Badminton News
At $120K SCG Thailand Open 2012, Bangkok

[R1] Srikanth K. (IND,202) bt Marius Myhre (NOR,253) 14-21 21-12 21-7
[R1] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Sukamta Evert (INA,137) 21-11 21-12
[R1] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) bt Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo (INA,144) 15-21 25-23 21-17
[R1] Anand Pawar (IND,61) l (9) Brice Leverdez (FRA,36) 21-15 18-21 19-21
[R1] (14) Gurusaidutt R. M. V. (IND,52) l Soon Huat Goh (MAS,100) 21-18 14-21 13-21
[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,128) bt (11) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA,41) 21-10 22-20

[R2] Srikanth K. (IND,202) l (1) Dan Lin (CHN,2) 11-21 13-21
[R2] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) bt Pakkawat Vilailak (THA,165) 15-21 21-17 21-15
[R2] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) bt (9) Brice Leverdez (FRA,36) 21-13 21-15
[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,128) bt Jiann Shiarng Chiang (MAS,178) 21-12 21-17
[R1] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) bt Nichaon Jindapon (THA,53) 21-13 16-21 21-15
[R1] (4) Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) bt Mi Jin Jung (KOR,195) 21-9 15-21 21-14

[R3] (12) Sourabh Varma (IND,42) vs (7) Alamsyah Yunus (INA,29)
[R3] Sai Praneeth B. (IND,71) vs Choong Hann Wong (MAS,131)
[R3] Sameer Verma (IND,128) vs Teck Zhi Soo (MAS,241)
[R2] (1) Saina Nehwal (IND,5) vs Li Han (CHN,39)
[R2] (4) Sindhu P. V. (IND,25) vs Lin Wang (CHN,106)

[R1] Tarun Kona (IND)/ Arun Vishnu (IND) vs (6) Ricky Karanda Suwardi (INA)/ Muhammad Ulinnuha (INA)
[R1] Sanjeeth S. (IND)/ Jagadish Yadav (IND) vs (Q) Calvin Jia Hong Ong (MAS)/ Wee Gleen Tan (MAS)
[R1] Aparna Balan (IND)/ Siki Reddy N. (IND) vs (1) Xia Huan (CHN)/ Jinhua Tang (CHN)
[R1] Pradnya Gadre (IND)/ Prajakta Sawant (IND) vs Amelia Alicia Anscelly (MAS)/ Fie Cho Soong (MAS)
[R1] Arun Vishnu (IND)/ Aparna Balan (IND) l Jian Guo Ong (MAS)/ Yin Loo Lim (MAS) 14-21 13-21

Good upset straight games win by Sameer in the first round over experienced top-50 Thai Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk but surprising loss of Guru against lowly ranked Malaysian.

Surprised to see Saina losing a game against Thai Nichaon Jindapon ... Sindhu also needed three games against lowly ranked Korean ... Sai Praneeth scored upset win over top-40 Frenchman in the straight games ... Sourabh needed comeback after losing the first game against lowly ranked Thai plyer ... Sameer scored comfortable win ... Srikanth gave decent performance against Dan Lin.

In next round Saina and Sindhu r having Chinese test ... Saina is facing #39 ranked Li Han and Sindhu is having bigger test as she is facing former WR #1 Lin Wang, who is making comeback after long break ... Sameer and Sai r having winnable matches but Sourabh is facing local top-30 player.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[QF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR) 46 75 10-5

[SF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Galina Voskoboeva (KAZ)/ Daniele Bracciali (ITA)
[SF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Klaudia Jans-Ignacik (POL)/ Santiago Gonzalez (MEX)

Juniors
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) bt Alexios Halebian (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA) 64 76(3)

[R2] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) vs (3) Julien Cagnina (BEL)/ Luke Saville (AUS)

Lee and Elena made excellent comeback after losing the first set and down with the break in the second set, 2-4, against top-seeds ... They won closely fought the second set after taking crucial break in 11th game before winning STB comfortably ... In the semis our both pairs r facing unranked pairs.

