Indian sports news wrap: March 11

Here are all the major updates, scores and results of Indians from the world of sports on Monday, March 11.

GOLF

Diksha registers second straight Top-10 finish, Pranavi T-17

Indian golfer Diksha Dagar registered her second straight Top-10 finish with a steady 1-under 71 on the third and final day of the Aramco Team Series.

Diksha, who shot 69-70 in the first two rounds, finished 6-under 210 and was Tied-sixth.

Fellow Indian, Pranavi Urs, playing her first season on the Ladies European Tour, also had a decent finish after an even par 72 on the final day. At 3-under for 54 holes, Pranavi finished T-17.

It has been a good start for the two Indians, who are both multiple winners on their home tour, the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour.

Diksha was T-9 at Morocco after being T-19 in Kenya, while Pranavi, the No. 1 golfer in India in 2022, was T-5 in Morocco.

Pranavi is now 14th on the LET Order of Merit and Diksha is 17th.

Diksha had mixed feelings as she said, “It wasn’t easy but on some few holes I had good shots. Because of the wind I struggled a bit but I made some great up and downs and it was alright. I’m happy with that. But on some of the birdie holes, I made a few silly mistakes which could have been easily birdie.”

Pranavi was happy with her first Aramco Team Series event.

“It was my first-ever team series so I absolutely loved playing with Bronte (Law) and Sophia (Popov). I think the first hour was pretty good, it was a bit of a roller coaster but overall I think I’ve been playing pretty and it was good to keep the momentum going from Morocco. I think I did fairly well.”

– PTI

Amandeep ready for all challengers in sixth leg of WPGT

Amandeep Drall will be among the favourites to win the sixth leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour, which gets underway at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram this week.

With 46 players, it will be the highest ever on the WPGT, and the prize purse will be a whopping Rs 25 lakhs. The players will be playing over four rounds and 72 holes.

Amandeep will be challenged by Vani Kapoor, Hitaashee Bakshi and Sneha Singh. While Vani featured in Singapore last week, Hitaashe leads the WPGT Order of Merit, whereas Sneha is the only multiple winner this season.

The field also includes the promising amateur Vidhatri Urs, who has also won on the Pro Tour this season.

One of the interesting features this week is that the entire three-member Indian Golf Union’s team for the Queen Sirikit Cup, Vidhatri, Zara Anand and Heena Kang are in the field.

It has been a closely-contested season so far with four different winners in the last five events. All of them are in the field this week.

Among the others looking for their first win of 2024 will be Gaurika Bishnoi, who was second to Amandeep last week, along with Ridhima Dilawari, Neha Tripathi, Seher Atwal and Khushi Khanijau. A total of seven amateurs will be playing on the field.

– PTI

TENNIS

Leading Indian players eye success at $25,000 ITF men’s tournament

After the healthy spell of four Challengers in recent weeks, leading Indian players Ramkumar Ramanathan, S Mukund, Siddharth Vishwakarma, Sidharth Rawat, Manish Sureshkumar and Nitin Kumar Sinha will attempt to capitalise on the $25,000 ITF men’s tournament to be played at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi from Tuesday.

The fact that the young Manas Dhamne, who is training at the Piatti Centre in Italy, has been brought into the fold with a wild card augurs well for his growth. It also gives a chance for the tennis fraternity in the country to gauge his progress.

Manas will open against sixth seed Florent Bax of France, who had made the final at this venue some months ago.

Mukund was brilliant in Pune during the Challenger before he had to give a walkover in the quarterfinals owing to an upset stomach. He will open against Karan Singh who is equally hungry to exhibit his strong game.

Ramkumar Ramanathan has been tuning himself nicely at the venue during the PSPB tournament last week and should be ready to assert his big game. He starts against Thanapet Chanta of Thailand.

Manish Sureshkumar will be up against second seed Khumoyun Sultanov of Uzbekistan.

Apart from these players, it will be interesting to see the performance of players like Chirag Duhan, Vishnu Vardhan, and Dev Javia among others who have reached the third and final qualifying round.

The tall and wiry Chirag also did quite well during the PSPB tournament and will be keen to show his growth as he has been training at the Patrick Mouratoglou Centre in France for some months, apart from competing in the international circuit, especially in Tunisia.

Well, the seasoned Evgeny Donskoy who has a victory over Roger Federer, is the top seed and had won the tournament the last time he had played at the venue. It will be interesting to see how well wild card entrant Shivank Bhatnagar plays against Donskoy, ranked 267 at the moment.

Overall, another exciting week of tennis in store.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ITF: Shrivalli faces top seed Irina Maria in opener

National champion Shrivalli Bhamidipaty will open against top seed Irina Maria Bara of Romania in the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament to be played at the Indore Tennis Cllub from Tuesday.

After the recent spell of high quality tennis, it will be another chance for Shrivalli to make a mark.

Third seed Ankita Raina, who opted to avail a wild card entry, will start against Ya-Husan Llee of Chinese Taipei, and finds herself in the second quarter along with seventh seed Polina Iatcenko.

Another player who has been catching attention in recent events, Sahaja Yamalapalli will play Zeel Desai. Asian Games mixed doubles gold medallist Rutuja Bhosale, quite strong in singles, will be up against fourth seed Mananchaya Sawangkaew of Thailand.

Riya Bhatia will play sixth seed Sohyun Park of Korea. The champion of the last tournament in Nagpur, Dalila Jakupovic has been seeded second and will await a qualifier.

Saumya Vig, Soha Sadiq, Humera Baharmus, Maaya Rajeshwaran, Akanksha Nitture, Vaishnavi Adkar and Suhitha Maruri have made the third and final qualifying round. Some of them will make the main draw and strengthen the Indian challenge.

– Kamesh Srinivasan