Indian sports wrap, April 25: Inaugural season of Gujarat Super League to start in May

Here are all the major updates, scores, and results of Indians in the world of sports on Thursday, April 25.

Representative Photo: Inaugural season of Gujarat Super League to start in May. | Photo Credit: AFP

FOOTBALL

Inaugural season of six-team Gujarat Super League to kick off on May 1

Six teams will be vying for the title in the inaugural edition of the Gujarat Super League (GSL), which will be held in a single round-robin format from May 1-12, with the top two teams at the end of the league stage contesting the final.

The six franchises are – Ahmedabad Avengers, Gandhinagar Giants, Karnavati Knights, Saurashtra Spartans, Surat Strikers, Vadodara Warriors.

All matches will be streamed live on FIFA+ and the Gujarat State Football Association YouTube Channel.

After the Santosh Trophy Final Round, the GSL will become the second Indian football tournament to be streamed globally on FIFA+.

The matches will be held at the EKA Arena, TransStadia.

-PTI

TENNIS

National wheelchair tennis championship: Shekar beats Mariappan to book semifinal spot

Second seed Shekar Veeraswamy beat fifth seed Mariappan Durai 9-4 to set up a semifinal against third seed Balachandar Subramanian in the second National wheelchair tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

The other semifinal will be between top seed Kartik Karunakaran and BM Kundaragi.

The results (quarterfinals):

Men: Kartik Karunakaran bt M Gabriel 9-0; BM Kundaragi bt Anil Almedia 9-7; Balachandar Subramanian bt Abdul Gafar 9-0; Shekar Veeraswamy bt Mariappan Durai 9-4.

Women: K Shilpa bt Mubeena Kolkar 9-3; A Ruthrajeswari bt Divya Jyoti 9-1

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Arjun-Jeevan duo reaches quarterfinals

Top seeds Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Thomas Fancutt and Hunter Reese 6-2, 7-5 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $82,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Savannah, USA.

In the $100,000 ITF women’s event in Tokyo, Japan, Prarthana Thombare and Arianne Hartono were beaten in the doubles quarterfinals.

The results:

€74,825 Challenger, Rome, Italy

Doubles (quarterfinals): Luke Johnson (GBR) & Skander Mansouri (Tun) bt Sriram Balaji & Andre Begemann (Ger) 7-6(6), 6-7(6), [10-3].

$82,000 Challenger, Savannah, USA

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Arjun Kadhe & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Thomas Fancutt (Aus) & Hunter Reese (USA) 6-2, 7-5; Tristan Boyer & Tennyson Whiting (USA) bt Niki Poonacha & Joshua Paris (GBR) 6-2, 6-4; Simon Freund (Swe) & Johannes Ingildsen (Den) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Hans Verdugo (Mex) 6-1, 7-6(2).

$25,000 ITF men, Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Pietro Marino & Fausto Tabacco (Ita) bt Sathi Reddy Chirala & Max Houkes (Ned) 6-2, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia

Singles (first round): Pablo Trochu (Fra) bt Rohan Mehra 6-1, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Shymkent, Kazakhstan

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Maxim Shin (Uzb) bt Aryan Shah 1-6, 6-1, 6-2; Nicola Rispoli (Ita) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-1, 7-5; Dev Javia bt Matic Kriznik (Slo) 6-1, 6-2; Federico Campana (Ita) bt Karan Singh 6-4, 7-5.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Chirag Duhan & Karan Singh bt Erik Arutiunian (Blr) & Ruslan Kastsiukevich 4-6, 7-6(6), [12-10]; SD Prajwal Dev & Sai Karteek Reddy bt Parth Aggarwal & Credit Chaiyarin (Tha) 6-2, 6-3.

$100,000 ITF women, Tokyo, Japan

Doubles (quarterfinals): Talia Gibson & Maddison Inglis (Aus) bt Arianne Hartono (Ned) & Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-4.

$60,000 ITF women, Charlottesville, USA

Singles (first round): Kayla Day (USA) bt Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-2, 6-0.

$40,000 ITF women, Lopota, Georgia

Doubles (semifinals): Nagi Hanatani (Jpn) & Urszula Radwanska (Pol) bt Ekaterina Gorgodze (Geo) & Ankita Raina 6-7(1), 6-4, [10-8].

$40,000 ITF women, Wuning, China

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Wang Qiang (Chn) bt Rutuja Bhosale 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Rutuja Bhosale & Paige Hourigan (Nzl) bt Mana Ayukawa (Jpn) & Wang Meiling (Chn) 7-6(4), 6-7(13), [11-9].

$15,000 ITF women, Shymkent, Kazakhstan

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Alisa Kummel bt Soha Sadiq 6-1, 6-3; Haine Ogata (Jpn) bt Smriti Bhasin 6-2, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia

Singles (Lee Gyeong Seo (Kor) bt Vaishnavi Adkar 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Vaishnavi Adkar & Lamis Aziz (Egy) bt Hiromi Abe & Natsuho Arakawa (Jpn) 7-6(6), 6-1.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Diksha makes a battling 73 at South African Women’s Open

Diksha Dagar waged a gritty battle to finish the opening day with a hard-fought 1-over 73 at the South African Women’s Open here on Thursday.

Dagar is now tied 53rd after Round 1.

Diksha has been in fine form after a strong 2023 season, during which she had a win in Czech Republic and two Top-3 finishes in Amundi German Masters and Hero Women’s Indian Open.

This season she already has three Top-10 finishes.

In the opening round she had four birdies and five bogeys.

It was a constant battle and she was never better than 1-under but was never worse than 10-over either, which is where she finished.

On the back nine, twice she had back-to-back bogeys and once she had back-to-back birdies.

Tvesa Malik was also one-over with one more hole to play. At present, she is also tied-53rd.

Ridhima Dilawari with three birdies and five bogeys was 2-over and on tied-67th place while Vani Kapoor had an interesting round with an eagle on par-4 fifth hole followed by a double bogey on Par-4 sixth.

She had three other bogeys in her 75 and was tied 81 needing a solid second round to make the cut

- PTI.

PICKLEBALL

PPA Tour, Major League Pickleball to debut in India next year

The Pro Tour of Pickleball (PPA) and Major League Pickleball (MLP) are set to debut in India next year. The inaugural Indian Open worth 1500 PPA ranking points will take place next year and feature pro players from around the world.

The United Pickleball Association and Global Sports have teamed up to promote the sport in the country through the PPA Tour and MLP.

Played both indoors and outdoors, pickleball is short-handed paddle sport in which two players for singles and four players for doubles hit a ball over a 34-inch net until one side is unable to return or makes an error.

It will start with an exhibition PPA Tour India Monsoon Pickleball Championships in Mumbai in August, which will feature 20 pro players.

The Indian Open 2025, also the debut PPA Tour event in Asia, will be held in February. The MLP will be a week-long franchise-based competition for a 12-team season in pipeline from June 2025.

“The PPA Tour India and MLP India will create a pathway for players to compete on pickleball’s biggest stage and reach the top of the sport,” said Connor Pardoe, founder and CEO of the PPA Tour in a statement.

- PTI