Indian Sports News Wrap: March 7

TENNIS

Yamalapalli races past Sonal Patil in the Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s pre-quarterfinals

Fifth seed Sahaja Yamalapalli raced past wild card entrant Sonal Patil 6-2, 6-1 in the pre-quarterfinals of Maha Urja $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the MSLTA Academy on Thursday.

In the quarterfinals, Sahaja will play Dayeon Back of Korea.

The finalist of the last tournament in Gurugram, Yeonwoo Ku of Korea knocked out the top seed Irina Maria Bara of Romania in three sets to set up a quarterfinal against Ekaterina Yashina who beat Soha Sadiq for the loss of five games.

In doubles quarterfinals, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Vaidehi Chaudhari knocked out the second seeds Fanny Ostrlund and Ekaterina Yashina 6-2, 7-6(0).

The Indian pair will play Yeonwoo Ku and Justina Mikulskyte in the semifinals.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament men’s final result

Yuki Bhambri had to step in and assert his prowess in partnership with Rithvik Bollipalli to help Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to a 2-1 victory over Indian Oil in the men’s final of the 42nd PSPB inter-unit tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.

In a very entertaining match, Yuki and Rithvik beat Ramkumar Ramanathan and Chirag Duhan 6-2, 6-3 to win the decisive point.

Earlier, Ramkumar had levelled the match by beating Rithvik in straight sets, after Karan Singh had set the tone for ONGC by cruising past Chirag for the loss of four games.

Indian Oil had won the title in the last edition, but it was without the services of Sumit Nagal and Rohan Bopanna this time.

The results:

Men (final): ONGC bt Indian Oil 2-1 (Karan Singh bt Chirag Duhan 6-2, 6-2; Rithvik Bollipalli lost to Ramkumar Ramanathan 2-6, 4-6; Yuki Bhambri & Rithvik bt Ramkumar & Chirag 6-2, 6-3).

Veterans (final): BPCL bt OIL 2-0 (Raj Kumar bt Hakim Ali 3-6, 6-3, 6-0; Monish Sharma bt Ashim Kumar 6-3, 6-0).

– Kamesh Srinivasan

Adil Kalyanpur in quarterfinals $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament

Adil Kalyanpur beat Fadi Bidan of Lebanon 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Kish Island, Iran, on Thursday.

Adil also made the doubles quarterfinals in partnership with Ishaque Eqbal.

The results:

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Doubles (quarterfinals): Petr Biryukov & Amr Elsayed (Egy) bt Ali Habib (GBR) & Madhwin Kamath 6-1, 6-4. $15,000 ITF men, Kish Island, Iran

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Adil Kalyanpur bt Fadi Bidan (Lbn) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Gabriel Donev (Bul) bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-1, 6-0.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ishaque Eqbal & Adil Kalyanpur bt Dragos Cazacu & Gheorghe Schinteie (Rou) 6-3, 6-0. $15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

Doubles (quarterfinals): Jian Ibrahim & Sandra Samir (Egy) bt Mirjana Jovanovic (Srb) & Prathyusha Rachapudi 6-2 (retired).

– Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHLETICS

National junior Federation Cup athletics from March 7

Madhya Pradesh’s National Open and National Games pole vault champion Dev Meena and Tamil Nadu’s under-18 Asian 100m silver medallist Abhinaya Rajarajan are among the stars who will be in action in the 22nd National Federation Cup Junior Under-20 Athletics Championships which begin at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Centre in Lucknow on Saturday.

The three-day meet, which has attracted nearly 650 athletes, will be the last event for young athletes to book their berths for next month’s under-20 Asian championships in Dubai.

-Stan Rayan

CHESS

Rithvik wins silver

Grandmaster Raja Rithvik won a silver in the National Blitz chess championship in Nashik (Maharashtra) with nine points from 11 rounds on Thursday.

Rithvik, an Engineering student of KL University from Telangana, won seven games, drew four to bag the silver. He won the bronze in the rapid event on Wednesday.

For the record, GM Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal with 9.5 points and Ethan Vaz of Goa with nine points settled for gold and bronze, respectively.

Telangana State Chess Association president K.S. Prasad congratulated Rithvik, who trains under N.V.S. Rama Raju at RACE Chess Academy here.

-V. V. Subrahmanyam

PADDLE

India’s first-ever International Stand-Up Paddling Event from March 8

World’s best Stand-Up Paddlers, including World No. 2 Spanish duo of Fernando Perez (Men’s) and Esperanza Barreras (Women’s) along with Bianca Toncelli, reigning SUP Junior Champion, and reigning national champion Sekar Patchai are all set are set to showcase a thrilling competition at the country’s first-ever International Stand-Up Paddling event, India Paddle Festival.

The three- day Stand-Up Paddling extravaganza is sanctioned by The Association of PaddleSurf Professionals World Tour (APP) – the official professional World Championship Tour for the sport of Stand-Up Paddling.

The India Paddle Festival will be hosted at the pristine Sasihithulu beach in Mangalore from 8 ^th-10th March 2024 while India’s first international stand-up paddling competition is being organized by the Surfing Swami Foundation and is presented by Karnataka Government.

Bollywood celebrity Suniel Shetty has come on board as the Ambassador for the India Paddle Festival. The event has also received strong support from the country’s top athletes like Indian cricketer KL Rahul and reigning world no.1 men’s doubles shuttler Chirag Shetty.

The inaugural India Paddle Festival will see a total of 45 stand-up paddlers from across the world competing in four categories – Men’s Open, Women’s Open, Junior U-16 Boys, and Girls.

– Team Sportstar

POLO

Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase result

Siddhant Sharma scored four goals to help Jindal Panther beat Achievers 6-5 in the last league match of the Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase polo tournament at the Jaipur Polo ground here on Thursday.

The semifinals will be played on Saturday.

The results (league): Jindal Panther 6 (Siddhant Sharma 4, Simran Shergill 2) bt Achievers 5 (Abhimanyu Pathak 4, Vishwarupe Bajaj).

– Kamesh Srinivasan