In junior doubles Arjun and his Paraguayan partner had a winning start against American pair ... Next they r facing 3rd seed Pair.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Karshi, Uzbekistan

[R1] (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) l (Q) Lin Zhu (CHN,591) 26 16
[R1] (Q) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) l (5) Valentyna Ivakhnenko (UKR,258) 57 06

Doubles
[QF] Anastasia MUKHAMETOVA (RUS)/ Ankita RAINA (IND) vs (4) Eugeniya PASHKOVA (RUS)/ Ekaterina YASHINA (RUS)

Decent performance by Kyra in the first set against top-250 type player.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[QF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt (2) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Mike Bryan (USA) 62 63

Juniors
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,93) l Nick Kyrgios (AUS,27) 36 36

[R2] Ratnika Batra (IND,64) l Antonia Lottner (GER,32) 16 26

Sania and Mahesh scored very comfortable win over 2nd seed Mike Bryan and Kveta Peschke and enter into the semis ... They r making strong case for the Olympics MXD pairing.

After her excellent first round win Ratnika Batra lost against in-form German Antonia Lottner in the second round ... Arjun lost in the first round against higher ranked Australian.
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At $75K Aegon Trophy Challenger, Nottingham, England

[Q1] Divij Sharan (IND,812) bt Manual Sanchez (MEX,703) 64 64
[Q2] Divij Sharan (IND, 812) l (6) Frederik Nielsen (DEN,259) 26 26

Doubles
[R1] Divij Sharan (IND)/ Tatsuma Ito (JPN) vs (WC) David Rice (GBR)/ Sean Thornley (GBR)

Divij played singles qualifying ... After scoring win against Mexican opponent in the first round veteran Danish player Frederik Nielsen proved too strong for him.
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At $35K Furth Challenger, Germany

[R1] (2) Rameez Junaid (AUS)/ Purav Raja (IND) vs (WC) Peter Torebko (GER)/ Holger Zuehlsdorff-Pavlovic (GER)

Purav decide to play on red clay and partnering Aussie Rameez Junaid at Furth challenger.
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At $25K Women's ITF Tournament, Karshi, Uzbekistan

[Q1] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) bt Yevgeniya Rezepkina (KAZ,UNR) 61 60
[Q1] (8) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) bt Maftunabonu Saidova (UZB,UNR) 60 60
[Q1] (14) Ankita Raina (IND,831) bt Madina Khatamova (UZB,UNR) 60 60

[Q2] (3) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) bt (14) Ankita Raina (IND,831) 64 06 76(9)
[Q2] (8) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) bt (16) Kamilla Farhad (AZE,1178) 61 61

[R1] (Q) Nidhi Chilumula (IND,750) vs (Q) Lin Zhu (CHN,591)
[R1] (Q) Kyra Shroff (IND,637) vs (5) Valentyna Ivakhnenko (UKR,270)

Doubles
[R1] Anastasia MUKHAMETOVA (RUS)/ Ankita RAINA (IND) bt Kamilla FARHAD (AZE)/ Anastasiya PRENKO (TKM) 61 64

Good to see our players r playing outside of India in tougher tournaments ... Good to see Kyra and Nidhi qualified for main-draw ... Ankita was unlucky to face Kyra in the final qualifying but gave fighting performance ... Ankita r in the doubles quarter with her Russian partner ... In the singles Kyra having very tough match against top-275 Ukrainian player ... Nidhi is also facing Top-600 Chinese opponent.
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At $10K India F8 Futures, Mysore

[R1] (1) Ti CHEN (TPE,301) bt (WC) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND,UNR) 62 62
[R1] Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS,965) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,942) 61 62
[R1] (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1921) bt (Q) Viju GEORGE JR (USA,1801) 64 61
[R1] (8) Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA,588) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,908) 63 63
[R1] (4) Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND,448) bt (Q) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) 60 62
[R1] Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1039) bt (Q) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) 63 63
[R1] Bowen OUYANG (CHN,774) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS,1322) 63 76(3)
[R1] (7) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,548) bt (Q) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND,1742) 63 62
[R1] Saketh MYNENI (IND,590) bt (6) Ranjeet VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,488) 63 64
[R1] (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1801) bt (WC) Saurabh SINGH (IND,UNR) 61 76(3)
[R1] (WC) Vinod GOWDA (IND,1543) bt (WC) Suraj R PRABODH (IND,UNR) 62 62
[R1] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND,443) bt Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,710) 63 62
[R1] (5) Karan RASTOGI (IND,464) bt Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA,1081) 64 64
[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1076) bt Francesco VILARDO (ITA,835) 64 64
[R1] Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1235) bt (Q) Tejas CHAUKULKAR (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R1] (2) Vishnu VARDHAN (IND,362) bt (Q) Kunal ANAND (IND,1536) 61 62

