TENNIS
Karthik Karunakaran reaches reaches singles and doubles final
Top seed Karthik Karunakaran set up a title clash against second seed Shekar Veeraswamy in the Rs. 200,000 AITA wheelchair tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Saturday.
Karthik also made the doubles final with Mariappan Durai. The duo will play fourth seeds Indra Pandey and B Subramanian.
THE RESULTS (SEMIFINALS)
- Kamesh Srinivasan
MOTORSPORT
Amittrajit Ghosh stands tall on day one of Rally of Coimbatore
Amiitrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) was a bit worried going into the final loop as there was a minor power glitch. But the aggressive young man kept his cool to emerge the day’s leader in the Rally of Coimbatore, the third round of the FMSCI Blueband Sports Indian National Rally Championship for four wheelers, here on Saturday.
Three-time APRC champion Gaurav Gill (Aniruddha Rangnekar), set the tone at the start, winning the first two stages with ease but, as luck would have it, dropped out two kilometres into the third stage.
On the other hand, championship leader Aroor Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal) had a rather quiet first loop and was confident of doing one better in the second, which Karna Kadur (Nikhil Pai) finished on top.
It was only a few seconds that split the top three going into the final loop. It has never been this close all these years and, it turned out to be the most exciting stage with Ghosh coming out trumps.
“I think we all had issues with the car. It’s a hard rally and the stages were tight and demanding. Also, I had some issues with the power in the first two stages. In fact, we were slower than even the INRC2 cars and lost a ton of time there,” said Ghosh, who was pleased to finish the day one as topper.
However, the drivers are wary of the Kethanur terrain on Sunday. With 70 cars running, they expect it to be scary.
“There are lots of bedrocks that have come out and it’s going to be tough on the cars,” said Ghosh, who wants to tread a cautious path.
- Rayan Rozario
THE RESULTS (PROVISIONAL)
GOLF
Jeev makes cut at Senior Open, as Atwal and Randhawa miss out
India’s Jeev Milkha Singh survived some strong winds that kept switching directions to recover on the back nine of the challenging Royal Porthcawl Golf Club to make his first cut at the Senior Open Championships.
Jeev, who missed the cut last year at Gleneagles, was fourth after the first round, but slipped to T-48 after a round of 6-over 77.
Jeev gave away four bogeys and a double on the front nine and was in danger of missing cut.
He recovered well with two birdies on Par-3 15th and the Par-5 18th, which he had birdied on the first day also.
At 4-over he was down to T-48, but with the leader Steven Alker (71-68) at 4-under, the leaderboard was tight and Jeev could make a move on the weekend.
“It was brutal out there,. Though there was no rain, the wind made it really tough,” said Jeev, who won the 2012 Scottish Open in tough conditions a decade ago.
Things did not pan out well for the other two Indians in fray, Arjun Atwal and Jyoti Randhawa, who were making their Open debuts.
Atwal (78-76) and Jyoti, who came through the qualifiers, shot rounds of 76-78. Both missed the cut.
- PTI
RACKETLON
Vikram, Chaufla, Nandal to shoulder India’s challenge at Racketlon World Championship
India has named a 16-member squad for the Racketlon World Championship beginning in Rotterdam on August 2.
Adarsh Vikram will captain India in the ‘World Cup’, which is the premier category in the competition.
Former badminton player Vikramaditya Chaufla and Siddharth Nandal, who won silver medals in the individual category in the last edition in Austria, are also part of the World Cup squad. The Indian team had won gold in the Nations Cup at the World Championship last year.
Racketlon is a combination sport in which the competitors are required to play four racket sports: table tennis, badminton, tennis and squash.
Prashant Sen, Adit Patel, Nikhil Mansukhani, Varun Motasha and Krishna B Kotak will be seen in the C category ‘Challenge Cup’. K A Aadith and K A Aadirai form the under-18 team.
K K Cheema, who is the president of Racketlon India Sports Association, will be the team manager.
- PTI
ATHLETICS
Soniya, Jisna take gold and silver in Sri Lankan Nationals
Soniya Baishya won the women’s 400m, clocking 53.46s, in the Sri Lankan National athletics championships in Colombo on Saturday.
Jisna Mathew finished second in a season-best 53.75s while M.R. Poovamma, who was returning to competition after more than a year after failing an in-competition dope test in Patiala in February 2021, was seventh in 56.20s. She had clocked a better 55.84 in Friday’s heats.
