Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 10 - Monday, 2 March 2009

Teimour Radjabov 1-0 Levon Aronian
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Leinier Domínguez
Magnus Carlsen 0-1 Wang Yue
Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk

Today 2 matches produced results, Teimour Radjabov defeated Levon Aronian, and Chinese GM Wang Yue scored upset defeating Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces ... Grischuk drew and still has a comfortable lead ... Anand also drew with Domínguez in 35 moves with white pieces, so Anand again failed to take advantage of weaker opponent.

Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 9 - Sunday, 1 March 2009

Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Wang Yue ½-½ Alexander Grischuk
Leinier Domínguez 0-1 Magnus Carlsen
Levon Aronian ½-½ Viswanathan Anand

Only Magnus Carlsen produced win in 42 moves, other games ended in uneventful draws.
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Tennis News
At $125K+H Bergamo Challenger, Italy

[R1] AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND,193) vs DORSCH Benedikt (GER,156)

Doubles
[R1] AMRITRAJ Prakash (IND)/ EVANS Brendan (USA) vs (1) BRUNSTROM Johan (SWE)/ ROJER Jean-Julien (AHO)

Prakash having decent first round match in singles but facing top seed pair in the first round of doubles.
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At $50K Cherbourg Challenger, France

[Q1] RAJA Purav (IND) l YSERN Pierrick (FRA) 26 76(2) 16
[Q1] GAJJAR Rohan (IND) l (WC) HAEHNEL Jerome (FRA) 06 26

Doubles
[R1] (1) BATTISTONE Brian (USA)/ MANKAD Harsh (IND) vs MONTCOURT Mathieu (FRA)/ SIDORENKO Alexandre (FRA)

This week Harsh and Brian r top seeds, so hopefully they will go deeper in this challenger.

Hockey News
At the four-match Hockey Series, Auckland

India bt New Zealand 2-0

Goal Scored - Dilip Tirkey (IND) 43' PC, Sandeep Singh (IND) 67' PC

Indians played one-dimension hockey in the first half, they were lucky when umpires granted Indians appeal of New Zealand's foul to change penalty stroke decision against them ... In second half we played excellent counter attack game and converted 2 penalty corners to win this four-matches series 2-0.

Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 8 - Saturday, 28 February 2009

Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Magnus Carlsen 0-1 Levon Aronian
Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Leinier Domínguez
Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½ Wang Yue

Anand played a Semi-Slav (Anti-Meran) against Teimour Radjabov, but match ended after hard fought draw ... Levon Aronian played well-prepared Semi-Slav against Magnus Carlsen ... It take Aronian 6½ hours and 93 moves to overcome the resistance of his young Carlsen ... Grischuk still leads by a full point.
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Hockey News
At the four-match Hockey Series, Auckland

India dw New Zealand 1-1

Goal Scored - Shivendra Singh (IND) 13' and Dean Couzins (NZL) 70'

Indians dominated match from the start after taking lead early but again old problem of lethergic defence in dying minutes costed them victory ... They r still leading series by 1-0, today they r playing final match of four-match series against New Zealand.
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Tennis News
At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) l (4) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 64 36 (8)10
[SF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) l Marcelo Melo (BRA)/ Andre Sa (BRA) 67(10) 62 (5)10

Rohan and Jarkko lost quarter-final match in super tie-break after winning the first set ... Rajeev and Bobby also lost their semis match in super tie-break.
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Badminton News
At $80K Yonex German Open Grand Prix, Mulheim

[QF] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) l Weijie Gong (CHN,63) 21-19 19-21 12-21
[QF] (4) Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) l Bo Zheng (CHN)/ Jin Ma (CHN) 17-21 12-21

Chetan started well winning the first game against Chinese opponent ... Then he tried best to won second game but after winning second game his Chinese opponent didn't give him chance in the third.

Diju and Jwala outclassed by their Chinese opponents in the quarters.

Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 26th February

JCT l Churchill Brothers 1-2

Goal scored - Odafe Okolie (CB) 50', Ogba Kalu Nnanna (CB) 85' and Jagpreet Singh (JCT) 14'

Churchill Brothers comeback strongly after down by a goal to win this match to move to 2nd place in the standing.
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27th February
Sporting Clube de Goa dw Chirag United 2-2

Goal Scored - Nathaniel Amos (SCG) 16', Wilton Gomes (SCG) 85' and Denson Devadas (CU) 48', Shankar Oraon (CU) 77'

Sporting Clube de Goa managed draw against Chirag United and they r still leading the league with 2 points ... Mohun Bagan having chance to lead league as they r playing on Monday against Dempo at home.
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28th February
Mumbai FC dw Air India 1-1

Goal Scored - Kulothungan (MFC) 39' and Emmanuel Ovieghara (AI) 63'
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East Bengal dw Mohammedan Sporting 2-2

Goal Scored - Nirmal Chettri (EB) 49', Sunil Chettri (EB) 53' and Mike Okoro (MS) 4', Eugene Grey (MS) 30'

East Bengal produced excellent comeback to draw match after down 0-2.
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1st March
Mahindra United bt Vasco SC 4-0

Goal Scored - Sushil Kumar Singh (MU) 31', Kattimani (MU) 35', Chidi Edeh (MU) 36', Mohammed Rafi (MU) 74'

Mahindra United scored their biggest victory in the ongoing league.
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4th March
Churchill Brothers bt Mohun Bagan 3-1

Goal Scored - Odafe Okolie (CB) 45+', Ogba Kalu Nnanna (CB) 58' & 76' and Jose Ramires Barreto (MB) 29'

Churchill scored impressive win over Bagan and take a lead in ongoing I-League season ... So with this win Churchill moved to 36 points, 1 more than Sporting Clube de Goa and 3 more than Bagan.

Badminton News
At $80K Yonex German Open Grand Prix, Mulheim

[R3] (9) Arvind Bhat (IND,28) l (5) Andrew Smith (ENG,21) 21-16 11-21 19-21
[R3] (15) Anup Sridhar (IND,38) l (3) Choong Hann Wong (MAS,14) 16-21 18-21
[R3] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) bt (16) Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,40) 21-14 18-21 21-12

[QF] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) vs Weijie Gong (CHN,63)
[QF] (4) Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Bo Zheng (CHN)/ Jin Ma (CHN)

Arvind also started well winning first game but again Andrew Smith produced comeback though Arvind tried hard in the third game ... Chetan stretched to third game against Danish player.

In quarters Chetan and our MXD pair facing tough challenge of Chinese opponents.

Tennis News
At 2.233M Dubai Open Championship,

[R2] (2) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) l Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) 67(4) 26

Disappointing result for Mahesh and Mark, who were highest seeded pair remaining in the draw ... Our pair had 10 break point chances and converted only 2 ... Other hand Voest-Tursunov had 8 chances and they converted 4 in this 1 hr 18 mins match ... Voest-Tursunov won more couple of points from our pair in final total points stats, 63-61.
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At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[QF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) bt (3) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Dusan Vemic (SRB) 64 62

Good win by Rajeev and Bobby against 3rd seeds.
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Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 7 - Thursday , 26 February 2009

Teimour Radjabov ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Alexander Grischuk
Levon Aronian 0-1 Vassily Ivanchuk
Leinier Domínguez ½-½ Wang Yue

Viswanathan Anand continued to experiment with his new 1.d4 variation playing with white but Alexander Grischuk was happy to draw after 37 moves ... Interestingly black still hasn't lost a single game and today Vassily Ivanchuk scored a victory with it against Levon Aronian ... The other two games were drawn.

Badminton News
At $80K Yonex German Open Grand Prix, Mulheim

[R2] (9) Arvind Bhat (IND,28) bt Kestutis Navickas (LTU,55) 21-17 17-21 23-21
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,45) l (5) Andrew Smith (ENG,21) 21-14 14-21 8-21
[R2] (15) Anup Sridhar (IND,38) bt Marcel Reuter (GER,104) 21-18 21-13
[R2] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) bt Kay Bin Yeoh (MAS,129) 23-21 21-12

[R2] (4) Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Halim Haryanto Ho (USA)/ Yun Peng (USA) 21-10 21-12

[R3] (9) Arvind Bhat (IND,28) vs (5) Andrew Smith (ENG,21)
[R3] (15) Anup Sridhar (IND,38) vs (3) Choong Hann Wong (MAS,14)
[R3] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) vs (16) Hans-Kristian Vittinghus (DEN,40)

Anand lost after winning the first game against top-25 British player ... But Arvind Bhat won very tricky match where he stretched in the third game ... Chetan also surprisingly struggled in the first game but then won second game convincingly ... Anup scored easy victory and facing Andrew Smith in the next round.

