Competing in only her second Challenger event, Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza clinched the USD 50,000 ITF title in Lexington, USA after an upset win over top seed Julie Coin.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
Top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi of India bagged the doubles crown partnering Poojashree Venkatesha and later stormed into the singles final in the Federal Bank ITF Women's Tennis tournament in Angamaly (Kerala) on Friday.
Reigning Australian Open boys' champion Yuki Bhambri has pulled out of the French Open due to the ankle injury he sustained while playing doubles in an ITF Futures event in Kuwait last week. Yuki, who became the first Indian to win the Australian Open boys' singles and fourth from the country to claim a junior Grand Slam, said he had been advised by doctors to take rest for at least 15 days to recover from his injury.
Second seed Isha Lakhani and No 4 Rushmi Chakravarthi of India crashed out in the quarter-finals, in the Mother's Recipe US $10,000 ITF women's Futures Tennis Tournament on Thursday. On a dramatic day of upsets and a disastrous one for India, qualifier Moe Kawatoko of Japan shocked favourite Lakhani 7-5, 7-5 in an absorbing contest that lasted 100 minutes, while No 8 seed Chun-Yan He of China upset Chakravarthi 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) in 105 minutes.
How the 22-year-old Indian reached the Show Court at US Open, finding himself against 20-time Grand Slam Champion Roger Federer after beginning the year outside 350.
World number ones Roger Federer and Ana Ivanovic head a strong field at the Olympic tennis tournament in Beijing next month. The International Tennis Federation , which released the entry lists for the men's and women's singles and doubles on Wednesday, said Beijing would witness the best lineup since tennis returned as a full medal sport in Seoul 1988.
Argentina will stage next month's Davis Cup final against Spain on an indoor court in the Atlantic resort of Mar del Plata, the International Tennis Federation said. The ITF said on its website (www.daviscup.com) that it had chosen Mar del Plata ahead of Cordoba, the other potential venue put forward by Argentina, for the November 21-23 final.
World No 15 Marin Cilic is under the radar of the International Tennis Federation for failing a drug test during the BMW Open in Munich in April, it has been reported.
As the credit crunch bites deeper into the global economy, tennis has so far managed to escape the effects of the crisis and it will be business as usual when the Australian Open begins on Monday. While Formula One, golf and soccer have all been hit by the financial downturn, tennis officials are adamant that only a world war, and not the current economic climate, would force the cancellation of one of its blue-riband events.
Mahesh Bhupathi says for India to host big-ticket WTA events, the country needs to produce a top-50 women's singles player, who can bring the fans to the stadium.
Tennis great John McEnroe finds it hard to believe that Maria Sharapova was unaware she was taking a banned drug that led to her suspension, the seven-time Grand Slam champion said on Saturday.
Eighth seed Chun-Yan He of China shocked top seed Anastasia Malhotra of Japan to storm into the final of the Mother's Recipe US $10,000 ITF Women's Futures Tennis Tournament in Mumbai on Friday. Underdog Chun-Yan fashioned an impressive 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 6-1 semi-final win over Malhotra. In the final, Chun-Yan will face Seo-Kyung Kang of Korea, who ended the campaign of qualifier Moe Kawatoko of Japan with a 6-1, 6-3 win in the second semi-final.
Young Sumit Nagal showed spark in his game on Davis Cup debut before 'breathing problem' scuttled his victory march as India suffered a 5-0 whitewash at the hands of mighty Spain in the World Group Play-off tie, in New Delhi on Sunday. Up against the reigning Olympic and French Open doubles champion Marc Lopez, who does not play singles anymore, the 19-year-old Nagal dominated the proceedings under muggy conditions before losing 3-6 6-1 3-6 in the dead fourth rubber, that lasted more than two hours. It was a mountainous task for Ramkumar Ramanathan to prevent a clean sweep since he had world number 13 David Ferrer as his opponent. The Spaniard cruised to a 6-2 6-2 win to complete a dominating 5-0 win for his side even as Ramkumar fought his heart out, giving his all.
The doping suspension of Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic has reportedly been reduced from nine months to four months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), making him eligible to return to playing from October 26 this year.
