Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis will continue to win Grand Slams for next few years: Mahesh Bhupathi

November 11, 2015

Mumbai, Nov 11: India tennis great Mahesh Bhupathi on Tuesday heaped praise on current women's doubles World No.1 Sania Mirza and her partner Swiss veteran Martina Hingis and for their tremendous season this year which saw them clinch nine doubles titles, including two Grand Slams.

BhupathiBhupathi said the Indo-Swiss pair will continue to win Grand Slams for the next few years with the form they are currently in.

The unstoppable duo of Mirza and Swiss veteran Hingis came up with another stupendous performance recently to win the women's doubles title at the prestigious $7 million WTA Finals in Singapore.

It was the pair's ninth title together this season, having also won in Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, US Open (New York), Wimbledon (London), Charleston, Miami and Indian Wells.

Sania also won the Sydney International in January with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands to take her doubles trophy count to 10 this year.

"Sania has been an inspiration. She has really worked hard over the last three years. It is not about just this year she has performed consistently. She is putting herself in a position to win matches," Bhupathi said at a press conference here.

"She has also found someone who can complement each other very well that is Martina Hingis. They are going to continue winning Grand Slams for the next few years," he added.

Bhupathi also opined that alongside mixed doubles, the men's doubles duo of Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes may win medals for India in the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.

"Alongside mixed doubles, men's doubles have a great chance to clinch medals in the Rio Olympics. Both Rohan-Leander are world class players and they also have a great chance to win," the 41-year-old said.

The 15-time Grand Slam winner also praised current World No.89 Yuki Bhambri for breaking into the top 100 of the men's singles in the ATP rankings, adding that will help him play in the main draw of the singles in the Grand Slams next year.

"It has been a very successful year for Indian tennis in the year. Five Grand Slams for the country. Yuki is now 89 in the world and is going to play in the main draw of the singles in the Grand Slam next year. Sumit Nagal and Karman Kaur Thandi are surely the future of Indian tennis in men’s and women’s. Things are moving well," he said.

Bhupathi, who owns Indian Aces a franchise from International Premier Tennis League (IPTL), said he was thrilled to have Rafael Nadal in the team for the next two seasons (2015-2016) after signing Roger Federer in the inaugural season.

"It is great to have Nadal on board. We know how big and effective player he has been and is in the court. After the New Delhi crowd witnessed Federer and Novak Djokovic in the inaugural season, this year they will get to see Nadal face-off against Federer," he said.

When asked about the inclusion of young Indian players in the IPTL, Bhupathi said keeping in mind the world wide broadcast and the top class players in the teams, it will be difficult to fit in budding young players.

"Somdev Devverman has been kept as an alternate player for the Indian Aces. The quality of tennis has to be maintained as it is broadcasted all over the world. Fitting in young and budding Indian players will be difficult here," he said.

Indian Aces co-owner Gulshan Jhurani -- who was also present on the occassion -- said that to make the league popular throughout the country, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai are the venues which have taken into consideration for hosting the IPTL in the future.

"We have got great response from Delhi in inaugural season, But to make IPTL popular in the country we would like to shift it till as many cities as possible. After Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai are the chosen venues," he said.

Nadal, Agnieszka Radwanska, Gael Monfils, Sania, Ivan Dodig, Bopanna, Fabrice Santoro are the seven players in the India Aces squad that will take on the other four franchises -- Philippine Mavericks, UAE Royals, Singapore Slammers and the newly-joined Japan Warriors.

The league will be held from December 2-20 in Kobe, Manila, New Delhi, Dubai and Singapore.

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Agencies
March 8,2020

Mumbai, Mar 8: Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned to India's ODI squad as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the team for the upcoming South Africa series.

South Africa are scheduled to tour India for a three-match ODI series, starting from March 12.

India's ODI squad: Shikhar Dhawan, Prithvi Shaw, Virat Kohli (C ), KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Shubman Gill.

Cricket South Africa (CSA) have already announced their squad for the series and spinner George Linde was given maiden ODI call-up.

South Africa squad: Quinton de Kock (c, wk), Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen, Faf du Plessis, Kyle Verreynne, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Jon-Jon Smuts, Andile Phehlukwayo, Lungi Ngidi, Lutho Sipamla, Beuran Hendricks, Anrich Nortje, George Linde, Keshav Maharaj, Janneman Malan.

