Phelps 2nd in 200 medley final Michael Phelps was second in the 200m medley final at the short-course World Cup in Stockholm as he continued to struggle to meet expectations in the old-style suit that will become standard next year. Phelps clocked 1 minute 53.93 seconds,more than two seconds behind South Africas Darian Townsend,who won in 1:51.79. Cilic to defend Chennai title Croatian Marin Cilic,who defeated Indian No 1 Somdev Devvarman in the final of the 2009 Chennai Open,will return to the city in 2010 to defend his title. Confirming his participation on Thursday,Cilic said,It will be interesting to test my hardcourt skills again against some top players of the world,and I expect a very strong line-up in the event. It will be fantastic to defend my title. The other player to confirm participation was Switzerlands Stanislas Wawrinka. Somdev,Prakash out Somdev Devvarmans chances of breaking into the top 100 by the end of this season suffered a jolt after he went down in the first round of the ATP Challenger event in Knoxville,United States. Sixth seed Devvarmlost 7-6 (8) 6-3 to unseeded Croat Roko Karanusic in the opening round. Prakash Amritraj lost 6-3 6-2 to Izak Van der Merwe in the first round. In the doubles,Devvarman and Purav Raja beat Cory Parry and Todd Paul 6-4 7-6(3). Jwala loses in both categories Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa suffered a 21-9 21-10 defeat to third seed Chinese Jing Du and Yang Yu at the Hong Kong Super Series. Jwala and V Diju lost to Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg 29-27 13-21 18-21 in mixed doubles. In mens doubles,Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas lost to Alven Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan 17-21 21-17 13-21. Chowrasia tied seventh SSP Chowrasia lies tied seventh after a five-under 65 while Jeev Milkha Singh got off to a sedate start in the $2.5 million Hong Kong Open. Chowrasia is three shots off the lead. One shot behind at tied 16th were Jyoti Randhawa and Gaganjeet Bhullar. Jeev and Anirban Lahiri shared the 94th place at one-over 71,ahead of C Muniyappa (73) and Digvijay Singh (76). Chikka closer to title defence Defending champion Chikkarangappa (70) survived an ant attack and overcame a wobbly start to stretch his lead and inch closer to the Lalit Suri Eastern India golf title in Kolkata. The Bangalore player is three-under for the tournament,three shots clear of second-placed Ashbeer Saini (72). Sudha gets silver medal Sudha Singh bagged the silver and Kiran Tiwari fetched the bronze in womens 3000m steeplechase event to take Indias tally to seven on the third day of the 18th Asian Athletics in Guangzhou,China. Sudha,who clocked 10:10.77,was followed by Kiran on 10:34.55. However,India,with one gold,one silver and five bronze medals,slipped down one step to figure fourth in the medals tally. Dempo return to top of table Dempo overcame a first-half deficit to defeat Viva Kerala 3-1 and return to the top of the points table after their match in Margao on Thursday. In Barasat,Abel Hammond struck a brace as East Bengal beat Lajong FC 3-0. In Mumbai,Nigerian striker Muritala Ali scored a hat-trick to help Mahindra United beat Air India 4-0. Anand slips to second Viswanathan Anand failed to get the better of Magnus Carlsens defence and dropped to the second place after drawing his second-round match with the Norwegian at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. Russian Vladimir Kramnik now leads the chart with five points one more than Anand.
