Indian sports news wrap, September 13

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on September 13.

S. Rohith Krishna, left, defeated Ritvik Krishnan to move into joint lead after the seventh round of the Asian junior chess championship at Jamshedpur.  | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

CHESS

Asian junior chess: Gebnev joined in lead by Rohith, Aswath; Tejaswini, Bristy still at top in girls’ event

Top seed Aleksey Gebnev from Russia was joined at the top by two Indians on Wednesday at the Asian junior chess championship.

Third seed S. Rohith Krishna and 13th seed S. Aswath moved into the lead position after their wins against Ritvik Krishnan and Gilbert Tarigan (Indonesia), respectively.

That was after Grebnev was held to a draw by Ayush Sharma on the top board. With just two rounds remaining, the leaders are on 5.5 points and are followed half a point behind by Sambit Panda, Manish Cristiano, Ayush and L. Srihari.

In the girls’ section, 13th seed Bristy Mukherjee and 11th seed G. Tejaswini are sharing the lead with six points each. That was because Tejaswini beat the other overnight leader, Mrittika Mallick, and Bristy overcame Shubhi Gupta. Top seed Nazerke Nurgali of Kazakhstan and third seed Bommini Mounika Akshaya are in second position with five points each.

Important results (seventh round, Indians unless specified)

Open: Aleksey Grebnev (FIDE) 5.5 drew with Ayush Sharma 5; S. Rohith Krishna 5.5 bt Ritvik Krishnan 4.5; S. Aswath 5.5 by Gilbert Tarigan (Ina) 4.5; L.R. Shrihari 4.5 lost to Sambit Panda 5; M. Mohamed Anees 4 lost to Manish Cristiano 5; Avinash Ramesh 4.5 drew with Mayank Chakkraborty 4.5; L. Srihari 5 bt Reja Neer Manon (Ban) 4; Dilshan Liyanage (SL) 4 drew with Alekhya Mukhopadhyay 4.5; Arun Daakshin 3.5 lost to Zhangir Bizhigitov (Kaz) 4.5; Viresh Sharnarthi 3.5 lost to Kushagra Mohan 4.5; G.B. Harshavardhan 3.5 lost to Ajay Parvathareddy 4.5.

Girls: Mrittika Mallick 5 lost to G. Tejaswini 6; Bristy Mukherjee 6 bt Shubhi Gupta 4.5; Keerti Reddy 4.5 lost to Nazerke Nurgali (Kaz) 5.5; Bommini Mounika Akshaya 5.5 bt M.K. Poorna Sri 4; Ayaulym Kaldarova (Kaz) 4.5 drew with Saina Salonika 4.5; Mrudul Dehankar 5 bt Kriti Patel 4; Sherali Pattnaik 4.5 drew with Divya Patil 4.5; Dahamadi Sanudula (SL) 4 drew with V. Rindhiya 4; Dhanashree Khairmode 4 drew with Bhagyashree Patil 4; Dakshita Kumawat 3.5 lost to Zeinep Sultanbek (Kaz) 4.5; L. Jyothsna 3.5 lost to Anastasia Ivanova (FIDE) 4.5.

- P. K. Ajith Kumar

TENNIS

Arjun Kadhe loses in pre-quarterfinals of Guangzhou Challenger

Qualifier Arjun Kadhe was beaten 6-4, 6-2 by top seed Christopher O’Connell of Australia in the pre-quarterfinals of the $80,000 Challenger tennsi tournament in Guangzhou, China, on Wednesday.

RESULTS

€145,000 Challenger, Szczecin, Poland

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Roman Jebavy & Petr Nouza (Cze) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 7-5, 4-6, [14-12].

€118,000 Challenger, Rennes, France

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Hunter Reese (USA) & Szyon Walkow (Pol) bt Sriram Balaji & Andre Begemann (Ger) 7-6(3), 3-6, [12-10]; Antoine Escoffier (Fra) & Niki Poonacha bt Theo Arribage & Luca Sanchez (Fra) 7-5, 6-4.

$80,000 Challenger, Guangzhou, China

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Christopher O’Connell (Aus) bt Arjun Kadhe 6-4, 6-2.

$25,000 ITF men, Madrid, Spain

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Pablo Ginel & Jaime Pelaez (Esp) bt Ignasi Genover (Esp) & Bharath Kumaran 6-4, 7-5.

$25,000 ITF men, Kigali, Rwanda

Singles (first round): Michael Sobhy (Egy) bt Atharva Sharma 3-6, 6-4, 6-4; SD Prajwal Dev bt Claude Ishimwe (Rwa) 6-0, 6-0; Oliver Crawford (USA) bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-2, 6-1; Kabir Hans bt Hakizumwami Junior (Rwa) 6-4, 6-2; Guelfo Baldovinetti (Ita) bt Dharmil Shah 6-2, 6-2; Sai Karteek Reddy bt Arjun Mahadevan 6-3, 6-4; Corentin Denolly (Fra) bt Rishi Reddy 6-2, 6-2; Siphosothando Montsi (RSA) bt Tushar Madan 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia

Singles (first round): Louis Tessa (Fra) bt Chirag Duhan 7-5, 6-4.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

ITF Juniors: Tanishq beats top seed Vraj Gohli

Tanishq Jadhav beat top seed Vraj Gohil 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in the boys third round of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Ahmedabad City Foundation courts on Wednesday.

