Novak Djokovic pulls out of BNP Paribas Masters 2011

World No.1 Novak Djokovic has pulled out of 2011 BNP Paribas Masters, due to his sore shoulder and apologized to his fans.

Novak Djokovic reached to quarters and is due to fight with French favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, but sadly Djokovic has withdrawn from the tournament. It is clear that Djokovic is looking to regain his full fitness ahead of the ATP Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena.

The man-in-form, Djokovic wrote on his Twitter page saying that ‘Dear fans and friends, the ATP Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena’. He added that he has been pushing himself to make available for ATP Tour Finals at London’s O2 Arena. After his qualifying match for quarters, his shoulder got injury got even worse and so he decided to withdraw from the Paris Masters. Djokovic added that as a professional player his soul urges him to lay for last drop of energy.

The Serbian quoted that he is very sorry for all who bought tickets and wanted to come to watch him play. His season has been long and exhausting, he played all of his matches at highest level, and now his body is hurting for recovery.

However it is rumoured that Djokovic only played at Paris for bonus price money of $1.6 million after skipping Shangai Masters.

Rafael Nadal pulls out of 2011 Paris Masters

World No.2 Rafael Nadal pulls out of 2011 BNP Paribas Masters tournament, schedule to play in Paris next week.

The 10-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal has posted a message on his Facebook page that, he has withdrawn from the next week’s 2011 BNP Paribas Masters tournament held in Paris. Nadal said, it’s been a tough decision taken by him and hopes to return back to 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals begin from 20th November at Arena O2 in London. Rafa added that he will return back to Paris Masters in 2012 season in the most beautiful city in the world.

The King of clay court Rafael Nadal has played his last tournament at Shanghai Rolex Masters tournament, although he made an early exit from the tournament, where he lost to Florian Mayer of Germany in two sets in the third round. Nadal has played well at Japan Open last month, but couldn’t overcome the title short against World No. 3 ranked Andy Murray.

The 25-year-old has been working hard in the training sessions at his home town at Manacor, before heading into the 2011 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. Nadal even concentrating to regain his fitness and working hard along with his uncle Miguel Angel Nadal and physical trainer Maymo, where he sustained foot injury at the US Open in August.

Maria Sharapova slips to No.4 in WTA Rankings

Former World No.1 Maria Sharapova slips to No.4 in WTA Rankings while WTA Champion Petra Kvitova has top the WTA rankings this week with No.2 in the world.

2011 Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova has shown an outstanding performance in the finals of the 2011 WTA Championships defaeting Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka in three set thriller with 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 to clinch her sixth title of the 2011. This win ensured Petra Kvitiva a career high No.2 ranking in the world. Petra Kvitova with a total of 7370 WTA ranking points stands 115 points behind the Caroline Wozniacki world no.1.

Denmark player Caroline Wozniacki having won 6-WTA titles this season, has been the world No.1 for the second successive year with a total of 7485 WTA rankings points. 2011 WTA championship runner-up, Victoria Azarenka has sealed her place in No.3 of the WTA Rankings with a total of 6520 points winning 3-titles in 2011.

Maria Sharapova has been dropped to fourth after being withdrawn from the 2011 WTA championship, due to an ankle injury. She has a total of 6510 WTA ranking points. Howvever, Li Na and Samantha Stosur have placed No.5 and No.6 in WTA Rankings.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Caroline Wozniacki (Den)	7485
2	Petra Kvitova (Czech)	7370
3	Victoria Azarenka (Blrl)	6520
4	Maria Sharapova (Rus)	6510
5	Na Li (CHN)	5720
6	Samantha Stosur (Aus)	5585
7	Vera Zvonareva (Rus)	5435
8	Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol)	5252
9	Marion Bartoli (Fra)	4710
10	Andrea Petkovic (Ger)	4580

Yuvraj Singh: My best years are yet to come

Yuvraj Singh has played most crucial role for India in World Cup winning team. Yuvraj Singh believes that his best years as a cricketer are ‘yet to come’. The elegant left-hander is trying hard to cement his place in Indian Test squad where he is striving to restart his Test career.

