TENNIS
$25,000 ITF women’s tennis: Zeel Desai beats Vaidehi Chaudhari in first round
Zeel Desai was in fine touch as she outplayed Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Federal Bank $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Tennis Project in Baliawas on Tuesday.
It was only the second victory for the 25-year-old Zeel, ranked 550, over Vaidehi in their seven meetings in the international circuit.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Zeel will be up against second seed Ankita Raina, who eased past wild card entrant Akanksha Nitture for the loss of three games.
Ankita had beaten Zeel in three sets in their only previous meeting in the international circuit in 2022, and it could be an interesting match even though the 226rh ranked Ankita is playing strong.
Vaishnavi Adkar, Anjali Rathi and Madhurima Sawant qualified for the main draw, beating Saumya Vig, Sowjanya Bavisetti and Snehal Mane respectively in the final qualifying round.
The results
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Yuki in doubles quarterfinals in Dubai
Yuki Bhambri in partnership with Robin Haase beat Alexander Bublik and Adrian Mannarino 6-7(6), 6-3, [10-8] in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $3,113,270 ATP tennis tournament in Dubai on Tuesday.
The Indo-Dutch team had qualified for the main draw by winning two matches, including one against Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ATHLETICS
Khelo India University Games: Vishnu breaks men’s long jump meet record
Madras University M. Vishnu was close to his personal best as he broke the men’s long jump meet record in the Khelo India University Games athletics, which concluded on Tuesday.
Vishnu had not competed in any national meets in the last two years, but he was in good form here, as he defeated the varsities national champion Krishna Sharma (7.47m) for the gold.
Meanwhile, Madras’ M. Gowtham equalled his own varsities National pole vault record and broke the meet record, and in the women’s 800m, Punjab’s Amandeep Kaur bettered the Games record.
The results (winners only):
-Stan Rayan
POLO
Rajnigandha Achiever wins over Cavalry-Royal EnfieldRadha Mohan Rajinder Mohan Gold Vase
Chris Mackenzie scored five goals in helping Rajnigandha Achievers to a 9-5 victory over 61st Cavalry-Royal Enfield in the first league match of the Radha Mohan Rajinder Mohan Gold Vase polo tournament at the Army Equestrian Centre, Delhi Cantonment, on Tuesday.
Five teams have been divided into two groups and will play in a league cum knock-out format, with the final scheduled at the Jaipur Polo ground on Sunday.
The results (league):
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
Anish Bhanwala on top in fourth National shooting selection trials at the Madhya Pradesh Academy
Anish Bhanwala was on top, both in final and qualification in rapid fire pistol in the fourth National shooting selection trials at the Madhya Pradesh Academy on Tuesday.
Anish shot 35 in the final to beat Gurmeet by four points in the final for the top spot. He had qualified with 588, three points ahead of Gurmeet. Olympian Gurpreet Singh shot 582 in qualification but finished sixth, behind KM Ranjith and Neeraj Kumar.
Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar shot 570 for the tenth place.
In men’s air rifle third trial, Arjun Babuta topped with 253.7, beating Kiran Jadhav by 1.8 point. The qualification topper Sri Karthik Sabari Raj (633.2) placed third.
It was a lively competition as the top eight shooters, except Kiran, shot better than 630. Gurjant Singh, srinjoy Datta, Dhanush Srikanth, Yash Vardhan and Vijay Singh were the others to make the final.
In women’s rifle 3-position event, Ayushi Podder topped with 459.7, two points ahead of Vidarsa Vinod. It was another high scoring contest as all the finalists shot 581 or more. Heena Gohei placed third ahead of Nischal, Manini Kaushik, Tejaswini Sawant, Bhakti Bhaskar and Vanshika Shahi.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SNOOKER
CCI Snooker Classic: Dhvaj fires break of 141 to edge past Anap
Dhvaj Haria pulled off a magnificent break of 141 to edge Pinak Anap 4-3 in a best-of-seven-frame first-round match of the CCI Snooker Classic here Tuesday.
Haria’s break of 141 also turned out to be the biggest break in the event this term.
The lanky left-handed Haria came up with frequent pockets, producing a marathon run in the second frame to take a lead of 2-0.
Although a gutsy Anap was successful at bouncing back to draw level, Haria delivered another substantial break of 64, thus prevailing in the fifth to take the lead again.
After Anap drew level again in the sixth with his smart play, Haria stayed focused in the decider to snatch a 92-2, 141-0, 25-67, 53-71, 76-31, 39-69 and 60-30 triumph.
Meanwhile, Krish Bajaj was involved in a close contest in the first round against Samar Khandelwal but lost 2-4.
Khandelwal secured a break of 43 in the opening frame and raced to a 2-0 lead before Bajaj fought back in style to win the subsequent two frames and draw level.
Yet, Bajaj’s lack of experience saw him lose the following two frames by close margins, as Khandelwal secured the victory with a 64-16, 53-45, 21-58, 30-73, 53-41 and 75-72 verdict.
Later, J Arun Kumar too came up with a herculean break of 105 along with other substantial breaks of 58 and 49, thrashing R Girish 4-0 (67-57, 73-42, 76-50, 105-8) in the first round.
Lucky loser Abhishek Bajaj dished out an improvised performance, supported by some luck, managing to get past Siddharth Parikh 4-3 (13-54, 60-12, 74-63[55], 9-59, 56-5, 0-78[78], and 66-61).
-PTI
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