TENNIS
ITF Dharwad Men’s World Tennis Tour 2023 begins tomorrow
India’s Digvijay Singh and Asian Games 2023 silver medallist Ramkumar Ramanathan are seeded third and fourth, respectively, at the ITF 25K Dharwad tournament.
The main event of the said men’s World Tennis Tour event will commence at the Dharwad District Lawn Tennis Association courts from Tuesday.
Nick Chappell of the USA has been given the top billing, while Bogdan Bobrov is seeded second.
The event marks the first of four international tennis events in Karnataka played under the aegis of Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association, with the subsequent stop being the men’s tournament in Davanagere.
Seedings
1-Nick Chappell (USA); 2-Bogdan Bobrov; 3-Digvijay Singh (IND); 4-Ramkumar Ramanathan (IND); 5-Kazuki Nishiwaki; 6-Florent Bax (FRA); 7-Sidharth Rawat (IND); 8-SD Prajwal Dev (IND).
Results (All Indians except mentioned in brackets; Seedings in pre-fix)
Final qualifying round
Round-1 Qualifiers
- Team Sportstar
GOLF
Sharma finishes T-35 at Open de Espana
India’s Shubhankar Sharma finished tied 35th after carding a disappointing 71 in the final round of acciona Open de España golf tournament.
Sharma, who was T-2 after the second round following 66-66 on the first two days, had a rough weekend as he continued his chase to seal his berth in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Matthieu Pavon powered to a maiden DP World Tour title in wire-to-wire style. The Frenchman arrived at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid with three runner-up finishes on both the European Challenge and DP World Tours but had never won a European Tour group event despite consistent performances.
One of those runner-up finishes was here 12 months ago but he always looked like going one better after an opening 63 and followed up with rounds of 68-66-64 to get to 23-under and claim an ultimately convincing victory.
Sharma had one double and one eagle and 16 pars in the final round, where on more than a few occasions he missed birdie chances.
It was a week that could have been way better as he had two eagles, one each on the first and final days, but he also had two double bogeys, one each on the third and final days.
South African Zander Lombard carded a bogey-free 64 to finish as the nearest challenger, one clear of England’s Nathan Kimsey and two ahead of German Marcel Siem and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti.
Siem revealed that a 61 was the plan all along after he carded his lowest DP World Tour round by three shots. In 519 previous events, he had never gone lower than 64, but he had a chip on the last for a 59 in his ten under par effort.
Zanotti was bogey-free with seven birdies in a 64 to sit a shot ahead of Frenchman Julien Guerrier and English pair Dan Bradbury and Richard Mansell, who carded rounds of 67, 66 and 65, respectively.
Defending champion Jon Rahm ended his week with a 64 to finish at 14-under alongside fellow Spaniard Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, French duo Romain Langasque and Mike Lorenzo-Vera, Scot Ewen Ferguson, Dane Marcus Helligkilde, Kiwi Daniel Hillier, and Finn Kalle Samooja.
- Press Trust of India
POLO
Delhi Polo season to open with Quarter Master General
Some of the best riders will be in action in the Delhi Polo season for the next seven weeks at the Jaipur Polo ground and Army Equestrian Centre.
The season will open with Quarter Master General (QMG) polo championship, followed by the Bhopal-Pataudi Cup. There will be two 14-goal events, Indian Masters and Sir Pratap Singh Cup thereafter.
The other regular tournaments will feature along the way, for a total of 11 events, concluding with the 8-goal Baroda Cup.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
HOCKEY
Nehru sub-junior tournament: Amit Patel hat-trick guides Ashwini Sports Academy to win
Amit Patel scored three goals in guiding Ashwini Sports Academy, Coorg, to a 5-4 victory over Government Higher Secondary School, Nirwa, Hanumangarh, in the Steelbird 40th Nehru sub-junior hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Monday.
Shashank Kumar and Gaurav Kumar Yadav scored the other goals for the winner. Sumit Kumar, Narender, Mohit and Vipin Swami found the target for the Rajasthan team.
The results (league)
-Kamesh Srinivasan
FOOTBALL
Punjab blanks Bengal in Santosh Trophy
Punjab blanked former 32-time champion West Bengal 3-0 in a Group ‘B’ match of the 77 th Santosh Trophy National football championship at Banga on Monday.
With that result, Bengal fell to the fourth spot with five points (1 win, 2 draws, 1 loss) in the group and is now out of the race for a final-phase berth.
Delhi, which beat Ladakh 3-1, is on top of the six-team Group ‘B’ with 10 points while Odisha (9 points) climbed to the second rung after blanking Haryana 2-0. Punjab is in the third spot in the group with six points.
Group B results (league):
- Stan Ryan
MOTORSPORT
Sanam Sekhon, hailed as the drift champ of India, dominated proceedings at the inaugural JK Tyre Drift Challenge as he swept unopposed to victory in two out of three categories at the country’s first-ever official drifting competition. The seasoned Mudit Grover also finished on the podium in all three categories of the competition.
Sekhon looked poised and in control as he slithered his specially-prepped Lexus GS 300 sideways around the corners, and Mudit, in his BMW E46, showcased his spectacular skills on the twisting drift track at the Buddh International Circuit in a masterful display of tyre-smoking car control.
One of the cars participating at the inaugural JK Tyre Drift Challenge. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Chandigarh-based driver won the D1 category with a whopping haul of 744 points, with his closest rival Jugraj Singh Bhurjee, driving a BMW M3, only picking up a score of 476. Mudit, with 286 points, sealed third in his BMW E46.
Sekhon scored 460 points to also win the D2 category with Mudit (262 points) and Mugdha Grover, driving the Mercedes C200 K, (156 points) completing the podium.
His hopes of completing an unbeaten run, however, were dashed with Mudit beating him to victory with 700 points to Sekhon’s 636, with Samyak Kapoor on 281 points a distant third.
Points were awarded by a three-member expert panel of international judges comprising Taniguchi Atsushi from Japan, Tanakorn Lertyaovarit from Thailand and India’s own drift expert Alistair Woodham.
Drivers were judged on multiple parameters including line, angle, style and speed.
The three categories - D1, D2 and Open - were differentiated by tyre width. Cars competing in the D1 category were running on tyres that were 215-255mm wide. The maximum permitted tyre width in the D2 category was 205mm, while all competitors, regardless of the width of their tyres were eligible for the Open category.
Drifting is a motorsport discipline that rewards skill, precision, and car control over outright speed. It involves drivers throwing their cars into a slide and using oversteer to go sideways through a corner at speed.
- Team Sportstar
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