Doubles
[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) 63 63
[R1] (WC) Shahbaaz KHAN (IND)/ Sumeet SHINDE (IND) bt Sagar AHUJA (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 62 75
[R1] (4) Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND)/ Aditya TEWARI (IND) 75 75
[R1] Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) bt Warit SORNBUTNARK (THA)/ Kittiphong WACHIRAMANOWONG (THA) 62 64
[R1] (WC) Jatin DAHIYA (IND)/ Yogesh PHOGAT (IND) bt (WC) Vishwanath SAVADI (IND)/ Darshan SRINIVASA (IND) 63 62
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt (3) Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 76(4) 36 10-8
[R1] Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND)/ Suraj R PRABODH (IND) 63 61
[R1] Venkat IYER (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt (2) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Jeevan NEDUNCHEZHIYAN (IND) 46 63 10-8

Good upset win by Sidharth Rawat over Italian ... Expected win from Kaza ... Otherwise expected results in the first round ... Saketh scored comfortable win over Ranjeet ... In doubles, Venkat Iyer with his Chinese partner Bowen Ouyang scored comeback upset win over 2nd seed Jeevan and Vijayant ... Kunal and Ajai also defeated seeded pair of Ashwin and Zach.
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At $10K Morocco F3 Futures, Casablanca

[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,1057) bt Adam Sanjurjo Hermida (ESP,809) 64 64

Happy for Ramkumar who scored his first win in this ongoing Moroccan futures series.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

For Bronze medal
India bt Great Britain 3-1
Goal Scorers - Shivendra Singh (IND) 43', Sandeep Singh (IND) 52' PC, Tushar Khandekar (IND) 69' and Ashley Johnson (GBR) 35' PC

India scored their first win against Britain in four recent matches to won bronze medal in Azlan Shah cup ... We were struggling on the field despite this victory ... Again our forward-line was inaccurate, lethargic and toothless in the D ... They failed to produce regular trapping and passing game ... British side take lead before half-time through Ashley Johnson flick ... In the second half Shivendra equalized after excellent pass from Uthappa ... Sandeep Singh gave lead converting 2nd penalty corner ... Tushar increased the lead in last couple of minutes ... For us Sardar Singh in mid-field, who declared the Man of the match and later as the Player of the Tournament, and Kothajit Singh were best players on the field.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Doubles
[R2] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) l Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Denis Istomin (UZB) 46 16

Mixed Doubles
[R2] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Mathilde Johansson (FRA)/ Marc Gicquel (FRA) 62 60
[R2] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Virginie Razzano (FRA)/ Nicolas Devilder (FRA) 76(4) 63

[QF] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs (1) Liezel Huber (USA)/ Max Mirnyi (BLR)
[QF] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs (2) Kveta Peschke (CZE)/ Mike Bryan (USA)

Juniors
[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND,93) vs Nick Kyrgios (AUS,27)
[R1] Ratnika Batra (IND,64) bt (WC) Estelle Cascino (FRA,520) 60 61

[R2] Ratnika Batra (IND,64) vs Antonia Lottner (GER,32)

[R1] Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Jorge Brian Panta Herreros (PER) vs Alexios Halebian (USA)/ Mitchell Krueger (USA)
[R1] Ratnika Batra (IND)/ Su Jeong Jang (KOR) vs (1) Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)/ Taylor Townsend (USA)

Leander and his Austrian partner Alexander Peya lost easily against eastern European pair ... This was expected as Lee made make-shift pairing with Peya before French open due to Radek Stepanek's unavailability.

In mixed doubles Lee and Elena scored very dominating win over French pair losing only two games ... Mahesh and Sania also joined them in quarters with fighting win over French pair ... Our both pairs r facing top 2 seeds in the quarter-final.

In juniors, Ratnika Batra and Arjun Kadhe r playing in the main-draw ... Ratnika take full advantage of easy opponent and scored thumping win over local wild-card player losing only a single game ... In the second round she is facing tough German opponent, who upset WR #5 Russian player losing only 3 games ... Arjun is having tough match against top-30 Australian in the first round.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya


Singles Final
(4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) 63 64

Saketh lifted his second futures title after comfortable straight sets victory over top-seed Vijayant ... In the first set he take break in 2nd game and hold that lead to won this set ... In the second set also he broke Vijayant in the fifth game and that was enough to won this set and match.

