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.
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.
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.
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.
Shreya Ghosh upset top-seeded Li Chao of China in the ITTF Junior Circuit championship in China.
James Blake will face defending champion Dmitry Tursunov next, as all top four seeds have advanced to the semis.
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.
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.
Olympic bronze medallist Saina beat Tunjung 21-11, 21-12 in a one-sided semifinal match that lasted just 30 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.
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.
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.
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.
Sindhu won 12-21, 23-21, 21-19 in the women's singles quarter-finals match that lasted 71 minutes.
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.
Taiwan had shifted its purchases of large military platforms and systems, like fighter jets and naval vessels, to smaller lethal anti-ship and surface-to-air-missiles, reported The Singapore Post citing local media.
Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi will launch India's Fed Cup campaign in the Asia-Oceania zonal qualifying tie.
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.
They beat Australia's Todd Perry and Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei 7-5, 7-5 to enter the last eight stage at Wimbledon.
Wild card entrant P Kashyap notched up an easy win over Iranian Ali Shahhosseini to keep the tri-colour fluttering as India had a mixed day in the World Badminton Championship at the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
The top seed was taken the distance by Navdeep Singh before making the semi-finals in the Delhi ITF Futures tournament.
The top seed was extended by Aditya Madkekar in the pre-quarter-finals of the ITF Futures Men's Tennis Tournament in Delhi.
Stephen Amrtiraj and Mustafa Ghouse won the doubles title at the Dehradun Futures.
Pankaj Advani, Alok Kumar and Yasin Merchant scored their third straight victories make it to the knock-out phase in the Asian Snooker Championship.
Indian shuttlers had a disappointing day at the Asian Badminton Championships in Johar Baru, Malaysia, on Thursday, most of them bowing out of the competition in various categories.
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.
India posted a comfortable 10-0 win over Bangladesh, while South Korea beat Chinese Taipei 8-2 in the Junior Asia Cup hockey tournament.
China on Monday dismissed the existence of a 'median line' in the volatile Taiwan Strait after Taiwan's defence ministry said it detected a record 103 Chinese warplanes flying around the self-ruled island in a 24-hour period.
The Indian ace and Italy's Mara Santangelo got the better of Neha and Shikha Uberoi 6-3, 6-1 at the Bangalore Open.
On a comeback trail, Saina Nehwal made a resounding start to her campaign at the Hong Kong Super Series, advancing to the second round of women's singles with a hard-fought win over Thailand's Porntip Buranaprasertsuk.
Immediately after winning the Asian Games doubles gold medal, Mahesh Bhupathi announced the end of his partnership with Leander Paes.
Jyoti Randhawa blasted a flawless five-under 65 in the final round to cruise to a comfortable two-stroke victory over Rhys Davies of Wales at the US $500,000 Thailand Open in Phuket on Sunday. The 36-year-old Indian golfer sank as many as five birdies to take his tally to 17-under 263 to pip Davies, who hit three-under 67 at the Laguna Phuket Golf Club.
India's Anirban Lahiri is tied sixth at the end of the first round in the men's golf competition at the 15th Asian Games.
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