Another easy victory for Diju and Jwala to move into quarters.

Tennis News
At 2.233M Dubai Open Championship,

[R1] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Martin Damm (CZE)/ Robert Lindstedt (SWE) 67(4) 57

[R2] (2) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs Rik De Voest (RSA)/ Dmitry Tursunov (RUS)

Kash and Aisam had 5 break point chances but converted only 1, but Damm and Lindstedt had 2 chances and they converted both ... Overall our pair won 66 points and their opponents 69 points ... So this was the case of missed opportunities for Kash and Aisam.
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At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) bt (ALT) Paul Capdeville (CHI)/ Evgeny Korolev (RUS) 64 75

[QF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs (4) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Bruno Soares (BRA)
[QF] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) vs (3) Jamie Murray (GBR)/ Dusan Vemic (SRB)

In this match both pair had 10 break point chances ... Rohan and Jarkko converted 4, other hand Capdeville and Korolev converted only 2 ... Now our pair faced 4th seed pair in the quarters.
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Golf News
At the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship,

Jeev Milkha Singh (IND) l Ian Poulter (ENG) 4 & 3

In this format after going down by 4 in first few holes, it was difficult to produce comeback ... Poulter defeated Jeev rather easily with 4 and 3.

Many big names also lost their first round matches including Garcia, Harrington, Goosen, Allenby, Appleby, Adam Scott, Justin Rose, Weir, Hansen, Stenson, Karlsson, Angel Cabrera, KJ Choi .. Only Asian (Japanese) Shingo Katayama managed to win against defending Masters champion Trevor Immelman.

PGA report -
Poulter proved in the 2008 Ryder Cup that he's cut out beautifully for match play. Of course, the Europeans didn't win, but Poulter shined with a 4-1-0 record and proved to be the top point-getter at Valhalla. That match play momentum evidently carried over as Poulter made easy work of his opponent. Poulter made six birdies, including three in a row beginning at No. 2. "I got off to a quick start to be 3-up after four holes and I kept my foot on the accelerator and hitting good golf shots," Poulter said.
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Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 6 - Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Wang Yue ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½ Leinier Domínguez
Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Levon Aronian
Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Viswanathan Anand

Magnus Carlsen defeated World Champion Viswanathan Anand convincingly, with remarkable techincal skill in 77 moves ... This was Anand's 2nd loss in 6 games also the way he survived in yesterday's game shows his lack of preparation for Linares ... Alexander Grischuk defeated Levon Aronian to increase his lead to a full point ... And surprisingly Vassily Ivanchuk agreed to a draw in a winning position.

Badminton News
At $80K Yonex German Open Grand Prix, Mulheim

[R1] (9) Arvind Bhat (IND,28) bt Koen Ridder (NED,132) 21-15 21-13
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,45) bt Daren Liew (MAS,82) 21-17 21-19
[R1] (15) Anup Sridhar (IND,38) bt Sven-Eric Kastens (GER,110) 21-16 16-21 21-15
[R1] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) bt Henri Hurskainen (SWE,62) 21-6 21-8

[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Shruti Kurian (IND) l (7) Ekaterina Ananina (RUS)/ Anastasia Russkikh (RUS) 14-21 10-21

[R1] (4) Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) bt Chayut Triyachar (SIN)/ Shinta Mulia Sari (SIN) 21-9 21-10

[R2] (9) Arvind Bhat (IND,28) vs Kestutis Navickas (LTU,55)
[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,45) vs (5) Andrew Smith (ENG,21)
[R2] (15) Anup Sridhar (IND,38) vs Marcel Reuter (GER,104)
[R2] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) vs Kay Bin Yeoh (MAS,129)

[R2] (4) Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Halim Haryanto Ho (USA)/ Yun Peng (USA)

Surprisingly German stretched Anup Sridhar to third game in the first round, otherwise dominating start by our players ... Chetan won his match against top-60 Swedish player in mere 19 minutes ... In the second round Anand Pawar having tough match against top-25 British player but Anand having game to surprise him.