India's middle-order batsman Yuvraj Singh is not a permanent member of Test squad, he was considered as one-day batsman. Yuvi lost his place in the Test side after the Sri Lanka series in past year, but the stylish left-hander said that he wants to be remembered as a good Test cricketer after retirement.

Yuvi thinks that it is the right time to focus on his Test career and wanted to be remembered as a good batsman in the longer format of the game. Yuvraj quoted that he always wanted to give his best shot whenever he is out in the field irrespective of formats, but unfortunately injury are real concerns for him. The upcoming series against the West Indies and Australia, He expressed his desire to score big and make his mark in the Test format. Yuvi stated that he wants to restructure his Test career and he will be raising the standard of his game.

29-years-old Yuvraj said, he has matured as a player after going through various ups and downs in his career, he almost saw the both sides of the coin and his injury/fitness really worried him a lot. Yuvi claims that his best years are yet to come, making sure that he is fully fit after a long injury layoff. Yuvraj stated that his career has been damaged by a lot of injury issues but he think it's on the right path now. Yuvi feels that his best is yet to come as lot of cricket is still left in him.

After returning back home from England tour with an injury, he worked hard toward his training. Yuvi said that his body took a lot of toll in the past one year due to injury issues. And they are no more injuries with him and he is looking forward to make his mark in Test cricket and India will be playing with West Indies at home for 3 Test and 5 ODI’s.

Novak Djokovic tops ATP Rankings

The Serbian Novak Djokovic, who has dream year of 2011 as he clinched 10-titles this season is tops the ATP rankings, after the clinching the Wimbledon title at the All England Club in London. Novak Djokovic has total of 13,295 points at No.1 in ATP rankings this week.

Former No.1 Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, who is bidding for No.1, are staying next behind Djokovic for the second successive week standing No.2 and No.3 in the ATP rankings. Swiss Maestro Roger Federer dropped to No.4 ranking in the ATP, after Murray claiming the title triumph at Shanghai Masters has a total of 5,185 points.

Meanwhile 30-year-old Federer competing in this week home tournament, and trying almost he could to move his plac

e to top-3 of the ATP rankings by the end of 2011 season. There are only few changes have been done in this week’s top-10, as Jo-Wilfred Tsonga winning the title at Vienna Open has earned 500-points to move to No.7 in the ATP rankings while, Mardy Fish has been dropped to No.8.

Rank	Name	Points
1	Novak Djokovic (SRB)	13295
2	Rafael Nadal (ESP)	9500
3	Andy Murray (GBR)	7200
4	Roger Federer (SUI)	5815
5	David Ferrer (ESP)	4300
6	Tomas Berdych (CZE)	2940
7	Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)	2890
8	Mardy Fish (USA)	2875
9	Nicolas Almagro (ESP)	2370
10	Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)	2305

Sebastian Vettel: Indian first F1 Grand Prix winner

Red Bull's champion Sebastian Vettel wins inaugural Indian F1 Grand Prix held at new Buddh International Circuit, Delhi on October 30, 2011.

Spectacular motor racing action thrilled a sell-out crowd of 95,000 people at Greater Noida's Buddh International Circuit on Sunday. As Germany's Sebastian Vettel won 11th time this season for Red Bulls. Where many celebrities of India sports stars, movie stars were in the attendance.

McLaren's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso finished the top three in the India’s first F1 race. The action of first Indian Grand Prix was started when India’s batting great Sachin Tendulkar waved the chequeed flag with a huge cheers rise from the stands after the national anthem, the first big international sporting event after the Commonwealth Games.

Sebastian Vettel led from start to finish, constructing a comfortable lead and finishing 8.4 seconds ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button, with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso a distant third at the Buddh International Circuit. Meanwhile, Red Bull's Mark Webber was fourth, ahead of the Mercedes pair of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel has 11 wins this season, and victories in the final two races in Brazil and Abu Dhabi and eying for a world record of 13 wins in a season by Michael Schimacher. Vettel turned in a flawless performance, leading every lap and posting the fastest lap.

The German said that it’s all in all it was a smooth race, the car was very well balanced, and he is very proud to be the first winner in India F1. However, the race witnessed yet another collision between McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari's Felipe Massa to intensify their rivalry.

