Badminton News
At $200K French Super Series 2010 , Paris

[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,40) l (3) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,8) 15-21 14-21

Ajay's good run ended in quarters against top-10 Thai opponent ... Somewhat one-sided loss for Ajay though productive week for him as this was his first Super Series quarter-final.

Tennis News
At €1.357M Valencia Open, Spain

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) bt Frantisek Cermak (CZE)/ Michal Mertinak (SVK) 63 67(6) 10-6

[SF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs (1) Lukasz Kubot (POL)/ Oliver Marach (AUT)

Good fighting win for Mahesh and Max against tricky pair ... This win will do good for their confidence and help them to achieve goal of qualifying for ATP Doubles Final.
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At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[R2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt Greg Jones (AUS,258) 63 63
[R2] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) l (6) Marinko Matosevic (AUS,138) 67(2) 26

[QF] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs Chris Guccione (AUS,444)

Yuki lost after giving good fight in the first set ... Overall good tournament for him, he won 4 matches (3 QD + 1 MD) with couple of good wins ... Somi scored expected victory, next he is having tricky match aginst good Aussie player, Guccione.

Badminton News
At $200K French Super Series 2010 , Paris

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,40) bt (7) Dicky Palyama (NED,23) 21-19 14-21 21-15

[QF] Ajay Jayaram (IND,40) vs (3) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,8)

Superb win by Ajay to reached his first Super Series quarter-final ... After winning tight first game Ajay lost second game easily but in decider he take control of the game from 7-all to complete his victory in 52 mins ... Next he is facing WR #8 Thai Boonsak Ponsana, who lost against Kashyap in the last week.

By the way Arjun climb to his career best singles ranking, #40.

Tennis News
At €1.357M Valencia Open, Spain

[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Pablo Cuevas (URU)/ Juan Monaco (ARG) 76(6) 46 14-12

[QF] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Marc Lopez (ESP)/ David Navarro (ESP)

Rohan and Aisam won tought first round ... They were lucky against Cuevas and Monaco to won very close super tie-break, they were 4-9 down and then saved 6th match point when they were 10-11 down ... Next they r facing local pair.
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At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

Doubles
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) bt (WC) Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA)/ Alex Kuznetsov (USA) 63 75

[QF] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) vs (Q) Andrew Anderson (RSA)/ Chris Eaton (GBR)

Somi is playing with his UVa partner Treat Huey and as expected they had winning start ... In second round they r facing qualifier pair who upsed second seedd in first round.
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At $100K+H Taipei Challenger, Taipei

[R1] (2) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Kumiko Iijima(JPN) 61 75
[QF] (2) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt Shao-Yuan Kao (TPE)/ Ling Zhang (HKG) 63 63

[SF] (2) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Jarmila Groth (AUS)/ Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA)

After disappointing loss in singles Sania started with comfortable wins in doubles with Hsieh ... Both matches they won losing only 6 games ... In semis they r facing tricky player of experienced Tanasugarn and Groth.
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At $10K Laos F1 Futures 2010, Vientiane

[QF] LU (CHN)/ SHARMA (IND) l (3) GAO (CHN)/ GAO (CHN) 06 06

Badminton News
At $200K French Super Series 2010 , Paris

[R1] Ajay Jayaram (IND,48) bt Rune Ulsing (DEN,55) 21-10 16-21 21-16

[R2] Ajay Jayaram (IND,48) vs (7) Dicky Palyama (NED,23)

Only Ajay Jayaram is playing in French Super Series ... He had winning start against similar ranked Danish player ... After losing first game Rune made fightback winning second game but Ajay won decider to moved into second round ... He will face top-25 experienced Dutch player Dicky Palyama.

