Results and Updates:

Boxing: 4 Indians win gold at the Women's Youth and Junior World Championships
As I have been posting for the past few days, India is participating in the Women's Youth and Junior World Championships in Antalya, Turkey. India sent a total of sixteen participants in different weight classes from which four won the gold, one participant won the silver, and two won the bronze.

Judging by the results over the last couple of years of Indians winning medals and accolades in combat sports, it is quite obvious that for what ever reason we are good at it. Is it because the combat sports are provided with good coaches and facilities? Is it because of the fact that Indians are genetically made for combat sports? Or is it because of a combination of the both?

Here is a list of all the participants:

Youth Women's World Championship:
1) S. Sarjubala Devi (Gold)
2) Sanasri Brahma
3) Pwilao Basumatary (Bronze)
4) Anjali Machahari
5) Poonam Chahal (Bronze)
6) Minu Basumatary (Gold)
7) Heena Tokas
8) Alary Bord

Juniors Women's World Championship:
1) Lalenkawli (Gold)
2) Chanchan Devi
3) Nikhat Zareen (Gold)
4) Lalfakzuali (Silver)
5) Pinki Kachari
6) Neeraj Bala
7) Marathamma
8) Laxmi Wagh


Tennis: Vishnu Vardhan hurts himself during the finals
In the Chennai Futures tournament final Vishnu Vardhan faced off against Patrik Rosenholm of Sweden. During the match, Vishnu hurt either a muscle or joints in his leg and was unable to continue the match. He had to withdraw from the final and declare Patrik Rosenholm as the winner. 

Due to his appearance in the finals, Vishnu has gained 10 ATP ranking points and this will aid him to be around the world ranking of 300. Hopefully his injury isn't too serious, if it is serious it will be tough for him play well in the next couple of months during which he has important ranking points to defend from last year.  

Results and Updates:

Tennis: Vishnu Vardhan enters the Chennai Futures finals
Vishnu Vardhan defeated Julien Dubail of Belgium in the semi-finals of the Chennai Futures tournament with a score of 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. By winning this match Vishnu Vardhan won in his last 14 straight games, and if he wins the final he will be on a 15 game win streak and the third consecutive Futures title. He will be facing Patrik Rosenholm of Sweden. Stay tuned tomorrow to find out the results.

Tennis: Somdev Devvarman crashes out of the Serbian Open
In the quarterfinals of the Serbian Open Somdev Devvarman lost a three set match (3-6, 6-3, 4-6) against Janko Tipsarevic. Devvarman had a good run in the tournament and fetched himself 45 ATP ranking points to his collection, this will propel him a couple of positions and put him around world rank 68.

Boxing: 5 Indians enter the finals of the Women's Youth and Junior World Championships
In a strong showing, five of the seven Indian women who entered the semi-finals of the event ended up in the final bouts of the tournament.

Here is a list of all the participants:

Youth Women's World Championship:
1) S. Sarjubala Devi (made it to the Finals)
2) Sanasri Brahma
3) Pwilao Basumatary (made it to the Semi-finals)
4) Anjali Machahari
5) Poonam Chahal (made it to the Semi-finals)
6) Minu Basumatary (made it to the Finals)
7) Heena Tokas
8) Alary Bord

Juniors Women's World Championship:
1) Lalenkawli (made it to the Finals)
2) Chanchan Devi
3) Nikhat Zareen (made it to the Finals)
4) Lalfakzuali (made it to Finals)
5) Pinki Kachari
6) Neeraj Bala
7) Marathamma
8) Laxmi Wagh

A detailed article on Geetu Anna Jose's basketball career and aspirations

Click here

"So far, no Indian player has even gone for trials there (WNBA). So, I never expected to go there. But there was a desire within me to go there at least for a trial. I used to pray to God, 'please let me go at least for one trial'. Here, I am, going for three trials. I have also had dreams of me basketing and the team winning the game! These were the kind of dreams I had. I can't believe that my dreams are coming true; just a step away. If I come out with flying colours in the trails, I will say my dreams have come true. I am nervous and excited." Geetu Anna Jose

Here is a video of her:

He is trying out with three teams: Chicago Sky, Los Angeles Sparks and San Antonio Silver Sparks.

