Billiards News
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Time Format)

Another all Indian show as only 2 foreigners managed to enter in quarters ... Due to draw Pankaj and Geet faced eachother in semis and again Pankaj showed his upperhand over Geet this time in time format ... Devendra Joshi having great World Championship ... He reached semifinal as an qualifier in points format, but in time format he is in the final challenging Pankaj.

Semi Finals -
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Geet Sethi (IND) 1269 - 1003
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 1228 - 820

Quarter Finals -
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 1756 - 783
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 1356 - 1293

Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 1182 - 966
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 1108 - 1102

Round of 16 -
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) 1892 - 727
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt B. Bhaskar (IND) 958 - 832
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) 1371 - 1086
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 2036 - 869

Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) 1660 - 767
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Prem Prakash (IND) 1879 - 792
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) 1023 - 864
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 1485 - 717

Group A
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 1483 - 655
Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 670 - 582
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Sabdeen Mohammed (SRI) 1589 - 561
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 1816 - 377
Prem Prakash (IND) bt Michael Wright (E-BOS) 1527 - 528
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Prem Prakash (IND) 1735 - 703

Group B
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 1171 - 556
Boon Aun Keith (SIN) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 633 - 598
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 2191 - 254
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 1259 - 385
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Darren Taylor (NZL) 1477 - 332
Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) bt Boon Aun Keith (SIN) 1380 - 332

Group C
Calum Hossack (SCO) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) W/O
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) 1231 - 427
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Calum Hossack (SCO) 1424 - 320
Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) 988 - 540
Thanh Long Nguyen (VIE) bt Calum Hossack (SCO) 1117 - 252
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Philip Mumford (ENG) 1113 - 432

Group D
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Mohammed Aslam (SRI) 1312 - 505
Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 852 - 602
Larry Drennan (IRL) bt Mohammed Aslam (SRI) 781 - 485
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) 1025 - 647
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Larry Drennan (IRL) 1196 - 444
Thanh Binh Nguyen (VIE) bt Mohammed Aslam (SRI) 1019 - 638

Group E
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 1007 - 735
Shyam Jagtiani (IND) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 1040 - 537
Mohammed Asim (IND) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 812 - 698
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Mohammed Asim (IND) 2089 - 429
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Raghoo Sinha (IND) 1834 - 368
Shyam Jagtiani (IND) bt Mohammed Asim (IND) 765 - 624

Group F
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 1015 - 497
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 1236 - 440
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 867 - 697
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 1115 - 444
Brijesh Damani (IND) bt Gary Oliver (NZL) 1002 - 759
B. Bhaskar (IND) bt Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) 856 - 674

Group G
Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 782 - 431
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Arvind Savur (IND) 1031 - 637
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 1247 - 454
Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) bt Arvind Savur (IND) 815 - 512
Arvind Savur (IND) bt Wayne Carey (NZL) 823 - 623
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Suriya Suwnnasingh (THA) 1299 - 462

Group H
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Gary Norman (E-BOS) 1544 - 362
Aidan Murray (IRL) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 538 - 426
Aidan Murray (IRL) bt Gary Norman (E-BOS) 628 - 369
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 2102 - 159
Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) bt Gary Norman (E-BOS) 957 - 301
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Aidan Murray (IRL) 1939 - 167

Chess News
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Seventh Round -
Magnus Carlsen - Vassily Ivanchuk 0-1
Teimour Radjabov - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Levon Aronian - Veselin Topalov 1-0 

Anand managed another draw, but Carlsen lost against Ivanchuk playing with whites ... Aronian also scored victory with whites against Topalov, that means in standing now Anand and Radjabov r tied for the last position .

Tennis News
At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) l (3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP,18) 76(6) 26 57

What a match for Somdev ... Though he lost he gained very valuable experiance and lot of respect for his game ... Almagro managed to pull this match on his experiance ... But Buji gave his all in this his first match against top-20 player ... Simply awesome display in 2 hrs 26 mins match.

Awesome performance and feeling proud about Buji ... No more words only enjoying moment that at last we r having player who can compete at highest level against best in the world.

Match stats - Buji had excellent 1st serve percentage of 65% in against 54% by Almagro ... Almagro hit 11 aces with 4 DFs and Buji hit 5 aces ... Almagro created 11 break point chances and converted 5, other hand Buji created 6 BP chances and converted 2 ... Almagro won 119 pts in this long match and Buji managed to win 104 pts.