Tennis News
At €1.357M Valencia Open, Spain

[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) bt Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI) 63 63

[QF] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) vs Frantisek Cermak (CZE)/ Michal Mertinak (SVK)

Mahesh and Max having comfortable winning start at Valencia open ... In this match they saved all 4 break points on their serve and converted 3 of 7 break points on their opponent's serve.
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At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) bt Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA,198) 64 64
[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) bt (WC) Alexander Domijan (USA,577) 63 36 76(4)

[R2] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs Greg Jones (AUS,258)
[R2] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) vs (6) Marinko Matosevic (AUS,138)

Superb victory by Yuki, that also third set tie-break against big server who had home crowd support ... Sweet victory on first day of Diwali ... :-)

Somi also started well with winning in straight sets and showed last loss against Alex Bogomolov Jr. was fluke for Alex.

Somi is facing same opponent whom he defeated in CWG final to win Gold medal, that time score was 64 62 ... Yuki having tough match, he already played 4 matches and 10 sets ... Hopefully he will be fresh for the match.

Tennis News
At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) bt Pierre Ludovic-Duclos (CAN,432) 46 62 64

[R1] (Q) Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) vs (WC) Alexander Domijan (USA,577)

Yuki scored superb comeback victory over Canadian to qualify for main-draw of Charlottesville challenger ... He joined Somi in main-draw ... Yuki will face local wild-card player, who is also talented ... In 2008 in their only junior level match he defeated Yuki in straight sets.
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At $100K+H Taipei Challenger, Taipei

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,166) l (3) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB,72) 36 46

Expected result insingles.
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At $10K Laos F1 Futures 2010, Vientiane

[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,1157) l Wan GAO (CHN,952) 67(3) 62 4-4 Retd.

Doubles
[R1] LU (CHN)/ SHARMA (IND) bt SRICHAPHAN (THA)/ YUMUANG (THA) 61 63

[QF] LU (CHN)/ SHARMA (IND) vs (3) GAO (CHN)/ GAO (CHN)

Kaza playing in Laos futures, retired from close first round match against Chinese opponent.

Tennis News
At €1.357M Valencia Open, Spain


[R1] (3) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BL) vs Jonathan Erlich (ISR)/ Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)
[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Pablo Cuevas (URU)/ Juan Monaco (ARG)

On 1st Novemmber Rohan reached career high doubles ranking, #14 ... He is also become India's #2 doubles player behind Leander, who is on #5 ... Mahesh slipped one position to #15.
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At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[R1] (2) Somdev Devvarman (IND,96) vs Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA,198)

[Q2] Sanam Singh (IND,771) l (2) Michael Yani (USA,320) 67(6) 46
[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) bt (5) Andrea Stoppini (ITA,384) 64 76(1)
[Q2] Rupesh Roy (IND,550) l (6) Fritz Wolmarans (RSA,406) 36 26

[Q3] Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) vs Pierre Ludovic-Duclos (CAN,432)

Doubles
[R1] Somdev Devvarman (IND)/ Treat Conrad Huey (PHI) vs (WC) Alex Bogomolov Jr. (USA)/ Alex Kuznetsov (USA)

Good to see Yuki moved into final qualifying round with win over experienced Italian player.

Somi having tricky first round match against Bogomolov with whom he lost their last match.
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At $100K+H Taipei Challenger, Taipei

[R1] Sania Mirza (IND,166) vs (3) Bojana Jovanovski (SRB,72)

Doubles
[R1] (2) Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Chin-Wei Chan (TPE)/ Kumiko Iijima(JPN)

Very tough draw for Sania in singles.

Billiards News
At World Professional Billiards Championship 2010, Leeds, England

Final
Mike Russell (QAT) bt Dhruv Sitwala (IND) 1738 - 1204

Mike Russell comfortably won World Pro Billiard Championship which he lost last year to Pankaj Advani ... This was Russell's 10th Professional title ... So this year he dominated billiards circuit winning this title after winning Amateur's two world titles two months back.

In the final Mike scored 5 century breaks, 450 pts break was highest ... Dhruv also scored 4 century breaks but one of them was over 200 pts.

