Sunday, April 30, 2006

Indian Sports News -

Golf News -

In APGA tour mixed day for Indians in third round ... Amandeep played controlled round of 2 under to remain inside top 10 ... Gaurav scored 3 under round to move inside top 20 ... But Rahil continued with his on and off game ... He scored 4 over round to fell 61st position from inside top 20.

1 LEE Sung (KOR) 67 66 69 202 -14
2 SUK Jong-ryul (KOR) 67 69 68 204 -12
3 J B HOLMES (USA) 71 71 63 205 -11
3 Bryan SALTUS (USA) 69 68 68 205 -11
5 KIM Dae-sub (KOR) 68 70 68 206 -10

8 Amandeep JOHL IND 69 69 70 208 -8
19 Gaurav GHEI IND 72 70 69 211 -5
61 Rahil GANGJEE IND 71 70 76 217 +1

On PGA tour Arjun and Daniel scored over par rounds and missed the cut in New Orleanse where last year both had top 10 finish.

And on JPGA tour Jeev continued with his good form and remain in top 5 ... He ended third round with -8 and tied for 4th position ... Today in last round after playing 14th hole Jeev is even for the day ... And now fell to tied 10th position.
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Table Tennis News -

Indian women missed golden opportunity to remain in world group ... After leading 2-0 against USA they lost next three matches to knocked out of from Championship division .. :(

India l US 2-3
Poulomi Ghatak bt Jun Gao 11-6, 11-7, 1-11, 11-9
Mouma Das bt Jasna Reed 11-6, 11-8, 11-7
Nandita Saha l Crystal Huang 3-11, 12-10, 6-11, 9-11
Mouma Das l Jun Gao 11-5, 4-11, 4-11, 4-11
Poulomi Ghatak l Jasna Reed 6-11, 4-11, 12-14
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Badminton News -

India pulled thrilling victory against formidable Germany to move into PQF and also avoid tougher opponent ... In PQF they will meet NewZeland.

And credit of our victory goes to last minute makeshift pair Rupesh Kumar and Diju, who defeated world no. 17 pair in the fifth deciding match.

India bt Germany 3-2
Chetan Anand l Bjoern Joppien 17-21, 12-21
Anup Sridhar bt Conrad Hueckstaedt 22-20, 14-21, 21-6
Aravind Bhat bt Roman Spitko 21-14, 17-21, 21-16
Thomas Kurien-Jaseel Ismail l Kristof Hopp-Ingo Kindervater 9-21, 16-21
Rupesh Kumar-V Diju bt Michael Fuchs-Roman Spitko 21-18, 21-12
Indian Sports News -

Golf News -

In APGA tour mixed day for Indians in third round ... Amandeep played controlled round of 2 under to remain inside top 10 ... Gaurav scored 3 under round to move inside top 20 ... But Rahil continued with his on and off game ... He scored 4 over round to fell 61st position from inside top 20.

1 LEE Sung (KOR) 67 66 69 202 -14
2 SUK Jong-ryul (KOR) 67 69 68 204 -12
3 J B HOLMES (USA) 71 71 63 205 -11
3 Bryan SALTUS (USA) 69 68 68 205 -11
5 KIM Dae-sub (KOR) 68 70 68 206 -10

8 Amandeep JOHL IND 69 69 70 208 -8
19 Gaurav GHEI IND 72 70 69 211 -5
61 Rahil GANGJEE IND 71 70 76 217 +1

On PGA tour Arjun and Daniel scored over par rounds and missed the cut in New Orleanse where last year both had top 10 finish.

And on JPGA tour Jeev continued with his good form and remain in top 5 ... He ended third round with -8 and tied for 4th position ... Today in last round after playing 14th hole Jeev is even for the day ... And now fell to tied 10th position.
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Table Tennis News -

Indian women missed golden opportunity to remain in world group ... After leading 2-0 against USA they lost next three matches to knocked out of from Championship division .. :(

India l US 2-3
Poulomi Ghatak bt Jun Gao 11-6, 11-7, 1-11, 11-9
Mouma Das bt Jasna Reed 11-6, 11-8, 11-7
Nandita Saha l Crystal Huang 3-11, 12-10, 6-11, 9-11
Mouma Das l Jun Gao 11-5, 4-11, 4-11, 4-11
Poulomi Ghatak l Jasna Reed 6-11, 4-11, 12-14
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Badminton News -

India pulled thrilling victory against formidable Germany to move into PQF and also avoid tougher opponent ... In PQF they will meet NewZeland.

