Indian sports wrap, January 25: Maaya, Paparkar bow out of Australian Open with opening round defeats

TENNIS

Maaya, Paparkar bow out of Australian Open with opening round defeats

India’s singles challenge at the junior Australian Open ended in a matter of hours, with Maaya Rajeshwaran Ravathi and Arnav Paparkar losing their respective opening round matches here on Sunday.

Maaya, competing in the girls’ singles, struggled to find her rhythm against Anna Pushkareva and went down 4-6, 1-6 in a match that lasted just over an hour.

After a closely fought first set, the Indian lost momentum in the second as Pushkareva stepped up the aggression and raced through the set.

In the boys’ singles, Paparkar too made an early exit, losing 3-6, 4-6 to American Vihan Reddy.

Pararkar fought hard in both sets but was unable to convert key opportunities, with Reddy proving steadier in the crucial moments to seal the straight-sets win.

Paparkar has been named as a practice partner for India’s Davis Cup squad for their upcoming 2026 Qualifiers tie against the Netherlands.

-PTI

SQUASH

Anahat nearly pulls off an upset before going down in New York

Rising Indian squash talent Anahat Singh nearly pulled off an upset before going down to Japanese world No. 7 Satomi Watanabe in the second round of the Sprott Tournament of Champions in New York.

Appearing in her first PSA Platinum-level event, the women’s world No. 31 Anahat won the opening two games before the experienced Japanese sixth seed rallied to claim a 6-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-6 result in her favour.

“It was a really difficult match for me – she (Anahat) played such amazing squash and her winners were insane,” Satomi said.

“All I could do was retrieve those ones which weren’t straight to the point… I’m just happy to get through today,” she added

-Team Sportstar

SHOOTING

Sainyam and Gaurav win 10m Air Pistol Trial 2 Finals

Sainyam of Chandigarh and Gaurav Kumar of Uttar Pradesh came on top in the women’s and men’s 10m Air Pistol Trail 2 finals, respectively, as the National Selection Trials 1 & 2 concluded in New Delhi on Sunday.

World Cup Final silver medallist Sainyam continued her good run of form, finishing on top in the finals with a dominant final score of 243.1, 5.4 points more than Rhythm Sangwan (237.7).

Meenu Pathak once again finished in the top three in the finals, finishing with a score of 218.5.

Earlier in the qualification, Suruchi Singh finished on top with an impressive 587-31x, but could only finish in eighth place in the finals. Palak shot 579-16x to finish second in qualification and shot 178.2 in the finals to finish fifth.

The experienced Shwetha Singh took the third spot in qualification with a score of 578-18x and came back in the finals to finish in sixth place.

Meenu Pathak shot 577-12x in qualification while Priya Muralidhar hit 576-16x. Rhythm Sangwan and Sainyam scored 576-15x and 576-13x while Divya T.S completed the top eight with a score of 575-19x.

Gaurav improved on his second-place finish in Trial 1, finishing on top in T2 in a tightly contested final. Gaurav, who qualified third for the finals with a score of 584-21x, shot 245.5 in the finals to take the top spot ahead of Yogesh Kumar, who finished second with a final score of 244.6.

Harsh Swami of Uttar Pradesh took the third spot with a final score of 221.9 after qualifying for the finals in second place with a score of 585-26x.

-Team Sportstar

Published on Jan 25, 2026