In the girls section, Mehak Kapoor beat second seed Amodini Naik 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

The results (third round)

Boys: Tanishq Jadhav bt Vraj Gohil 6-2, 3-6, 7-5; Aniketh Venkataraman bt Tanay Ssharma 6-1, 6-2; Smit Patel bt Pranav Korade 4-6, 6-0, 7-6(4); Tavish Pahwa bt Naishik Reddy Ganagama 6-3, 6-1; Mahit Mekala bt Dhruv Sachdeva 7-5, 6-0; Vatsal Manikantan bt Praneel Sharma 6-2, 7-6(9); Daksh Kukreti bt Anurag Shourya Kallambella 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2; Samarth Sahita bt Aum Parikh 6-2, 6-3.

Girls: Prisha Shinde bt Pehal Kharadkar 6-2, 6-0; Anushka Bhola bt Sree Syleswari Velmanikandan 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (conceded); Priyanka Rana bt Saily Thakkar 6-4, 4-6, 6-2; Kashvi Sunil bt Ishi Maheshwari 6-3, 3-0 (conceded); Ruma Gaikaiwari bt Avani Chitale 7-6(1), 6-4; Yashika Shokeen bt Janvi Asawa 7-6(5), 6-3; Harshini Nagaraj bt Shaivi Dalal 6-2, 6-1; Mehak Kapoor bt Amodini Naik 6-2, 2-6, 6-2.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Ramanathan and Digvijay to promote tennis at Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad

Ramkumar Ramanathan and Digvijay Pratap Singh are scheduled to promote tennis at the Delhi Public School Ghaziabad, Meerut Road, on September 18.

The two, busy getting ready for the Davis Cup tie against Morocco, scheduled to be played in Lucknow on September 16 and 17, will also be accompanied by the team coach Zeeshan Ali.

“It is a great opportunity to popularise tennis among the youngsters of Ghaziabad”, said Zeeshan Ali.

“As a school, we like to be a trendsetter to inspire the youth of Ghaziabad in every field, from academics to sports, fine arts, theatre and music. I am thankful to the tennis icons, Zeeshan Ali, Ramkumar Ramanathan and Digvijay Singh for accepting our invitation to motivate the students to play tennis and be physically fit”, said the school principal, Captain Dinisha Bhardwaj.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

BASKETBALL

Junior NBA National C’Ships to be held between September 15 and 17

The Reliance Foundation Junior NBA National basketball championship will be staged at the Jaypee Greens Sports Complex in Greater Noida from September 15 to 17.

The champion boys and girls teams in the under-12 and under-14 sections from 14 cities will be competing in the championship.\

The regional competition in the 3x3 format was held across the country in Chennai, Kottayam, Mumbai, Kochi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Delhi, Aizawwl and Jamshedpur.

Apart from the competition, featuring more than 1700 school teams in all, there were also coaches clinics and special training stint for outstanding players in Aizawl and Chennai. The participants of the additional training camps were also given basketball equipment to support their training and development.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Neha Tripathi takes one-shot lead in 12h Leg of Hero WPGT

Neha Tripathi dropped a late bogey on the 17th hole but managed to take a one-shot lead after the first round of the 12th Leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Golden Greens Golf Club here on Wednesday.

Neha, who ended her title drought of more than four-and-a-half years when she won the 10th Leg of the Hero WPGT this season in July, carded 4-under 68.

Trailing Neha by one shot were Gaurika Bishnoi and Anisha Agarwalla, who shot 69 each, while Riya Yadav, who had an eagle and a hole-in-one in the space of four holes, and Ridhima Dilawari shot 2-under 70 each.

Asmitha Sathish was the other player to shoot under par at 1-under 71 to find herself in sixth place.

Tvesa Malik, who had a bogey and a triple bogey on the first and second holes, scored 3-over 75 and was T-13.

Neha started strongly with birdies on the second and the fourth and added a third birdie on the ninth, and turned in 3-under.

She landed an eagle on the Par-3 11th to go 5-under. A string of pars over the next five holes was followed by her lone bogey on 17th.

Anisha had a steady front nine with one birdie and no bogeys. She dropped a double bogey on 10th, but recovered with an eagle on the 11th. A bogey on the 12th was followed by three pars and three birdies in the last three holes for a roller-coaster ride on the back nine.

Gaurika had three birdies on either side of the Golden Greens course, but also dropped shots on the first, 10th and 11th.

Riya had a memorable round, which had one bogey in first four holes followed by an eagle on the Par-5 fifth. Three holes later, she had a hole-in-one on the Par-3 eighth and followed it up with a birdie on ninth to make the turn in 4-under 32.

On the back nine she had a double bogey on 13th and a bogey on the 14th but closed with a birdie on 18th.

-PTI