August 4, Indian sports news wrap: India loses to Argentina in U-14 World Junior playoffs

Here are all the major developments in Indian sports from August 3, 2022.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: The Indian U-14 girls side struggled against Argentina in the soft clay and lost 2-1. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

TENNIS

India loses to Argentina in World Junior under-14 Tennis Finals 9-16 playoff

The Indian team had a tough time coping with the slow clay as the girls got beaten 2-1 by Argentina in the positional match of the World Junior under-14 Tennis Finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic on Thursday.

Argentina won the two singles matches, dropping seven games in all, and then conceded the doubles.

India had earlier lost 1-2 to Egypt in its last league match and had finished fourth in group C.

Captain of the team Namita Bal felt that India could have had a different result against Egypt, had Sai Janvi been able to win the first set against Farah Hassan Asaad. Sai had lost in three sets, and the Indian pair went on to win the doubles.

‘’Playing on slow red clay has taught our girls how much they still have to learn in terms of setting up points to win them, keeping patience and maintaining focus for long points and matches’’, said Namita.

India will next play the loser of the match between Australia and Latvia. It may be recalled that Australia had won the tournament when the Asia-Oceania event was held earlier this season at the DLTA.

The results:

Position 9-16: Argentina bt India 2-1 (Lara Quaglia bt Sohini Mohanty 7-5, 6-1; Luna Cinalli bt Aishwarya Jadhav 6-1, 6-0; Sol Larraya Gudi & Lara lost to Aishwarya & Sohini w.o.)

Group-C: Egypt bt India 2-1 (Farah Hassan Asaad bt Sai Janvi 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; Judy Mohammed Tawila bt Aishwarya Jadhav 6-2, 6-1; Judy & Rana Yasser lost to Aishwarya & Sohini Mohanty 3-6, 2-6)

Kamesh Srinivasan

Paavani Paathak enters finals of singles and doubles in AITA tournament

Paavani Paathak beat Prathiba Narayan 7-6(4), 6-3 to set up a title clash with Sahira Singh in the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Friday.

Paavani also made the doubles final with Chandana Potugari, and the duo will challenge top seeds Prathiba and Pragathi Narayan.

The results (semifinals):

Singles: Paavani Paathak bt Prathiba Narayan 7-6(4), 6-3; Sahira Singh bt Chandana Potugari 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.

Doubles: Prathiba Narayan & Pragathi Narayan bt Shefali Arora & Harivarshine M 6-3, 6-3; Paavani Paathak & Chandana Potugari bt Gurleen Singh & Anahat Pannu 6-3, 6-3.

Kamesh Srinivasan

Aakash Kushwaha and Neeru tops shotgun trials

Aakash Kushwaha and Neeru topped the men’s and women’s trap in the fifth National shotgun selection trials in Jaipur on Thursday.

Aakash pipped Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran 33-32 for the first place. Olympian Kynan Chenai who had topped qualification with 121 out of 125, finsihed third.

Neeru beat Anushka Singh Bhati 29-24, while qualification topper Kirti Gupta (115) finished fourth behind Preeti Rajak.

Seasoned shooters Shreyasi Singh and Rajeshwari Kumari lost the shoot-off for the last berth in the semfiinals to Pragati Dubey after the three tied on 106.

Aryavansh Tyagi and Suhanya Singh topped the junior events. The skeet competition will start after a day of training on Friday.

The results:

Trap

Men: 1. Aakash Kushwaha 33 (20) 118; 2. Lakshay Sheoran 32 (22) 120; 3. Kynan Chenai 21 (23) 121; 4. Shardul Vihan 11 (21) 117.

Juniors: 1. Aryavansh Tyagi 32 (20) 111; 2. Bakhtyar Uddin Malek 31 (23) 114; 3. Arav Singh Dagar 21 (22) 114; 4. Aryan Ishwar Singh 11 (19) 110.

Women: 1. Neeru 29 (25) 113; 2. Anushka Singh Bhati 24 (23) 107; 3. Preeti Rajak 16 (19) 112; 4. Kirti Gupta 10 (21) 115.

Juniors: 1. Suhanya Singh 24 (22) 107; 2. Yeshaya Contractor 19 (19) 94; 3. Bhavya Tripathi 14 (20) 103; 4. Manvi Soni 8 (20) 102.

Kamesh Srinivasan