News Brief: March 2009

India defeats Chinese Taipei
India's new Tennis hero Somdev Devvarman played his part well and led India to script 3-2 win over Chinese Taipei in the Davis Cup Asia / Oceania Zone Group I second round tie at the Yang-Ming Tennis Centre in Kaohsiung in Chinese Taipei played from March 6 to 8, 2009. He first defeated Ti Chen on the opening day and then pulled off a brilliant victory against world number 59 Yen-Hsun Lu in the first reverse singles to take India in to the next round. Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathy, the formidable doubles combination faced unexpected tough challenge while defeating their rival-combination on the second day. Rohan Bopanna, who was not in good touch, lost both of his singles matches. It was the first occasion when the India met Chinese Taipei in Davis Cup.
Hereunder is the complete result of the tie -
Somdev Devvarman beat Ti Chen 7-5, 6-4, 6-4
Rohan Bopanna lost to Yen-Hsun Lu 6-7, 2-6, 2-6
Leander Paes / Mahesh Bhupathy beat Tsung-Hua Yang / Chu-Huan Yi 6-4, 7-6, 6-7, 6-2
Somdev Devvarman beat Yen-Hsun Lu 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
Rohan Bopanna lost to Tsung-Hua Yang 3-6, 7-6, 6-7

Three Bronze medals for Indian runners
Indian runners bagged three bronze medals in the 10th Asian cross-country championships held recently at Manama, Bahrain. All these medals came in the team events. Hereunder are the complete results -
Men (11.85km): 1. Ahmad Hassan Abdullah (Qatar) 34:40.2 2. Essa Ismail Rasheed (Qatar) 34:50.9 3. Felix Kikwai Kibore (Qatar) 34:50.9
Team: 1. Qatar 6 pts 2. Bahrain 24 3. India 29
Junior Men (8km): 1. Amemu Bekele Gebre (Bahrain) 23:55.5 2. Edwin Chebbi Kimurer (Bahrain) 23:59.1 3. Syota Hattori (Japan) 24:05.1
Team: 1. Bahrain 11 pts 2. Japan 12 3. Yemen 29
Women: 1. Maryam Yusuf Jamal (Bahrain) 26:21.6 2. Mimi Belete (Bahrain) 26:31.3 3. Aya Nagara (Japan) 26:50.0
Team: 1. Japan 12 2. Bahrain 14 3. India 31
Junior Women (5.7km): 1. Shitaye Eshete Habtegebrel (Bahrain) 19:35.2 2. Tejitu Daba Chalchissa (Bahrain) 19:37.4 3. Aki Odagiri (Japan) 19:44.6
Team: 1. Bahrain 10 2. Japan 12 3. India 30
The performance of the Indian runners in individual events was as under -
Surendra Singh 35:22.0 (5th, 11.85km), Sandip Kumar 36:12.7 (11th, 11.85km), Soji Mathew 36:54.7 (21st, 11.85km), Suresh Kumar 25:11.6 (9th, Junior), Karan Singh 25:11.6 (11th, Junior), Anil Pawar 25:25.1 (17th, Junior), Devendra Singh 25:51.7 (21st, Junior), Rajan Singh 26:03.2 (23rd, Junior).
Kavita Raut 27:39.9 (8th, Women), Preeja Sreedharan28:09.1 (10th, Women), Vijaymala Patel 30:38.8 (19th, Women), Navjoban Kaur 20:27.8 (9th, Junior Women), Monika Raut 20:56.3 (10th), Rohini Raut 21:41.5 (11th).