Monday, September 14, 2009

Paes lift 10th Grand Slam, Wins men’s doubles in US Open

Leander Paes and Luaks Dlouhy

Indian top tennis player Leander Paes won the men’s doubles title of US Open. It is his 10th Grand Slam. He and his partner Luaks Dlouhy defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. However, he lost the finals of doubles mix a couple of days ago. In the mix doubles he partnered with Kara black. On the other hand, Mahesh Bhupathi could not lift the title this too in a period of seven years.

For Paes it is his fifth men's doubles Grand Slam crown, 41st overall, and second with Dlouhy. It was also second title of the year for the seasoned Paes, who won French Open in June along with Dlouhy. Interestingly, Mahesh’s last victory came at the US Open only when he triumphed with Max Mirnyi in 2002. He had won the Australian Open mixed doubles title with Sania Mirza at the start of the season.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Yuki replaced Sanam in Davis Cup tie

Yuki Bhambri


Yuki Bhambri has got place in Indian Davis Cup team for the World Group play off tie against South Africa. Yuki will join the team with Somdev Devvarman, Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. Announcing Yuki’s name for the Davis Cup All India Tennis Association (AITA), it said that Yuki will replace Sanam Singh who is a reserve player for the tie against Chinese Taipei.

The matches will start from 18 and last till 20th of September. The coach of team will be Nanadan Bal while S.P. Misra has again been given the responsibility of non-playing captain. This will be crucial tie for India as there are chances of entering into the World Group after a gap of 11 years.

This chance also comes as a fruit to India since Australia didn’t come up to India for security reasons and India advances. A selector said that Bopanna is fully fit after an injury.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Nanao advances in World Boxing




Another good news for India has come from World Boxing Championship in Milan, Italy. After clearing first round by Jai Bhagwan, Nanao Singh also joined him for the second round. It may be recalled that top Indian boxers are already pushed out of the championship. Asian champion Suranjoy Singh (51kg), Olympian Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar (54kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) are the pugilists who lost their opening round bouts. But in the 48kg event, Nanao Singh did his best when he finish 21-6 win over Mamishzade Elvin of Azerbaijan in the first round.

Nanao dominated the game all the time. He was leading 7-2 at the close of the first round. The boxer managed to keep scoring points and stormed in the second round easily. But the road ahead will not be a bad of roses for him as he has to fight with Thai Pongprayoon Kaeo. Nanao could not give answers to the punches of Pongprayoon at the finals of the Asian Boxing Championships and had to contended with silver medal.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Vijender will not miss Khel Ratna ceremony

Vijender Singh

Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh don't want to miss a life time opportunity that is Khel Ratan ceremony on 29 August at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. It may be recalled that Vijender was selected for Khel Ratan. In order to be present at the ceremony, Vijender has postponed his departure for the World Championships by a couple of days.

In fact, he had to depart for WC on August 27 with his nine member team but now he will fly on the night of August 29. Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) has allowed him to attend the ceremony along with team's assistant coach Jaidev Bisht who is to be awarded Dronacharya award the same day. Now Bisht will departure on the night of August 29.

In fact IBF had requested to held a separate award ceremony for these two but they didn't get any positive response from the sports ministry. So the IBF allowed the sportsmen to attend the ceremony themselves. It may be recalled that Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virendra Sehwag didn't attend the same kind of award ceremony for some reasons and had to face criticism.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Vishnu booked seat for quarterfinals

Vishnu Vardhan

Vishnu Vardhan, top-seed in the ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament, outplayed his British rival Max Jones 6-1,3-6, 6-3. This win get him the quarterfinals' berth. Vishnu won the first set with classic game and lost the second one.

But he bounced back in the third set to register a deserving win. He will take on Rupesh Roy in the last eight. Rupesh Roy won his match against Manuja. After the win Vishnu said that he was not up to the mark and it will take some time to adjust on the court.

He felt the balls heavy and attempted to just play his game. “I like playing Rupesh. We have played a lot right from the junior days. He makes you play so much more and is a tough competitor,” said Vishnu as he viewed the quarterfinal outing.

Monday, August 10, 2009

India still in the race of semis'

Indian women's hockey team


BOSTON: Indian women's hockey team registered a convincing win over Chile. After this 3-1 win over Chile, Indian team is still in the race of semifinal at the Women's Junior Hockey World Cup here. For India Poonam Rani scored two goals in the 28th and 62nd minute. Roselin Dung Dung joined Poonam and scored a point in the 68th minute.


The first goal of the match was scored by Andrea Greene in the 15th minute for Chile. With this win, India now have six points but are behind England, Australia and Korea in the six-team Pool E. The Indians had gone down to England by a solitary goal in their pool opener.


In Sunday's match, Chile took the initial edge but the persistent Indians won the game with a strong comeback in the second half. The Chileans earned several penalty corners in the first half but apart from Andrea's strike, Indian goalkeeper Jasdeep Kaur did well to save all.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Gagan three steps away from top 200

Gaganjeet Bhullar

NEW DELHI: Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar's stunning performance is to take him to the top 200 world ranking. In addition to this, he is at seventh place in the Asian Tour Order of Merit.


Thanks to his maiden winning performance in Asian Tour title in Jakarta last month followed by back-to-back victories. However, Bhullar could not win the Brunei Open recently. As of now, he is at 203 world rankings. Among the other names from India, Jeev Milkha Singh tops the chart with 41 world golf rankings while Jyoti Randhawa captured 164th ranks.


Nevertheless, Bhullar is well ahead from US-based compatriot Arjun Atwal (310) and Delhi pro Shiv Kapur (422). Bhullar also continued to climb the Asian Tour Order of Merit ladder, occupying the seventh place, thanks to the USD 150,366 he earned from 10 events.

Thai stalwart Thongchai Jaidee leads the Order of Merit chart with USD 749,290 against his name, while Randhawa (246,745) is placed third in the list.