Badminton News
At $15K Yonex Belgian International 2008, Berchem

[R1] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Sven Eric Kastens (GER,112) 21-8 21-12
[R1] (5) Arvind Bhat (IND,42) bt (Q) Harry Wright (GBR,343) 21-16 18-21 21-19
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,78) bt Sune Gavnholt (DEN,121) 25-23 21-15

[R2] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Marcel Reuter (GER,138) 21-11 17-21 21-11
[R2] (5) Arvind Bhat (IND,42) bt Martin Bille Larsen (DEN,83) 19-21 21-15 21-11
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,78) bt Pavel Florian (CZE,109) 21-10 21-14

[QF] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Brice Leverdez (FRA,90) 21-11 21-18
[QF] (5) Arvind Bhat (IND,42) l Dieter Domke (GER,117) 22-20 18-21 12-21
[QF] Anand Pawar (IND,78) bt (3) Petr Koukal (CZE,39) 24-22 21-10

[SF] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) bt Anand Pawar (IND,78) 21-16 16-21 22-20

[Final] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,32) l (1) Kenichi Tago (JPN,31) 16-21 21-15 19-21

Reaching final here helped Chetan to again grab top Indian men's shuttler position ... Anand also played well to upset top-40 player.
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At $5K Waikato International 2008, Hamilton, New Zealand

Womens Singles -
[R1] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) bt Poh-Lin Teo (NZL,UNR) 21-5 21-8
[R1] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Clare Chapple (NZL,323) 21-5 21-12

[R2] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) bt Melissa Yin (NZL,UNR) 21-8 21-4
[R2] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Melissa Leviana (NZL,369) 21-16 21-8

[QF] Ruth Misha (IND,UNR) l Chie Umezu (JPN,145) 12-21 9-21
[QF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) bt Misaki Matsutomo (JPN,247) 21-16 21-13

[SF] Neha Pandit (IND,148) l Ayaka Takahashi (JPN,247) 13-21 10-21

Mens Singles -
[R1] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Praveen Tayalan (NZL,438) 21-8 21-15
[R1] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt Te Ao Kura Van Selm (NZL,UNR) 21-17 21-9
[R1] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) bt Luke Charlesworth (NZL,UNR) W/O

[R2] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Brent Miller (NZL,UNR) 21-4 21-10
[R2] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt (5/8) Thomas Ellis (NZL,266) 21-11 21-9
[R2] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) bt Dhanny Oud (NZL,UNR) 21-17 21-15

[QF] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Rei Sato (JPN,UNR) 17-21 21-11 21-19
[QF] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt Dean Nuttall (NZL,335) 21-16 21-9
[QF] (5/8) Ankush Jadhav (IND,222) l (2) Joe Wu (NZL,151) 17-21 10-21

[SF] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt (5/8) Alistair Casey (SCO,222) 21-13 21-19
[SF] Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) bt (2) Joe Wu (NZL,151) 21-14 21-13

[Final] (1) Ajay Jayaram (IND,144) bt Prakash Jolly (IND,UNR) 21-11 21-14

This was low International series tournament, still very good one for Ajay ... As this was his first international title and also very good performance by youngster Prakash Jolly, who was playing his first international event.

Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia


Quarter-Finals -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) bt Yang Shen (CHN,2445) 2-0


Humpy scored victory with blacks to move into semis ... Now she will meet another Chinese opponent Yifan Hou, who is having great run in this World Championship.
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At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)


Sixth Round -
Vassily Ivanchuk - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Veselin Topalov - Teimour Radjabov ½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Levon Aronian 1-0


So another draw for Anand ... Anand is in position of losing top-spot in ELO rating ... Other hand Carlsen scored another victory against Aronian, this was his 3rd victory in this Grand Slam Masters.

