GOLF
Diksha stays in Top-60 of LET after finishing 41st in Spain
Diksha Dagar finished 2022 with a modest round of 1-over 74 at the Par-73 Alferini Golf course, but ensured full playing status for the next season.
The 2023 season will be her fifth successive on the Ladies European Tour (LET).
Diksha, one of the only two Indian women to have won on the LET, finished tied 41st at the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España, the final event of the season.
Also finishing in tied 41st place was Vani Kapoor (74). A third Indian, Amandeep Drall, could not reproduce the magic of a runner-up finish at Hero Indian Open, and ended tied 45th.
Diksha was the best Indian on the LET Order of Merit at 54th place, while Vani Kapoor was 63rd and Amandeep Drall finished 66th.
Tvesa Malik, who was 19th in 2021, dropped to 116th. Aditi Ashok, who played only seven events on LET in 2021, was 100th, but will have a good status as a three-time winner.
Meanwhile, Caroline Hedwall returned to the winner’s circle for the first time in four years, winning the season-ending Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España. The Swedish star was locked in a battle for the title with Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux after regulation play. They were tied at 18-under and headed for a playoff.
After playing the 18th hole three times they went to the 17th hole. It was a hole where Hedwall has had success all week and she made the green in two and sunk her birdie putt to win her seventh LET title.
TENNIS
PSPB tournament
Photo of Champion Indian Oil team, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Diivj Sharan, Sumit Nagal and Rohan Bopanna. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Sumit Nagal and Ramkumar Ramanathan powered Indian Oil to a 2-0 victory over Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the final of the 41st PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.
Sumit overcame a stiff resistance from Vishnu Vardhan for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 victory in the first singles. Competing in the Challenger circuit, Sumit was sharp and took charge of the situation on key points. Ramkumar closed the contest with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Yuki Bhambri, who rarely plays singles these days.
Sumit and Ramkumar also set up a title clash in singles, by beating Rohan Bopanna and Yuki respectively.
In the women’s event, the final will be between the top two seeds Ankita Raina and Riya Bhatia.
The results:
Men (semifinals): Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Rohan Bopanna 9-5; Sumit Nagal bt Yuki Bhambri 9-6.
Doubles (semifinals): Rohan Bopanna & Divij Sharan bt Udit Gogoi & Chandrashekhar Mohanti 6-2; Vishnu Vardhan & VM Ranjeet bt Anup Toppo & Sunny Rajpal 6-1.
Team (final): Indian Oil bt ONGC 2-0 (Sumit Nagal bt Vishnu Vardhan 6-4, 3-6, 6-1; Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Yuki Bhambri 6-3, 6-4).
Women (semifinals): Ankita Raina bt Prarthana Thombare 6-4; Riya Bhatia bt Bagmishree 6-1.
Veterans (semifinals): KS Rawat bt Rajkumar Dube 6-2; VN Prem Prakash bt Pratul Saikia 6-0.
Team (final): ONGC bt HPCL 2-0 (KS Rawat bt Sukhwinder Singh 6-0, 6-0; Prem Prakash bt Rahul Borah 6-1, 6-0).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
AITA Tournament
Ananya Dhankhar fought her way past fifth seed Radhika Yadav 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5 in the pre-quarterfinals of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Tuesday.
In the quarterfinals, Ananya will challenge second seed Riya Uboveja.
The results (pre-quarterfinals): Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Abhilasha Bista 6-1, 6-2; Bhumika Rohilla bt Anahat Pannu 6-3, 4-6, 7-5; Rachita Talwar bt Poorvi Bhatt 6-4, 6-2; Ritu Rai bt Gurjot Bharaj 6-0, 6-0; Ritu Ohlyan bt Kriti Tomar 6-1, 6-2; Shruti Gupta bt Kaashvi Thapliyal 6-2, 6-1; Ananya Dhankhar bt Radhika Yadav 7-5, 6-7(3), 7-5; Riya Uboveja bt Ishika Choudhary 6-1, 6-1.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF Juniors
Lucky loser Aishwarya Jadhav beat Asmi Adkar 7-5, 6-0 in the girls first round of the Gadre Marine ITF grade-3 junior tennis tournament organised by MSLTA at the Deccan Gymkhana Club on Tuesday.
The results (first round):
Boys: Dhananjay Athreya bt Siddharth Marathe 6-6(retired); Kriish Tyagi bt Prajwal Tewari 6-3, 6-1.
Girls: Margot Phanthala (Fra) bt Pushti Laddha 6-1, 6-1; Kamonwan Yodpetch (Tha) Gauri Mangaonkar 6-3, 6-3; Maaya Rajeshwaran bt Prisha Shinde 5-4 (retired); Nandini Dixit bt Angeles Rodriguez-Rizo (Mex) 6-3, 3-0 (retired); Aishwarya Jadhav bt Asmi Adkar 7-5, 6-0; Sonal Patil bt Ruma Gaikaiwari 6-1, 6-1.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ATHLETICS
Top runners for Kolkata 25K
Commonwealth Games marathon champion Viktor Kiplangat of Uganda and defending champion and course record holder Leonard Barsoton of Kenya will be among the leading runners in the Tata Steel Kolkata 25K race, which returns to the city on December 18 after a two-year break.
