Indian sports wrap, November 3: SAI to conduct Fit India Quiz for school students, Nishna best Indian at Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific

Here are all the major developments from Indian sports on November 3, 2022.

On a day, when 29 players shot under par, Malaysia’s Liyana Durisic, 21, often called the ‘birdie machine’ holed seven birdies, five of them in last six holes for a six-under 66. (Representative Image)

MISCELLANEOUS

SAI to conduct Fit India Quiz for schoolchildren

Sports Authority of India will conduct the Fit India Quiz for schoolchildren as a part of commemorating ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

Schools can register online at  https://fitindia.gov.in/fit-india-quiz on or before November 15.

Dates for the preliminary rounds will be communicated to the registered schools and will be made available on the Fit India website.

The total prize money is ₹3.25 crore.

-Team Sportstar

CHESS

Sarin trails in Global Chess quarterfinals

Nihal Sarin trails 1.5-2.5 to Samuel Sevian after the first set of four 15-minute rapid games in the quarterfinals of the $500,000 Chess.com Global Championship Finals on Wednesday.

Sarin, the only Indian left in the cash-rich championship, now needs to claim the second set of four games to force the tie-breaking Armageddon game. Sevian needs only two more points from the second set to advance to the semifinals.

In the other quarterfinals, Hikaru Nakamura leads Jan-Krzysztof Duda 4-0, Wesley So holds a 3-1 lead over Dmitry Andreikin and Anish Giri enjoys a 2.5-1.5 advantage over Teimour Radjabov. First player to reach 4.5 points wins.

- Rakesh Rao

GOLF

Nishna best Indian at 30th as Malaysian leads Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific

Nishna Patel recovered from a disastrous start to card an even par 72 and emerge as the best placed Indian at tied 30th after the opening day of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific championship in Pattaya on Thursday.

Patel had a bogey-bogey start but she battled her way to two birdies and dropped no more shots there after on the opening day.

She was the best among the six Indians playing here. Avani Prashanth (74) was tied 52nd.

On a day, when 29 players shot under par, Malaysia’s Liyana Durisic, 21, often called the ‘birdie machine’ holed seven birdies, five of them in last six holes for a six-under 66.

It gave her a one-shot lead over last year’s joint runner-ups Australia’s Kelsey Bennett and local hero Natthakritta Vongtaveelap, who shot 5-under 67 each.

Defending champion Mizuki Hashimoto was tied fifth at 69.

Nishna, a 16-year-old from Mumbai’s Bombay Presidency Golf Club, who this year played the Women’s Amateur in Scotland and the World Amateur Team Championship in France, missed the cut last year at the same event when it was held in Abu Dhabi.

This time she started with bogeys on her first two holes but made up with birdies on fifth and 17th.

The winner of the tournament will earn a spot in two Majors, the Women’s Open and the Evian Championships, besides starts at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Hana Financial Service event in Korea.

Avani, who came off a fine tied 12th finish at a Ladies European Tour professional event, the Hero Women’s Indian Open, made some great saves, but she also failed to make some up-and-downs from the deep bunkers.

She also had three-putted the last. Avani, tied 16th last year, had two birdies, both on her second nine against four bogeys, three of which came in her first six holes.

Teeing off with the first group in the morning from the tenth, Avani was three over in the first six holes. She made a good comeback with birdies on sixth and eighth on her second nine, the front side of the Waterside Course at the Siam Country Club.

At one-over, she looked set to close with at least a par, when she three-putted and finished 2-over to be tied 52nd.

Kriti Chowhan, one of the three Indians, who made the cut in the 2021 edition of WAAP, was the second best Indian at tied 43rd.

Kriti, who came close to a win when she finished joint runner-up while playing a pro event on her domestic Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, shot 1-over 73 with two birdies against three bogeys.

At three-over, Mannat Brar (75) was tied 61st, Sifat Sagoo (77) at 5-over was tied 71st and Ceerat Kang (79) at 7-over was tied 78th.

Leader Durisic, 21, from Kuala Lumpur, is at Iowa State University, and has made the cut in all three previous WAAP events.

Bennett, 22, is from New South Wales and shares the same coach as last week’s winner of Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship, Harrison Crowe.

Vongtaveelap, who won the individual and team gold medals at the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi 2022 and the 88th Singha Thailand Amateur Open last month, was tied second with Bennett at the last edition in Abu Dhabi.

