kapil857

Now that tennis rankings are out, here is the possible field for mixed doubles... Country Rank Male Female Rank CR No Switzerland 3 Federer Roger Hingis Martina 1 4 1 France 1 Mahut Nicolas Garcia Caroline 3 4 2 USA 4 Bob Bryan Serena Williams 1 5 3 Spain 4 Nadal Rafael Muguruza Garbine 2 6 4 France 3 Herbert Pierre-Hugues Mladenovic Kristina 4 7 5 India 10 Bopanna Rohan Mirza Sania 1 11 6 Romania 6 Tecau Horia Halep Simona 5 11 7 Switzerland 5 Wawrinka Stan Bencic Belinda 8 13 8 USA 5 Mike Bryan Mattek Bethanie 9 14 9 Czech Republic 8 Berdych Tomas Hradecká Lucie 10 18 10 Great Britain 2 Murray Jamie Konta Johanna 18 20 11 Poland 21 Matkowski Marcin Radwanska Agnieszka 3 24 12 Serbia 1 Djokovic Novak Ana Ivanovic 25 26 13 Australia 12 Peers John Stosur Samantha 14 26 14 Spain 14 Ferrer David Suarez-Navarro Carla 15 29 15 Germany 26 Kohlschreiber Philipp Kerber Angelique 4 30 16 Belarus 26 Mirnyi Max Azarenka Viktoria 6 32 17 Netherlands 7 Rojer Jean-Julien Bertens Kiki 27 34 18 Romania 11 Mergea Florin Niculescu Monica 26 37 19 Italy 34 Fognini Fabio Vinci Roberta 7 41 20 Czech Republic 31 Stepanek Radek Hlavackova Andrea 11 42 21 Serbia 21 Troicki Viktor Jankovic Jelena 24 45 22 Russia 42 Kuznetsov Andrey Vesnina Elena 7 49 23 Germany 34 Petzschner Philipp Goerges Julia 16 50 24 Ukraine 31 Dolgopolov Aleksandr Svitolina Elina 19 50 25 Italy 40 Seppi Andreas Pennetta Flavia 13 53 26 I feel like, in the end, the participating pairs will be 2 each from SUI, FRA and USA (if Serena doesn't play, Madison Keys or Abigail Spears can play) and 1 each from IND, ROU, GBR, AUS. The remaining 2 pairs likely to be from CZE, ESP, SRB, NED, BLR or GER. Likely wild cards - BRA, ARG, TUN, MEX If anyone has info about who has confirmed they are playing or not playing, please post...

Now that tennis rankings are out, here is the possible field for mixed doubles... Country Rank Male Female Rank CR No Switzerland 3 Federer Roger Hingis Martina 1 4 1 France 1 Mahut Nicolas Garcia Caroline 3 4 2 USA 4 Bob Bryan Serena Williams 1 5 3 Spain 4 Nadal Rafael Muguruza Garbine 2 6 4 France 3 Herbert Pierre-Hugues Mladenovic Kristina 4 7 5 India 10 Bopanna Rohan Mirza Sania 1 11 6 Romania 6 Tecau Horia Halep Simona 5 11 7 Switzerland 5 Wawrinka Stan Bencic Belinda 8 13 8 USA 5 Mike Bryan Mattek Bethanie 9 14 9 Czech Republic 8 Berdych Tomas Hradecká Lucie 10 18 10 Great Britain 2 Murray Jamie Konta Johanna 18 20 11 Poland 21 Matkowski Marcin Radwanska Agnieszka 3 24 12 Serbia 1 Djokovic Novak Ana Ivanovic 25 26 13 Australia 12 Peers John Stosur Samantha 14 26 14 Spain 14 Ferrer David Suarez-Navarro Carla 15 29 15 Germany 26 Kohlschreiber Philipp Kerber Angelique 4 30 16 Belarus 26 Mirnyi Max Azarenka Viktoria 6 32 17 Netherlands 7 Rojer Jean-Julien Bertens Kiki 27 34 18 Romania 11 Mergea Florin Niculescu Monica 26 37 19 Italy 34 Fognini Fabio Vinci Roberta 7 41 20 Czech Republic 31 Stepanek Radek Hlavackova Andrea 11 42 21 Serbia 21 Troicki Viktor Jankovic Jelena 24 45 22 Russia 42 Kuznetsov Andrey Vesnina Elena 7 49 23 Germany 34 Petzschner Philipp Goerges Julia 16 50 24 Ukraine 31 Dolgopolov Aleksandr Svitolina Elina 19 50 25 Italy 40 Seppi Andreas Pennetta Flavia 13 53 26 I feel like, in the end, the participating pairs will be 2 each from SUI, FRA and USA (if Serena doesn't play, Madison Keys or Abigail Spears can play) and 1 each from IND, ROU, GBR, AUS. The remaining 2 pairs likely to be from CZE, ESP, SRB, NED, BLR or GER. Likely wild cards - BRA, ARG, TUN, MEX

short answer - WFI sucks... long answer - Sushil punished for missing pro wrestling league

