Sports News in Brief: April 2011

BADMINTON Indian Open Championship World number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia continued his dominance over Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark in the super series events to win the men’s singles title in the inaugural Indian Open Badminton championship. The ladies crown went to unseeded Thai Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who scored over third seed Korean Bae Youn Joo for the first time in three encounters for her maiden Super Series title. The men’s doubles title was won by Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata of Japan. The women’s Doubles title was won by Miyuki Maeka and Satoko Suetsuna of Japan. Mixed doubles title was won by Tantowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir of Indonesia. CRICKET Sachin named Wisden’s cricketer of year 2010 Wisden, regarded as the Bible of cricket, has named Sachin Tendulkar as the leading cricketer of 2010. He has become the seventh recipient of the award after Virender Sehwag, Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan and Jacques Kallis. Bangladesh-Australia ODI series Michael Hussey hit a century to help Australia win the third and final ODI and complete a clean sweep of the series. FOOTBALL Spanish Cup Real Madrid defeated arch-rivals Barcelona 1-0, after extra time in a dramatic finale to win the Spanish Cup for the first time since 1993. TENNIS Monte Carlo Open Rafa Nadal won the title for the seventh straight time by defeating fellow Spaniard David Ferrer. Sony Ericsson Open In an epic final, Novak Djokovic defeated world number one Rafa Nadal to win the Sony Ericsson Open title. Family Circle Cup doubles title Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina clinched the title, their second WTA title. The un-seeded Indo-Russian pair defeated fourth seeds Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy.