Golf News

At $500K Royal Cup 2017, Pattaya, Thailand

Photo Credit to AsianTour.com

1 Shiv Kapur (IND) 67 68 68 67 -14 $90,000.00
3 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 67 71 69 66 -11 $30,000.00
6 Khalin Joshi (IND) 70 68 71 67 -8 $16,600.00
T41 Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 70 73 72 72 +3 $2,700.00

Shiv Kapur completed victory at the US$500,000 Royal Cup after he closed the tournament with a four-under-par 67 to finish 14-under-par 270 ... Interestingly, Shiv Kapur is the only golfer to win three Asian Tour tournaments this year. In fact, he is the only golfer to win multiple Asian Tour titles in 2017 ... Before this, he won at the Yeangder Heritage, Panasonic Open India and the Royal Cup.

Tennis News

At $561K Tata Open Maharashtra 2018, Pune, India

[Q2] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,243) l (1) Thiago Monterio (BRA,124) 57 57
[Q2] (6) Sumit Nagal (IND,223) bt (2) Adrian Menendez-Mceiras (ESP,127) 62 36 64

[R1] (Q) Sumit Nagal (IND,223) vs (Q) Ilya Ivashka (BLR,230)

Sumit qualifies for his first ATP main draw with an upset win over top-130 Spanish Menendez-Mceiras ... In their last three meetings Menendez-Mceiras defeated Sumit but this time Sumit managed to turn table on him ... Sumit started confidently and won the first set comfortably but Menendez-Mceiras made comeback in the match winning the second set ... In the decider, Menendez-Mceiras broke Sumit early and was leading 1-3 ... Sumit made an amazing comeback in the match from 1-3 and 15-40 down ... Sumit hold his serve and broke Menendez-Mceiras in 6th game for 3-all ... Sumit saved another break point in the 9th game and then after medical break broke Menendez-Mceiras for memorable victory ... In luck of the draw, Sumit is facing another qualifier Ilya Ivashka in the main draw ... Other hand Prajnesh stretched Monterio in both sets but failed to overcome.

---

At $50K+H Bangkok Challenger, Thailand

[Q2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,542) l (5) Dominik Koepfer (GER,305) 46 46

Sid lost in the straight sets against Koepfer.

Chess News

At FIDE World Blitz Championship 2017, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Photo Credit to Vishy's twitter

1 GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2986) 16 pts
T2 GM Sergey Karjakin (RUS,2854) 14½ pts
T2 GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2736) 14½ pts

After winning the Rapid World Championship Viswanathan Anand finished tied 2nd position in the Blitz World Championship ... Another excellent performance by 48 yrs old Anand to finish inside top 3 with 14½ pts from 21 games for winning the Bronze and $100,000 prize money ... Carlsen won the title comfortably with 16 pts ... Young Vidit Gujrathi gave solid performance to finished on 21st position with 12½ pts and Harikrishna finished on 25th with 12½ pts.

Tennis News

At $561K Tata Open Maharashtra 2018, Pune, India

[Q1] N. Sriram Balaji (IND,374) l (1) Thiago Monterio (BRA,124) 63 36 57
[Q1] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,243) bt (ALT) Jayesh Pungliya (IND,1009) 64 61
[Q1] (WC) Shahbaz Khan (IND,1377) l (2) Adrian Menendez-Mceiras (ESP,127) 26 06
[Q1] (6) Sumit Nagal (IND,223) bt (WC) Divij Sharan (IND,UNR) 62 63
[Q1] Sasi Kumar Mukund (IND,426) l (5) Richardo Ojera Lara (ESP,198) 26 16
[Q1] Vishnu Vardhan (IND,511) l (4) Carlos Taberner (ESP,185) 75 26 67(3)

[Q2] (8) Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND,243) vs (1) Thiago Monterio (BRA,124)
[Q2] (6) Sumit Nagal (IND,223) vs (2) Adrian Menendez-Mceiras (ESP,127)

[R1] (WC) Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,148) vs Roberto Carballes Baena (ESP,106)
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND,116) vs (WC) Arjun Kadhe (IND,603)