Tennis News
At $663,750 St Petersburg Open, Russia

[F] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) l Daniele Bracciali (ITA)/ Potito Starace (ITA) 67(6) 67(5)

Again Rohan and Aisam failed to lift title ... They lost against unseeded Italian pair in tie-breaks ... Both pairs failed to take break on other pair's serve and Italian played better tie-breaks than our pair.
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At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[Q1] Sanam Singh (IND,771) bt ( WC) Steven Rooda (NED,UNR) 63 75
[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) bt Niclola Remedi (ITA,UNR) 61 60
[Q1] Rupesh Roy (IND,550) bt (WC) Luca Corintelli (USA,UNR) 61 62
[Q1] Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,UNR) l (WC) Justine Shane (USA,UNR) 16 06

[Q2] Sanam Singh (IND,771) vs (2) Michael Yani (USA,320)
[Q2] Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) vs (5) Andrea Stoppini (ITA,384)
[Q2] Rupesh Roy (IND,550) vs (6) Fritz Wolmarans (RSA,406)

Expected wins for Sanam, Rupesh and Yuki but sad to see one sided score of Sunil's match ... Now real test is starting for our players.

Billiards News
At World Professional Billiards Championship 2010, Leeds, England

Semi Finals
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Geet Sethi (IND) 980 - 979
Mike Russell (QAT) bt David Causier (ENG) 1525 - 1279

Geet tried comeback in second session ... But couldn't find big break ... He was 58 pts behind when he came on table when 4 minutes were remaining but he managed only 57 unf break ... So with that Dhruv scored another 1 point victory to moved into the final.

Mike scored comfortable win over David Causier to moved into another final.

Tennis News
At $663,750 St Petersburg Open, Russia

[SF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt (3) Filip Polasek (SVK)/ Igor Zelenay (SVK) 64 36 b10-8

[F] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) vs Daniele Bracciali (ITA)/ Potito Starace (ITA)
Doubles

Rohan and Aisam r in the final beating 3rd seed Slovakian pair in close super tie-break ... In the final they r facing unseeded Italian pair.
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At $50K Charlottesville Challenger, USA

[Q1] Sanam Singh (IND,771) vs ( WC) Steven Rooda (NED,UNR)
[Q1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,554) vs Niclola Remedi (ITA,UNR)
[Q1] Rupesh Roy (IND,550) vs (WC) Luca Corintelli (USA,UNR)
[Q1] Sunil Kumar Sipaeya (IND,UNR) vs (WC) Justine Shane ( USA,UNR)

Good to see so many our players r playing in challenger outside of India, that also in singles ... Hopefully few of them join Somi is singles maindraw.
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At $15K+H Nigeria F2 Futures, Lagos

Singles Final
(5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,446) bt (4) Raven KLAASEN (RSA,361) 62 67(4) 75

After losing last week's final Karan won Nigerian futures title in second week ... He defeated South African Klassen in entertaining match to lift another singles title on futures level ... With this Karan will climb around #325 affter 2 weeks to become India's 2nd ranked singles player behind Somi.

Billiards News
At World Professional Billiards Championship 2010, Leeds, England

Quarter Finals
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Pankaj Advani (IND) 723 - 608
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 969 - 445
David Causier (ENG) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 1356 - 499
Mike Russell (QAT) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 995 - 496

In quarter-finals Dhruv scored biggest upset beating defending champion Pankaj ... Dhruv played consistently scoring 3 centry breaks other hand Pankaj struggled and managed only a single centry break ... Geet scored comfortable win over experienced Peter Gilchrist by more that 500 points ... Geet scored couple of century breaks with maximum of 267 pts, Peter couldn't manage a single century break ... David Causier scored 6 century breaks in his dominating win over Sourav Kothari ... Mike Russell is finding his touch, yesterday he scored biggest break of tournament of 589 pts to win his match against Rupesh Shah.

Badminton News
At $200K Denmark Open Super Series 2010 , Odense

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,36) l Pengyu Du (CHN,26) 13-21 17-21

It was expected result ... But Indian pair need to find solution handling Chinese opponents.

