Indian Sports Wrap, March 7: Vaishnavi makes it to back-to-back finals on ITF circuit
TENNIS
Vaishnavi reaches consecutive finals on ITF circuit
Vaishnavi Adkar reached her second straight final on the ITF circuit as the Indian No. 2 knocked out Jasmijn Gimbrere in the semifinals of the W35 event in Kalaburagi, Karnataka, on Saturday.
Third-seeded Vaishnavi defeated the top-seeded Dutch player 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and 11 minutes. Last month, the 21-year-old from Pune finished as runner-up in Bengaluru after becoming the first Indian woman to reach the final of a W100 or higher level tournament since Sania Mirza in 2009.
World No. 464 Vaishnavi will face compatriot and her doubles partner Ankita Raina in Sunday’s final.
World No. 681 Ankita, seeded eighth, took down sixth-seeded Thai Thasaporn Naklo 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in two hours and 43 minutes to reach her first final since W25 Jakarta in April 2023.
Later, Vaishnavi and Ankita beat Akanksha Nitture and Soha Sadiq 6-2, 6-2 in an all-Indian doubles final.
At the ATP Challenger Tour event in Kigali, Rwanda, the top-seeded Indo-Bulgarian pair of Siddhant Banthia and Alexander Donski failed to convert a match point in the super tiebreak and lost 6-4, 6-7(6), [12-10] to the British-Dutch duo of Jay Clarke and Max Houkes in the doubles final.
THE RESULTS
ATP Challenger (CH 75) – Kigali, Rwanda
Doubles, Final: Jay Clarke (GBR)/Max Houkes (NED) bt [1] Siddhant Banthia/Alexander Donski (BUL) 6-4, 6-7(6), [12-10].
ITF W35 Kalaburagi
Singles, Semifinals: [3] Vaishnavi Adkar bt [1] Jasmijn Gimbrere (NED) 6-3, 6-2; [8] Ankita Raina bt [6] Thasaporn Naklo (THA) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Doubles, Final: [2] Vaishnavi Adkar/Ankita Raina bt Akanksha Nitture/Soha Sadiq 6-2, 6-2.
ITF J30 Madurai
Boys’ Singles, Final: Niyanth Badrinarayanan (USA) bt [5] Tejas Ravi 6-2, 3-2 retd.
Girls’ Singles, Final: Reena Alavalapati (USA) bt [3] Aahida Singh 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(6).
Boys’ Doubles, Final: [1] Mannan Ashok Agarwal/Shivtej Shirfule bt [2] Aarush Kote (USA)/Sharan Somasi 7-6(5), 5-7, [10-3].
Girls’ Doubles, Final: [3] Padmapriya Ramesh Kumar/Aahida Singh bt Reena Alavalapati (USA)/Yuktaa Pandit 3-2 retd.
-Team Sportstar
GOLF
Lahiri slips to tied-17th in Hong Kong
India’s Anirban Lahiri carded just one birdie and one bogey in a modest even-par third round that saw him fall outside the Top-10 at Liv Golf Hong Kong on Saturday.
With cards of 66-65-70, he is 9-under and Tied-17th.
-PTI
Shubhankar Sharma makes cut in weather-affected Joburg Open
Shubhankar Sharma struggled to a 2-over 72 and found himself at T-48 after two rounds, but good enough for the Indian to make the cut at the Joburg Open.
Sharma earlier shot a round of 4-under 66 on the first day.
The second round saw play being suspended due to lightning, as several players were unable to finish their second round. Sharma made the cut, which fell at 1-under par.
On the first day, Sharma was 4-under par through 14 holes with play being suspended due to darkness. Once play resumed, the 29-year-old closed the first round with four straight pars.
Sharma began the second round on the back nine and had an early double bogey on the 15th before making three consecutive birdies on the back nine of the course.
On the front nine, Sharma had consecutive bogeys on the second and third holes to drop two strokes before dropping another stroke with a bogey on the ninth hole to finish the day at 2-over par.
-PTI
Aditi plays 2-under par 70 to be tied fourth in Blue Bay
Aditi Ashok built on her strong start to the week by carding a third round of 2-under 70 to move to tied-fourth position at the Blue Bay LPGA.
Aditi, who shot 68 in the first round, added a 70 in the second at the Jian Lake Blue Bay Golf Course.
