Indian world No.70, Somdev Devvarman has been recognized for his for his national tennis successes for his country by clinching singles gold medals for India at both the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi and the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China has been presented with the Arjuna Award.

The Indian Government-administered Arjuna Awards, which was instituted in 1961, is recognized for the outstanding achievement in national sports.

The 26-year-old Devvarman, one of 19 awardees of the prestigious awards in 2011, is the first tennis player to be honoured since WTA star Sania Mirza in 2004. Mahesh Bhupathi won it in 1995 and Leander Paes received the honour in 1990.

Devvarman was unable to attend the official ceremony hosted by President Pratibha Patil on 29 August as he was contesting for the US Open has been presented with the Arjuna Award on Tuesday by Indian sports Minister, Ajay Make.
The Indian tennis ace, Somdev Devvarman has played a huge role by reaching the World Group stages in Davis Cup defeating the hosts, South Africa and clinching the 2010 Davis cup beating Brazil in his singles rubber.

Devvarman best performance this came in South Africa, when he reached the finals of the South African Open.

The 21-year-old Sabine Lisicki has been playing consistently well in this season, where has reached the quarter final at Mercury Insurance Open and semi final at the Bank of the West Classic. She fell in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters to Shahar Peer of Israel in straight sets on last week.

The German star Lisicki has defeated top seeds in this season, Agnieszka Radwanska    Samantha Stosur and also aiming to win the Texas Tennis title, ahead of the US Open event this month.

The 24-year-old Sania Mirza has been struggling with her form. She fell in the first round of the Citi Open and Mercury Insurance Open in this season. She also defeated in the opening round of the Wimbledon championship by Frenchwomen Virginie Razzano in three sets.

Both the players are meeting for the third occasion, where Lisicki and Mirza lead with a 1-1 win-loss head-to-head record. The pair has last faced at Charleston WTA Premier Event, as Mirza won the match in straight sets with a 6-4 and 6-4. The odds favors to German star will win the match in straight sets and move into the second round of the Texas Tennis Open at Dallas.

The 24-year-old Mirza has suffered her sixth debacle in seven matches, where she fell with 7-5 and 6-4 to Stephanie Dubois of Canada in the opening round at Citi Open. Mirza has been struggling with a left knee injury suffered three weeks ago in an opening round Wimbledon exit at All England Club on last month.

Mirza said that, she felt like really rusty and she played few games better, but it’s unfortunate to lose. She added she is looking forward to play better and improve her WTA Ranking. Stephanie Dubois has taken 1 hour and 35 minutes to finish the game against Mirza and will face Britain’s Heather Watson in the second round.

The World No. 62 ranked Mirza has won only one ATP title cone in 2005 and said that she could face a tough battle on hard court with knee injury says Mirza. She is hoping to do better at the US Open and wants to improve backhand and forehand on the hard courts.

In the other matches, British Women’s No1 Elena Baltacha thrashed Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in the first round with a 6-2 and 7-6 (7/5) to reach second round match against Virginie Razzano of France.

The Indo-Russian pair Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina has been seeded No. 4 in the Wimbledon 2011, where the pair has reached semi final at Wimbledon, but lost to Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik with a 3–6 and 1–6. The 24-year-old Sania Mirza also reached the Wimbledon mixed doubles quarter finals, where she was beaten up by the Paul Hanley and Hsieh Su-wei.

Sania Mirza said that, she will be happy, if the pair can win a Grand Slam champion at US Open, where they had failed to lift the championship at French Open and lost semi final match in the Wimbledon. She added her goal is to bag a major title till the end of the season.

The pair has been playing well in this season, where they also reached in the final of French Open at Roland Garros. Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina have won the titles in Indian Wells Open and Charleston Open. The 24-year-old Vesnina said she and Mirza have played a lot of tennis together, since February and happy to be climbed to No. 2 in the WTA doubles ranking.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna have defeated Martin Damm and Renata Voracova of Czech Republic in the third round match with a 6-3 and 6-0 to advance into the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Wimbledon Championships on Thursday.

The sixth seed Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna has been playing well in the grass court event at Wimbledon. The Indian due will play against unseeded pair of Paul Hanley of Australia and Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan. Paul Hanley and Su-Wei Hsieh have beaten between 15th seed Andy Ram and Meghann Shaughnessy with a 7-6 and 7-6 in the mixed doubles third round at the Wimbledon in London.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna and Paul Hanley and Su-Wei Hsieh will fight for a place in the semi final at Wimbledon championship, where Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna looking hot favorite to win the quarter final match against their opponents. Sania Mirza has been playing well in the this season, where she also reached final of the French Open at Roland Garros with her Russian Partner Elena Vesnina. The Indo Russian pair is also playing semi final match at Wimbledon against Kveta Peschke and Srebotnik on Friday 1st July at All England Club.

