Indian sports wrap, February 28: Vaidehi Chaudhari defeats Japan’s Haruka Kaji in ITF women’s tennis tournament quarters

GOLF

Shaurya Bhattacharya wins Chhattisgarh Open

Shaurya Bhattacharya capped his fabulous run with a six-under 63 in the fourth round and emerged the champion by a five-shot margin, with a 27-under 249 in the SECL Rs.1 crore Chhattisgarh Open golf championship at the Fairway Golf and Lake Resort on Friday.

The 22-year-old Chandigarh lad, Shaurya had a five-shot lead overnight following scores of 64, 61 and 61, in the picturesque par-69 course.

It was the second title in the professional circuit for Shaurya, who had won his maiden title in his rookie season last year.

“It was a solid week for me with just one bogey through the four rounds. It was all about focusing on my breathing and staying in the present,” said Shaurya, who received the winner’s purse of Rs.15,00,000 from PGTI president Kapil Dev and the Dy. Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Arun Sao.

“I was striking it well through the week. It gave me a lot of confidence at the start today. The plan was to attack the flags since it is a scoring course. I gave myself a target of three to four under for the day as I knew that would be good enough to win. I am glad that I managed to do even better,” said Shaurya.

With his champion’s purse, Shaurya shot up from 59th to No.2 in the PGTI Order of Merit, with a total purse of Rs.15,85,325, behind Yuvraj Sandhu (Rs.30 lakh).

Sachin Baisoya had the best card for the day with an eight-under 61 and pocketed the second prize of Rs.10 lakh, for his 22-under 254.

Sri Lankan Thangaraja was one shot adrift in third place and got Rs.4,99,,800. Leader after two rounds Khalin Joshi was joint fifth with two others, and won Rs.3,49,967. The first round leader Shaurya Binu finished tied eighth with Udayan Mane and won Rs.2,36,250.

The results: 1. Shaurya Bhattacharya (64, 61, 61, 63) 249; 2. Sachin Baisoya (67, 62, 64, 61) 254; 3. N Thangaraja (66, 63, 62, 64) 255; 4.

Shammim Khan (69, 63,, 61, 63) 256; 5T. Pranav Mardikar (67, 62, 65, 63), Abhinav Lohan (64, 64, 64, 65), Khalin Joshi (64, 60, 67, 66) 257; 8T. Shaurya Binu (660, 67, 68, 63), Udayan Mane (63, 666, 64, 65) 258; 10T. Akshay Sharma (63, 63, 67, 66), Samarth Dwivedi (68, 64, 61, 66), S Manoj (66, 61, 65, 67) 259.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Vaidehi Chaudhari defeats fifth seed Haruka Kaji in ITF women’s tennis tournament quarters

Vaidehi Chaudhari sustained her fine run and beat fifth seed Haruka Kaji of Japan 6-1, 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ahmedabad Tennis Foundation courts on Friday.

The 25-year-old Vaidehi, who has had a fluent run, not dropping a set in three matches so far, will play Sohyun Park of Korea in the semifinals.

Having run into formidable opponents Vaidehi does have a remarkable victory over the Korean in their only previous meeting last year in the professional circuit.

Having run into Tatiana Prozorova twice apart from Darja Semenistaja in the last three tournaments in Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune, winning a mere 18 games in all, Vaidehi would be keen to capitalise on the favourable flow.

The other semifinal will be between top seed Arina Rodionova who had to fight her way past Amandine Hesse 7-5 in the third set, and eighth seed Mariia Tkacheva.

In the doubles semifinals, Vaishnavi Adkar and Ankita Raina beat Zeel Desai and Rinon Okuwaki of Japan 10-8 in the super tie-break. The Indian pair will play the Japanese duo of Akiko Omae and Ikumi Yamazaki in the final.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Arina Rodionova (Aus) bt Amandine Hesse (Fra) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5; Mariia Tkacheva bt Anastasia Gureva 6-4, 6-4; Sohyun Park (Kor) bt Ekaterina Reyngold 6-4, 6-2; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Haruka Kaji (Jpn) 6-1, 7-6(5).

Doubles (semifinals): Vaishnavi Adkar & Ankita Raina bt Zeel Desai & Rinon Okuwaki (Jpn) 5-7, 6-3, [10-8]; Akiko Omae & Ikumi Yamazaki (Jpn) bt Thasaporn Naklo & Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) 7-6(3), 6-0.

-Kamesh Srinivasan