THE RESULTS (INDIAN PERFORMANCES ONLY)
- Stan Rayan
TENNIS
Ankita Raina in partnership with Yue Yuan of China was beaten 6-0, 6-7(6), [10-6} by Heather Watson and Yanina Wickmayer in the doubles semifinals of the $259,303 WTA tennis tournament in Warsaw, Poland.
The Indo-Chinese pair collected 110 WTA points and $4.020. In the $40,000 Challenger in Astana, Kazakhstan, SD Prajwal Dev and Niki Poonacha won the doubles title by beating the top seeds Toshihide Matsui and Kaito Uesugi 6-3, 7-6(4).
The champion team won 50 ATP points and $2,130.
The results:
$259,303 WTA, Warsaw, Poland: Doubles (semifinals): Heather Watson (GBR) & Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) bt Ankita Raina & Yue Yuan (Chn) 6-0, 6-7(6), [10-6].
$40,000 Challenger, Astana, Kazakhstan: Doubles (final): SD Prajwal Dev & Niki Poonacha bt Toshihide Matsui & Kaito Uesugi (Jpn) 6-3, 7-6(4).
$25,000 ITF men, Brazzaville, Congo: Doubles (semifinals): Rishab Agarwal & Ishaque Eqbal bt Atharva Sharma & Tushar Sharma 6-2, 6-3.
$100,000 ITF women, Figueira Da Foz, Portugal: Doubles (semifinals): Eudice Chong (Hkg) & Arianne Hartono (Ned) bt Rutuja Bhosale & Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) 6-3, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia: Singles (semifinals): Angella Okutoyi (Ken) bt Zeel Desai 6-1, 7-6(5).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
BADMINTON
Kerala State Senior Championships: Abhishek jolts top seed Ajay, joins defending champion Jacob in semifinals
That loss hurt. S. Abhishek had lost a close under-19 final against Aman Suresh on Friday night and the Ernakulam youngster was determined to make amends in the men’s singles at the Kerala State senior badminton championships here on Saturday.
The unseeded Abhishek shocked the top-seeded Ajay Satish Kumar in a pre-quarterfinal thriller in the morning and then brushed aside his district-mate Sanjay S. Nair and moved to the men’s semifinal at the CSN Trust courts.
Meanwhile, defending champion Jacob Thomas overcame a second-game surge from Palakkad’s Athul John Mathew, a great retriever, before entering the last-four stage.
After winning the opener, Jacob and Athul were level for a major part of the next game. The tall Jacob, from Pathanamthitta, gained a three-point lead and moved to 18-15 but he was forced to sweat till the end as Athul came very close at 19-20. And when Athul put a drop into the net, Jacob heaved a sigh of relief.
The women’s singles ran on the expected lines with the top two seeds Andrea Sarah Kurien and Farza Nazrin, who had played the under-19 final on Friday, cruising into the semifinals
The results (singles):
Men’s quarterfinals: S. Abhishek (Ekm) bt Sanjay Nair (Ekm) 21-14, 21-12; S. Akshit (Alp) bt S.D. Aadithyan (Tvm) 21-17, 21-16; K. Govind (Koz) bt Arjun Shine (Tvm) 21-18, 21-14; Jacob Thomas (Pta) bt Athul John Mathew (Pkd) 21-14, 21-19.
Pre-quarterfinals: S. Abhishek bt Ajay Satish Kumar Nair 21-19, 21-15.
Women’s quarterfinals: Andrea Sarah Kurien (Ekm) bt Aadhya Shine (Tsr) ; C.H. Keerthika (Knr) bt Nayana S. Oasis (Koz) 21-19, 21-8; Farza Nazrin (Tvm) bt S. Megha (Alp) 21-16, 21-14; Drisya Vijesh (Ekm) bt B.M. Neerja (Tvm) 21-16, 21-17.
Friday’s late matches:
Under-19 boys doubles final: S. Akshit & Joseph Dilraj bt S. Athul Krishna and Joshual Antony 21-18, 21-16.
Under-19 girls doubles final: C.H. Keerthika & Nayana S. Oasis bt Meenakshi Vinu & Nanda Ghosh 16-21, 21-8, 21-11.
-Stan Rayan
Comments
SHARE