Indian sports news wrap, December 28

TENNIS

Japan Sato beats India’s Yamalapali pre-quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament

Naho Sato of Japan scotched the Indian hopes as she beat Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-2, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ganesh Naik Sports Complex on Thursday.

It was a clinical performance by the Japanese as she converted five of eight breakpoints to race to victory. Sahaja’s serve got broken early in both the sets, and she was unable to catch up with the Japanese, despite converting two of four break points.

The other Indian in the singles field, Vaidehi Chaudhari found top seed Ekaterina Makarova too hot to handle and managed to win three games in an hour-long duel.

In the doubles quarterfinals, Zeel Desai and Ksenia Zaytseva recovered from being down 1-5 in the super tie-break to have a match point at 9-8, but the second seeds Diana Marcinkevica and Sapfo Sakellaridi eluded their grasp and reached the semifinals. Zeel and partner had earlier been in the driver’s seat at 6-4, 5-3.

The strong team of Rutuja Bhosale and Prarthana Thombare, seeded third, lost in straight sets to Funa Kozaki and Misaki Matsuda. With Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Vaidehi losing to Kamilla Bartona and Ekaterina Makarova 5-10 in the super tie-break, the Indian challenge ended.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

$15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament: Tanisha beats France’s Alyssa to reach pre-quarters

Tanisha Kashyap beat Alyssa Reguer of France 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Monastir, Tunisia.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

VOLLEYBALL

Prime Volleyball League: Blue Spikers sign Brazil’s Athos Costa

Kochi Blue Spikers has signed Brazil’s Athos Ferreira Costa as their second foreign player for the coming Prime Volleyball League which begins in Chennai on February 19.

A middle blocker, the 35-year-old Costa has played for leading teams in Portugal, Greece, Brazil, Italy and the UAE.

The Blue Spikers, owned by the owned by Muthoot Pappachan Group, had earlier signed Poland’s Jan Krol, their first foreign player.

– Stan Rayan

CHESS

A. Uday Kumar becomes first International Arbiter in chess from Rayalaseema Region, fourth from Andhra

A. Uday Kumar of Anantapur became the first International Arbiter in chess from Rayalaseema Region and the fourth from Andhra Pradesh having completed all the four mandatory norms this year in the KIIT International Chess Festival, National women’s chess in Ahmedabad (2023), National Championship in Pune and inaugural Matrix International FIDE-rating tournament in Delhi.

The 27-year-old Uday, who is a big fan of world champion Magnus Carlsen, is also the youngest arbiter from Andhra Pradesh.

The chess official got the letter of appreciation from the FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich.

-V V SUBRAHMANYAM

ATHLETICS

National varsities women’s championships: Sudeshna fastest athlete

Shivaji University’s Sudeshna Hanman Shivankar emerged as the fastest athlete while Chandigarh’s Rashdeep Kaur was the best quartermiler in the National inter-university women’s athletics championships at the KIIT-deemed to be university here.

-Stan Rayan