SPORTS OCTOBER 2013

SPORTS OCTOBER 2013

• India's ace Squash player Dipika Pallikal, on 20th October 2013, won the ‘Macau Open title’ at Macau, China. In the title clash Dipika defeated former World Number One Rachel Grinham of Australia, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-9. This was Dipika Pallikal's seventh Women's Squash Association title. The Macau Open 2013 is a squash tournament held in Macau, China on 15 to 20 October 2013. It is part of the PSA World Tour and the WSA World Tour. The prize money for the Macau Open is 35000 Dollars.
  
• North Zone and South Zone were declared joint winners of the Duleep Trophy 2013-14 after the fifth day's play of the final match was called off due to bad weather in Kochi on 21st October 2013.It was the fourth instance in the history of Duleep Trophy when the title has been shared. Previous instances were West Zone/South Zone in 1963-64), North Zone/West Zone in 1988-89 and Central Zone/West Zone in 1997-98.East Zone won the Duleep Trophy in 2012-13 on the basis of their first innings lead against Central Zone at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.
  
• The BCCI on 26th October 2013 terminated Pune Warriors from the IPL after the Sahara-owned franchise failed to pay its payments and refused to furnish the bank guarantee for the next season. The decision was taken at the Cricket Board's all-powerful working committee meeting. BCCI wanted the team to furnish a bank guarantee of 170.2 crore rupees to remain a part of the league next year. Sahara has been demanding the completion of the arbitration proceedings on the issue of franchise fee, which, it feels, should be lowered since the BCCI did not deliver on its promised number of IPL matches for the team. Pune Warriors were purchased by Sahara for 370 million US dollars (1702 crore rupees) in 2010 and it was the most expensive franchise on the IPL roster.
  
• The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) on 21st October 2013 unanimously elected Kanwar Deep Singh as the president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for a four-year term. He was succeeded by Dinesh Reddy, Andhra Pradesh's Director General of Police (DGP).He is the Chairman emirate of the Alchamist Group of Companies. He is the member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) of the Indian Parliament. He belonged to Trinamool Congress Party. He received the jewel of India award from International Solidarity in New York.
  
• Simona Halep of Romania defeated Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6 (1), 6-2 to win the Kremlin Cup on 20th October 2013 at Moscow, Russia. It was the fifth WTA singles championship for Simona Halep. With the victory, Halep raised to a career high 15th in the WTA Tour rankings on 21st October 2013. In men’s singles, top-seeded Richard Gasquet of France defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Kremlin Cup. It was the 10th WTA singles championship for Richard Gasquet.
  
• A.S.S. Siril Verma of India won the boys’ under-15 singles crown defeating Gatja Putra 21-11, 21-17 in the final of the Bibli.com Flypower Asia youth badminton championship in Kudus, Indonesia, on 13th October.In the boys’ under-17 doubles final, the top-seeded Indian pair of M.R. Arjun and Chirag Shetty clinched the title with a 21-16, 21-15 victory over the pair of Wangcharoen Kantaphon and Narongrit Mek.
  
• World number two Novak Djokovic retained his Shanghai Masters title with a thrilling 6-1 3-6 7-6 (7-3) win over Juan Martin Del Potro of the Argentina. The Shanghai crown is Djokovic's fifth ATP Tour title of the year. The victory also caps a good two weeks in the country for the six-time major winner, who came into the tournament having beaten world number one Rafael Nadal to land his fourth China Open title.
  
• Top English club Liverpool launched a residential football academy in Pune on 16 October 2013 in partnership with city-based DSK Shivajians FC. The academy was named as LFC International Football Academy DSK. It will have a world class residential complex, full size pitches, practice areas, classrooms, residential, medical facilities, lecture theatre and canteen. The academy will support young footballers up to the age of 18. It will provide the players with the opportunity to develop their game in a professional academy environment. Coaches from Liverpool FC will work on the project in India and will provide technical expertise to the players and coaches involved in the Academy. Over time, more full time coaches will come from Liverpool FC to oversee each age group players at the Academy. This is the first time an English football club has partnered with an Indian team to help them bring through local talent.
  
• India’s tennis player Rohan Bopanna with French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin won the Rakuten Japan Open tennis championship (Men's Doubles) on 6th October 2013 in Tokyo. They won the cash prize of the US $ 12,97,000. The fourth seeded Indo-French pair emerged victorious with a 7-6 (5) 6-4 scoreline against the Briton-Australian pair of Jemie Murray and John Peers in one hour and 17 minutes. Bopanna had won his first title of the 2013 season in February 2013 when he triumphed at ATP 250 event in Marseille, France paired with Colin Fleming of Britain.
  
• Afghanistan Cricket team on 4 October 2013 qualified for its maiden ICC World Cup after defeating Kenya by seven wickets at World Cricket League Championship in Sharjah. With this win Afghanistan also became the 20th team to gain entry into the tournament overall.Afghanistan will play its opening match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 against Bangladesh at Manuka Oval, Canberra, on 18 February 2013.In 2010, Afghanistan qualified for the ICC World Twenty20 West Indies 2010 by winning the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2010. It then finished second to Ireland in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012, to qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012.Afghanistan also played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2010 in New Zealand and the 2012 edition in Australia.
  
• Sania Mirza of India and Cara Black of Zimbabwe won the Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis championship women's doubles title by defeating Hao-Ching Chan (Chinese Taipei) and Liezel Huber (USA) 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 in final at Tokyo on 28 September 2013.The Pan Pacific Open is a WTA Tour affiliated professional tennis tournament for women, held every year since 1984 in Tokyo, Japan. It is classified on the WTA Tour as a Tier I tournament since 1993.
  
• Sania Mirza won the China Open tennis championship trophy (women’s Doubles) with Cara Black of Zimbabwe on 5 October 2013 in Beijing. They defeated Vera Dushevina of Russia and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. The Indo-Zimbabwean pair was eighth seeded. Sania and Cara had won Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last week.It is fifth title of the season for Sania Mirza and 19th overall. Sania had won the New Haven event with Chinese Zheng before she teamed up with Cara. Early in the season, Sania Mirza won titles in Dubai and Brisbane with American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands.
  
• N. Srinivasan was on 29th September 2013 re-elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a third term at its 84th annual general meeting (AGM) held at Chennai. He was unanimously re-elected as the president of BCCI for the term of 2013-14. Other office bearers were also elected on the same day. Others who were elected at the 84th annual general meeting (AGM) included Sanjay Patel (honorary secretary), Anurag Thakur (Joint Secretary), Anirudh Chaudhry (Hon Treasurer), S. P. Bansal (Vice-President - North Zone): Rajeev Shukla (Vice-President - Central Zone) Shivlal Yadav (Vice-President - South Zone), Ravi Savant (Vice-President - West Zone) and Chitrak Mitra (Vice-President - East Zone).However, N. Srinivasan will not assume charge of the office immediately because of the directive of the Supreme Court of India. Other office bearers will assume the charge of the office with an immediate effect.
  
• Kalapana Devi on 5th October 2013 won bronze medal at the Judo tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was India’s first IJF Grand Prix medal. Competing in 52kg weight category, Kalpana defeated Zarifa Sultonova of Uzbekistan but lost to Gili Cohen of Israel. Kalpana, who is with Indo-Tibetan Border Police, had also won a bronze medal in the Women's World Cup Judo Championships held in September 2010 in Uzbekistan. India has sent an eight-member team in the IJF Grand Prix Judo Championships, which will conclude on 7 October 2013.