[tennis] Kakuta Case Inspire More Complaints Against Big Clubs

The decision of the DRC of the FIFA on the Kakuta case to punish both the player and the club involved has inspired a few more complaints from the small clubs against the big ones. The first one to come was again for Chelsea when French amateur club ASPT Marsseille reported that they are consulting lawyers on whether they can complaint against the Londoners on the transfer of 11 yr old Jeremy Boga in October 2008. The French player played with the club for five years before the transfer. It is believed the gifted player was followed eagerly by some of the big French clubs. Chelsea are blamed of luring the parents of the player with money, car and residence in London. If this case is launched, they may be in a deeper trouble as they already face a hefty fine and a ban of two entire and consecutive transfer periods.
The other complain to be lodged is against the premier league rivals Manchester United. French club Le Havre has reported to the FIFA against them on their acquisition of their teenage starlet Paul Pogba. The French club complained that the Red Devils got the attention of the prodigious talent paying astronomical sum to his parents.
Ther decision of FIFA has attracted the attention of the small club who had earlier left any hope on their players. Some of the cases may not be strong enough to stand on the court. It may be that the clubs are trying to get some benefits from the FIFA's ruling on the case. However , it can't be denied that the ruling has gave some confidence to the victimised small clubs that they can get justice. UEFA president Michel Platini is very much against such a deal involving the small kids. And after the DRC has given some path breaking decision punishing Chelsea, there may be something to fear for the English giants now.

[tennis] Sania Out Of Women's Doubles

The top Indian women tennis player was shown the exit door in the women's doubles of the US Open. Sania and her partner Francesca Schiavone, seeded 14th in the tournament were upset by Gisela Dulko and Sahar Peer 6-2, 1-6, 7-5. Sania was ousted of the singles event in the second round by Flavia Pennetta and now her US Open dream hangs on the mixed doubles where she has qualified for the second round with partner Canadian Daniel Nestor.
The other Indian in the doubles event, Mahesh Bhupathy went to the second round with his partner Liezel Hueber defeating Vania King and Marcelo Melo. The top seed Indian-American pair won the match 7-5, 6-0. Mahesh is third seeded in the men's doubles with Mark Knowles and are already in the second round.
Leander Paes is also in the second round of both men's and mixed doubles with Lucas Dlouhy(seeded 4) and Cara Black (seeded 2).

[tennis] US Open: Women Continue To Surprise

After dumping out six of the 32 seeded players in the first round including Ana Ivanovic, the women at the US Open continued to surprise the viewers in the second round. Fourth seed Elena Dementieva, fifth seed Jelena Jankovic and 11th seed Amelie Mauresmo are the most important names on the long list of big names that took the exit door in the second round. Following is the list of seeded and famous players to go out in the second round.

Second Round Exits:
Men's:
Juan Ignacio Chela (Lleyton Hewitt)
Mikhail Youzhny (Marco Chiudinelli)
David Ferrer, 18 (Jose Acasuso): 6-3, 3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2
Viktor Troicki, 30 (Julien Bennateau)


Women's:
Amelie Mauresmo, 17 (Aleksandra Wozniak) : 6-4, 6-0
Marion Bartoli, 14 (Kim Clijsters) : 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
Sania Mirza (Flavia Pennetta, 10) :6-0, 6-0
Ana Chakvetadze (Vera Zvonareva, 7) : 3-6, 6-1, 6-1
Samantha Stosur, 15 (Vania King) : 7-5, 6-4
Anabel Medina Garriguess, 20 (Kirsten Flipkens): 6-4, 6-1
Agnieska Randwanska, 12 (Maria Kirilenko ) :6-4, 2-6, 6-4
Jelena Jankovic, 5 (Yaroslava Shvedova) :6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(6)
Elena Dementieva, 4 (Melanie Oudin) :5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Alona Bondarenko, 30 (Gisela Dulko) :6-4, 6-0
Patty Schnyder, 19 (Sara Errani) :7-5, 6-2

[hockey] Nine Teams Already Qualified For The 2010 World Cup

Nine of the twelve spots for the 2010 world cup hockey to be held in India are already decided. The event being held from February 28 to March 13 in New Delhi will have India as they are the host. The other eight teams to have qualified for the event are Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany and England. The rest three spots will be decided by the three qualifying events to be held later this year which will have teams like Pakistan, Argentina, New Zealand and Belgium in the fray.

