Tennis, boxing, cricket and wrestling: Indian sport makes waves

India take on Brazil on Friday the 17th of September , 2010 at Chennai on hard-courts in the Davis Cup World Group playoffs.

The first day’s play features two singles matches : Thomas Bellucci versus Rohan Bopanna & Somdev Devverman versus Ricardo Mello.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi take on Bruno Soares and Marcelo Melo on Saturday in a crucial doubles encounter.

The reverse singles will be played on Sunday.

Suffice to say, at least two singles matches will need to be clinched for India to progress to the next round.

The weight of Indian expectations rest on Somdev’s shoulders. Bopanna is not favoured to win either of his singles.

Can Somdev pull it off? The Indian tennis fraternity certainly hope so.

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In other tennis news, Sania Mirza is in the quarter-finals at the Guangzhou WTA. She ,along with Edina Gallovits , has also secured a berth in the women’s double quarter-final as well.

Meanwhile, France take on Argentina in Lyon and Serbia cross swords with the Czech Republic in Belgrade in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup.

Neo Sports will be telecasting the France versus Argentina matches live from 4:30 pm IST.It falls to Doordarshan again to broadcast the Indian Davis Cup matches.

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In boxing , Mary Kom keeps going on and on. She seems well on her way to her fifth successive gold in the 48 kg category in Bridgetown. She will clash with Alice Appari of the Philippines in her semi-final bout.

Kavita is the other Indian in the semi finals fray. She faces Ukrainian Kateryna Kuzhel in the 81 kg category.

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It has been a good fortnight for Indian sports.

Sushil Kumar became the first Indian wrestler ever to win a gold at a World Wrestling Championship in Moscow last Sunday. This follows his extraordinary come from behind bronze medal performance at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

And who can forget the inspired performance of the Indo-Pak express, Bopanna and Qureishi at the US Open at Flushing Meadows?

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In cricket, Mumbai Indians registered an much-needed victory against Guyana powered by a 30 ball 72 by a bludgeoning Kieron Pollard in Durban.

This was MI’s first win in the T20 Champions League trophy. The other Indian teams in the fray, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings have yet to lose a game.

For the Mumbai Indians, led by Sachin Tendulkar, this was their only win in three games.

It does seem that the Indian teams have a point to prove in this year’s edition of the Champions League after failing to make the semis last year. Of course, it helps that they are able to retain most of their foreign recruits. Money does talk, doesn’t it?

That wraps it for now. Have a great weekend!

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The understanding that we have of the world is our religion. Everyone has a religion, whether he formally belongs to a church or not.- M Scott Peck.

Breaking News: As of now, the first rubber has gone Brazil’s way with Thomas Bellucci prevailing in 5 sets, over a fighting Rohan Bopanna. The final score : 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (7-9),5-7,6-4,8-10.In Guangzhou , Sania Mirza’s run ended with a three set loss to S Zhang 6-4 1-6 6-4.