Indian sports wrap, February 24: Nagal, Dhamne through to second round of Pune Challenger

TENNIS

MahaOpen ATP Challenger: Nagal powers through, Dhamne impresses

India’s top-ranked star, Sumit Nagal, delivered a commanding performance, while local Pune boy Manas Dhamne showcased nerves of steel to spearhead the Indian charge during the ongoing MahaOpen ATP Challenger 75 Men’s Tennis Championship at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex.

Nagal thrilled a lively home crowd with a clinical 6-1, 6-2 victory over seventh seed Rio Noguchi of Japan in an hour-and-nine-minute match, dictating play from the baseline and sealing the contest in straight sets. The India No. 1 looked sharp in all departments, breaking serve consistently to advance comfortably into the second round.

Wildcard Dhamne continued his impressive progress on the Challenger circuit, battling past winner of last week’s Delhi Challenger Stefanos Sakellaridis of Greece 6-4, 7-6(4). The Pune teen, ranked 489, displayed maturity beyond his years, holding his nerve in a tight second-set tiebreak to secure a memorable win over the 220-ranked 21-year-old Greek.

Elsewhere, eighth seed Edas Butvilas of Lithuania gave a lesson in tennis, outclassing local Indian wild card Aditya Balsekar 6-0, 6-1. In another match, an Indian player, wild card entrant Karan Singh, went down to qualifier Maks Kasnikowski (POL) 6-3, 6-1.

In a match that went to the wire, third seed Ilia Simakin of Russia edged qualifier Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong of Malaysia 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(10) in a closely fought encounter lasting two hours and 24 minutes.

Sixth seed Federico Cina of Italy registered a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win over Japanese qualifier Takuya Kumasaka, Britain’s Felix Gill staged a remarkable comeback to defeat Belgian Michael Geerts 1-6, 7-6(9), 6-4, and fifth seed Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal moved ahead with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Petr Bar Biryukov. Qualifier Tung-Lin Wu of Chinese Taipei continued his good run, accounting for lucky loser Alexander Binda of Italy 6-1, 6-2.

In the second round to be played on Wednesday, Dhamne will take on giant killer and former world no. 40 Illya Ivashka at 2pm.

-Team Sportstar

Balaji, Yuki lose in first round in Dubai

Yuki Bhambri and N. Sriram Balaji both lost in the first round of men’s doubles at the Dubai Tennis Championships, an ATP 500 event, on Tuesday.

India No. 1 Yuki and his Swedish partner Andre Goransson went down 6-1, 6-4 to the third-seeded duo of Britain’s Henry Patten and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara. Yuki had won the previous edition with Australia’s Alexei Popyrin.

Balaji and his Austrian partner, Neil Oberleitner, lost 5-7, 7-6(8), [10-5] to the fourth-seeded Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori.

-Team Sportstar

KHELO INDIA GAMES

Winter Games 2026: Army goes on top of medal tally; second gold for CRPF’s Kajal

Army bagged its fourth gold in the Gulmarg leg of the Khelo India Winter Games 2026 to go on top of the medal standings on Tuesday.

Another five medals were decided on Day 2 of KIWG 2026, and the highlight of the day was Nordic skier Kajal Kumari Rai of CRPF, who won her second consecutive gold medal of the competition.

Ten gold medals have been decided in the Gulmarg leg so far. Army added one more to its three overnight to tally five golds so far. It had earlier won the men’s ice hockey gold in the Ladakh leg.

Haryana continues to occupy the second position in the medal tally with four gold medals, all coming from its skaters in Leh, but Maharashtra is only a gold adrift.

Kamiyaa Karthikeyan gave Maharashtra its first gold from the ski mountaineering (vertical) competition on Gulmarg’s Kongdoori slopes.

There has been a lot of attention on veteran Aanchal Thakur. The Alpine skier from Himachal Pradesh struck her first gold of KIWG 2026 in the giant slalom race, winning comfortably with a timing of 48.984 seconds.

Her statemate Tanuja Thakur won silver, but the upcoming skier from Karnataka, Jiah Aryan, once again finished among the medals.

Kajal Kumari continues to win hearts. The grief of losing her father is perhaps propelling the Meghalaya cross-country skier to race to her second straight gold of KIWG 2026.

Kajal won the 10km Nordic gold for women once again, relegating the fancied Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda of Karnataka to the bronze. The silver went to CRPF’s Hiral.

Army’s star skier Padma Namgail led an Army one-two-three in the men’s version of the 10km Nordic race at the Gulmarg Golf Course.

So dominating was the Army team that the first nine positions went to them. Sunny Singh of Army, who won the Nordic sprint gold on Monday, was the defending champion. He finished sixth.

-PTI

GOLF

Aditya, Vipin, Santosh in joint three-way lead in Faridabad

Aditya Raj Singh Chahal, Vipin Raghuvanshi and Santosh Kumar were in a joint three-way lead after round one of the DP World PGTI NexGen on Tuesday.

The three players shot scores of three-under 69 to hold the joint lead at the Aravalli Golf Club.

The quartet of Ramesh Kumar, Divesh Rana, Lakshya Nagar and Pranav Kaul were one shot off the lead in tied fourth position.

Aditya scored an eagle, four birdies and three bogeys while Vipin made an eagle, two birdies and a bogey. Santosh drained an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys at the Rs 25 lakh event.

The 54-hole event features a field of 72. The top 35 players and ties will make the cut at the end of round two on Wednesday.

-PTI

Published on Feb 24, 2026