-PTI

TENNIS

Ashwajit Senjam enters AITA Championship series juniors final

Ashwajit Senjam bt Amtya Ohlyan 6-4, 6-2 to set up a title clash against Aniruddh Sangra in the under-18 boys event of the AITA Championship series junior tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Thursday.

Ashwajit won the doubles title with Arnav Bishnoi. The under-18 girls doubles title was won by Rubani Kaur Sidhu and Sharanya Ramasubramanian.

The results:

Under-18 boys (semifinals): Aniruddh Sangra bt Anuj Pal 6-2, 6-1; Ashwajit Senjam bt Amtya Ohlyan 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles (final): Arnav Bishnoi & Ashwajit Senjam bt Parmarth Kaushik & Devansh Parajuli 6-3, 6-3.

Under-14 boys (semifinals): Raghav Sarode bt Harajam Singh 6-2, 6-1; Abhinav Chaudhary bt Tejas Khosla 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles (final): Abhinav Chaudhary & Ribhav Saroha bt Hralam Singh & Ashish Kumar 6-7(5), 6-4, [10-5]. Under-18 girls semifinals): Riya Kaushik bt Vanya Arora 6-3, 6-1;Radha Sadhra bt Rhosyn William 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (final): Rubani Kaur Sidhu & Sharanya Ramasubramanian bt Ajenika Puri & Radha Sadhra 7-5, 5-7, [10-7].

Under-14 girls (semifinals): Kritika Sharma bt Vanshika Yadav 6-4, 6-3; Mannat Awasthi bt Rhosyn William 6-3, 7-5.

Paris Masters: Bopanna, Middelkoop in quarterfinals

Rohan Bopanna in partnership with Matwe Middelkoop beat the Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-5 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €6,008,725 Paris Masters ATP tennis tournament on Thursday.

The Indo-Dutch pair, which had a bye in the first round, will play second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski in the quarterfinals.

The results:

€6,008,725 ATP, Paris, France

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Matwe Middelkoop (Ned) & Rohan Bopanna bt Simone Bolelli & Fabio Fognini (Ita) 6-4, 7-5.

$53,120 Challenger, Charlottesville, USA

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt William Blumberg & Jackson Withrow (USA) 3-6, 7-6(4), [10-7].

$53,120 Challenger, Guayaquil, Ecuador

Singles (first round): Sumit Nagal bt Daniel Dutra da Silva (Bra) 6-2, 6-1.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Francisco Comesana (ARg) & Nikolas Izquierdo (Esp) 2-6, 7-5, [10-7].

$53,120 Challenger, Yokohama, Japan

Doubles (quarterfinals): Taisei Ichikawa & Yuki Mochizuki (Jpn) bt Arjun Kadhe & Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-7(5), 6-2, [12-10].

$25,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anis Ghorbel & Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt Luke Simkiss (GBR) & Jaishvin Sidana 6-4, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF men, Al Zahra, Kuwait

Doubles (quarterfinals): Pruchya Isaro (Tha) & Lohithaksha Bathrinath bt Igor Dudun & Artem Podorozhnyi (Ukr) 6-1, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Ithaca, USA

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ben Jones & James Story (GBR) bt Sekou Bangoura (USA) & Sathi Reddy Chirala 6-3, 6-4; Yuta Kikuchi (Jpn) & Siddhant Banthia bt Alexander Kotzen & Ishaan Ravichander (USA) 7-6(5), 4-6, [10-7].

$60,000 ITF women, Barranquilla, Colombia

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Carolina Alves (Bra) & Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) bt Lena Papadakis (Ger) & Riya Bhatia 7-6(4), 7-6(5).

$15,000 ITF women, Heraklion, Greece

Doubles (quarterfinals): Matilde Mariani & Giorgia Pinto (Ita) bt Natalia Fehr (Sui) & Annika Kannan 6-0, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Singles (first round): Sowjanya Bavisetti bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-1.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Britain beats India 3-0 in Junior Davis Cup

Britain did not drop a set in beating India 3-0 in the last league match of the Junior Davis Cup under-16 World Group tennis tournament on the clay courts in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday.

Having lost to Czech Republic and Italy earlier in the four-member group, India finished fourth and will play for the 13-16 position.

The results (league): Britain bt India 3-0 (Oliver Bonding bt Kriish Tyagi 7-6(1), 6-2; Henry Searle bt Rushil Khosla 6-0, 6-2; Oliver Bonding & Henry Searle bt Rushil & Kriish 6-0, 6-3).

-Kamesh Srinivasan