Indian sports wrap, December 17: Ankita Raina reaches second round at ITF Navi Mumbai

TENNIS

Women’s ITF, Navi Mumbai: Ankita Raina reaches second round

Top seed Ankita Raina overcame an indifferent start to beat Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ganesh Naik Complex on Tuesday.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Ankita will play Thasaporn Naklo of Thailand.\

The champion of the tournament last week in Solapur, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty beat the runner-up of that event, Bunyawi Thamchaiwat of Thailand yet again, with a 6-4, 6-2 margin in the first round.

Shrivalli will play qualifier Zuzanna Pawlikowska of Poland in the second round. Riya Bhatia beat compatriot Tanisha Kashyap 6-3, 6-4 to set up a pre-quarterfinal against eighth seed Priska Nugroho of Indonesia.

– Team Sportstar

AITA Men’s Tournament: Sarthak Suden reaches quartefinals

Third seed Sarthak Suden overcame stiff resistance from Amandeep Singh Baha 6-4, 7-6(3) in the pre-quarterfinals of the seventh Rajesh Patel memorial Rs.100,000 AITA men’s ranking tennis tournament at the Tennis Vidyalaya in Sector-61, Gurugram, on Tuesday.

In the quarterfinals, Sarthak will play Aarjun Pandit. Top seed Parth Aggarwal, second seed Bushan Haobam, Deep Munim, Bhicky Sagolshem, Samuel Jones and Mayank Sharma were the others making the quarterfinals.

– Team Sportstar

Inter-Services championship: Navy beats Army Green to reach final

Ishaque Eqbal and S Mukund put Navy in the final with a 2-0 win over Army Green in the 76th Inter-Services tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.

Sriram Balaji and Rishabh Agarwal won it for Army Red in the other semifinal against Air Force.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

IC Rod Laver junior challenge: India beats Singapore 6-0

The Indian team proved too strong for host Singapore as it registered a 6-0 victory in the league match of the Asia-Oceania IC Rod Laver junior challenge on the indoor courts of the Winchester Tennis Arena in Singapore on Tuesday.

The Indian boys and girls dropped only 12 games in all, in winning the four singles and two doubles matches.

India will next play Japan in the last league match on Thursday, in the three-team competition. Singapore will play Japan on Wednesday.

The top team will qualify for the World wide challenge to be hosted in Spain next year.

India, spearheaded by Manas Dhamne, and supported by Rushil Khosla, Sohini Mohanty and Asmi Adkar, had emerged the IC World wide champion in USA last year.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

FOOTBALL

Santosh Trophy: Odisha clinches first win, Delhi continues unbeaten run

Delhi continued its unbeaten run with a 2-0 win against Tamil Nadu while Odisha earned its first victory of the 78th Senior National football championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Deccan Arena in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Delhi maintained its position with six points from two matches while Odisha, on the other hand, hauled itself up from the bottom to the third spot.

Delhi led 1-0 at the breather.

The capital side got off to a swift start, gaining the lead in the seventh minute itself as Bhaaranyu Bansal produced a beautiful, left-footed volley into the bottom corner. Ashish Shaw (65’) capitalised on a miscued clearance to head it in from close range, doubling his side’s lead.

Tamil Nadu remained fifth in Group B with a solitary point from its two matches so far. In another match, Odisha bounced back from its initial defeat against Delhi to beat Goa 2-0.

The teams were locked at half-time.

Odisha pulled up its socks after resumption, Rahul Mukhi (60’), who was played through behind the Goa defence, entered the box and laced a low shot into the bottom corner to put Odisha in the lead.

Put in charge of a close-range free-kick, Kartik Hantal (64’) accurately placed the ball in the top corner, giving his side a two-goal cushion.

With two 0-2 defeats from two matches, Goa remains the only team in Group B to have not scored a single point thus far.

Kerala beat Meghalaya 1-0 in the last match of the day courtesy of a 37th-minute strike from Muhammad Ajsal

– Team Sportstar

GOLF

Strong start for Amandeep and Avani in LET Q-School

Indian stars Amandeep Drall and Avani Prashanth were placed tied 13th after carding 3-under 70 in the first round of the Final Qualifier of Lalla Aicha Q-School here on Tuesday.

Amandeep played on the Al Maaden Golf course, while Avani played at the Royal Golf Marrakech. The Indian duo is five shots behind the leader Ecuador’s Daniela Darquea 65 (-7).

Darquea began her day from the 10th tee and started with a birdie before making further birdies on 14 and 17.

Among other Indians, the 2023 Hero OOM winner in India, Sneha Singh (72) and Vani Kapoor (72) were tied 56th, the 2024 Hero OOM winner HItaashee Bakshi (76) was T-108, and Vidhatri Urs (77) was T-123.

A field of 154 players from 39 nations are competing in the Final Stage. The players will play 90 holes of stroke play competition with a cut after 72 holes.