Tennis News
At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[SF] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) 64 62
[SF] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) 76(0) 63

Doubles Final
(1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) 75 61

Saketh scored upset win over Ranjit ... In the first set Saketh was 5-3 leading but while serving for the set at 5-4 Ranjit broke back ... Saketh dominated tie-break and won it without losing a single point ... In the second set Saketh take crucial single break and won the match ... Vijayant scored comfortable win over Sriram Balaji to face Saketh in the final.

Sriram Balaji lifted doubles title with Arun-Prakash beating 2nd seed pair Saketh and Chinese Bowen Ouyang.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India bt Pakistan 2-1
Goal Scorer - Sandeep Sing (IND) 29' PC, Sunil SV (IND) 69' and Sohail Abbas (PAK) 61'

We were lucky to win this match ... In the first half we gave 4 penalty corners but Sohail failed to convert from them ... We earned one and Sandeep scored from that to give half-time lead ... We were better in the defense than our previous matches but again our forward-line disappointed ... Unnecessary crosses in the D when nobody was available to intercept those crosses ... Also many times our forwards fumbled in-front of the goal ... In the second half Pakistan was better team on the filed ... They were attacking continuously but unlucky to scored a goal ... Sohail converted 5th penalty corner to make it 1-all ... Indians earned 4 penalty corners but Raghunath and Sandeep failed to convert it ... Sunil scored when 87 seconds were remaining after excellent move from Birendra Lakra and we managed to win this tie ... So we will mostly play for 3/4th positions.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 61 57 36
[R1] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) bt Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Fabio Fognini (ITA) 61 67(2) 63

[R2] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) vs Mikhail Elgin (RUS)/ Denis Istomin (UZB)

Juniors
[Q1] Rutuja Bhosale (IND,150) l (5) Ioana Loredana Rosca (ROU,56) 36 67(4)

Mahesh and Rohan started well breaking French's pair serve twice to won the first set ... But from the second set they found trouble of reading Frech pair's game and French pair take crucial break in 12th game to won the second set ... French pair again take early lead breaking Indians serve in 4th game and kept that lead to scored upset win over Indian pair.

Leander and Alexander Peya started confidently and won the first set breaking Italian pair's serve twice ... But our pair lost the second set in tie-break ... Still they managed to prevail over Italian pair after winning the third set with a single break ... Much required victory for this new pairing ... Next they r facing Russian-Uzbek pair in the second round.

This also means we will miss to play 2 pairs at the Olympics as only Lee will remain inside top-10 after the French open ... So interesting to see AITA's decision about who will partner Lee, Rohan or Mahesh?

In the junior qualifying Rutuja faced top-60 Romanian girl in the first round ... It was tough match against European player on the clay but Rutuja gave decent performance taking the second set in tie-break.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[QF] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt (6) Bowen OUYANG (CHN,765) 64 75
[QF] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) bt Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,936) 62 64
[QF] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (5) Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,702) 63 64
[QF] (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt (LL) Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND,1888) 64 60

Doubles
[SF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) 62 64
[SF] (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) 63 76(3)

Happy to see that our all top 4 seeds played as per their seedings to reached in the semis in the single.

Chess News
At World Chess Championship 2012, Moscow, Russia

Final score

Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) bt Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) 2½ - 1½ in tie-break (after 6 - 6 tie in the classic chess)

Tie-break 4 - 30th May 2012
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) dw Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) ½-½ (6-6, Tie-break 2½—1½)

Tie-break 3 - 30th May 2012
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) dw Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) ½-½ (6-6, Tie-break 2-1)

Tie-break 2 - 30th May 2012
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) bt Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) 1-0 (6-6, Tie-break 1½—½)

Tie-break 1 - 30th May 2012
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) dw Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) ½-½ (6-6, Tie-break ½—½)

Viswanathan Anand remains the World Champion after this dog-fight ... In classic chess Gelfand matched Anand's preparation but in Rapid chess (tie-break) Anand showed his class and outperformed Gelfand to win this World championship match ... Deserving winner as Anand kept his nerves in this high tension rapid chess matches ... Anand clearly was better prepared and energized in the rapid playoff.

