July 5, Indian sports news wrap

July 5 sports wrap: Here are all the major developments in Indian sports today.

Qualifier Sonal Patil knocked out the top seed Sachi Sharma 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Rs 100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Monday. (Representative Image)

ATHLETICS

Arokia Rajiv tells AFI he will not be able to feature in retrial for World Championships

Quarter-miler Arokia Rajiv has told the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) that he will not be able to take part in the retrial run for a spot in the 4x400m relay team for the upcoming World Championships.

Sources in the know of things informed that Rajiv is unwell and is set to give the retrial a miss even though that may cost him a place in the Indian team for the July 15-24 World Championships in Eugene, USA.

"He has told the AFI that he will not be able to take part in the second trial at NIS Patiala on July 8," a top source, who is privy to the development, told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

Rajiv, woman quarter-miler Aishwarya Mishra and long jumper Jeswin Aldrin had "failed to impress" in the trials called by AFI on Monday in Thiruvananthapuram.

AFI President Adille Sumariwalla had said all the three athletes have been given another chance to prove themselves on Friday at NIS Patiala.

"The performances of all three of them were not up to the mark, nothing to be impressed of. They did not meet the standards," Sumariwalla said on Monday.

"But we have given them another chance. They can come and undergo another trial on Friday at NIS Patiala, where the Junior World Championships trial will take place on that day," he had said.

Sumariwalla had said that Rajiv would be selected for the World Championships only if his performance is satisfactory during the retrial in Patiala.

"We will select him (Arokia) only if his performance is up to the mark. Otherwise, we can select only five athletes in the 4x400m relay squad," Sumariwalla said.

Rajiv had clocked 47.89 seconds, well below his personal and season's best. Aishwarya, who was named in the World Championships squad subject to clocking close to 52 seconds in the 400m selection trial, could complete the race in 53.15 seconds on Monday.

Aldrin, who was not named in the team on the ground that his performance has dropped consistently after jumping 8.26m during the Federation Cup in April, could only jump a best of 7.99m, while the stipulated mark was close to 8.10m.

- Press Trust of India

BADMINTON

CWG-bound women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand exits from Malaysia Masters

Kuala Lumpur, Jul 5 (PTI) India's Commonwealth Games-bound women's doubles duo of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand made a first round exit from the Malaysia Masters badminton tournament, losing to local pair of Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan here on Tuesday.

The Indian pair was outplayed by the Malaysians 14-21 14-21 in the opening round match that lasted just 33 minutes.

None of the Indians won any match on Tuesday with two other women's doubles pairs also suffering first round defeats.

The combination of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam lost 7-21 10-21 to Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan while Pooja Dandu and Arathi Sara went down to Bulgaria's Gabriela Stoeva and Stefani Stoeva 17-21 17-21.

In the women's singles, Malvika Bansod also suffered a 10-21 17-21 defeat against host country's Goh Jin Wei in 33 minutes to exit from the Super 500 tournament.

Olympic medallists PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will feature in the women's singles first round matches on Wednesday.

Parupalli Kashyap, HS Prannoy and B Sai Praneeth will also open their campaigns in men's singles on Wednesday.

- PTI

TENNIS

Asian under-14 tournament Wild card entrant Prakaash Sarran beat second seed Saksham Bikram Shah of Nepal 7-6(4), 6-1 in the boys pre-quarterfinals of the Asian under-14 tennis tournament at the Tennis Project, Baliawas, on Tuesday. In the quarterfinals, Prakaash will play fifth seed Praneeth Doragari who eased past Tanussh Gureja for the loss of one game. In the girls section, Diya Chaudhary beat fourth seed Hirwa Rangani 7-5, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals. She will play Saanvi Reddy who beat eighth seed Manvi Gupta 6-3, 6-1. Miraya Agrawal got past third seed Nandini Kanssal as the latter retired in the third set.  

The results (pre-quarterfinals): Boys: Om Verma bt Chandra Kopparapu 6-0, 6-0; Shashank Sai Prasad Karnati bt Kanishk Dhingra 6-3, 6-3; Tavish Pahwa bt Amrit Dhankar 6-4, 6-3; Mohhd. Shees bt Mrigank Rawat 6-3, 6-1; Kushagra Arora bt Ayan Dahiya 6-0, 6-4; Rudra Batham bt Aarav Dhekal 6-2, 6-2; Praneeth Doragari bt Tanush Gureja 6-1, 6-0; Prakaash Sarran bt Saksham Bikram Shah (Nep) 7-6(4), 6-1. Girls: Vennela Gaarugupati bt Ridhima Singh 6-1, 6-2; Neelakshi Lather bt Vaishnavi Singh 6-2, 6-1; Miraya Agrawal bt Nandini Kansal 4-6, 6-3 (retired); Sri Lakshmi Purmani bt Sarah Chaudhary 6-1, 6-2; Saanvi Reddy bt Manvi Gupta 6-3, 6-1; Diya Chaudhary bt Hirwa Rangani 7-5, 6-2; Snigdha Ruhil bt Aura Malik 6-3, 6-0; Aleena Farid bt Rujula Dubey 6-4, 6-2.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

AITA women’s tourney Lucky loser Kavya Khirwar beat qualifier Harnoor Kaur Sidhu 6-0, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s ranking tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Tuesday. In the quarterfinals, Kavya will play seventh seed Shruti Gupta who beat Sanjami Arora 6-2, 6-4. Another lucky loser, Joell Nichole knocked out sixth seed Ritu Ohlyan 6-3, 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal against second seed Shefali Arora. The results:

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Sonal Patil bt Abhilasha Bista 6-2, 6-0; Hannah Nagpal bt Sanjivani Kutwal 6-3, 6-1; Kavya Khirwar bt Harnoor Kaur Sidhu 6-0, 6-1; Shruti Gupta bt Sanjami Arora 6-2, 6-4; Riya Uboveja bt Medhavi Singh 6-4, 6-1; Hitakamya Singh Narwal bt Gia Alana Pereira 6-1, 6-2; Joell Nichole bt Ritu Ohlyan 6-3, 6-3; Shefali Arora bt Kanupriya Rajawat 6-1 (conceded).

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Sumit falls in first round

Sumit Nagal was beaten 7-6(4), 6-3 by Oleksii Krutykh of Ukraine in the first round of the € 134,920 Challenger tennis tournament in Germany on Tuesday.

The results: €134,920 Challenger, Braunschweig, Germany Singles (first round): Oleksii Krutykh (Ukr) bt Sumit Nagal 7-6(4), 6-3. $25,000 ITF men, Getxo, Spain Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Alejandro Garcia & Alex Martinez (Esp) bt Ssean Hess (Arg) & Adil Kalyanpur 2-6, 7-6(4), [10-3]. $15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (first round): Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt Niki Poonacha 7-5, 7-5.

- Kamesh Srinivasan