Tennis News
At 125K+H Prostejov Challenger, Czech Republic (Red Clay)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs (Q) Nicolas Renavand (FRA,657)

Doubles
[[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) bt (WC) Marek Jaloviec (CZE)/ Michal Konecny (CZE) 62 61

Comfortable winning start for Somi and Treat in doubles.
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At $50K Ojai Challenger, CA, USA

[R1] (1) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Izak Van der Merwe (RSA) vs Cecil Mamiit (PHI)/ Nick Papac (USA)
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At €30K+H Rome-3 Challenger, Italy

[R1] (2) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) vs (WC) Francesco Aldi (ITA)/ Daniele Giogini (ITA)

Purav won first singles qualifying round ... But lost second qualifying against 4th seed Argentine Bagnis in 3 sets ... He and Sadik r 2nd seed in doubles and facing local wild-card pair.
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At $50KK Nottingham Challenger, Great Britain

[Q3] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) l Alexander Ward (GBR,613) 64 67(5) 46

Doubles
[R1] Prakash Amritraj (IND)/ Brendan Evans (USA) vs Andre Begemann (GER)/ Matthew Ebden (AUS)

Prakash lost in 3 sets ... After winning first set he was down 2-4 in second but fought back breaking back Ward service game ... Ward won second set in tie-break and then completed victory winning third set ... I think that second qualifying round take toll on him ... He failed to finish in 2 sets then it was tough for him keeping same energy level in 6th set of the day.
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At $10K Indonesia F1 Futures,

[R1] (1) Young-Jun KIM (KOR,309) vs Yannick NELORD (IND,789)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,1407) vs Elbert SIE (INA,1327)
[R1] Vijayant MALIK (IND,770) vs Ronak MANUJA (IND,1189)
[R1] (5) Dane PROPOGGIA (AUS,627) vs (Q) Christopher MARQUIS (IND,1260)
[R1] N. Vijay Sundar PRASHANTH (IND,836) vs Ilia STARKOV (RUS,1237)
[R1] (3) Nathan THOMPSON (USA,564) vs Vignesh PERANAMALLUR (IND,938)
[R1] (6) Jae-Sung AN (KOR,658) vs Karunuday SINGH (IND,930)
[R1] (Q) Akash WAGH (IND,1230) vs (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1465)
[R1] (2) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,417) vs Sunu-Wahyu TRIJATI (INA,1739)

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Su-Wei Hsieh(TPE)/ Bruno Soares(BRA) 75 26 10-8

[QF] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ)/ Julian Knowle (AUT)

They lost second set with double break but were controlling super tie-break from the start ... Lee and Cara were up 9-4 but after that their opponents saved 4 match points before they converted 5th ... In quarters they r facing another unseeded pair.
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At $42.5K Nottingham Challenger, Great Britain

[Q2] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) bt Vacek Pospisi (CAN,305) 36 75 76()

Prakash scored tough comeback victory against Canadian ... After losing first set Prakash was on the edge all the time, he won close second set ... In decider match went to tie-break before Kash scored victory ... Hopefully he will be fresh enough for his final qualifying match which will be in couple of hours.
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At $25K Womens ITF Tournament, Bukhara , Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) BHAMBRI Prerna (IND,824) l (Q) GORGODZE Ekaterine (GEO,518) 06 16

Lost in first round against qualifier but still creditable performance by young Prerna to qualify here and earning 2 ranking points.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (15) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Michael Llodra (FRA) 57 36

[R3] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)/ Travis RettenMayer (USA) 63 64

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Su-Wei Hsieh(TPE)/ Bruno Soares(BRA) 75 0-2 (match postponed due to rain/darkness)

Leander and Lukas scored straight sets victory over unseeded pair to move into quarter-final at French Open ... This match was lot easier for them considering last 2 matches.

But other hand Rohan and Aisam lost against French seeded pair in second round ... In first set they fought until end but in second gave early break to lose match.
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At 125K+H Prostejov Challenger, Czech Republic (Red clay)

[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND,108) vs Qualifier

Doubles
[[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) vs (WC) Marek Jaloviec (CZE)/ Michal Konecny (CZE)

Somdev playing on clay instead of playing at Nottingham Challenger on the grass ... In my view he should chosen to play on the grass in preparation of Queens and Wimbledon qualies.
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At $50K Nottingham Challenger, Great Britain

[Q1] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) bt (WC) Timothy Bradshaw (GBR,982) 61 64

[Q2] (8) Prakash Amritraj (IND,275) vs Vacek Pospisi (CAN,305)

Expected winning start on the grass for kash against British wild-card player.
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At $25K Womens ITF Tournament, Bukhara , Uzbekistan