Billiards News
At World Professional Billiards Championship 2010, Leeds, England

Quarter Finals
Pankaj Advani (IND) vs Dhruv Sitwala (IND)
Geet Sethi (IND) vs Peter Gilchrist (SIN)
David Causier (ENG) vs Sourav Kothari (IND)
Mike Russell (QAT) vs Rupesh Shah (IND)

Group A
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Sourav Kothari (IND) 965 - 457
Martin Goodwill (ENG) bt Sushrat Pandia (IND) 906 - 239

Group B
Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 416 - 252
Matthew Sutton (ENG) bt Bem French (ENG) 705 - 242

Group C
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt Mark Hirst (ENG) 430 - 429
Ashok Shandilya (IND) bt Phil Mumford (ENG) 566 - 554

Group D
Mike Russell (QAT) bt Gary Rogers (ENG) 1070 - 338
Ian Williamson (ENG) bt Robert Marshall (ENG) 375 - 321

Pankaj won comfortably by 500+ points to won Group A ... Sourav Kothari joined him in quarters from Group A on second position.

Geet Sethi already won Group B with dominating performance in his all matches ... Young Siddharth Parikh surprised seasoned and 2007 IBSF World Billiards Champion (Points) Rupesh Shah ... Both finished with 2 wins in this ... Siddharth Parikh's points tally was +409 and Rupesh Shah's point tally was +583 ... So Rupesh qualified on second position.

In Group C, David Causier won this group ... Dhruv Sitwala won match of the championship ... When time finished Dhruv was ahead by only 1 point against Mark Hirst ... This win helped Dhruv to qualify on second position.

In Group D as expected Mike Russell qualified on top despite losing one match on the opening day ... Peter Gilchrist joined him in quarters in second position.

In quarters Geet and Pankaj r in same draw with Peter Gilchrist to grab place in the final.

Tennis News
At $15K+H Nigeria F2 Futures, Lagos

[SF] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,446) bt (8) Gilad BEN ZVI (ISR,605) 63 64

[F] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,446) vs (4) Raven KLAASEN (RSA,361)

And with another straight sets victory Karan is in second final in 2 weeks ... He sScored comfortable win over young Israeli ... In the final he is facing South African Klaasen, whom he defeated in semis last week ... Go Karan take title this week.
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At $10K ITF Malaysia, Kuching

[QF] (6) Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND,645) l (4) Elodie ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA,558) 57 06

Doubles
[F] (1) CHAKRAVARTHI (IND)/ ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA) l (2) GUMULYA (INA)/ SHARIPOVA (UZB) 36 26

Rushmi lost in singles quarters and failed to lift title in doubles.

Badminton News
At $200K Denmark Open Super Series 2010 , Odense

[R2] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,36) bt (3) Boonsak Ponsana (THA,10) 21-9 21-19

[QF] Kashyap Parupalli (IND,36) vs Pengyu Du (CHN,26)

Very dominating win by Kashyap against top-10 Thai player Boonsak Ponsana in 31 mins ... After winning first game comfortably, Boonsak Ponsana tried fight back in second game but Kashyap kept his cool on important points to win match in straight games ... Next match against Chinese WR #26 Pengyu Du is tricky one but he need to win these matches to enter into top-15 BWF ranking.

Billiards News
At World Professional Billiards Championship 2010, Leeds, England

Group A
Pankaj Advani (IND) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 818 -469
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Martin Goodwill (ENG) 718 - 262
Sourav Kothari (IND) bt Sushrat Pandia (IND) 1152 - 189
Martin Goodwill (ENG) bt Devendra Joshi (IND) 500 - 493

Group B
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Rupesh Shah (IND) 461 - 441
Matthew Sutton (ENG) bt Siddharth Parikh (IND) 385 - 351
Siddharth Parikh (IND) bt Bem French (ENG) 964 - 201
Geet Sethi (IND) bt Matthew Sutton (ENG) 1199 - 223

Group C
Dhruv Sitwala (IND) bt David Causier (ENG) 593 - 498
Phil Mumford (ENG) bt Mark Hirst (ENG) 599 - 347
Mark Hirst (ENG) bt Ashok Shandilya (IND) 560 - 386
David Causier (ENG) bt Phil Mumford (ENG) 1150 - 289