Serbian Open: Somdev enters quarterfinals

Prior post 4/26/11
Prior post 4/24/11

Somdev Devvarman (world rank 70) won his second round match against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (world rank 26) in a grueling 3 hours and 11 minutes long match. The final score ended up being 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-6(8) and it was a real test for both the players' endurance. As I have mentioned in my last post Somdev and Guillermo faced each other at the beginning of the month in the Houston Open in which Somdev lost 4-6, 1-6. In a matter of a month India's no. 1 player made enough adjustments in his clay court game to end up beating Guillermo.

This shows that Somdev is truly figuring out his way on the clay courts and it will be a big boast for his confidence. Tomorrow he will be facing off against Janko Tipsarevic (world rank 36) who defeated his second round opponent with a score of 6-2, 6-0. Looking at the scores it is obvious that Somdev will be much worn out physically compared to Janko, and lets hope Somdev will recover on time to bring his A game. He will definitely need it. Janko and Somdev played against each other trice in their careers, and Somdev ended up beating Janko in their most recent encounter in the Davis cup match in Serbia. Stay tuned for tomorrow to know what happened.


Here is a clip of his Davis cup match against Tipsarevic:

You can keep track of the live scores on this link: 2011 Serbian Open.
Draw sheet: click here

P.S Please keep in mind that tomorrow's results could be different from what the video presents.

Chennai Futures tournament Update:

Two Indian players made it to the semi-finals of the singles Chennai Futures tournament. Vishnu Vardhan (world rank 340) defeated Ranjeet Murugesan (world rank 554) with a score of 7-5, 6-2 while Vijay Sundar Prasad (world rank 611) defeated Karan Rastogi (world rank 318) to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. 

Vishnu will be playing against Julien Dubail (world rank 463) and Vijay will be playing against Patrik Rosenholm from Sweden in the semi-finals. If Vishnu wins this semi-final, it would be the third consecutive futures final for him. Stay tuned tomorrow for the results.

Draw Sheet

Indian women have the boxing genes

Out of the sixteen boxers that made it to the Women's Youth and Juniors World Championship in Antalya, Turkey seven of them ended up making it to the semi-finals and guaranteeing themselves a medal. Nearly half of the contingent ended up with a medal and once again India proves to be one of the leaders in the field of boxing. Is this a sign which screams Indians are good at combat sports?

Here is a list of all the participants:

Youth Women's World Championship:
1) S. Sarjubala Devi (made it to the Semi-finals)
2) Sanasri Brahma
3) Pwilao Basumatary (made it to the Semi-finals)
4) Anjali Machahari
5) Poonam Chahal (made it to the Semi-finals)
6) Minu Basumatary (made it to the Semi-finals)
7) Heena Tokas
8) Alary Bord

Juniors Women's World Championship:
1) Lalenkawli (made it to the Semi-finals)
2) Chanchan Devi
3) Nikhat Zareen (made it to the Semi-finals)
4) Lalfakzuali (made it to the Semi-finals)
5) Pinki Kachari
6) Neeraj Bala
7) Marathamma
8) Laxmi Wagh

Today's results and updates:

2011 Serbian Open: Somdev beats a clay specialist

Today Somdev beat Mikhail Kukushkin (World rank 65) with a score of 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 to enter the second round of the Serbian Open in Belgrade. This is a sweet win for Somdev not just because Mikhail is ranked higher than him, but also because Mikhail is a clay court specialist. This victory is a sign that Somdev is evolving his game to suit the clay courts as well, and this will bode well for his ranking.

He will be facing against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (World rank 26) a solid clay court player. Somdev and Guillermo went head to head at the beginning of the month in the Houston Open in which Somdev lost with a score of 4-6, 1-6. This is the second time these two will go against each other in less than a month, and lets wait and see if the results will be any different this time around.

