Indian sports news wrap, October 15

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on October 15.

Shubhankar Sharma of India walks on the first green during Round Three on Day Five of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Old Course St. Andrews on October 09, 2023 in St Andrews, Scotland. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

GOLF

Shubhankar Sharma falters in third round, slips to tied-14

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma faltered as he carded an underwhelming 1-over 72 and dropped from tied-second to tied-14th at the Acciona Open de Espana on Sunday.

After two rounds of 66, Sharma struggled on the third day as he had three bogeys and a double bogey against four birdies.

Sharma is now 9-under for three days, and he needs some good results to ensure a berth in the season-ending DP World Tour Championships.

Earlier, Manu Gandas missed the cut.

Matthieu Pavon took a two-shot lead into the final round as he maintained his fantastic form with a 66 at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.

The 30-year-old Frenchman has led the way since carding an opening 63 in the Spanish capital and produced a confident display of front-running to get to 16 under after 54 holes.

Pavon is still looking for a maiden win on the World Tour but has two victories on the Alps Tour and has finished second three times on each of the European Challenge and World Tours.

England’s Nathan Kimsey was his closest challenger after a 65, two clear of local favourite Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, French duo Romain Langasque and Mike Lorenzo-Vera and South African Zander Lombard.

Kimsey has won both the Qualifying School and the Road To Mallorca but has yet to taste victory on the World Tour after losing out to Vincent Norrman in a play-off at the Barbasol Championship.

Dane Marcus Helligkilde, Spaniard Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, Frenchman Julien Guerrier and England’s Eddie Pepperell were then at 11 under, one clear of Dan Bradbury, who made his third hole-in-one of the season with a 226-yard four iron at the third.

-PTI

Honey Baisoya finishes tied sixth in Macau, Bhullar is 17th

India’s Honey Baisoya fired a sizzling six-under 65 in the final round to equal his best-ever finish in an Asian Tour event outside India, signing off Tied-sixth at the USD 1 million SJM Macao Open here on Sunday.

He shot five birdies and an eagle against one bogey to finish 17-under with all four rounds in the 60s. He shot 68-65-69-65.

Australia’s Min Woo Lee Lee carded 63 on the final day for an exceptional two-shot wire-to-wire victory for his first title in two years.

Baisoya, a multiple winner on the domestic Tour in India, has never won on the Asian Tour and his best has been fifth place at the Panasonic Open in India. The 27-year-old has finished T-6 at the Bangladesh Open and he equalled it with this latest result in Macao.

Among other Indians, Defending champion Gaganjeet Bhullar (68) finished at 14-under and was T-17, while Ajeetesh Sandhu (68) at 13-under was T-20. Angad Cheema (68) was T-40, S Chikkarangappa (70) was T-43 and Yashas Chandra (68) was T-51.

Kartik Sharma, who began the week with a sizzling 66-65 on the first two days, struggled over the weekend with 76-73 and finished at 4-under and T-56.

Lee had another good day in office as his rounds of 62-64-65-63 gave him a 30-under total. The Australian had only two bogeys all week and earned a cheque for USD 180,000. Thailand’s Poom Saksansin (63) totalled 28-under, while Phachara Khongwatmai (64) was a distant third at 20-under.

Lee, the tournament’s marquee player, ranked 46 in the world, hit crushing drives and holed putt after putt to card an eight-under-par 63 for an astonishing four-round aggregate of 30-under – a new tournament record.

- PTI

HOCKEY

Nehru sub-junior hockey tournament: Round Glass beats Gautam Public School 21-0

Deepakpreet Singh and Amandeep Singh scored four goals each in Round Glass Academy’s 21-0 victory over Gautam Public School, Ahmednagar, in a league match of the Steelbird 40th Nehru sub-junior hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Sunday.

The results (league):

Round Glass Academy, Punjab, 21 (Deepakpreet Singh 4, Amandeep Singh 4, Jasmeet Singh 2, Samuel 2, Jobanpreet Singh 2, Sonmukh Singh, Sajan Rajbhar, Arshdeep Singh, Harshjot Singh, Manish Kumar, Gurjot Singh, Aakash) bt Gautam Public School, Ahmednagar.

Major Dhyan Chand Sports College, Saifai, 7 (Pradeep Yadav 3, Romit Pal, Akash Vishwakarma, Ram Hansh Singh, Nitish Yadav) bt Ashwini Sports Academy, Coorg, 1 (Amit Patel).

Royal International SSS, Charkhi Dadri, 3 (Ritik, Nikhil, Soun) bt Directorate General, NCC, Jalandhar, 1 (Sukhraj Singh).

- Team Sportstar

TENNIS

Vishnu Vardhan advances to second round of qualifiers

Former Indian Davis Cupper and Olympian Vishnu Vardhan began his campaign in the ITF Dharwad Men’s World Tennis Tour 2023 brushing aside the challenge of Parth Aggarwal to advance into the second round of the qualifiers of the US $25,000 event that began at the Dharwad District Lawn Tennis Association courts here on Sunday.

The Asian Games medallist emerged victorious 6-3, 6-2.

Suraj Prabodh brought cheers to the home crowd after securing an easy 6-2, 6-3 over sixth seed Atharva Sharma and advanced to the final round of qualifying.

Local lad Amar Dhariyannavar who had been given a wild card put up a bit of resistance in the first set before going down tamely 2-6, 0-6 to Ha Minh Duc Vu of Vietnam. In another match, Deepak Anantharamu who has been included in the Karnataka state tennis team for the 37 ^th National Games staged a late fight back but in vain losing 0-6, 4-6 to third seed Faisal Qamar.

