Indian sports news wrap, June 17: Squash teams announced for Asian Games

Chennai

SQUASH

Indian teams announced for Asian Games, Asian mixed doubles championships

The pair of Harinderpal Singh Sandhu and Dipika Pallikal Karthik, and the duo of Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh will represent India in the first Asian mixed doubles championships to be held in Hangzhou (China) from June 26 to 30.

Meanwhile, in the selection trials held in Chennai, for the forthcoming Asian Games in Hangzhou, the following players were selected to represent India:

Men: Saurav Ghosal, Abhay Singh, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Harinderpal Singh Sandhu.

Women: Joshna Chinappa, Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Anahat Singh, Tanvi Khanna.

– Team Sportstar

BOXING

Asian Games selection trials: Manish, Rohit make it to shortlist

World championships bronze medallist boxer Manish Kaushik (63.5kg) and former National champion Rohit Mor, who replaced an injured Muhammad Hussamuddin in 57kg, came through the trials to make it to the shortlist for Asian Games selection.

Manish, who was unwell and could not take part in the trials, defeated Vijay Kumar, who could not get a fight, 5-0 to take the third place in 63.5kg.

The box-off between two losing finalists in 57kg did not take place as Rohit got a walkover from Sachin Siwach.

Manish and Rohit will be part of the assessment and evaluation process to pick boxers for the Asian Games.

– Team Sportstar

Youth Men’s Nationals: Vishesh stuns Krrish to reach 48kg semifinals

Haryana’s Vishesh upset reigning Asian Junior Champion Krrish Pal of Chandigarh in a thrilling bout to advance to the 48kg minimumweight semifinals at the sixth Youth Men’s National Boxing Championships in Gangtok, Sikkim on Saturday.

Vishesh and Krrish Pal were at their attacking best right from the start and exchanged a lot of punches. Both the boxers exhibited their relentless courage and didn’t give any breathing space to each other throughout the bout. 

However, it was Vishesh who ultimately triumphed in the neck and neck battle with a 4-3 split verdict. He will take on Rishi from Services Sports Control Board (SSCB).

In another upset, 2021 Asian Boxing Champion Rohit Chamoli faced defeat at the hands of Umesh Kumar of Delhi in the 54kg quarterfinal bout. Umesh outclassed Rohit with his clear punching and swift movement to win the bout 4-1 and reach the semis. He will next face SSCB’s Ashish. 

Asian Junior Champion Bharat Joon (92kg) of Haryana dominated another bout to win comfortably. His power punches had no answer from Uttarakhand’s Riddhuman Subba and eventually, the referee had to stop the contest in the third round. He will square off against Avchal Shai of Madhya Pradesh in the semifinal bout. 

Apart from Bharat and Vishesh, 7 other Haryana boxers- Harsh Nagar (54kg), Akshat (57kg), Yashwardhan Singh (63.5kg), Rupesh (67kg), Ishan Kataria (80kg), Vinay Kumar (86kg) and Lakshay Rathi (92+kg) have entered the last-four stage. 

Defending champion SSCB continued its domination with all 13 of its boxers reaching the semifinals. Joining Rishi (48kg) in the last four stage are 12 other talented SSCB boxers who have shown their prowess in their respective weight categories. Rest of the boxers are- Aryan (51kg), Ashish (54kg), Nikhil (57kg), M Hanthoi (60kg), Krish Kamboj (63.5kg), Ankush (67kg), Preet Malik (71kg), Yogesh (75kg), Arman (80kg), Ayran (86kg), Harsh (92kg) and Rythm (92+kg). 

– Team Sportstar

TABLE TENNIS

WTT Lagos: Unseeded Harmeet reaches semifinals

Unseeded Harmeet Desai created a stir at the World Table Tennis Lagos (Nigeria), defeating two higher ranked players and entering the semifinals in the process.

First, he defeated Korea’s Jang Woojin, the top seed and World no. 12 on Friday before packing off World No. 26 Pen Xiang of China, 11-7, 5-11, 12-7, 11-1 on Saturday in the quarterfinals.

