Indian sports news wrap, June 23

In the Queen’s Club ATP tennis tournament in London, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were beaten 6-3, 7-6(5) by top seeds Wesley Kooolhof and Neal Skupski in the doubles quarterfinals.

FILE PHOTO: Ramkumar Ramanathan in action. | Photo Credit: RAGU R/ The Hindu

Tennis

Ramkumar enters Challenger doubles final

Ramkumar Ramanathan in partnership with Luca Margaroli fought his way past the top seeds Nikola Cacic and Victor Vlad Cornea 1-6, 6-4[15-13] in the doubles semifinals of the €145,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Parma-Montechiarugolo, Italy, on Friday.

In the Queen’s Club ATP tennis tournament in London, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were beaten 6-3, 7-6(5) by top seeds Wesley Kooolhof and Neal Skupski in the doubles quarterfinals. Bopanna and Ebden collected 90 ATP points and €18,190.

The results:

€2,345,130 ATP, London, England - Doubles (quarterfinals): Wesley Koolhof (Ned) & Neal Skupski (GBR) bt Rohan Bopanna & Matthew Ebden (Aus) 6-3, 7-6(5).

€145,000 Challenger, Parma-Montechiarugolo, Italy - Doubles (semifinals): Luca Margaroli (Sui) & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Nikola Cacic (Srb) & Victor Vlad Cornea (Rou) 1-6, 6-4, [15-13].

€145,000 Challenger, Ilkley, Britain - Doubles (semifinals): Robert Galloway (USA) & John-Patrick Smith (Aus) bt Sriram Balaji & Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) 1-6, 6-3, [10-6].

€118,000 Challenger, Poznan, Poland - Doubles (quarterfinals): Ariel Behar (Uru) & Adam Pavlasek (Cze) bt Lorenzo Giustino (Ita) & Sumit Nagal 6-3, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Jakarta, Indonesia - Singles (quarterfinals): Sora Fukuda (Jpn) bt Sidharth Rawat 6-4, 6-4; Doubles (semifinals): Siddhant Banthia & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Nathan Barki & Christopher Rungkat (Ina) 5-7, 6-4, [10-3].

$15,000 ITF men, Casablanca, Morocco - Singles (quarterfinals): Jorge Martinez (Esp) bt Manas Dhamne 6-4, 6-2.

$100,000 ITF women, Ilkley, Britain - Doubles (semifinals): Majja Chwalinska (Pol) & Jesika Maleckova (Cze) bt Jessy Rompies (Ina) & Prarthana Thombare 6-2, 7-5; Quarterfinals: Rompies & Thombare w.o. Mirjjam Borklund (Swe) & Aliona Zadoinov (Esp).

$25,000 ITF women, Wichita, USA - Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Kessler Mccartney (USA) bt Karman Kaur Thandi 6-4, 4-2 (retired).

$25,000 ITF women, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic - Doubles (quarterfinals): Carolyn Ansari (USA) & Isabelle Boulais (Can)bt Sowjanya Bavisetti & Karola Patricia Bejjenaru Rou) 6-7(1), 7-6(5), [10-7].

- Kamesh Srinivasan

India’s top players to battle for honours in Taekwondo Premier League

India’s top players will battle for honours and glory in the inaugural Taekwondo Premier League (TPL) which gets underway in New Delhi on Saturday.

India no.1 player Prithiviraj Chauhan, who has won several medals at the international stage, and no. 2 Shivan Shetty will spearhead the field.

“I am hopeful of taking my team (Maharashtra Avengers) deep into the league. We are all very excited and are looking forward to the competition,” Chauhan said.

India no. 3 Nitish Bharadwaj (Lucknow Nawabs) and Asian Championship bronze medallist Naveen Sandhu (Rajasthan Rebels) will be among the other attractions.

The TPL founders and team owners met a special delegation from World Taekwondo, who have arrived here for the league.

The delegation was led by Grandmaster Jun Lee, a nine-time Dan Black Belt, the highest achievement in the sport.

In the first edition, 12 teams will fight it our for honours.

Each team boasts of a mentor, a coach and five players, including two substitutes. In all, 19 matches will be played before the champions are crowned in the 58.1kg-67.9kg category.

The matches will be played in round-robin format and two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, followed by semifinals and final.

Each match will be played in the best of five format and will have five rounds of 90 seconds each in which three players can compete.

- PTI

Swimming

43rd edition of VK Pahuja swimming bulletin released

The 43rd edition of the VK Pahuja Swimming Bulletin was released by Satish Upadhyay, Vice Chairman of NDMC at the India International Centre here on Friday.

The bulletin, running into more than 450 pages, was compiled by Dr. Meenakshi Pahuja, Associate Professor of Lady Shriram College, herself a well-known international swimmer and Nari Shakti Puraskar recipient from the President.

Appreciating the efforts and commitment of Dr. Meenakshi, the chief guest Satish Upadhyay wholeheartedly praised her for keeping the invaluable literature alive.

Dr. Bikram Kesharee Mohanty, Cardio-Thoraacic and Vascular surgeon and Sports Journalist Rakesh Thapliyal were the guests of honour.

For the three children of the late VK Pahuja_Meenakshi, Priyank Pahuja and Dr. Supriya Pahuja_it is a labour of love to sustain the great work.

The first copy of the bulletin was presented to Sanjay Bisht, the coach at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swimming pool.

Some of the leading swimmers Uttra Gogoi, Titiksha Rawat, Ananya Rawat, Swadesh Mondal, Anshav Jindal, Arjun tokas, Ananya Bbissht, Himanshu Nandal and Shiv Juneja were felicitated.

Some of the coaches were also honoured on the occasion. Since Delhi’s star swimmer Kushagra Rawat was away in Singapore, his father received the copy.

The bulletin has many interviews, special articles apart from local, national and international results and records. It has all the details of Indian swimmers competing in the international arena over the last 60 years. It also has tributes to great coaches Percy Hakim and Sudhirendra Kumar Ghosh.

There is an interesting article in which Meenakshi assesses the Indian swimmers for the forthcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

VK Pahuja was a national swimmer and international water polo player before he became a coach. He was water polo referee and member of the International Swimming Statisticians Association. He relentlessly promoted swimming till his last breath.

- Kamesh Srinivasan