The top 65 and ties progress to the final day for 18 holes. For the first four rounds, competitors will alternate between Royal Golf Marrakech and Al Maaden Golf Marrakech. The fifth round will be played at Al Maaden Golf Marrakech.

The players finishing 1-20 (and ties) get Category 12 status, while those between 21 and 50 get Category 16 status. The remaining players will be Category 19.

-PTI

Ajeetesh Sandhu shares lead in Asian Tour Q-School

Fresh from his win on the domestic Tour in India, Ajeetesh Sandhu took a big step to get back his playing rights on the Asian Tour, as he grabbed a share of lead with Korea’s Kyungnam Kang in the Final Stage of Qualifying School here on Tuesday.

He shot 8-under 63 on the A and B nines at Lake View Resort and Golf Club, ahead of Filipino Sean Ramos, who returned a 64.

Karandeep Kochhar (67) on A and B nine was T-12, Pukhraj Sing Gill (68) on C and D course was T-27, Aryan Roopa Anand (69) was T-44 on C and D course, and Aman Raj (70) was T-64 on C and D course.

Other Indians in the field are Rashid Khan (71) at T-87, Ashish Kabthiyal (72) at T-123, S Chikkarangappa, Khalin Joshi and Arjun Sharma with 73 each are T-137th, Honey Baisoya (74) at T-165, Syed Saqib Ahmed (75) at T-179 and Dhruv Sheoran (78) at T-199.

Sandhu comes into the week having won the Vishwa Samudra Open 2024 presented by Kapil Dev last week on India’s professional circuit – his fifth win on that Tour.

He had a disappointing year finishing 82nd on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, with the top 65 retaining playing rights.

The 38-year-old looks like he is on a mission to bounce back from that this week. He made a brilliant start, with birdies on the first three and then later three in a row from seven to go out in six-under. He dropped his only shot of the day on 10 but collected three more birdies later.

Argentina’s Miguel Carballo, Korean Doyeob Mun, Niklas Regner from Austria, Flint Bekkers from the United States and Australian Jack Thompson, are next best following 65s.

Regner, who has spent the last three years on Europe’s Challenge Tour, was the only one to record his 65 on the C & D nines, and are behind the top three — Sandhu, Kang and Ramos.

Four more rounds remain before the top 35 win their tour cards, with a cut made after Wednesday’s round and also after the fourth round on Friday.

-PTI

CYCLING

Sports Minister Mandaviya joins Fit India movement through cycling

The Union Sports Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, strengthened the nationwide fitness movement with the ‘Fit India cycling drive’ at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium here on Tuesday.

About 500 cycling enthusiasts joined the minister along with the Minister of State for Sports, Raksha Khadse, Member of Parliament Tejasvi Surya, athletes Simran Sharma, Nitu Ghanghas and Preeti Pawar.

The minister and the team cycled from National Stadium to the Raisina Hills and back, on a three-kilometre stretch in the early hours of Tuesday, when the fog was yet to clear the atmosphere.

“Cycling gives a big boost to the environment. It is the solution to pollution. It contributes to sustainability. We will have doctors, journalists, teachers, corporate professionals and youth joining us for an hour-long of cycling every Sunday, not only in Delhi, but all across the country,” the Sports Minister announced.

The launch was spread across 1000 locations across the country on Tuesday, as part of the Fit India Movement, and done in collaboration with the Cycling Federation of India (CFI), My Bharat, and various other organisations, apart from the many centres of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Khelo India.

Some of the prominent athletes, Sumit Antil, Navdeep, Deepthi Jeevanji, the former Indian women’s hockey captain Rani Rampal, and Tajinder Singh Toor, joined from Rohtak, Gandhinagar, Bengaluru etc.

“This is a major way for youth and old to stay fit and contribute to the environment”, said world champion Nitu Ghanghas.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

SQUASH

Anahat Singh among top Indian players to compete in 79th Western India Slam Squash C’ship

Top ranked female player in India and Asian Games bronze medallist Anahat Singh will be among the competitors in the 79th Western India Slam Squash Championship which got underway here on Tuesday.

The opening day’s action witnessed boys and girls in junior categories competing in the qualification round, with the tournament being played at the Cricket Club of India.

The competition will feature more than 725 players from 12 countries with an overall prize money of USD 9000 for both men and women.

Apart from Anahat, the other elite players in the competition are Amneesh Chandran (PSA rank 103), who is seeded No 2, and Veer Chotrani (India rank No 4, WR No 85), who is also the winner of five PSA Tour Titles and is the country’s youngest seeded player.

Czech Republic’s Viktor Byrtus (PSA rank 78), India’s Akansha Salunkhe who is ranked No 2 in the country, and Egypt’s Nour Khafagy (PSA rank No 85) are also among the elite players.

“The competitors range from under-11 juniors to veterans over 65, with categories for men, women, and professional coaches,” the organisers informed.

-PTI