Indian Sports News Wrap: March 6

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on Wednesday, March 6.

Ramkumar Ramanathan put Indian Oil in the final of the PSPB tennis tournament in Delhi on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Ankita Raina and Riya Sachdeva takes ONGC PSPB to victory in inter-unit tennis tournament

Ankita Raina and Riya Sachdeva took Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to a 2-0 victory over Indian Oil in the women’s final of the 42nd PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.

The key to the contest was the ability of the country’s No.1 player, Ankita, to fight at her best when the chips were down. Ankita recovered from being down 1-3 and facing two break points at 15-40 to script a memorable victory over the fierce stroking Riya Bhatia 6-3, 7-5.

After that entertaining match, which put Indian women’s tennis in perspective, the young Riya Sachdeva asserted her potential with a 6-2, 6-4 win over the experienced Prarthana Thombare.

Two of the best teams in the competition, ONGC and Indian Oil set up a title clash in the men’s event as well, by beating Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) and Oil India Limited (OIL) respectively.

Ramkumar Ramanathan set the tone for Indian Oil’s victory by beating the athletic Udit Gogoi. Chirag Duhan closed it out with a fluent win over Anshuman Dutta.

In the other semifinal, Rithvik Bollipalli beat Saketh Myneni after Karan Singh had won the first rubber for ONGC.

The results:

Men (semifinals): Indian Oil bt Oil India Limited 2-0 (Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Udit Gogoi 6-1, 6-1; Chirag Duhan bt Anshuman Dutta 6-1, 6-1).

ONGC bt GAIL 2-0 (Karan Singh bt Pradeep Pancholi 6-0, 6-1; Rithvik Bollipalli bt Saketh Myneni 6-4, 6-3).

Women (final): ONGC bt Indian Oil 2-0 (Ankita Raina bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 7-5; Riya Sachdeva bt Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 6-4).

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Sahaja Yamalapalli enters pre-quarterfinals at ITF women’s tennis tournament

Sahaja Yamalapalli overcame a slow start to beat Vaidehi Chaudhari 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on the clay courts of the MSLTA Academy on Wednesday.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Sahaja will play wild card entrant Sonal Patil. Sahaja made the doubles quarterfinal also, in partnership with Miriana Tona of Italy.

National champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty was beaten in three sets by qualifier Anastasia Zolotareva, while Vaishnavi Adkar fell to fellow qualifier Ikumi Yamazaki in three sets.

The champion of the last tournament in Gurugram, third seed Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania was beaten 7-5, 6-2 by Mei Yamaguchi of Japan.

The fourth seed Diana Marcinkevica of Latvia was also beaten by another Japanese, Ayumi Koshishi, 6-4, 7-6(6).

The result:

Singles (first round): Irina Bara bt Akanksha Nitture 6-1, 6-3; Yeonwoo Ku (Kor) bt Yasmine Mansouri (Fra) 7-5, 3-6, 6-0; Mei Yamaguchi (Jpn) bt Justina Mikulskyte (Ltu) 7-5, 6-2; Ikumi Yamazaki (Jpn) bt Vaishnavi Adkar 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 3-6, 6-1, 6-1; Dayeon Back (Kor) bt Anjali Rathi 6-1, 6-1; Ayumi Koshishi 9Jpn) bt Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) 6-4, 7-6(6); Anastasia Zolotareva bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Irina Maria Bara (Rou) & Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) bt Humera Baharmus & Pooja Ingale 6-1, 6-2; Thasaporn Naklo (Tha) & Akiko Omae (Jpn) bt Zeel Desai & Snehal Mane 6-1, 7-6(5); Miriana Tona (Ita) & Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Sharmada Balu & Rinon Okuwaki (Jpn) 7-5, 4-6, [10-8]; Fanny Ostlund (Swe) & Ekaterina Yashina bt Ayumi Koshishi & Michika Ozeki (Jpn) 7-5, 7-6(3).

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Sumit Nagal loses in second and final qualifying round of Indian Wells ATP Masters

Alternate entrant Seongchan Hong of Korea beat eighth seed Sumit Nagal 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) in the second and final qualifying round of the $12,418,990 ATP Masters tennis tournament in Indian Wells, USA.

Sumit collected $14,400 and 10 ATP points.

The results:

$12,418,990 ATP Masters, Indian Wells, USA Qualifying singles (second and final round): Seongchan Hong (Kor) bt Sumit Nagal 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(4).

$41,000 Challenger, Kigali, Rwanda Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): SD Prajwal Dev & David Pichler (Aut) bt Bogdan Bobrov & Parikshit Somani 6-1, 6-2; Corentin Denolly (Fra) & Damien Wenger (Sui) bt Sai Karteek Reddy & Guy Orly Iradukunda (Bdi) 6-4, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Kish Island, Iran Singles (first round): Adil Kalyanpur bt Sina Moghimi (Iri) 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Guelfo Baldovinetti & Giovanni Calvano (Ita) bt Rodrigo Alujas (Mex) & Yash Chaurasia 7-5, 7-6(2).

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Singles (first round): Petr Bar Biryukov bt S Mukund 6-3, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Singles (first round): Anna Siskova (Cze) bt Tanisha Kashyap 6-2, 6-0; Marie Weckerie (Lux) bt Prathyusha Rachapudi 6-3, 6-2.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

POLO

Delta Polo to a 9-4 victory over Achievers in Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase 10-goal league match

Shamsheer Ali and Santiago Marambio scored three goals each in guiding Delta Polo to a 9-4 victory over Achievers in a league match of the Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase 10-goal polo tournament at the Jaipur Polo ground here on Wednesday.

The results:

The results (league): Delta Polo 9 (Shamsheer Ali 3, Santiago Marambio 3, Akshai Malik 2, Dino Dhankar) bt Achievers 4 (Daniel Otamendi 3, Abhimanyu Pathak)