But not so promising start in doubles as our pair lost in 22 minutes against seeded Russian pair.

Good start by Diju and Jwala, they won first round match in 19 mins.

Badminton News
At $80K Yonex German Open Grand Prix, Mulheim

[Q1] Chetan Anand (IND)/ Diju Valiyaveetil (IND) l Yoshiteru Hirobe (JPN)/ Hajime Komiyama (JPN) 24-22 18-21 12-21

[R1] (9) Arvind Bhat (IND,28) vs Koen Ridder (NED,132)
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,45) vs Daren Liew (MAS,82)
[R1] (15) Anup Sridhar (IND,38) vs Sven-Eric Kastens (GER,110)
[R1] (2) Chetan Anand (IND,13) vs Henri Hurskainen (SWE,62)

[R1] Jwala Gutta (IND)/ Shruti Kurian (IND) vs (7) Ekaterina Ananina (RUS)/ Anastasia Russkikh (RUS)

[R1] (4) Diju Valiyaveetil (IND)/ Jwala Gutta (IND) vs Chayut Triyachar (SIN)/ Shinta Mulia Sari (SIN)

With German Open our players started their European tour .. Saina will join them from next week at All England Open.
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Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 5 - Tuesday, 24 February 2009

Leinier Domínguez ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Wang Yue ½-½ Levon Aronian
Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Magnus Carlsen

Viswanathan Anand managed to draw after running into an opening problem against Vassily Ivanchuk, Anand used some miraculous stalemate motifs to save the game in 65 moves ... Very tough game, excellent Black’s defensive game produced by Anand ... All the other games were also drawn.
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Tennis News
At 2.233M Dubai Open Championship,

[R1] (2) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) bt (WC) Hamoud Abbas (UAE)/ Mahmoud-Nader Al Baloushi (UAE) 63 61

As expected very easy win against local pair for Mahehs and Mark.
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At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs (ALT) Paul Capdeville (CHI)/ Evgeny Korolev (RUS)
[R1] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) bt (WC) Xavier Malisse (BEL)/ Vincent Spadea (USA) 62 75

Huss-Hutchins pair pulled out due to Hutchins back injury so Rohan and Jarkko playing against alternate pair ... Rajeev and Bobby had winning start.

Tennis News
At 2.233M Dubai Open Championship,

[R1] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) l Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Ivo Karlovic (CRO) 46 62 (8)10

Poor super tie-break costed match, in match Lee and Lukas had 7 break point chances and they converted 3 ... Other hand Bolelli and Karlovic had 4 break point chances and they comnverted 2 ... In this 1 hr 6 mins match our pair won 61 points and Bolelli-Karlovic pair won only 51 points.
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At $50K Volkswagen Challenger, Wolfsberg, Germany

[R1] (2) Harsh Mankad(IND)/ Brian Battistone (USA) l Illa Bozoljac (SRB)/ Scoville Jenkins (USA) 46 46
[R1] Purav Raja (IND) / Rohan Gajjar (IND) l Jamie Delgado (GBR)/ Jonathan Marray (GBR) 36 26

Not a great start for harsh against his new partner ... Purav and Rohan also lost aginst experianced pair.

Tennis News
At 2.233M Dubai Open Championship,

[R1] (2) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Mark Knowles (BAH) vs (WC) Hamoud Abbas (UAE)/ Mahmoud-Nader Al Baloushi (UAE)
[R1] (4) Leander Paes (IND)/ Lukas Dlouhy (CZE) vs Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Ivo Karlovic (CRO)
[R1] (WC) Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Martin Damm (CZE)/ Robert Lindstedt (SWE)
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At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[Q2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,154) l Ryan Sweeting (USA,176) 57 46
[Q2] Rajeev Ram (USA,210) l (1) Wayne Odesnik (USA,94) 26 36

