Indian sports news wrap, June 22

Indian paddler Ayhika Mukherjee sailed into the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals even as her compatriots Diya Chitale and Sreeja Akula bit the dust in the opening round of the WTT Contender on Thursday.

Ayhika Mukherjee in action. | Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR/ The Hindu

Table Tennis

Ayhika, Sathyian-Manika pair register easy wins in WTT Contender

Indian paddler Ayhika Mukherjee sailed into the women’s singles pre-quarterfinals even as her compatriots Diya Chitale and Sreeja Akula bit the dust in the opening round of the WTT Contender in Tunis on Thursday.

Ayhika defeated Xiaotong Wang of China 3-0 (11-8, 11-3, 11-2) in her tournament opener to move into the second round, where she will meet the winner of the match between Germany’s Sabine Winter and Miyu Nagasaki of Japan.

The Indian mixed doubles pair of Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Manika Batra eased into the quarterfinals with a commanding 3-0 (11-3, 11-3, 11-6) win over Algerian pair of Abdelbasset Chaichi and Malissa Nasri.

The Indian pair will be up Cedric Meissner and Yuan Wan of Germany in the next round.

But it was curtains for Diya and Sreeja.

While Diya lost 1-3 (11-9, 7-11, 2-11, 1-11) to Miyuu Kihara of Japan, Sreeja was shown the door by Yi-Hua Huang of Chinese Taipei 2-3 (6-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-2, 7-11).

Later in the day, Manika Batra will be up against Yu-Jhun Li of Chinese Taipei in her opening match.

- PTI

GOLF

Chikka third after opening round in Korea

S Chikkarangappa teeing off at the 10th hole during the first round of the Kolon Korea Open golf championship. | Photo Credit: AFP

Powered by a late eagle in his opening round, India’s S Chikkarangappa turned in a solid two-under 69 to lie tied-third at the Kolon Korea Open.

Chikka, who has twice come close to winning in the past and finished runner-up, started on the back nine and was even par through 16 holes with a birdie on 13th and a bogey on 15th.

He eagled the eighth and parred the ninth, his closing hole for 69. He was the top Indian.

Korean-American Seungsu Han shot 66 on the opening day and was impressive as he took the lead on five-under at the challenging Woo Jeong Hills Country Club, in Cheonan, south of Seoul.

South African Ian Snyman fired a 68, while Koreans Minkyu Kim, the defending champion, Inhoi Hur, Jeongwoo Ham and Sungjoon Park plus Chikka, and Chinese-Taipei’s Lee Chieh-po returned 69s.

Among the other Indians, who did not have a great day, Honey Baisoya (73) was T-49 as SSP Chawrasia and Viraj Madappa with 74 each were T-69.

Rahil Gangjee, who had just five pars in his 18 holes, had five birdies, six bogeys and two doubles in his 76 and was T-92. Ajeetesh Sandhu (77) was T 109th and Karandeep Kochhar (80) was T-129th.

- PTI

Amateur Vidhatri Urs takes massive 9-shot lead in 9th leg of Hero WPGT

Vidhatri Urs is all set to join the elite list of amateurs to register a win on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour even before joining the pro ranks as she built up a massive nine shot lead with just one round to go in the ninth leg of the 2023 season at the Prestige Golfshire in Begaluru on Thursday.

Following up on her first round seven-under 65, Vidhatri, whose best on the Hero WPGT as an amateur has been a third place finish, added a 5-under 67 to get to 12-under 132, while rookie pro Kriti Chowhan added even par 72 to her first round 69 to get to 141.

Lying third was another amateur Saanvi Somu, who shot 69 after her first round 73. She was tied third alongside Sachika Singh (70-72) and Seher Atwal (69-73).

Jasmine Shekar (69), Sneha Singh (72) and Jyotsana Singh (72) were sixth, seventh and eighth respectively, while Hitaashee Bakshi (70), Ananya Datar (71) and Shweta Mansingh (73) were all tied ninth with a total of 146.

- PTI

TENNIS

Balaji and Qureshi in semifinals

Sriram Balaji, in partnership with Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan, beat Anirudh Chandrasekar and Viay Sundar Prashanth 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in the doubles quarterfinals of the €145,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Ilkley, Britain, on Thursday.

In the $100,000 ITF women’s event in Ilkley, qualifier Ankita Raina was beaten 6-2, 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals by Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden.

THE RESULTS

€145,000 Challenger, Ilkley, BritainDoubles (quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prasshanth 7-6(5), 7-6(4).

€118,000 Challenger, Poznan, Poland

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Lorenzo Giustino (Ita) & Sumit Nagal bt Lukasz Kubot & Szymon Walkow (Pol) 7-6(3), 6-7(2), [10-6].

145,000 Challenger, Parma-Montechiarugolo, Italy

Doubles (quarterfinals): Luca Margaroli (Sui) & Ramkumar Ramanathan w.o. Alessandro Giannessi (Ita) & Thiago Monteiro (Bra).

$15,000 ITF men, Jakarta, IndonesiaSingles (pre-quarterfinals): Yurii Dzhavakian (Ukr) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 6-3; Sidharth Rawat bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Siddhant Banthia & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Yuichiro Inui (Jpn) & Lorenzo Lorusso (Ita) 6-2, 6-1; Sora Fukuda & Yuta Kawahashi (Jpn) bt SD Prajwal Dev & Sai Karteek Reddy 7-6(4), 1-6, [10-4].

$15,000 ITF men, Casablanca, Morocco

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Manas Dhamne bt Riccardo Ballzerani (Ita) 6-4, 6-2.

$100,000 ITF women, Ilkley, Britain

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Mirjam Bjorklund (Swe) bt Ankita Raina 6-2, 6-1.

$25,000 ITF women, Wichita, USA

Singles (first round): Karman Kaur Thandi bt Susanna Maltby (USA) 6-0, 6-3.

$25,000 ITF women, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Singles (second round): Martina Taborda (Arg) bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Marian Cano (Mex) & Leonie Kung (Sui) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi & Julia Silva (Bra) 6-3, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Giulia Crescenzi (Ita) bt Tanisha Kashyap 7-6(4), 7-5.

$15,000 ITF women, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Romina Ccuno (Per) & Alissha Reayer (GBR) bt Catarina Juhior (Bra) & Niditra Rajmohan 6-3, 6-1.

- Kamesh Srinivasan