September 15, Indian Sports Wrap

Here are all the major developments from Indian sports on September 15, 2022.

The Indian girls were beaten to the top spot in the group by Thailand in the Asian under-12 team tennis championship in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

TENNIS

Asian under-12 team championship

The Indian girls were beaten to the top spot in the group by Thailand in the Asian under-12 team tennis championship in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.

India beat Lebanon and Hong Kong 3-0 each but lost to Thailand 0-3. India, with A Aahan, Prachi Malik and Anandita Upadhyay in the squad, will play its last league match on Friday against Uzbekistan.

However, Thailand has already qualified for the final from the group by winning all four matches.

Host Kazakhstan looked set to take the other final spot from group ‘B’, which features Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Iran.

The Indian boys' team of Faizal Ali Meer, Tavish Pahwa and Kushagra Arora, lost to Thailand 1-2 and beat Uzbekistan 2-1. Thailand with two wins was sitting pretty in the group before its last league match against Uzbekistan. India will play Chinese Taipei in its last league match.

In the other group, host Kazakhstan won all its matches 3-0 against Iran, Hong Kong, Myanmar and Pakistan to make the final.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Asian under-16 tournament

Aashravya Mehra beat Aditya Mor 6-3, 5-7, [10-8] in the boys pre-quarterfinals of the Asian under-16 tennis tournament on Thursday.

Aditya had beaten the top seed Levin Safoor Mydeen 6-2, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Aashravya will face Tanussh Ghildyal who beat fourth seed Aditeey Singh Jadon.

The results (quarterfinals)

Under-16 boys: Aashravya Mehra bt Aditya Mor 6-3, 5-7, [10-8]; Tanussh Ghildyal bt Aditeey Singh Jadon 6-3, 6-1.

Under-16 girls: Rituja Saha bt Sarah Gomes 6-3, 6-3; Krishna Raj bt Deeksha Kumar 6-1, 6-3; Isheeta Midha bt Rubani Kaur Sidhu 6-1, 6-0; Harithashree Venkatesh bt Saijayani Banerjee 6-3, 7-5.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Aditya Khanna wins three titles in ITF Masters

Aditya Khanna won a triple crown in the ITF 400 Masters tennis tournament in Pattaya, Thailand.

Aditya won the over-40 singles title by beating the top seed Magnus Muller of Norway 6-1, 7-5 in the final. He won the over-35 doubles title with Arjun Uppal and the over-40 doubles title with his brother Ashish Khanna.

It was a memorable outing for other Indian players as well, Intikhab Ali won both the singles and doubles titles in over-45 event, Nagaraj Revanasiddaiah won the over-55 singles title, while Surinder Mohan Sharma and Vinayak Gujrathi won the over-65 doubles title.

The results (finals)

Over-35 doubles: Aditya Khanna & Arjun Uppal bt Ribhaskar & Tuleswo rSingh 6-3, 6-0.

Over-40: Aditya Khanna bt Magnus Muller (Nor) 6-1, 7-5; Doubles: Aditya & Ashish Khanna bt Ramzan Sheikh & Yati Gujrathi 6-1, 6-0.

Over-45: Intikhab Ali bt Ajit Sail 6-4, 6-3; Doubles: Intikhab & Nikhil Rao bt Yati Gujrathi & Ajit Sail 6-4, 6-4.

Over-55: Nagaraj Revanasiddaiah bt Bhushan Akut 7-6, 6-2.

Over-65 doubles: Surinder Mohan Sharma & Vinayak Gujrathi bt Tahir Ali & Phairoj 5-7, 6-1, [10-5].

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Purav and Divij in semifinals of $53,120 Challenger tennis tournament in Istanbul

Purav Raja and Divij Sharan beat Alexandru Jecan and Dan Alexandru Tomescu of Romania 6-4, 6-4 to reach the doubles semifinals of the $53,120 Challenger tennis tournament in Istanbul on Thursday.

The results:

$53,120 Challenger, Istanbul, Turkey Doubles (quarterfinals): Purav Raja & Divij Sharan bt Alexandru Jecan & Dan Alexandru Tomescu (Rou) 6-4, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Madrid, Spain Singles (quarterfinals): Alberto Barroso Campos (Esp) bt Digvijay Pratap Singh 6-1, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Luca Wiedenmann (Ger) bt Bharath Kumaran 6-2, 6-3; Mu Tao (Chn) bt Karan Singh 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(3).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta & Parikshit Somani bt Valentin De Carvalho (Por) & Anis Ghorbel (Tun) 6-4, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Singles (first round): Kris Van Wyk (RSA) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles (quarterfinals): SD Prajwal Dev & Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Ignacio Martinez (USA) & Neil Oberleitner (Aut) 6-4, 7-5.

$25,000 ITF women, Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Lu Jia-Jing (Chn) & Anita Wagner (BIH) bt Chiara Di Tommaso (Ita) & Jagmeet Kaur 6-1, 6-0.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Dong Na (Chn) bt Jennifer Luikham 6-1, 7-6(3).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Milana Zhabrailova & Jennifer Luikham bt Shanelle Iaconi (Aus) & Annika Kannan 6-0,, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Sravya Shivani bt Anjani Maheshkumar 6-4, 6-0.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Sravya Shivani & Melis Ayda Uyar (Tur) bt Sarah Adegoke (Ngr) & Anna Borovinskaya (USA) 6-3, 6-3.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CHESS

Pranav Anand is India’s 76th GM

Pranav Anand is India’s newest Grandmaster. The 15-year-old from Bengaluru became the country’s 76th GM on Thursday when he crossed the 2500 Elo mark during the World youth chess championship in Romania.

He had already met the other requirements for the title, having scored the final GM norm from the 55th Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland in July. “But for the pandemic, Pranav could have become a GM at least a year ago,” his coach V. Saravanan told  Sportstar over the phone on Thursday. “He is extremely passionate about chess and is a natural. He is one of the most talented kids I have ever come across.”