And Som again lost against big server Sweeting ... Som needs good 1st serve percentage, in this match he managed 56% and won only 57% on his 1st serve ... Sweeting created 20 break point chances and converted 4 of them on Som's serve ... Other hand Ryan faced 4 break point chances and Som converted 2 of them ... For me overall disappointing performance in this 1 hr 47 mins match considering preparation for our Davis cup tie against Chinese Taipei.
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Golf News
At Northern Trust Open - Final Standing

T39 Jeev Milkha Singh 69 70 71 69 -5 $ 27,720.00
T72 Daniel Chopra 73 67 74 74 +4 $ 12,285.00

On the final day Jeev started with birdie on the first hole ... Then he scored bogey on 4th hole but immediately managed to score birdie on next 5th hole ... On back 9 Jeev had back to back birdies on 15th and 16th holes but bogey on the last hole missed his chance of top 30 finish.

Only under par second round was good enough to make cut for Daniel, otherwise he struggled on the course ... Today he scored 2 birdies on 7th and 8th holes but 5 bogeys on 2nd, 4th, 5th, 14th and 18th holes ... He remained bottom of the leaderboard.
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Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 4 - Sunday, 22 February 2009

Teimour Radjabov 0-1 Alexander Grischuk
Magnus Carlsen ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Viswanathan Anand 1-0 Wang Yue
Levon Aronian 1-0 Leinier Domínguez

Viswanathan Anand outplayed Chinese Wang Yue with Slav variation ... Anand won this match convincingly in 33 moves ... Alexander Grischuk punished the creative but over-optimistic play by Teimour Radjabov ... while Levon Aronian needed 92 moves to overcome Leinier Dominguez' resistance.

Tennis News
At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[Q1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,154) bt Donald Young (USA,133) 64 64
[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,321) l John Isner (USA,137) 26 16
[Q1] Rajeev Ram (USA,210) bt Dusan Vemic (SRB,272) 64 64

[Q2] Somdev Devvarman (IND,154) vs Ryan Sweeting (USA,176)
[Q2] Rajeev Ram (USA,210) vs (1) Wayne Odesnik (USA,94)

Doubles
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) vs Stephen Huss (AUS)/ Ross Hutchins (GBR)
[R1] Rajeev Ram (USA)/ Bobby Reynolds (USA) vs (WC) Xavier Malisse (BEL)/ Vincent Spadea (USA)

Som played excellent tennis to score good win against talented Donald Young ... Som won 80% points on his first serve with 8 aces but his 1st serve percentage were 53%, and won only 42% of his 2nd serve points ... In the second set he was up 5-2 but Donald tried comeback winning next 2 games but Som finished on his serve ... Donald broke Somi's serve twice and Somi managed to break four times.
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Hockey News
At the four-match Hockey Series, Wellington

India bt New Zealand 2-1

Goal Scored - Tushar Khandekar (IND) 30', Sandeep Singh (IND) 40' PC and Simon Child (NZL) 4'

Indians won second match to take 1-0 lead in this hockey series after first match ended in draw ... In this match we kept more possession than opponents and were dominating ... In this match we managed to get 3 penalty corners.
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Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 3 - Saturday, 21 February 2009

Levon Aronian ½-½ Teimour Radjabov
Leinier Domínguez ½-½ Viswanathan Anand
Wang Yue ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Vassily Ivanchuk ½-½ Alexander Grischuk

All games in the third round ended in well fought draw ... Dominguez and Anand match played with Najdorf Sicilian variation which ended in the draw after 41 moves.
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Golf News
At Northern Trust Open - Third Round

T42 Jeev Milkha Singh 69 70 71 -3
T70 Daniel Chopra 73 67 74 +1

Jeev must be disappointed with his third round ... He started well scoring back to back birdies on 1st and 2nd holes ... But had 3 bogeys on a row on 6th, 7th and 8th holes ... After that he managed another birdie on 10th hole to finished even for the day.

Daniel couldn't repeat his scond round peformance ... He had 5 bogeys on 2nd, 4th, 9th, 12th and 17th holes but managed only 2 birdies on 6th and 11th holes.