Tennis News 

At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) vs (3) Nicolas Almagro (ESP,18)

[Q3] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt (2) Filippo Volandri (ITA,93) 63 46 63

Somdev Devvarman - SD and Filippo Volandri - FV

First set - FV started and managed to win after 30-40 down

0-1 FV broke SD's serve on 30

0-2 SD broke back on 30

1-2 SD hold on 15

2-2 SD broke after duece

3-2 SD hold after down 0-40

4-2 FV hold on 15

4-3 SD hold after down 0-30

5-3 SD broke on 15 to won first set in 41 mins

6-3

Second Set - SD started and hold after duece

1-0 FV hold on luv

1-1 FV broke Sd's serve on 30

1-2 FV hold on 15

1-3 FV broke on 15 ... At this time SD's 1st serve % was 26%

1-4 FV hold after saving 2 BPs

1-5 SD hold on 15

2-5 SD broke on 30

3-5 SD was down 15-40 but saved 2 set points to hold

4-5 FV hold on 15 to won second set

4-6

Third Set - SD started and FV broke on 30

0-1 FV hold after saving 1 BP

0-2 SD hold on 15

1-2 SD broke after duece

2-2 SD hold on luv

3-2 SD broke again after duece

4-2 SD hold on 30

5-2 FV hold on 15

5-3 SD served out luv game to qualify for maindraw of Bucharest Open

6-3

Buji scored a very exciting victory over former top-25 and very good clay court player Italian Filippo Volandri in 2 hrs 15 mins battle ... Somi was struggling with his serve, managed only 48% first serve percentage against 63% by Volandri ... Somi created 15 break point opportunities and converted 6, other hand Volandri created 11 BP opportuniites and managed to broke 4 times ... Match was close as Somi won 97 pts to 88 pts by Volandri ... Volandri double faulted 9 times and Somi double faulted 2 times and also served 3 aces ... Volandri was in good nick as recently he won 2 clay challengers and was in semis in 1.

Also what I like about this match that Somi had bad day with his serve and most of the time he was falling behind 0-30 or 15-30 ... But he still managed to coming back with his typical grinding way.

Argentine Maximo Gonzalez must have withdrawn from the tournament and so change in the draw ... Somi recieved toughest opponent in qualifiers/lucky losers ... He is facing 23 yrs old Wr No 18 Spanish Nicolas Almagro, who is very tough on clay ... This year Almagro won 2 ATP titles on clay beating Moya and Nalbandian in the final at Costa Do Sauipe and Acapulco respectively ... He was in the final at Valencia on clay ... Also he was quarter-finalist at French Open (where he lost against Rafa) and Rome Masters on clay ... Very solid record on the clay ... Tough match up for Somi but I feel this will be very good preparation against top-20 before Romanian Davis cup tie.

Motor Sports News 

At GP2 Series 2008, Spa, Belgium

Chandhok was fastest in qualifying with time of 2:15.459 was just 0.061 ahead of Senna ... But after finishing fastest in qualifying, Karun Chandhok was handed a 5 grid position penalty on top of his original 10 grid position penalty after today’s session in Spa when it was shown that he ignored the yellow flags on his final lap.

So Karun started from 15 on the grid and finished Feature race on 11th and he improved his position in Sprint race to finished on 8th ... Senna had terrible race he started from 1st position but finished on 12th behind Karun in first race and in second race he couldn't finish the race ... Due to poor results by both drivers, iSports lost its top postion in team championship.

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Golf News

At Utah Championship, Sandy, UT - Final Standing (Nationwide Tour)

T50 Arjun Atwal 69 68 74 67 -6  $1,897.50

Such finishes not helping Arjun to achieve his top-25 moneyleader list goal ... Now he is slide down to 32nd position in moneyleader list and around $20K less earning from 25th place golfer.

Tennis News
At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[Q2] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt Florin Mergea (ROU,592) 61 62
[Q3] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) vs (2) Filippo Volandri (ITA,93)

Somdev scored another easy victory against Romanian player in 58 mins but now he is having big task against top-100 Italian Filippo Volandri, true clay courter.
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At $225K Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic, Bali, Indonesia

[Q1] (5) Shikha Uberoi (IND) Bye
[Q2] (5) Shikha Uberoi (IND) l (2) Sandy Gumulya (INA) 16 36

Doubles -
Shikha Uberoi (IND)/ Aleksandra Wozniak (CAN) vs Nadia Petrova (RUS)/ Marta Domachowska (POL)
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At $125K (+H) Orleans Challenger, France

[Q1] (7) Harsh Mankad (IND,546) bt (WC) Mohammed Affes (TUN,UNR) 64 62
[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,861) bt Kenny De Schepper (FRA,1420) 63 64

