TENNIS
Second seed Kashish Bhatia beat Sejal Bhutada 7-6(6), 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Wednesday.
Sejal had beaten Kashish in the final of the last tournament at the same venue. Kashish will play Kavya Khirwar in the semifinals and the other semifinal will be between top seed Sahira Singh and Lakshmi Prabha.
The results (quarterfinals):
Singles:Sahira Singh bt Shefali Arora 6-4, 6-4; Lakshmi Prabha bt Vanshika Choudhary 6-3, 6-3; Kavya Khirwar w.o. Rachita Talwar; Kashish Bhatia bt Sejal Bhutada 7-6(6), 6-0.
Doubles: Ishwari Matere & Kashish Bhatia bt Likhitha Landa & Eva Sahj 6-0, 6-1; Tanusshri Pandey & Kavya Khirwar bt Divya Bhardwaj & Sahira Singh 6-2, 6-3; Prathiba Narayan & Arthi Muniyan bt Omna Yadav & Sreenidhi Amireddy 7-6(5), 4-6, [12-10]; Gauri Mangaonkar & Diya Malik bt Mirudhulla Palanivel & Lakshmi Prabha 6-7(6), 6-2, [10-5].
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Ankita Raina missed two match points and got beaten 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(8) by the second seed Jule Niemeier of Germany in the pre-quarterfinals of the $100,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Tokyo, Japan, on Wednesday.
In the $80,000 Challenger in Istanbul, Turkey, Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, seeded No.1 with John-Patrick Smith of Australia beat Marius Copil and Victor Cornea of Romania 7-6(13), 7-6(8) in the doubles pre-quarterfinals.
The results
$130,000 Challenger, Shanghai, China
Singles (first round): Antoine Bellier (Sui) bt Arjun Kadhe 6-4, 7-5.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Markos Kalovelonis & Stefanos Sakellaridiss (Gre) bt Rithvik Bollipalli & Arjun Kadhe 2-3 (retired).
€118,000 Challenger, Tullln, Austria
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Maximilian Marterer & Daniel Masur (Ger) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 6-3.
$80,000 Challenger, Istanbul, Turkey
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & John-Patrick Smith (Aus) bt Marius Copil & Victor Cornea (Rou) 7-6(13), 7-6(8); Altug Celikbilek & Cem Ilkel (Tur) bt Niki Poonacha & Divij Sharan 6-7(1), 7-5, [10-7].
$25,000 ITF men, Kigali, Rwanda
Singles (first round): Atharva Sharma bt Ernest Habiyambere (Rwa) 6-3, 6-1; Rishab Agarwal bt Moritz Schroeter (Ger) 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-5; Yash Yadav bt Darrshan Suresh (Mas) 7-5, 7-6(3); Oliver Cfawford (USA) bt Arjun Mahadevan 6-0, 6-1; SD Prajwal Dev bt Hakizumwami Junior (Rwa) 6-3, 6-0; Ishaque Eqbal bt Julian DeSousa (Ned) 7-6(2), 7-6(11); Sai Karteek Reddy bt Rishi Reddy 6-3, 7-6(4); Raghav Jaisinghani bt Anurag Agarwal 6-1, 7-6(3); Mattias Southcombe (GBR) bt Kabir Hans 6-2, 6-3; Dylan Salton (RSA) bt Siddhant Banthia 6-2, 4-3 (retired).
$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand
Singles (first round): Siddharth Rawat bt Natthasith Kunsuwan (Tha) 6-2, 6-0.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Mitsuki Leong (Mas) & Faisal Qamar bt Michael Mathayomchand & Tanakorn Srirat (Tha) 7-6(4), 6-3; Rob Reynolds & James Watt (Nzl) bt Congsup Congcar (Tha) & Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-2, 6-2.
$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Alexis Gautier (Fra) bt Chirag Duhan 3-6, 6-1, 6-0.
$100,000 ITF women, Tokyo, Japan
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Jule Niemeier (Ger) bt Ankita Raina 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(8).
$25,000 ITF women, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand
Singles (first round): Park Sohyun (Kor) bt Zeel Desai 6-2, 6-2; Liu Fangzhou (Chn) bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 6-4, 7-6(6).
$15,000 ITF women, Shenzhen, China
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Fang An Lin (Tpe) & Yuan Chengyiyi (Chn) bt Sohan Sadiq & Sun Yingqun (Chn) 6-4, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Aruzhan Ssagandikova (Kaz) bt Aaddi Gupta 6-3, 6-1.
GOLF
Diksha aims for another big finish, eyes Order of Merit
India’s Diksha Dagar will aim to maintain her consistency at the Big Green Egg Open here while standing a chance to rise to the top of the Race to Costa Del Sol standings, also the Order of Merit for Ladies European Tour.
In order to do that, Diksha will have to win as France’s Celine Boutier and Spain’s Ana Pelaez Trivino — ranked first and second respectively — are missing the event.
Diksha, who won the Czech Ladies Open in June, has finished in top-10 in the last two starts — at the ISPS Handa Invitational and the Women’s Irish Open — which came on top of the best Major result by an Indian in Women’s Open.
There are still six events left in this season and one of them is at Diksha’s home, the Women’s Indian Open in October, which gives her a great chance to make a dash for the top honours in the Order of Merit.