He will next take on World No. 14 Dmitrij Ovtcharov of Germany.

– Team Sportstar

FOOTBALL

Manipur beats Maharashtra in Senior Women Nationals

Heigrujam Daya Devi scored twice in the second half after Dangmei Grace’s opening goal, as Manipur beat Maharashtra 3-1 in their Group B match of the Senior Women National Football Championship, Amritsar on Saturday.

In the other two group matches, Bengal blanked Himachal Pradesh 4-0 and Haryana got the better of Railways by 2-1 margin. For Maharashtra, Arya More scored the only goal for her side in the first half of the contest played at the Guru Nanak Dev University ground.

Manipur took the lead through Grace, who hit the target in the 24th minute.

Maharashtra managed to equalise 10 minutes later through a goal from More and fought well for the remainder of the first half.

However, soon after play resumed in the second half, Manipur’s Devi scored her first and the team’s second goal in the 47th minute.

Devi continued her good show as she scored once again seven minutes later to give her side the match-winning lead of 3-1.

Maharashtra will look to bounce back when it faces Haryana in its next match on Sunday.

– PTI

GOLF

Aditi lies sixth after second round at Meijer LPGA Classic golf tournament

India’s Aditi Ashok continued her fine run this year as she added 5-under 67 to her first round 68 and climbed to 9-under to be placed tied sixth in the Meijer LPGA Classic golf tournament in Belmont.

Aditi, who has been knocking on the doors of victory this season, is bogey free for the first two rounds and trails leader Ayaka Furue of Japan, who shot a bogey-free 5-under 67, by two shots.

Furue is 11-under for two rounds at Blythefield Country Club and enjoys a one-stroke lead into the weekend.

Aditi missed more fairways than the first day, but consistent iron play ensured a solid round.

Aditi started on the 10th and birdied her first hole of the day for a good beginning. She added one more on 18th and turned in 2-under.

On the second nine, the front side of the course, she added birdies on fourth, sixth and eighth to get to 5-under and a total of 9-under.

Aditi has been runner-up once this year and was T-5 at Cognizant Founders Cup and T-4 at Mizuho Americas Cup.

She is currently 20th on the LPGA Order of Merit and leads the Merit List in Europe, where she has had one win this year besides two other Top-3 finishes.

The shortest player on the LPGA Tour, Furue, 23, was one of the five leaders in the first-round.

She was then bogey free in the second round after a 66 in the first round which had seven birdies and one bogey.

Hyo Joo Kim (65), Leona Maguire (65), Carlota Ciganda (66) and Amy Yang (67) were a stroke back.

Defending champion Jennifer Kupcho (69) was 9-under along with Manon De Roey (65), Aditi (67), Minjee Lee (67), Emily Kristine Pedersen (68) and Lindsey Weaver-Wright (69).

Kupcho had six birdies and three bogeys a day after a bogey-free 66. Ciganda eagled the par-5 fourth and eighth holes. She holed a “pitch shot” from 50 yards on No. 4 and made a 15-foot putt on eighth.

Ashleigh Buhai, the winner last week in New Jersey, was 8-under after her second 68.

Lexi Thompson and Lydia Ko missed the cut.

– PTI

Diksha seventh after another 69, Avani slips to 32nd as four Indians make cut

India’s top duo Diksha Dagar (69-69) and Avani Prashanth (65-79) experienced contrasting fortunes in the second round of the Amundi German Masters.

Diksha was tied-seventh, while Avani fell from second to T-32 as two other Indians Ridhima Dilawari and Vani Kapoor also made the cut and were tied 58th and on the line. Amandeep Drall (77-75) missed out on what was a rather windy day.

Sweden’s Johanna Gustavsson fired a bogey-free round of 67 (-5) on day two to hold a one-stroke lead at the halfway stage at the Golf & Country Club Seddiner See.

One shot further back in second place on 10-under-par is Czechia’s Kristyna Napoleaova (66).

