The Sports-India Community

Yes, it seemed inevitable although he was still playing very well. His father hinted at it when I ran into him a couple of months ago. Undoubtedly India's greatest male squash player to-date.

Ankita is in complete meltdown since her wedding, sadly. She needs to regroup, take a bit of time off and come back stronger.

Sumit-Yuki wouldn't be an ideal pairing, as neither of them has a particularly strong serve. I would say the potential pairings are RB-Yuki (strongest), RB-Sumit, RB-RamK, RB-Balaji. If RB choses to pair with Yuki, other doubles pairings would be RamK-Sumit (potentially quite good, complementing Sum...

Yuki Bhambri (partnering Albano Olivetti) got a good win in R1 of the Bavarian International (ATP250 in Munich), beating the champions of the Monte Carlo Masters last week, and finalists at last year's French Open, Vliegen/Gille (both Belgians).

Updated list: 20 - Leander Paes (8 Men's Doubles incl a career Grand Slam, 10 Mixed Doubles incl a career Grand Slam, 2 Junior Singles) 12 - Mahesh Bhupathi (4 Men's Doubles, 8 Mixed Doubles incl a career Grand Slam in MxD) 7- Sania Mirza (3 Mixed Doubles, 3 Women's Doubles, 1 Junior Doubles) 3 - Ra...

Sumit edges up to 9th on the all-time Indian singles ranking list: Ramanathan Krishnan - 6 Vijay Amritraj - 18 Ramesh Krishnan - 23 Somdev Devvarman - 62 Sashi Menon - 71 Leander Paes- 73 Anand Amritraj - 74 Prajnesh Gunneswaran - 75 Sumit Nagal - 80 Yuki Bhambri - 83 Jasjit Singh - 89 Premjit Lall ...

Leander Paes keeps getting better at golf. I see him often on the course when I am in Kolkata (approximately once a month). Last week, he won the monthly Silver Salver tournament at Tollygunge Club with the best gross score. (He didn't win the net score award, which was won by a 15-handicap golfer; ...

The other two Indians are going in opposite directions: [QF] 3- Sasikumar Mukund (IND, 427) d. Bang Shuo Yin (TWN, 973) 62 63 [QF] 1-Khumoyun Sultonov (UZB,331) d. Siddharth Vishwakarma (IND, 659) 76(4) 64 So Mukund plays Sultonov in the SF, Ramkumar plays Vietnam's Ly. Let's have an all-Indian fina...

Sabalenka's ex -boy friend, Konstantin Kolstov, appears to have either committed suicide or died accidentally (jumped off a hotel balcony when drunk). The initial reports said he was her boyfriend, but she herself tweeted that they "were no longer together". Kolstov wasn't staying with her...

Only Arjun/Jeevan made the SF there in Murcia. A disappointing outcome for the other 2 (1.5) pairs with Indian interest. [QF] Arjun Kadhe/Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (IND/IND) d. 2-Petros Tsitsipas/Bart Stevens (GRE/NZL) 64 62 [QF] Anirudh Chandrasekar/N.VijaySundar Prashanth (IND/IND) l. Luca Margaroli/S...

Really nice to see so many Indian youngsters (fresh ones particularly) coming through this week in Chandigarh. Humdinger going on between 20 year old Chirag Duhan and India #2 Ramkumar Ramanathan: [QF] 2- Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND, 351) d. Chirag Duhan (IND, 1297) 46 62 64 It is currently on serve, 4...

Ajay Mandal has decent numbers for Chhattisgarh, but he should change IPL sides if he wants to play regularly (or even occasionally). As long as CSK have Jadeja, they have no reason to play Mandal.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if 3 of the four singles semifinalists turn out to be Indians? I have a hunch they will be! There are a couple of Indian pairs in the doubles SF too -- 2-Vishnu/Manish and 3-Siddhant/Karan -- and they play each other, so we are assured of one Indian pair being in the doubles...

For a change, the IPL this year will be a 2-month long trial for the T20I World Cup squad. I think the first thing we will all be looking out for is whether the reconstructed body of Rishabh Pant is performing as well as his pre-injury performances/promise. If he is, then a lot falls into place -- a...

Sorry to see that Manish could not repeat his victory over the same player (top seed this week, second seed last week). Perhaps he has been playing too many matches -- and of course his opponent had a lot of time to regroup after losing in R1 to Manish last week.