Indian sports news wrap, February 11
SHOOTING
ISSF World Cup: Sheeraz, Ganemat top Indian finishers in skeet
Sheeraz Sheikh and Ganemat Sekhon were the top Indian finishers in men’s and women’s skeet, respectively, at the ISSF World Cup for Shotgun in Rabat, Morocco.
Sheeraz shot 120, courtesy five identical rounds of 24 across two days and 125 targets. He finished 11th, with the sixth and final qualifying spot going at 121.
Abhay Singh Sekhon (116) and Munek Battula (109) finished further down the standings.
In women’s skeet, Ganemat’s tally of 114 gave her the 12th spot, with the final qualification spot going at 117. Areeba Khan’s 107 gave her the 26th spot.
Monday will see the final event – the mixed team skeet competition.
– PTI
TENNIS
Nagal and Ramkumar draw French rivals in opening round of Bengaluru Open
Indian ace Sumit Nagal is pitted against Geoffrey Blancaneaux, while wild card entrant Ramkumar Ramanathan will face Maxime Janvier in the men’s singles main draw of the Bengaluru Open beginning here on Monday.
World ranked 121 Nagal will aim to extend his dominance over French player Blancaneaux, whom he has beaten three times, including in the Australian Open Qualifiers.
India No. 2 Ramkumar has a 1-1 head-to-head record against Janvier of France and if he clears the first-round hurdle, he is likely to run into top-seed Italian Luca Nardi, who has been drawn to meet a qualifier in his opening round.
Australian Adam Walton has been seeded third and will open his campaign against Indian wild card entrant Prajwal Dev.
There are nine Indians in the doubles main draw.
N. Sriram Balaji and Andre Begemann of Germany will clash with the German duo of Mark Wallner and Jakob Schnaitter.
The ATP Challenger event is being organised by Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association at KSLTA Stadium. Qualifying rounds began on Sunday, while the final is scheduled on February 18.
– PTI
ITF Masters: Sonal beats Nazneen for women’s over-45 title
Sonal Vohra beat Nazneen Rahman 6-1, 6-2 for the women’s over-45 title in the ITF Masters tennis tournament at the Alexander Athletic Club.
Mansi Majeji cruised to the women’s over-45 title, beating Pinky Sharma for the loss of one game in the final.
Meenu Pandey won all her three league matches against Jyoti, Nikunj Kamal and Priti Bansal to clinch the over-30 women’s title.
Results
Men
Over-45: Mohit Phogat bt Rohan Bhasin 5-7, 6-2, [10-5].
Over-50: Jagdish Tanwar bt Vijay Kumar 6-0, 6-0.
Over-55: George Varghese bt Yaspal Arora 6-1, 6-1.
Over-70: Ajit Chhatwal bt SJS Randhawa 6-2, 6-4.
Over-75: MS Venkatachalam bt Shrikant Parekh 6-1, 6-7(5), [10-8].
Women
Over-40: Mansi Majeji bt Pinky Sharma 6-0, 6-1.
Over-45: Sonal Vohra bt Nazneen Rahman 6-1, 6-2.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
FOOTBALL
Kajol’s double strike helps Sethu FC cross East Bengal bridge
Kajol D’Souza scored a brace to help Sethu FC earn its third win in the IWL 2023-24 campaign, defeating East Bengal 2-0 at the Tilak Maidan on Sunday.
This much-needed victory meant that Sethu could now put its three-match losing streak behind them.
The Madurai-based club, playing out of Goa this season, has now accrued 10 points from eight games, but remains rooted to fifth in the IWL table, behind HOPS, which is on the same number of points, but ahead due to a better head-to-head record.
However, neither team looks likely to take its battle into the championship zone since Gokulam Kerala FC, Kickstart FC, and Odisha FC stand way ahead in the table — the three-way battle for the title taking place nine points ahead of the Madurai club.
East Bengal, on the other hand, continues to languish deep into the bottom half, just ahead of Sports Odisha with only four points in its pocket. Sunday’s defeat was its seventh in nine outings.
Sethu FC is not having a great season either, but against East Bengal, it looked far more cohesive and definitely initiated better penetrative moves.
Its forwards, Malvika P, Kajol D’Souza, and Kaviya Pakkirisamy, who had to leave the pitch in the second half because of an injury, did a good job of keeping the rival defence busy regularly.
Sethu FC could have added a few more but missed chances, and its tendency to attempt unrealistic long rangers restricted them to a couple.
Kajol D’Souza scored the first goal of the match, neatly converting a penalty kick in the seventh minute after an East Bengal defender handled the ball inside the area.
Her second goal came in the 82nd minute when she caught the defence off-guard to round off the goalkeeper before pushing the ball over the line.
The losing side failed to make much of an impact in the away outing. This was despite the fact that the East Bengal players, who were on duty for the India U19 team in Dhaka recently, returned to strengthen the side.
Sibani Devi, who did well in SAFF U19, couldn’t produce the same form at the Tilak Maidan.
Another junior international, Sulanjana Raul, came on in the second half and made some inroads. One of her free-kicks from outside the box missed the target by a whisker and sailed over the bar.
– PTI
GOLF
Diksha fires 68 to finish in Top-20, debutant Shannon wins Kenya Ladies Open
Indian golfer Diksha Dagar’s fine five-under 68 on the final day helped her to finish in the top 20 of the Magical Kenya Ladies Open on Sunday.
Diksha, who was third on the LET order of Merit in 2023, signed off at tied 19th with a four-day total of 292.
Pranavi Urs, who was in the running at Tied-eighth after three rounds, collapsed to three-over 76 in the final round and ended T-23rd, while Vani Kapoor (73) was T-36 at the opening event of 2024 on the Ladies European Tour (LET).
Starting on the back nine, Diksha was on fire with five birdies on the back nine of the course. She had one more birdie and a bogey on her second nine.
Pranavi had an up-and-down day with an eagle, two birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey in her 76 as she slipped down the leaderboard to Tied 23rd.
Vani had two birdies and two bogeys.
– PTI