And credit of our victory goes to last minute makeshift pair Rupesh Kumar and Diju, who defeated world no. 17 pair in the fifth deciding match.

India bt Germany 3-2
Chetan Anand l Bjoern Joppien 17-21, 12-21
Anup Sridhar bt Conrad Hueckstaedt 22-20, 14-21, 21-6
Aravind Bhat bt Roman Spitko 21-14, 17-21, 21-16
Thomas Kurien-Jaseel Ismail l Kristof Hopp-Ingo Kindervater 9-21, 16-21
Rupesh Kumar-V Diju bt Michael Fuchs-Roman Spitko 21-18, 21-12

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Indian Sports News -

Dharwad Challengers -

Doubles -
K.Capkovic/ L.Lacko d. K.Rastogi/ A.Singh 61 67 15-13
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Table Tennis -

Indiam men couldn't produced good result in their last legue match against Bulgaria ... But this result didn't affected their chances of moving to pre-quarterfinals.

India l Bulgaria 1-3
Sharath Kamal bt Konstantin Parapanov 11-3, 11-5, 11-8
Soumyadeep Roy l Zhe Feng 5-11, 6-11, 3-11
Shubhajit Saha l Kessov Todor 11-7, 10-12, 8-11, 11-8, 5-11
Sharath Kamal l Zhe Feng 2-11, 3-11, 8-11
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Badminton -

In group's encounter against defending champion China, only Chetan Anand produced brave fight against world number one Lin Dan ... Now for qualifying for next stage India needs to win their last group match against Germany.

Thomas Cup: Group A:
China bt India 5-0

Lin Dan bt Chetan Anand 21-8, 21-23, 21-11
Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun bt Rupesh Kumar/Diju Valiyaveettil 21-5, 21-16
Chen Jin bt Anup Sridhar 21-14, 21-10
Zheng Bo/Guo Zhendong bt Thomas Kurian/Jaseel P. Ismail 21-6, 21-10
Xia Zuanze bt Arvind Bhat 21-15, 21-10
-----------------------------------------
Golf News -

Jeev maintains a top 5 position and he finishes in 5th position all by himself after 2nd round on Japan PGA Tour, just 3 behind the leaders.

1 Nozomi Kawahara 67 63 -10
1 Shingo Katayama 63 67 -10
3 Soushi Tajima 62 69 -9
4 Brendan Jones 65 67 -8
5 Jeev Milkha Singh 64 69 -7

Shiv misses the cut as he failed to fire today on Asian Tour ... He managed to score one under par, which was not sufficient to overcome the first bad round.

Amandeep Johl continues to lead Indians as he fired another 69 to remain in top 10.

6 Amandeep JOHL IND 69 69 138 -6
21 Rahil GANGJEE IND 71 70 141 -3
32 Gaurav GHEI IND 72 70 142 -2

CUT-----------------------
100 Harmeet KAHLON IND 73 74 147 3
100 Shiv KAPUR IND 76 71 147 3

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Messy day for Indian ... Bops and Kash lost very good opportunity to gather important ranking points in this home challengers ... And their singles bad performance reflected also in their doubles game.

So now only Karan and Ashutosh manages to keep interest going in this challenger.

(1) Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR) d. Aisam Qureshi (PAK) 36 63 64
(5) Denis Istomin (UZB) d. (Q) Amit Inbar (ISR) 67(3) 64 64
(4) Lukasz Kubot (POL) d. Lukas Lacko (SVK) 63 61
(Q) Phillip King (USA) d. (6) Prakash Amritraj (IND) 67(2) 61 61
(8) Go Soeda (JPN) d. Henry Adjei-Darko (GHA) 67(11) 64 76(8)
(3) Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE) d. (Q) Orest Tereshchuk (UKR) 63 62
Viktor Troicki (SCG) d. (7) Rohan Bopanna (IND) 61 75
Kamil Capkovic (SVK) d. Luke Bourgeois (AUS) 75 76(4)


