Table Tennis News

At Chengdu Airlines 2019 Men's World Cup, Chengdu, China

[R16] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) l (8) Timo Boll (GER,) 1-4 (11-7, 8-11, 5-11, 9-11, 8-11)

Timo Boll ended the fairytale for Sathiyan Gnanasekaran at the Men’s World Cup ... Timo won 4-1 in a classy lesson after staying calm against a fiery opponent ... Sathiyan shows with his performances in Chengdu, that he has a bright future ahead.

Tennis News

At the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I - 2019, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

India bt Pakistan 4-0
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,176) bt Muhammad Shoaib (PAK,UNR) 60 60
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,131) bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman (PAK,UNR) 60 62

[R3] Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND)/ Leander Paes (IND) bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman (PAK)/ Muhammad Shoaib (PAK) 61 63

[R4] Sumit Nagal (IND,131) bt Yousaf Khalil (PAK,1680) 61 60

On the second day, we completed the tie win in 53 minutes when Jeevan and Lee expectedly won their match comfortably ... A better performance by these Pakistani kids as they won 4 games in this match ... This was Jeevan's first win in his debut Davis Cup tie ... In the fourth match, Jeevan scored the fastest win of this tie in 32 minutes losing a single game against Khalil ... With this win, the Indians completed a victory and they will face a 2-times Davis cup winner Croatia in away match in the qualifier in March 2020.

Table Tennis News

At Chengdu Airlines 2019 Men's World Cup, Chengdu, China

Group D
[M1] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) bt Simon Gauzy (FRA,22) 4-3 (11-13, 9-11, 11-8, 14-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8)
[M2] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) bt Jonathan Groth (DEN,24) 4-2 (11-3, 12-10, 7-11, 16-14, 8-11, 11-8)

[R16] Sathiyan Gnanasekaran (IND,30) vs (8) Timo Boll (GER,)

Sathiyan playing in the season-ending World Cup ... He qualified for the main-draw from Group D with 2 top-notch wins against his higher-ranked European opponents ... In the first match, he was 0-2 down against Gauzy before making an excellent comeback ... In the round-16, Sathiyan is facing a former WR #1 Timo Boll.

Tennis News

At the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I - 2019, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan

India vs Pakistan 2-0
[R1] Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND,176) bt Muhammad Shoaib (PAK,UNR) 60 60
[R2] Sumit Nagal (IND,131) bt Huzaifa Abdul Rehman (PAK,UNR) 60 62

It is painful to post a score of this tie as these Pakistani teenagers r no match to our players ... A 42 mins annihilation by Ram of his opponent Muhammad Shoaib ... Sumit scored his first Davis Cup win in 64 minutes losing 2 games.

Archery News

At Asian continental qualification tournament for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Bangkok, Thailand

Recurve Women's Gold Medal match
(1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) 6-0 (27-24, 27-26, 27-26)

[SF] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (13) Nguyet Do Thi Anh (VIE) 6-2 (27-27, 28-23, 28-28, 25-24)
[SF] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (31) Karma (BHU) 6-2 (24-21, 25-27, 27-20, 29-25)

[QF] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (24) Narisara Khunhiranchaiyo (THA) 6-2 (27-25, 27-24, 24-26, 29-27)
[QF] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (14) Anastassiya Bannova (KAZ) 6-4 (23-26, 26-23, 20-24, 24-21, 25-17)

[R3] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (17) Zahra Nemati (IRI) 6-4 (25-25, 26-26, 26-23, 22-26, 28-26)
[R3] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (11) Nguyen Thi Phuong (VIE) 6-0 (28-26, 27-22, 27-25)

[R2] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bt (33) Nur Afisa Abdul Halil (MAS) 7-3 (28-24, 28-26, 27-27, 27-28, 24-23)
[R2] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bt (38) Lam Shuk Ching Ada (HKG) 7-1 (28-22, 27-24, 28-28, 27-23)

[R1] (1) Deepika Kumari (IND) bye
[R1] (6) Ankita Bhakat (IND) bye

We secure a quota in the women’s archery Tokyo 2020, as Deepika Kumari secured a gold beating her compatriot Ankita Bhakat in the Asian continental qualification tournament final in Bangkok ... There were 3 recurve men’s and 3 recurve women’s places available ... A country can only participate if they had not already won a space in that category ... Each country can win a maximum of one space in each category ... This quota place also means that we are also guaranteed to have a spot in the mixed team competition.