Sachin Tendulkar along with some of his other teammates witnessed the Grand Prix said that this is big for India, as he came out of the track after the chequered flag along with wife Anjali and his children. Sachin also added that it was just wonderful and amazing to be at first ever Indian Grand Prix, it was a great race and he thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Earlier, Sachin was seen chatting with Michael Schumamcher.

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Yuvraj, Kohli and Ishant promotes to Grade A contracts

The cricket control board of India BCCI Working committee has announced the contract grades of players in Kolkata. The all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and pacer Ishant Sharma were named in the Grade A contract list. Surprisingly Ashish Nehra has been omitted from the list of Contract players.

Yuvraj Singh was back to Grade A list of contract, after being demoted to Grade B following his disastrous form where he almost loses his place in the team. Yuvi was to Grade A after his Man-of-the-Series performance in the World Cup. While Virat Kohli consistent performance scored 995 runs in 2010 and over 1000 runs in 2011ensured his place as Grade A player. Ishant Sharma has raised his game standards and been performing well at the highest level for India gained him Grade A. 

However, the surprising omission was Ashish Nehra, who was part of India's winning World Cup campaign and a B-Grade player last year. Earlier he was ignored for England one-day series, where he expressed his disfavor over exclusion. He even publicly claimed his wonder after also being announced he was fit to play.

The spinners who were showing most significant performance in recent times, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja were promoted to Grade B, in addition with Rohit Sharma who moved from Grade C. Rahul Sharma, whe need to make his debut for Team India was also earned a contract, coming in at Grade C after being part of the T20, ODI and recent Test squads for India. 

The other important major decision taken by BCCI committee was IPL matches will now be a List A matches. Until now the domestic 50-over competitions, with some 40-over ones also included recently are under List A matches, but now IPL matches will now be added to the list.

Contracted Players List: 

Grade A: (Rs. 1 crore per annum) MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, Ishant Sharma. 

Grade B: (Rs. 50 lakhs per annum) Praveen Kumar, Pragyan Ojha, R Ashwin, Rohit Shamra, Ravindra Jadeja. 

Grade C: (Rs. 25 lakhs per annum) S Sreesanth, Amit Mishra, Cheteshwar Pujara, Abhimanyu Mithun, Vinay Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Munaf Patel, Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Wridhiman Saha, Parthiv Patel, S Badrinath, Manoj Tiwary, Piyush Chawla, Dinesh Kartik, Jaidev Unadkat, Umesh Yadav, Rahul Sharma, Varun Aaron. 

Finally a win for England cruises India in T20

England defeated India with 6 wickets in the only T20 played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday. Finally English team managed to win their first game of the tour and return home with some pride after losing one-day series with 5-0.

The ICC world Twenty-20 champions, England will remain No.1 in T-20 rankings with this win. The match between England and India were played as their fight for supremacy, where England has the final laugh. The English team looked more comfort in their last outing in India as their bowling looked impressive where fielding also backing bowlers seemed more destructive and then batsmen completed a comprehensive win.

India 120/9 20 Overs (Raina 39 and Finn 3/22, Bopara 2/16)

England 121/4 18.4 Overs (Pirtersen 53 and R Jadeja & Raina 1/9)

Man of the Match – Kevin Pietersen 53

Earlier, India won the toss and decided to bat first but England bowlers showed much improved performance as both the openers Uthappa (1) and Rahane (0) dismissed cheaply by Bresnan and Finn. While Kohli (15) and Raina (31) studied the innings but its not long as Kohli was caught out in the deep and when Raina looked scoring freely was dislodged. Indian s kipper MS Dhoni seemed struggling to hit the ball he hit a boundary in last over and Yusuf who was known as powerful hitter never seemed to hit the ball, they were deceived by slow bowls by English pacers.

Later England chased down the target of 121 with out any difficult, openers Hales (11) and Kieswetter (12) were dismissed early but Pirtersen (53) ensured England win along with all-rounder S Patel (21).

