Federer backs Indian stars to shine at Wimbledon

July 27, 2012

indianshin

London, July 27: Roger Federer has backed Indian stars Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna to mount a strong challenge for his doubles gold medal at the London Olympics.

Federer and Swiss team-mate Stanislas Wawrinka took gold at the 2008 Games in Beijing and will be among the favourites for the top prize in this year's event, which gets underway at Wimbledon on Saturday.

But world number one Federer, who clinched a record equalling seventh Wimbledon singles title earlier this month, knows a potential semi-final meeting with seventh seeded duo Bhupathi and Bopanna would pose a serious threat to his hopes of winning doubles gold again.

Bhupathi and Bopanna start their Olympic campaign against Belarus's Max Mirnyi and Alexander Bury after Bhupathi refused to be teamed with Leander Paes following a falling-out with his compatriot.

Paes and Vishnu Vardhan open against Robin Hasse and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Federer said: "I would love to play any of the Indian teams, but Bopanna and Bhupathi are closer to us in the draw.

"I don't know why they (Bhupathi and Paes) didn't play together, but Bopanna is a very good player himself and I'm sure on grass they will have a chance to do very well."

Although Federer's main focus will be winning a first gold in the singles, the 30-year-old would love to defend his doubles title after experiencing Olympic success four years ago.

"Obviously winning the Olympic gold with Stan in Beijing was one of the most incredible feelings I've ever had on a tennis court," added Federer, whose first doubles match alongside Wawrinka in London is against the Japanese duo of Kei Nishikori and Go Soeda.

"Hopefully, we can do well again. We haven't played much doubles of late. Thank God we are seeded, that helped us out a little bit in the draw."



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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Skipper Virat Kohli has become the first Indian to reach the 50M followers mark on social media platform Instagram. Kohli, who is breaking cricketing records with each passing match, has a great social media following.

The 31-year old has so far made 930 posts on the platform and his social media posts continue to enthrall fans worldwide. Overall, Instagram's official account has the most number of followers and it is followed by Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 200M followers.

In terms of Indians with most number of followers, Bollywood actor Priyanka Chopra is on the second spot with 49.9 followers while Deepika Padukone is on the third place with 44.1 followers.

Last year, Kohli had become the most successful Indian Test captain, surpassing Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Currently, Kohli is in action against New Zealand and his side would take on the hosts in the two-match Test series, slated to commence from February 21.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Headingley, Jan 25: England have become the first team in the world to score 500,000 runs in Test cricket. They achieved the feat during the ongoing fourth and final Test against South Africa being played at The Wanderers.

On Friday - the opening day of the Test match -- England captain Joe Root's single through the covers took the Three Lions to a landmark 500,000 run-mark in the longest format of the game. They achieved the feat in their 1022nd Test match.

Australia comes second in the list, with 432,706 runs in 830 Tests. India, meanwhile, are third, with 273,518 runs in 540 Tests, followed by West Indies (270,441 runs in 545 Tests).

In the third Test played at St George's Park in Port Elizabeth, England had become the first team to play 500 Test matches on foreign soil. Australia are the second team to play the most away Test with 404 matches they have played so far.

India have played 268 Tests on foreign soil in which they have won 51, lost 113 and 104 have ended in a draw.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: India opening batsman KL Rahul will be available for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy semi-final clash against Bengal at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 29.

Rahul had asked to be rested from Karnataka's quarter-final match but is now available for the climactic stages of the Ranji Trophy. 

Karnataka had already been strengthened by the addition of Manish Pandey for the quarter-finals, with both Pandey and Rahul having returned from New Zealand after India completed the limited-overs leg of their tour, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Last year's finalists Saurashtra will take on Gujarat in the other semi-final at Rajkot. The other prominent players who will be part of the last four include Parthiv Patel (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra) and Manoj Tiwary (Bengal).

Gujarat, Bengal, Karnataka, and Saurashtra had finished on top of the combined Groups A and B table, and all four progressed to the semi-finals after dominating their respective quarter-final matches.

Rahul has been phenomenal with the bat in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. He scored one century and four fifty-plus scores in his last ten innings in ODIs and T20Is combined

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