In the fourth game Gelfand used the Sicilian defense with the Najdorf Variation ... Despite Anand's novelty move on 13th, b3, Gelfand played very interestingly, creatively and constructively and Anand was struggling with lack of spaces on the board ... After that most of the game advantage was to black and Gelfand used the black king while attacking the white pieces ... But Boris was in usual time trouble and then Anand played excellent tactical chess game and managed superb bishop switch on 54th move and that confirmed draw after 56 moves.

In the third game Anand again decided to play with the Slav defense ... Gelfand surprised Anand with his 11th move, Qc2 ... Gelfand played strategically and take control of the game ... Anand was in trouble but Gelfand made blunder on 26th move he played Rxb8 instead of may be this game winning Nxe4 ... Gelfand again found himself in time trouble and due to that missed opportunity Anand managed to equalize on the board ... Despite time trouble Gelfand played brilliantly and managed draw after 59 moves ... Big missed opportunity for Gelfand.

In the second game, Gelfand also went for his favorite defense the Sicilian defense with the Rossolimo variation ... Anand surprised him with novelty moe on 7th, d4 ... Gelfand take lot of time to played next few moves ... In middle of the game Anand played safe instead of putting more pressure but Gelfand failed to utilize that due time trouble ... From around 30th move Gelfand played with less than a minute on the clock other hand Anand had 7+ minutes ... Gelfand tried hard for draw but Anand kept putting pressure and improving his position on the board ... Gelfand resigned after 77 moves.

In the first game Gelfand played with white ... Anand again played the Slav Defence ... After entertaining battle both agreed draw after 32 moves.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia


India l Argentina 2-3
Goal Scorer - Sardar Singh (IND) 48' PC, Raghunath (IND) 61' PC and Lucas (ARG) 37', Santiago (ARG) 38', Gonzalo Peillat (ARG) 57' PC

Indians failed to score in the first-half despite dominating it ... In the second half Argentina scored 2 goals in 2 minutes due to poor defending by Sandeep Singh ... After that Indians tried and earned 2nd penalty corner ... Sardar Singh scored on rebound after Raghunath's hit saved by the goal-keeper ... Argentina increased their lead to 2 goals when Peillat converted Argentina's first penalty corner ... In three minutes Indians earned their third penalty corner which Raghunath converted but failed to convert 4th penalty corner in 63rd minute.

Again poor finishing inside D and dodgy defense costed us a match ... With this loss our chances of reaching the final of the Azlan Shah cup r over.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Lucie Hradecka (CZE)/ Frantisek Cermak (CZE) 61 61
[R1] (4) Lisa Raymond (USA)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) l Natalie Grandin (RSA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS) 67(6) 64 6-10
[R1] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) bt Raquel Kops-Jones (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA) 62 64

Lee and Elena started with solid win over Czech pair losing only 2 games ... Sania and Mahesh also started with comfortable win over American pair ... Shocking loss of 4th seed pair Rohan and Lisa in match tie-break against Hanley and Grandin ... In the first set tie-break Rohan and Lisa were leading 5-2 before losing that.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[R2] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1069) 63 64
[R2] (6) Bowen OUYANG (CHN,765) bt (Q) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) 61 62
[R2] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) bt (Q) Elwin ANTONY (IND,1888) 64 63
[R2] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,936) bt (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) 60 62
[R2] (5) Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,702) bt Kunal ANAND (IND,1523) 61 60
[R2] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1344) 64 62
[R2] (LL) Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND,1888) bt (WC) Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND,UNR) 67(3) 63 4-1 Retd
[R2] (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,904) 63 64

Doubles
[QF] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt Ronak MANUJA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) 61 46 10-7
[QF] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) 64 16 10-7
[QF] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) 63 61
[QF] (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) 63 16 10-7

Expected results in the singles second round.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

Doubles
[R1] (15) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) l Nina Bratchikova (RUS)/ Edina Gallovits-Hall (ROU) 36 64 57

In the first set Sania and Bethanie had a break point in 7th game, 3-all, but failed to convert it and then lost their service game in 8th game to lose the first set ... In the second set they lost their serve in 3rd game but immediately broke back in next to make it 2-all ... Sania and Bethanie take crucial break in 10th game to won the second set ... In the third set Sania and Bethanie lost their serve in 3rd game but again they broke back to make it 2-all ... Sania and Bethanie lost 5th service game from 40-0 but they broke opponent's serve in 10th game when they were serving for the match to make it 5-all ... But Bratchikova and Gallovits-Hall easily broke Sania's serve in 11th game and then comfortably hold their service game to completed upset win.

Disappointing performance by Sania and Bethanie ... So with this first round loss Sania failed to defend her 1400 points as last year's finalist ... This also means she will be out of top 10 doubles rankings so she will miss direct entry in doubles for London Olympics.
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At $10K Spain F14 Futures, Madrid

[R1] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) l Lorenzo GIUSTINO (ITA,643) 67(5) 26

Though Mohit Mayur failed to earn a single ranking point still heartening performance from him against higher ranked opponents in this futures.

Chess News
At World Chess Championship 2012, Moscow, Russia

Game 12 - 28th May 2012
Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) dw Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) ½-½ (6-6)

Anand played very attacking game in the final game ... Anand was going all out for the win ... Gelfand again started with Sicilian defense but Anand surprised him with b3 6th move ... Anand looks well prepared for this novelty ... After 22 moves Anand was a pawn up and he was slightly better and Gelfand had only 16 minutes for 18 moves but still Anand agreed draw.

So his means that the classical world champion will be decided through tie-break which will be played on Wednesday.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India bt Malaysia 3-2
Goal Scorer - Danish Mujtaba (IND) 9', Shivendra Singh (IND) 11' PC, Tushar Khandekar (IND) 41' and Muhammad Amin (MAS) 40' PC, Muhammad Fitri Saari (MAS) 58'

Indians survived as last 15 minutes they were under tremendous pressure from Malaysians ... India troubled with their dodgy defence and most of the last minute we were playing with one man less on the field due to back to back 2 yellow cards to Raghunath and Sandeep Singh ... Early Indians were in the control scoring 2 goals in 3 minutes and they maintained that lead till half-time ... After half-time Malaysians were trying hard and attacking from both flanks ... Within 5 minutes they earned penalty corner and scored from that ... On next minutes Indians scored through excellent move by Sardara Singh ... Malaysians kept pushing and earned couple of more penalty corners but failed to convert ... Muhammad Fitri Saari scored excellent individual goal from top of the circle in 58 minutes ... After that Malaysians tried and earned one penalty corner but Indians managed to keep lead ... So this was India's second victory from 4 matches.

Tennis News
At French Open 2012, Paris, France

[R1] (15) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) vs Nina Bratchikova (RUS)/ Edina Gallovits-Hall (ROU)
[R1] (6) Mahesh Bhupathi (IND)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Marc Gicquel (FRA)/ Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA)
[R1] (7) Leander Paes (IND)/ Alexander Peya (AUT) vs Simone Bolelli (ITA)/ Fabio Fognini (ITA)

Mixed Doubles
[R1] (5) Elena Vesnina (RUS)/ Leander Paes (IND) vs Lucie Hradecka (CZE)/ Frantisek Cermak (CZE)
[R1] (4) Lisa Raymond (USA)/ Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Natalie Grandin (RSA)/ Paul Hanley (AUS)
[R1] (7) Sania Mirza (IND)/ Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) vs Raquel Kops-Jones (USA)/ Eric Butorac (USA)

Lucky break for Sania and Bethanie ... When draw announced They were facing the Olympics bound experienced and 17h seed Argentine pair in the first round ... But 13th seed Russian pair Kuznetsova and Zvonareva withdrawn and 17th seed Argentine pair replaced them as seeded pair ... Rohan and Mahesh r 6th seed and facing French pair in the first round ... They r in top draw with Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor ... Radek is not playing with Lee due to his prior commitment so last minute Lee decided to pairing with Austrian Alexander Peya ... They r 7th seed and in bottom draw with Bryans ... In the first round they r facing Italian pair.