[Q2] Purav Raja (IND,861) l (2) Vladimir Obradovic (SRB,398) 46 46
[Q2] (7) Harsh Mankad (IND,546) l Jean-Kome Loglo (TOG,UNR) 46 63 67(5)

Harsh having tough time with his singles career ... He is low on confidence and these results really doesn't helping his cause.
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Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Quarter-Finals -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) - Yang Shen (CHN,2445) 1-0

Humpy started well with winning first match with whites against Chinese player.
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At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Fifth Round -
Viswanathan Anand - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Vassily Ivanchuk - Veselin Topalov ½-½
Teimour Radjabov - Levon Aronian ½-½

Anand had another draw ... Lets hope after today's break he come out with a bang.

Tennis News
At € 370K BCR Open, Bucharest, Romania

[Q1] (8) Somdev Devvarman (IND,243) bt (WC) Bogdan Andrii (ROU,UNR) 60 61

Somdev won match in flat 38 mins ... Bogdan Andrii was playing only his 2nd tournament after a year break (injury?) ... And he was most of futures type player through-out his career.

Buji need more match practice before our Davis Cup tie.
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At $125K (+H) Orleans Challenger, France

[Q1] (7) Harsh Mankad (IND,546) vs (WC) Mohammed Affes (TUN,UNR)
[Q1] Purav Raja (IND,861) vs Kenny De Schepper (FRA,1420)
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At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles Final -

(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt (2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) 76(6) 61

Singles Semi Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt (3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) 61 61
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt (4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) 76(6) 63

Doubles Final -
Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) 63 46 10(7)

Nice tight win for Vishnu and Divij for this doubles title win ... I m hoping better singles performance by our guys in Delhi futures.

Tennis News
At 2008 US Open,

Mens Doubles Final -
(7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) l (2) Mike Bryan (USA)/ Bob Bryan (USA) 67(5) 67(10)

Lee and Lukas started well in the first set breaking Bob's serve in 3rd game but Bryans fought back breaking Lukas serve in 6th game, then Lee & Lukas saved few break points on their serves ... But in tie-break Bryans had mini-break on Lee's serve at 3-2, that mini-break was enough to grab first set in tie-break ... In first set Bryans were trying to hit maximum shots at Lukas as he was weakest vollyer in these 4 players ... They earned few important points by Lukas mistakes on the net.

In second set Bryans started well breaking Lukas's serve in 3rd game but Lee/ Lukas immediately broke Mike's serve in next game to make it 2-2 ... Then Lee saved 3 break points on is serve, Mike also saved a break point on his.

In tie-break Lukas made double fault at 1-2 giving mini-break to Bryans ... But Lee grabbed back mini-break on Mike's serve with powerful forehand crosscourt return at 4-2 ... Lee & Lukas saved 1 championship point at 6-5 but then Bryans save 1 set point at 7-6 ... Mike double faulted to give crucial mini-break to Lee and Lukas but Lee gave it back with another double fault ... But Lee got another set point with ace, then Bob responded with huge serve to make it 9-9 ... And on Bob's serve Lee hit amazing backhand crosscourt return to grab mini-break ... But Bob responded well with superb return to equal 10-10 ... On next point Lee made crucial mistake putting simple volley in the net giving match point to Bryans ... This time Mike managed crucial powerful first serve to win their 2nd US Open title and 6th grandslam title in 1 hr 54 mins..

Lee was in sublime form on the net with his quick hands, he played jaw dropping acrobatic volleys and soft touch volleys on the net ... Bryans won 100 pts to 86 pts by our pair ... Our pair did 9 UFEs and 7 UFEs by Bryans ... But main difference was 9 double faults by Lee and Lukas (Lukas did 6) and 3 double faults by Bryans.

Chess News
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Round 3 -
Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) bt Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN,2487) 1½-½
Dronavalli Harika (IND,2461) l Lilit Mkrtchian (2436,ARM) ½-1½

Humpy scored victory with whites to reach in final 8 but Harika lost with blacks.
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At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Fourth Round -
Magnus Carlsen - Teimour Radjabov 1-0
Veselin Topalov - Viswanathan Anand 1-0
Levon Aronian - Vassily Ivanchuk

Vishy lost playing blacks against Topalov ... I shocked to see Anand resign in 25 moves ... When the last time Anand resign game in 25 moves?