Before this in the Asian Championship, our recurve archers won 4 bronze medals - men's team and women's team, Atanu Das won beating a Korean in men's individual, and our mixed pair team of Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari also won a bronze.

Tennis News

Singles rankings (2018 year-end rankings in bracket)
125 Gunneswaran, Prajnesh (110)
131 Sumit Nagal (340)
176 Ramkumar Ramanathan (133)
271 Sasi Kumar Mukund (295)
392 Saketh Myneni (259)
498 Siddharth Rawat (432)
596 Arjun Kadhe (392)
671 Manish Sureshkumar (581)
823 Aryan Goveas
972 S.D. Prajwal Dev

Doubles rankings (2018 year-end rankings in bracket)
38 Rohan Bopanna (37)
46 Divij Sharan (39)
89 Purav Raja (91)
105 Leander Paes (64)
111 Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (75)
134 Ramkumar Ramanathan (233)
137 N. Sriram Balaji (111)
197 Saketh Myneni (202)
201 Arjun Kadhe (169)
203 Vishnu Vardhan (126)

As this is an end of challenger season for our players, here are the 2019 year-end rankings for them ... In the singles, only Sumit having a standout performance to climb in the top-140 rankings ... He is having a good chance to break in the top-100 as he is defending only 6 points till March 2020 ... Prajnesh struggled with injury and niggles and that affected his performance on the court ... Ram struggled with the form but managed to remain inside the top-200 ... Hoping, 2020 can be a breakthrough year for Mukund.

In the doubles also, our players remained stagnant, hoping better results from them in the Olympics year.

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Sania Mirza confirmed that she will be back in competitive tennis at Hobart International in January 2020, two years after taking a maternity break ... She will play at Hobart International in January with Ukraine's Nadiia Kichenok and in the 2020 Australian Open mixed doubles with American Rajeev Ram.

Hockey News

At Tokyo Olympics 2020,

Men
Pool A: Australia, Argentina, India, Spain, New Zealand, Japan
Pool B: Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Canada, South Africa

Women
Pool A: Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, India, South Africa
Pool B: Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Spain, China, Japan

The FIH has now confirmed the Tokyo 2020 pools ... We are in the tougher pools, our men's team (WR #5) with the 2016 Rio Men’s Gold medallists, Argentina (WR #4), Australia (WR #1), Spain (WR #8), New Zealand (WR #9) and hosts Japan (WR #15) ... And our women's team (WR #9) with the 2016 Rio Women’s Gold medallists, Great Britain (WR #5), the Netherlands (WR #1), Germany (WR #4), Ireland (WR #8), and South Africa (WR #16)

Badminton News

At $25K Scottish Open 2019, Glasgow, Scotland (International Challenge)

[R1] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Luka Wraber (AUT,98) 21-13 21-8
[R2] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Kiran George (IND,125) 21-17 21-19
[QF] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt (6) Brian Yang (CAN,71) 21-12 21-15
[SF] (1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt Christo Popov (FRA,133) 9-21 21-8 22-20

Men's Singles Final
(1) Lakshya Sen (IND,41) bt (4) Ygor Coelho (BRA,58) 18-21 21-18 21-19

Lakshya ended his training cum tournament stint win a title win in the Scottish Open ... He trained under Morten Frost for 3 months and participated in the European tournaments ... In Scotland, he won the title after losing the first game against Ygor Coelho ... Lakshya made unforced errors but kept fighting till the end for winning the title ... Before that in the semis, he defeated a French youngster, Christo Popov, in 3 games ... Lakshya saved a match point at 19-20 in the decider, this was a good win considering Popov defeated him in the last week at the Irish Open's second round.

Golf News

At $300K Sabah Masters 2019, Sabah, Malaysia (Asian Tour)

T2 Aman Raj 68 70 70 63 -13  $22,300
T5 Rashid Khan 67 70 69 68 -10  $10,280
T12 Udayan Mane 68 68 69 71 -8  $4,377
T21 Aadil Bedi 70 70 70 69 -5  $3,000
T39 Karandeep Kochhar 71 69 69 73 -2  $1,780
T50 Khalin Joshi 68 74 70 72 PAR  $1,260
60 Jyoti Randhawa 69 74 71 73 +3  $960

Good to see our new players are doing better on the Asian tour ... But another 2nd place finishes for us, Aman Raj was tied for the 1st with 3 other golfers ... He lost in a play-off to finish in the 2nd position.