(1) San.Ratiwatana/ Son.Ratiwatana d. S.Rieschick/ V.Troicki 64 63
(4) D.Istomin/ O.Tereshchuk d. T.Matsui/ G.Soeda 76(3) 63
K.Rastogi/ A.Singh d. (wc) H.Adjei-Darko/ N.Thompson 64 36 (10-6)
K.Capkovic/ L.Lacko d. (2) P.Amritraj/ R.Bopanna 46 64 (10-8)
Golf News -

This week Jeev is playing in JPGA tour event ... Jeev ended first day with -6 and remain on 3rd position.

The Crowns 2006

1 Soushi Tajima -8
2 Shingo Katayama -7
3 Jeev Milkha Singh -6
-------------------------------------------------

And at Seoul, Korea our players playing on APGA tour ... Indians had mixed day at GS Caltex Maekyung Open in Korea ... Amandeep scored best round by Indians and remained in top 10 with -3, but Shiv Kapur scored worst round by Indian.

GS Caltex Maekyung Open - First Round
1 SUK Jong-ryul (KOR) -5

T8 Amandeep JOHL (IND) -3
T32 Rahil Gangjee(IND) -1
T52 Gaurav GHEI (IND) Even
T77 Harmeet KAHLON (IND) +1
T129 Shiv KAPUR (IND) +4
37 yrs old Dhanraj declared that he is completely fit and can withstand the rigours of international hockey ... He also added that youngsters in the side need experienced players like him to guide them through important events like the Asian Games and World Cup later this year.

Now how IHF officials handle this is interesting to see ... As we all knows how much bitter relationship between these two parties.
Golf News -

Shiv Kapur received an invitation to the prestigious Quinn British Masters golf championship next month ... He will be the only Indian lining up for the 1.8 million pound event which will be held from May 11 to 14 at The De Vere Belfry golf course.
But Indian men couldn't repeated result of Commonwealth Games and lost to Singapore.

India l Singapore 2-3

Achantha Sharath Kamal bt Xiao Li Cai 4-11, 13-11, 15-13, 11-9
Soumyadeep Roy l Zi Yang 9-11, 8-11, 2-11
Subhajit Saha bt Tien Hoe Clarence 11-2, 11-7, 11-4
Achantha Sharath Kamal l Zi Yang 7-11, 11-8, 8-11, 6-11
Soumyadeep Roy l Xiao Li Cai 5-11, 14-12, 7-11, 8-11

Indian women lost their match easily against top seed China and ended group stage without any win ... Now they will play for positions 13 to 24.

After loss against Singapore, Indian men fought back beating minnows Finland comfortably.

India bt Finland 3-0
Achanta Sharath Kamal bt Timo Tamminen 11-4, 11-8, 11-7
Soumyadeep Roy bt Benedek Olah 8-11, 11-0, 11-8, 11-1
Subhajit Saha bt Mikko Kontala 11-4, 11-7, 12-10

This win ensured Indian men pre-quarterfinal berth in the men's second division at the World Table Tennis Championships in Bremen, Germany ... Still they r having last group match against Bulgaria.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

In the team events of the World table tennis championships, Bremen Sharath Kamal led the Indian men to a 3-1 victory over United States.

India bt U.S. 3-1
Sharath Kamal bt Hazinshi 9-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7
Soumyadeep Roy l Lupulesku 8-11, 11-8, 6-11, 13-11, 8-11
Subhajit Saha bt Hugh 10-12, 13-11, 11-5, 11-4
Sharath Kamal bt Lupulesku 11-9, 11-8, 11-9

Otherhand Indian women had third defeat in row ... Now its almost certain that they need to play playoff to remain in world group.
Golf News -

Last week at the $1.8 million BMW Asian Open at the Tomson Pudong Shanghai Golf Club Jeev Milkha Singh and Shiv Kapur finished tied 26th and took home $16,290 each prize money.
Indian Vollyball -

The Indian junior men's team defeated Hungary 26-24, 25-18, 28-26 in the final and retained the 24th Memorial Ferruccio Cornacchia volleyball tournament title at Porcia, Italy.
Now second week of Indian Challenger series ... Limelight on Dharwad.

