Indian sports news wrap, November 8

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on November 8.

Manas Dhamne beat Joseph Mazingham 6-4, 6-0 in the Rod Laver Junior Challenge Finals. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on November 8.

TENNIS

Manas and Rushil win in Rod Laver Junior Challenge Finals

Manas Dhamne and Rushil Khosla won their singles and doubles matches to pave a strong foundation for India’s 4-2 victory over Britain in the first league match of the IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge Finals at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club in San Diego, California.

Asmi Adkar got beaten by Brooke Black in the singles, but Sohini Mohanty won her singles match against Maria Ustic to secure the fourth win for India. That sealed the contest before the girls doubles.

In other matches in the round-robin format, South Africa beat Argentina and Italy beat host USA. India was scheduled to play USA in the second league match. The topper of the league will be the champion.

The results (league):

India bt Britain 4-2 (Manas Dhamne bt Joseph Mazingham 6-4, 6-0; Rushil Khosla bt Arthur Attrill 6-2, 6-1; Asmi Adkar lost to Brooke Black 2-6, 2-6; Sohini Mohanty bt Maria Ustic 6-4, 3-6, [10-7]; Rushil & Manas bt Joseph & Arthur 6-2, 6-3; Asmi & Sohini lost to Brooke & Maria 4-6, 4-6).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Anirudh reaches doubles quarterfinals of ATP 250 Metz

Anirudh Chandrasekar in partnership with Bart Stevens beat Theo Arribage and Lluca Sanchez 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €630,705 ATP tennis tournament in Metz, France.

In the quarterfinals, the Indo-Dutch pair will play fourth seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul.

In the Challenger in Japan, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Purav Raja beat the top seeds Ivan Sabanov and Matej Sabanov 6-4, 6-7(2), [11-9] in the doubles pre-quarterfinals.

Sumit Nagal made the singles quarterfinals of the Challenger in Helsinki, Finland.

RESULTS

€630,705 ATP, Metz, France

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Bart Stevens (Ned) bt Theo Arribage & Luca Sanchez (Fra) 6-3, 6-4; Constantin Frantzen & Hendrik Jebens (Ger) bt Yuki Bhambri & Victor Cornea (Rou) 6-3, 7-6(4).

€145,000 Challenger, Helsinki, Finland

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Sumit Nagal bt Jakub Mensik (Cze), 7-5, 6-2.

$80,000 Challenger, Matsuyama, Japan

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Purav Raja & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Ivan Sabanov & Matej Sabanov (Srb) 6-4, 6-7(2), [11-9]; Shintaro Mochizuki & Sho Shimabukuro (Jpn) bt Niki Poonacha & Divij Sharan 7-6(5), 6-1.

$15,000 ITF men, Hua Hin, Thailand

Singles (first round): Zhang Tianhui (Chn) bt Rohan Mehra 7-5, 6-4.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): David Pichler (Aut) & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Jiayang Dong (Auss) & Mattias Southcombe (GBR) 6-2, 4-6, [10-3].

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

Singles (first round): Alisa Kummel bt Humera Baharmus 6-3, 6-1; Darja Suvirdjonkova (Srb) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-4, 6-1.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Yasmin Ezzat (Egy) & Vlada Mincheva bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi & Fan An Lin (Tpe) 2-6, 6-4, [10-5]; Humera Baharmus & Elizabeth Danailova (Bul) bt Annelin Bakker & Sarah van Ernst (Ned) 1-6, 6-4, [10-8].

-Team Sportstar

Parth Aggarwal storms into finals of AITA Men’s tournament

Fourth seed Parth Aggarwal beat Sarthak Suden 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Rs. 2,50,000 AITA men’s tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Wednesday.

