Badminton News
At $200K Li Ning China Open Super Series 2008,

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,14) l Choong Hann Wong (MAS,15) 10-21 14-21
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) bt Wee Chung Pei (MAS,125) 21-9 21-13

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) l (5) Lin Zhu (CHN,5) 6-21 21-12 19-21

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) bt Ying Long (MAC)/ Ka lei Mak (MAC) 21-15 21-17

[R2] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) vs Petr Koukal (CZE,38)

[R2] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) vs (4) Jung Eun Ha (KOR)/ Min Jung Kim (KOR)

Due to some withdrawals at mens side, including P. Kashyap's, Arvind received weaker opponent and he take full advantage of beating Malaysian player in 26 mins.

Saina played almost an hour long exceptional match against WR #5 ... After losing first game easily she made comeback in the match winning next game easily ... But in third game she lost crucial points to lose game and match ... IMO, knowing biased Chinese coaches and umpires chance of foul games r high in their local event, as Chinese coaches known for such type of manipulating in matches (giving debatable points to their players in close matches).

Saina and Anna had comfortable start in doubles but now they r facing 4th seed Koreans in 2nd round.

Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

Doubles -
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) l Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Nicolas Tourte (FRA) 36 67(2)
[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt Luka Gregorc (SLO)/ Fritz Wolmarans (RSA) 76(5) 76(4)

[QF] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA)

Good to see Harsh and Ashutosh pulled off tie-breaks tight sets victory ... But sad to see Amritraj brothers losing in the first round.
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At $50K Kolkata Womens Challenger, India

Singles Second Round
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) bt (1) Melanie South (GBR) 26 63 64
Elora Dabija (ROU) bt Leonie Mekel (NED) 26 64 64
Sophie Ferguson (AUS) bt (4) Agnes Szatmari (ROU) 76(5) 64
(7) Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) bt Julia Glushko (ISR) 75 75
(8) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) bt Suchanun Viratprasert (THA) 60 62
(Q) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt Chia-Jung Chuang (TPE) 63 63
(Q) Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (5) Sunitha Rao (IND) 62 61
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt (WC) Sanaa Bhambri (IND) 63 61

Doubles Quarter-Finals
(1) Jing-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) bt Sunitha Rao (IND)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) 46 75 10(5)
Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Alexis Prousis (USA) bt (4) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)/ I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) 36 76(4) 10(4)
(3) Laura Siegemund (GER)/ Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt Ankita Bhambri (IND)/ Sanaa Bhambri (IND) 61 46 11(9)
(2) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Yi Chen (TPE) bt Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) 64 76(3)

Indian challenge got over in singles and doubles ... As per scoreline Sunitha received thrashing from British qualifier ... :-(

Sanaa couldn't produced much fight against 2nd seed Japanese in singles ... But Bhambri sisters had their chances in doubles against 3rd seed pair.
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At $15K India F8 Futures, Mumbai

Singles Second Round
(1) Alexander Satschko (GER) bt (Q) Mario Eckardt (GER) 60 64
(7) Daniel Lustig (CZE) bt Purav Raja (IND) 63 67(3) 64
(LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) bt Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) 46 63 76(4)
Vaja Uzakov (UZB) bt (5) Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) 63 67(0) 63
(8) Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ) bt Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 76(4) 64
(3) David Savic (SRB) bt (Q) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) 57 60 62
(Q) David Sodek (CZE) bt (6) Divij Sharan (IND) 76(7) 36 64
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (Q) Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) 61 61

Doubles Quarter-Finals 
(1) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Daniel Lustig (CZE)/ David Sodek (CZE) 64 64
Mithun Murali (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt (3) Alexander Satschko (GER)/ Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) 57 60 10(4)
(4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (WC) Kamala Kannan (IND)/ Vishal Punna (IND) 63 62
(2) David Savic (SRB)/ Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (WC) Arjun Goutham (IND)/ Aditya Madkekar (IND) 64 61

And here also our all players lost in singles second round ... But as usual better performance in doubles as our 3 pairs in the semis.

Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 18th November 2008

Churchill Brothers dw Air India 1-1

Goal Scored - Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 38' and Michael Tayo (AI) 90+'

Dying minute equalizer from Air-men to managed away draw.
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19th November

Mahindra United dw Sporting clube de Goa 0-0
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20th November
Mohammedan Sporting l Dempo SC 0-2

Goal Scored - Anthony Pereira (DSC) 9', Ranty Martins (DSC) 40'
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Vasco SC l Mohun Bagan 1-2

Goal Scored - Lalnun Puia (VSC) 30' and Rakesh Masih (MB) 33', Lalkamal Bhowmik (MS) 53'
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21st November
Chirag United dw Mumbai FC 1-1

Goal Scored - Shankar Oraon (CU) 12' and Riston Rodrigues (MFC) 60'
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22nd November
JCT bt East Bengal 1-0

Goal Scored - Eduardo da Silva (JCT) 68'

Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,210) l (WC) John-Patrick Smith (AUS,1148) 64 46 36

So another lost opportunity for Kash, who lost against college top-10 player JP Smith ... JP Smith was runner-up to Somdev in the 2008 NCAA tournament in May.

Prakash Amritraj - "I wasn't terribly happy with my performance but I give him credit. It's good for him to come out in a pro event and get a win."
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At $50K Kolkata Womens Challenger, India

Singles First Round
(1) Melanie South (GBR) bt Jing-Jing Lu (CHN) 75 63
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (THA) bt Julia Parasyuk (RUS) 64 62
Elora Dabija (ROU) bt Angelika Roesch (GER) 67(5) 62 62
Leonie Mekel (NED) bt (6) Liana-Gabriela Ungur (ROU) 63 Retd.
(4) Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt (WC) Shivika Burman (IND) 61 61
Sophie Ferguson (AUS) bt Vivian Segnini (BRA) 64 75
Julia Glushko (ISR) bt (Q) Silvia Disderi (ITA) 62 63
(7) Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) bt (WC) Shikha Uberoi (IND) 62 63
(8) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE) bt Ankita Bhambri (IND) 62 62
Suchanun Viratprasert (THA) bt (WC) Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND) 64 61
Chia-Jung Chuang (TPE) bt I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) 61 62
(Q) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB) bt (3) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE) 61 62
(5) Sunitha Rao (IND) bt Alexis Prousis (USA) 60 62
(Q) Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (Q) Florence Haring (FRA) 75 64
(WC) Sanaa Bhambri (IND) bt Isha Lakhani (IND) 64 75
(2) Ayumi Morita (JPN) bt Laura Siegemund (GER) 61 62

Doubles First Round
(1) Jing-Jing Lu (CHN)/ Sheng-Nan Sun (CHN) bt Ksenia Palkina (KGZ)/ Julia Parasiyuk (RUS) 62 63
Sunitha Rao (IND)/ Shikha Uberoi (IND) bt Julia Glushko (ISR)/ Florence Haring (FRA) 64 62
(4) Kai-Chen Chang (TPE)/ I-Hsuan Hwang (TPE) bt (Q) Prerana-Mythri Appineni (IND)/ Patrycja Sanduska (POL) 64 60
Sophie Ferguson (AUS)/ Alexis Prousis (USA) bt (Q) Iuliia Kiriienko (UKR)/ Inna Kuzmenko (RUS) 63 76(7)
Ankita Bhambri (IND)/ Sanaa Bhambri (IND) bt (WC) Treta Bhattacharya (IND)/ Shalini Sahoo (IND) 62 62
(3) Laura Siegemund (GER)/ Agnes Szatmari (ROU) bt (wc) Parul Goswami (IND)/ Parija Maloo (IND) 60 61
Rushmi Chakravarthi (IND)/ Isha Lakhani (IND) bt Leonie Mekel(NED)/ Varatchay Wongteanchai (THA) 64 26 10(6)
(2) Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Yi Chen (TPE) bt (WC) Shivika Burman (IND)/ Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (IND/THA) 64 60

Only Sanaa managed to upset senior Isha ... Sunitha having promising start.
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At $15K India F8 Futures, Mumbai

Singles First Round
(1) Alexander Satschko (GER) bt Navdeep Singh (IND) 62 61
(Q) Mario Eckardt (GER) bt Rifat Biktyakov (UZB) 75 64
Purav Raja (IND) bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) 63 61
(7) Daniel Lustig (CZE) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) 62 64
Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) bt (4) Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND) 67(4) 63 62
(LL) Pirmin Haenle (GER) bt (WC) Akash Wagh (IND) 63 62
Vaja Uzakov (UZB) bt Perakiat Siruluethaiwatana (THA) 63 75
(5) Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) bt (WC) Ronak Manuja (IND) 62 61
(8) Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ) bt (Q) Mithun Murali (IND) 61 62
Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt (Q) Srirambalaji Narayanaswamy (IND) 67(4) 62 61
(Q) Liang-Chi Huang (TPE) bt (WC) Rohan Gide (IND) 63 76(1)
(3) David Savic (SRB) bt (Q) Aditya Madkekar (IND) 61 63
(6) Divij Sharan (IND) bt (Q) Vishal Punna (IND) 63 36 76(3)
(Q) David Sodek (CZE) bt Rohan Gajjar (IND) 76(7) 75
(Q) Sudanwa Sitaram (IND) bt Maniel Bains (GBR) 64 60
(2) Nathan Thompson (USA) bt (WC) Abhijeet Tiwari (IND) 62 62