Doubles
[R1] Yuki Bhambri (IND)/ Divij Sharan (IND) vs Laslo Djere (SRB)/ Blaz Kavcic (SLO)
[R1] (4) Rohan Bopanna (IND)/ Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND) vs Leander Paes (IND)/ Purav Raja (IND)
[R1] (WC) N. Sriram Balaji (IND)/ Vishnu Vardhan (IND) vs Adil Shamasdin (CAN)/ Neal Skupski (GBR)
[R1] (WC) Arjun Kadhe (IND)/ Benoit Paire (FRA) vs (2) Robin Haase (NED)/ Matwe Middelkoop (NED)

Arjun is unlucky in the draw as he is facing Yuki in the singles and in the doubles, he is facing 2nd seed Dutch pair with Paire ... RamK is facing Spanish Carballes Baena and winner will be faced top-seed Cilic.

In the doubles, another cruel draw for Indians as Lee and Purav r facing last year's Chennai open champions Rohan and Jeevan ... Divij is playing with Yuki and they r facing Djere-Kavcic ... Bala and Vishnu start their year against Skupski and Shamasdin.

In the qualifying, only expected wins for Indians as Sumit and Prajnesh won their respective matches against Indian opponents easily ... Sumit will be facing top-130 Spanish Menendez-Mceiras for place in the main draw ... Prajnesh is facing top-125 Brazilian Monterio.

---

At $50K+H Bangkok Challenger, Thailand

[Q1] Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND,526) l (5) Dominik Koepfer (GER,305) 76(7) 26 16
[Q1] Sidharth Rawat (IND,542) bt (WC) Chaleechan Tanasugarn (THA,UNR) 62 60

[Q2] Sidharth Rawat (IND,542) vs (5) Dominik Koepfer (GER,305)

Sid and VSP r playing in Bangkok ... Mixed results for them, as VSP lost after winning the first set against his German opponent and Sid scored expected easy win against local unranked player ... Next, Sid is facing German Koepfer.

Chess News

At the FIDE World Rapid Men 2017 Championship, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Photo Credit to riyadh2017.fide.com

GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) bt GM Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS,2771) 1½-½

Tie-break 1 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS,2771) 1-0 (in 29 moves)
Tie-break 2 - GM Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS,2771) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) ½-½ (after 39 moves)

Round 1 - GM Varuzhan Akobian (USA,2620) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) 0-1
Round 2 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs Peter Leko (HUN,2671) 1-0
Round 3 - GM Gabriel Sargissian (ARM,2673) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) ½-½
Round 4 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Anton Demchenko (RUS,2667) 1-0
Round 5 - GM Ivan Cheparinov (FID,2694) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) ½-½
Round 6 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Pavel Ponkratov (RUS,2673) ½-½
Round 7 - GM Luke J McShane (ENG,2697) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) 0-1
Round 8 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Vladimir Fedoseev (RUS,2771) ½-½
Round 9 - GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR,2908) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) 0-1
Round 10 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Hao Wang (CHN,2770) ½-½
Round 11 - GM Peter Svidler (RUS,2743) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) ½-½
Round 12 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS,2780) ½-½
Round 13 - GM Vladimir Onischuk (UKR,2748) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) ½-½
Round 14 - GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) vs GM Alexander Grischuk (RUS,2813) 1-0
Round 15 - GM Xiangzhi Bu (CHN,2654) vs GM Viswanathan Anand (IND,2758) ½-½

48 yrs old Viswanathan Anand turned back the clock and lifted the World Rapid Championship ... In a a thrilling finale in which Anand claimed the title after the blitz tie-break with Vladimir Fedoseev ... He came from behind to win it in a three-way tie with Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vladimir Fedoseev ... Fedoseev and Anand had the better tiebreaks and so they played a two-game blitz matches, which won by Anand ... All three players split the prize money for the first three places.