[R1] VENKATESHA Poojashree (IND,409) vs ABDURAIMOVA Nigina (UZ,478)
[R1] (Q) BHAMBRI Prerna (IND,824) vs (Q) GORGODZE Ekaterine (GEO,518)

Good to see Prerna qualify to maindraw with taking advantage of weak draw.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Fabio Fognini (ITA)/ Michael Russell (USA) 62 63

[R2] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs (15) Julien Benneteau (FRA)/ Michael Llodra (FRA)
[R2] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) l Marc Lopez (ESP)/ Pere Riba (ESP) 46 67(4)
[R2] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND)) bt Yves Allegro (SUI)/ Andreas Beck (GER) 64 36 63

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) l Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Eric Butorac (USA) 16 46

Very dominating win by Rohan and Aisam in 59 mins ... Only once they lost their serve when Rohan lost his serve when they were leading 4-2 in second set ... Next they r facing 15th seed local pair.

After winning first set Lee and Lukas lost second set ... Third set also they started on bad note losing first game but they broke back in 6th game to bring set on the serve ... Immediately Lee and Lukas broke opponent's serve in 8th game to take lead and then hold their serve easily to complete the win.

Mahesh and Max lost serve in 9th game to lose first set ... In second set they were early break down but they came back breaking Spanish pair's serve late in the set ... But Spanish pair comfortably won tie-break to won match in straight sets.

Mahesh challenge got over from French Open with his first round loss in mixed doubles ... His one-sided loss was surprising considering Mahesh and Liezel Huber were top-seeds ... Disappointing French open for Mahesh.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Pauline Parmentier (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA) 63 63

Leander and Cara started with comfortable win in their mixed doubles first round match.
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At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[SF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) l (LL) Brian Battistone (USA)/ Nicholas Monroe (USA) 36 64 9-11

Hurting loss for Harsh as he was defending lot of points as defending champion.
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At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[SF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) l (2) Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO) 76(5) 46 9-11

Good fighting performance by Purav and Sadik against Croatians on the clay.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Round-up

Shillong Lajong (26 pts) needed win but they failed and relegated ... Last I-League's third place team Sporting Clube-de Goa (27 pts) started late to avoid relegation but failed by a single points.


Dempo deservedly won I-League with 54 pts, Churchill finished 2nd with 43 points, Pune FC finished 3rd with 42 pts and Mahindra, who is disbanding their team after this season, finished on 4th place with 41 pts.

Tennis News

Mahesh Bhupathi became first Indian tennis player to get inducted into the ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame ... He was included in Class of 2010 announced for ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame.

Class of 2010 Announced for ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame
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At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO) 63 67(6) 75

[R2] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Marc Lopez (ESP)/ Pere Riba (ESP)

Match was lot more closer than Lee and Lukas expectations ... After losing first set European pair made strong comeback but Lee and Lukas managed to survive winning close third set.

Rohan and Aisam first round match postponed to Saturday due to rain.
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At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[QF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) bt Brett Joelson (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA) 63 64

[SF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs (LL) Brian Battistone (USA)/ Nicholas Monroe (USA)

Harsh scored comfortable win over American pair in company of Samuel Groth to moved into semis.
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At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) bt Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)/ Yuichi Sugita (JPN) 46 62 10-8

[SF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) vs (2) Ivan Dodig (CRO)/ Lovro Zovko (CRO)

Good comeback win by Purav and Sadik ... They r giving very consistent performance in challengers.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India - Final Round

Dempo SC dw Pune FC 1-1

Goal Scored - Clifford Miranda (DSC) 6' and Arata Izumi (PFC) 26'

Pune FC hold I-League winner Dempo to 1-all draw and keep their hopes alive for finishing 2nd in the standing if Churchill fail to win their last league match.
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East Bengal dw Viva Kerala 1-1

Goal Scored - Budhiram Tudu (EB) 17' and Sabeeth C.S (VK) 10'

Viva hold East Bengal in their away match to keep their hope of avoiding relegation.
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Mahindra United bt JCT FC 2-1

Goal Scored - Sukhwinder Singh (MU) 32', Paresh Shivalkar (MU) 44' and Henry Ezeh (JCT) 48'

Mahindra United scored win in their last professional match.
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Churchill Brothers bt Air India 5-1

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 21' & 60', Felix (CB) 68' & 74', Jason Vales (CB) 80' and N.D.Opara (AI) 73'

Churchill scored thumping win over Airmen to secured 2nd place for I-League season 2009-10 ... Though Airmen lost this match still they able to retain their place in I-League as Shillong Lajong failed to win their match.
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Mumbai FC bt Mohun Bagan 2-0

Goal Scored - Abhishek Yadav (MFC) 11'P & 24'

Abhishek Yadav scored 2 goals in early of first-half to helped Mumbai FC to scored win in their last match.
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Salgaocar SC bt Shillong Lajong 3-1