Football News
At I-League 2008/09 - 20th February

Churchill Brothers bt Vasco Sports Club 9-1

Goal scored - Odafe Okolie (CB) 42', 50', 57', 82', 89' & 90', Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 44' & 72', Reisangmi Vashum (CB) 77' and Leister Fernandes (DSC) 68'

Churchill Brothers scored the highest win so far in the I League against helpless Dempo.
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Air India dw Dempo SC 0-0
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21st February
JCT l Chirag United 0-1

Goal Scored - Bidemi Daniel Ayeni (CU) 38'
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Mahindra United dw Mohammedan Sporting 0-0
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22nd February
Mumbai FC l Sporting Clube de Goa 1-2

Goal Scored - Alex Ambrose (MFC) 80' P and Joseph Pereira (SCG) 7', Wilton Gomes (SCG) 77'

In this hot tempered match 3 players red carded ... Sporting striker Elijah Jr and Mumbai FC stopper back James Dissiramah and defender Selwyn Fernandes.
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East Bengal bt Mohun Bagan 3-0

Goal Scored - Syed Rahim Nabi (EB) 22' & 40', Sunil Chettri (EB) 47'

East Bengal ended Mohun Bagan’s 10 matches winning streak.

Golf News
At Northern Trust Open - Second Round

T34 Jeev Milkha Singh 69 70 -3
T52 Daniel Chopra 73 67 -2
------------- cut @ -1 ---------------
T88 Vijay Singh 72 71 +1

Jeev started with birdie on the first hole then had another birdie on 11th hole ... But he had 2 bogeys in last 4 holes, on 15th and 18th holes with birdie on 17th hole ... But this 1 under round helped him to stay where he was after first round.

Today Daniel fired when he requires most ... He declared his intention scoring eagle on first hole, then birdie on 3rd hole ... On 8th hole he scored his first bogey of the day on 8th hole but then managed back to back birdies on 9th and 10th holes ... Had bogey on 13th hole but managed another birdie on 17th hole to finished on 4 under for the day ... And also gurantee of making cut for weekend.
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Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Round 2 - Friday, 20 February 2009

Teimour Radjavov ½.½ Vassily Ivanchuk
Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Wang Yue
Magnus Carlsen ½.½ Lenier Domínguez
Viswanathan Anand 0-1 Levon Aronian

Anand was almost certain for victory against Levon Aronian ... But he made blunder on 33rd move and then Aronian took the full advantage of it to scored shocking victory in 53 moves ... Alexander Grischuk defeated Chinese GM Wang Yue in a Slav ... Other two games were drawn, now Aronian and Grischuk lead.
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Tennis News
At $500K Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, Florida, USA

[Q1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,154) vs Donald Young (USA,133)
[Q1] Rohan Bopanna (IND,321) vs John Isner (USA,137)
[Q1] Rajeev Ram (USA,210) vs Dusan Vemic (SRB,272)
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At Barclays Dubai tennis championships

[Q1] (6) AMRITRAJ, Prakash (IND,198) l DASNIERESDE VEIGY, Jonathan (FRA,337) 0-5

Prakash pulled out of the match after 12 minutes citing injury ... :-(
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Hockey News
At the four-match Hockey Series, Wellington

India dw New Zealand 1-1

Goal Scored - Phil Burrows (NZL) 3' and SV Sunil (IND) 55'

In the first half Black Sticks played excellent hockey but in second half Indians changed their tactics to switch to short passes to build attack and that helped them to equalise.

Chess News
At XXVI Linares 2009, Spain (Avg. rating 2755) - from February 19th to March 7th 2009

Player Nation rating w-rank

Viswanathan Anand India 2791 2
Vassily Ivanchuk Ukraine 2779 3
Magnus Carlsen Norway 2776 4
Teimour Radjabov Azerbaijan 2761 6
Levon Aronian Armenia 2750 11
Wang Yue China 2739 13
Alexander Grischuk Russia 2733 14
Leinier Dominguez Cuba 2717 23

Round 1 - Thursday, 19 February 2009
Viswanathan Anand 1-0 Teimour Radjabov
Levon Aronian ½-½ Magnus Carlsen
Lenier Domínguez ½-½ Alexander Grischuk
Yue Wang ½-½ Vassily Ivanchuk

The World Champion Anand went to top beating Azerbaijani grandmaster and WR #6 Teimour Radjabov in a Sicilian Sveshnikov variation in 61 moves ... This was Anand's first game after the world championship match and had a perfect start ... This was the longest game of the day, other games were also hard-fought draws.

