Sports Smarter

U.S Open 2017 is all set to see its 137th champion.The withdrawl of many contenders have made this edition much more interesting.This blog discusses the major contenders of this championship this year. The biggest talking point in this year's U.S Open is who will play the finals rather than who will win the U.S Open.This is probably the first time that Nadal and Federer are placed in the same half of the draw in the absence of Djokovic and Murray.Defending champion Stanlas Wawrinka has also pulled out of the U.S Open due to injury.This means the top half is packed with many former U.S Open champions like Del Potro along with Federer and Nadal.Hence the one who advances from the top half is expected to win the championship.Bottom half has some good players like Cilic,Sam Querry,Zverev,Tsonga but Tsonga and Zverev have already been knocked out of tournament.The bottom half is expected to have such upsets because none of these players have been consistent in grand slam events

29 August is celebrated as the National Sports Day as a tribute to Major Dhyanchand.This blog will look at the advancement of different sports in India since last year. First is Cricke t,this game is as always the most popular and most celebrated sports in our country.Last one year has also been great for this sport.India reached the final of the Champion's Trophy where it lost to Pakistan.The major advancement in this sport is in Women's cricket where they have performed exceptionally.Indian Women's cricket team reached the final of World Cup where they lost a close final to England.But they managed to win the hearts of people in India. Badminton is the game which has advanced the most in terms of performance and popularity.P.V Sindhu's silver at the Olympics,Srikant's great performance in Rio had sent a message to the badminton fartenity that Indian shuttlers are now ready to dominate this sport.Glimpses of this was seen at the BWF World Championships this

Today P.V Sindhu won the World Championships at Scotland.Now the big question is Can the Indian shuttlers break the long dominanace of Chinese players. The BWF World Championship 2017 saw the best performance by India in the World Championships.India managed to take 1 bronze and 1 silver in women's singles and nearly missing a medal in men's singles.The whole credit goes to three shuttlers P.V Sindhu,Saina Nehwal and K.Srikant.Firstly talking about P.V Sindhu What a tournament she had.On her road to finals she beat    two Chinese players .World Championships have always been extremely good for Sindhu.She has managed to win   bronze medals by consistently reaching semis since 2013 .In an event which used to be dominated by Chinese players like Wang Shixian,Li Xuerui,Wang Yihan ,Sindhu has constantly been able to carve her path out.Next is Saina Nehwal.What a tournament she had.At the time people thought her days are gone,she comes back like a tigress.All eyes were on Sindh

Indian tennis players have been performing extremely well in the world arena.The big question is why India is not able to produce good singles players. Tennis is one of the games in which India is among world's best.Indian tennis players have consistently winning grand slams and ATP events.Players like Sania Mirza,Leander Paes,Mahesh Bhupati,Rohan Bopanna have been constantly in top-10 in world rankings.Infact since 1997 Indian tennis players have constantly been winning at least a single grandslam each and every year.In the year 2015 the players managed to win three grandslams(2 in mixed doubles and one in women doubles).This is something which very few countries would have managed to.But the problem is all the achivements have come in doubles not a single event has been won in singles event which is very strange.But why has this happened! The major reason behind this is the lack of funding in the field of tennis.Tennis is a very expensive sport.It is one of the very few

Wrestling is the most successful sport in last ten years.This blog is an overview as to what the sport is doing right and what are scopes of improvement. Wrestling is one of the most ancient sports in India and the most popular sport even today in the villages of India.India has been performing pretty well in the world arena in last few years.It has a medal tally of 11 in world championships which includes 1 gold,2 silver and 8 bronze medals.Also India has been doing well in Olympics where they have 5 medals(4 bronze and 1 silver) .The story of wrestling has been heroic.It somewhere got lost in the 1990's,only after Sushil's Kumar's triumph at the 2008 Beijing Olympics the sport revived its status in India.After that there was no looking back and India started to perform really well in wrestling.The Delhi Commonwealth Games saw the potential of Indian wrestlers where in the Indian wrestlers clinched 19 medals(10 gold,5 silver,4 bronze) .Now the question arises what

Table tennis is one of the most played sport in India. It is extremely popular among the young of this country. But surprisingly the players have not been able to make a mark in the world arena. In this blog I will try and discuss the performances and short comings of table tennis in India.  It is so disappointing to see that one of the most played sport in our country has not won a single medal in Olympics and World Championships. It is the only sport which has this track record. The only place where Indian table tennis players have performed is in the Common Wealth Games.In Commonwealth Games, India has a medal tally of 12 medals which include 4 gold, 1 silver and 7 bronze medals. In a game dominated by Chinese and European players, till date India has been able to produce only one player in top 50 i. e. Sharath Kamal. But why are Indian players not able to perform in world stage? Ironically this sport is one of the most played sports in the country but is not that