In mixed doubles our players r playing with their Australian open partners ... Lee and Rohan r in the top draw and can face in the semis but before that Lee and Vesnina can face top-seed Mirnyi and Huber in the quarters ... Rohan and Sania r in bottom draw and can face 2nd seed Bryan and Pescke in the quarters.
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At $10K India F7 Futures, Mandya

[R1] (1) Vijayant MALIK (IND,439) bt Viju GEORGE JR (USA,1728) 60 63
[R1] Sidharth RAWAT (IND,1069) bt (WC) Saurabh PATIL (IND,1426) 61 60
[R1] (Q) Venkat IYER (IND,UNR) bt Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS,1310) 46 62 62
[R1] (6) Bowen OUYANG (CHN,765) bt (Q) Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND,1907) 76(5) 64
[R1] (3) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND,542) bt Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS,961) 46 62 63
[R1] (Q) Elwin ANTONY (IND,1888) bt Arvind Vishnu BESTHA (IND,1629) 61 63
[R1] (WC) Sagar MANJANNA (IND,UNR) bt (Q) Rishabdev RAMAN (IND,UNR) 63 76(5)
[R1] Kaza Vinayak SHARMA (IND,936) bt (7) Francesco VILARDO (ITA,828) 62 36 64
[R1] (5) Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA,702) bt (WC) Krishik DIVAKAR (IND,UNR) 64 60
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND,1523) bt Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS,1072) 64 46 63
[R1] Vivek SHOKEEN (IND,1344) bt (Q) Rynold TIMOTHY (IND,UNR) 62 61
[R1] (4) Saketh MYNENI (IND,587) bt (Q) Abhijeet TIWARI (IND,1225) 64 63
[R1] (WC) Rajat MAHESHWARI (IND,UNR) bt (LL) Ronak MANUJA (IND,1888) 62 62
[R1] (LL) Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND,1888) bt (Q) Ajai SELVARAJ (IND,1793) 64 75
[R1] Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND,904) bt (Q) Fariz MOHAMMED (IND,1728) 63 61
[R1] (2) Ranjit VIRALI-MURUGESAN (IND,484) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND,1531) 64 60

Doubles
[R1] (1) N.Sriram BALAJI (IND)/ Arun-Prakash RAJAGOPALAN (IND) bt (WC) Bharatram BALAJEE (IND)/ Bharath-Srinivasan PARTHASARATHY (IND) 61 63
[R1] Ronak MANUJA (IND)/ Abhijeet TIWARI (IND) bt Yogesh PHOGAT (IND)/ Sidharth RAWAT (IND) 62 63
[R1] Kunal ANAND (IND)/ Ajai SELVARAJ (IND) bt (4) Zach ITZSTEIN (AUS)/ Ashwin VIJAYRAGAVAN (IND) 76(5) 16 10-7
[R1] Scott PUODZIUNAS (AUS)/ Gavin VAN PEPERZEEL (AUS) bt (WC) Arnav MOHANTY (USA)/ Arsav MOHANTY (USA) 60 61
[R1] Elwin ANTONY (IND)/ Saurabh PATIL (IND) bt Arvind Vishnu BESTHA (IND)/ Vignesh VEERABADRAN (IND) 64 76(3)
[R1] (3) Vijayant MALIK (IND)/ Vivek SHOKEEN (IND) bt Neeraj ELANGOVAN (IND)/ Fariz MOHAMMED (IND) 61 62
[R1] Sebastien BOLTZ (FRA)/ Francesco VILARDO (ITA) bt (WC) Krishik DIVAKAR (IND)/ Sagar MANJANNA (IND) 63 62
[R1] (2) Saketh MYNENI (IND)/ Bowen OUYANG (CHN) bt Vinod GOWDA (IND)/ Venkat IYER (IND) 61 62

Interesting to see how Saketh perform after long injury and training break.

Good upset win over higher ranked forigners by Kaza Sharma, Venkat Iyer and Kunal Anand ... Also happy to see new players like Sagar Manjanna and Rajat Maheshwari earning their first ranking point.
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At $10K Spain F14 Futures, Madrid

[R1] (Q) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) vs GIUSTINO, Lorenzo (ITA,643)

[Q3] (10) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) bt (1) David Perez Sanz (ESP,796) 76(7) 16 76(4)
[Q2] (10) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) bt Daniel GARCIA-GORDILLO (ESP,UNR) 63 62
[Q1] (10) Mohit Mayur JAYAPRAKASH (IND,1084) bt Eduardo RICO BRUSI (ESP,UNR) 61 62

