A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
Somdev Devvarman, India's No 1 singles player, was knocked out of the ATP Atlanta Open by American qualifier Jared Donaldson on Tuesday. The 30-year-old Davis Cupper, who also entered the main draw of the event through the qualifiers, lost 1-6, 6-3, 4-6.
India's top singles players, led by Somdev Devvarman, easily advanced to the second round of ATP Pune Challenger on Tuesday, but rising star Ramkumar Ramanathan made a shock first-round exit. Third seed Somdev proved too good for local wild card Arjun Kadhe, scoring a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 60 minutes. Seventh seed Yuki Bhambri disposed of the challenge of Chinese Taipei's Liang-Chi Huang 6-3, 6-0.
Indian tennis stars Leander Paes and Sania Mirza cruised into the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the French Open along with their respective partners in Paris on Thursday. While Paes and his Swiss Partner Martina Hingis, winners of three Grand Slam titles last season, beat German-Colombian pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Robert Farah 6-4 6-4 in the opening round, second seeded Sania and Ivan Dodig of Croatia eased past French duo of Mathilde Johansson and Tristan Lamasine 6-4 6-3 in their opener later in the day. However, it was curtains for another Indian Purav Raja, who, along with Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, crashed out in the opening round of the men's doubles event. The duo lost 1-6 2-6 against ninth seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Alexander Peya.
Rohan Bopanna's stupendous run at Wimbledon earned him a career-best No 5 ranking in the ATP doubles chart and made him the top-ranked Indian in the game.
Sharapova was broken in the first game but fought back to draw level before going on to take the first set with a hold to love.
'The only thing I am feeling bad right now is, if he had decided earlier to not come even two weeks or 10 days ago, we would have got a specialist doubles team in place'
Yuki Bhambri breezed past Italy's Marco Cecchinato in the opening round of the qualifiers in the Chennai Open on Saturday.
Senior pro Leander Paes's place in the Indian Davis Cup team will be up for discussion when the AITA Selection Committee meets on Monday to pick the squad for the upcoming Asia/Oceania Zone tie against Uzbekistan.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes began the 2017 season and his partnership with Andre Sa on a disappointing note as they crashed out of the Chennai Open with a straight sets defeat against rising stars Divij Sharan and Purav Raja in Chennai. Paes and his 111th partner were sent packing 4-6 4-6 in 67 minutes by Sharan and Raja, who enjoyed a successful 2016 season with four Challenger level titles and silently broke into top-70. Both Raja and Sharan are establishing themselves as force to reckon with as they look for their third ATP World Tour title at a home event.
Divij Sharan, who was a reserve in the Indian Davis Cup team, has decided not to travel for the away tie against China, a move which may soon pave the way for introduction of a code of conduct for players.
AITA brought back old warhorse Leander Paes in the Davis Cup team despite 'reservations' from seasoned campaigner Rohan Bopanna.
Vishnu Vardhan won his second Challenger level title of the season with Japanese partner Toshihide Matsui but four other Indians, including Leander Paes, tumbled out of various ATP events across the globe.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
Coming into the tournament 21st in the WTA rankings, the Czech won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and 16 minutes to add to her triumph in St Petersburg earlier this month.
Mahesh Bhupathi said he has no 'personal agenda' in keeping Leander Paes out of India's Davis Cup team and said his former partner's decision to leave Bangalore mid-way into the tie was a final nail in the coffin.
At 44, with 18 Grand Slam titles and an Olympic medal in his cupboard, Leander Paes is finding it "tough to set new goals" but still spent his off-season getting stronger to remain relevant in modern day tennis, which is being dominated by brute power.
Defending champion and top seed Stanislas Wawrinka scored a clinical 6-1, 6-4 win over Borna Coric of Croatia to progress to the men's singles quarter-finals at the ATP Chennai Open tennis tournament.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
The iconic Leander Paes has ruled out immediate retirement from the competitive tennis, saying his comments were misconstrued and he actually aims to capture another Chennai Open trophy next year and motivate his new partner to win his maiden Grand Slam title. Paes and Brazilian Andre Sa began the 2017 season with a defeat against Indian team of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan in the opening round on Wednesday night.
Cycling: Olympic champion Vogel stable after operation
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Second seed and world number 14 Roberto Bautista Agut outclassed Benoit Paire in a lop-sided semi-final to set up the singles title clash of the ATP Chennai Open with young Daniil Medvedev, who rallied to reach his maiden ATP final, in Chennai on Saturday.
Somdev Devvarman would be India's while Yuki Bhambri is expected to carry his good from into the new season which is full of new challenges for the Indian players as ATP Aircel Chennai Open begins on Monday.
Croatia clinched a place in next year's World Cup finals on Sunday after holding Greece to a goalless draw at the Georgios Karaiskakis stadium in Athens to complete a 4-1 aggregate victory in their playoff tie.
Fresh from winning the Chennai leg, Yuki Bhambri advanced to the second round, even as the other two Indians Saketh Myneni and Vishnu Vardhan made quiet exits in the $50,000 ATP Challenger at BTA Courts in Kolkata.
Yuki Bhambri asserted his class over a promising Arjun Kadhe even as young Sumit Nagal's ATP World Tour debut ended in a tame defeat at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune on Tuesday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
'The team will be chosen the day before the draw. I am not sure who is going to play doubles. I am not sure if I am going to have any doubles players at all but whatever needs to win I will make sure that happens'
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
The World number 14 subdued the young Russian 6-3, 6-4 to capture his fifth ATP singles title.
Sania, the country's finest woman doubles player, who began the year with the number one ranking, closed it at number 9.
Yuki Bhambri became only the third Indian to reach the singles quarter-finals of an ATP World Tour event at home after winning his second round against an unfit world number 16 Fabio Fognini even as Ramkumar Ramanathan's fairytale run came to an end in Chennai on Thursday.
Serbian Djokovic, 31, needed elbow surgery in February to cure a problem that surfaced in 2017, but after some jarring defeats he returned to the kind of domination he achieved in 2015, winning Wimbledon and the US Open.
The 42-year-old Leander Paes's dream of appearing in a record seventh Olympics may remain just that if Rohan Bopanna decides to play with a player ranked lower than the world No 46.
Karolina Pliskova lost her cool over a line call and bashed a hole into the umpire's chair with her racket after suffering a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 defeat by Maria Sakkari in the Italian Open second round on Wednesday.
