Asian Indoor Games: Ankita, Vijay Sundar progress to quarters
Ankita Raina and Vijay Sundar Prashanth had authoritative wins over Wang Chao-Yi and Lo Yi-Jui respectively.
Published : Sep 21, 2017 20:42 IST
Ankita Raina and Vijay Sundar Prashanth joined Riya Bhatia and Sumit Nagal in the quarterfinals of the singles events in tennis in the Asian Indoor Games in Turkmenistan on Thursday.
Top seed Ankita Raina brushed aside a feeble challenge from Wang Chao-Yi of Chinese for the loss of one game. She will play seventh seed Beatrice Gumulya of Indonesia in the quarterfinals.
Ankita had a tough start against Katherine Ip of Hong Kong, and said that she was happy to play a good player early in the competition.
Third seed Vijay Sundar Prashanth was equally authoritative in entering the quarterfinals of the men’s event, and will be challenged by fifth seed Timur Khabibulin of Kazakhstan.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
Men: Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Lo Yi-Jui (Tpe) 6-1, 6-2. Women: Ankita Raina bt Wang Chao-Yi (Tpe) 6-0, 6-1.
Chess
K. Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly made a sedate start to India’s medal-hunt in chess in the Asian Indoor Games here. After two rounds were played on Thursday, third seed Sasikiran was on 1.5 points after drawing the second round with seasoned Vietnamese Dao Thein Hai. Fourth seed Ganguly drew both his games. Five more rounds remain. In the ladies section, Tania Sachdev won and drew her two games. Veteran S. Vijayalakshmi also started her campaign with an expected victory but went down to World champion and second seeded Chinese Tan Zhongyi. The results (involving Indians): Men (second round): Dao Thein Hai (Vie, 1.5) drew with K. Sasikiran (1.5); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (1) drew with Ahmad Al Khatib (Jor, 1).
(first round): Sasikiran bt Semetey Tologontegin (Kgz); Mikhail Markov (Kgz) drew with Ganguly. Women (second round): Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 2) bt S. Vijayalakshmi (1); Shamima Akter (Ban, 1.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (1.5).
(first round): Tania bt Diana Omurbekova (Kgz); Vijayalakshmi bt Chanida Taweesupmun (Tha).