Dharwad Challanger
Qualifying Draw
[Q1] THOMPSON, Nathan USA d. (WC)PATIL, Vibhu IND 60 60
[Q1] KULICK, Victor ISR d. (WC)KUMAR, Vijay IND 60 60
[Q1] SUKUL, Saurav IND d. (WC)DATTA, Arindam IND 62 64
[Q1] TIERRO, Patrick PHI d. GHOUSE, Mustafa IND 75 64
[Q1] SINGH, Ashutosh IND d. (WC)MARWAH, Puneet IND 60 60
[Q1] INBAR, Amit ISR d. (WC)PERANAMALLUR CHANDRA SEKAR, Vignesh IND 60 64
[Q1] (WC)RAJAGOPALAN, Arun Prakash IND d. (WC)GUBBI, Yatish IND 61 60

[Q2] KULICK, Victor ISR d. (7)VARDHAN, Vishnu IND 64 63
[Q2] (2)TERESHCHUK, Orest UKR d. SUKUL, Saurav IND 62 61
[Q2] TIERRO, Patrick PHI d. (8)KANNAN, Vijay IND 64 76(3)
[Q2] SINGH, Ashutosh IND d. (5)PATHANJALI, Ravishankar IND 62 63
[Q2] INBAR, Amit ISR d. (4)SRIDHAR, Vinod IND 62 64
[Q2] (6)BUBKA, Sergei d. (WC)RAJAGOPALAN, Arun Prakash IND 61 62

[Q3] (3)KING, Phillip USA d. SINGH, Ashutosh IND 62 62

So very poor performance from Indians and again single player failed to qualify for maindraw ... :(

Main Draw -
[R1] (4)Lukasz Kubot (POL) d. Karan Rastogi (IND) 62 62
[R1] Lukas Lacko (SVK) d. (WC)Kaushik Raju (IND) 61 60
[R1] (Q)Philip King ( USA) d. (WC)Vishal Uppal (IND) 46 63 64
[R1] (Q)Orest Tereshchuck (UKR.) d. (WC)Kiran Nandkumar (IND) 60 63
[R1] (3)Yen Hsun Lu (TPE) d. (WC) SunilKumar Sipaeya (IND) 62 63

(6)Prakash Amritraj (IND) d. Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) 76(2) 76(2)
(7)Rohan Bopanna (IND) d. Jesse Huta Galung (NED) 62 60

Good win by Prakash and showing he is getting his touch ... Lets hope Rohan try to produce his best result in this local event.

Karan brought back on earth by polish Lukasz Kubot with taking revenge ... And others continued their poor performance.

[R2] (6)Prakash Amritraj (IND) vs (Q)Philip King ( USA)
[R2] (7)Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Viktor Troicki (SCG)


Doubles results -
[R1] (1) Sonchat Ratiwatana/Sanchai Ratiwatana (THA) bt (WC) Arun Prakash Rajgopalan/Vishnu Vardhan (IND) 64 60
[R1] Reishchick Sebestian (GER)/Victor Troicki (SCG) bt IRavishankar Pathanjali/Shridhar Vinod (IND) 64 63
[R1] (WC) Henry Adgei Darko (GHA)/Thompson Nathan (USA) bt (WC) Nandakumar Kiran/P Chandrashekhar (IND) 61 61

[R1] (2) Prakash Amritraj/Rohan Bopanna (IND) bt Sunilkumar Sipaeya/Vishal Uppal (IND) 76(2) 62
[R1] (4) Denis Istomin (UZB)/Orest TERESHCHUK (UKR) bt Vijay Kannan (IND)/ Phillip King (USA) 75 63
[R1] Karan Rastogi (IND)/Ashutosh Singh (IND) bt (3) Mustafa Ghouse (IND)/Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (PAK) 46 75 10-6

[R2] (2) Prakash Amritraj/Rohan Bopanna (IND) vs Kamil Capkovic (SVK)/Lukas Lacko (SVK)
[R2] (WC) Henry Adgei Darko (GHA)/Thompson Nathan (USA) vs Karan Rastogi (IND)/Ashutosh Singh (IND)

Superb performance by karan and Ashutosh to beat seasoned pair of Mustafa and Aisam.
And I m back from Char-Dham yatra ... Will write about it in details once I get some free time .. Until then here is update of last week's ATP Challenger Chikmagalur , India.

