Indian sports news wrap, April 7

Here are all the major updates in Indian sports on April 7.

The collaboration between ICON Sports Academy and Delhi Capitals began in January 2023. | Photo Credit: Delhi Capitals

TENNIS

 ATP 250 Marrakech: Balaji and Jeevan in semifinal

Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Tallon griekspoor and Botic Van De Zandschulp 7-6(3), 4-6, [10-8] to enter the doubles semifinals fo the €630,705 ATP tennis tournament in Marrakech, Morocco.

The Indian pair had earlier knocked out the top seeds Marcel Granollers and Matwe Middelkoop 6-4, 7-6(1) in the first round.

The results

$713,495 ATP, Houston, USA Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Robert Galloway (USA) & Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela (mex) bt Yuki Bhambri & Saketh Myneni 7-6(6), 2-6, [10-5].

€630,705 ATP, Marrakech, Morocco Doubles (quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Tallon Griekspoor & Botic Van De Zandschulp (Ned) 7-6(3), 4-6, [10-8]; Pre-quarterfinals: Balaji & Jeevan bt Marcel Granollers (Esp) & Matwe Middelkoop (Ned) 6-4, 7-6(1).

$259,303 WTA, Bogota, Colombia Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Oksana Kalashnikova & Katarzyna Piter (Pol) bt Jessy Rompies (Ina) & Prarthana Thombare 7-5, 6-2.

€73,000 Challenger, Murcia, Spain Doubles (quarterfinals): Billy Harris (GBR) & Akira Santillan (Aus) bt Arjun Kadhe & Kaichi Uchida (Jpn) 6-7(5), 7-5, [10-6]; Pre-quarterfinals: Arjun & Kaichi bt Alberto Campos & Pablo Ruiz (Esp) 5-7, 6-2, [15-13].

$25,000 ITF women, Bujumbura, Burundi Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Alice Robbe (Fra) bt Sravya Shivani 6-3, 6-3; Tilwith Di Girolami (Bel) bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 3-6, 7-5, 6-4; Cristina Dinu (rou) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-0, 6-3. Doubles (quarterfinals): Alice Robbe & Caroline Romeo (Fra) bt Sharmada Balu & Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-0, 7-5.

$15,000 ITF women, Telde, Spain Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Claudia Ferrer (Esp) bt Vasanti Shinde 6-1, 6-2; First round: Vasanti bt Carmen Martinez (Esp) 6-4, 6-4. Doubles (quarterfinals): Celia Ruiz (Esp) & Vasanti Shinde t Maria Bergen (Ukr) & Shin Jiho (Kor) 3-6, 6-3, [10-8].

$15,000 ITF women, Singapore Singles (quarterfinals): Ho Ching Wu (Hkg) bt Madhurima Sawant 6-1, 6-0; Pre-quarterfinals: Madhurima bt Anja Nayar (Aus) 5-2 (retired); Michika Ozeki (Jpn) bt Smriti Bhasin 6-1, 6-2; Emily Welker (Ger) bt Snehal Mane 6-0, 6-0. Doubles (quarterfinals): Man Ng (Hkg) & Hanna Vinahradava bt Snehal Mane & Madhurima Sawant 6-2, 6-3.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Asian under-14 tournament - Bhubaneswar

Top seed Maaya Rajeshwaran beat Natrada Sakulvongtana of Thailand 6-4, 6-4 to set up a title clash with second seed Jiyun Oh of Korea in the Asian under-14 tennis tournament on Friday.

RESULTS

Boys (semifinals): Min Hyuk Cho (Kor) bt Alex Lap Hang Hui (Hkg) 6-3, 6-3; Wonmin Kim (Kor) bt Andre Lam Jun Bart (Hkg) 6-2, 3-6, 6-0; Quarterfinals: Alex Hui (Hkg) bt Prakaash Sarran 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Girls (semifinals): Maaya Rajeshwaran bt Natrada Sakulvongtana (Tha) 6-4, 6-4; Jiyun Oh (Kor) bt Harithashree Venkatesh 6-0, 6-2; Quarterfinals: Maaya bt Nitya Madduri (Hkg) 6-1, 6-2; Harithashree bt Gwenn Kurniawan (Ina) 6-1, 6-1.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Ramkumar sails into semifinals of ITF Futures in Chennai

Indian players dominated proceedings in the B. R. Adithyan Memorial ITF Futures tennis tournament on Friday booking all the four semifinal spots in the singles event.

The doubles final will also be an all-Indian affair.

No 2 seed Ramanathan Ramkumar beat fellow Indian Nikhil Poonacha 6-3,6-4 to book a semifinal clash against compatriot Sidharth Rawat.

The top-seeded Vladyslav Orlov of Ukraine bowed out of the tournament,retiring after being a set and 2-4 down in the second against Tamil Nadu player Manish Sureshkumar.

The match featured long baseline rallies with both players in good form. Midway into the first set it was obvious that Orlov wasn’t in the prime of his fitness after long matches in the last 2 rounds. Manish took advantage of the superior fitness on the day with long, aggressive baseline hitting constantly putting Orlov on the defensive.

The match ended with Orlov retiring when he was 2-4 down in the second set after losing the first 4-6.

Rawat, meanwhile edged out David Perez Sanz 7-5,7-6 (7). The 3rd-seed Digvijay Pratap Singh ousted the 5th seeded Florent Bax 6-3,6-2 in the other quarterfinal.

The doubles final will be between Vishnu Vardhan and Nitin Kumar Sinha and the team of Sai Karteek Reddy and T Macherla.

-PTI

CRICKET

Delhi Capitals opens its first Cricket Academy in the Northeast

The JSW-GMR co-owned IPL franchise Delhi Capitals has joined hands with ICON Sports Academy to open its first DC Cricket Academy in the Northeast. The collaboration between ICON Sports Academy and Delhi Capitals began in January 2023, but the official announcement about the new DC Cricket Academy was made during a press conference in Guwahati on Friday

The DC ICON Sports Academy is the first cricket facility in Guwahati, which has an indoor training area. The academy also provides accommodation facilities and multiple turfs for several budding cricketers to hone their skills. The youngsters in the northeastern region have a great opportunity to grow as cricketers with the support of highly qualified BCCI Level 2 coaches and world-class training facilities.

Speaking about the association with ICON Sports Academy, Sourav Ganguly, Director of Cricket said, “The Delhi Capitals Cricket Academy in Guwahati will give many young boys and girls an opportunity to train in good gear and pitches. I am certain that we will see cricketers from the northeastern region play for India with the support of the Delhi Capitals.”

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Gaurav Singh ends long wait for second PGTI title with playoff victory at Delhi-NCR Open

Noida’s Gaurav Pratap Singh ended a 14-year-long wait for his second PGTI title with his playoff victory at the Delhi-NCR Open here on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Gaurav (35-68-70-71), playing at his home course, put up a solid final round performance of one-under 71 before prevailing in a playoff against Faridabad’s Karan Pratap Singh (34-71-70-69).

Gaurav and Karan had earlier posted identical totals of eight-under 244 in regulation play to force a playoff.

The 22-year-old Karan, who turned pro in 2019, secured a career-best runner-up finish.

Chandigarh’s Harendra Gupta (69) and Greater Noida’s Sudhir Sharma (71) claimed tied third place at seven-under 245.

-PTI