The first ODI will be played in Dharamsala while the other two matches will be played in Lucknow and Kolkata on March 15 and 18, respectively.

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News Network
January 10,2020

Srinagar, Jan 10: Real Kashmir FC made a strong comeback in the second half to play out a 1-1 draw against former champions Punjab FC in their home I-League match here on Friday.

The 'Snow Leopards' equalised in the 62nd minute through Gnohere Krizo in front of a partisan crowd of 8,500 spectators after Makan Chothe had given Punjab FC the lead in the 21st minute at the TRC ground.

After Thursday's draw, Punjab FC is placed third on the table with 10 points from seven games. Real Kashmir FC remained at eighth with six points from five matches. This was Real Kashmir's third home match on the trot.

The match was a story of two halves as the first belonged to the visitors who enjoyed a 62 per cent possession of the ball, whereas the second belonged to the home side.

Both the teams were looking to gain an early advantage and Punjab FC took the lead after 21 minutes.

Confusion inside the Real Kashmir box because of a long ball from Punjab opened up an opportunity for Chothe and he made no mistake as he smashed the ball at the back of the net.

As the fans cheered on, Real Kashmir created a flurry of chances, but none of the home side players could find the back of the net. Punjab was able to hold on to their slender lead heading into the tunnel.

The second half resumed with Real Kashmir pressing high up the field and pressurising Punjab.

In the 56th minute, Real Kashmir playmaker Kallum Higginbotham cut through two defenders on the left side of the box and the ball fell to Mason Robertson, whose shot was too weak to trouble the Punjab goalkeeper.

Soon after, it was Danish Farooq who tried a curler from a distance but his shot did not have enough bend to trouble the Punjab goalkeeper. The home team's effort finally paid off in the 62nd minute.

A miscalculated header by Danilo Augusto fell at the feet of Gnohere Krizo, who was one-on-one with the keeper. He made no mistake in striking the ball into the opponent's goal to score the equaliser.

Real Kashmir was in their groove now, and Kallum came in from the right with a beautiful low cross across the face of the goal but Mason could not get a touch as the chance went begging.

The duo of Kallum and Mason were proving difficult for Punjab to deal with. In the 82nd minute, a beautiful long ball by Kallum found the head of a towering Mason, but the effort went just over the crossbar.

Within a few moments, Punjab again had another nervous moment as Chesterpoul Lyngdoh's cross from the right side hit the arm of Thoiba Singh but the referee turned down an appeal for penalty.

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News Network
January 15,2020

Dubai, Jan 15: India skipper and batting mainstay Virat Kohli was on Wednesday named captain of the International Cricket Council's ODI and Test teams of the year, capping off a memorable season for the world No.1.

Apart from Kohli, there were four other Indians who were picked in the ICC's Test and ODI Teams of the Year.

While the Test team featured double-centurion Mayank Agarwal, opener Rohit Sharma, speedster Mohammed Shami and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav found a place in the ODI side.

Kohli enjoyed a tremendous run in both the formats in 2019. The 31-year-old hit his seventh Test double hundred on the way to a career-best unbeaten 254 against South Africa in October last year.

It was a breakthrough year for opener Agarwal, who smashed two double tons, one century and went beyond the fifty-run mark twice. He hit a career-best score of 243 against Bangladesh in November.

Kuldeep, too, enjoyed a memorable year as he joined the golden list of bowlers with two hat-tricks. The chinaman claimed his second ODI hat-trick of his career against the West Indies last month.

In the absence of Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, Shami rose to the occasion making the best in the business hop, skip and jump with his pace, swing and bounce through the season. He scalped 42 wickets in 21 ODIs over the last 12 months.

The ICC's Teams of the Year 2019:

ODI Team of the Year (in batting order): Rohit Sharma, Shai Hope, Virat Kohli (captain), Babar Azam, Kane Williamson, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Starc, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav

Test Team of the Year (in batting order): Mayank Agarwal, Tom Latham, Marnus Labuschagne, Virat Kohli (captain), Steve Smith, Ben Stokes, BJ Watling (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Neil Wagner, Nathan Lyon.

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