The fourth seed Indo Russian pair Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina has overcome against unseeded Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain in the quarter final with a 3-6, 6-4 and 7-5. Sania Mirza and Vesnina have been playing well in this season, as the pair also reached the final of the French Open at Roland Garros earlier this month. In the final, the pair has lost to Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka, with a 3–6 and 4–6. This is the second best performance in the Grand Slam, which she has climbed in doubles ranking at No. 14.

The French Open finalist Sania and Vesnina will play against the winner of the other quarterfinal match between Czech Republic’s Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and the Chinese pair of Shuai Peng and Jie Zheng. The pair is going to play hard to win and aims to win the Grand Slam title at Wimbledon said Sania.

Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina are looking to win the first Doubles Grand Slam championship at All England Club at Wimbledon this year. In this season, duo has been performing well in the major tournaments.

The fourth seeded Indo Russian pair Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina has defeated the 13th seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Polish Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-4 and 6-3 in the women’s doubles match on Tuesday at Wimbledon. Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina have been playing well in this season, where the pair has reached final in the French Open at Roland Garros.

The pair will play against N Llagostera Vives and A Parra Santonja of Spain in the quarter final at the All England Club at Wimbledon. Llagostera Vives and Parra Santonja have thrashed Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy with a 7-5 and 6-4 score line in third round match.

Sania Mirza and Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi has defeated Australians Stephen Huss and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia with a 6-2 and 7-6 (3) to reach the third round in the mixed doubles. The 14th seeds Leander Paes of India and Cara Black of Zimbabwe also reached the next round defeating Dutch Polish team of Rogier Wassen and Alicja Rosolska with a 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The 24-year-old Mirza is having 21-14 win loss record in 2011, where she lost in the opening rounds in Auckland Open, Australian Open and Birmingham at the year beginning. She has reached to the second round in Indian Wells and Miami Open. Mirza’s best Wimbledon come in 2006, entered into the third round and also reached doubles final in the French Open 2011 at Roland Garros.

The 28-year-old Virginie Razzano has been struggling with her form from the beginning of this season, where she had entered into second round of the Australian Open and 3rd round in Miami Open in April. She lost in the opening round of the grass court tournament at Birmingham and having 13-13 win loss record in this season. Her best Wimbledon appearances’ came in 2009.

Both the players are facing for the second time and Frenchwoman Razzano leads with a1-0 head-to-head record against Mirza. Last meeting came in Los Angeles in 2007, where the Indian tennis ace lost the match in two sets. She after reaching the doubles finals at Rolland Garros is now looking good to win the match in the first round at Wimbledon.

Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina have already won two titles in 2011 and the pair also planning to clinch the title at the year end at WTA Championship, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey. On Monday, Sania Mirza achieved a career best doubles ranking of 14th spot along with her Russian partner Elena Vesnina and has got 3606 points after the French Open 2011.

The pair has lost the French Open doubles final to Lucie Hradecka of Czech Republic and Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic with a 6-4 and 6-3 at Roland Garros.

In singles WTA Rankings, Sania has jumped from No. 72 to No. 58 position at the moment, after the second round exit from the French Open.  In the French Open 2011, Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina ended up with runner-up and the pair has improved in their rankings, where the pair jumped 11 places.

The top standings lead by the Kveta Peschke of Czech Republic and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia with a 4, 395 points  followed by the Maria Kirilenko of Russian and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus with 3865 points.

Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina have defeated American due Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in a three sets with a 6-3, 2-6 and 6-4 in the semi finals of the French Open tournament on Wednesday. In the French Open doubles finals Mirza and Vesnina will play against Czech duo Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. Sania Mirza and Vesnina have wrap up the match in 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Sania and Vesnina broke their opponents early in the first set to lead 4-1 and bagged 6-3 in 30 minutes, but they lost the second set with 2-6. Both the players come back strongly in third set with a 6-4 to clinch the game.

Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka have thrashed third seeded pair of Vania King of United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan with a 6-3 and 6-3 in the another semi finals of the French Open.

At their first pairing in February both Mirza and Vesnina had won two titles in this season at Indian Wells in March and in Charleston in April. Indian star Mirza is appearing third Grand Slam final in her career.