Doubles First Round 
(1) Rohan Gajjar (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND) bt Mario Eckardt (GER)/ Pirmin Haenle (GER) 62 62
Daniel Lustig (CZE)/ David Sodek (CZE) bt (WC) Ronak Manuja (IND)/ Akash Wagh (IND) 62 63
(3) Alexander Satschko (GER)/ Marc-Andre Stratling (GER) bt Maniel Bains (GBR)/ Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (IND) 75 64
Mithun Murali (IND)/ Vignesh Peranamallur (IND) bt I-Ta Chen (TPE)/ Perakiat Siruluethaiwatana (THA) 64 62
(WC) Kamala Kannan (IND)/ Vishal Punna (IND) bt N. Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND)/ Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan (IND) 67(6) 75 10(6)
(4) Divij Sharan (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) bt Rohan Gide (IND)/ Nikunj Siwach (IND) 61 63
(WC) Arjun Goutham (IND)/ Aditya Madkekar (IND) bt Rifat Biktyakov (UZB)/ Vaja Uzakov (UZB) 76(4) 76(0)
(2) David Savic (SRB)/ Nathan Thompson (USA) bt Syrym Abdukhalikov (KAZ)/ Igor Panin (RUS) 64 64

Good win by Ranjeet but Sunil's awful form continued in singles ... Akash lost chance of utilising opportunity of facing lucky-loser in the first round ... Divij and Punna had terrific match in-between ... Otherwise expected results.

Badminton News

Good to see our 5 men's players r in top-50 World Badminton Ranking and 2 women's players r in top-50.

#11 Saina Nehwal
#38 Aditi Mutatkar

#14 Chetan Anand
#39 Arvind Bhat
#40 Anup Sridhar
#42 P. Kashyap
#49 Anand Pawar

At $200K Li Ning China Open Super Series 2008,

[R1] Chetan Anand (IND,14) vs Choong Hann Wong (MAS,15)
[R1] P. Kashyap (IND,42) vs Hong Chen (CHN,72)
[R1] Arvind Bhat (IND,39) vs Muhammad Hafiz Hashim (MAS,29)

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND,11) vs (5) Lin Zhu (CHN,5)

[R1] Saina Nehwal (IND)/ Anna Rice (CAN) vs Ying Long (MAC)/ Ka lei Mak (MAC)

Saina having tough match against WR #5 local girl ... Saina was playing last month in Commonwealth Youth Games and after that World Junior Championship but in that period she missed playing matches against top-10/20 players ... But as we know anything possible when Saina's play so go Saina ... Chetan also having tricky match against similar ranked Malaysian opponent.

Golf News

As expected Jeev re-enters into top-50 at #46 ... But otherwise hardly other 3 players (including Daniel) in top-200 ... Shiv is now outside top-400 with his dismal form.

Official World Golf Ranking on 16th November 2008 (Top 10 Indians)

46 Jeev Milkha Singh
121 Daniel Chopra
144 Jyoti Randhawa
192 Arjun Atwal
305 SSP Chowrasia
404 Shiv Kapur
447 Gaurav Ghei
650 Digvijay Singh
666 Rahil Gangjee
688 Gaganjeet Bhullar

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Tennis News
At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[Q2] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) l (3) Nick Van Der Meer (NED,551) 57 67

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,204) vs (1) Vincent Spadea (USA,75)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,210) vs (WC) John-Patrick Smith (AUS,1148)

Doubles -
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van Der Merwe (RSA) vs (Q) Romano Frantzen (NED)/ Nick Van Der Meer (NED)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) vs Olivier Charroin (FRA)/ Nicolas Tourte (FRA)
[R1] Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs Luka Gregorc (SLO)/ Fritz Wolmarans (RSA)

Ashutosh against lost close match ... Doubles draw is out and our all players facing unseeded pair in the first round.

Golf News
At US$5 million Barclays Singapore Open - Final Standing

1 Jeev Milkha Singh 73 68 67 69 - 7 $792,500.00
T22 Gaurav Ghei 74 71 66 76 + 3 $ 50,250.00
31 Shiv Kapur 74 72 73 70 + 5 $ 42,000.00
T32 Jyoti Randhawa 75 69 72 74 + 6 $ 37,000.00
T41 S S P Chowrasia 70 76 75 70 + 7 $ 30,500.00
T58 Digvijay Singh 70 72 76 76 +10 $ 16,500.00
T68 Gaganjeet Bhullar 73 71 76 77 +13 $ 12,250.00

Jeev won richest tournament on Asian tour with Singapore Open title by 1 stroke ... This is Jeev's sixth Asian Tour victory, worth US$792,500, raised his Asian Tour season's tally to US$1.4 million ... Jeev also made history by becoming the first player to surpass US$1 million in earnings in a single season of Asian tour.

Jeev started final round 5 strokes behind leader Chapchai Nirat of Thailand ... But today everyone were struggling on course to scored under par round ... Jeev managed best round of the day 2 under ... Padraig Harrington was with him but on 16th hole he scored double bogey to give lead to Jeev ... Ernie Els missed a 15-foot birdie chance by couple of inches to play-off at the last hole.

With this win Jeev will re-enter into the world's top-50 with his third win of the season, which will come with an invitation for the US Masters and World Championships ... Jeev is already exempt in the other three Majors through his finish in Europe (12th on 2008 European Tour Order of Merit) ... Jeev is in position to win the Asian Tour's Order of Merit second time in 3 years where he leads Mark Brown by US$655,000.

Jeev Milkha Singh - "I could not have asked for more honestly - I think I am a very fortunate man to win, those boys put a good effort out there, Ernie and Padraig. The golfing gods are on my side so I am breathing much better now.

"I saw that I had a one-shot lead coming to the last. I was not hitting my driver that well so I took a three wood - at least confirm a five and if you make a four great. I was fortunate the other guys did not make a four. I am happy."

Tennis News

Rohan Bopanna is decided to play with Jarkko Nieminen in 2009 ... They are likely to skip Chennai open & play at Brisbane ATP in the same week.
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At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[SF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) l (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) 62 16 10(3)

Somi and Izak's fin run ended in semis against top-seed pair of Rajeev and Bobby.
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At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[Q1] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) bt Bryan Swartz (USA,UNR) 61 63

[Q2] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) vs (3) Nick Van Der Meer (NED,551)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,201) vs (1) Vincent Spadea (USA,77)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs (WC) John-Patrick Smith (AUS,1148)

Somi having very tough first round match against top-seed and top-80 Vincent Spadea.

Squash News
At $8k NSC Super Satellite #3 2008, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (10-14 November 2008)
[R1] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt Nessrine Ariffin (MAS,92) w/o
[QF] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt (7) Chinatsu Matsui (JPN,56) 11-8 11-7 11-7 (25m)
[SF] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt (1) Sharon Wee (MAS,24) 11-9 11-9 12-14 11-2 (35m)

[F] (3) Joshna Chinappa (IND,39) bt (6) Low Wee Wern (MAS,46) 11-8 11-5 11-3 (22m)

Joshna Chinappa became the first Indian player to win the WISPA (Women's International Squash Professioal Association) tournament ... Congrats Joshna for excellent achievements.

Joshna Chinappa - "I wanted to win this title which has been eluding me for the past 4 yeras. I wish Nicole The World Nr. 1 was here. I always want to meet her in a final like this one, may be in the days to come I will meet her.

It is different feeling and with Commonwealth Games in India this victory will give morale support when I converge in the year 2010."
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Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 14th November

Mohammedan Sporting bt Vasco SC 1-0

Goal Scored - Vimal Pariyar (MS) 86'

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15th November
Churchill Brothers dw Mumbai FC 2-2

Goal Scored - Odafe Okolie (CB) 21', Reisangmi Vashum (CB) 70' and Abhishek Yadav (MFC) 10', Kulothungan K (MFC) 75'
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East Bengal bt Sporting clube de Goa 3-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (EB) 14', Syed Rahim Nabi (EB) 27' & 32' and Harmanjot Khabra (ScG) 54'
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16th November
Dempo SC bt Chirag United 4-0

Goal Scored - Ranty Martins (DSC) 7' & 71', Jaquim Abranches (DSC) 45', Roberto Mendes D’Silva (DSC) 61'
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Mohun Bagan bt JCT 2-0

Goal Scored - Ishfaq Ahmed (MB) 15', Jose Ramirez Barreto (MB) 30'