So Vikas has taken a token pro fight on Jun 11 to become eligible for the pro qualifier in July !!! I wonder if other Indian boxers will also try to do something similar - because they should, they really should !!! http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/sports/boxing/AIBA-Pro-Boxing-comes-to-India-Vikas-to-fight-in-Delhi/articleshow/52602920.cms Meanwhile, as expected, Vijender has now expressed interest in Rio. Dont think he'll be able to make it past Vikas though... http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/sport/vijender-planning-to-participate-in-olympics-qualifiers-for-pros/247089.html

Float like a butterfly, sting like like a bee, Rest in peace, the GREATEST Muhammad Ali !!!

I think ur reading a bit too much into one celebration semi-circle. It was a great interception at a very imporatant point in a grand slam final with his career grnad slam on the line. BTW, i saw the presentation on streaming and Paes was full of praise for Sania. He complimented her on her performance in the final as well as her performances with Hingis, thanked her twice I beleive and even thanked her father and team. But yeah, it will be Rohan partnering Sania in XD. Paes/Sania actually have a good shot at a continental quota now. Their only competition for top ranked Asian team is the Japanese team of Nishikori and Misaki Doi. Both had poor french opens and will be losing points. We'll know only on Monday but reasonable chance Paes/Sania overtake Nishikori/Doi in the rankings. Of course that doesnt mean Paes will go. Only 3 continental slots available across 5 continental federations and thus no guarantee Asia gets one. Plus, Sania prefers Rohan and there is a small chance they might get seeded which would mean avoiding strong teams like Federer/Hingis and Serena/Bob Bryan (if Serena plays XD). Then of course there is the court-side issue. No doubt that Leander is our best right-court XD player but is he our best left-court XD player ?? And Sania has to play on the right, she lives and dies by her forehand...

Calm down guys, its just a political statement. Bopanna is doing essentially what Paes did before London. In 2012, Paes got himself in a position where he could say "Since Bhupathi is being sent to London and no disciplinary action is being taken against him despite him refusing to partner me, at least let me, the highest ranked player, partner Sania. Lets not doubly reward Bhupathi with the XD slot as well". Bopanna is now laying the ground-work to say "I can go with whoever I want but Paes can only go with me. So I'll take him, but only if he doesn't take away MY XD spot, which is mine as per the rankings". Paes made a big deal about being the highest ranked Indian, despite Bhupathi/Sania having just won a slam. Now its Bopanna's turn to use his ranking, despite Paes just winning a slam / finishing runner-up.

but what do u do if Paes/Sania have only a "chance" to qualify while Bopanna/Sania are assured of qualification. You can't exactly wait to see which players across the globe enter the mixed event and then submit your entry - you have to submit along with the others. In case of mixed doubles, a top singles player who suffers a shock first round singles loss may at the last moment also decide to enter the mixed doubles fray. Imagine the controversy if Paes/Sania were submitted as an entry and then they missed the cut. I believe a similar thing happened with some county at London (not sure but I think it was France) whereby two of their pairs just missed qualification as they formed pairs while pretty much ignoring the rankings.. And with due respect, Paes' recent mixed doubles slams are Hingis-assisted. When comparing two players, just like wind-assisted timings in athletics, Hingis-assisted slams need at-least a small asterix next to them...

Highly doubt that Suneet !! Unfortunately, mixed doubles doesn't earn you any ranking points and even a QF finish in the men's doubles is likely to improve Paes' ranking to only around 45. And at that ranking, qualification is a huge question mark. On the other hand we have Bopanna, assured of qualifying and with a small chance of being seeded as well, thus avoiding the top swiss and american pairs. Plus there's always the old argument of Bopanna being a natural left-court player and Paes being a natural right-court player.

Magnificent day in Paris !!! 2 quarters and 2 semis, 4 wins out of 4, and another grand slam assured !!! So who will everyone be supporting ?? Sania or Paes ?? Am myself leaning towars Paes simply because French Open mixed is the only title missing from his grand slam kitty !!!