The top three seeds Neeraj Yashpaul, Udit Kamboj and Jagmeet Singh also made the semifinals.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Neeraj Yashpaul bt Tushar Mittal 6-0, 6-3; Parth Aggarwal bt Sarthak Suden 6-2, 2-6, 6-2; Jagmeet Singh bt Ajay Kundu 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; Udit Kamboj bt Shubh Negi 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles (semifinals): Udit Kamboj & Jagmeet Singh bt Eklavya Singh & Neeraj Yashpaul 4-6, 6-1, [10-6]; Siddharth Basaiti & Ajay Kundu bt Amandeep Singh Bahai & Ricky Chaudhary 6-3, 6-7(4), [12-10].

-Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Bogey-free Urs leads by two at pre-qualifier Asia

Golfer Pranavi Urs opened her campaign to earn a Ladies European Tour (LET) card with a bogey-free four-under 68 that gave her a two-shot lead after the first round of the three-round Pre-Qualifier – Asia, in Gurugram.

Tvesa Malik, who is looking to regain her status on the LET, and Durga Nittur, who is trying to get on Tour for the first time, carded matching rounds of two-under 70 each. Only one other player, Neha Tripathi (71) was under par.

Nittur had a great finish with four birdies in the last five holes, with the gains coming on the 14th and 15th and again on 17th and the 18th.

Tournament favourite amateur Avani Prashanth was one of the five players to shoot even par 72. The others were Ananya Datar, Ridhima Dilawari, who opened the day’s proceedings and played alone with a marker, Seher Atwal and Singapore’s Sock Hwee Koh, who had also played at the Hero Women’s Indian Open.

A total of 29 players are in the fray in the 54-hole affair, from which the top-8 and ties will progress to LET Q-School Final Stage.

Urs, who dominated the domestic Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour in 2022, divided her time in 2023 between the Epson Tour in the US and LET in Europe. Now she is looking at getting into the LET.

Nittur was two-over after seven holes but fought very well on the back nine. She birdied the 10th but again dropped a shot on 13th to go two-over again. Then she birdied four times in the last four holes for a fine two-under round.

Prashanth was disappointed with her start. The 16-year-old was not happy with her play on the greens. She had four birdies against four bogeys, with two each of birdies and bogeys on either side of the course.

While this is the first pre-qualifier, a second one is scheduled to be held at the Golf Club Rotana and Samanah Golf by Nicklaus and Noria Golf Club from December 10-12.

The gruelling five-round 90-hole Qualifying School Final Stage will be held at the Al Maadan Golf Marrakech & Royal Club de Marrakech from December 16-20.

- PTI

CRICKET

Tripunithura CC pays tribute to Jayaraman

Former Kerala captain K. Jayaraman. | Photo Credit: THE HINDU ARCHIVES

Tripunithura Cricket Club, the club where K. Jayaraman played his first competitive match, fittingly paid a memorable tribute to the former Kerala captain and one of the State’s finest cricketers who passed away recently at age 67, on Wednesday evening in Kochi.

Fellow cricketers, friends, cricket officials and family members fondly remembered Jayaram. Though he played mainly for Swantons CC in Kochi, Jayaram was a regular at the Tripunithura Cricket Club which hosts the Pooja all-India cricket tournament – one of the world’s oldest 50-over tournaments – at its famed Palace Oval in Tripunithura. Incidentally, the Pooja tournament’s 73rd edition begins on Thursday.

Jayaram, as he was fondly called, had a long list of friends from all walks of life and almost everybody remembered him as a very friendly and humble person.

Former Kerala stars J.K. Mahendra, P. Balachandran, former Kerala Cricket Association secretary S. Haridas and Dr. P. Ramakrishnan were among those who spoke at the event.

- Stan Rayan

FOOTBALL

Services lifts National Games title

Services, the men’s football champion at the National Games. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Services defeated Manipur 3-1 and won the men’s football title in the 37th National Games in Fatorda on Wednesday.

Christopher Kamei, Soibam Abhinash Singh (own goal) and Rahul Ramakrishnan scored for Services while Phijam Sanathoi Meetei netted Manipur’s consolation goal.

Odisha defeated Manipur 5-3, via the tiebreaker, and won the women’s title on Sunday. The teams were tied 1-1 at the end of the regulation period.

- Stan Rayan