TENNIS
Asia-Oceania World Juniors: India beat Hong Kong
The Indian girls sustained their good run and beat seventh seed Hong Kong 2-0 in the last league match of group D in the Asia-Oceania World Junior under-14 tennis tournament in Kuching, Malaysia, on Wednesday.
Having beaten Singapore and Lebanon earlier, the Indian team topped the group and will play Kazakhstan, which finished second to Australia in group-A.
Hong Kong, which finished second in India’s group, will challenge Australia, while Thailand, Japan, Uzbekistan and Korea were the other teams to make the quarterfinals.
The Captain of the team, Namita Bal, was happy with the performance of the team so far and felt that it was a learning experience for the girls.
“For now, we are focusing on recovery, staying fit, staying fresh because that is the biggest advantage we have over Kazakhstan”, said Namita.
RESULT
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF Men’s Tournament, Lucknow
Karan Singh knocked out eighth seed Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan 6-3, 6-4 in the first round of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the Ekaana Sports Complex on Wednesday.
Karan fired 11 aces and converted three of seven breakpoints to set up a pre-quarterfinal against Palaphoom Kovapitukted of Thailand.
In another match, Manish Sureshkumar fought his way past Niki Poonacha 7-6(9), 4-6, 6-2. Niki had led 5-2 in the first set and missed four set points in the tie-break. In the decider, it was a struggle for Niki as he saved five breakpoints for 2-4, and Manish pulled through.
The champion of the last tournament in Delhi, Evgeny Donskoy had a tough time against Digvijay Pratap Singh, but handled the crunch with ease from 4-5 in the third set.
The finalist of the last tournament, Yusuke Takahashi of Japan survived a scare to win in the third set tie-break against Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam. It was a commendable effort by Abhinav as he recovered from being down 0-6, 3-5, but missed a match point in the 12th game of the decider that denied him a fairy tale finish.
RESULTS
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF Juniors, Bhilai
Qualifier Kashit Nagrale stretched Vihaan Reddy to three sets, but the champion of the last two tournaments in Gurugram and Dehradun eventually prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the boys pre-quarterfinals of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Bhilai Steel Sports Complex on Wednesday.
In the quarterfinals, Vihaan will play fourth seed Vatsal Manikantan, who fought his way past Siddharth Marathe 1-6, 7-5, 7-5.
RESULTS (Pre-Quarterfinals)
-Kamesh Srinivasan
BOXING
No IOC team at World championship
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not sent any team to the ongoing World women’s boxing championships.
Even though the International Boxing Association (IBA) had claimed that an IOC team, led by the PriceWaterhouseCoopers, would be present at the event, sources confirmed that none from the Olympic body came to the event.
However, a team of the McLaren Independent Investigation Unit (MIIU) has been doing onsite monitoring of the event.
- Y.B. Sarangi
GOLF
Tvesa fires 68 to rise to top of leaderboard in 7th Leg of Hero WPGT
FILE PHOTO: Tvesa Malik of India in action. | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Tvesa Malik, playing on her home course at the DLF Golf and Country Club, climbed to the top of the leaderboard for the first time this season in the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour here on Wednesday.
Tvesa, who had a none-too-happy season on the Ladies European Tour in 2022, looked determined as she has been shaking off the rust over the last two weeks.
A week after losing in a playoff to Gaurika Bishnoi in the sixth leg of the Tour, Tvesa carded four-under 68, her best round of the year, to take a one-shot lead into the final round.
Following up on her modest 74 on the first day, Tvesa, with 68, moved to two under 142 and was one shot ahead of last week’s winner, Gaurika (71-72).
Amateur Vidhatri Urs, fresh from her experience at the Queen Sirikit Cup where India finished second in the Philippines and then playing at the Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific in Singapore, showed good form with one-under 71 and was lying sole third at even par 144.
Vani Kapoor (72-73) suffered three bogeys in the last five holes and was fourth while Ridhima Dilawari (73-74) and Asmitha Sathish (75-72) were tied for the fifth spot.
Tvesa, trying to play herself back into form, has improved with each outing. She birdied the second and then had back-to-back birdies on the fifth and sixth. She dropped a shot on the seventh only to get another pair of birdies on the eighth and ninth and then turned in a superb four-under 32.
On the back nine, she bogeyed the 10th and birdied the 17th for the day’s work of 68.
Gaurika also had two sets of back-to-back birdies on the eighth and ninth and then ay the 16th and 17th. However, she dropped bogeys on first, third, 11th and 13th and finished even par and dropped from being an overnight co-leader to second place.
Vidhatri had five birdies against two bogeys and a double bogey and Vani Kapoor had three birdies and three of her four bogeys came on Par-5s as she carded 73.
Seher Atwal (76-73), with one birdie and one bogey on either side of the course, was the sole seventh while another amateur Anvvi Dahhiya (80-73) and Amandeep Drall (74-79), the runner-up at the Hero Women’s Indian Open at the same course last year, were tied eighth.
Oviya Reddi (77-77) and Agrima Manral (75-79) were tied for 10th.
Amandeep had a round to forget as she parred the whole of the front nine and then had four bogeys in a row from the 10th and closed with a triple bogey on the 18th.
The cut fell at 161 and 23 players made the cut. Among the prominent names missing the cut were Saaniya Sharma and Hitaashee Bakshi. PTI Cor SSC Tee times for the second round of the seventh leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf and Country Club:
SCORES
-PTI
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