Tennis News
At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[QF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (4) Ilia Bozoljac (SRB)/ Chris Haggard (RSA) 76(6) 64

[SF] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) vs (1) Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA)

Somi's good run continued with his South African partner ... They scored straight sets victory over 4th seed but facing more tougher challenge in semis against formidable top-seed American pair.
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At $35,000+H Jersey challanger , Great Britain

[R1] Purav Raja (IND)/ Joseph Sirianni (AUS) bt Dusan Karol (CZE)/ Dawid Olejniczak (POL) 63 75
[QF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Joseph Sirianni (AUS) bt (1) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Philipp Marx (GER) 63 36 10(6)

[SF] Purav Raja (IND)/ Joseph Sirianni (IND/AUS) l Chris Guccione (AUS)/ Marcio Torres (BRA) 36 36

Good run for Purav in doubles scoring upset win over top-seed pair.
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At $50K Knoxville Challenger, TN, USA

[Q1] Ashutosh Singh (IND,748) vs Bryan Swartz (USA,UNR)
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At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Final -
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt (1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) 63 61

Tennis News
At $450K Chennai Open ATP Tennis Tournament, India (5 - 11 Jan 2009)

In the 14th edition of Chennai Open, our all players r participating ... Mahesh is participating with his Bahamas partner Mark Knowle ... Other hand Lee is participating with Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy ... WR #1 pair Bryans r also participating first-time.

In singles, Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj r receiving singles wildcards with Rohan and Aisam getting doubles wildcard.

Carlos Moya confirmed his participation in his 'second home' tournament ... Russian Nikolay Davydenko also confirmed his participation.

Lee - "It's always great be a part of the Chennai Open. I am glad to return to the city where I have grown up and to play in front of a crowd that's always been of great support to me. Lukas and I have had a phenomenal year and we hope to have a great start to the New Year. A fifth Chennai Open title would be a dream start for 2009."

Mahesh - "I am excited to be back playing at home after a few years. Mark and myself have had a great year and we look forward to kick- starting 2009 with a big week at the Chennai Open."

Mike Bryan - “We were always looking forward to visiting India and what better way than to play at the first tournament of the year in Chennai. The tournament has grown in stature over the years so we decided to participate this year. We hope we can make a winning start to 2009.”
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At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

GOLD GROUP

Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) 16 46
Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) bt Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 62 16 10(6)

Very disappointing end of the season for Lee and Lukas.

In second match Polish pair defeated Bjorkman and Ullyett ... With this loss great career of Bjorkman ended, who had career won/lost record of 709 - 306 in doubles ... Bjorkman won 9 Grand slam doubles titles ... And qualified 8 times at the prestigious circuit finale with five different partner ... He won the 1994 title with Jan Apell (beating Woodbridge-Woodforde) and in 2006 with Max Mirnyi (beating Knowles-Nestor).
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At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[R2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) l Carsten Ball (AUS,202) 57 36

So Kash's inconsistent performance continued ... With this he lost chance of entering into top-200 next week.
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At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Semi-Finals-
(1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) bt (4) Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) 64 64
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt (Q) Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) 75 63

Doubles Final -
(2) CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) bt DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) 57 62 10(7)

Tennis News
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

On 13th November, 2008
RED GROUP

Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas 76(3) 67(4) (5)10
Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) bt Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 62 26 (10)12

With this loss season 2008 is over for our both pair ... :-(
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At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) bt (Q) Izak Van der Merwe (RSA,280) 67(4) 64 76(4)

[R2] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs Carsten Ball (AUS,202)

Doubles -
[R1] (LL) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Prakash Amritraj (IND) l Brian Battistone (USA)/ Dann Battistone (USA) 76(6) 67(6) 10(6)
[R1] Stephen Amritraj (IND)/ Frederik Nielsen (DEN) l (WC) Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Ryan Sweeting (USA) 57 16
[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (ALT) GD Jones (NZL) / Connor Roth (USA) 61 36 10(8)

Harsh and Ashutosh entered as luckyloser but lost in closely fought against Battistone bros ... Also as per schedule Somi and Izak match is against GD Jones & Connor Roth, whom Harsh and Ashutosh defeated in first qualifying round ... So that means Kash is also out of doubles.

Good to see Kash won this tight match, so next match against similar ranked opponent against him Kash is having good record.
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At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Quarter-Finals -
(1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) bt (Q) Shalini SAHOO (IND) 62 62
(4) Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) bt (6) Kai-Chen CHANG (TPE) 63 64
(Q) Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt I-Hsuan HWANG (TPE) 62 62
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt (2) Ye-Ra LEE (KOR) 5-2 Retd.