This article is just jumping the gun... There are way too many unanswered questions in AIBA's decision (as usual with AIBA). Some of them are below. Q.1) The article on the official AIBA site ( http://www.aiba.org/blog/historic-aiba-extraordinary-congress-approves-registration-of-non-aiba-professional-boxers-for-all-competitions/) says " The amendment of Article 13 (J) will immediately allow ALL National Federations to register ALL non AIBA professional boxers for the APB/WSB Olympic Qualification Tournament in Vargas, Venezuela on July 3-8 according to the criteria for registration of pro boxers. The competition will offer 26 quota places available for Rio 2016" - Does that mean that even countries who have already qualified for Rio can send pro boxers to the APB/WSB qualifier ??? Q.2) In boxing, quota belongs to athlete and not country. So, will we have a situation where if a country has an amateur qualifier and then also sends a pro to the WSB/APB qualifier who also qualifies, then country chooses who goes to Rio ?? This was the situation with women - where countries could send different boxers to world champs and continental qualifiers and if both qualified, country would choose who goes to Rio. Q.3) It seems like only amateur (plus WSB/APB) boxers are allowed for the World Qualifier in June, whereas pros + WSB/APB are allowed for the qualifiers in July. Does that mean that Indian boxers, if they fail to qualify in June, can take a token pro fight in Jun end, turn pro and then also compete in the WSB/APB qualifier ?? If anybody has official sources answering the above questions, please post on this forum as it will have a lot of implications for qualification. The way I see it, from an Indian persepective, Vikas will be competing in the Jun qualifier. If he qualifies, Vijender is done. If he doesn't then there might be a trial between Vikas and Vijender to compete in APB/WSB event, if Vijender wants. Though don't think Vijender will be too interested. With due respect to him, have always felt that Vijender turned pro so close to the olympics because he saw the writing on the wall that Vikas is better.

Leander Paes is back !!! Enters the QFs of the toughest grand slam at 42 yrs young !!! Also took out World No. 1 Jame Murray and cleared the path for Bopanna to enter top 10 by taking out Bruno Soares !!!

Guys, there is no tripartite quota coming Mary's way. India is not eligible for tripartite places. Yes, in London 2012, all tripartite quotas went to non-tripartite nations. However, that happens when the tripartite commission decides to not allocate the tripartite quota to anyone and returns it to AIBA for reallocation. In that case, AIBA cannot just allocate the quota to anyone. As per the rules, they have to give it to the highest ranked boxer at the world championship (in case of women) who is not yet qualified. Since Mary lost in the 2nd round itself, she is obviously not the highest ranked unqualified boxer at the world championship - the TPE girl actually is, since she lost to Nicola in the QF and Nicola went on to become world champ. So tripartite quota in 51kg will go either to a tripartite nation or to TPE.

and so did Anisa Sayyed...both got through on tie-breakers - that too not just inner tens but tie-break on individual series scores...Jitu scored 93 in last series and CHN scored 92, Anisa scored 99 in 5th series whereas Thailand scored 97...

True, but Nicola just destroyed Uzbek boxer (2 10-8 rounds) and the Uzbek had defeated Lin Yuting at the Asian qualifiers...So am personally atleast not holding on to any hope...

Yeah sure, theoretically. Practically Lin Yuting will need to get past Nicola addams to reach semis...

Nikhat competed in the junior events at 51 kg. Of course, you grow in weight as u move into the senior ranks but I think her natural weight class is still 51 kg...she is competing in Astana in 54 kg as Mary was in 51 kg... There's of course Pinki as well, only 26 yet,so lets not write her off...

Farewell Mary Kom !!! True Legend, Trailblazer, Trendsetter !!!! (I know that we will but hoping against hope that we dont make this about the judging, at least on this forum. It was a very close match, round 3 was the only one where all the judges agreed who won, and it also wasn't a case of one judge always favoring one particular boxer. It just didn't go our way. Probably the German standing with the guard down and Mary still not being able to connect most of the time resulted in the German victory).

