TENNIS
ITF Juniors: Croatia’s Maricic beats wild card entrant Samarth
Lovro Maricic of Croatia beat wild card entrant Samarth Sahita 6-2, 6-3 in the boys first round of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Tuesday.
In the girls section, fifth seed Yu-Chen Lin of Chinese Taipei recovered from a slow start to beat qualifier Vennela Reddy 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.
The results (first round):
-Kamesh Srinivasan
$164,000 Challenger tennis: Nagal loses to Italy’s Vavassori in first round
Sumit Nagal was beaten 6-7(1), 6-4, 7-5 by qualifier Andrea Vavassori of Italy in the first round of the $164,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Canberra, Australia.
Sumit was laso beaten in the doubles pre-quarterfinals in partnership with Lloyd Harris.
In the $82,000 Challenger in Bangkok, Thailand, Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha beat Marco Cecchinato and Giovanni Fonio of Italy 6-3, 6-1 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals.
The results
-Kamesh Srinivasan
WRESTLING
National weighlifting championship: Nipane beats Sheuli for 81kg gold
Abhishek Nipane pipped Achinta Sheuli for the men’s 81kg gold medal in the National weightlifting championships at Itanagar on Tuesday.
Nipane lifted 310kg to beat Sheuli, the Commonwealth Games gold winner in 73kg, by one kg.
Another prominent lifter, Deepak Lather gave a tough fight before taking bronze with 308kg. Fourth-placed Valluri Ajaya Babu also totalled 308kg but was beaten through tie-breaker.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Bindyarani Devi managed a narrow win in women’s 55kg.
The results
Men
Women
-Y.B.Sarangi
TABLE TENNIS
Pranati tames Maria, lifts women’s state title, double for Edwina and Harshitha
Despite beating Maria Rony in the team event earlier, Pranati P. Nair knew the women’s singles final against the tall star would be a lot tougher. The 17-year-old handled the big-match pressure well and defeated Maria, a former Kerala and Karnataka champion, 3-2 to lift the title in the Canara Bank Kerala State table tennis championships at the V.K. Krishna Menon indoor stadium here on Tuesday night.
She lost the opening game and was down 1-2 after the third but she fought back and forced Maria to the decider. Pranati, who had played double the number of matches here compared to Maria since she was also in under-19 action, raced to a three-point lead at 4-1 in the decider and hung on to it.
The match between the two attacking players was a thriller and towards the end, Maria appeared to crack under pressure and lose control, sending her forehand and backhand shots out.
“We were both under pressure and I played a bit safely towards the end. I tried to keep the rallies going and then tried to attack,” said Pranati, also the under-19 champion here, who was winning the State women’s title after three years.
Meanwhile Edwina Edward, who is coached by her dad at home in Kollam, overcame a strong challenge from Thrissur’s Tisha Mundenkurian to win the under-15 girls title. Edwina was trailing 6-10 in the third game but the 14-year-old slowed down her opponent, who loves to attack, by employing the push effectively and went on to win her second singles title here.
Also winning a double was Palakkad’s N.K. Harshitha who added the under-13 title to the under-11 trophy she had taken earlier.
-Stan Rayan
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