The national game of India has been out of color for past few years.The big question is can hockey (Indian mens hockey)bring back its golden days in India. Hockey is a game in which India has dominated in the past. In fact India holds the record of maximum number of gold medals in the game of hockey.The days of Dhyan Chand were absolutely golden for India as India has no match at that time.India has won a staggering 11 olympic medals including 8 gold,1silver and 2 bronze medals.But after 1980 things have not been good for Indian hockey and after 2000 India has been facing problems in even qualifying for the Olympics. The major reason for this drop is the change of rules.Hockey earlier was played on plain grounds.But after the introduction of Astro Turf grounds,the game becoming fast,Dominance of European countries in the administration made things worse for India.Not only did Indian hockey lost tournaments but it also lost its popularity from India.Another big reason for this

The year 2017 will see India host its first FIFA event i.e. U-17 World Cup.But the big question is ,can this Event change the fate of Indian football. Football,the most popular sport in the world, has not been able to gain that amount of popularity in India.The likes of cricket,badminton and kabaddi have overshadowed Indian football.Although people do follow the big events like FIFA World Cup ,Champion's League etc.One reason for the poor condition of  football in our country is that there has not been an outstanding performance by Indian football since the time it started.The major performances of India in world stage are Indian team qualified for the 1950 World Cup. Indian team finished fourth in the 1956 Olympics. After 1960 the Indian team has not managed to do something which can unite our country or give people some reason to watch football,something which cricket does regularly and badminton has done in recent years.Another reason is that India lacks infrastruct

On August 12 Usain Bolt announced retirement after losing a 100m race first time after 2011 disqualification and getting injured in 4*100m relay .Hence the question arises is Usain Bolt the greatest star of all times? When we talk about the greatest athletes ,we compare him with Carl Lewis, Michael Johnson and other people.If we look at his great carrier record we can be just carried away with this fact. He has won 8 gold in Olympics and 11  gold in world championships. This is not all he has also won 2 silver and 1 bronze in  World Championships . 8 gold means he has defended his 100m,200m not once but twice. Not only this he holds the world and Olympic records for the fastest 100m 200m and 4*100m relay. The timings that he has put on is even a scientific shock. Scientists say that covering 100m in 9.58 seconds is next to impossible. This speaks of his muscle strength and accelerating abilities. Considering the fact that he is not the best athletes who start a race th

The game of Kabaddi has gained huge popularity in last 2-3 years.The story of this amazing game reaching such heights of popularity is amazing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   It all started in the year 2014 when a group of brave creators joined hands to bring to the people a 5000 year old game with the name Pro Kabaddi League.It was not that people did not heard of kabaddi before but it was somewhere in their subconscious mind which was slowly fading away.The opening season of the pro kabaddi league was super hit and from nowhere this sport became viral in each and every corner of this country.This is the only game in which India has dominated ever since it started in 1990 Asian Games.But the players did not get the recognition they deserved to get.Pla

This article is dedicated to Roger Federer who is truly the greatest player tennis has ever produced. The year 2017 will be remembered for the excellence of Roger Federer in the tennis circle. Who would believe that this tennis maestro has turned 36 three days ago(8 August).He is probably revisiting his old glorious days.This year he has already won two grand slams namely Australian Open and the prestigious Wimbledon. He is still to be beaten in grand slams and probably he will be contesting for his third grand slam of the year i.e U.S Open. I really think he is getting younger each passing birthday. But the fact is he has been playing good tennis in last 5-6 years because of which he even managed to win Wimbledon in 2012 . In fact the only poor year he had in last five years is 2013 where he had injury concerns.He even slipped out of the top four after so many years.Frankly speaking he had been reaching semi finals regularly and even played a final each year.The only thing was

The Big question today is Can Lee Chong Wei win the World Championship this year? The player for which the whole Malaysia and the badminton fraternity must be praying to win this year's World Championship in Glasgow is Lee Chong Wei. Well what to talk about this great man who has been in professional badminton for so long and carrying the burden of hopes of Malaysia for such a long period and performing each and every time. He is the king of super series events performing consistently in each and every super series event so consistently that it is also impossible to match his super series record. When we talk about the Major badminton events he has been consistent and performing exceptionally, just the sad part is that he has not been the champion of these events. If we consider World championships and Olympics he has six silvers ,which is very disheartening to see. He is a motivation for all young badminton players and surely for whole Malaysia but this fact re

The hot Question since past three years is Who is a better player Sachin or Virat?                              Sachin Tendulkar                                                        Virat Kohli Well its not easy to compare two people of two different generations but it still can be done because of the fact that both of them have played with each other for good 3-4 years. Lets compare both of them on different aspects-: 1.       Time periods :  When we compare the periods when these two played then they are extremely different. Sachin made his debut at a time when India was emerging as a cricketing country, when we were not the best in any of the things. Sachin came as a hope as to we could say that we have someone who is the best. Whereas Virat Kohli came at a time when India was pretty much a cricketing super power, thanks to the FAB FIVE i.e. Sachin,Saurav,Dravid,Laxman and Kumble. Hence Sachin emerged and performed at a very difficult time