35th National Games, Kerala, February 2015

[sameerph]

35th national games started with a grand opening ceremony with stars such as Sachin Tendulkar, P.T. Usha and Anju Bobby George present.

This is the report on the opening ceremony -

Glitter and glamour mark opening ceremony

And this is the website for the event which also has a link for live streaming -

35th national games

This comes in a lean year with no olympics/Asiad / CWG. So, not much of motivation for athletes. But, lets see if we some good performances by athletes.

[sameerph]

These are the results of the tennis team quaterfinals at the national games .

Men -

Tamil Nadu beat Delhi 2-0 (Sriram Balaji bt Kunal Anand 6-4, 6-4; R. Ramkumar bt Ronit Bisht 6-1, 6-3);

Kerala beat Karnataka 2-1 (Rynold Timothy lost to Rashein 2-6, 0-6; Haddin Bawa bt P. Suarj 6-2, 6-3; Haddin & M.S. Krishnakumar bt Prajwal & B. Manu 4-6, 6-3, 6-2);

Maharashtra beat Gujarat 2-0 (Shabaz Khan bt Rahul Sadvani 6-0, 6-1; Aakash Wagh bt Suraj Deasai 6-2, 6-4);

Telegana beat Haryana 2-0 (Kaza Vinayak Sharma bt Ajay Yadhav 6-2, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan bt Vijayant Malik 6-2, 7-5).

Women -

Maharashtra bt Delhi 2-0 (Mihika Yadav bt Karman Kaur Thandi 6-4, 6-4; Prarthana Thombare bt Prerna Bhambri 6-1, 6-3).

Gujarat bt Kerala 2-0 (Eetee Maheta bt Rhea Rosa 6-1, 6-1; Ankita Raina bt Sanjana Sudhir 6-1, 6-2).

Tamil Nadu bt Karnataka 2-0 (Sharon Paul bt Sahan Shetty 6-1, 6-0; Snehadevi Reddy bt Preethi Ujjini 6-0, 6-2).

Telangana bt Haryana 2-0 (Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Jennifer Luikham 0-6, 6-2, 6-3; Nidhi Chilumula bt Himani Mor 6-4, 6-0).

One major upset was in women where Maharashtra defeated Delhi as Mihika Yadav had a very good win against Karman Kaur Thandi.

[kujo]

And apparently there is a controversy over one of the opening acts. Mohan Lal and his band performed (lip synched) poorly, a list of Lal songs and charged 2 Crores for that idiocy!!

[sameerph]

Tamil Nadu won the mens team tennis title while Gujarat won the womens team tennis title.

These are the results of SF and final.

Mens team-

Semi Finals

Tamil Nadu bt Kerala 2-0 [Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Rynold Timothy 6-0, 6-1; Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Haadin Bava 7-6(2), 6-4].

Telangana bt Maharashtra 2-0 [Vishnu Vardhan bt Shahbaaz Khan 6-3, 7-6(3); Saketh Myneni bt Akash Wagh 7-6(8), 6-3].

Finals

Tamil Nadu bt Telangana 2-1 [ N Sriram Balaji bt Vishnu Vardhan 7-6, 6-4; Saketh Myneni bt Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5, 4-6 7-6(4) ; N Sriram Balaji / Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Saketh Myneni / Vishnu Vardhan 6-1 6-4

Womens team

Semi finals

Gujarat bt Maharashtra 2-0 [Eetee Maheta bt Rashmi Teltumde 6-4, 7-6(3); Ankita Raina bt Prathana Thombare 6-0, 6-1].

Telangana bt Tamil Nadu 2-1 [Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-4, 6-1; Nidhi Chilumula lost to Sneha Devi Reddy 3-6, 3-6; Soujanya & Nidhi bt Rushmi Chakravarthi & Sneha 6-2, 6-4].

Finals

Gujarat bt Telangana 2-0 [ Eetee Maheta bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 5-7,6-4,6-4 ; Ankita Raina bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-3,6-1

It seems in mens, Tamil Nadu - Telangana tie went down to the wire with as usual match between RamK- Saketh which Saketh won. In womens, Ankita dominated taking Gujarat to title.

[sameerph]

Sajjan Kumar from Kerala has been the star in swimming competition having won 4 golds. Also 4 Indians swimmers - Sajjan Kumar, Virdhawal Khade who is making a comeback here, Sandeep Sejwal and Aeron D'souze have qualified for the world championships. This is for the first time more than 2 swimmers have qualified for the olympics.

This is the report -

4th Gold: Sajan in 7th Heaven

[shibi]

I think he is called Sajan Prakash not Sajan Kumar.

