SQUASH
Senthilkumar, Akanksha in quarters in overseas PSA events
Top-seeded Indian Velavan Senthilkumar eased past Frenchman Matteo Carrouget in straight games to move into the quarterfinals of the Batch Open squash, a USD 12,000 PSA Challenger Tour event in Paris.
National champion Senthilkumar, ranked 58 in the world, beat Carrouget 11-4, 11-6, 11-7 in 29 minutes in the second round on Thursday after receiving a bye in the opening round, and will meet fifth seed Jakub Solnicky of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.
Elsewhere, National Games women’s champion Akanksha Salunkhe advanced to the quarterfinals of the Expression St James Open, a USD 20,000 PSA Challenger Tour event in Springfield, US.
Fourth seed Salunkhe, ranked 70 in the world, beat Winifer Bonilla of Guatemala 11-8, 11-2, 11-9 in 25 minutes in the second round following a bye in the first, and will take on fifth seed Alina Bushma of Ukraine next.
- Team Sportstar
TENNIS
National wheelchair championship: Veeraswamy beats Subramanian to enter finals
Second seed Shekar Veeraswamy fought his way past third seed Balachandar Subramanian 3-6, 6-1, [10-7] to set up a title clash against top seed Karthik Karunakaran in the second National wheelchair tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Friday.
In the women’s final, top seed KP Shilpa will play second Prathima Narayan Rao in the final.
The results (semifinals)
-Team Sportstar
Arjun and Jeevan storm into semifinals
Top seeds Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Alex Lawson 6-3, 7-5 in the doubles quarterfinals of the $82,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Savannah, USA.
In the $40,000 ITF women’s event in Wuning, China, Rutuja Bhosale and Paige Hourigan recovered from an indifferent start to beat Ekaterina Shaliova and Wang Jiaqi 0-6, 6-2, [10-3] in the doubles semifinals.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Diksha cards 70 and enters top 20 at South African Women’s Open
India’s Diksha Dagar put together a solid 2-under 70 in tough conditions and entered the top 20 at the Investec South African Women’s Open in Cape Town, South Africa, on Friday.
The southpaw is now 1-under for two rounds and tied 18th, up from overnight tied 53rd. A few players are still out on the course and Diksha’s position could change slightly at the par-72 Erinvale Country & Golf Estate.
Diksha, who won the Czech Ladies Open and finished tied 3rd in Amundi German Masters and Hero Women’s Indian Open, is also a former champion at Women’s South African Open, which she won in 2019 for her maiden victory on the Ladies European Tour.
As Diksha moved into top 20, the lead had changed with England’s Eleanor Givens (69 and 4-under through 13 holes) and Belgium’s Manon de Roey (69 and 4-under 15 in second) were both at 7-under.
They were followed by Sweden’s Lisa Petterson (68-71) and Annabell Fuller, who had two more holes to play, and overnight leader, Rosie Casals, who had two more holes to play. They were all at 5-under.
As many as 10 players including Diksha were at 1-under.
Diksha, who shot 73 on the first day, began the second day with a bogey but quickly got back the shot on the par-5 third. She followed up that with six pars and turned in even for the day.
On the back nine, Diksha birdied 10th, but dropped a shot on 11th. She repeated that sequence on 13th which she birdied but bogeyed 14th to stay at even for the day. Then came birdies on the 15th and 16th followed by pars on the last two for a card of 70.
Diksha picked three of her five birdies on the Par-5s.
On a day when scoring was tougher than the first day, Diksha was the only Indian to be sure of making the cut.
Vani Kapoor, who had played only nine holes in the second round so far, was 6-over and needed at least one more birdie to get inside the cut line, which seemed likely to fall at 5-over.
Vani, who was 3-over 75 for the first day, was 3-over for her first nine holes to go to 6-over.
Ridhima Dilawari (74-77) was 7-over and Tvesa Malik (76-76), who had two double bogeys in the second round, ended at 8-over and will miss the cut.
This is the final event on the Sunshine Ladies Tour and the Women’s South African Open is also co-sanctioned with the Ladies European Tour.
-PTI
CRICKET
Maa Saroda XI clinch NCC Women’s T20
Maa Saroda Club has emerged champions of the NCC Women’s T20 Budding Challenger Cup, defeating Rani Rashmoni Club by nine wickets in a lopsided final clash in Howrah.
Opting to bat on a sultry Thursday evening, Rani Rashmoni Club was skittled out for 57 with Debarati Guha returning with splendid figures of 4/6 from her four overs.
In reply, Maa Saroda Club won in 11.2 overs with Shamaita Adhikari playing the sheet-anchor role in a 38-ball 37 not out and was adjudged player-of-the-match.
Organised in memory of late Chandralekha Dalmiya, the NCC Budding Women’s T20 Challenger Cup 2024 commenced on March 12 with eight teams from all over Bengal.
The league stage of the tournament was played at the Rajasthan Club in Kolkata and the final was staged at the Gulmahor Ground here.
- PTI
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