Indian sports news wrap, September 28

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on September 28.

Indian badminton team continued their impressive run at the BWF World Junior Championships to enter the quarterfinals in the mixed team event. | Photo Credit: BAI MEDIA

BADMINTON

India enters quarter-finals at the Badminton World Junior Championships

Indian badminton team continued their impressive run at the BWF World Junior Championships to enter the quarterfinals in the mixed team event after securing a commanding 4-1 win over Germany in their final Group D match in Spokane, USA.

The Indian shuttlers were outstanding against the Germany team as the pair of Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Vaishnavi Khadkekar gave India an early lead with a thrilling 21-13, 23-21 win over David Eckerlin and Amelie Lehmann in the mixed doubles match.

In the boys’ singles event Ayush Shetty powered to victory against Luis Pongratz with commanding scores of 21-12, 21-7, displaying his dominance on the court.

In the girls’ singles, Unnati Hooda displayed her prowess, securing a convincing 21-12, 21-11 victory against defeating Selin Hübsch, leaving no room for Germany to come back.

Later in the closely contested match in the boys’ doubles showdown, Divyam Arora and Nicholas Raj fell short against opponents David Eckerlin and Simon Krax with scores of 18-21, 21-18, 18-21. On the other hand, the girls’ doubles pairing of Vennala Kalagotla and Shriyanshi Valishetty brought their A-game, securing a victory against Amelie Lehmann and Cara Siebrecht with scores of 21-15, 21-18.

This victory against Germany solidifies India’s position as the group leader and also guarantees India’s place in the quarter-finals where it is set to face Malaysia later tonight.

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Golconda Masters 2023: Akshay Sharma holds on to halfway lead after dominant display

Akshay Sharma of Chandigarh continued his dominant display by firing a five-under 65 that saw him hold on to the halfway lead at a total of 14-under 126 at the Bollineni Panache & Telangana Tourism present Telangana Golconda Masters 2023 being played at the Hyderabad Golf Association (HGA) here on Thursday.

Delhi’s Sachin Baisoya matched Akshay’s first-round effort by shooting a tournament low of nine-under 61 on Thursday that placed him one shot behind the latter in second place.

The cut was declared at one-over 141. Fifty-seven professionals made the cut.

Akshay Sharma (61-65), the first-round leader by two shots, put together three birdies and a bogey on his back-nine as he was brilliant on the greens from a range of 10 feet. The 33-year-old two-time winner on the PGTI, picked up another birdie on the second hole to continue his march forward.

Faridabad’s Divesh Rana made a hole-in-one on the 11th during his round of 70. Divesh was placed tied 28th at two-under 138. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Akshay found himself in difficult spots on both the sixth and eighth but managed to extract birdies on both occasions. Sharma’s drive landed in the trees on the sixth from where he chipped out before coming up with his best shot of the day that stopped six feet from the pin.

“My ball-striking was once again the best part of my game today. I hit 16 greens in regulation in round two and kept creating chances for myself. I’m in a good mental space at the moment as I’m visualizing and executing my shots very well,” Akshay said.

“That helped me get out of trouble towards the end of my round. I’ll just look to keep going in the same fashion over the next two days,” he said.

Sachin Baisoya (66-61) kept pace with the leader with his own moments of brilliance during his flawless 61, which included an eagle and seven birdies. Sachin’s super effort helped him jump nine spots on the leaderboard.

Yashas Chandra and Ravi Kumar fired rounds of 67 to be tied for third at 10-under 130.

Aman Raj (65) was a further shot back in fifth position.

Local lad Mohd Azhar (68) was tied seventh at seven-under 133. Azhar was the only Hyderabad-based player to make the cut.

Faridabad’s Divesh Rana made a hole-in-one on the 11th during his round of 70. Divesh was placed tied 28th at two-under 138.

Among the prominent names, TATA Steel PGTI Rankings leader Om Prakash Chouhan was tied 22nd at three-under 137, Rahil Gangjee was tied 35th at one-under 139, while Udayan Mane missed the cut.

V V SUBRAHMANYAM

TENNIS

ITF Masters: Fourth seed Dilip beats second seed Ashish in over-60 final

Fourth seed Dilip Singh Nongmaithem beat second seed Ashish Sen 7-6(5), 6-3 in the over-60 final of the ITF Masters tennis tournament at the Singha Sports Academy.

The results (finals):

Men: Over-30: Pulkit Mishra bt Shikhar Gaddh 6-2, 6-1. Over-35: Ketan Dhumal bt Ravindranath Pandey 6-2, 6-4. Over-40: Raj Kumar bt Abhijeet Muzumdar 6-1, 6-0. Over-45: Avinash Kunwar w.o. Nishant Goel. Over-50: Ajit Maruti Sail bt Ranga Rao 6-1, 3-0 (retired). Over-55: Pawan Kapoor bt Jitendra Pradhan 6-1, 6-1. Over-60: Dilip Singh Nongmaithem bt Ashish Sen 7-6(5), 6-3. Over-65: Bhag Nand Singh Negi bt BD Agnihotri 6-2, 6-1. Over-70: AJS Chhatwal bt George Thomas 7-5, 6-2. Over-75: Ashok Jindel bt CBS Vara Prasad 6-1, 6-3.

Women: Over-35: Jasleen Randhawa bt Komal Aggarwal 6-1, 6-1

-Team Sportstar

Mukund Sasikumar in quarterfinals

Mukund Sasikumar beat Nikita Ianin 7-6(3), 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, on Thursday.

The results:

€73,000 Challenger, Braga, Portugal Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Javier Cosano & Pablo Ruiz (Esp) bt Purav Raja & Hunter Reese (USA) 6-1, 6-2.

$25,000 ITF men, Zlatibor, Serbia Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Abraham Asaba (Gha) & Nicolas Buitrago (Col) bt David Pichler (Aut) & Parikshit Somani 6-4, 7-5.

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Mukund Sasikumar bt Nikita Ianin 7-6(3), 6-3.

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Thomas Braithwaite (Aus) & Max Wiskandt (Ger) bt Rushil Khosla & Lucca Pinto (Bra) 7-6(5), 6-0.

$15,000 ITF men, Albuquerque, USA Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Danil Panarin & Rei Sakamoto (Jpn) bt Jaimee Angele (Fra) & Sathi Chirala 6-3, 7-5.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Lucia Domingo (Esp) bt Anjali Rathi 6-1, 6-2.

- Kamesh Srinivasan