Squash News

At $15K Men's Qatar Circuit #5 2017, Doha

[SF] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,73) l (1) Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi (QAT,37) 11-8, 11-9, 10-12, 7-11, 2-11 (59m)

Mahesh missed a huge opportunity of beating top-40 Al Tamini ... Mahesh won the first 2 games and had a match ball into the third ... Al Tamini made a strong comeback after winning the third game ... In the last game, he didn't give any chance to Mahesh.

Tennis News

Year end rankings of Indian players - 2017,

Men's singles players
116 Yuki Bhambri
148 Ramkumar Ramanathan
223 Sumit Nagal
243 Prajnesh Gunneswaran
374 N. Sriram Balaji
426 Sasi Kumar Mukund
511 Vishnu Vardhan
526 N Vijay Sundar Prashanth
542 Sidharth Rawat
597 Karunuday Singh
608 Arjun Kadhe

Men's doubles players (Top-200)
18 Rohan Bopanna
47 Divij Sharan
60 Purav Raja
63 Leander Paes
102 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan
116 Vishnu Vardhan
133 N. Sriram Balaji

Women's singles players (Top-800)
276 Ankita Raina
288 Karman Thandi
482 Pranjala Yadlapalli
525 Rutuja Bhosale
611 Riya Bhatia
628 Zeel Desai
736 Mahak Jain
740 Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal
780 Kanika Vaidya

Women's doubles players (Top-600)
12 Sania Mirza
144 Prarthana Thombare
193 Ankita Raina
309 Karman Thandi
487 Pranjala Yadlapalli
556 Kanika Vaidya
588 Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal
595 Rutuja Bhosale

In 2017, Yuki and Ramk showed good progress including, RamK's win over Dominic Thiem and Yuki's win over Gael Monfils ... Both r having good chance of entering into top-100 ... Sumit Nagal is also showing heartening progress and can be in top-150 very soon ... In the doubles, Divij and Purav r establishing as regular tour players ... Vishnu-Bala r trying their luck and having good chance of entering into top-100.

In women's side, Ankita looks stagnant but Karman is showing lot of improvement and challenging Ankita for India's #1 ... Pranjala also improving and Mahak looks exceptional talent.

Squash News

At $15K Men's Qatar Circuit #5 2017, Doha

[R1] Abhay Singh (IND,150) bt Sandeep Ramachandran (IND,424) 11-3 retd.
[R1] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,73) bt Ahmad Al Mudhaf (KUW,334) 11-6, 11-1, 11-2 (23m)
[R1] (Q) Guhan Senthilkumar (IND,308) l Enzo Corigliano (FRA,163) 11-5, 3-11, 6-11, 8-11 (40 m)

[R2] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,73) bt Abhay Singh (IND,150) 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 (25m)

[QF] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,73) bt (8) Matias Tuomi (FIN,142) 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 (29m)

[SF] Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND,73) vs (1) Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi (QAT,37)

Mahesh is in the semis with comfortable three wins in Qatar ... In the semis, he will be faced a tough challenge of local top-40 player.

Tennis News

At $447K The Tata Open Maharashtra 2018, Pune, India

The Singles Wild-cards - Yuki Bhambri (IND,116), Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,142) and Arjun Kadhe (IND,610)

The Tata open organizers broke the trend and announced all wild-cards to Indians - Yuki, RamK and Arjun ... In the doubles, the defending champions Rohan and Jeevan r back together for this tournament ... Lee and Purav r playing together and Divij is starting with his confirmed partner for 2018 season, American Scott Lipsky ... Vishnu and Bala r in to the alternate list.

Snooker News

At £367K German Masters Qualifiers 2017, Barnsley, England

[FQ] Aditya Mehta (IND,81) l Matthew Selt (ENG,45) 4-5 (45-66, 70(70)-0, 73(51)-42, 73-0, 97(66)-4, 23-90(63), 40-59, 45-82(66), 1-104

Aditya had a tense match against higher ranked Selt ... But in end, a big missed opportunity as he lost after losing last four frames ... An early, Aditya was in a driving seat ... He scored a three 50+ breaks in first 5 frames and was leading 4-1 ... Selt made a strong comeback winning next four frames in a row ... In the seventh frame, Aditya missed chance to complete the win.

