Indian sports news wrap, January 17

Here are all the major developments in Indian sports on January 17, 2023.

FILE PHOTO: Indian tennis player Rutuja Bhosale. | Photo Credit: PRASHANT NAKWE

TENNIS

W40 Bhopal: Rutuja makes winning start in both singles and doubles

Rutuja Bhosale had a good day, winning her singles and doubles matches in the $40,000 ITF women’s tournament at the Arera Club on Tuesday.

Rutuja eased past wild card entrant Pehal Kharadkar for the loss of one game to enter the pre-quarterfinals.

Later, she joined Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan to beat the third seeds Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-4 to enter the doubles quarterfinals.

RESULTS

Singles (first round): Eri Shimizu (Jpn) bt Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-3, 6-1; Rutuja Bhosale bt Pehal Kharadkar 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ekaterina Makarova & Ekaterina Reyngold (Rus) bt Eri Shimizu (Jpn) & Emily Welker (Ger) 6-3, 6-2; Nigina Abduraimova (Uzb) & Rutuja Bhosale bt Ankita Raina & Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-4; En Shuo Liang (Tpe) & Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) bt Sharmada Balu & Smriti Bhasin 7-6(13), 6-2; Soha Sadiq & Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Shreya Tatavarthy & Saumya Vig 6-2, 7-6(5); Erina Hayashi & Saki Imamura (Jpn) bt Zhibek Kulambayeva (Kaz) & Ekaterina Yashina (Rus) 6-0, 6-2; Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) & Anastasia Sukhotina (Rus) bt Sravya Shivani & Vasanti Shinde 6-1, 7-5; Irina Khromacheva & Anastasia Tikhonova (Rus) bt Mana Kawamura & Funa Kozaki (Jpn) 6-2, 6-1.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

SHOOTING

National shotgun selection trials: Zoravar leads after four rounds of trap

Zoravar Singh Sandhu led with 97 after four rounds of trap in the second National shotgun selection trials at the New Moti Bagh Gun Club on Tuesday.

After two perfect rounds on the first day, Zoravar slipped with rounds of 24 and 23 on the second day, but was still two points ahead of Prithviraj Tondaiman, and three points ahead of Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran.

Anirudh Singh, Rayyan Rizvi and Olympic quota winner Bhowneesh mendiratta were on 93, while Shardul Vihan (92), Kynan Chenai (91) and Manavjit Singh Sandhu (90), Vivaan Kapoor (89) were breathing down their neck.

One more round on Wednesday will be followed by the second stage of competition between the top eight.

In women’s trap, Rajeshwari Kumar and Preeti Rajak led with 87, one point ahead of Kirti Gupta.

Shreyasi Singh (85), Sabeera Haris, Pragati Dubey (84) followed them, while national champion KIran found herself in the tenth place with 80.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CHESS

Arjun, Praggnanandhha, Gukesh all play out draws

Arjun Erigaisi, R. Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh were engaged in drawn encounters in the third round of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee, in the Netherlands, on Monday.

The deadlocks took the scores of Arjun and Praggnanandhaa to 1.5 points while helping Gukesh open his tally.

In the Challengers’ section, B. Adhiban drew but R. Vaishali suffered her second loss in a row.

The results (third round):

Masters: Arjun Erigaisi (1.5) drew with Levon Aronian (USA, 1.5); R. Praggnanandhaa (1.5) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1); D. Gukesh (0.5) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 2); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2) drew with Ding Liren (Chn, 2); Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 1.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 2); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2) bt Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 1); Richard Rapport (Rom, 1) drew with Wesley So (USA, 1.5).

Challengers: Alexander Donchenko (Ger, 2) drew with B. Adhiban (1.5); Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 2) bt R. Vaishali (0.5); Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 1.5) lost to Velimir Ivic (Ser, 2); Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 2) drew with Luis Supi (Bra, 1.5); Max Warmerdam (Ned, 2) drew with Eline Roebers (Ned, 1.5); Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 0.5) lost to Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur, 2); Thomas Beerdsen (Ned, 1.5) bt Jergus Pechac (Slo, 0.5).