Goal Scored - Milagres Gonsalves (SSC) 32', Ekene Ikenwa (SSC) 82 & 90+1' and Anil Gurung (SL) 90+3'

With this loss against Salgaocar in their last leaguematch Shillong Lajong relegated from I-League division one.
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Chirag United l Sporting Clube-de Goa 0-1

Goal Scored - Anthony D'Souza (CU) 66'

Sporting Clube-de Goa's late run didn't help them to avoid relegation despite their victory in the last league match.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER) 63 62
[R1] (16) Eric Butorac (USA)/ Rajeev Ram (USA) l Benjamin Becker (GER)/ Scott Lipsky (USA) 36 75 46

Mixed Doubles
[R1] Liezel Huber (USA)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Yung-Jan Chan (TPE)/ Eric Butorac (USA)
[R1] (2) Cara Black (ZIM)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Pauline Parmentier (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA)

In first set Mahesh and Max broke opponent's serve in 8th game to won with a single break ... In second set they take early break and then scored comfortable victory ... Other hand Rajeev and Eric lost in first round.

In mixed doubles Mahesh and Lee r top 2 seeds with their respective partners.
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At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[QF] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs Brett Joelson (USA)/ Tim Smyczek (USA)
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At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[QF] (3) Purav Raja (IND)/ Sadik Kadir (AUS) vs Roberto Bautista-Agut (ESP)/ Yuichi Sugita (JPN)

Squash News
At $9K German Open, Saarbrucken

[R1] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (Q) Veronika Koukalova (CZE,143) 11-6 11-7 14-12 (21m)
[QF] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (7) Carrie Ramsey (ENG,103) 11-3 11-8 11-3 (13m)
[SF] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (Q) Melissa Alves (FRA,185) 11-5 11-5 11-6 (16m)

[F] (2) Joshna Chinappa (IND,31) bt (8) Gaby Schmohl (SUI,95) 11-6 11-7 11-6 (23m)

Joshna Chinappa won the German Ladies Open title in Saarbrucken, this was her first WISPA title on European tour ... Before this she won titles in Malaysia ... This was a perfect performance by Chinappa, who didn't drop a single game during the whole event.

Joshna Chinappa - "I tried to avoid any mistakes and I was quite successful."

Tennis News
At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[R1] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) bt (WC) Marcos Giron (USA)/ Daniel Kosakowski (USA) 63 76(4)

Winning start for this new pair ... Groth's big serving came handy in this match.
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At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[R1] (3) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Sadik KADIR (AUS) bt Diego ALVAREZ (ARG)/ Alejandro GONZALEZ (COL) 62 57 10-7

Good winning start on clay for Purav and Sadik against South Americans

Badminton News

From next year India is going to host Super Series tournament ... They defeated Switzerland 10-7 to win Super Series bid for next 3 years, i.e. 2011 - 2013 ... First time India going to host Super Series tournament.

Also in 2011 BWF host their first ever million dollar prize money tournament, Korea Open will offering US$1.2 million prize money.

Golf News
At HP Byron Nelson Championship, Irving, Texas - Final Standing (PGA Tour)

T7 Arjun Atwal 69 71 64 70 -6 $ 189,150.00
T32 Jeev Milkha Singh 72 67 68 72 -1 $ 35,316.66

Under par round can earned Arjun top 5 finish ... But still creditable to finish inside top 10 ... Jeev must be disappointed with his last round, instead of finishing inside top-20 he found himself outside top30.

This is Arjun's first top 10 finish after 3 years, so he is showing rediscovery of the form.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

Doubles
[R1] (3) Lukas Dlouhy (CZE)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Johan Brunstrom (SWE)/ Jean-Julien Rojer (AHO)
[R1] (5) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Jurgen Melzer (AUT)/ Philipp Petzschner (GER)
[R1] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Fabio Fognini (ITA)/ Michael Russell (USA)

Doubles draw is out ... Lee is in top draw with top-seed Bryans ... Mahesh and Rohan r in bottom draw.
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At $50K Carson Challenger, CA, USA

[R1] (4) Harsh Mankad (IND)/ Samuel Groth (AUS) vs (WC) Marcos Giron (USA)/ Daniel Kosakowski (USA)

This week Harsh is trying new partnership with Australian Samuel Groth.
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At €30K+H Alessandria Challenger, Italy (Red clay)

[R1] (3) Purav RAJA (IND)/ Sadik KADIR (AUS) vs ALVAREZ Diego (ARG)/ GONZALEZ Alejandro (COL)

Tricky match for seeded pair on the clay.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris


[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) l Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,65) 36 63 36 63 36