Badminton News

Year end rankings of Indian players - 2017,

Men's Singles
3 Srikanth Kidambi
10 H. S. Prannoy
16 B. Sai Praneeth
30 Sameer Varma
38 Ajay Jayaram
49 Sourabh Varma

Women's Singles
3 P. V. Sindhu
10 Saina Nehwal
58 Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli
80 Ruthvika Shivani Gadde

Men's Doubles
31 Satwiksairaj Ranikreddy/ Chirag Shetty
32 Manu Attri/ B. Sumeeth Reddy
41 Arjun M.R./ Shlok Ramchandran
44 Alwin Francis/ Tarun Kona

Women's Doubles
28 Sikki Reddy/ Ashwini Ponnappa
48 Meghana Jakkampudi/ Poorvisha S Ram
53 Sanjana Santosh/ Arathi Sara Sunil

Mixed Doubles
18 Pranav Chopra/ Sikki Reddy
43 Yogendran Khrishnan (MAS)/ Prajakta Sawant
71 Saurabh Sharma/ Anoushka Parikh
72 Satwiksairaj Ranikreddy/ Ashwini Ponnappa

This year, we have some amazing performance ... Sindhu won Silver at World Championship and Superseries Finals ... Srikanth won four Superseries titles in a year ... Prannoy winning his first Superseries title ... Saina showed consistency but needs to improve on her fitness for coming back into to-5 ... In the doubles also, we are showing huge improvement under Malaysian Tan Kim Her ... Having lots of hope from young Satwiksairaj Ranikreddy.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Navi Mumbai, India

[SF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) l Diana Marcinkevica (LAT,294) 46 46

Doubles Final
Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Tamara Zidansek (SLO) l (2) Georgina Garcia Perez (ESP)/ Diana Marcinkevica (LAT) 06 16

[SF] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Tamara Zidansek (SLO) bt (1) Olga Doroshina (RUS)/ Polina Monova (RUS) 64 26 13-11
[QF] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Tamara Zidansek (SLO) bt Ganna Poznikhirenko (UKR)/ Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) 63 62
[R1] Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND)/ Tamara Zidansek (SLO) bt (WC) Akanksha Dileep Nitture (IND)/ Saumya Vig (IND) 61 60

I was hoping a win for Ankita but she lost in the straight sets against Latvian Marcinkevica.

Pranjala and Tamara failed to challenge the 2nd seed Marcinkevica and Garcia Perez in their one-sided loss in the final ... Before that in the semis, they defeated the top-seed Russian pair in marathon match tie-break.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Navi Mumbai, India

[QF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) bt Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,288) 75 75

[SF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) vs Diana Marcinkevica (LAT,294)

Ankita scored a hard fought win over Karman for entering in to the semis ... In the both sets, Karman was 4-2 lead but both times Ankita made a comeback and won the sets 7-5 ... Next, she is facing Latvian Marcinkevica, who scored an upset win over 2nd seed.

Snooker News

At £367K German Masters Qualifiers 2017, Barnsley, England

[Q1] Aditya Mehta (IND,81) bt (A) Ben Jones (WAL) 5-1 (82-59, 62-8, 14-84(84), 63-23, 110(59)-19, 96(83)-40)

[QF] Aditya Mehta (IND,81) vs Matthew Selt (ENG,45)

Aditya in the final qualifier with easy win over an armature players from Wales ... Not a clean performance but still good start ... In the final qualifying, he is facing top-50 British player Selt.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Navi Mumbai, India

[R2] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) bt (Q) Ekaterina Yashina (RUS,546)
[R2] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,288) bt (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,200) 63 60

[QF] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) vs Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,288)

Karman scoed a huge upset against top-200 Chinese girl Lu losing only three games ... Ankita also joined her into the quarters with comfortable win over russian girl ... So, all Indians quarter final is planned.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Navi Mumbai, India

