GOLF
Udayan, Rashid among top golfers to tee off at Pune Open golf championship
PGTI regulars, including Olympian Udayan Mane and former Asian tour winner Rashid Khan, will look to put up a good show when they tee off at the Pune Open Golf Championship beginning on Wednesday.
The Rs. 40 lakh tournament will return for its sixth edition at the Poona Club Golf Course with the field comprising 126 players, including 123 professionals and three amateurs.
Besides Udayan and Rashid, some other leading names such as Ajeetesh Sandhu, Viraj Madappa, Veer Ahlawat, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu, Manu Gandas, Varun Parikh and Om Prakash Chouhan will also be participating in the event.
Former champions Kshitij Naveed Kaul (2019), Anura Rohana (2017) and Harendra Gupta (2016) will also be seen in action here.
Besides Sri Lankan Anura Rohana, the other international names include Sri Lankans Mithun Perera, N Thangaraja and K Prabagaran, Bangladeshis Jamal Hossain, Badal Hossain and Md Akbar Hossain and Nepal’s Sukra Bahadur Rai.
The host city of Pune will be represented by professionals Rohan Dhole Patil, Gurki Shergill (a former winner on PGTI), Pravin Pathare, Sameer M Shaikh, Rajiv Datar, Sagar Raghuvanshi and Sunil Baburao Galfade as well as amateurs Aaron Rockey and VP Vimal Dev.
The cut will be applied after the first 36 holes. The top 50 players and ties will make the halfway cut and continue to play for another 36 holes.
“I always look forward to playing in my hometown Pune as it gives me an opportunity to spend time with my family as I’m otherwise travelling for most part of the year.
“The season has not been great for me to be honest unlike the past season but I feel that I’m just getting warmed up now. The game, mindset and work ethic is there so it’s just a matter of time before I get back to my best.”
-PTI
TENNIS
National sub-junior championship
Saumya Ronde overcame an indifferent start to beat top seed Asmi Adkar 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the under-16 girls pre-quarterfinals of the Fenesta National sub-junior tennis championship at the DLTA Complex on Wednesday.
Asmi looked much in control of the proceedings with her technically superior game, but Saumya had the belief and drive to pip her at the post. In the quarterfinals, Saumya will play Sejal Bhutada who beat sixth-seed Sreenidhi Balaji in three sets.
Riya Sachdeva beat second seed Aakruti Sonkusare 6-4, 6-1 to set up a quarterfinal against Mahika Khanna.
Saijayani Banerjee, Laxmi Siri Dandu, Maaya Rajeshwaran and Aishwarya Jadhav were the others to make quarterfinals.
In the under-16 boys event, Hitesh Chauhan played a robust game to beat third seed Swastik Sharma 6-3, 1-6, 6-1. He will play Aarjun Pandit in the quarterfinals.
Kandhavel Mahalingam who had beaten top seed Tejas Ahuja in the second round, blanked Trishant Dandu, to set up a quarterfinal against Tanussh Ghildyal.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Karman Thandi in second round
New Delhi: Karman Kaur Thandi beat the second seed, Robin Anderson of the USA, in the first round of the $60,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Saguenay, Canada.
In the $159,360 Challenger in Busan, Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni reached the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Cheong-Eui Kim and Ji Hoon Son of Korea.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SQUASH
Yuvraj Wadhwani beats Sandhesh
Mumbai: Yuvraj Wadhwani bounced back from the brink of defeat to beat PR Sandhesh 10-12, 5-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-4 in the under-17 boys quarterfinals of the Shoppers Stop National junior squash championship at the Bombay Gymkhana on Wednesday.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
