Indian sports news wrap, March 20

Here are all the major updates in Indian sports on March 20.

Representative Image: The Indian girls have been seeded No.2 and clubbed with Hong Kong, Singapore and Lebanon in group D.  | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

TENNIS

Asia-Oceania WJT: Indian girls seeded No. 2; clubbed with Hong Kong, Singapore and Lebanon

The Indian girls have been seeded No.2 and clubbed with Hong Kong, Singapore and Lebanon in group -D for the Asia-Oceania World Junior under-14 tennis tournament being played in Kuching, Malaysia.

The first day’s play was washed out, and the referee has suggested two rounds of competition on Tuesday. Australia has been seeded No.1, while Japan and Thailand are the third and fourth seeds respectively.

The groupings

Group-A: Australia, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, Kazakhstan.

Group-B: Thailand, Nepal, Iran, Korea.

Group-C: Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan.

Group-D: India, Singapore, Lebanon, Hong Kong.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ITF $25k Lucknow: Opportunity for Indians to improve ATP Ranking

It will be another good chance for the Indian players to ply their trade in familiar domestic conditions and improve their status on the ATP computer, in the $25,000 ITF tennis tournament to be played at the Ekana Sports Complex in Lucknow from Tuesday.

The new venue has already fascinated the players with eight top class courts. Two more show courts are also coming up which would make it a vibrant place for tennis events in the future, apart from serving as a big boost for the players in the region.

Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam, who had won the Wimbledon junior doubles title with Sumit Nagal in 2015, is the top seed, ahead of Oliver Crawford of USA and the champion of the last tournament in Delhi, Evgeny Donskoy.

Mukund Sasikumar is the only Indian player who has managed to get a seeding. He is fifth seed behind Vladyslav Orlov of Ukraine.

Niki Poonacha, who had made the semifinals last week opens, against Manish Sureshkumar, who compensated for his early exit in singles by entering the doubles final with Parikshit Somani in Delhi. Digvijay Pratap Singh opens against Donskoy.

Two wild cards - the young Rushil Khosla and former national champion Siddharth Vishwakarma - will face each other in the first round. Ishaque Eqbal strengthens the field and will be up against Sidharth Rawat.

It should be another week of lively matches at the brand new facility.

The seedings: 1. Nam Hoang Ly (Vie), 2. Oliver Crawford (USA), 3. Evgeny Donskoy, 4. Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr), 5. Mukund Sasikumar, 6. Arthur Weber (Fra), 7. Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr), 8. Shuichi Sekiguchi (Jpn).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ITF Juniors, Bhilai

Anvi Punaganti recovered from the brink of defeat to beat Kaajal Ramisetty 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-1 in the girls first round of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Bhilai Steel Plant tennis complex on Monday.

RESULTS (1st Round)

Boys: Pratyaksh bt Adavait Mantri (Sgp) 6-1, 6-1; Kandhavel Mahalingam bt Athavaraj Balani 6-1, 6-1; Skandha Prasanna Rao bt Siddhant Sharma 5-7, 7-5, 6-3; Deepam Malik bt Harsh Fogaat 6-2, 6-4; Victor Mohanram (Esp) bt Debarshi Sen 6-3, 6-2; Vihaan Reddy bt Aditeey Singh Jadon 6-1, 6-0; Siddharth Marathe bt Ved Shetty 6-2, 6-4; Vatsal Manikantan bt Svarmanyu Singh 6-1, 4-6, 6-2; Mayank Sharma bt Sriniketh Kannan 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; Daksh Kukreti bt Navya Verma 6-1, 6-4; Teetawat Tavachphongsri (Tha) bt Pranav Korade 6-2, 6-3; Smit Patel bt Dhanush Varma 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.

Girls: Aishwarya Jadhav bt Mehak Kapoor 6-2, 6-1; Riya Sachdeva bt Diya Desai 6-0, 6-1; Amodini Naik bt Mandagalla Princy 6-4, 6-3; Hirva Rangani bt Saumya Chatterjee 7-5, 6-3; Danaiya Amangazhiyeva (Kaz) bt Keewah Husain 6-1, 6-0; Suhani Gaur bt Arzan Khorakiwala 6-1, 7-5; Anvi Punaganti bt Kaajal Ramisetty 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-1; Prisha Shinde bt Saily Thakkar 6-0, 6-1; Aanya Choubey (USA) bt Kabyanjali Hazarika 6-0, 6-0; Nemha Sarah Kispotta bt Nandika Agrawal 6-0, 6-1; Shagun Kumari bt Saanvi Misra 6-4, 4-6, 6-2; Saumya Ronde bt Sreenidhi Balaji 2-2 (retired).

- Team Sportstar

GOLF

Record entries and purse for 7th leg of Women’s Pro Golf Tour

A star-studded field with record number of entries and the highest prize fund for a domestic event will be the feature of the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.

Virtually all the top Indian women stars barring Aditi Ashok, Diksha Dagar and Pranavi Urs will tee up at the event, carrying a record purse of Rs 23 lakhs, which gets underway on Tuesday.

Vani Kapoor, Amandeep Drall, Ridhima Dilawari and Seher Atwal, who have been playing on the Ladies European Tour (LET) events, as also Tvesa Malik, Neha Tripathi and Gaurika Bishnoi, who will likely join them on the international circuit soon, are also in the field.

Five of the six winners of the six events held so far are also in the field, including Sneha Singh, the only multiple winner of the ongoing season.

The other winners of the season, who will be at the event include Seher, Amandeep and Gaurika, who won the sixth leg in a play-off with Tvesa Malik.

Hitaashee Bakshi, who is on a comeback trail after being out of action for a while, will also fancy her chances after her first start last week.

The 33 professionals, which is the highest, will be joined by six amateurs, including Vidhatri Urs and Lavanya Jadon, who played for India at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific in Singapore earlier this month.

The current Order of Merit leader is Sneha Singh, who, after her two wins, is more than Rs.1,09,000 ahead of the second placed Seher Awal. Amandeep Drall is lying third and Khushi Khanijau and Jasmine Shekar are lying fourth and fifth.

- PTI