Excellent win in the final qualifying round against top-800 Spanish player on the clay for Mohit Mayur.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India l Great Britain 2-3
Goal Scorer - VR Raghunath (IND) 56' PC, SV Sunil (IND) 59' and Glen Kirkham (GBR) 28' PC, Ben Hawes (GBR) 44', Nick Catlin (GBR) 62'

Indians played better hockey on the field and showed more urgency but sloppy defending cost them the match ... Despite early chances which Indians failed to utilize Britisher take lead converting third penalty corner ... In the second half also our forwards failed to convert circle penetrations ... Britain doubled their lead in 44th minute through field goal ... Indians kept trying and earned first penalty corner in 55th minute which Raghunath converted and immediately after 3 minutes later SV Sunil deflected beautiful pass from Gurbaj Singh ... Britain strike back when sloppy defending by Indians in 62nd minute ... After that Indians tried hard to equalize ... They earned 2 penalty corners in last 3 minutes but failed to convert.

Chess News
At World Chess Championship 2012, Moscow, Russia

Game 11 - 26th May 2012
Boris Gelfand (ISR,2727) dw Viswanathan Anand (IND,2791) ½-½ (5½-5½)

Important game for both players as only last 2 games were remaining ... This was last time Gelfand playing with white and Anand again used Nimzo Indian defense but on 8th played rare Bd7 move ... Gelfand played cautiously avoiding complication ... They agreed draw after 25 moves when Gelfand was under time pressure as only 12 minutes were remaining on his clock.

So tomorrow will be the last game and Anand is playing with white ... Interesting to see if Anand go all out with white or prefer the rapid playoffs.

Tennis News
At $637K Brussels WTA Open, Belgium (Red clay)

Doubles Final
(4) Bethanie Mattek-Sands (USA)/ Sania Mirza (IND) bt (3) Jie Zheng (CHN)/ Alicja Rosolska (POL) 63 62

Sania won her 14th WTA doubles title and the first premier WTA tournament title of 2012

Sania and Bethanie were early break down, 0-2, but they broke back in 4th game to make it 2-all ... Sania and Bethanie again broke their opponent in 8th game and then hold to won the first set ... In the second set Sania and Bethanie broke Jie Zheng and Rosolska in 1st and 3rd game to take 4-0 lead and then hold their service game respectively to complete comfortable win in 70 minutes.

Much required title win for Sania as she gets 470 points and huge confidence boost before French open ... She is defending loads of point as last year's French open finalist so her direct double entry in the Olympics with top 10 finish is under pressure.
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At $10K Delhi ITF Tournament, India

Singles Final
(5) Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt (Q) Simran Kaur Sethi (IND) 62 64

Rishika Sunkara lifted her first $10K ITF title beating 15 yrs old talented Simran Kaur Sethi in the final ... Frankly great week for both players as Simran needed to qualify before reaching into the final.

Hockey News
At Sultan Azlan Shah Tournament 2012 , Malaysia

India bt South Korea 2-1
Goal Scorer - Sandeep singh (IND) 11' PC, Utthappa (IND) 70'and Nam Hyun (KOR) 66' PC

South Koreans were looking more co-ordinated side on the field but Indians scored early through penalty corner ... Indians maintained that lead at half-time while keeping pressure on Koreans ... In the second half Koreans were better side on the field and Indians were disarray ... In the last 10 minutes Koreans kept building pressure and managed equalizer through penalty corner when 5 minutes were remaining ... But smart deflection by Utthappa on Tushar Khandekar's cross when 55 seconds were remaining help India to earned important 3 points.

Tennis News
At $10K Delhi ITF Tournament, India

[SF] (5) Rishika Sunkara (IND) bt (Q) Ho Ching Wu (HKG) 61 61
[SF] (Q) Simran Kaur Sethi (IND) bt Natasha Palha (IND) 64 64

Doubles Final
(1) Rushmi CHAKRAVARTHI (IND)/ Ankita RAINA (IND) bt Sri Vaishnavi PEDDI REDDY (IND)/ Prarthana G. THOMBARE (IND ?

Young 15 yrs old Simran Kaur Sethi continued with her giant-killing ... As an qualifier she reached in the final with win over last week's finalist and another young Goan girl Natasha Palha in straight sets ... She will face 5th seed Rishika Sunkara, who also scored straight sets win over Hong Kong girl.