Group D
Mike Russell (QAT) bt Peter Gilchrist (SIN) 719 - 393
Robert Marshall (ENG) bt Gary Rogers (ENG) 730 - 148
Gary Rogers (ENG) bt Ian Williamson (ENG) 368 - 277
Peter Gilchrist (SIN) bt Robert Marshall (ENG) 674 - 422

In the final session Geet scored another dominating win against Matthew Sutton to complete group stage winning all matches ... Again on consecutive second day he scored highest break of 507 in this match ... Sourav Kothari also confirmed his place in quarters with his 3rd win in three matches ... Now he and Pankaj face to decide group winner ... Rupesh and Dhruv need to win their last matches to qualify for quarters ... David Causier and Mike Russell r also qualified ... Group D becoming interesting after Mike's win over Peter ... Robert Marshall need to win last match against Ian Williamson with more than 304 pts to qualify for quarters otherwise Peter Gilchrist will qualify.

Geet won exciting match as he was 108 pts down when last 8 mins were remaining, he scored unfinished 128 pts in remaining time to won by 20 pts.

Tennis News
At $663,750 St Petersburg Open, Russia

[QF] (2) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) bt Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/ Viktor Troicki (SRB) 36 76(4)

Serbian pair take early break in the first set and then again broke in 9th game to won first set ... In second set our pair take early break but Serbian broke back at 4-3 to bring set on the serve ... In tie-break Serbian pair take early mini-break to lead 2-4 but then our pair won next 2 points on their serve to make it 5-4 and then hold their serve to take set into STB ... They played solid super tie-break ... Taking 5 mini-breaks on Serbians serve to won it comfortably ... This team is truly rocking last week they lost against same team in straight sets but immediately they turned table on them showing they r learning from past mistakes.
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At €650K Open Sud de France, Montpellier

[QF] (1) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) l Stephen Huss (AUS)/ Ross Hutchins (GBR) 63 36 12-14

After winning first set comfortably Mahesh and Max gave chance to Huss and Hutchins to fight back ... They won second set ... In super tie-break Mahesh and Max lost couple of match point before losing match ... not a good start for indoor season for this pair.
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At $15K+H Nigeria F2 Futures, Lagos

[QF] (6) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,529) l (4) Raven KLAASEN (RSA,361) 36 46
[QF] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,446) bt (2) Laurent ROCHETTE (FRA,259) 62 62

[SF] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,446) vs (8) Gilad BEN ZVI (ISR,605)

Doubles
[SF] (3) Karan RASTOGI (IND)/ Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND) l (1) Raven KLAASEN (RSA)/ Ruan ROELOFSE (RSA) 26 36

Consecutive on second week Karan scored dominating win over top-250 type Frenchman Laurent Rochette ... Next he is facing young Israeli ... Ranjeet couldn't manage to overcome Klaasen.
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At $10K ITF Malaysia, Kuching

[R2] Sowjanya BAVISETTI (IND,UNR) l (1) Sabina SHARIPOVA (UZB,409) 06 36
[R2] (6) Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND,645) bt Rishika SUNKARA (IND,UNR) 62 64

[QF] (6) Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND,645) vs (4) Elodie ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA,558)

Doubles
[SF] (1) CHAKRAVARTHI (IND)/ ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA) bt DOKEI (JPN)/ OKAZAKI (JPN) 64 16 10-6

[F] (1) CHAKRAVARTHI (IND)/ ROGGE-DIETRICH (FRA) vs (2) GUMULYA (INA)/ SHARIPOVA (UZB)

Rushmi is singles quarters and doubles final.

Badminton News
At $200K Denmark Open Super Series 2010 , Odense

[R2] Anand Pawar (IND,56) l (6) Marc Zwiebler (GER,15) 10-21 21-14 15-21

After losing first game easily Anand came back strongly in the match winning second game controlling form the start ... But in decider from 7-all Zwiebler take 5 points lead and kept that to won this match ... But creditable performance from Anand against top-15 palyer,