TENNIS
AITA women’s: Vidhi Jani moves to quarterfinal
Vidhi Jani escaped to a lucky win as fifth seed Anjali Rathi retired with a leg injury while leading 5-1 in the decider in the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Tuesday. Vidhi moved into the quarterfinals with a score of 6-3, 4-6, and 1-5.
In the quarterfinals, Vidhi will face second seed Riya Uboveja who dropped only three games in all in the first two rounds.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Wheelchair National Championship in Indore
The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has announced the conduct of the Wheelchair tennis national championship in Indore from March 27 to 31.
The men’s event will carry a prize purse of Rs.2.5 lakh, and the women’s event will have Rs.100,000 prize.
“We are happy to host the first ever national championship for wheelchair tennis”, said the secretary general of AITA, Anil Dhupar, in a release on Tuesday.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF men’s: Prajwal Dev in doubles quarterfinals
SD Prajwal Dev in partnership with Nathan Seateun of France made the doubles quarterfinals by beating Aleey Golovachev and Saveliy Ivanov 6-3, 6-3 in the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Tuesday.
SHOOTING
National Rifle Association of India announces the Indian shotgun teams for World Cups
The top three shooters, tabulated based on the scores from the National Championship and two trials, have been selected to compete in the shotgun World Cups in Doha and Cairo.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), has selected the next best set of shooters for the World Cup to be staged in Larnaca, Cyprus, from March 25 to April 3.
With the World Cups not offering any Olympic quota places in the new format in the run-up to the Paris Olympics, the national federation has decided to keep a bunch of shooters ready, as part of the national squad, with international exposure.
Prithviraj Tondaiman, Shreyasi Singh, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Ganemat Sekhon will be the leading shooters in trap and skeet to compete in the two World Cups.
The Doha World Cup is scheduled to be held from March 4 to 13. The World Cup in Cairo will be from April 25 to May 3.
Lakshay Sheoran, Manisha Keer, Angadvir Singh Bajwa and Areeba Khan will be the leading shooters to be competing in the World Cup in Larnaca, Cyprus, to be staged from March 25 to April 3.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
VOLLEYBALL
Karnataka State Football Association announce revival of Stafford Challenge Cup
The Karnataka State Football Association, on Tuesday, announced the revival of the Stafford Challenge Cup after a gap of 30 years.
With the All India Football Federation’s new management keen on reviving heritage tournaments, the Stafford Cup, which was first held in 1938 and was one of India’s most famous competitions, will get a new lease of life.
The 16-team invitational event will be held at the Bangalore Football Stadium from February 23. The winner will receive a cash prize of ₹ 2.5 lahks, the runner-up ₹1.5 lakh and the two semifinalists ₹50,000 each.
The original trophy, a silver cup presented by Staffordshire Regiment, was lost in 1984 when a club from Iraq won the title and took it back home where it is believed to have been destroyed in the armed conflict between Iran and Iraq.
-N. Sudarshan
Prime Volleyball League team Chennai Blitz unveils jersey and announces captain
Prime Volleyball League side Chennai Blitz unveiled its jersey and announced Naveen Raja Jacob as its captain for the upcoming season in Chennai on Tuesday.
“The most important is the team, beside any names. I think we are like a family where everybody is important, but nobody is more important than each other. This is the idea. So far, we’ve worked for the family-like unity and I believe that we are doing a good job about this,” head coach Ruben Adrian Wolochin said on the sidelines of the jersey unveiling.
Wolochin also added that the upcoming season will be intense and expressed the importance of his players being fit and mindset-ready to play anytime.
Team owners Vikrant and Hanimi Reddy, CEO Kiran Kumar, and CTO Thulasi Reddy were also present, along with the team.
-S. Prasanna Venkatesan