[R2] (WC) SINGH, Navdeep (IND,735) l (8) SOEDA, Go (JPN,257) 67 36
[R2] RASTOGI, Karan (IND,432) bt (4) KUBOT, Lukasz (POL,137) 64 61
[R2] (7) BOPANNA, Rohan (IND,244) l MATSUI, Toshihide (JPN,364) 67(8) 46
[R2] (6) AMRITRAJ, Prakash (IND,236) l MASIK, Jan (CZE,350) 57 16

Doubles -
[R1] PATHANJALI, Ravishankar IND/SRIDHAR, Vinod IND bt SOEDA, Go JPN/MATSUI, Toshihide JPN 64 57 10-8

[R2] Luke Bougeois (AUS)/ Marco Chiudinelli (SUI) bt (3) Prakash Amritraj/ Rohan Bopanna 64 64
[R2] (4) Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)/ Danai Udomchoke (THA) bt (WC) Ravishankar Pathanjali/ Vinod Sridhar 76(4) 63

Singles QF

[QF] Toshihide Matsui (JPN,347) bt Karan Rastogi (IND,432) 75 67(4) 76 (4)

After terrific win against top 150 player close loss for Karan ... Match was continue for more than 3 hrs.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Indian Tennis News -

[R1] (WC) SINGH, Navdeep (IND,735) bt VLASKI, Aleksandar (SCG, 341) 76(3) 63
[R1] RASTOGI, Karan (IND,432) bt (WC) NANDKUMAR, Kiran (IND, NR) 63 62
[R1] (7) BOPANNA, Rohan (IND,244) bt Q. CAPKOVIC, Kamil (SVK,406) 63 62
[R1] (6) AMRITRAJ, Prakash (IND,236) bt ADJEI-DARKO, Henry (GHA,283) 63 62

[R2] (WC) SINGH, Navdeep (IND,735) vs (8) SOEDA, Go (JPN,257)
[R2] RASTOGI, Karan (IND,432) vs (4) KUBOT, Lukasz (POL,137)
[R2] (7) BOPANNA, Rohan (IND,244) vs MATSUI, Toshihide (JPN,364)
[R2] (6) AMRITRAJ, Prakash (IND,236) vs MASIK, Jan (CZE,350)

Terrific win by Navdeep Singh on top 350 player, who showed his performance in Indian satellite wasn't fluke ... Otherhand Karan, Rohan and Prakash won their matches with identical score ... Now in PQF Karan having toughest match against top 150 players ... Go guys.
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Federation Cup draws r out and India gets 2nd seed ... And with that manages to avoid Australia in group ... Also luckily Korea pitted into Australia's group ... :)

Pool A: Australia, Korea, Uzbekistan.
Pool B: India, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, Philippines

The winner of each pool will play off against each other to determine which team will be promoted to the World Group II Play-offs in July 2006.
Yesterday's Four Nation tournaments Pics -

Please check snaps from match between Argentina and India on my friend's, Florian Buechting, site ...

http://www.sport-live.net/other/feld/hockey_ind_arg06_01.html
Indian Junior Vollyball News -

In 24th Memorial Ferruccio Cornacchia international men's volleyball tournament, India moved into the final defeating Germany 23-25, 30-28, 25-14, 25-19 in the semifinals at Porcia, Italy.

The Indian junior squad is the defending champion in this tournament.
Indian Chess News -

Neelotpal Das of Bengal became the 14th Grandmaster from India ... Neelotpal Das earned his third and final GM norm at the 29th San Sebastian International Open chess tournament in Spain on Sunday, where he tied for the first place with four other GMs by scoring 7 points in the nine-round tournament ... But GM Stuart Conquest of England won title on better tie-break score.

Spain turns lucky for Neelotpal Das yet again ... Becoz last year he earned his previous two GM norms in spain at the Sort International Open and at the Benasque International Open respectively.

With his current ELO rating is 2514, he becomes GM with immediate effect.
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Score from ongoing National 'A' Tournament -

With last round remaining competition for last berth for Olympiad is hotting up.