[gbelday]

Eetee Maheta bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 5-7,6-4,6-4

Is that an upset? Not sure what their rankings are.
Gujarat vs Telengana is wife vs. husband (in our household) and wife won as always, lol.

[sameerph]

Haha. Currently, Eeetee is higher ranked than Sowjanya but Sowjanya has missed lots of months due to injury and was ranked much higher earlier.

These are individual events results so far -

Men singles :

First round

R. Ramkumar (TN) bt D. Prajwal (Kar) 6-3, 6-0;
Shahbaaz Khan (Mah) bt R. Suraj (Kar) 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3;
Vishnu Vardhan (Tel) bt Rahul Sadhwani (Guj) 6-0, 7-6(3);
Ankit Sachdeva (Del) bt Rynold Timothy (Ker) 6-2, 6-2;
Ronit Singh Bishit (Del) bt Akash Wagh 6-3, 4-6, 6-2;
Kaza Vinayak Sharma (Tel) bt Suraj Desai 6-4, 6-1;
Haddin Bawa (Ker) bt Vijayant Malik (Del) 7-6(5), 6-1;
Sriram Balaji (TN) bt V. Khate (Har) 6-0, 6-1.

Quarter Finals

R. Ramkumar (TN) bt Shahbaaz Khan (Mah) 6-2, 6-3
Vishnu Vardhan (Tel) bt Ankit Sachdeva (Del) 7-6(12), concd.
Ronit Singh Bisht (Del) bt Kaza Vinayak Sharma (Tel) 6-2, 7-6(4);
Sriram Balaji (TN) bt Haddin Bava (Mah) 6-3, 7-6(6);


Women:

First round
Ankita Raina (Guj) bt Sharon Paul (TN) 6-4, 6-2;
Eetee Maheta (Guj) bt Sanjana (Ker) 7-5, 6-1;
Rishika Sunkara (Del) bt Varunya (Kar) 6-0, 6-1;
Prerna Bhambri (Del) bt Sowjanya (Tel) 6-2, 6-0;
Mihika Yadav (Mah) bt Jennifer (Har) 6-4, 6-4;
Nidhi Chulumula (Tel) bt Sneha Devi Reddy (TN) 6-4, 6-2;
B. Preethi (Kar) bt Smrithi (Har) 6-1, 6-2;
Prarthana Thombare (Mah) bt Rhea Rosa John (Ker) 6-0, 6-1.

Quarter Finals

Ankita Raina (Guj) bt Eetee Maheta 6-2, 6-3;
Rishika Sunkara (Del) bt Prerena Bhambri (Del) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(4);
Snehadevi S. Reddy (TN) bt Mikha Yadhav (Mah) 6-2, 6-1;
Prarthana Thombre (Mah) bt Ujjii Preethi (Kar) 6-1, 6-2

[sameerph]

And just saw on DD sports, Womens singles semi finals Ankita Raina double bagled Rishika Sunkara in just 52 mins. Ankita really looks to be head and shoulders above all other Indian players now based on results here.

[sameerph]

Watching a competitive women's singles final between Ankita Raina and Prathana Thombre on DD Sports. Ankita leading 4-3 in the first set.

In the SF, Prarthana beat Snehadevi Reddy in 3 sets.

After this mens final will be between two TN players, Ramk and Balaji. They won their respective SF's against Vishnu and Ronit Bisht in straight sets.

[Omkara]

Ankita won the first set 7-5
Commentators rightly pointing out its tragedy of errors.
9 out of 12 games had service breaks

[sameerph]

Ankita won 75 63..Came back from 0-3 down in the second ser and won 6 straight games.

Ankita needs to work on her serve which is weak. Rest of her game is pretty good now.

Prathana has a better serve and a good backhand but has less power in her shots than Ankita. Hope she does better in international circuit this year and get close to top 300 at least.

[sameerph]

RamK beats Balaji 62 64 to win the mens singles title. Dominating run by RamK here. It seems Saketh skipped individual singles here and RamK easily won against others.

[sameerph]

So, the national games ended yesterday. There were some encouraging results in Athletics with a national record in mens javelin by Rajender Singh and host state Kerala dominating the show.

This is the final medal tally for top 10 states -

State Gold Silver Bronze Total
SERVICES SCB 91 33 35 159
KERALA 54 48 60 162
HARYANA 40 40 27 107
MAHARASHTRA 30 43 50 123
PUNJAB 27 34 32 93
MADHYA PRADESH 23 27 41 91
MANIPUR 22 21 26 69
TAMILNADU 16 16 20 52
GUJARAT 10 4 6 20
ASSAM 9 5 11 25