Sania, Leander, Sumit: India's three musketeers shine at Wimbledon

July 13, 2015

London, Jul 13: Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Sumit Nagal brought a lot of cheer to the country's tennis fans as India took home three titles at Wimbledon this year.

india shine

A vintage Leander Paes clinched his 16th Grand Slam trophy, winning the mixed doubles of the Wimbledon Championship with the legendary Martina Hingis through a dominating victory over Alexander Peya and Timea Babos in London on Sunday.

The seventh seed Indo-Swiss pair drubbed the fifth seed Austrian-Hungarian team 6-1 6-1 in the lop-sided summit clash which was over in just 40 minutes. It was Paes' eighth mixed doubles title and the second with Hingis.

"Coming out and playing like that on one of the most prestigious courts that we've grown up with and winning a title like that, again for the second time in a Grand Slam without losing a set, that is really special," Paes said after the Wimbledon crown.

Indian junior tennis player Sumit Nagal and Vietnam's Nam Hoang Ly beat Reilly Opelka of the US and Akira Santillan of Japan 7-6(4), 6-4 to win the Wimbledon boys doubles title on Sunday.

The 17-year-old Nagal and Ly, seeded eighth, defeated the American-Japanese fourth seeds in an hour and three minutes on No 1 Court of The All England Club.

The New Delhi-born, right-handed player had also entered the boys' singles competition. However, he was ousted from the category in only the opener when he lost to Argentinean Juan Pablo Ficovich in three sets.

The official Twitter account of the Rashtrapati Bhavan congratulated the winners. "Congratulations @Leander, Sumit Nagal on winning mixed and boys doubles titles in #Wimbledon2015, proud moment for India," it posted.

A day ago, India's tennis queen Sania Mirza created history by becoming the first woman player from the country to win a women's doubles Grand Slam trophy as she clinched the Wimbledon title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis in London.

Hingis, 34, and 28-year-old Mirza came from a set down and 2-5 behind in the final set to beat Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5. It was the top seeds' first Grand Slam title as a team having only decided to play together in March this year.

"Every kid that picks up a tennis racquet this is about winning Wimbledon or playing at Wimbledon one day.

"I hope it inspires a lot of girls and makes them believe they can be Grand Slam champions too," Mirza said.

With three Indians rising to the occasion, Indian tennis fans and the fraternity had a lot to rejoice about.

This was India's most significant triumph at the All England Lawn Tennis Club since Vijay Amritraj's two quarter final appearances in 1973, when he lost to eventual champion Jan Kodes, and in 1981 when he was beaten by his rival Jimmy Connors in a five-set thriller.

The former world no 16 made such an impact on the game that he is fondly remembered as part of the "ABC" of tennis, standing alongside legends Bjorn Borg and Jimmy Connors.

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News Network
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: India's World Cup-winning former opener Gautam Gambhir performed the last rites of his deceased domestic help after her mortal remains could not be sent to her home in Odisha due to the coronavirus-forced national lockdown.

Gambhir, also a BJP Lok Sabha MP, posted a tribute on his Twitter page for his employee Saraswati Patra, who was working at his residence for the past six years.

"Taking care of my little one can never be domestic help. She was family. Performing her last rites was my duty," he tweeted.

"Always believed in dignity irrespective of caste, creed, religion or social status. Only way to create a better society. That's my idea of India! Om Shanti," said the 38-year-old Gambhir, who played 58 Tests for India between 2004 and 2016.

Media reports in Odisha said the 49-year-old Patra hailed from a village in Jajpur district.

She was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital a few days ago and was battling diabetes and high blood pressure for a long period. She breathed her last while undergoing treatment on April 21.

Union Minister of Petroleum and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan appreciated Gambhir.

"Taking care of Saraswati throughout the course of her illness, he also ensured her dignity in death by performing her last rites himself since her mortal remains could not be sent to her family back home in Odisha," Pradhan, who also belongs to Odisha, tweeted.

"His act of compassion will enliven the faith in humanity for millions of poor, who are working far from their home for livelihood and will garner respect from all folds of the society."

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News Network
February 17,2020

Hamilton, Feb 17: Mayank Agarwal found form on his birthday and Rishabh Pant mixed caution with his customary aggression as India’s warm-up fixture against New Zealand XI ended in a draw here on Sunday.

The match was called off an hour after lunch with India reaching 252 for four just 48 overs into their second innings.