Men (19th round) -
Deepan Chakkaravarthy 13.5 Pts
Surya Sekhar ganguly 13
D P Singh 13
Sandipan Chanda 13
Koneru Humpy 12.5
Abhijit Kunte 12.5

Women (18th round) -
Swathi Ghate 13.5
Mary Ann Gomes 12.5
D Harika 11.5
S. Meenakshi 11.5
S. Vijayalakshmi 11.5

Monday, April 17, 2006

Indian Tennis News

Our top ten players ranking -

ATP Singles Rankings (as of Apr 17, 2006)
236 Amritraj Prakash 153
244 Bopanna Rohan 145
285 Mankad Harsh 115
432 Rastogi Karan 66
521 Sipaeya Sunil Kumar 45
524 Uppal Vishal 44
676 Sridhar Vinod 25
690 Pathanjali Ravishankar 24
735 Singh Navdeep 20
748 Singh Sanam 19

ATP Doubles Rankings (as of Apr 17, 2006)
8 Paes Leander 2945
29 Bhupathi Mahesh 1595
157 Bopanna Rohan 324
236 Ghouse Mustafa 220
240 Amritraj Prakash 212
300 Mankad Harsh 168
321 Singh Ashutosh 150
354 Kannan Vijay 135
474 Uppal Vishal 90
508 Mathew Jaco 79

WTA Tour Singles Rankings (as of Apr 17, 2006)
40 MIRZA SANIA 516.75
183 UBEROI SHIKHA 150.50
253 UBEROI NEHA 98.50
338 BHAMBRI ANKITA 60.25
364 LAKHANI ISHA 50.50
367 CHAKRAVARTHI RUSHMI 49.75
458 BHAMBRI SANAA 33.25
526 VAKARIA MEGHHA 26.00
532 DHAWAN SHRUTI 25.50
576 REDDY PUNAM 21.75

WTA Tour Doubles Rankings (as of Apr 17, 2006)
39 MIRZA SANIA 793.50
137 UBEROI NEHA 252.00
162 UBEROI SHIKHA 195.25
319 CHAKRAVARTHI RUSHMI 76.50
351 BHAMBRI ANKITA 65.50
367 BHAMBRI SANAA 60.00
472 JAYARAM SAI JAYALAKSHMY 35.00
507 PHADKE SONAL 30.50
557 REDDY PUNAM 25.00
561 DHAWAN SHRUTI 25.00
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Today at ATP Challenger Chikmagalur , India

Singles
[R1] (3) LU, Yen-Hsun TPE bt (WC) GHOUSE, Mustafa IND 63 62
[R1] (2) UDOMCHOKE, Danai THA bt (WC) UPPAL, Vishal IND 64 62

Doubles
[R1] (3) AMRITRAJ, Prakash IND/BOPANNA, Rohan IND bt BUBKA, Sergei UKR/TERESHCHUK, Orest UKR 64 62

Tomorrow in Singles
[R1] (WC) SINGH, Navdeep IND vs VLASKI, Aleksandar SCG
[R1] RASTOGI, Karan IND vs (WC) NANDKUMAR, Kiran IND
[R1] (7) BOPANNA, Rohan IND vs Q. CAPKOVIC, Kamil SVK
[R1] (6) AMRITRAJ, Prakash IND vs ADJEI-DARKO, Henry GHA

Doubles
[R1] (1) KUBOT, Lukasz POL/SNOBEL, Pavel CZE vs GHOUSE, Mustafa IND/UPPAL, Vishal IND
[R1] HUTA GALUNG, Jesse NED/ RECOUDERC, Laurent FRA vs RASTOGI, Karan IND/SINGH, Ashutosh IND
[R1] (4) LU, Yen-Hsun TPE/UDOMCHOKE, Danai THA vs (WC) KANNAN, Kamala IND/KANNAN, Vijay IND
[R1] (WC) PATHANJALI, Ravishankar IND/SRIDHAR, Vinod IND vs SOEDA, Go JPN/MATSUI, Toshihide JPN
Hockey News -

At Monchengladbach, Germany; India playing in 4 nations tournament at venue of September's Hockey World Cup ... Participated nations - Hosh Germany, Spain, Argentina and India.

