Indian Sports News Wrap: March 4

TENNIS

Yamalapalli lone Indian to be seeded in Maha Urja ITF women’s tennis tournament

Sahaja Yamalapalli is the lone Indian to be seeded in the Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament to be played on the clay courts of the MSLTA Academy in Ramnagar from Tuesday.

Fifth-seeded Sahaja will open against Vaidehi Chaudhari. She finds herself in the third quarter with fourth seed Diana Marcinkevica.

The country’s No.1 player, Ankita Raina is busy with the Petroleum tennis tournament in Delhi, and thus the Indian challenge would be that much less forceful.

However, national champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty could provide the thrust as she opens against qualifier Anastasia Zolotareva. Zeel Desai starts against Akiko Omae of Japan.

Akanksha Nitture saved six match points in the second and final qualifying round to beat Joel Nichole 14-12 in the super tie-break, and was rewarded with a first round match against top seed Irina Maria Bara of Romania.

Anjalli Rathi, Vaishnavi Adkar, Humera Baharmus and Soha Sadiq were the other Indians to qualify for the main draw.

The wild cards were given to Sowjanya Bavisetti, Maithili Mothe, Sonall Patil and Sejal Bhutada.

It should be interesting to see how well the Indian players cope with the challenge and compete against the strong foreign players.

The seedings: 1. Irina Maria Bara (Rou), 2. Dalila Jakupovic (Slo), 3. Justina Mikulskyte (Ltu), 4. Diana Marcinkevica (Lat), 5. Sahaja Yamalapalli, 6. Fanny Ostlund (Swe), 7. Miriana Tona (Ita), 8. Thasaporn Naklo (Tha).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

PADDLING

India Paddle Festival: Reigning national champion Sekar Patchai to spearhead India’s challenge

Men’s and Women’s World No. 2, Spanish Stand-Up Paddlers Fernando Perez and Esperanza Barreras will be the highlight among the strong line-up that will vie for the top honours in the upcoming India Paddle Festival, India’s first-ever international Stand-Up Paddling Event.

India’s challenge will be spearheaded by the formidable Sekar Patchai, the reigning national champion, along with Manikandan D and Akash J Shetty.

The India Paddle Festival is scheduled to take place at the Sasihithlu Beach, Mangalore, Karnataka, from March 8 to 10 and will be conducted before the launch of the 2024 APP World Tour.

Ranked 1 in India and 18th in the SUP World Rank (ISA) in 2018, Patchai will be responsible for leading the Indian Contingent as he competes in the Men’s Open Category. He is also a 25-time National Stand-Up Paddling champion. Manikandan D, the top 2 SUP athlete in the country, will also be a focus in the Men’s Open category.

The Association of PaddleSurf Professionals World Tour (APP) announced its entry in India with the country’s first-ever International Stand-Up Paddling championship last month.

-Team Sportstar