When the world was busy celebrating New Year last week, the sportsmen were sweating out in grounds to score more and win titles. From football to tennis, the sporting action soared in the first week of 2015. Football tournaments like European League and La LIGA are in mid phase of competition while ATP Chennai Open kicked off on 3rd January. Indian players were seen vying in various sports to clinch their first win of the year.
Cricket
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian skipper announced his retirement from Test Cricket last week. This news came all of a sudden after the 3rd test between India and Australia finished in draw. Nobody in the cricketing world and nor the fans of this 2 time World Champion captain had expected this and that too in the mid of a series. Virat Kohli was nominated the test captain of Team India for the last test match against Aussies which is now underway at Sydney. In the other part of the world, South African bowling attack led by Dale Steyn tore down the West Indian batting line-up which resulted into mere 124 runs target in 4th innings for them.
Football
As the tournaments are progressing deep in early 2015, the teams which have dominated the competition to date have started to fumble. In the English Premier League tie last week, Tottenham Hotspur stunned the point table leader Chelsea with a sensational 5-3 win. This defeat cost Chelsea their top position which they are sharing with Manchester City with 46 points each in 20 matches. Similarly in the Spanish league, La Liga, Real Madrid slumped against Valencia 2-1 in the match on Sunday throwing Barcelona a chance to take lead. However, Barcelona too faced a defeat 1-0 against Real Sociedad and thus missed their chance to go top of the league.
Tennis
Chennai Open 2015 kicked off on 3rd January with tennis stars joining from all over the world. Initial action on the court saw singles qualifiers majorly while the main battle of singles as well as doubles started on Monday, 5th Jan. Indian tennis player, N Vijay Shankar Prashanth knocked out Davis Cupper Yuki Bhambri 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-3, in the second round of the qualifying competition on Sunday. Sasi Kumar Mukund and Vinayak Kaza are the other Indian players to reach the third round. In the international ties, eighth seed Gilles Muller clinched the win 7-6 (11), 1-6, 6-7 (3) in an exciting match against last year’s finalist Eduard Roger-Vasselin.