pyeongchang in South Korea for his record sixth Olympics.

Tennis News

At Australian Open 2018 - Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off, Zhuhai, China

Men's Doubles Final
(2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) l (1) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA) 67(6) 36

Jeevan and Chris missed an opportunity of winning the wild-card for the Australian Open 2018 as they lost in the straight sets against Ratiwatanas.

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At $25K Indonesia F8 Futures 2017, Jakarta

[SF] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,588) l (1) Duckhee Lee (KOR,217) 62 16 16
[SF] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,256) bt Renta Tokuda (JPN,603) 61 36 63

[F] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,256) vs (1) Duckhee Lee (KOR,217)

Prajnesh defeated in-form last week's winner Tokuda in the three sets, so now only one win away from a cementing Australian Open qualifying place ... VSP lost against Duckhee Lee after winning the first set.

Hockey News

At Odisha Hockey World League Final 2017, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool B
India dw Australia 1-1 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Mandeep Singh (IND) 20' and Jeremy Hayward (AUS) 21' PC

Germany bt England 2-0 (2-0)

India played out a 1-1 draw with defending champions Australia in their opening match ... In this match, our players had their chances but mis-trapping inside the circle cost us a full three points ... India next face England while Australia lock horns with Germany.

Tennis News

At Australian Open 2018 - Asia-Pacific Wildcard Play-off, Zhuhai, China

[QF] (Q) Vishnu Vardhan (IND,506) l (1) Soon Woo Kwon (KOR,168) w/o

Doubles
[SF] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) bt (3) Vishnu Vardhan (IND)/ N. Sriram Balaji (IND) 62 63

[F] (2) Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Christopher Rungkat (INA) vs (1) Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA)/ Sonchat Ratiwatana (THA)

Bad day for Vishnu as he gave walkover to top-seed Korean in the singles ... And in the doubles, he and Bala lost one-sided match against Jeevan and Chris ... Jeevan and Chris will be facing experienced Ratiwatana for winning the main draw wild-card.

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At $25K Indonesia F8 Futures 2017, Jakarta

[R2] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,256) bt (Q) Manish Sureshkumar (IND,1188) 64 64

[QF] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,588) bt Cheng-Yu Yu (TPE,657) 76(4) 64
[QF] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,256) bt (6) Kento Takeuchi (JPN,605) 62 64

[SF] N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,588) vs (1) Duckhee Lee (KOR,217)
[SF] (2) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,256) vs Renta Tokuda (JPN,603)

Prajnesh in the semis with two comfortable wins and facing in-form last week's winner tokuda .. VSP also jopins him with a win over Taipei player and will be facing top-225 Duckhee Lee.

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At $15K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Indore, India

[SF] Mahak JAIN (IND,809) l (3) Ana VESELINOVIC (MNE,425) 36 16
[SF] (4) Pranjala YADLAPALLI (IND,498) l (2) Olga DOROSHINA (RUS,439) 36 57

Our both girls lost in the semis against higher ranked opponents