Anand is also in the spot of bother as he will be losing more ELO points ... Carlsen and Topalov scored their 2nd victory playing with whites ... This is not turning into right preparation for Anand to his World Championship match against Kramnik.

Billiards News 
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Final -
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Geet Sethi (IND) 6-1 (150(79)-90, 151(145)-0, 150(90)-24, 150(150)-0, 86(86)-150(150), 150(87)-72, 150(143)-12)

Pankaj gave dominating performance to scored easy victory against formidable Geet to win IBSF World Billiards Championship (point format) ... He scored four 100 breaks in 7 frames ... So this was his 5th World title at age of 23.

Chess News -
At the Women's World Championship 2008, Nalchik, Russia

Round 3
Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN,2487) - Humpy Koneru (IND,2622) ½-½
Dronavalli Harika (IND,2461) - Lilit Mkrtchian (2436,ARM) ½-½

Humpy and Harika lost to scored victory in first game of third round ... Harika had a marathon game with Mkrtchian, they agreed to draw after 81 moves.
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At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Third Round -
Teimour Radjabov - Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½
Levon Aronian - Viswanathan Anand ½-½
Magnus Carlsen - Veselin Topalov 0-1

Here I m putting 'Traditional scores' which will be used for calculating ELO rating ... In that Topalov is leading by ½ pt over others ... And After Topalov's victory with blacks over Carlsen, he is leading by 1 pt over Carlsen and by 2 pts over others as per Bilbao score.

Tennis News
At 2008 US Open,

LEE & CARA MXD CHAMPION AT 2008 US OPEN!!!

Mixed Doubles Final -
(5) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Liezel Huber (USA)/ Jamie Murray (GBR) 76(6) 64

In closely fought first set, where no pair managed to break other's service, Lee and Cara won in tie-break after saving 2 set poits ... In second set on 5th game Lee and Cara broke Jamie's serve and take lead ... They had 3 break points on Huber's serve in 7th game but somehow Huber managed to hold her serve ... So with this only break in the match they won second set and the match ... Match was close as winner won battle 73-68 pts.

This is Lee's 4th MXD grandslam title and total 8th grandslam title ... Heartily congratulation to Lee and Cara for 2008 US Open Mixed Doubles title!!!

Also check nice interview of Lee and Cara on US Open site, where they mentioned they r planning to play together in all MXD grandslam events in 2009.

An Interview with Leander Paes and Cara ...

Billiards News
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Semi-Finals -

Geet Sethi (IND) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 5-3 (102-151(122), 95-151(143), 02-151(142), 150-126, 152(152)-57, 152(139)-16, 152(152)-112(108), 150(146)-0)

Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 5-3 (150-115, 91(84)-152(85), 150-142, 49-151(115), 98(89)-152(93), 151(96)-118, 151(131)-16, 150(105)-93(74))

Qualifier Devendra Joshi started well winning first 3 frames but then Geet showed his class winning next 5 ... Pankaj also scored similar scoreline victory over Rupesh in hard fought match.

Tennis News
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles Quarter Finals -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) 63 61
(3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt (8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) 76(8) 61

(4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) bt (Q) I-Ta CHEN (TPE,UNR) 75 64
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) 61 63

Doubles Semi Finals -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt (4) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) 61 64

Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt Aqeel KHAN (PAK)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 63 64

Indian challenge got over in singles but in doubles our pairs will play for the title.

Chess News -
At €400K Grand Slam Chess Final Masters, Bilbao, Spain
(Category XXII tournament)

Second Round -
Vassily Ivanchuk - Magnus Carlsen ½-½
Veselin Topalov - Levon Aronian ½-½
Viswanathan Anand - Teimour Radjabov ½-½

Anand managed draw after 34 moves ... All matches ended in a draw that helped Carlsen to keep his minimum 2 pts lead over others.

Tennis News -
At 2008 US Open,

[SF] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dloughy (CZE) bt Maximo Gonzalez (ARG)/ Juan Monaco (ARG) 62 60

Junior Boys -
[R2] (12) Yuki Bhambri (IND,18) l Filip Krajinovic (SRB,26) 67(5) 46

Wow ... 40 mins demolition job by Lee and Lukas ... They won 54 pts in this match and lost only 24 ... Didn't face single break point and converted 5 of 9 break point chances on Argentine service ... They won 11 games in a row from 1-2 down in the first set.