[R1] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) bt (WC) Rutuja Bhosale (IND,571) 63 75
[R2] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,288) bt (Q) Sarah Beth Grey (GBR,604) 64 63
[R1] (WC) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,484) l (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,200) 26 06
[R1] (WC) Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,740) l Estelle Cascino (FRA,415) 16 06
[R1] (WC) Akanksha Nitture (IND,UNR) l (2) Polina Monova (RUS,176) 06 06

[R2] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,276) vs (Q) Ekaterina Yashina (RUS,546)
[R2] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,288) vs (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,200)

As expected, only two Indians scored a win in the first round ... This week, Ankita scored a win over Rutuja and also, the straight sets win for Karman against British qualifier ... Ankita will be faced Russian qualifier and Karman having a tough match against top-200 Chinese girl Lu, who scored a dominated win over Pranjala losing only two games.

Badminton News

At $1M Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017, United Arab Emirates (Superseries Premier)

Women's Singles Final
Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) l Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) 15-21 21-12 21-19

Yamaguchi won another match against Sindhu on better stamina and patience ... Sindhu took a 13-8 lead from 5-8 down, Yamaguch reduced it to 14-13 but Sindhu won next 6 points and converted the 2nd game point ... In the second game, Sindhu was leading 8-5, but from here Yamaguchi took a control of the game and won it comfortably ... In the final game, some excellent long rallies played between Sindhu and Yamaguchi ... Yamaguchi executed her plan perfectly as she tired Sindhu playing long rallies ... Sindhu took an early 4-0 lead and kept a couple of points lead until 13-11 ... Yamaguchi caught her at 13-all and took a crucial lead at 15-17 ... After that, she kept the lead and won the match converting the first match point in 94 minutes... Both players were visibly tired while playing last 8-10 points and in that, Yamaguchi showed patience and Sindhu committed unforced errors.

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tennis Tournament 2017, Navi Mumbai, India

[R1] (5) Ankita Raina (IND,275) vs (WC) Rutuja Bhosale (IND,571)
[R2] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,285) vs (Q) Sarah Beth Grey (GBR,604)
[R1] (WC) Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND,484) vs (3) Jia-Jing Lu (CHN,201)
[R1] (WC) Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal (IND,740) vs Estelle Cascino (FRA,415)
[R1] (WC) Akanksha Nitture (IND,UNR) vs (2) Polina Monova (RUS,176)

Another match between Ankita and Rutuja, last week Rutuja defeated her in three sets ... Pranjala again having a tough match against top-200 Chinese opponent ... Karman is facing British qualifier ... Dhruthi and Akanksha having tough opponents.

Golf News

At $750K Indonesian Masters 2017, Jakarta (Asian Tour)

T8 Ajeetesh Sandhu (IND) 72 68 67 67 -14 $17,212.50
T11 Shubhankar Sharma (IND) 71 67 67 71 -12 $12,638.00
T13 Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) 67 71 72 67 -11 $10,631.75
T20 Shiv Kapur (IND) 70 67 73 69 -9 $7,942.60
T20 Chikkarangappa S. (IND) 68 67 69 75 -9 $7,942.60
T51 Jyoti Randhawa (IND) 75 67 70 74 -2 $2,970.00
T59 Honey Boisoya (IND) 72 69 71 76 PAR $2,325.00
T69 Rashid Khan (IND) 72 70 75 74 +3 $1,650.00

Chika missed a big opportunity to finish inside top-5 and ended in tied 20th position and ended season on 61st position ... Only Ajeetesh managed to finish inside top 10 with 14 under.

Badminton News

At $1M Dubai World Superseries Finals 2017, United Arab Emirates (Superseries Premier)

[SF] Pusarla V. Sindhu (IND,3) bt Yufei Chen (CHN,8) 21-15 21-18
[SF] Akane Yamaguchi (JPN,2) bt Ratchanok Intanon (THA,6) 17-21 21-12 21-19

Sindhu is in her first final of the Superseries Finals ... She defeated Chinese Yufei Chen in the straight games ... After winning the first game Sindhu took early lead, but after 11-15 down Chen tried fight back to take 16-15 lead ... Sindhu kept her composure and won the match converted first match point ... In the final, Sindhu will be facing Yamaguchi, whom she defeated comfortably in her group match.