Dipika Pallikal loses in Texas Open Squash final

1.  Dipika Pallikal loses in Texas Open Squash final 

i. Dipika Pallikal stumbled on the final hurdle against Egyptian teenager Nour El Sherbini in the title clash of the Women's Champion Fiberglass Texas Open in Houston, USA on Monday. 

ii. Eyeing maiden major title of her career, world No 12 Dipika faltered against the 18-year-old qualifier 7-11, 11-5, 7-11 to lose in 48 minutes. 

iii. The 22-year-old Dipika was celebrating the biggest Tour final of her career - while world junior champion El Sherbini was continuing the form of her life which had seen the youngster reach last month's WSA World Championship final after upsetting world No 1 Nicol David. 

2.    Nadal leads ATP rankings

i. Rafael Nadal maintained first place lead in the men’s tennis rankings ahead of Novak Djokovic into the first clay-court Masters of the season starting on Monday in Monte Carlo.

ii. Nadal has 13,730 points to Djokovic’s 11,680, with Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka third on 5,760 points.

3.    Williams tops WTA rankings

i. Serena Williams continued to hold a huge lead over Li Na in the latest women’s tennis rankings issued by the WTA.

ii. Williams has 12,375 points, Li 7,585, and Agnieszka Radwanska remained third on 5,980 points. Jelena Jankovic rose from ninth to eighth, at the expense of Maria Sharapova.

4.  Gaurav Gill won Vinz Whangarei Car Rally

i. Delhi based MRF driver, Gaurav Gill won Whangarei Rally by a lead of 11.9 seconds on 13 April 2014.

ii. It is his first title in New Zealand and sixth career victory in FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC). He was driving in his Skoda fabia S2000 for team MRF. He had won APRC championship in 2013 too.

iii. European champion, Jan Kopecky (Czech Republic) obtained second position. He is another MRF Skoda driver.

iv. Gill won all six stages in the final race which is a tough target to achieve.  Overall, 14 stages and 220.87 kms were covered. 

5.  Santoso won OUE Singapore Open 2014

i. Simon Santoso (Indonesia) won the OUE Singapore Open 2014 for the first time on 13 April 2014.

ii. He defeated Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia), badminton’s world number one player by 21-15, 21-10 in final match held in Singapore.  Santoso won 300000 US Dollars for this victory.