Marco started with his big serves, still Somi had break point on 3rd game but Marco saved with his big serving ... Marco broke Somi's serve in 6th game to take 2-4 lead ... After thatboth players hold their service games and Marco won first set with single break, 3-6 ... In second set also Marco started with big serves ... But Somi was patient and he got opportunity in 6th game ... He had 2 break points at 15-40 and he converted second point to break Marco's serve to lead 4-2 ... Then both players hold their respective serves and Somi won second set, 6-3 ... In second set Somi served one ace with 206 kmph speed ... Bravo ... Other hand though Marco lost second set he was still servinf big ... Somi played a loose 4th game giving chance to Marco ... And Marco broke it to take 1-3 lead ... Somi had a break point on Marco's serve in 7th game but Marco saved that ... Both players hold their serve as Marco won third set, 3-6 ... In fourth set Somi broke Marco in 2nd game after converting 2nd break point after duece ... But Marco immediately broke back in next game ... Somi also decided to didn't give up without fight and he again broke Marco in 4th game to take 3-1 lead ... Then both players hold their serves, in 9th game Marco saved 2 set points before Somi converted 3rd after duece to won 4th set, 6-3 ... In 4th set Marco take early break in 2nd game to lead 0-3 ... Somi tried to break back but Marco hold his serve with intelligent and powerful service ... So with that single break Marco won decider and match after 3 hours and 38 minutes.

Though Somi loss I m not disappointed as he also tried hard ... Today he served well, his 1st serve average was 176 kmph ... He also had 13 aces in the match ... So this performance will moved Somi in between 102 to 105 in ATP ranking.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India

Churchill Brothers dw East Bengal 2-2

Goal Scored - Odafe Onyeka Okolie (CB) 36', Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 57'P and Mehtab Hossain (EB) 57', Sanju Pradhan (EB) 68'P

Churchill lost opportunity of moving to 2nd place before final round as East Bengal side hold them.

From I-League second league ONGC confirmed their maiden entry in next I-League season.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

[R1] (Q) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) vs Marco Chiudinelli (SUI,65)

Somi is facing Swiss Marco Chiudinelli in first round ... This is a good draw considering Somi had win against Marco Chiudinelli at 2010 Dubai Open ... Also Marco Chiudinelli having poor record in major ... If he wins first round then he can face his old NCAA rival John Isner in second round.
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At $498K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, France (Red clay)

[F] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l (3) Marcelo Melo (BRA)/ Bruno Soares (BRA) 61 36 5-10

After winning first set easily against seeded Brazilian pair they lost in super tie-break ... I feel it's lot better performance from them to reached in the final at tour tournament ... Will be in good frame of mind for French Open, if get good draw they can go deep at French Open.

Tennis News
At 2010 French Open, Roland Garros, Paris

[Q3] (6) Somdev Devvarman (IND,109) bt Adrian Mannarino (FRA,289) 64 61

Somi scored huge win to qualify for main-draw of French Open ... This win was huge considering with this win mostly he will first-time enter into top-100 ATP ranking when ranking will be updated after the French Open, i.e. on 7th June 2010.

In this match in the begining both players were keeping pressure on eachother's serve ... But Somi managed to create more chances than Mannarino, Mannarino converted both chances he got other hand Somi converted 3 from 5 chances ... Crucial break of the set taken by Somi in 10th game to won first set when Mannarino was serving to remain in the set, Somi won this set in 58 mins ... But second set was having different story as Somi was controlling the points from the start ... He broke Mannarino's serve in 4th and 6th game to won second set easily in just 27 mins.

Football News
At I League 2009-10, India

Pune FC bt Churchill Brothers SC 4-1

Goal Scored - Arata Izumi (PFC) 26', Edmar Figueira (PFC) 31' & 73', Subrata Paul (PFC) 90+' and Felix Chimaokwu (CB) 57'

Pune FC continued their awesome run into their first I League season ... They handed big defeat to 2nd place Churchill Brothers, 39 pts and now captured 2nd place with 41 pts ... May be for the short period as 2 matches r remaining of Churchill and Pune FC having away last match againstt I League champion Dempo ... But terrific performance by the team who promoted this year to finish inside top 3.

Yesterday Odafe Onyeka Okolie didn't play as he red-carded in their last match against Mumbai FC ... Without him Churchill wasn't looking the same team as only Felix was looking threatening ... Pune FC team take full advantage of it scoring thumping victory.

Tennis News
At $498K Open de Nice Côte d’Azur, France (Red clay)

[SF] Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Dusan Vemic (SRB)/ Leos Friedl (CZE) 76(5) 36 10-8

Rohan and Aisam scored exciting victory in semi-final to reached their 3rd ATP tour final as a pair ... Match was close as Rohan and Aisam won 68 points and their opponents 70 in this match ... After losing first set Vemic and Friedl came back strongly in the match ... They won second set and were up 8-4 in super tie-break ... But Rohan and Aisam kept their cool and won last 6 points to won this match.