Heartily congratulation to Lee for another US Open doubles final this time with Lukas!!!

Yuki had a tough matchup against Wimbledon Junior semi-finalist ... Also Serbian was his hitting partner at NBTA, so both were knowing eachother game quite well ... So today Yuki lost in closely contested match against better player ... This year turned into learning curve for Yuki in Junior grandslam.

Billiard News -
At 2008 IBSF World Billiards Championship, Banglore, India (Point Format)

Knockout stage (Round of 16)

Geet Sethi (IND) bt Suriya Suwannasingh (THA) 4-0 (152(130)-21, 153-82(72), 150-64, 150(146)-58)
Alok Kumar (IND) bt Prem Prakash (IND) 4-2 (36-151, 34-152(72), 151-109, 151(85)-72, 150-68, 151(99)-84)
Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) bt Brijesh Damani (IND) 4-2 (40-153, 151(89)-122, 86-151, 150(100)-74, 152-82, 151-17)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Shyam Jagtiani (IND) 4-3 (150-79, 150(82)-126, 150(143)-07, 37-150, 97-150(87), 32-150, 151(123)-19)

Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Teik Chon Alan Puan (SIN) 4-1(151-135, 151-127, 151-44, 117-150, 151-40 )
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt B. Bhaskar (IND) 4-0 (150-100, 150(108)-73, 150(136)-149(147), 151(113)-29)
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Thawat Sujaritthurakarn (THA) 4-1(17-150, 150(150)-8, 150(86)-31, 150-10, 150-0)
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 4-2 (42-150(78), 129-150, 151-105, 152--60, 150(124)-20, 150(150)-41)

Quarter-Finals -

Geet Sethi (IND) bt Alok Kumar (IND) 4-2 (151(71)-21, 150(150)-7, 151(149)-02, 68-150(67), 5-150(143), 121-5(Conceded)
Devendra Joshi (IND) bt Praput Chaithanaskum (THA) 4-2 (150(87)-89, 0-150(83), 138(124)-151, 150(150)-8, 150(92)-70, 150(145)-0)
Rupesh Shah (IND) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 4-1 (113-150,152(152)-32, 150-142(140), 150(94)-44, 151-74)
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 4-1(151-54, 150(97)-141(104), 36-151(147), 150-(137)-05, 150(136)-61)

Most surprising performance in this tournament is from Devendra Joshi.

Tennis News
At $50K Alphen challenger, Netherlands (Red Clay)

[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) l Michel Koning (NED)/ Martijn van Haasteren (AHO) 46 57

Match was close but our pair ended on losing side.
----------------------------------------------------------
At $15K India F6, Chennai

Singles Second Round -
(1) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER,346) bt Divij SHARAN (IND,804) 62 75
Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,942) bt Vinod SRIDHAR (IND,1627) 62 63

(3) Yuichi SUGITA (JPN,467) bt (WC) Karunuday SINGH (IND,UNR) 64 64
(8) Hsin-Han LEE (TPE,727) bt Rupesh ROY (IND,1102) 63 76(1)

(Q) I-Ta CHEN (TPE,UNR) bt (Q) Mithun MURALI (IND,UNR) 64 61
(4) Hyun-Woo NAM (KOR,499) bt Aqeel KHAN (PAK,741) 64 64

Vignesh PERANAMALLUR-CHANDRASEKHAR (IND,1813) bt Rohan GAJJAR (IND,822) 62 64
(2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ,454) bt Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,922) 61 67(3) 76(5)

Doubles Quarter Finals -
(1) Ashutosh SINGH (IND)/ Sunil-Kumar SIPAEYA (IND) bt I-Ta CHEN (TPE)/ Hsin-Han LEE (TPE) 76(2) 63
(4) Peter GOJOWCZYK (GER)/ Yuichi SUGITA (JPN) (WC) Christopher MARQUIS (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 64 62

Aqeel KHAN (PAK)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) 57 75 10(7)
Divij SHARAN (IND)/ Vishnu VARDHAN (IND) bt (2) Alexey KEDRYUK (KAZ)/ Rupesh ROY (IND) 26 63 11(9)