Doubles Quarter-Finals -
DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt KHAN (GBR)/ WINDLEY (GBR) 64 60
PARASYUK (RUS)/ PERKOVIC (GER) bt (WC) MALOO (IND)/ VENKATESHA (IND) 64 60
CURTIS (GBR)/ WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) bt (3) LU (CHN)/ WONGTEANCHAI (THA) 76(6) 46 11(9)
(2) CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) bt BHAMBRI (IND)/ CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) 64 64

Semi-Finals -
DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt PARASYUK (RUS)/ PERKOVIC (GER) 36 61 10(4)
(2) CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) bt CURTIS (GBR)/ WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) 64 62

Shalini Sahoo's fine run ended against top-seed but very satisfactory performance from her.

Tennis News
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

GOLD GROUP

On 12th November, 2008

Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 67(2) 36
Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bt Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 61 64

With this loss Lee and Lukas become first pair to eliminate from this season ending event.
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At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs (Q) Izak Van der Merwe (RSA,280)

Doubles -
[Q2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs 63 62

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Amer Delic (USA) vs (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA)

Carsten Ball opened draw for Kash beating top-seed Vince Spadea ... So Kash is facing South African Izak Van der Merwe in Singles and Doubles first round.

But surprising easy loss for Harsh and Ashutosh.
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At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Second Round -
(1) Melanie SOUTH (GBR) bt (WC) Ankita BHAMBRI (IND) 62 75
(Q) Shalini SAHOO (IND) bt (WC) Alexandra KOLESNICHENKO (UZB) 63 62
(4) Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) bt Leonie MEKEL (NED) 61 36 61
(6) Kai-Chen CHANG (TPE) bt Korina PERKOVIC (GER) 62 63
I-Hsuan HWANG (TPE) bt (Q) Natasha KHAN (GBR) 62 63
(Q) Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt (Q) Patrycja SANDUSKA (POL) 64 61
(8) Jing-Jing LU (CHN) bt Isha LAKHANI (IND) 63 75
(2) Ye-Ra LEE (KOR) bt Suchanun VIRATPRASERT (THA) 75 64

Shalini Sahoo's terrific run continued with win over Uzbek wild-card player ... But Ankita and Isha lost their matches against top=seed and 8th seed respectively ... Now in quarters Shalini having big task of facing British top-seed.
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Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 11th November

Mumbai FC dw Dempo SC 0-0

Yesterday Dempo only managed draw against Mumbai FC ... Dempo is struggling in new season, in last 3 matches they only garnered 2 points.

Tennis News
At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

RED GROUP

Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 57 63 (4)10
Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas bt Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) 62 67(2) 11(9)

I really hate ATP's stupid decision of using super tie-break in season ending tournament.
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At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

Doubles -
[Q1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (WC) Gd Jones (NZL)/ Connor Roth (USA) 64 26 10(6)
[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) bt Ramon Delgado (PAR)/ Ivan Miranda (PER) 61 62

[Q2] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA)

[R1] Stephen Amritraj (IND)/ Frederik Nielsen (DEN) vs (WC) Alex Kuznetsov (USA)/ Ryan Sweeting (USA)
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Amer Delic (USA) vs Qualifier

Surprising to see same pair playing for final qualifying spot in doubles maindraw and their also they r facing another Indian player pairing.
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At $25K NECC- ITF Women's Tennis Championships, Pune, India

Melanie SOUTH (GBR) (1) bt Jade WINDLEY (GBR) 6-2 6-4
Ankita BHAMBRI (IND) bt Varatchaya WONGTEANCHAI (THA) 6-3 6-4
Alexandra KOLESNICHENKO (UZB) bt Hae-Sung KIM (KOR) 7-6(1) 6-2
Shalini SAHOO (IND) bt Nicole THYSSEN (NED) (7) 7-5 2-6 6-2
Ksenia PALKINA (KGZ) (4) bt Rashmi TELTUMBDE (IND) 6-3 7-5
Leonie MEKEL (NED) bt Kyra SHROFF (IND) 6-7(3) 6-2 6-3
Korina PERKOVIC (GER) bt Sophie FERGUSON (AUS) 7-5 6-7(6) 6-3
Kai-Chen CHANG (TPE) (6) bt Julia PARASYUK (RUS) 6-4 6-7(4) 6-2
I-Hsuan HWANG (TPE) bt Liana-Gabriela UNGUR (ROU) (5) 6-2 7-5
Natasha KHAN (GBR) bt Florence HARING (FRA) 6-1 2-6 7-6(4)
Patrycja SANDUSKA (POL) bt Silvia DISDERI (ITA) 6-4 6-2
Bojana JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt Agnes SZATMARI (ROU) (3) 6-3 6-4
Jing-Jing LU (CHN) (8) bt Jade CURTIS (GBR) 6-3 6-1
Isha LAKHANI (IND) bt Julia GLUSHKO (ISR) 6-3 6-1
Suchanun VIRATPRASERT (THA) bt Vivian SEGNINI (BRA) 6-4 6-2
Ye-Ra LEE (KOR) (2) bt Elora DABIJA (ROU) 6-3 6-3