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At $6.6M The RSM Classic 2019, Saint Simons Island, Georgia

T50 Anirban Lahiri (IND) 71 67 66 72 -6 $17,006

Anirban had a poor 2-over final round, which slid him down in the final standing

Tennis News

At $25K ITF Women's Tournament 2019, Bhopal, India

P.C. to Karman's FB page

[R1] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (LL) Snehal Mane (IND,1248) 61 61
[R2] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (2) Ankita Raina (IND,187) 36 63 76(3)
[QF] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (Q) Karin Kennel (SUI,533), 62 26 64
[SF] Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) bt (Q) Melanie Klaffner (AUT,588) 36 75 62

Singles Final
Karman Kaur Thandi (IND,611) l (4) Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN,266) 16 1-3 retd.

P.C. to Rutuja's FB page

Doubles
[R1] (1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Vlada Katic (ISR)/ Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) 62 64
[QF] (1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Jennifer Luikham (IND)/ Mihika Yadav (IND) 63 63
[SF] (1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (4) Karin Kennel (SUI)/ Silvia Njiric (CRO) w/o

Doubles Final
(1) Rutuja Bhosale (IND)/ Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt (3) Diana Marcinkevica (LAT)/ Valeriya Strakhova (UKR) 64 75

In her second tournament from a long injury break, Karman reached into the final but retired due to fatigue ... As before this, she played continuous 3 three-setter matches ... Still, a good performance from Karman ... Last week at Gwalior also, Karmar reached in the quarters ... Also, Sowjanya Bavisetti performed really well, she reached in the semis at Gwalior and this week in the quarters.

In the doubles, Rutuja and her partner Emily Webley-Smith won the title without losing a set.

Squash News

At $106K Men's Channel VAS Championship 2019, Weybridge, Surrey, England (World Tour Gold)

[R1] (7) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) bye
[R2] (7) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) bt (9/16) Tom Richards (ENG,26) 11-3, 11-5, 11-5 (37m)

[QF] (7) Saurav Ghosal (IND,11) l (1) Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY,2) 11-5, 9-11, 9-11, 12-10, 10-12 (85m)

As per the report, Saurav played one of the best squash of his life in the quarters against ElShorbagy ... Last week, ElShorbagy defeated Saurav in 3 games at the World Championship ... But here, he has tested the top seed Mohamed ElShorbagy to the limit, he had a match ball before losing the match in extra points in the decider.

They r calling this as one of the best matches of the last year ... Both players played a fast and accurate squash ... In the decider, Saurav was 2-8 down and he caught with Elshorbagy at 9-all and had a match ball at 10-9 but wrong shot selection cost him a win.

Hockey News

At the FIH Pro League 2020,

India's FIH Men's Pro League Schedule, Timings (IST), Venues

Saturday, Jan 18, 2020 - India vs the Netherlands - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Sunday, Jan 19 - India vs the Netherlands - 5 pm - Bhubaneswar
Saturday, Feb 8 – India vs Belgium - 5 pm - Bhubaneswar
Sunday, Feb 9 - India vs Belgium - 5 pm - Bhubaneswar
Friday, Feb 22 – India vs Australia - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Saturday, Feb 23 - India vs Australia - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Saturday, April 25 – Germany vs India - 5.30 pm - Berlin
Sunday, April 26 - Germany vs India - 3.30 pm - Berlin
Saturday, May 2 – Great Britain vs India - 2 pm - London
Sunday, May 3 - Great Britain vs India - 2 pm - London
Saturday, May 23 – India vs New Zealand - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Sunday, May 24 - India vs New Zealand - 7 pm - Bhubaneswar
Friday, June 5 – Argentina vs India - 5 pm - Tucuman
Saturday, June 6 - Argentina vs India - 5 pm - Tucuman
Saturday, June 13 – Spain vs India - 1 pm - Valencia
Sunday, June 14 - Spain vs India - 1 pm - Valencia

Indian men's hockey team will begin its Pro League campaign at home against world #3 Netherlands on January 18 and 19 ... Bhubaneswar's Kalinga Stadium will host Indian men's hockey team's FIH Pro League matches ... I am surprised to see, we don't find any other venue for our matches other than Bhubaneswar.

Equestrian News

At the South Asia East, Oceania (a 4-star level tournament for Olympics qualifications), Germany

Group G - Individual Eventing Category
1. Fouaad Mirza (IND) 64 pts.

Our equestrian Fouaad Mirza secured an Olympic quota after finishing as a top-ranked rider in his group at the 4-star level tournament for Olympics qualifications in Germany ... He scored 64 pts. to become a highest-ranked rider in the Group G for the South Asia East, Oceania in the individual eventing category after the end of the European stage ... The official confirmation will be announced by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) on February 20.

