Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza lifted her first WTA title of the year, teaming up with Chinese Taipei's Chia-Jung Chuang to clinch the women's doubles trophy at the USD 220,000 MPS Group Championships in Florida.
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy made a spectacular start to their campaign in the US $4,500,000 Miami Masters, storming into the doubles pre-quarter-finals after a crushing 6-2, 6-2 victory over Fernando Gonzalez and Juan Monaco. In the women's event, Sania Mirza and Chinese Taipei's Chia-Jung Chuang earned a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over the Czech combination of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Strycova Zahlavova to advance to the pre-quarter-finals.
The second-seeded mixed doubles combination of Mahesh Bhupathi and Shikha Uberoi were knocked out in the first round.
India's tennis ace Sania Mirza staged a great comeback after losing the first set to beat Ukrainian Mariya Koryttseva in the first round of the Indian Wells tennis tournament on Thursday. The 87th ranked Indian recovered in time after losing the opening set to beat world no. 96 Koryttseva 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Somdev Devvarman routed world number 59 Yen-Hsun Lu 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 to steer India to the third round of the Asia/Oceania Group I Davis Cup competition as the stunning victory gave the visitors an unassailable 3-1 lead against Chinese Taipei in Kaohsiung on Sunday. India will now play the winners of the other second round tie between Australia and Thailand in May to qualify for the World Group play-offs.
The doubles specialist made the team at the expense of Prakash Amritraj, who was rendered ineligible after the new sports policy that bars foreign passport holders from representing the country. Amritraj holds a United States passport.
Saina Nehwal staved off the challenge from Hsiao Huan Chen of Chinese Taipei in an edge-of-the-seat second round match to enter the quarter-final of the Malaysian Super Series in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
This is H S Prannoy's first final of the season and second since the runner-up finish at the Swiss Open last year.
Leander Paes feels India will find it tough in singles but the country can hope to win a medal in the Asian Games
Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain kickstarted her campaign on an impressive note by notching up a thrilling win at the 12th edition of the IBA Women's World Boxing Championships in Istanbul on Monday.
Top seed Kidambi Srikanth stormed into the semi-finals of the US $120,000 Swiss Grand Prix Gold badminton championship after a straight games victory over Takuma Ueda of Japan in the men's singles quarter-finals in Basel on Friday. The Indian beat the eighth seed 21-11, 21-12 in 31 minutes.
In a setback to NALCO and Hindustan Lever Ltd, a tax tribunal has quashed their plea challenging the government's decision to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of caustic soda.
Rohan Bopanna set up a second round clash with top seed Lu Yen-Hsun after winning a tough first round of the $ 1,25,000 ATP Challenger tournament in Tashkent at Olympic Tennis School on Tuesday.
After the European Union, Taiwan could take India to the World Trade Organisation with regard to its anti-dumping measures.
Saina Nehwal's semi-final outing in the China Masters Super Series turned out to be a lopsided affair as the ace Indian shuttler crashed out of the event after suffering a straight-game defeat at hands of her new nemesis Zhou Mi in Changzhou on Saturday.
Indian ace Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black ended the season and their partnership on a remarkable high by clinching the WTA finals women's doubles title with a comprehensive triumph in the summit clash in Singapore.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina beat Tunjung 21-11, 21-12 in a one-sided semifinal match that lasted just 30 minutes.
Somdev Devvarman made it to the last eight as his second round opponent, top seed Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei retired with an injury from the Vancouver Challenger.
Somdev Devvarman entered the second round of the US $1,00,000 Vancouver Open after a fighting victory over Cecil Mamitt of the Philippines. Devvarman had to dig deep into his reserves to dump the lucky loser 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(4) in the first round of the hard court event and set up a second round clash against top seed Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei.
Shokeen conceded his second round match to Chinese Taipei's Tsung-Hua Yang, while Kannan went down fighting to Brazil's Guilherme Ochiai in the ITF Futures tournament in Dehradun.
Top seed Achanta Sharath Kamal advanced to the second round of men's singles in the NCC Indian Open ITTF Pro Tour tournament after an easy win over Ji Min Han of Korea in Delhi on Friday. The Indian ace defeated Ji Min 11-9, 11-6, 5-11, 11-8, 11-4 at the Yamuna Sports Complex.
Top seed R M V Gurusaidutt entered the men's singles semi-finals, but women's defending champion P C Thulasi and reigning National champion Sayali Gokhale were knocked out of the US $15,000 Tata Open India International Challenge Badminton tournament at the Cricket Club of India, in Mumbai, on Friday.
James Blake will face defending champion Dmitry Tursunov next, as all top four seeds have advanced to the semis.
Shreya Ghosh upset top-seeded Li Chao of China in the ITTF Junior Circuit championship in China.
Young Manipuri forward Sushil Kumar Singh, defender Anwar Ali and midfielder Kuttimani figure in India's 20-member squad for the June 3-14 SAFF Cup football tournament in Maldives and Sri Lanka. All the 17 players that featured in India's historic Nehru Cup triumph last August and the subsequent World Cup qualifier in October were retained.
The Indian pair of Harsh Mankad and Ashutosh Singh beat the top seeded Indo-American pair of Mustafa Ghouse and Brendan Evans 7-5, 6-3 to clinch the men's doubles title in the ATP Challenger tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex, in Delhi, on Friday.
Sindhu won 12-21, 23-21, 21-19 in the women's singles quarter-finals match that lasted 71 minutes.
The script remained the same in the second game as well, with Sindhu maintaining her firm grip over the proceedings to race to a 6-0 lead in just two minutes.
Digvijay Singh's steady four-under 68 earned him the best finish among Indians as he signed off tied 37th, while Gaganjeet Bhullar and Rahil Gangjee turned in identical final-round cards of 69 to rise to 44th spot in the Asian Tour International Chonburi (Thailand) on Sunday.
Divij Sharan displayed a good serve and volley game to knock his opponent out while Rohan Gajjar outplayed his fifth seed Italian opponent to advance to the second round of the $ 15000 ITF Futures tournament in New Delhi on Tuesday.
V Raghunath slammed in five goals as India beat Chinese Taipei 12-1 in the Asian Games hockey classification match.
Men's quartet of Gaganjeet Bhullar, Anirban Lahiri, Chiragh Kumar and Joseph Chakola won the silver medal at the golf team event.
The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair stormed into the final of the China Open, beating the wild card Chinese duo of Chen Liang and Yafan Wang 6-2, 6-3 in the semi-finals, in Beijing, on Friday.
HS Prannoy breezed into the quarter-finals with a stunning straight-game win over former world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore but it was curtains for Kidambi Srikanth at the Japan Open Super 750 tournament.
The Indian chess team totalled nine points, to finish behind China (11) and ahead of Vietnam (8), in the team event at the second Asian Indoor Games in Macau.
Thailand's rising star Chapchai Nirat and Chinese Taipei's Chang Tse-peng jointly lead the field in the Hero Honda Indian Open golf tournament.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
The Indian Davis Cup team, whitewashed by formidable Spain in the World Group Play-off tie, were seeded second behind Kazakhstan in the Asia/Oceania Group 1.