Diksha, who has been showing a fair degree of consistency after a rocky start to the season, has achieved two top-10s in recent weeks and her game seems to be trending well.

Diksha was one-under through the front nine with just one birdie, which she gave away on the 10th. However, between the 13th and 16th, Diksha birdied three times, two of them on Par-5s on the 13th and 16th. She did not drop a shot, but could have picked at least one or two more birdies. Yet with 69-69, she was six-under and tied sixth and five shots behind the leader Gustavsson, who is also having a fine season.

Avani’s seven-under first round created a big buzz as the 16-year-old amateur is here on a sponsor’s invite. But the vagaries of golf caught up with her as she dropped a bunch of bogeys and fell victim to unpredictable winds.

Her worst came on the 13th, where she had an albatross on the first day.

However, on the second day, she had a quadruple bogey and she went into the water. That difference of seven shots in one hole pegged her back drastically. Overall she had two birdies, five bogeys and a quadruple bogey.

Ridhima had two birdies and three bogeys in her 73 and Vani had three birdies, four bogeys and one double in her 75.

The cut fell at four-over with four of five Indians among the 70 players making it through to the weekend.

Gustavsson began the day a couple of shots behind the overnight leader and rolled in her first birdie on hole 14. She added another one on the first before three consecutive birdies on holes three, four and five sealed her round of 67 and put her to the top of the leaderboard on 11-under-par.

In second place at 10-under-par is Czech Republic’s Kristyna Napoleaova, whose 66 was the joint-best round of the day.

Two players sit in a tie for third place on the leaderboard with Northern Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey (64-71) and England’s Cara Gainer (68-67).

England’s Alice Hewson sits in outright fifth place on eight-under-par after firing a round of 66 (-6) in Germany.

In seventh place on seven-under is England’s Meghan MacLaren, after she carded a round of 71 (-1) on day two with Germany’s Chiara Noja and India’s Diksha Dagar one shot further back on six-under-par.

-PTI

National shotgun selection trials: Kynan, Bhowneesh maintain lead after four rounds of trap

Olympian Kynan Chenai and Olympic quota winner Bhowneesh Mendiratta continued to stay in the lead with a score of 98 out of 100 after four rounds of trap in the fourth National shotgun selection trials at the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal on Saturday.

Kynan had a series of 25, 25, 23 and 25, while Bhowneesh had two rounds of 24, after having shot two rounds of 25 on the first day of competition.

Fahd Sultan (97), Prithviraj Tondaiman (96), Shardul Vihan, Lakshay Sheoran (95), Anirudh Singh and Manavjit Singh Sandhu (94) were the others in the leading bunch.

After the fifth round on Sunday, the top six will qualify for the final.

In women’s trap, Manisha Keer was in the lead with a score of 90, one point ahead of three shooters Rajeshwari Kumari, Neeru and Shagun Chowdhary.

Bhavna Chaudhary, Sabeera Haris, Preti Rajak, Pragati Dubey followed with the score of 88.

Shreyasi Singh was in the 17th place along with Seema Tomar with a score of 83.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Bopanna-Ebden loses in Stuttgart semifinals

Top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were beaten 7-6(6), 6-7(12), [10-4] in the doubles semifinals by Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz of Germany in the ATP250 event in Stuttgart, Germany, on Saturday.

The Indo-Aussie pair collected 90 ATP points and €11,910.

In the $60,000 ITF women’s event in Sumter, USA, second seed Karman Kaur Thandi fired 12 aces on way to a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win over Grace Min in the quarterfinals.

– Team Sportstar

National series juniors: Sohini, Debasis win titles in Ahmedabad

Top seed Sohini Mohanty beat qualifier Diya Ramesh 7-6(4), 6-4 in the girls final of the National series under-18 tennis tournament at the Ace Academy in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

Except for dropping a set to Nainika Bendram in the semifinals, Sohini was authoritative right through the tournament.

In the boys final, top seed Debasis Sahoo outplayed second seed Vatsal Manikantan 6-1, 6-2.

– Team Sportstar