The All India Tennis Association in a statement said the Davis Cup is absolutely clean and no such incident has ever been heard of before or in recent past in India.
Italian tennis player Marco Cecchinato has been banned for 18 months and fined 40,000 euros ($44,024) for match-fixing, the Italian tennis federation has announced.
The second-seeded Indian pair of Karan Rastogi and Ashutosh Singh won the doubles title at the US $15,000 ITF tennis tournament in Beijing, beating top-seeds Matthew Ebden and Brydan Klein of Australia 6-2, 6-3 in the final. Rastogi also made it to the semi-finals of the singles, beating local challenger Jun-Chao Xu 6-2, 6-4 in a quarter-final match.
India's hopes of making it to the Davis Cup elite World Group of 16 for the first time since 1998 received a setback when they were drawn to face world No 14 Romania away from home. The draw for the eight play-off matches, from September 19 to 21, was made at the ITF headquarters in London on Wednesday morning.
The left-handed Mumbai player, seeded eighth, beat former national champion and doubles partner Rushmi Chakravarthy 6-1, 6-1 in the quarter-finals of the US $25,000 NECC-ITF Women's Tennis Tournament.
Harsh Mankad has been drafted in as the fifth member of the Indian Davis Cup squad for the April 11-13 tie against Japan.
Rohan Gajjar and Purav Raja advanced to the doubles second round of the USD 10,000 ITF tennis event after registering a comfortable straight sets victory at the CLTA stadium on Monday. The third-seeded pair beat Vijayant Malik and Yannick Nelord 6-4, 6-2 in the first round match.
Sunitha Rao advanced to the semi-final of the ITF Futures tennis tournament in New Delhi.
Sunitha Rao remained the lone Indian hope in the $ 15,000 ITF women's tennis event by advancing to the quarterfinal after compatriot Sanaa Bhambri bowed out in the second round in Greater Noida on Wednesday.
Karan Rastogi quelled the challenge of France's Antoine Tassart to storm into the quarterfinals of the $ 15,000 ITF men's event at Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Thursday.
Vivek Shokeen wasted two match points as he crashed out of the $ 15000 ITF Futures tournament while Navdeep Singh stretched his run to the quarterfinals at DLTA Complex in New Delhi on Wednesday.
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.
TCS moved into new markets like France, Japan thanks to acquisitions.
The Indian ace lost to Tang Phong of Thailand in the quarter-finals of the ITF event.
Third seed Neha Uberoi of the United States and fifth seed Nina Bratchikova of Russia were knocked out by lesser fancied opponents in the US $25,000 NECC-ITF Women's Tennis Championship in Pune on Wednesday. Russia's Alexandra Panova got the better of Neha 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 to enter the quarter-finals. Joining Alexandra in the last eight was another unseeded player, Alexandra Kolesnihenko of Uzbekistan, who shocked fifth seed Nina Bratchikova of Russia 7-6 (10-8), 6-3.
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.
Seventh seed Vivek Shokeen defeated Taipei's Huai-En Chang 6-3, 6-4 while third seed Sunil Kumar Sipaeya easily beat Nai-Zheng Yu of China 6-4, 6-1 in the pre-quarter-finals of the ITF tournament in Lahore.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday
Joining Prakash Amritraj in the semi-finals of the ITF Futures tournament were Vijay Kannan, Karan Rastogi and Vishan Punna.
Marinne Giraud upset top seed Rushmi Chakravarthi 7-6(1), 6-2 in the Mumbai ITF final.
The Delhi lad was beaten by third seed Rainer Eitzinger of Austria.
Ashutosh Singh shocked top seed Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the ITF Futures in Bellary.
Top seed Aqeel Khan and Aditya Madkekar scored easy semi-final victories at the US $10,000 ITF men's tournament in Jassowal, Ludhiana.
In the semi-finals of the ITF tournament, unseeded Ashutosh beat Chinese Davis Cupper Yu Jr Wang, while Sun accounted for top seed Aqeel Khan of Pakistan.
Delhi-lad Yuki Bhambri set up a second-round clash with top seed Aqeel Khan of Pakistan after an easy first-round victory at the ITF tournament in Delhi.
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