The participating teams for the qualifying events are as follows.
Lille(France, oct 31 to nov 8): Pakistan, Japan, France, Poland, Russia, Italy(as a reserve team).
Ivercargill( New Zealand, nov 7 to 15): New Zealand, Scotland, Malaysia, Austria, Scotland, Wales.
Quilmes(Argentina, nov 14 to 22):  Belgium, Argentina, Ireland, the US, the Czech Republic, Chile.

[football] Big Blow To Chelsea From FIFA

Chelsea suffered a big blow when the governing body of world football FIFA ruled a shocking decision to ban them from the next two transfer windows. The ruling means they will not be allowed to register any player in the winter and summer transfer windows of 2010.
FIFA ruled this verdict regarding a complaint from French first division club Lens about a breach of contract by French youth player Gael Kakuta after his transfer to London giants Chelsea. The Dispute Resolution Centre of FIFA found Kakuta guilty of breaking contract with Lens and Chelsea of inducing  him in doing so. DRC has decided a fine of 780,000 euros fine for which both the player and the club are liable.
Kakuta will be suspended from playing any official match for the next four months and Chelsea will be banned from registering any player, nationally or internationally, in the two next entire and consecutive registration periods following the notification. They will also pay a fine of 130,000 euros to Lens.
Kakuta is a member if the France U-19 squad at present and has played both for Chelsea youth and reserve team. He was the highest scorer for the Chelsea youth team in his first season.
Chelsea is furious with this unprecedented decision forced upon them and are going to appeal against it to FIFA.

[tennis] Somdev Goes Down Fighting to Kohlschreiber

Somdev Devvarman  went down to Phillip Kohlschreiber in the second round of the US Open, but not before he gave a scare to the 23rd seeded German. Kohlchreiber won the match 6-3, 6-4, 0-6, 6-2. In the battle that went two hours and forty eight minutes long, Somdev did a great comeback when she won the third set 6-0 and looked set to upset the German. However he could not retain the tempo in the next set where he lost 2-6 to concede the  match. Somdev matched the highly ranked German shot by shot and won 111 points to 116 of the opponent.
Sania Mirza won her women's doubles match after conceding her singles match to Flavia Pennetta. Sania and Francesca Schiavone, the 14th seed pair won their match against Ekaterina Dzehalevich and Renata Voracova 5-7, 7-5, 6-1.
Mahesh Bupathy won his men's doubles match combining with Mark Knowles against James Corretani and Lovro Zovko. The 3rd seeded pair from India and Bahrain won the match 6-3, 6-4.
Leander Paes also proceeded to second round in both men's and mixed doubles with partners Lucas Dlouhy and Cara Black respectively. The 4th seed in men's doubles, Paes and Dlouhy won 7-6(11), 7-6(4) against Victor Hansecu and Gabriel Trifu. Paes and Black, seeded second in mixed doubles, won over Patty Schnyder and Wesley Moody by 6-4, 3-6, [11-9].

[tennis] US Open: First Round Exits

The first round of the US Open did  bring about a few major surprises. The most important being the loss of former world no 1 Ana Ivanovic in the women's section. However a players who were expected to be going for a few more rounds were shown the door in both categories. Following is the list of the seeded and famous players who were shown the exit door (all the matches may not be termed as setbacks).