After performing poor in first two matches where Indian forwardline failed miserably, today India managed to salvage some pride with victory against Argentina.

In first two matches India lost 1-4 against Germany and 3-5 against Spain, where they showed tremendous fightback after trailing 0-3 to make it 3-3 ... But in end under pressure our defense break and we lost the match.

But today our boys started on positive notes ... In 8th and 9th minutes we saved 2 penalty corners ... On 10 th minutes we earned our 1st penalty corner and Sandeep Singh scored ... On 18th minute Rajpal increased our lead with pass from Tushar Khandekar ... On 25th minute a defection goal by Rajapl on a free hit ... So India is leading 3-0 at half-time ... In second half our forwardline missed some chances ... Arjun Halappa had couple of good chances, but ....... Argentina were continuously attacking Indian goal ... On 61st minute Argentina scored field goal through Paulon ... On 66th minute on their 3rd penalty corner on second half atlast Argentina managed to scored and scorer was Maccormick ... On hooter Argentina gained their 4th penalty corner of second half but they couldn't managed to convert it ... With that Indian managed to scored their 1st victory in this four nations tournament. Final score - India bt Argentina 3-2
Indian Golfing News -

Jeev Milkha Singh claimed an emotional victory at the US$1.8 million Volvo China Open on Sunday to end a seven-year title drought to win a European Tour event ... With this title he finished seven year-itch.

His last victory was in a way back 1999 ... Then he had trouble with wrist injury and after coming out of injury he couldn't managed to perform on same level ... In 1997 he became first Indian to grabbed European Tour card, but which he lost in 2002 ... And then he was struggling with his performance to produced best result ... he couldn't managed to produce 4 good rounds to win the title, but now that everything is changed .. :)

Jeev Milkha Singh - “This is fantastic, When I was injured, I didn't know if I was going to come back in the sport. When I came back I wasn't thinking the same way. I was struggling, I was putting pressure on myself and I was getting down. And after that, you don't think right. I started working hard and the wrist became better and things started looking better for me. I've just won and it's one of the best feelings.

“I just can't explain this. It's like a dream come true. I've always tried hard to win and today, I just went in there with reverse psychology thinking that if it doesn't happen, never mind. I just wanted to give it my best shot. And it worked out perfect for me. I'm really excited and happy the way it worked out.”

This victory moved Jeev to the top of the Asian Tour's UBS Order of Merit and 14th on European Tour earning.

Prize Money - $300,000
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Another Indian golfer Arjun Atwal managed to perform better on PGA tour ... Last few weeks he was continuously missing cut ... At Verizon Heritage Open he managed to break this trend and played average golfing round to finished in top 20 ... He finished T17 with -5 ... Hopefully this week's performance help Arjun to make egar to perform better on PGA Tour.

Prize Money - $76,850
--------------------------------------------------

First time we r seeing 4 Indian players in top 200 ranking ... :)

World rankings as of Monday April 16, 2006 of select golfers:

112 Jyoti Randhawa
135 Arjun Atwal
145 Shiv Kapur
195 Jeev Milkha Singh
362 Gaurav Ghei
429 Amandeep Johl
605 Ashok Kumar
638 Arjun Singh
741 Rahil Gangjee
778 Digvijay Singh
834 Harmeet Kahlon
945 Mukesh Kumar
On 19th April we r going for the holy centres of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath - collectively called the Char dham Yatra.

On 19th April 2006, 3.30 am we r leaving by Goa-Nizamuddin Express from Pune ... Our first stop will be Vrindavan and from there we will start road journey to mentioned holy centres.

Group Members -

1. Yogeshwar ji Gokhale (Leader of the Group)
2. Yogesh Mundada (Lala)
3. Yogesh Joshi
4. Shekhar Gokhale
5. Jaydeep Deshpande

This will be one of one-time experiance in the life ... I m starting my journey towards spiritual enlightment with this.

Table Tennis News

At $70K ITTF Challenge Plus Oman Open 2020 , Muscat, Oman [R32] Harmeet Desai (IND,87) bt Jeremy Hazin (CAN,164) 4-0 (12-10, 11-8, 11-4,...