Agarwal, who had gone through a wretched period since the second Test against Bangladesh, retired on 81 off 99 balls with 10 fours and three sixes to his name.

To the relief of the Indian team management, Pant played in his customary manner to reach 70 off 65 balls, but also showed discretion when the opposition bowlers were in the midst of a good spell. There were four sixes -- two each off leg-spinner Ish Sodhi and off-spinner Henry Cooper.

While Sodhi was hit down the ground, Cooper was dispatched over extra cover on a couple of occasions. He didn’t curb his aggression, though, there were times when he was ready defend the spinners and also leave some of the deliveries.

Even though Pant is considered a better batsman than Wriddhiman Saha, the innings might have come too late in the day considering that the latter is a better keeper and possibly a more responsible batsman in pressure situations.

The biggest positive to have emerged from the New Zealand second innings is Agarwal’s poor run coming to an end. The Seddon Park track easing out was definitely a factor but Agarwal’s footwork was more assured as he played some glorious on-drives and pull-shots off fast bowlers.

Before this game, Agarwal had played 10 competitive games including first-class, ODIs and List A matches and couldn’t cross the 40-run mark in 11 completed innings. He even bagged a pair against New Zealand A in an unofficial Test match.

Once he had got his form back, he didn’t come out to bat after lunch giving Saha an opportunity to score an unbeaten 30, his runs coming mostly against non-regular bowlers.

The Agarwal-Pant pair added 100 runs in 14.3 overs and it also helped that part-timers like Cooper was introduced into the action.

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Agencies
May 23,2020

New Delhi, May 23: Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Saturday said India will not host any international event in immediate future and fans will have to learn to live with the new normal of sporting activities happening behind closed doors in the post-COVID-19 world.

Rijiju's statement gain greater significance in the context of the suspended IPL, which the BCCI wants to host in October-November in case of the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia is postponed.

"We have been working for quite some time now to resume sporting activities but before that, we have to think about practice and training. We are not going to have a tournament kind of situation immediately," Rijiju was quoted as saying by India Today.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click here

"We have to learn to live with the situation where sporting events will have to be carried forward without spectators in stadiums and sports venues," he added.

Talking specifically about the 13th edition of IPL, which has been put on hold for an indefinite period due to the pandemic, Rijiju said it is the government's prerogative to take a call on conducting any tournament in the country.

"In India, the government has to take a call and it will take a call depending on the situation. We cannot put health at risk just because we want to have a sporting event.

"Our focus is fighting Covid-19 and at the same time, we will have to work a mechanism to get back to normalcy. It is difficult to confirm dates but I am sure we will have some kind of sporting events this year," he said.

Rijiju's statement came close on the heels of Sports Authority of India (SAI) laying out a detailed Standard Operating Procedure for the resumption of sporting activities across the country in a phased manner.

"In the background, their (athletes) fitness and everything has been tracked. They are in touch with the coaches, the fitness experts, the high-performance directors. We are monitoring each and every athlete who are of the higher stature, who played for India and higher clubs," he said.

"Now it has been laid out. SAI has prepared a detailed SOP. These are prepared by experts from different fields. This SOP has already been issued to all sports federations and other sports bodies including govt stakeholders. So, based on this SOP training will start."

Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths on May 23

The Sports Minister, however, reiterated that resumption of sporting activities will entirely depend on guidelines of respective states and local administrations.

"We have been clearly advising that health and safety are top priorities. Besides that we have to keep in mind two other things, one is the guidelines issued by the Home Ministry, second, is the guidelines issued by the administrations of the respective localities or states. So, these are to be taken into account," he said.

"But we have clearly stated that sports complexes and stadiums are open, other than that there should not be any activities till the lockdown is there or we come up with a renewed kind of advice."

Asked about the prospect of the Tokyo Games that were scheduled for this year but were postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic, the Sports Minister said he is hopeful of the quadrennial event taking place on the revised dates.

"Olympics is still far away and we have full confidence in the Japanese government and IOC and every country will support that the conduct of Tokyo 2021 will not be postponed. There are too many stakes in Olympics, so it is difficult to even foresee that the Olympics can be postponed," he said.

"As far as India's preparation goes, we are at the best stage of our preparation of any Olympics so far in history. This is going to be India's biggest contingent so far and have medal-winning prospects. But I am not saying we are so prepared to finish in the top 10 or 5 but our long term target is that India will be in the top 10 in 2028.

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