Indian sports news wrap, September 7

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on September 7.

FILE PHOTO: Lakshmi Prabha in action. | Photo Credit: JOTHI RAMALINGAM B/ The Hindu

TENNIS

Lakshmi Prabha reaches AITA women’s tennis tournament final

Third seed Lakshmi Prabha beat top seed Sahira Singh 6-3,, 5-7, 6-0 in the semifinals of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Thursday.

In the final, Lakshmi willl play fourth seed Kavya Khirwar.

Kavya made the doubles final as well in partnership with Tanushri Pandey, beating the top seeds Ishwari Matere and Kashish Bhatia in straight sets.

The results (semifinals)

Singles: Lakshmi Prabha bt Sahira Singh 6-3, 5-7, 6-0; Kavya Khirwar bt Kashish Bhatia 5-3 (conceded).

Doubles: Tanushri Pandey & Kavya Khirwar bt Ishwari Matere & Kashish Bhatia 6-4, 7-6(5); Prathiba Narayan & Arthi Muniyan bt Gauri Mangaonkar & Diya Malik 1-6, 6-3, [11-9].

- Kamesh Srinivasan

ROWING

Indian rowing contingent leaves for Asian Games

A 43-member Indian rowing contingent, including 10 support staff, left for the Hangzhou Asian Games scheduled to commence on September 23.

The rowers, 20 men and 13 women, will undergo a week-long acclimatisation-cum-training camp in Hangzhou before checking into the Games Village on September 16.

The government has sanctioned Rs one crore for the camp in Hangzhou.

India will be fielding its largest contingent of women rowers at the Asian Games as this is the first time Women’s Eight has been included in the continental event.

The contingent was given a rousing send-off by the Sports Authority of India officials on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Indian sailors and the first batch of boxers also left for China to train ahead of the multi-sport event.

While the Indian boxers are training in Wuyishan City, the sailors are training in Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre, which is also the venue for the Asian Games Sailing competitions.

- PTI

Atharva Sharma beats Dylan Salton in South Africa

Qualifier Atharva Sharma beat seventh seed Dylan Salton of South Africa 6-4, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday.

Atharva will challenge second seed Benjamin Lock of Zimbabwe in the quarterfinals. Rishab Agarwal and Ishaque Eqbal also made the quarterfinals, and will face the first and third seeds respectively.

The results:

€145,000 Challenger, Seville, Spain: Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sriram Ballaji & Fernando Romboli (Bra) bt Geoffrey Blancanezux & Calvin Hemery (Fra) 6-4, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Kigali, Rwanda: Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Oliver Crawford (USA) bt Sai Karteek Reddy 6-2, 6-3; Rishab Agarwal bt Yash Yadav 6-2, 6-1; Vadym Ursu (Ukr) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 0-6, 6-3; Atharva Sharma bt Dylan Salton (RSA) 6-4, 6-3; Damien Wenger (Sui) bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-0, 6-1; Ishaque Eqbal bt Lawrence Bataljin (Aus) 6-1, 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Siddhant Banthia & Sai Karteek Reddy bt Guefo Baldovinetti (Ita) & Raghav Jaisinghani 6-3, 6-2; Crentin Denolly (Fra) & Damien Wenger (Sui) bt Michael Sobhy (Egy) & Rishi Reddy 6-1, 6-1; Rishab Agarwal & Nichola Bybel (USA) bt Tushar Madan & Atharva Sharma 6-3, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand: Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Pruchya Isaro (Tha) bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-4, 7-6(2); Sidharth Rawat bt Wang Chukang (Chn) 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Maximus Jones (Tha) & Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) bt Mitsuki Leong (Mass) & Faisal Qamar 6-4, 7-6(5).

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia: Doubles (quarterfinals): Samir Banerjee (USA) & Chirag Duhan bt Samir Reguig (Alg) & Denis Spiridon (Ita) 6-4, 5-7, [11-9].

$100,000 ITF women, Tokyo, Japan: Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Arianne Hartono (Ned) & You Xiaodi (Chn) bt Ankita Raina & Kateryna Volodko (Ukr) 7-5, 6-1.

$40,000 ITF women, Saint-Palais-sur-Mer, France: Doubles (quarterfinals): Victoria Muntean (Fra) & Vasanti Shinde bt Tiphanie Lemaitre (Fra) & Ilay Yoruk (Tur) 7-5, 7-5.

$25,000 ITF women, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand: Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Daria Lodikova bt Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Doubles (quarterfinals): Shrivalli Bhamidipaty & Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Yu-Yun Li (Tpe) & Lanlana Tararudee (Tha) 3-6, 6-4, [10-2]; Yu-Chieh Hsieh (Tpe) & Salakthip Ounmuang (Tha) bt Adithya Karunaratne (Hkg) & Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-0, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia: Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Magdalini Adaloglou (Gre) & Krisstina Voznyak (Ukr) bt Chahd Berriri (Tun) & Vanshita Pathania 6-1, 6-1.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CHESS

Tata steel junior chess championship set to begin on Friday

Tata Steel Chess India tournament has brought some of the world’s biggest stars to Kolkata, which is about 300 km from Jameshedpur. The Tata Steel Asian junior chess championship, which opens here on Friday, has attracted some of the future stars from the continent.

The tournament, which was inaugurated by five-time Viswanathan on Thursday, will have competitions in all the three formats – classical, rapid and blitz. More than 100 players from countries such as Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Indonesia will compete.

Players from Russia will play under the FIDE flag. The top seed in the classical event in the open section is in fact a Russian – Aleksey Grebnev, with an Elo rating of 2486. L.R. Srihari is the highest-rated Indian.

Kazakhstan’s Nazarke Nurgali (2268) heads the girls’ list, followed by the host’s Saina Salonika (2140).

The tournament begins with the rapid championship, followed by classical and blitz. It concludes on September 15.

-P.K. Ajith Kumar

GOLF

Viraj Madappa best Indian in Korea in Tied-26th place

India’s Viraj Madappa, who has had a patchy season, opened with a solid three-under 69 to lie tied 26th on a low-scoring day at the Shinhan Donghae Open golf here on Thursday.

Spain’s young star David Puig fired an eight-under-par 64 to take the lead on the opening day despite arriving only on Tuesday night from Spain, for his first-ever visit to Korea.

The other Indians had a modest start as Veer Ahlawat hauled himself up from 1-over after 14 holes to 2-under 70 with three birdies in last four holes and he was lying tied 46, while Ajeetesh Sandhu (72) was lying T-94.

- PTI