Indian sports news wrap: March 30

TENNIS

$82,000 Challenger tennis: Bollipalli, Poonacha win in doubles semifinals

Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha beat Ryan Seggerman and Patrik Trhac of USA 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles semifinals of the $82,000 Challenger tennis tournament in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

In the $40,000 ITF women’s event in Kofu, Japan, Rutuja Bhosale and Ankita Raina were beaten 6-3, 7-5 in the doubles final by Erina Hayashi and Saki Imamura.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

WJT Asia-Oceania under-14 boys tournament: India loses 2-0 to Japan

Japan beat India 2-0 in the final of the WJT Asia-Oceania under-14 boys tennis tournament in Kuching, Malaysia, on Saturday.

Hruthik Katakam looked set to force the deciding doubles after Tavish Pahwa was beaten in the first singles, but Takahiro Kawaguchi overcame a hard start to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, sealing a 2-0 victory for Japan.

Incidentally, Japan had scored a 2-0 victory over India in the league stage earlier.

Earlier, India had assured itself of a berth in the World Group competition to be staged later in Europe.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

AITA men’s tennis tournament: Parth beats former national champion Dalwinder in final

Parth Aggarwal beat former national champion Dalwinder Singh 7-6(3), 7-6(2) in the final of the Rs. 100,000 AITA men’s tennis tournament at the Excellence Academy.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CRICKET

East Zone crush North East to reach Senior Women’s Inter Zonal trophy semifinals

All-round effort by East Zone helped them romp home to a massive innings and 120-run win over North East Zone and book a spot in the semifinals of the Senior Women’s Inter Zonal Multi-Day Trophy here on Saturday.

They bowled out North East Zone for 108 and 157 respectively in the two innings after putting up 385 for eight declared with Dhara Gujjar’s 140 in the first innings setting the platform for the win.

North East Zone batters tried their best to delay the inevitable on Saturday but could not get enough runs on the board to make East Zone bat again.

NEZ’s Monica top scored with 39 off 84 balls with five fours, while Sentilemla faced 143 balls for her 33.

In another match, West Zone played out a draw against Central Zone with their first-innings lead of 111 runs ensuring a spot in the semifinal, here at the Pune Cricket Club Ground.

Central scored 245 in the first innings, while West notched up 356. Central Zone put up a much better show in the second dig to reach 307 for four, riding on Punam Raut’s 174 and Arushi Goel’s 58 not out.

CUE SPORTS

Sitwala, Haria enter CCI Billiards quarterfinals

National champion Dhruv Sitwala and Dhvaj Haria scored convincing victories to sail into the quarter-finals of the All India CCI Billiards Classic here on Saturday.

Sitwala, the left-handed India No. 1, got the better of seasoned pro Arun Agrawal 979-399, while Haria defeated last year’s runner-up Rob Hall of England 1055-425.

The Mumbai-based Sitwala produced a single sizeable break of 296 and had smaller runs of 60, 62, 76, 71 and 94 on way to his win against Agrawal, while Haria constructed a high break of 399 against his pre-quarterfinal opponent.

The Gujarat-based Haria had two more century efforts of 159 and 131 and a couple of breaks of 85, 55 and 53. Hall, who was down with a stomach bug, could only muster breaks of 65, 80 and 94.

Strong favourite and reigning champion Pankaj Advani continued to rule as he outclassed Aditya Agrawal 1236-428 to move closer to the defense of his title.

World champion Advani started with a neat break of 258 and then constructed a solid 365 to knock the fight out of Aditya. Advani had two more centuries of 111 and 197 and breaks of 72, 66 and 77 to run away with the match. Aditya had breaks of 103, 89 and 71.

In another last-16 match between two former National champions Sourav Kothari and S. Shrikrishna, the latter came up with a last-ditch effort, rolling in an unfinished break of 78 points, to snatch a come-from-behind 492-473 victory and a place in the quarter-finals.

Shrikrishna had earlier made a 151 break while Kothari’s best was 96 and 92.

England’s ace billiards player David Causier was all charged up as he demolished India’s Kamal Chawla 1422-306 in another pre-quarterfinal contest.

Causier, a nine-time world champion, played at a rapid pace and gave an excellent exhibition of precision play and consistency as he constructed a sequence of massive breaks of 249, 220, 354, 124, 99, 94, 62 and 74. Chawla had just two big efforts of 51 and 56.

Mumbai youngster Raayan Razmi played with plenty of resilience to stun former champion Siddharth Parikh by a close 606-519 margin in another last-16 match.

-PTI

VOLLEYBALL

Volleyball trials for Asian championships

The ad-hoc committee for the Volleyball Federation of India will conduct open selection trials to pick players for the Asian volleyball championships (under-18 men, under-20 men and senior men) at the SAI Southern Centre, Bengaluru, on the following dates: Under-18 men: April 8 (reporting time 9 a.m.). Under-20 men: April 9 (9 a.m.). Senior men: April 10, 11 & 12 (reporting date: April 10, time 9 a.m.).

-Stan Rayan

CHESS

V. Prraneeth reigns supreme Fagernes Slow Blitz 2024

GM V. Prraneeth of Telangana won the Fagernes Slow Blitz chess championship (Group A) in Norway with six wins from seven rounds.

Prraneeth, the second-year Intermediate student from Hyderabad, finished half a point ahead of the rest of the field to clinch the honours.

FM Gunnar Lund of Norway and IM Aksel Bu Kvaloy of Norway finished second and third respectively with 5.5 points each. For the record, 13-year-old Oda Skramstad of Norway scored six wins from seven rounds to win the Group B title.

Prraneeth, IM Sidhant Mohapatra, IM Dushyant Sharma and IM Moksh Amit Doshi secured second place in Team talking chess. For the 17-year-old Prraneeth, the next major assignments are the Menorca and Formentera chess tournaments in Spain.

-V. V. Subhramanayan