India's Team and Individual Sports Rankings

Indian Team Sports Ranking             World Rank                                                  As of 4/25/2011

1) Test Cricket                                      1st

2) One Day International Cricket            2nd

3) Tennis Davis Cup                              13th

4) Men's Football (Soccer)                     146th

5) Women's Football (Soccer)                54th

6) Men's Basketball                               50th

7) Women's Basketball                          41st

8) Junior Boys Volleyball                        7th (Men's rankings weren't available)

9) Junior Girls Volleyball                        49th (Women's rankings weren't available)

10) Men's Rugby                                   75th

11) Men's Field Hockey                         9th

12) Women's Field Hockey                    11th

Individual Sports ranking:

Men's Single's Tennis: India's Top 3            World Rank
1) Somdev Devvarman                                      71st
2) Karan Rastogi                                              318th
3) Vishnu Vardhan                                            340th
   
   
Men's Double's Tennis: India's Top 3          World Rank
1) Mahesh Bhupathi                                         5th
2) Leander Paes                                               7th
3) Rohan Bopana                                             12th 
   
Women's Single's Tennis: India's Top 2        World Rank
1) Sania Mirza                                                  73rd
2) Poojashree Venkatesha                                546th
   
Women's Double's Tennis: India's Top 2      World Rank
1) Sania Mirza                                                 29th
2) Rushmi Chakravarthi                                     371st
   
Men's Single's Badminton: India's Top 3       World Rank
1) P. Kashyap                                                    23rd
2) Ajay Jayaram                                                 29th
3) Anand Pawar                                                 40th
   
Women's Single's Badminton: India's Top 3     World Rank 
1) Saina Nehwal                                                   4th
2) Aditi Mutatkar                                                  85th
3) Sayali Gokhale                                                100th

If you think there is any other sport that should be added to this, please let me know and if you could provide me the source of where I can find the rankings it will be of great help. Thank you.

Sports Update: Badminton

Indian Open: Saina Nehwal confident about winning it

"This stadium has been lucky for me and I hope to perform like I did in the Commonwealth Games. It is going to be tough even though the Chinese players are not here. Other players are also playing very well. It is going to be tough but I am confident of doing well again. I have trained hard and my ankle is much better. Second seed Tine Baun of Denmark is also here, even the Japanese, Koreans, all have improved a lot. It is going to be a tough fight." Saina Nehwal

Saina is currently ranked 4th in the world singles badminton rankings.

Tennis: Serbian Open 2011

Somdev Devvarman, world No. 71 will be participating in the Belgrade's Serbian Open and will be playing in both singles and the doubles field. The Serbian Open is a clay court event which is part of Somdev's schedule leading up to the Roland Garros (French Open).

Somdev's favorite surface is the hard courts due to the fact that he played and dominated the US college circuit where all games are played on the hard courts. Since turning pro 3 years ago, Somdev has been making adjustments to his clay court game and trying to improve on the red surface. Traditionally the Europeans are the specialists on the clay since they start off playing tennis on the clay courts. In this clay court season Somdev will face many of the clay court specialists and unless he familiarizes with the surface to the best he can he will not be able to beat the specialists.

In the Serbian Open, he will be facing  a clay court specialist Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in his singles bout. In addition, Somdev will be pairing up with his college tennis partner Treat Huey of Philippines to face off against a German pair Martin Emmrich and Tobias Kamke. It is good that he is playing doubles along with his singles because playing doubles usually improves one's volleying aspect of the game. Which in result can help his singles game in the long run.

Draw sheet for singles
Draw sheet for doubles

Today's results:

Boxing: Serbian Invitationals at Belgrade, 2 golds and 1 bronze

1) India's teen sensation Shiva Thapa (bantamweight 56kgs) beat Delaklive Detelin (from Bulgaria) to win his first senior level gold medal.

                                                       Shiva Thapa, currently 17 years old


2) India's Heavyweight (91+kgs) Paramjeet Samota also managed to win a gold medal by beating Marceta Mane (from Bosnia).

                                                           Paramjeet Samota

3) Manpreet Singh (cruiserweight 91kgs) lost against Pulev Tervel (from Bulgaria) in his semi-final bout and ended up collecting the bronze medal.

                                                           Manpreet singh