Indian sportspersons will be in action in the following events at 28th Olympic Games in Athens.
After the high of last week's Chinese Taipei Open triumph, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal hit a low as she crashed out of the Japan Super series Badminton tournament with a straight-game defeat in the first round in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Indian woman shuttler Saina Nehwal on Thursday sailed into the quarterfinal of the ongoing Yonex Chinese Taipei Open Badminton, beating Hong Kong's Kwan Yi Mong 21-8, 21-12.
India's Parul Chaudhary and Priti secured silver and bronze medals respectively in the women's 3000m steeplechase, unheralded Ancy Sojan made a grand entry on the big stage.
Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis entered the mixed doubles final at the Australian Open. Sania Mirza and Brazil's Bruno Soares were was beaten in the other semi-final.
Thokchom Nanao Singh assured himself of a medal by advancing to semi-finals while Olympic bronze medal winner Vijender Singh pulled off a stunning triumph over Uzbek Atoev Abbos to enter the quarter-finals of the Asian Boxing Championships in Zhuhai, China, on Tuesday. Youth World champion Nanao Singh (48kg) rallied to beat Chia-Lun Lu of Chinese Taipei 8-4 and reach the semi-finals.
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.
India's shuttlers continued their good run at the Canada Open. Six singles players, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, qualified for the quarter-finals in the US $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, in Calgary.
The second-seeded mixed doubles combination of Mahesh Bhupathi and Shikha Uberoi were knocked out in the first round.
A fit-again Saina Nehwal had to dig deep into her reserves to get past Tzu Ying Tai of Chinese Taipei in a gruelling first round match at the Korean Super Series in Seoul on Wednesday.
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.
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.
Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwal and H S Prannoy registered fighting victories in the last eight contests at the $120,000 Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Basel on Friday.
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.
India won the match 21-25, 25-16, 25-22, 25-18 to set up a summit clash against Chinese Taipei on Sunday.
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.
After the European Union, Taiwan could take India to the World Trade Organisation with regard to its anti-dumping measures.
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.
Jia Min was happy to execute her plan but acknowledged that her opponent was not at her best shape.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Shreya Ghosh upset top-seeded Li Chao of China in the ITTF Junior Circuit championship in China.
Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das on Monday won a bronze medal in the mixed team recurve at the Asian Archery Championships.
James Blake will face defending champion Dmitry Tursunov next, as all top four seeds have advanced to the semis.
The biggest shocker came earlier in the day in the men's compound team event when the Indian trio of Abhishek, Aman and Rajat defeated USA in a one-sided quarter-final.
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.
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.
Fresh from their Korea Open triumph, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to continue their dream run.
V Raghunath slammed in five goals as India beat Chinese Taipei 12-1 in the Asian Games hockey classification match.
