New Delhi:
It has been a Super Sunday for India on the seventh day of the Commonwealth Games when they won five Gold medals in tennis, archery, shooting and wrestling, and also a place in the hockey semi-finals with a 7-4 win over archrivals Pakistan.
TENNIS: SOMDEV WINS GOLD IN MEN'S SINGLESSomdev Devvarman became the first Commonwealth Games men's singles champion cruising to a 6-4, 6-2 win over Greg Jones of Australia.
The top seed's win had local fans on their feet, 24 hours after the despair of seeing Indian glamour girl Sania Mirza lose the women's singles final in a deciding tie-break to Anastasia Rodionova of Australia.
But after pocketing the first set with a single break, he took total command of the second, running off five games games in a row with two breaks of serve to lead 5-0.
He briefly stumbled at match point on his following serve allowing Jones a brief respite, but two games later he completed the rout sparking off noisy celebrations in the stadium.
Tennis was included in the Games for the first time at New Delhi.
WRESTLING: SUSHIL KUMAR WINS FREESTYLE GOLDIndian world champion Sushil Kumar delighted an expectant home crowd with a Gold in the freestyle wrestling 66kg.
India's latest posterboy, one of the nation's best medal hopes after winning the world championships in Moscow last month, treated his fans to an emphatic victory over South African Heinrich Barnes in the final.
"You have no idea with all the expectations riding on me and competing in my home country and winning gold -- it is the best feeling I ever had," he said.
"This gold is the result of my audience's love and my own determination."
Kumar pinned Barnes to the mat in the second session to close out the final 7-0 as the Indira Gandhi arena rose to its feet to chant his name.
The victory capped a formidable day's wrestling for Kumar during which he managed not to concede a single point, breezing through his first two matches before winning his semifinal in just nine seconds with the first move of the match.
India are the first nation to win 10 gold medals in wrestling at a single Games while Barnes' silver was the 10th for South Africa across all sports.
"It feels good," he said. "I'd be happier with a gold but it's all right. I worked hard for it and it might be a good motivation for next time.
HOCKEY: INDIA BEAT PAKISTAN TO ENTER SEMI-FINALSSandeep Singh was the star as India trounced arch-rivals Pakistan 7-4 in a high-scoring thriller here on Sunday to storm into the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games hockey.
For India, Sandeep Singh and Shivendra Singh scored two goals each,while Sarvanjit Singh, Danish Mujtaba and Dharamvir Singh scored oneeach.
Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Irfan and Shakeel Abbasi scored for Pakistan.
Faced with the prospect of elimination before the knock-out rounds, India responded with a resounding display before some 19,000 delirious home fans at the Major Dhyan Chand stadium.
The hosts finished with nine points to finish second in Pool A behind world champions Australia and will now take on England in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
This was India's third win in a year over their bitter rivals after their 4-1 triumph in the World Cup at this same venue in February and a 4-2 victory in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Malaysia in May.
SHOOTING: HARPREET SHOOTS GOLD, SILVER FOR MANAVJITIndian shooters continued to call the shots in the Commonwealth Games as they clinched one gold medal, one silver and a bronze with Harpreet Singh winning the yellow metal in 25-metre centrefire pistol singles at the Karni Singh Range.
In a one-two finish for the hosts, Harpreet and Vijay Kumar clinched the gold and silver medals respectively in the 25-metre range, thus continuing their medal-winning spree in the Games.
Manavijit Singh Sandhu then capped off the day by managing a bronze in men's singles trap, finishing ahead of Australia's Adam Vella in the tie-shoot. England's Aaron Heading (147) won the gold, while two-time Olympic champion and master trap shooter Michael Diamond (146) bagged the silver.
ARCHERY: DEEPIKA, RAHUL GET TWO GOLDSTeen sensation Deepika Kumari and Rahul Banerjee won gold medals in individual recurve events on the last day of the competition to help India end their campaign in archery on a high note, even as their fellow mates fell short of expectations.
Indian archers finished with three golds, one silver and four bronze medals.
On the final day on Sunday at the Yamuna Sports Complex, besides two golds, India also bagged two bronze medals when senior pros Dola Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar disappointed with third place finishes.