Indian sports wrap, January 22: Bhambri suffers defeat in first round in mixed doubles at Australian Open

TENNIS

Bhambri suffers defeat in first round in mixed doubles at Australian Open

India’s Yuki Bhambri and his American partner Nicole Melichar-Martinez crashed out of the mixed doubles competition in the Australian Open after losing to the German-Chinese duo of Tim Puetz and Zhang Shuai in Melbourne on Thursday.

Bhambri and Melichar-Martinez lost 6-4, 7-6(3) to the sixth-seeded pairing of Puetz and Shuai.

Bhambri’s campaign in the year’s first Grand Slam is, however, not over yet as he remains in fray in the men’s doubles event.

N. Sriram Balaji and his Austrian partner Neil Oberleitner made the most of a last-minute entry as alternates as they took down the French-Australian duo of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Jordan Thompson 7-6(4), 3-6, 7-6(8) to reach the second round in men’s doubles.

Balaji and Oberleitner will face El Salvador’s Marcelo Arevalo and Croatia’s Mate Pavic, the fourth-seeded duo, in the next round.

-PTI

Junior Australian Open: Diya Ramesh, Samarth Sahita lose in second round in singles qualifiers

Diya Ramesh and Samarth Sahita both lost the second round of singles qualifiers at the Junior Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday.

Japan’s Azuna Ichioka took down Diya 6-3, 6-2 in the girls’ event.

In boys’ singles, 14th seed Samarth went down 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 to third-seeded German Oliver Majdandzic.

-Team Sportstar

WTA Mumbai Open: Lulu Sun, Darja Semenistaja headline list of international stars for 2026 edition

Former Wimbledon quarterfinalist Lulu Sun, Latvia’s Darja Semenistaja and a few other international players are set to participate in the fifth edition of the Mumbai Open WTA 125K event.

Apart from New Zealand’s Sun (World No. 86) and former champion Semenistaja (World No. 98), the event will also feature Frenchwoman Leolia Jeanjean (World No. 103), Australia’s Kimberly Birrell (World No. 76), Chinese Taipei’s Joanna Garland (World No. 117) and Dutchwoman Arantxa Rus (World No. 130) in the main draw.

Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew (World No. 197), last year’s runner-up, will also be playing again.

Overall, the tournament will feature eight players ranked inside the Top 150 in the main draw.

The fifth edition of the tournament will begin with the qualifying rounds taking place on January 30-31. Following the qualifiers, the main draw will commence from February 2. All matches will take place at the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) stadium.

-Team Sportstar

SHOOTING

After sweeping 50m Rifle 3P trials, Tilottama claims 10m Air Rifle Women Trial 1

After a dominant showing in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions events earlier this week, Tilottama Sen continued her remarkable run at the National Selection Trials 1&2 Group A, claiming the top spot in the 10m Air Rifle Women (ARW) Trial 1 at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi.

Shahu Tushar Mane of Railways took the top spot in the men’s event while Vijayveer Sidhu claimed top in 25m Rapid Fire Pistol T2.

Sen entered the final as the eighth and last qualifier, having scraped through with a score of 630.8, but rose steadily to finish on top with 253.4. Railway’s shooter Sonam Uttam Maskar, who had qualified fifth with 631.2, mounted a strong challenge to Tilottama but settled for second place with 252.8 in the final. Madhya Pradesh’s Nupur Kumrawat with 230.5(631.2) claimed the third place.

Mane secured top spot in the 10m Air Rifle Men (ARM) T1 Final, finishing with 253.9. Mane, who had qualified fifth with 632.6, steadily built momentum to emerge on top in a closely contested final. Haryana’s Arshdeep Singh took the second place with 251.1, while third rank went to Maharashtra’s Parth Rakesh Mane, who added 230.5 in the final after qualifying fourth with 632.9.

Olympian Sidhu shot 31 hits in the T2 final to secure the top spot in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men. National champion Suraj Sharma, who dominated the qualification round with 588-22x, had to settle for second place after hitting 29 in the final. Completing the podium was Punjab’s Udhayveer Sidhu, who accumulated 25 hits in the final to claim third place.

– Team Sportstar

MORE SPORTS

CISF recruits highest-ever sportspersons; Mandaviya asks them to ‘keep playing’

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Thursday commissioned the largest-ever contingent of 324 sports personnel in one go with an aim to secure more medals in various national and international events, including the Olympic Games.

The trainees, including 171 women, passed out of the Regional Training Centre of the force located in Deoli town of Tonk district. The town is about 165 km south of state capital Jaipur.

Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya flew down from Delhi to officiate as the chief guest of the event.

He took salute of the regimental passing out parade and asked the new CISF entrants to “keep playing” and strive towards making India a top-10 sports-playing nation by 2036.

India is bidding to host the 2036 Olympic Games in Ahmedabad, the city that will also conduct the 2030 Commonwealth Games.

The 324 personnel were recruited in 2025 after the central paramilitary force conducted its largest-ever sports quota recruitment drive since its raising in 1969.

Eighteen among these personnel have won gold medals in international sporting events while 56 have earned the same laurel in national events, the force has stated.

The sportspersons who passed out on Thursday are joining the force in the rank of Head Constable, one rank above the normal entry-rank of constable. This was done to attract more personnel.

CISF director general (DG) Praveer Ranjan said the force is taking all measures to “encourage” sports and sportspersons.

The trainees underwent a four-month training in law, unarmed combat, weapon handling since they joined the centre here in September, a senior officer said.

The CISF, which has a strength of about two lakh personnel, is primarily tasked to guard over 70 civil airports, the Delhi Metro and a number of other vital installations in the government and private domain.

It is a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) under the union home ministry.

-PTI

GOLF

Shubhankar Sharma begins calendar year with Dubai Desert Classic

Shubhankar Sharma will tee off his 2026 calendar year at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic, one of the iconic events on the international golfing calendar. While Shubhankar’s season commenced with the BMW Australian PGA Championship in November, Dubai marks Shubhankar’s first competitive start of the calendar year.

Over the years, Sharma has firmly established himself as one of the most prominent names in Indian golf. In November last year, Shubhankar secured his card for the 2026 season of the DP World Tour after finishing an impressive tied-second at the Final Stage of the Qualifying School in Spain.

This will be Shubhankar’s eighth-successive appearance at the Dubai tournament. “It was awesome to receive an invite and I love this event, having played it so many times. Hopefully I can make it count with a good showing,” Shubhankar said.

The tournament will run from January 22-26.

– Team Sportstar

Ridhima Dilawari opens four-shot lead in second leg of Hero WPG Tour

Ridhima Dilawari closed the second day with a bogey, but before that, she produced four birdies in a row, helping her to a round of 3-under 69 to go with her first round score of 70 in Ahmedabad.

Ridhima, who last won at Zion Hills Country Club in Bengaluru in July 2025, is now 5-under for two rounds and extended her lead over the field from one shot to four shots at the Hero WPG Tour.

Lying second is amateur Zara Anand (72-71) at 1-under 143.

Jahanvi Bakshi (73-71), whose eagle on the Par-5 fifth made up for the bogeys on the second and the fourth, picked up one shot on the Par-3 11th and carded 1-under 71 to be Tied-third alongside Amandeep Drall (72-72).

For the present, Ridhima, who has been dividing her time between the Hero WPG Tour and the IGPL, seems to have built a big lead of four shots, but behind her, there are as many as eight players within three shots of each other.

Amandeep seemed to be headed for a good day as she had four birdies against two bogeys through 17 holes. She ran into trouble on the last hole and the double bogey dropped her to even par for the second straight day.

Amateur Lavanya Gupta had a roller-coaster of a day. She began with a nightmarish start with two bogeys and a double bogey in a row on the first three holes. She recovered with birdies on the fourth, fifth and the eighth but another bogey on the ninth meant she turned in 2-over.

Four birdies and no bogeys on the back nine gave her a superb 70 after a 75 in the first round. She was in a tie for fifth place with Nayanika Sanga (73-72) at 1-over 145 each.

Vani Kapoor and Saanvi Somu shot a second straight 73 each and were tied seventh alongside Sneha Singh (71-75), who slipped in the second round.

Amateur Janneya A Dasanniee (79-72), Rhea Purvi (76-75) and Lavanya Jadon (75-76) rounded off the Top-10 as they were tied tenth at 7-over 151.

Last week’s winner, Jasmine Shekar (79-74), was Tied-17th.

The cut fell at 159 and 27 players made it to the final round.

-PTI

Published on Jan 22, 2026