Doubles -
DABIJA (ROU)/ JOVANOVSKI (SRB) bt SZATMARI (ROU)/ THYSSEN (NED) (1) 62 63
KHAN (GBR)/ WINDLEY (GBR) bt LERTCHEEWAKARN (THA)/ SHROFF (IND) 75 60
PARASYUK (RUS)/ PERKOVIC (GER) bt LEE (KOR)/ PALKINA (KGZ) (4) 64 62
MALOO (IND)/ VENKATESHA (IND) bt APPINENI (IND)/ BURMAN (IND) 64 62
CURTIS (GBR)/ WEBLEY-SMITH (GBR) bt DISDERI (ITA)/ FERGUSON (AUS) W/O
LU (CHN)/ WONGTEANCHAI (THA) (3) bt HARING (FRA)/ MEKEL (NED) 46 60 10(6)
BHAMBRI (IND)/ CHAKRAVARTHI (IND) bt LAKHANI (IND)/ SEGNINI (BRA) 62 62
CHANG (TPE)/ HWANG (TPE) (2) bt MANOHAR (IND)/ VENKATARAMAN (IND) 61 61

Excellent victory by qualifier Shalini Sahoo against last week's future winner in 3 sets ... She is having good chance to move in to quarters against Uzbek ... Other hand Ankita having tough match against top-seed but we can expect some magic from her considering recent good form ... Isha facing 8th seed Chinese, she need to go deep in this tournament as Isha is defending heap of points as last year's finalist at same venue.

Tennis News

After reaching final at $75K Nashville Challenger as expected Somdev Devvarman become India's No. 1 singles player with his best ranking of #201, Prakash Amritraj is on 2nd position with #214 ranking.

Ashutosh with Harsh reached doubles final in Nashville Challenger, that helps Ashutosh Singh to climb on his personal best doubles ranking of #169 and after long time Harsh is back inside top-200 doubles ranking, #200 ... Reaching doubles semi-final at Rimouski Challenger also helped Stephen and Prkarsh Amritraj ... Stephen Amritraj first-time enter into top-200 doubles ranking at #192 and Prkash is on #206.
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At Tennis Masters Cup 2008 (Doubles), Shanghai, China

On Monday, November 10, 2008
GOLD GROUP

Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) l Jonas Bjorkman (SWE)/ Kevin Ullyett (ZIM) 36 57
Daniel Nestor (CAN)/ Nenad Zimonjic (SRB) bt Mariusz Fyrstenberg (POL)/ Marcin Matkowski (POL) 76(4) 57 10(4)

Bjorkman and Ullyett converted all 2 break point chances they recieved and managed to save all 3 break point opportunities on their own serves.

On Sunday, November 9, 2008
RED GROUP 

Mark Knowles (BAH)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Jeff Coetzee (RSA)/ Wesley Moodie (RSA) 62 63
Bob Bryan (USA)/ Mike Bryan (USA) bt Luis Horna (PER)/ Pablo Cuevas (URU) 61 76(4)

In this match Hesh and Mark converted all 3 break point opportunities to score easy victory ... Bryans also started positively in same group.
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At $50K Champaign Challenger, Illinois, USA

[Q1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,201) l Lester Cook (USA,) 36 46

[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND,214) vs Qualifier

Somi lost due to poor planning from Champaign organisers ... He traveled 6+ hours (375 miles) from Nashville to reach Champaign and play almost immediately.

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[F] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) l (4) Robert Kendrick (USA,91) 36 57

Doubles -
[F] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) l Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA) 46 57

After poor recent runs this week Buji was back on winning track ... So becoming runner-up at this big $75K Challenger is creditable ... But I m surprised to see his name in this week's Champaign Challenger qualifying, I was expecting SE (special exemption) after he reached final here ... Other hand Kendrick has been in top form in last few weeks though. He has gone 15-2 in 4 US challangers in last 4 weeks & is on 10 match unbeaten streak after winning back to back titles at the Louisville challanger and Nashville Challenger.

This week they missed winning the title but this week performance definitely help them to achieve more on tour in future.

Snooker News
At 2008 IBSF World Snooker Championships, Wels, Austria

Masters' Championship (40+)

[F] Geet Sethi (IND) l Dene O'Kane (NZL) 1-5 (14-98, 41-50, 55-75, 47-78, 59-29, 13-61)

Geet couldn't produced his form which he showed previously in this World Snooker Championships ... But creditable to reached the final.
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Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 5th November

Churchill Brothers dw Dempo SC 3-3

Goal Scored - Felix Chimaokwu Felix (CB) 15' ,19', Okolie Odafe Onyeke (CB) 31' and Mboyo Iyomi (DSC) 37', 47' & 76'

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7th November
East Bengal dw Mahindra United 1-1

Goal Scored - Sunil Chhetri (EB) 61' and Paresh Shivalkar (MU) 59'
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8th November
Mumbai FC dw Vasco SC 1-1

Goal Scored - K Kulothungan (MFC) 25' and Abhishek Yadav (VSC) 70'
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Dempo SC l Sporting clube de Goa 0-1

Goal Scored - Obagbemiro Junior (ScG) 82 '
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Chirag United bt Mohammedan Sporting 1-0

Goal Scored - Gouranga Dutta (CU) 62'
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9th November
Mohun Bagan bt Churchill Brothers 1-0

Goal Scored - Lalwampuia (MB) 14'
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Air India bt JCT 1-0

Goal Scored - Samson Singh (AI) 85'

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[SF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) bt (2) Bobby Reynolds (USA,86) 64 36 63

[F] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs (4) Robert Kendrick (USA,91)

Doubles -
[SF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (WC) Scott Oudsema (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA) 62 26 10(6)

[F] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs Carsten Ball (AUS)/ Travis Rettenmaier (USA)

Excellent win by Somi against Bobby Reynolds ... So back to back top-100 wins for him ... Now we can safely say he is back in August form which was missing in Romanian tour and after ... In the final he is facing Robert Kendrick, who is also licking his wounds given by Somi in the past ... So he will give his best but with coming back in form this week Somi will not miss chance of winning another challenger title.

This week Frenchman Laurent Recouderc is on #200 with 205 pts ... So calculative guess is Somi having chance to enter into top-200 with (164+42) 206 pts.

So with this win this qualifier pair in their first final of $75K Challenger event ... In the final they r facing American-Aussie pair ... This win can help Harsh to re-enter into top-200 doubles ranking ... Argentine Alejandro Fabbri is on #200 with 292 pts, so Harsh having chance of entering into top 200 doubles ranking with this win (252+42 = 294 pts).
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At $35K Rimouski Challenger, Canada

[SF] (2) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Stephen Amritraj (IND) l (WC) Vasek Pospisil (CAN)/ Milos Raonic (CAN) 57 63 (8)10

Amritraj bro lost against local wild-card pair in the super tie-break.

Snooker News
At 2008 IBSF World Snooker Championships, Wels, Austria

Masters' Championship (40+)

[SF] Geet Sethi (IND) bt John Welsh (ENG) 4-0 (80-38, 63-54, 68-13, 70-68)

[F] Geet Sethi (IND) vs Dene O'Kane (NZL)

Geet moved into the final easily defeating Englishman John Welsh ... Now facing New Zealander Dene O'Kane for the title.

Tennis News
At $75K Nashville Challenger, USA

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) bt (3) Jesse Levine (USA,94) 76(5) 62

[SF] Somdev Devvarman (IND,241) vs (2) Bobby Reynolds (USA,86)

Doubles -
[QF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (2) Ashley Fisher (AUS)/ Jim Thomas (USA) 63 64

[SF] (Q) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Ashutosh Singh (IND) vs (WC) Scott Oudsema (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA)

Excellent straight sets win by Somi against Jesse Levine ... Somi is coming back to his form which we experienced in July/August ... Somi will be India's No. 1 with this win (164+27= 191) as Kash will remain on 190 pts and Somi is in chance of adding more points this week with another top-100 win over Bobby Reynolds.

Harsh and Ashutosh showing impressive performance in this $75K Challenger ... In quarters they defeated 2nd seed pair easily to move into semis.