Indian sports news wrap, August 23

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on August 23.

Representative Image: The opening day of Grand Prix Badminton League 2 will also see Chennai Superstarz taking on the Northeast Rhinos.

BADMINTON

Bengaluru Tigers lock horns with Mumbai Wolves in GPBL opener

Hosts Bengaluru Tigers will face Mumbai Wolves in the opening match of Grand Prix Badminton League Season 2 beginning August 27.

The opening day will also see Chennai Superstarz taking on the Northeast Rhinos.

Hyderabad Hounds, Pune Panthers, Gujarat Lions and Northeast Rhinos are the other teams in fray. Some of the top national and international players will be seen in action in the 13-day League.

The league has introduced a new format with eight participating teams being placed in a single group, where they will compete in a series of matches. Each team will play five matches in the League Stage.

One of the highlights of this season is the ingenious draw, ensuring teams do not face each other twice in the league stage.

Teams will earn a point for each game won (11 points) while making it mandatory for the players to play all the three sets in every match.

An additional point will be awarded for winning the tie. If a team wins all its matches including the trump match, it would net a total of 18 points while losing all the matches would end in a score of minus one.

The points of each of the five ties will be accumulated to decide the team standings.

The top four teams at the conclusion of the league stage will secure their coveted spots in the semifinals with the top placed team taking on the last placed team in the first semifinal, while the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will clash in the other last four clash.

- PTI

TENNIS

ITF women’s tennis tournament: Rutuja Bhosale in second round

Rutuja Bhosale beat Daria Kudashova 7-6(4), 6-3 in the first round of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Hong Kong on Wednesday.

She was joined by her doubles partner, qualifier Vaidehi Chaudhari who got past Guo Hanyu of China. Vaidehi led 4-6, 6-1, 4-0 when the Chinese retired.

The results:

$25,000 ITF men, Tainan, Chinese Taipei

Singles (first round): Rishab Agarwal bt Ching-Mou Yu (Tpe) 2-6, 6-1, 6-4; Jesse Delaney (Aus) bt Rishi Reddy 6-4, 6-3. Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ivan Denisov & Leonid Sheyngezikht (Bul) bt Lucio Carnevalle (Arg) & Atharva Sharma 7-6(4), 6-3; Rishi Reddy & Sanhui Shin (Kor) bt Ke Hau Hung & Xiao-Feng Zhou (Tpe) 6-2, 6-4; Tushar Madan & Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Yamato Sueoka & Naoki Tajima (Jpn) 6-2, 3-6, [19-17].

$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

Singles (first round): Kasidit Samrej (Tha) bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-4, 7-5; Siddhant Banthia bt Gage Brymer (USA) 7-6(3), 6-3; Omar Fields (Aus) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-5, 6-1. Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sun Qian & Tang Sheng (Chn) bt Ishaque Eqbal & Manish Sureshkumar 6-3, 5-2 (retired).

$40,000 ITF women, Hong Kong

Singles (first round): Rutuja Bhosale bt Daria Kudashova 7-6(4), 6-3; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Guo Hanyu (Chn) 4-6, 6-1, 4-0 (retired).

$15,000 ITF women, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

Singles (first round): Aunchisa Chanta (Tha) bt Prathyusha Rachapudi 6-2, 6-4; Anri Nagata (Jpn) bt Jennifer Luikham 6-4, 6-4; Lisa-Marie Rioux (Jpn) bt Humera Baharmus 7-5, 6-0; Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Gozal Ainitdinova (Kaz) & Yang Yidi (Chn) bt Humera Baharmus & Chen Meng Yi (Chn) 6-3, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Baku, Azerbaijan

Singles (first round): Darja Suvirdjonkova (Srb) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-3, 6-3; Teja Tirunelveli bt Zoziya Kardava (Geo) 7-6(5), 6-3; Saumya Vig bt Varvara Diachenko 6-1, 6-1; Arabella Koller (Aut) bt Tanisha Kashyap 6-0, 7-6(3). Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Nadezda Khalturina & Polina Leykina bt Teja Tirunelveli & Maria Toma (Rou) 6-2, 6-3.

CHESS

S. P. Sethuraman unleashed a lethal queenside offensive to shut out N. R. Visakh in just 25 moves to retain his half-point lead with a tally of 7.5 points from eight rounds of the National chess championship here on Wednesday.

On a day when the top three boards saw winners emerge from behind the black pieces, P. Iniyan, Diptayan Ghosh Aronyak Ghosh and Neelash Saha stayed half a point behind Sethuraman. Three more rounds remain.

P. Iniyan upstaged second seed Abhimanyu Puranik by punishing a pawn-capture on the 34th move to close the game six moves later.

In the battle involving two young Bengal youngsters, Diptayan Ghosh asserted his supremacy over Mitrabha Guha in just 25 moves.

- Rakesh Rao

The results:

Eighth round: N. R. Visakh (6) lost to S. P. Sethuraman (7.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (6) lost to P. Iniyan (7); Mitrabha Guha (6) lost to Diptayan Ghosh (7); Aronyak Ghosh (7) bt Deep Sengupta (6); Neelash Saha (7) bt P. Shyaamnikhil (5.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6) drew with C. R. G. Krishna (6); N. R. Vignesh (6.5) bt Sriram Jha (5.5); Mehar Chinna Reddy (5.5) lost to G. Akash (6.5); Soham Kamotra (6) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (6); Rajesh Nayak (6) drew with Anuj Shrivatri (6); Apoorv Kamble (5.5) lost to Vishnu Prasanna (6.5); L. R. Srihari (6.5) bt Advaith Vignesh (5.5).