In the third, she had a roller coaster front nine in the third round. Aditi had four birdies against two bogeys for a 2-under 34, and on the back nine she had one birdie and one bogey for a 70.
-PTI
Pranavi rises to tied fifth; Diksha is Tied-14th in Australia
Pranavi Urs (70) dropped a double bogey near the end on the 17th hole but managed to stay in the top-5 after three rounds of the Australian Women’s Classic.
Pranavi, with 72-66-70, was 8-under and tied fifth, as Kelsey Bennett took a one-shot lead into the final round of the Australian Women’s Classic after carding 66-68-70 to move to 12-under par and maintain her slender advantage.
Diksha Dagar (69) recovered from her second round 73 to get to 5-under and was Tied-14th with one round to go.
The other two Indians, Avani Prashanth and Hitaashee Bakshi had missed the cut.
Pranavi birdied the second but dropped shots on the fourth and the fifth. She recovered from that with birdies on the eighth and the ninth and turned in 1-under. On the back nine, she was doing great with birdies on the 11th, 13th and the 15th before she hit a double bogey on the 17th.
Diksha bogeyed the fifth and the sixth and was in trouble, but she rallied strongly with birdies on the eighth and the ninth. Three more birdies on the back nine took her to 3-under for the round and 5-under total.
-PTI
SHOOTING
Divyansh, Khyati win 10m Air Rifle T3 finals; Anish takes 25m Rapid Fire Pistol top spot
Divyansh Singh Panwar and Khyati Chaudhary secured the top spots in the 10m Air Rifle men’s and women’s events, respectively, in the National Selection Trials 3 (Group A) in New Delhi on Saturday.
Olympian Anish Bhanwala won the T3 finals of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range.
In the 10m Air Rifle men’s finals, Tokyo Olympian Divyansh finished on top of the eight-man final with a score of 252.5. Parth Rakesh Mane finished in second place with a final score of 251.5, while Shahu Tushar Mane took the third place with a score of 230.9.
Left to right: Parth Rakesh Mane, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Shahu Tushar Mane.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Left to right: Parth Rakesh Mane, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Shahu Tushar Mane.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The top spot in the women’s finals was decided in an exciting shoot-off, where Khyati prevailed over Mahit Sandhu after both were tied at 251.4 after the completion of 24 shots.
In the shoot-off, Khyati shot an outstanding 10.9 to secure the top spot, ahead of Mahit, who shot 10.2. Mehuli Ghosh took the third place with a final score of 230.1.
Earlier in the men’s qualification, Dhanush Srikanth qualified for the finals in top spot with a score of 633.2, followed by Mahesh Babu Bathula, who shot 632.6.
The national record holder, Himanshu Dhillon, and Niraj Kumar shot 632.1 to qualify in third and fourth places, respectively.
Parth Mane, Divyansh and Shahu qualified in the next spots after shooting 631.8, 630.6 and 630.4, respectively. National Champion Kiran Ankush Jadhav completed the top eight with a score of 630.3.
Mehuli qualified for the finals in the top spot in the women’s event with a score of 633.4, followed by Sonam Uttam Maskar, who scored 633.2.
Tilottama Sen qualified in third place with a score of 632.0, followed by Khyati and Mahit, who shot 630.7 and 629.7, respectively.
Vidarsa K. Vinod (629.4), Sakshi Sunil Padekar (629.3) and Isha Anil Taksale (629.1) completed the top eight.
Olympian Anish Bhanwala continued his dominance in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event, securing the top spot in T3 with a score of 33 in the finals.
Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu took the second place with a score of 31, while Bhavesh Shekhawat survived a shoot-off with Vijayveer Sidhu to finish in third place with a score of 29. Vijayveer finished fourth with 23 hits.
Bhavesh, who was leading after Stage 1 of qualification, qualified in the top spot with a combined score of 583-17x, followed by Rajkanwar, who hit a combined score of 581-20x.
Adarsh Singh qualified in third place with a score of 580-15x, and Anish shot 578-15x.
Neeraj Kumar (576-16x), Vijayveer (576-15x), Omkar Singh (575-18x) and Pradeep Singh Shekhawat (575-15x) completed the top eight.
-PTI
Published on Mar 07, 2026