Indian sports news wrap, May 11

Catch the major updates and results from Indian sports on May 11.

Sarabjot Singh and TS Divya with the mixed air pistol gold in the World Cup in Baku. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

TENNIS

India loses to Korea in Junior Davis Cup quarterfinals

Top seed Korea won both the singles matches without dropping a set to scotch India’s hopes in the quarterfinals of the Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup under-16 tennis tournament in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Thursday.

Moobeeb Kim beat Rethin Pranav 7-6(2), 6-1 in the opening singles. Donghyun Hwang dropped five games in beating Kriish Tyagi in the second match. Korea gave a walkover in the inconsequential doubles.

The second seeded India will play Australia in the positional play-off for the 5-8th places. Kazakhstan, Thailand and Japan were the other teams that made it to the semifinals. All the top four teams qualified for the World Group competition to be staged later in Europe.

The results (quarterfinals): Korea bt India 2-1 (Moobeeb Kim bt Rethin Pranav 7-6(2), 6-1; Donghyun Hwang bt Kriish Tyagi 6-2, 6-3; Yeonsu Jeong & Moobeeb Kim lost to Aarjun Pandit & Kriish Tyagi w.o.).

GOLF

Diksha, Tvesa among five Indians in Jabra Ladies Open in France

The trio of Diksha Dagar, Amandeep Drall and Tvesa Malik will lead the Indian challenge at the Jabra Ladies Open as the Ladies European Tour starts on its European leg of the season.

Five Indians in a field of 132 show the growing strength of Indian golf, as all five have been prominent winners on the domestic Hero Women’s Golf Tour, where they cut their teeth.

While Diksha has a LET win in South Africa in the past, the 2022 Hero Women’s Indian runner-up Amandeep Drall and both Tvesa Malik and Vani Kapoor have featured in Top-5 of the LET events and are looking for their breakthrough.

While Diksha, Vani and Amandeep got a spot in the event on the strength of their performance last season, Seher has come through the LET Qualifying School and Tvesa, who had a disappointing 2023, got in via the reserve list on the Career Money Category.

-PTI

PICKLEBALL

AIPA to organise third National Ranking Pickleball Tournament in Margao

The third National Ranking Pickleball Tournament will be organised by the All India Pickleball Association (AIPA) from May 19 to 21.

The AIPA will conduct the tournament in association with the Goa Pickleball Association and the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs, Goa. The competition will be held at the Fatorda Stadium. The previous two editions were held in Pune in 2019 and at Dombivli, near Mumbai in 2021.

“The three-day tournament will witness over 250 participants from 16 states. The players can choose to compete from 16 different categories like Under-14 and Under-19 men’s, women’s open, 35 plus men, 35 plus women, 50 plus men, and 50 plus women apart from mixed doubles,” a release said.

The tournament will feature players including Tejas Mahajan, Mayur Patil, Kuldeep Mahajan, Isha Lakhani, Snehal Patil, Vrushali Thakare, and Under-19 champion siblings Arjun and Aditya, Himansh Mehta, Avinash Kumar from Bihar as well as SonuKumar Vishwakarma from Dhanbad, Jharkhand.

Himanshu Dewaskar, Sandeep Tawde and Ajeet Bharadwaj are among the players from 35 plus and 50 plus.

“We have been getting great responses from players who are looking to participate in the National Ranking Tournament. The sport is growing, and we want to make sure that it reaches every nook and corner of India,” said AIPA president Arvind Prabhoo.

-Team Sportstar

SHOOTING

Sarabjot and Divya clinch gold in Shooting World Cup

Sarabjot Singh and TS Divya beat world champions Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec of Serbia 16-14 to clinch the mixed air pistol gold in the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Thursday.

With the two teams tied on 14-14, Sarabjot shot 10.6 and Divya 9.9. Zorana shot 8.6 and Mikec had 10.3. With 20.5 total as against 18.9, the Indian pair got the two points and the gold with it.

The other Indian team of Esha Singh and Varun Tomar scored 5778 and missed the medal round by two points.

It was the second medal for India, following the women’s air pistol bronze by Rhythm Sangwan. India was second in the medals table behind China which had one gold and one silver.

The Chinese got both those medals in mixed air rifle. The Indian duo of Tilottama Sen and Hriday Hazarika placed 17th in a field of 72 teams.

The results:

Mixed air rifle: 1. China (Huang Yuting, Sheng Lihao) 16 (634.2); 2. China-2 (Wang Zhilin, Yang Haoran) 14 (632.8); 3. Czech Republic (Aneta Brabcova, Frantisek Smetana) 17 (630.0); 4. Hungary (Denes Eszter, Pekler Zelan) 11 (630.8); 17. India-2 (Tilottama Sen, Hriday Hazarika) 627.6; 28. India (Ramita Jindal, Rudrankksh Patil) 626.3.

Mixed air pistol: 1. India (TS Divya, Sarabjot Singh) 16 ((581); 2. Serbia (Zorana Arunovic, Damir Mikec) 14 (581); 3. Turkey (Simal Yilmaz, Ismail Keles) 17 (581); 4. Italy (Sara Costantino, Paolo Monna) 9 (580); 6. India-2 (Esha Singh, Varun Tomar) 578.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Arjun Kadhe in Busan semifinals

Arjun Kadhe in partnership with Nam Ji Sunggh of Korea beat Jaesung Choe and Uisung Park 7-6(3), 6-3 in the doubles quarterfinals of the $160,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Busan, Korea, on Thursday.

The results:

$160,000 Challenger, Busan, Korea Doubles (quarterfinals): Arjun Kadhe & Nam Ji Sung (Kor) bt Jaesung Choe & Uisung Park (Kor) 7-6(3), 6-3.

€118,000 Challenger, Mauthausen, Austria Doubles (quarterfinals): Marco Bortolotti (Ita) & Inigo Cervantes (Esp) bt Sriram Balaji & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-2, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF women, Kachreti, Georgia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Zhuoxuan Bai (Chn) bt Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Stacey Fung (Can) & Maria Kozyreva bt Zeel Desai & Sahaja Yamalapalli 7-6(5), 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Ranah Stoiber (GBR) bt Tanisha Kashyap 7-6((2), 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Lucie Wargnier (Fra) & Sharmada Balu bt Diana Ilie (Rou) Lena Iglesias (Fra) 6-3, 6-1; Ranim Rassil (Tun) & Aaddi Gupta bt Chahd Berriri (Tun) &Sarah Hawkshaw (Irl) 7-5, 6-7(3), [10-3].

-Kamesh Srinivasan