Indian sports news wrap, March 30

Here are all the major updates in Indian sports on March 30.

30 March, 2023 17:56 IST

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Top seed KS Siddharth Arya beat Ritabrata Sarkar 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final of the Rs.100,000 AITA men’s tennis tournament. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

TENNIS

Siddharth Arya reaches AITA final

Top seed KS Siddharth Arya beat Ritabrata Sarkar 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final of the Rs.100,000 AITA men’s tennis tournament on Thursday.

In the final, Arya will play third seed Amrutjay Mohanty who beat Vilasier Khate in straight sets.

The results (semifinals):

Singles: KS Siddharth Arya bt Ritabrata Sarkar 6-3, 6-4; Amrutjay Mohanty bt Vilasier khate 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles: KS Siddharth Arya & Ayyappan Rishikrishn bt Shubhranil Barman & Amrutjay Mohanty bt Vilasier Khate & Pratyush Mohanty 6-4, 7-5.

-Team Sportstar

Double delight for Balachandar Subramanian

Fifth seed Balachandar Subramanian beat second seed Shekar Veeraswamy 7-5, 1-6, [10-4] in the final of the National wheelchair tennis championship at the Indore Tennis Club on Thursday.

It was a double crown for Subramanian as he partnered Veeraswamy to beat the top seeds Mariappan Durai and Karthik Karunakaran in the doubles final.

The results (finals)

Singles: Balachandar Subramanian bt Shekar Veeraswamy 7-5, 1-6, [10-4].

Doubles: Balachandar Subramanian & Shekar Veeraswamy bt Mariappan Durai and Karthik Karunakaran 6-1, 4-1 (retired).

-Team Sportstar

Asia Oceania World juniors: Iran beat India

Iran beat India 2-0 in a play-off match for the lower placings in the Asia-Oceania World junior under-14 boys tennis tournament in Kuching, Malaysia, on Thursday.

In the placing play-off for the 13-16 spots, India will play Kyrgyzstan.

Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Pakistan made the semifinals. Pakistan beat Australia 2-1 in the quarterfinals, with Abubakar Talha winning his singles match and then partnering with Hamza Roman for the decisive doubles victory.

The results:

Play-off 9-16: Iran bt India 2-0 (Kiyarash Sadeghizeidi bt Rudra Batham 6-3, 6-4; Sam Attaran bt Shivtej Shirfule 5-7, 6-2, 6-3).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Girona Challenger: Yuki and Saketh in semifinals

Top seeds Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni bt Orlando Luz and Marcelo Zormann of Brazil 4-6, 7-6(5), [10-8] in the doubles quarterfinals of the €73,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Girona, Spain, on Thursday.

The results

€118,000 Challenger, Lille, France Doubles (quarterfinals): Luke Johnson (GBR) & Sem Verbeek (Ned) bt Arjun Kadhe & Igor Zelenay (Svk) 7-6(4), 6-4; Pre-quarterfinals: Luke & Sem bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar 6-3, 6-1.

€73,000 Challenger, Girona, Spain Doubles (quarterfinals): Yuki Bhambri & Saketh Myneni bt Orlando Luz & Marcelo Zormann (Bra) 4-6, 7-6(5), [10-8]; Pre-quarterfinals: Purav Raja & Divij Sharan bt Eduard Lobato & Alvaro San Martin (Esp) 7 6(4), 6-3.

$25,000 ITF women, Jakarta, Indonesia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Ankita Raina bt Fitriani Sabatini (Ina) 6-4, 6-1; Li Zongyu (Chn) bt Rutuja Bhosale 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(5).

$25,000 ITF Women, Sopo, Colombia Singles (first round): Martina Colmegna (Ita) bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Martina Colmegna (Ita) & Marine Partaud (Fra) bt Riya Bhatia & Maria Tkacheva 6-3, 6-2.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CHESS

FIDE Women’s Grand Prix: First win for Humpy; Harika loses

K. Humpy’s wait for her first victory ended when she outplayed Georgia’s Nana Dzagnidze in 59 moves in the fifth round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix chess tournament here on Thursday.

On a day when China’s Zhu Jiner emerged as the sole leader at 3.5 points after upstaging Kateryna Lagno, D. Harika became Bibisara Assaubayeva’s third victim of the week. R. Vaishali opened her account with a draw against Georgian Nino Batsiashvili.

RESULTS (Indians unless stated)

Fifth round: Nana Dzagnidze (Geo, 1.5) lost to K. Humpy (2.5); R. Vaishali (0.5) drew with Nino Batsiashvili (Geo, 1); Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 3) bt D. Harika (1.5); Zhu Jiner (Chn, 3.5) bt Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2); Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE, 2) and Polina Shuvalova (FIDE, 2.5) bye.

-Rakesh Rao