September 19, Indian Sports Wrap: National Games to kick-off with table-tennis

Here are all the major developments from Indian sports on September 19, 2022.

The Gujarat men’s team will be the favourite to win the title. From left: Manav Thakkar, Harmeet Desai & Manush Shah. | Photo Credit:  K. Keerthivasan

TABLE TENNIS

TT-NATIONAL GAMES

Table tennis will be the first discipline to get off the blocks in the 36th National Games at the Pt. Deendayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium in Surat on Tuesday with the official inauguration of the Games happening in Ahmedabad a week later on September 27.

The dates had to be advanced as the World table tennis championships begin in Chengdu (China) on Sept. 30 and the Indian paddlers who are part of the National team have to leave the country on Sept. 25/26.

As far as the Games competition goes, Gujarat men and Maharashtra women will be the favourites to win the titles.

In its ranks, the host has Harmeet Desai, Manush Shah and Manav Thakkar, who are (domestic) ranked No. 3, 4 & 5 in the country, and will be expected to bag the gold.

The team has had a 10-day camp at the Tapti Valley International School here. “We are excited to represent Gujarat in our home state, and this is the first time we are all (referring to Manush & Manav) playing together in the Games. We have to play well to justify our top seeding,” said Harmeet, who was part of the Indian team that won the Commonwealth Games gold in Birmingham recently.

The Maharashtra women’s team appear quite strong with Reeth Rishya, Swastika Ghosh, Diya Chitale, Anannya Basak and Shruti Amrute. Bengal will challenge Maharashtra as it has the veteran and five-time National champion Mouma Das, Ayhika Mukherjee, Prapti Sen, Suthirtha Mukherjee, and Takeme Sarkar. Incidentally, Mouma was also a member of the Bengal team when it won silver in 2015, the last time the Games was held in Kerala.

The top eight teams from the last Shillong National championships in Shillong will be eligible to part in the National Games. India's top stars including A. Sharath Kamal, G. Sathiyan and Manika Batra are expected to arrive in the city in a day or two to compete in the individual events.

Groupings

Men: Group A: Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Telangana; B: Maharashtra, West Bengal, UP, Karnataka.

Women: Group A: Maharashtra, Telangana, Gujarat & Haryana; B: West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & UP.

K. Keerthivasan

TENNIS

Asian junior championship

Lakshmi Prabha ousted eighth seed Lily Fairclough of Australia 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the girls first round of the Asian junior tennis championship at the Deccan Gymkhana Club courts on Monday.

In the boys section, Manas Dhamne got off to a good start beating Iliyas Maratuly of Kazakhstan 6-3, 7-6(4). Rethin Pranav, Yuvan Nandal, Daksh Prasad, Kriish Tyagi and Denim Yadav were some of the other Indians who made the second round.

The results (first round)

Boys: Hayden Jones (Aus) bt Siddharth Marathe 6-2, 6-4; Takamasa Mishiro (Jpn) bt Prajwal Tewari 6-3, 6-4; Rethin Pranav bt Siwanat Auytayakul (Tha) 6-3, 6-4; Manas Dhamne bt Iliyas Maratuly (Kaz) 6-3, 7-6(4); Yuvan Nandal bt Poonthong Komopisut (Tha) 6-4, 5-7, 6-3; Bushan Haobam bt Vitaliy Zatsepin (Kaz) 6-3, 6-3; Daksh Prasad bt Luke koh (Sgp) 6-1, 6-2; Reiya Hattori (Jpn) bt Aryan Lakshmanan 6-3, 6-4; Kriish Tyagi bt Shingo Masuda (Jpn) 6-3, 6-3; Denim Yadav bt Yerassyl Yerdilda (Kaz) 3-6, 6-1, 6-0; Woohyukuk Chang (Kor) bt Satoru Nakajima (Jpn) 6-0, 3-6, 6-4; Jeremy Zhang (Aus) bt Rushil Khosla 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4.

Girls: Yu-Yun Li (Tpe) bt Asmi Adkar 6-1, 6-3; Sue Yan Tan (Sgp) bt Nandini Dixit 6-2, 6-0; Vaishnavi Adkar bt Vladislava Andreevskaya (Kgz) 6-1, 6-3; Shiho Tsujioka (Jpn) bt Madhurima Sawant 6-0, 6-2; Lakshmi Prabha bt Lily Fairclough (Aus) 5 7, 6-4, 6-4.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

SQUASH

Harinder Pal Sandhu posts win over Navaneeth Prabhu in squash tourney

Chennai: India's Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu defeated compatriot Navaneeth Prabhu in four games in the men's singles first round action in the HCL-SRFI Indian Tour Chennai leg squash tournament which got underway here on Monday.

Sandhu, a wild card entrant, won 11-2, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8 against Prabhu, to book a berth in the second round.

Ravi Dixit, however, went down to Adegoke Onaopemipo of Nigeria in four games.

The seeded players received a bye in the first round and will be seen in action on Tuesday.

Notable names in the fray include Aly Abou Eleinen of Egypt (world rank 63) and Martin Svec (Czech Republic, world rank 83) among men. India's Tanvi Khanna (world No.92) will be the top-seed in the women's section which also features Sunayna Kuruvilla.

The results:

Women's singles (Indians unless otherwise mentioned): Rathika Suthanthira Seelan beat Vasudha Surange 11-8, 12-10, 11-7; Anahat Singh beat Janet Vidhi 11-8, 11-4, 11-5; Amina El Rihany (Egypt) beat Ona Blasco (Spain) 11-0, 11-4, 11-4; Pooja Arthi R beat Lim Jee Nee (Singapore) 11-3, 11-5, 11-3.

Nour Ramy (Egypt) beat Sanika Choudhari 11-9, 11-3, 12-10; Salma El Alfy (Egypt) beat Sunita Patel 11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 11-6; Tiana Parasrampuria beat Radhika Rathore 11-2, 11-5, 11-5; Shameena Riaz beat Shahd Elrefaey (Egypt) 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 11-3.

Men: Abdelaziz Hegazy (Egypt) beat Yuvraj Wadhwani 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-3; Ziad Ibrahim (Egypt) beat Ho Ka Hei (HKG) 8-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-1; Adegoke Onaopemipo (Nigeria) beat Ravi Dixit 11-6, 9-11, 11-4, 11-4; Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu beat Navaneeth Prabhu 11-2, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8.

Lewis Doughty (England) beat Mahmoud Abouelleil (Egypt) 11-1, 11-3, 11-0; Lam Shing Fung (Hong Kong) bt Seif Nasser (Egypt) 16-14, 11-6, 11-4; Naoki Hayashi (Japan) beat Arihant K S 11-8, 11-4, 11-5; Tomotaka Endo (Japan) beat Rounak Yadav 14-16, 11-3, 11-4, 11-4.

-PTI