Indian sports news wrap, April 4

Here are all the major updates in Indian sports on April 4.

FILE PHOTO: Digvijay Pratap Singh. | Photo Credit: KAMESH SRINIVASAN

TENNIS

ITF Chennai Open: Digvijay Pratap Singh, Manish Sureshkumar reach second round

Digivijay Pratap Singh and Manish Sureshkumar began with straight-set wins to reach the second round of the BR Adityan Memorial ITF M15 tournament at the Gandhi Nagar Club, Adyar in Chennai on Tuesday.

Seventh-seeded Digvijay defeated wildcard Arjun Mahadevan 6-1, 6-0 while third-seeded Sureshkumar beat Manish Ganish, another wildcard, 6-3, 6-3.

In doubles, the top-seeded Kazakh-Spanish duo of Grigoriy Lomakin and David Perez Sanz won 6-0, 6-3 against the local pair of Tushar Madan and Jagmeet Singh to reach the quarterfinals.

Results

Singles, First Round

[3] Digvijay Pratap Singh bt [WC] Arjun Mahadevan 6-1, 6-0; [7] Manish Sureshkumar bt [WC] Manish Ganesh 6-3, 6-3; [8] Niki Poonacha bt Jacob Bradshaw (AUS) 5-7, 7-6(3), 4-1 retd.; Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ) bt [WC] Oges Theyjo Jaya Prakash 6-3, 7-6(3)

Doubles, Pre-quarterfinals

[1] Grigoriy Lomakin (KAZ)/David Perez Sanz (ESP) bt Tushar Madan/Jagmeet Singh 6-0, 6-3; Lohithaksha Bathrinath/Ishaque Eqbal bt Parth Aggarwal/Florent Bax (FRA) 7-5, 1-6, 10-6; [3] Nitin Kumar Sinha/Vishnu Vardhan bt Rushil Khosla/Aryan Shah 6-3, 1-6, 10-5; Rishab Agarwal/Bharath Nishok Kumaran bt Dhananjay Athreya/PrithviSekhar 6-2, 6-2; Boris Butulija (SRB)/Woobin Shin (KOR) bt Faisal Qamar/Fardeen Quamar 3-6, 7-6(3), 10-5; Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta/Theertha Shashank Macherla bt [4] Digvijay Pratap Singh/Karan Singh 6-2, 6-4; Vladyslav Orlov (UKR)/Patrick Toman (USA) bt Vimalraj Jayachandran/Guhan Rajan 7-5, 6-1; [2] Parikshit Somani/Manish Sureshkumar bt Gourav Gulia/Sidharth Rawat 7-6(1), 6-2

-Team Sportstar

CHESS

Three-way tie promises exciting finale

The title-race of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix is poised for an exciting finish after Aleksandra Goryachkina and Zhu Jiner caught up with Bibisara Assaubayeva in the lead at 5.5 points after the 10th and penultimate round here on Tuesday.

With Bibisara given a bye, Jiner defeated R. Vaishali and Goryachkina drew with Polina Shuvalova.

Victory continued to elude the Indians with D. Harika holding Kateryna Lagno and Humpy drawing with Nino Batsiashvili.

Results (Indians unless stated):

10th round: Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 4.5) drew with D. Harika (3.5); Zhu Jiner (Chn, 5.5) bt R. Vaishali (2); K. Humpy (4) drew with Nino Batsiashvili (Geo, 3); Polina Shuvalova (FIDE, 4) drew with Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 5.5); Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 5.5) and Nana Dzagnidze (Geo, 2.5) bye.

- Rakesh Rao

GOLF

Sudhir Sharma takes clubhouse lead on day one of Delhi-NCR Open

Sudhir Sharma made a dream start with a sensational eight-under 28 over nine holes to grab the clubhouse lead on day one at the Delhi-NCR Open here on Tuesday.

Gurugram’s Manu Gandas, Delhi’s Honey Baisoya and Bangladesh’s Badal Hossain were tied for second in the clubhouse with scores of four-under 32 at the Noida Golf Course.

The start of round one was delayed by three hours on Tuesday due to heavy overnight rain. As play began at 10 am, round one could not be completed on Tuesday. Twelve players out of 126 are yet to finish their first round.

The rain resulted in waterlogging on the back-nine. The play was only possible on the front-nine on Tuesday. As a result, the first round was played over nine holes with the par for the round being 36.

Depending on weather conditions, round two may be played over 18 holes or nine holes. The cut will be applied over either 27 or 18 holes.

Sharma, a two-time winner on the PGTI Feeder Tour, couldn’t have asked for a better start to the week as he drained a 20-feet eagle putt on the first hole.

The Greater Noida-based golfer carried on the good work, sinking a couple of more long birdies including a mammoth 45-footer on the fifth. The 35-year-old finally wrapped up his round in style with three accurate approach shots that set up an eagle and two birdies on the last three holes.

-PTI