First Round Exit:
Men's:
Victor Hansecu, 28 (John Isner)
Paul Henry Mathieu, 26 (Mikhail Youzhny)
Dmitry Tursunov (Marc Gicquel)
Igor Kunyitsin (Olivier Rochus)
Dudi Sela (Kevin Kim)
Ivo Karlovic, 27 (Ivan Navarro)
Stanislas Warwinka, 19 (Nicolas Lapenti)
Igor Andreev, 29 (Jesse Witten)
Janko Tipsarevic (Florent Serra)
Nicolas Massu (Fernando Gonzalez, 11)
Juan Monaco (Juan Martin Del Potro, 6)
Marat Safin (Jurgen Melzer)
Jeremy Chardy (Gael Monfils, 13)


Women's:
Vera Dushevina (Venus Williams, 3)
Kaia Kanepi, 25 (Kai-Chen Chang)
Sybille Balmer, 28 (Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez)
Jelena Dokic (Kirsten Flipkens)
Ai Sugiyama (Samantha Stosur, 15)
Ana Ivanovic, 11 (Katerina Bondarenko) : 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (7-9)
Alisa Kleybanova, 27 (Petra Kvitova)
Virginie Razzanno, 16 (Yanina Wickmayer)
Agnes Szavay, 32 (Sahar Peer)




** The numbers after the players denote their seeding in this US Open. The names in the parentheses are the players who defeated the previous player.

[tennis] Sania Mirza Thrashed By Pennetta In The Second Round

Sania Mirza crashed out of the US Open in the second round when she lost the tie against tenth seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 0-6, 0-6. Sania was completely outplayed in the match where she won only 3 of her 15 first serves and could not save any of the 6 break points that she faced in the match. She came close to break a serve only twice in the full match. Earlier she defeated Olga Govortsova in the second round. Sania' challenge in the US Open is now restricted to the women's doubles and mixed doubles where she partners with Fransesca Schiavone and Daniel Nestor respectively.

[football] Barcelona Starts Season With Solid Win And Two Injuries

Barcelona started their la liga campaign this season with a convincing win over Sporting Gijon in the Nou Camp. The Blaugranas won the match 3-0 even without the service of Messi, Iniesta, Henry and Yaya Toure. Iniesta is still recovering from the injury received at the end of the last season and Messi is in Argentina to be with his national team that is preparing for the important World Cup Qualifier match against Brazil  to be held this saturday. Henry and Toure were rested by the coach.
The young striking duo of Pedro and Bojan combined well in attack with new buy Zlatan Ibrahimovic. That paid off at the 18th minute when Bojan scored with a header. At the 40th minute Kieta scored the second goal for the Catalans when he headed in a cross from right off Dani Alves . In the Second half Ibrahimovic scored his first goal for Barcelona when he headed a cross again from Dani Alves.
However, in the almost perfect match for the Blaugranas, where they scored from headers and won without the pillars of the team, the injury of Bojan and Maxwell will be a headache for coach Pep Guardiola. It is expected that Mawell will recover soon but Bojan may take 15-20 days to recover from the the thigh injury. Bojan may miss the Champions League tie in Inter and the league match against Atletico Madrid and Getafe.


View the complete la liga table here

La Liga Table

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	Points	GS	GD
1	Getafe	1	1	0	0	3	4	+3
2	Barcelona	1	1	0	0	3	3	+3
3	Malaga	1	1	0	0	3	3	+3
4	Valencia	1	1	0	0	3	2	+2
5	Mallorca	1	1	0	0	3	2	+2
6	Real Madrid	1	1	0	0	3	3	+1
7	Real Zaragoza	1	1	0	0	3	1	+1
8	Athletic Bilbao	1	1	0	0	3	1	+1
9	Villareal	1	o	1	o	1	1	o
10	Osasuna	1	o	1	o	1	1	o
11	Almeria	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
12	Valladolid	1	0	1	0	1	0	0
13	Espanyol	1	0	0	1	0	0	-1
14	Deportivo la coruna	1	0	0	1	0	2	-1
15	Tenerife	1	0	0	1	0	0	-1
16	Sevilla	1	0	0	1	0	0	-2
17	Xerez	1	0	0	1	0	0	-2
18	Racing Santander	1	0	0	1	0	1	-3
19	Atletico Madrid	1	0	0	1	0	0	-3
20	Sporting Gijon	1	0	0	1	0	0	-3

After matchweek 1. As on 31st august 2009