I dont think there is any chance of Bopanna/Bhupathi. That is just stupid and also didn't work when they were a full partnership. The media likes stirring things and may say whatever they want but am pretty sure it will be Rohan/Paes in Men's Doubles. Mixed Doubles is another matter - till today I thought there is no decision to be made as Paes/Sania won't qualify. Then today I looked at the rankings and realized that, other than Nishikori, there are surprisingly no Asian men's players - either in singles or in doubles - ahead of Paes. The only other Asian ahead of Paes is Treat Huey of Philippines and he doesn't have a female partner. Of course, Paes/Sania qualification is still very tough. There are 4 wild card slots - but there are clear rules defined on how they will be alloted. First one will go to Brazil. Then, they go to any unrepresented regional associations. Here there is another surprise - there are 6 regional bodies - Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa, South America and Central America. However, there is actually no north american regional body and thus USA/Canada are not part of any of those bodies. Of those bodies, we may have a situation that all 12 direct qualifiers in Mixed Doubles are from Europe/USA/Canada - thus leaving all the remaining 5 bodies vying for 3 slots, in which case, spots will be given to continents with the lowest representation in singles... So getting Paes/Sania through is definitely very complicated - and am not sure it will be attempted considering Bopanna is playing much better at the moment, is assured qualification, and he and Sania did very well in IPTL (Though even Bopanna/Sania are unlikely to be seeded as the seeding will be mostly taken up by the 2 american pairs and the 2 Swiss pairs). Also, Bopanna is a natural back-hand player while Paes is a natural forehand player which always causes an issue whenever he teams up with Sania. Then again, Anil Khanna is the president of the Asian Tennis Federation...

This mixed doubles situation might get messy again. Currently, at Paes' ranking, there is no chance he and Sania can get direct qualification. On the other hand, Bopanna and Sania are assured of qualifying. However, if India decides to submit Paes/Sania as an entry, they may get the Asian continental quota. But its tricky. Currently, Japan is ahead of India with Nishikori at world no. 6 and Misaki Doi at world no. 38, for a combined ranking of 44. Paes/Sania have a combined ranking of 51. Also, there are only 3 continental quotas available and a possible 5 continental federations vying for those quotas. So its difficult to be assured of qualification for Paes/Sania whereas Bopanna/Sania would be assured of qualifying. There can easily be an issue here with Paes showing his 3 mixed doubles titles last year and Bopanna claiming assured qualification...

Very tricky draw for Mary Kom at the world championships. Far from easy but could have been a lot worse. The good news is that she is away from most of the major threats - Cancan, Nicola, the TPE girl she lost to in Asian qualifiers, USA, BUL, UZB, AZE. The bad news is that she has a tough road with no easy match, barring possibly the first round. In round 2, she is slated to face MGL who was 2nd seed at Asian qualifier, but lost in the first round. In round 3, she is slated to face the TOP SEEDED Italian. However, the seedings don't seem to make much sense here. Marzia Davide is top seeded at world champs but she was unseeded at the European qualifier event, where she lost in the quarter-finals. On the other hand, Nicola Adams was 2nd seed at the European qualifier, and won the event, but is only 5th seed at the world champs. Makes no sense. However, Mary's toughest opponent is likely to be Kazakstan - hosts and rulers of AIBA - in the quarter finals. Mary beat Kaz in the 1st round at the Asian qualifier but that was a different Kazakh girl. This is the one match I am worried about. Had KAZ not been in Mary's quarter, it would have been pretty close to a dream draw. On the other hand, Sarita Devi just can't catch a break. She has relatively easy first 2 rounds. Then, in round 3 it will be either KAZ or VIE (VIE beat Sarita narrowly in the Asian qualifier). However, the death blow is Katie Taylor in the quarters...don't think Sarita has any chance of getting past Katie...

Rio Archery Teams selected after trials in Bangalore...as per tweets from Viren Rasquinha. Women - Deepkia, Bombayala, Majhi Men - Talukdar, Champia, Atanu Das - of course they need to qualify at the Turkey world cup in order to go to Rio...

Guys, Babits has not been banned by UWW. Its the stupid WFI who has banned her. Seriously seriously hope that these stupid shenanigans end and she will go to Rio !!!

Don't think Rimil is a lock for Rio by any means...unless the federation simply decides that whoever won the quota will be the ones going, like they did in 2012 (the quota was won last year by Deepika, Rimil and Laxmirani) In the Colombia world cup, 4 archers competed for India - Deepika, Bombayala, Laxmirani Majhi and Rimil. Rimil had the lowest qualification score out of the 4 and thus the other 3 competed in the team event and won Silver. So Rimil was not part of that silver-winning team...I think eventually it will be 3 of these 4 going to Rio but either Rimil or Bombayala can miss out (Deepika is obviously a lock and Majhi has been doing very well in the past year).

There's the archery world cup in Colombia from May 11, but the B-teams have been sent in recurve. Most top compound archers are still there...