Intermittent rains delayed the proceedings forcing seven of the matches to be shifted to Monday. The final round of qualifying will also be held on Monday.

Results: Qualifying Round-1

1-Vishnu Vardhan bt Parth Aggarwal 6-3, 6-2; 3-Faisal Qamar bt Deepak Anantharamu 6-0, 6-4; 12-Ha Minh Duc Vu (VIE) bt Amar Dhariyannavar 6-2, 6-0; 5-Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan bt Yash Chaurasia 6-1, 6-2; 2-Luke Sorensen (AUS) bt Arjun Mahadevan 7-6 (4), 6-3; 4-Jack Karlsson Wistrand (SWE) bt Dheeraj Kodancha Srinivasan 6-2, 6-3; 9-Enrico Giacomini (ITA) bt Jake Bhangdia (USA) 6-1, 6-3; 11-Madhwin Kamath bt Matthew Woerndle (AUS) 7-6 (2), 6-1; Suraj R Prabodh bt 6-Atharva Sharma 6-2, 6-3.

(All Indians except mentioned in brackets; Seedings in pre-fix)

- Team Sportstar

Bopanna and Ebden lose Shanghai final

Seventh seeds Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos beat fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden 5-7, 6-2, [10-7] in the doubles final of the $8,800,000 ATP Masters tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, on Sunday.

The champion team collected 1000 ATP points and $436,730. The runners-up pocketed 600 points and $231,660.

It was the sixth final of the season for Bopanna and Ebden, who had won the titles in Indian Wells and Doha. The duo lost the US Open final, apart from the Madrid Masters and Rotterdam.

The doubles champions Andre Begemann and Sriram Balaji in the Challenger tennis tournament in Bratislava, Slovakia. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

In the €145,000 Challenger in Bratislava, Sriram Balaji won the doubles title in partnership with Andre Begemann of Germany.

It was the first title of the season and 53rd doubles title of his career for the 33-year-old Balaji.

Fourth seed Zeel Desai beat top seed Hina Inoue of the USA 6-2, 6-4 to clinch the title in the $15,000 ITF women’s event in Monastir, Tunisia. It was the third singles title of her professional career for the 24-year-old Zeel.

Results:

$8,800,000 ATP Masters, Shanghai, China

Doubles (final): Marcel Granollers (Esp) & Horacio Zeballos (Arg) bt Rohan Bopanna & Matthew Ebden (Aus) 5-7, 6-2, [10-7].

€145,000 Challenger, Bratislava, Slovakia

Doubles (final): Sriram Balaji & Andre Begemann (Ger) bt Andrey Golubev (Kaz) & Denys Molchanov (Ukr) 6-3, 5-7, [10-8].

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia

Singles (final): Zeel Desai bt Hina Inoue (USA) 6-2, 6-4.

- Team Sportstar

FOOTBALL

Santosh Trophy: Big wins for Manipur and Assam

Former champion Kerala blanked Chhatisgarh 3-0 for its third successive win in Group ‘A’ in the 77 ^th Santosh Trophy National football championship at the SAG Benaulim ground here on Sunday. The victory kept Kerala retain its lead in the five-team group with nine points from three matches.

 E. Sajeesh (right, No. 15) who scored the first goal for Kerala against Chhatisgarh in the Santosh Trophy in Goa on Sunday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Manipur and Assam are in the lead in their respective groups after posting their fourth win. Manipur, riding on Phijam Sanathoi Meetei’s brace, blanked Madhya Pradesh

5-0 in Group ‘C’ while Assam, with Dipu Mirdha and Akrang Narzary scoring two goals each, thrashed Rajasthan by an identical score in Group ‘D’.

The results (league):

Group A: Kerala 3 (E. Sajeesh 7, Junain Kadvalath 55, Nijo Gilbert 69) bt Chhatisgarh 0; Goa 2 (Clencio Pinto 16, Selwyn Frazier Miranda 78) bt Jammu & Kashmir 1 (Adnan Ayub 45+1).

Group C: Tamil Nadu 8 (Syed Suhail Pasha 2 & 51; M. Umasankar 16, N. Solaimalai 29, Vineeth Kumar Velmurugan 46, A. Regan 72 & 90+3; P. Kamalesh 82) bt Jharkhand 1 (Rohit Tigga 74); Manipur 5 (Phijam Sanathoi Meetei 19 & 52; W. Sadananda Singh 44, Samson 57, Ngangbam Pacha Singh 74) bt Madhya Pradesh 0; Uttar Pradesh 2 (Pankaj Kumar Gupta 14, Sanyem Konyak 76-OG) bt Nagaland 1 (Haileuyibe Iranggau 15).

Group D: Assam 5 (Milan Basumatary 13, Dipu Mirdha 19 & 24; Akrang Narzary 60 & 68) bt Rajasthan 0; Railways 4 (Shabaz Pathan 25 & 82; Mervin Stephen 45+4; Nuruddin 84) bt Himachal Pradesh 1 (Mohit Sharma 75); Chandigarh 2 (Sandeep 27 & 56) bt Bihar 0.

Group E: Uttarakhand 1 (Shashank Rana 77) bt Sikkim 0; Pondicherry 1 (Rajesh 45+2) drew with Daman & Diu 1 (Rahul Laxman Kharpadiya 34); Services 2 (Samir Murmu 45+3, Bikash Thapa 79) bt Mizoram 1 (Lalkhawpuimawia 77)

Group F: Maharashtra 4 (Advait 9, Armash Nasir Ansari 59, Nikhil Kadam 68, Himanshu Patil 78) bt Lakshadweep 0; Andaman & Nicobar 0 drew with Tripura 0; Telangana 0 drew with Andhra Pradesh 0.

-Stan Rayan