‘India can win medals in badminton in Rio’
Jamshedpur: Former shuttler Nikhil Kanetkar on Monday expressed confidence that India have bright chances to grab medals in badminton in the 2016 Brazil Olympic Games. "India has good chance to win medals particularly in the women's singles and from women's pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnapa, who have won the bronze medal in the world championship," said former India No.1 Kanetkar, who was here to coach 30 shuttlers from Jharkhand and West Bengal at Mohan Ahuja Indoor stadium. "Saina (Nehwal) and Sindhu (P V) are performing well at the international arena and have very good chances to win medals for the country in singles event in the Olympics," he said adding, in the men's section, top rank players like K Srikant were not consistent but, have chances to add up in the medal tally.
Paes to team up with Granollers
Chennai: Veteran Indian tennis star leander Paes will team up with Spaniard Marcel Granollers in the men's doubles at the upcoming ATP Chennai Open and the duo has been seeded second for the event starting, January 4 here. The doubles draw at the 20th edition of the event will feature, along with Paes, Rajeev Ram, Benoit Paire and Borna Coric. In the previous edition Paes and Raven Klaasen had ended runners-up, losing to eventual champions Yen-Hsun lu and Jonathan Marray. Two pairs will be awarded wild cards to play. Chennai Open will witness a line-up of top talent at the $480,000 prize money MCl to be telecast on Sony
New Delhi: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has bagged the exclusive rights to the first edition of the Masters Champions league (MCl), a T20 cricket league which will starts January 28 next year. Further expanding its bouquet of international sporting events, Sony SIX, India's premier sports entertainment channel, will telecast all the 18 matches of the inaugural edition of the tournament live and exclusive from Dubai and Sharjah to across the Indian sub-continent. The MCl has also secured, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the current captain of the Indian national cricket team as the brand ambassador. Six teams will take part in the tournament led by an Icon Player and each team has been named after zodiac signs, such as libra, Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo, Capricorn and leo. The first MCl match has been scheduled with two former teammates, Sourav Ganguly from libra legends and Virender Sehwag from Gemini Arabians, leading their teams to play against each other at the Dubai International Cricket
lahiri rises to 40th in world rankings
Sentosa (Singapore): Indian golfer Anirban lahiri, who was crowned the Asian Tour Order of Merit winner this season, on Monday rose a rung to be 40th in the latest official world golf rankings. Asian Tour number one lahiri, the only Indian featuring in top-100, had triumphed in Malaysia and India this year and also finished tied fifth at the PGA Championship to reinforce his stature as one of the game's rising young stars. The tenacious Indian will return to Augusta National Golf Club, venue of the year's opening Major, for the second straight season after making his debut last April.