After 20 years our equestrian is qualified for the Olympics ... Before this, Imtiaz Anees (2000 Sydney) and late Wing Commander IJ Lamba (1996 Atlanta) were represented India in the Olympics.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[SF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) l Andre Begemann (GER)/ Daniel Masur (GER) 76(3) 36 9-11

With this loss end of ATP 2019 season for Indians ... VSP and Mukund lost a close match against the Germans, Masur, and Begemann, after winning the first set ... Our pair had 2 match-points at 9-7 which they failed to convert.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[QF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (WC) Tiago Cacao (POR)/ Joao Monteiro (POR) 76(6) 64

[SF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs Andre Begemann (GER)/ Daniel Masur (GER)

VSP and Mukund r in the semis with a tight straight sets win over a local pair ... Next, they r facing a German pair for a place in the final.

Badminton News

At $200K Gwangju Korea Masters 2019, Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300)

[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,20) l Donghun Kim (KOR,112) 19-21 12-21
[R2] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,11) l Kanta Tsuneyama (JPN,14) 14-21 19-21

A bad day for Indians as our both players lost in the second round ... Srikanth struggled against the top-15 opponent continues ... He lost in straight games against Tsuneyama ... I was hoping that Sameer will take revenge for his brother's loss against Kim ... But he also succumbed into straight games loss.

Golf News

Race to Dubai Rankings for 2019 Season,

65 Shubhankar Sharma €676,961.77
115 Gaganjeet Bhullar €298,882.27
173 SSP Chawrasia €107,068.01

At Final Qualifying Stage Lumine 2019, Tarragona, Spain

4 SSP Chawrasia (IND) 69 66 71 67 69 69 -17

Shubhankar Sharma and Gaganjeet Bhullar have retained their playing card for the 2020 season, but our players failed to win any tournament ... Shubhankar had 3 top-10 finishes and Gaganjeet had one.

SSP lost his playing card after finishing on the #173, but he grabs the 2020's playing card after finishing on the 4th position of the 6 rounds Q-School ... So again our 3 players; Shubhankar, Gaganjeet, and SSP; will be playing on the 2020 European tour.

Tennis News

At €46.6K+H Maia Challenger 2019, Portugal

[R1] (4) Scott Clayton (GBR)/ Purav Raja (IND) l (WC) Goncalo Falcao (POR)/ Pedro Sousa (POR) 36 26
[R1] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) bt (3) Luca Margaroli (SUI)/ Andrea Vavassori (ITA) 06 64 11-9

[QF] Sasikumar Mukund (IND)/ N Vijay Sundar Prashanth (IND) vs (WC) Tiago Cacao (POR)/ Joao Monteiro (POR)

VSP and Mukund scored an excellent comeback win over the 3rd seed pairing after losing the first set 0-6 ... Next, they r facing a local wild-card pair.
Purav and his partner Clayton lost in straight sets against a local wild-card pair.

Football News

At 2022 World Cup Qualifiers - AFC Second Round, Muscat, Oman

Oman bt India 1-0 (1-0)
Goal Scored - Muhsen Al Ghassani (OMA) 32'

We lost 0-1 against a better Oman-side ... The superior Oman-side was looking threatening from the start ... Muhsen won the penalty after Bheke fouled him inside the box in the 6th minute, but he hit over the cross-bar ... But Oman-side deservingly took a lead in the 32nd minute when Muhsen scored ... After that, we tried but their defense was better and they also missed a lot of chances.

Badminton News

At $200K Gwangju Korea Masters 2019, Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea (HSBC BWF World Tour Super 300)

[R1] Sameer Verma (IND,20) bt Kazumasa Sakai (JPN,69) 11-8 retd.
[R1] Sourabh Verma (IND,36) l Donghun Kim (KOR,112) 21-13 12-21 13-21
[R1] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,11) bt Wing Ki Vincent Wong (HKG,37) 21-18 21-17

[R2] Sameer Verma (IND,20) vs Donghun Kim (KOR,112)
[R2] (6) Kidambi Srikanth (IND,11) vs Kanta Tsuneyama (JPN,14)

Sameer's opponent Sakai retired in the middle of the first game ... Next, he is facing a local player, Donghun Kim, who defeated his brother Sourabh after losing the first game.
Srikanth started with straight games win over Wing Ki Vincent Wong ... Next, he is facing a similar ranked Japanese, Tsuneyama.