Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Tennis Grand Slams 2009

Switzerland's Roger Federer and Serena Williams (USA) were named 2009 ITF world champions on December 22, 2009. It is the fifth time that Switzerland's world number one has won the ITF award based on the performances at grand slam events, tour events, Davis Cup and Federation Cup. Serena Williams won the award for the second time. Following table summarizes the grand slam championships in 2009:

Title

Winners/ Runner up

Australian Open January 2009

French Open May-June 2009

Wimbledon June-July 2009

US Open September 2009

Men's Singles

Winner

Rafael Nadal (Spain)

Roger Federer (Switzerland)

Roger Federer (Switzerland)

Juan Martin del Potro (Argentina)

Runner up

Roger Federer (Switzerland)

Robin Soderling (Sweden)

Andy Roddick (USA)

Roger Federer (Switzerland)

Women's Singles

Winner

Serena Williams (USA)

Svetlana Kuznetzova (Russia)

Serena Williams (USA)

Kim Clijisters (Belgium)

Runner up

Dinara Safina (Russia)

Dinara Safina (Russia)

Venus Williams (USA)

Carolina Wozniacki (Denmark)

Men's Doubles

Winner

Mike Bryan & Bob Bryan (both USA)

Lukas Dlouhy (Czech Rep) Leander Paes (India)

Daniel Nester (Canada) Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia)

Lukas Dlouhy (Czech Rep) Leander Paes (India)

Runner up

Mark Knowles (Bahamas) Mahesh Bhupati (India)

Wesley Moodle (S. Africa) Dick Norman (Belgium)

Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan (USA)

Mark Knowles (Bahamas) Mahesh Bhupati (India)

Women's Doubles

Winner

Serena Williams & Venus Williams (USA)

Anabel Medina Garrigues & Ruano Pascual (Spain)

Serena Williams & Venus Williams (USA)

Serena Williams & Venus Williams (USA)

Runner up

Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) Ai Sugiyama (Japan)

Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) Elena Vasnina (Russia)

Samantha Stosur & Rennae Stubbs (Australia)

Cara Black (Zimbabwe) Liezel Huber (USA)

Mixed Doubles

Winner

Mahesh Bhupati & Sania Mirza (India)

Liezel Huber & Bob Bryan (USA)

Mark Knowles (Bahamas) Anna Lena Groenfeld (Germany)

Carly Cullickson& Travis Parrot (USA)

Runner up

Andy Ram (Israel) Nathalie Dechy (France)

Vania King (USA) Mercelo Melo (Brazil)

Leander Paes (India) Cara Black (Zimbabwe)

Leander Paes (India) Cara Black (Zimbabwe)


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Quick Snippets

# Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Solar India on January 11, 2010 which aims at creating an istalled capacity of 20000 Megawatt by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan, i.e. by 2022.

# The 2008 Dada Saheb Phalke Award has been given to legendary cinematographer V.K. Murthy.

#Following 6 persons have honoured with Padma Vibhushan- the second highest civilian honour of the country:

ArtEbrahim Alkazi, Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman, Zohra Segal

Public Affairs

Y.V. Reddy
Trade & IndustryPrathap Reddy
Science & EngineeringVenkatraman Ramakrishnan

#The new chief of Army Staff is Lieutenant General V.K. Singh. He will take over on March 31st, 2010.

#Newly appointed governors of various states are:

Shivraj PatilPunjab
K. SankaranarayananMaharashtra
E.S.L. NarasimhanAndhra Pradesh
M.O.H. Farook Jharkhand
Prabha RaoRajasthan
M.K. NarayananWest Bengal
Shekhar DuttChhattisgarh
Urmila BenHimachal Pradesh

# Andhra Pradesh government signed three agreements with the World Bank on January 22, 2010 to receive loan assistance of Rs. 3720 crore to fund three projects to develop roads.

#ISRO recently successfully tested its biggest and most powerful rocket motor called S-200 powered by 200 tonnes of solid propellants on January 24, 2010 at Sriharikota.

# Shiv Shankar Menon is the new National Security Advisor replacing M.K. Narayanan who has been appointed governor of West Bengal.

# The Lokmanya Tilak Award has been conferred on the Editor-in-Chief of the Hindu on the 129th foundation day of the Kesari newspaper started by Lokmanya Tilak in 1881.

# Tamil Nadu won the men's title of the 58th National Volleyball Championship in Gwalior on January 6, 2010 with Railways taking the women's title in the same tournament.

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56th National Film Awards

The 56th National Awards for 2008 were announced on January 23, 2010. As per the recommendations of the Jury, Antaheen (Bengali) was announced the Best Feature Film and also selected for the award in Best Cinematography, Best Lyrics and BEst Female Playback Singer category. Upendra Limaye got the Best Actor award for his role in Marathi feature film Jogva while Priyanka Chopra bagged the Best Actress Award for her performance in hindi film Fashion. The list of the awards is given below:
Best Feature FilmAntaheen (Bengali)
Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a DirectorA Wednesday (Hindi): Neeraj Pandey
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome EntertainmentOye Lucky! Lucky Oye (Hindi)
Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National IntegrationAai Kot Nai (Assamese)
Best Film on Family ValuesLittle Zizou (English, Gujarati)
Best Film on Social Issues such as Prohibition, Women and Child Welfare, Anti-Dowri, Drug Abuse, Welfare of the Handicapped etc.Jogva (Marathi)
Best Film on Environment Conservation/ PreservationJianta Bhoota (Oriya)
Best Children's FilmGubbachigalu (Kannada)
Best Animation FilmRoadside Romeo (Hindi)
Best DirectionNaan Kadauul (Tamil): Bala
Best ActorJogva (Marathi): Upendra Limaye
Best Actress

Fashion (Hindi): Priyanka Chopra

Best Supporting ActorRock On! (Hindi): Arjun Rampal
Best Supporting ActressFashion (Hindi): Kangana Ranaut
Best Child ArtistThanks Maa (Hindi): Shams Patel
Best Male Playback SingerJogva (Marathi): Hariharan
Best Female Playback SingerAntaheen (Bengali) & Jogva (Marathi): Shreya Ghoshal
Best CinematographyAntaheet (Bengali): Avik Mukhopadhyay
Best ScreenplayGandha (Marathi): Sachin Kundalkar
Best AudiographyGandha (Marathi): Pramod J. Thomas
Best EditingFiraaq (Hindi): A. Sreekar Prasad
Best Art DirectionFiraaq (Hindi): Gautam Sen
Best Costume DesignerJodha Akbar (Hindi): Neeta Lulla
Beest Make-up ArtistNaan Kadauul (Tamil): Moorthy V.
Best Music DirectionJogva (Marathi): Ajay & Atul
Best LyricsAntaheen (Bengali): Anindya Banerjee & Chandranil Bhattacharya
Special Jury AwardBioscope (Malayalam)
Best Special EffectsMumbai Meri Jaan (Hindi): Govardhan
Best ChoreographyJodha Akbar (Hindi): Chinni Prakash & Rekha Prakash

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