Tennis News

Our team for Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei was announce ... As expected AITA left out Praksh Amritraj due to his American passport which make him ineligible to represent India as per the new government policy ... So Rohan Bopanna selected in his place and surprisingly AITA selected Sanam Singh as a fifth member (reserve player) of the team.

Sanam’s selection came a day after he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2009 US Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s (ITA) national team indoor championships where University of Virginia won title beating their old nemesis Georgia.

Indian Team - Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes, Mahehs Bhupathi and Sanam Singh as reserve player

Non-playing Captain - S.P.Mishra
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At $25K Surprise Tournament, Arizona, USA

[QF] (Q) UBEROI Shikha (IND)/ WEBLEY-SMITH Emily (GBR) l (2) CRAVERO Jorgelina (ARG)/ IVANOVA Ekaterina (RUS) 26 06

Very one-sided loss.
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Golf News

At Northern Trust Open - First Round (PGA Tour)

T36 Jeev Milkha Singh 69 -2
T96 Vijay Singh 72 +1
T114 Daniel Chopra 73 +2

Jeev had decent start on his first round at Northern Trust Open ... He started from back 9 and scored birdie on first 10th hole ... Then he had bogey on 12th but he scored another birdie on par3 16th hole to finished back 9 on 1 under ... On front 9 Jeev started with birdie but again like back 9 he had bogey on 5th hole ... But Jeev scored another birdie on par4 7th hole and finished inside top 40 with 2 under ... But Vijay and Daniel had not so good start ... Tomorrow they need solid under par rounds to make cut.

Golf News

As we already know Jeev is planning to play less tournament in 2009, as of now he is planning to play for only 33 weeks in 2009 ... This year he is giving more priority to PGA tournaments, as per his planning he will play minimum 12 PGA tournaments this year and wants to capture full PGA Tour card for 2010.

From this week he will be playing 6 weeks in an eight-week period, including 2 World Golf Championship events, the World Matchplay and WGC-CA Championships and the Augusta Masters.

Jeev's schedule for next 8 weeks -
Feb 19-22: $6.3M Northern Trust Open, California
Feb 25- March 1: $8.5M WGC-Accenture Matchplay Championships, Arizona
March 12-15: 8.5M WGC CA Championships, Florida
March 26-29: $6M Arnold Palmer Invitational, Florida
April 2-5: 5.7M Shell Houston Open, Texas
April 9-12: $7M Masters Tournament, Georgia

Tennis News
At $2M Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships,

[R2] Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mara Santangelo (ITA) l (1) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Liezel Huber (USA) 36 36

Match was loking close than score suggest as in the first set with single break Cara and Liezel won it ... They converted 1 break point from 2 chances but Sania and Mara wasted 2 break point chances they got ... In second set Cara-Liezel pair broke Sania-Mara's serve 4 time but Sania-Mara also broke their serve 2 times ... So with that Sania's Dubai tournament was over ... Now she is taking deserving 2 weeks off from the tour and will be back at Indian Wells and Miami open where she need to play qualifying.
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At $25K Surprise Tournament, Arizona, USA

[Q1] (1) UBEROI Shikha (IND)/ WEBLEY-SMITH Emily (GBR) bt (WC) BISHARAT April (USA)/ SCANDALIS Zoe Gwen (USA) 61 61

[R1] (Q) UBEROI Shikha (IND)/ WEBLEY-SMITH Emily (GBR) bt BRENGLE Madison (USA)/ GLUSHKO Julia (ISR) 64 36 10(7)

[QF] (Q) UBEROI Shikha (IND)/ WEBLEY-SMITH Emily (GBR) vs (2) CRAVERO Jorgelina (ARG)/ IVANOVA Ekaterina (RUS)

Shikha is playing doubles with British player ... They qualified for maindraw ... And started with win in super tie-break ... Now they will face 2nd seed pair in quarters.