Kevin Pietersen was dropped on one by Raina and India paid price for missing the catch as he hit 5 - fours and 3 – sixes and played crucial role in England win. India started bowling with Yususf and continued with Jadeja, Ashwin where Kohli and Raina also chipped in with some overs and even looked impressive with a wicket each expect for  Ashwin. But pacers were bowled only 3 overs in 18.4, if the main strike bowlers were not need to bowl then what is the use of them in the line-up?

Michael Schumacher wants to meet Sachin Tendulkar

Michael Schumacher, seven times World Champion is keen to meet the iconic batsmen Sachin Tendulkar for the second time. 

India is hosting its first ever Grand Prix, where the legendary Formula One driver is looking to regain his legacy. Sachin Tendulkar is a die-hard fan of motorsports is expected to wave the chequered flag at the race. The German is keen on meeting Tendulkar at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC).

The 42-year-old Schumacher will be driving for Mercedes Benz in India's inaugural Formula One race here over the weekend. The two legends last met in 2002, when Schumacher gifted Tendulkar the keys of a Ferrari for equalling Australian great Don Bradman's 29 Test centuries.

However, Schumamcaher said that he was not his expectations making his comeback in 2010. Earlier Michael associated with Ferrari for 11 years where he won five of his seven championships with them retired from racing in 2006 served as an advisor for Ferrari. He was supposed to replace Ferrari’s Felipe Massa in the second half of the season in the 2009, but a neck injury hindered his plan.

Finally, Michael Schumacher finally made his comeback in 2010 when he signed a three year contract with the newly formed Mercedes Benz Team.

Gambhir married to Delhi girl Natasha

Indian star batsmen Gautam Gambhir will starts a new innings, but this time it’s Off the field as he tied the knot with Delhi girl Natasha Jain on Friday in a quiet ceremony which was attended by only close family members and friends.

The 30-year-old left-handed opener entered into marriage life with Natasha, a local businessman's daughter whom he met a year ago. The wedding ceremony of Gambhir and Natasha took place at a Westend Farm on the Delhi-Gurgaon road with limited guests attending it apart from the close relatives of the groom and the bridegroom.

Gautam Gambhir will be out of action during the only Twenty20 cricket match of India's ongoing series against England on account of his marriage. 

More than 300 guests were invited for the wedding, the most important among them being Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan, who also co-owns IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, in addition to Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Munaf Patel.

However, Gambhir did well in the recently finished ODI series against England where India whitewashed the % match one day series with 5-0. Gambhir has scored 213 including two half centuries, after recovering from concussion suffered in the England tour

So let’s wish the newlywed couple, Gambhir and Natasha a very happy and successful Married life ahead..!

Team India schedule for West Indies tour 2011 - India's squad

Squad for the first Test: MS Dhoni (c/wk), Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli, Varun Aaron, Ajinkya Rahane, Rahul Sharma.

MS Dhoni will lead Team India, while Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh set to return after retaining fitness levels missing England ODI's in home and away as well due to injuries. While off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and Suresh Raina dropped, but Praveen Kumar rested for the series. 

Team India's most experienced players Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxaman and opener Gautum Gambhir also included in the squad. While Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane was there in 15 member squad. Ishant will be spearhead, he along with Varun Aaroan or Umesh Yadav will share the share the new ball. R Ashwin, Pragyan Ojha along with Rahul Sharma finish the bowling line-up.

Date	Match Details	Timings (IST)	Venue
Nov 06 - Nov 10	India v West Indies, 1st Test	9:30	Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Nov 14 - Nov 18	India v West Indies, 2nd Test	9:30	Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Nov 22 - Nov 26	India v West Indies, 3rd Test	9:30	Wankhede Stadium Mumbai
Nov 29 - Tuesday	India v West Indies, 1st ODI	14:30, D/N	Barabati Stadium, Cuttack
Dec 02 - Friday	India v West Indies, 2nd ODI	14:30, D/N	Indira Priyadarshini Stadium, Visakhapatnam
Oct 29 - Saturday	India v West Indies, 3rd ODI	14:30, D/N	Sardar Vallabhai Patel Stadium,  Ahmedabad
Dec 08- Thursday	India v West Indies, 4th ODI	14:30, D/N	Maharani Usharaje Stadium, Indore
Dec 11 - Sunday	India v West Indies, 5th ODI	14:30, D/N	MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai