TENNIS
Yamalapalli lone Indian to be seeded in Maha Urja ITF women’s tennis tournament
Sahaja Yamalapalli is the lone Indian to be seeded in the Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament to be played on the clay courts of the MSLTA Academy in Ramnagar from Tuesday.
Fifth-seeded Sahaja will open against Vaidehi Chaudhari. She finds herself in the third quarter with fourth seed Diana Marcinkevica.
The country’s No.1 player, Ankita Raina is busy with the Petroleum tennis tournament in Delhi, and thus the Indian challenge would be that much less forceful.
However, national champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty could provide the thrust as she opens against qualifier Anastasia Zolotareva. Zeel Desai starts against Akiko Omae of Japan.
Akanksha Nitture saved six match points in the second and final qualifying round to beat Joel Nichole 14-12 in the super tie-break, and was rewarded with a first round match against top seed Irina Maria Bara of Romania.
Anjalli Rathi, Vaishnavi Adkar, Humera Baharmus and Soha Sadiq were the other Indians to qualify for the main draw.
The wild cards were given to Sowjanya Bavisetti, Maithili Mothe, Sonall Patil and Sejal Bhutada.
It should be interesting to see how well the Indian players cope with the challenge and compete against the strong foreign players.
The seedings: 1. Irina Maria Bara (Rou), 2. Dalila Jakupovic (Slo), 3. Justina Mikulskyte (Ltu), 4. Diana Marcinkevica (Lat), 5. Sahaja Yamalapalli, 6. Fanny Ostlund (Swe), 7. Miriana Tona (Ita), 8. Thasaporn Naklo (Tha).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
PSPB inter-unit tournament: Ramanathan, Bhambri, Raina among leading Indian players
Ramkumar Ramanathan, Yuki Bhambri, Ankita Raina, Prarthana Thombare, and Saketh Myneni will be some of the leading players of the country, competing in the 42nd PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament to be played at the DLTA Complex from Tuesday.
Some of the other top players to be seen in action would be Divij Sharan, Vishnu Vardhan, Rithvik Bollipalli, Karan Singh, Riya Bhatia and Chirag Duhan.
Most of the players are missing some big international tournaments around the world and in the country to honour their commitment to their employers.
Of course, the very top players like Rohan Bopanna and Sumit Nagal were unable to skip the ATP Masters series events in Indian Wells and Miami to be part of the Petroleum event, which has somehow been timed wrongly this season.
The competition will start with team events, and followed by individual events for men, women and veterans.
Indian Oil (IOC) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) look to have assembled the best teams.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
PADDLING
India Paddle Festival: Reigning national champion Sekar Patchai to spearhead India’s challenge
Men’s and Women’s World No. 2, Spanish Stand-Up Paddlers Fernando Perez and Esperanza Barreras will be the highlight among the strong line-up that will vie for the top honours in the upcoming India Paddle Festival, India’s first-ever international Stand-Up Paddling Event.
India’s challenge will be spearheaded by the formidable Sekar Patchai, the reigning national champion, along with Manikandan D and Akash J Shetty.
India’s Sekar Patchai. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The India Paddle Festival is scheduled to take place at the Sasihithlu Beach, Mangalore, Karnataka, from March 8 to 10 and will be conducted before the launch of the 2024 APP World Tour.
Ranked 1 in India and 18th in the SUP World Rank (ISA) in 2018, Patchai will be responsible for leading the Indian Contingent as he competes in the Men’s Open Category. He is also a 25-time National Stand-Up Paddling champion. Manikandan D, the top 2 SUP athlete in the country, will also be a focus in the Men’s Open category.
The Association of PaddleSurf Professionals World Tour (APP) announced its entry in India with the country’s first-ever International Stand-Up Paddling championship last month.
-Team Sportstar
GOLF
Sneha, Hitaashee to renew battle in 5th Leg of Hero WPGT
Sneha Singh, who has won two of the first four legs of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, will renew her battle with Hitaashee Bakshi as she seeks a third win of the season at the fifth leg of the tournament beginning here on Tuesday.
The event will be played at the Golden Greens Golf Club as the Tour comes to North India for the first time this season.
Sneha leads the Hero Order of Merit by a mere Rs. 500 over Hitaashee, who has won once and finished runner-up three times.
In the opening leg, Sneha and Hitaashee were tied for second when amateur Nishna Patel emerged the winner.
This week, though Nishna is not in the field, there are four other amateurs, namely Prarthana Khanna, Ceerat Kang, Lavanya Jadon and Saanvi Somu, who last month made the cut at the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific.
Apart from Sneha and Hitaashee, the other leading contenders are Amandeep Drall, Ridhima Dilawari, Gaurika Bishnoi, Neha Tripathi and Seher Atwal. All of them are past winners on the Tour.
Two other players who will be watched will be Astha Madan and the seasoned Saaniya Sharma.
A total of 42 players, including four amateurs, are in the fray for the Rs. 19 lakh purse, with the event this week being played over four rounds and 72 holes, with the top 24 players picking up prize money.
-PTI
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