Two-time Tokyo marathon winner Birhanu Legese of Ethiopia and leading women runners such as Tokyo marathon winner Ashete Bekere of Ethiopia and 2019 Kolkata 25K runner-up Desi Jisa of Bahrain will be the other prominent names in the race offering a total prize purse of 100000 USD.
As per information shared by the organizers at a countdown event, graced by cricketer Jhulan Goswami and Bengali film actress Subhashree Ganguly, here on Tuesday, the international elite runners will be incentivised with an event record bonus of 3000 USD.
-Y. B. Sarangi
BASKETBALL
National basketball championship
Prince Tyagi (39) and Manik Ohlyan (22) did the bulk of scoring in helping Delhi to a 104-81 victory over Uttarakhand in a group-C league match of the 72nd National basketball championship at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Stadium on Tuesday.
Delhi made the quarterfinals along with Tamil Nadu, Railways, Haryana, Punjab, Services, Kerala and Telangana.
In the women’s section, Railways, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Maharahstra made the quarterfinals.
The results:
Men: Group-A: Punjab 82 (Amritpal Singh 20, Amjot Singh 20, Anmoldeep Singh 13) bt Gujarat 54 (Sahaj Patel 11, Kuldeep Tamaliya 11, Sagar Mori 10).
Telangana 80 (Nathan 20, M Raju 16, Gowtam 12) bt Maharashtra 71 (Sayyed 20, Navin 14, Raj Kalbhor 14).
Group-B: Services 94 (Mandeep Singh 16, Akhilesh Kumar 14, Ajay Singh 11, Magipal Singh 11) bt Kerala 70 (Sajesh 16, Sejin Mathew 13, Shanaz Muhammed 12, Rahul Sharath 12).
Madhya Pradesh 104 (Prakash Misra 25, Christopher Minhas 15, Rakesh Kumar Sharma 13, Surya Pratap Singh 12) bt West Bengal 93 (Raghav Sehgal 30, Arshdeep Singh 24).
Group-C: Tamil Nadu 115 (Muin Bek 20, M Aravind Kumar 19, Baladhaneswar 14, Lokeshwaran 12) bt Mizoram 64 (Vanal Thazhuala 22, Zonunsanga 11).
Delhi 104 (Prince Tyagi 39, Manik Ohlyan 22, Abhishek Tyagi 12) bt Uttarakhand 81 (Prashanth Rawat 25, Arjun Singh 18, Keshar Singh 17,Amandeep 11).
Women: Group-A: Railways 109 (M Pushpa 18, Madhu Kumari 12, NIsha Sharma 12, Dharshini 10, Navaneeta 10, Poonam Chaturvedi 10) bt Karnataka 52 (Varsha Nandini 14, Pavani Sangwan 11).
Group-B: Tamil Nadu 65 (Sruthi 27, Shobhana 12) bt West Bengal 58 (Nivya Raj 21).
Group-C: Kerala 89 (PS Jeena 20, Stephy Nixon 19, Minnu Maria 14) bt Uttar Pradesh 59 (Sanju Yadav 22, Sruti Yadav 13).
Group-D: Maharashtra 78 (Abha Lad 19, Durga Dharamadhakari 17, Chaitali Bafna 13) bt Madhya Pradesh 37.
Delhi 74 (Raspreet Sidhu 22, Khushi Ahlawat 11) bt Odisha 59 (Lipramayee Satapathy 20, Anuradha Seth 11).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
FOOTBALL
NEROCA beat Kenkre 1-0 for first away win of season
NEROCA FC beat Kenkre FC 1-0 to pick up their first away win of the I-League season at the Cooperage Stadium on Tuesday.
Striker Jourdain Fletcher’s thumping strike in the 57th minute won all three points for the Orange Brigade, who had as many as 11 shots on target in the entire match.
NEROCA dominated possession right from the first whistle with the Uzbek midfield duo of Sardor Jakhonov and Mirjalol Kasimov pulling the strings in the middle of the park.
The Orange Brigade had their first attempt on target on seventh minute when youngster Tangva Ragui dispatched a shot from outside the box, which was well-caught by goalkeeper Padam Chettri.
That turned out to be the only contribution of the game from the Kenkre custodian, as he had to be substituted for Tenzin Samdup in the 17th minute due to an injury.
The hosts’ compact defence meant that NEROCA had to resort to long-range attempts to try and find the breakthrough. One such shot came at the half-hour mark as Kasimov tried his luck from 25 yards out but couldn’t get enough bend on the ball as it sailed wide of the post.
The Orange Brigade finally unlocked the stubborn Kenkre defence in the 57th minute. Jakhonov slipped a perfectly-weighted pass to Fletcher on the overlap and the Jamaican took a touch before drilling it into the roof of the net with his left foot.
NEROCA maintained the same attacking intensity after taking the lead with Thomyo Shimray coming on to inject even more pace into the wings. The visitors exerted complete control in midfield, leaving Kenkre frustrated as they struggled to maintain possession.
The Mumbaikars, however, came close to finding an unlikely equaliser in the 80th minute as defender Kynsailang Khongsit made a darting run inside the box before releasing a strong shot, which was palmed away by goalkeeper Shubham Dhas.
The result saw NEROCA rise to seventh place in the standings with six points. Kenkre slipped to 10th position with four points from as many games.
-PTI
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