May 31: Indian sports news wrap of the day

May 31 Daily Sports Wrap: Here are all the major developments from Indian sports today.

File Photo: Former world number one Elavenil, Ramita and Shreya had reached the gold medal clash after two rounds of qualification on Monday.

SHOOTING

Elavenil, Ramita and Shreya win gold in women's 10m air rifle team competition

India opened their account at the ongoing ISSF World Cup with the trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita and Shreya Agrawal claiming the gold medal in the 10m air rifle team women competition in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The Indian trio outplayed Denmark represented by Anna Nielsen, Emma Koch and Rikke Maeng Ibsen, 17-5 in the gold medal contest. Poland won bronze in the event.

Former world number one Elavenil, Ramita and Shreya had reached the gold medal clash after two rounds of qualification on Monday.

The Indian trio had first topped the qualification stage one with a combined effort of 944.4 across 90 shots. They then came second in stage two behind Denmark, to make the title round.

In men's air rifle team competition, Indian troika of Rudrankksh Patil, Paarth Makhija and Dhanush Srikanth fell short in their bronze medal match against Croatia, going down 10-16.

The 12-member Indian rifle squad now finds itself at the fifth spot in the medals tally with Serbia leading the field with two golds and a total of four medals.

- PTI

TENNIS

Maaya Rajeshwaran of Tamil Nadu knocked out top seed Niyati Kukreti of Uttarakhand 7-6(6), 6-3 in the girls' second round of the Ramesh Desai memorial National under-16 tennis championship at the KDLTA Complex on Tuesday.

In the boys' section, Vedant Bhasin of Maharashtra beat fifth seed Dhruv Sachdeva of Haryana 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

The results (second round): Boys: Kriish Tyagi bt Aaradhya Dwivedi 6-0, 6-2; Venkat Batlanki bt Ashwin Narsinghani 6-4, 6-0; Vansh Nandal bt Namish Sharma 6-1, 6-2; Vedant Bhasin bt Dhruv Sachdeva 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Arjun Rathi bt Parth Deorukhkar 6-4, 2-6, 7-5; Tejas Ahuja bt Vishnu Balachandar 6-3, 6-3; Aarjun Pandit bt Abhiram Nilakhe 3-6, 6-4, 7-5; Mayank Sharma bt Avaneesh Chafle 6-4, 7-5; Priyansh Barthwal bt Smit Patel 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(5); Rethin Pranav bt Aarav Verma 6-1, 6-1. Girls: Maaya Rajeshwaran bt Niyati Kukreti 7-6(6), 6-3; Amodini Naik bt Saumitra Verma 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-1; Asmi Adkar bt Siya Prasade 6-3, 6-1; Sreemanya Anugonda bt Nainika Bendram 6-1, 6-2; Aarushi Raval bt Kumkum Kumari 6-2, 6-4; Aakruti Sonkusare bt Mahika Khanna 6-1, 6-3;Rishita Basireddy bt Saily Thakkar 6-2, 6-0; Suhani Gaur bt Shagun Kumari 6-3, 6-3; Manognya Madasu bt Sejal Bhutada 7-5, 6-1. -Kamesh Srinivasan

 

Zeel wins a marathon in Georgia

Zeel Desai battled for three hours and 38 minutes to beat Darya Shauha 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-6(3) in the first round in a draw of 64 in the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Georgia on Tuesday.

The results: $15,000 ITF men, Tay Ninh, Vietnam Singles (first round): Takuya Kumasaka (Jpn) bt SD Prajwal Dev 7-6(2), 6-2. Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Suraj Prabodh & Muthu Aadhitiya Senthilkumar bt Tu Le Khanh Duy & Ha Minh Duc Vu (Vie) 6-4, 7-5; Minh Tuam Pham & Linh Giang Trinh (Vie) bt Patrick Fitzgerald (Aus) & Nishant Dabas 6-2, 6-1. $15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (first round): Rishab Agarwal bt Dusan Rsovac (Aus) 2-6, 6-3, 6-0; Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-4, 7-6(6). Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ray Ho (Tpe) & Tao Mu (Chn) bt Maik Steiner (Ger) & Karunuday Singh 6-4, 6-3. $25,000 ITF women, Tbilisi, Georgia Singles (first round): Zeel Desai bt Darya Shauha 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-6(3). $15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (first round): Wei Sijia (Chn) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-3, 6-1. Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ferdaous Bahri & Feriel Mahbouli (Tun) bt Emilia Mangolina & Paavanii Paathak 6-2, 6-3. -Kamesh Srinivasan

 

CHESS

Maharashtra Open chess: Smooth start for Amonatov, Lalith Babu

Grandmaster Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan started his campaign in the inaugural Maharashtra International Open GM chess tournament with a confident win over India's Anish Gandhi in Pune on Tuesday.

Fresh from a victory in the KIIT GM Open, the Tajik GM, the top seed, showed his class playing with white pieces in a Sicilian game against Gandhi.

He won in 35 moves in a Sicilian Variation game.

Second-seeded M R Lalith Babu, the highest rated Indian in the fray, encountered stiff resistance from Joshua A P in a Queen's Gambit Declined game before winning in 44 moves, while the fourth seed Alexei Federov got the better of Tejaswani Sagar after 43 moves.

Fifth seed Deep Sengupta of India posted a win over Atul Dahale in 38 moves.

Important results: Round 1: GM Farrukh Amonatov (1) beat Anish Gandhi (0); WIM Tejaswini Sagar (0) lost to GM Alexei Federov (1); GM Deep Sengupta (1) beat Atul Dahale (0); Aanjaneya Phatak (0) lost to GM V Karthik (1); GM Mikhail Nikitenko (1) beat C M Manisha Kadam (0); GM M R Lalith Baby (1) beat Joshua AP (0).

ATHELTICS

Indian relay campers’ season-opener in Erzurum in early June

After leaving for Antalya in mid-April, the Indian quartermilers and relay runners will have their first competition in Turkey in early June.

“They will run in Erzurum on June 3 and 4 and will return to India on June 7,” said chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair on Tuesday.

Incidentally, Erzurum will host the Balkan Relays on June 4 and 5 and that could be the Indians’ international season-opener in Turkey.

- Stan Rayan