GOLF
Sneha flies on twin eagles to win, Hitaashee falters in 2nd leg of Hero WPGT
Sneha Singh performed an excellent closing spherical to seize her first win of the season within the second Leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour on Thursday.
Sneha, winner of the Hero Order of Merit in 2023, opened and closed the ultimate spherical with eagles on method to a card of 7-under 63. She rallied from 4 pictures behind in a single day chief Hitaashee Bakshi (68) to win by one.
Sneha, with 68-73-63 totalled 6-under 204 and Hitaashee, who completed runner-up for the second time in as many weeks, completed at 5-under 205.
Ridhima Dilawari had a strong 2-under 68 and was third, whereas final week’s winner, novice Nishna Patel shot a 71. She was tied fourth with Khushi Khanijau (71) at 2-over 212.
Amandeep Drall (68-71-74) completed sixth, and Vani Kapoor (76-69-70) was seventh.
Amateurs Mannat Brar (72) and Vidhatri Urs (73) emphasised the novice power in Indian girls’s golf by ending tied eighth at 216. Rhea Jha (76) was tenth, Neha Tripathi (74) was eleventh, and Ananya Datar (70) ended twelfth.
Sneha and Hitaashee performed in several teams however have been engaged in a detailed tussle.
Sneha, who was 4 behind Hitaashee, obtained off to an excellent begin with an eagle and added a birdie on the third. Hitaashee, enjoying within the lead group, additionally birdied the second and third and added a 3rd birdie on the sixth.
Sneha eagled the ultimate gap and joined Hitaashee at 6-under for the event.
Hitaashee wanted a birdie on the Par-5 18th, and a par would imply a play-off. She ended up dropping a shot handy Sneha the win. Sneha and Hitaashee have been tied for second final week behind novice Nishna who gained.
Sneha now takes the lead on the Hero Order of Merit after the primary two legs of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour.
-PTI
Avani rallies on again 9 to be positioned seventh at Australian amateurs
India’s Avani Prashanth recovered from two double bogeys on the entrance 9 with 5 birdies on the again 9 earlier than closing with a bogey within the third spherical of the Australian Amateur Championships right here on Thursday.
Avani carded a second straight 2-over 75 on the Par-73 programs. Avani, ranked fiftieth on the earth and the highest ranked star from the Indian Golf Union, shot 72-75 on the primary two days and is now 3-over 222 and in tied seventh place.
The chief within the girls’s part is Amelia Harris, who had two eagles in her spherical of 5-under 68 and he or she is 9-under for 3 rounds. She is manner forward of second positioned Mamika Shinchi of Japan who carded 71 within the third spherical and has a complete of 3-under.
Only 4 gamers are beneath par after three rounds on the difficult course, the place the circumstances turned harder after rain on the second day.
The different Indian within the girls’s part, Heena Kang, missed the lower on the weather-hit second day. She shot 80-80.
In the boys’s part the lone Indian to make the lower was Varun Muthappa (74-73-77) who was 12-over and T-74, whereas Sandeep Yadav and Rohit Narwal missed the lower.
Avani opened with three pars after which ran right into a disastrous stretch with a bogey and two double bogeys in a span of 4 holes between the fourth and the sixth.
She fought again on the second 9 at Yarra Yarra Golf Club with birdies on the tenth, twelfth, 14th, sixteenth and seventeenth with only one bogey until then on eleventh.
Avani, who was runner-up final week on the Australian Masters of Amateurs, shall be seeking to a decrease spherical and transfer up forward of subsequent month’s Women’s Amateur Asia Pacific (WAAP) in Thailand.
-PTI
Shubankar playing cards even par 72; 4 golfers share lead in Desert Classic
Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma on Thursday carded a powerful even par 72 however nonetheless was beneath the chief board atop of which 4 gamers constructed a considerable lead with five-under within the 2024 Hero Dubai Desert Classic right here.
Sharma, the lone Indian at this occasion every year since 2018, had a superb begin from the tenth.
He landed an eagle that was arrange with a 284-yard drive adopted up with a 265-yard strategy and he duly sank the 9-footer for eagle.
But after that he had only one extra birdie on the primary and three bogeys for a day’s work of even par 72.
“I played well but it was not easy with the wind and I missed a couple of putts (including a two-footer), but there is more golf to come,” stated Sharma.
– PTI
TENNIS
$25,000 ITF males’s tennis: Wild card entrant Manish beats fifth seed Van Wyk in pre-quarters
Wild card entrant Manish Sureshkumar beat fifth seed Kris van Wyk of South Africa 6-1, 7-6(4) within the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF males’s tennis event on the Arera Club courts on Thursday.
In the quarterfinals, Manish will problem fourth seed Bogdan Bobrov.
National champion Siddharth Vishwakarma sailed previous Matt Hulme of Australia for the lack of six video games and can face third seed Eric Vanshelboim of Ukraine within the quarterfinals.
The younger Aryan Shah additionally made the quarterfinals, as his opponent, qualifier Thijmen Loof of the Netherlands, retired whereas trailing 0-5 within the first set. Aryan will meet prime seed Oliver Crawford of Britain.
In doubles quarterfinals, Manish in partnership with Parikshit Somani missed a match level and obtained overwhelmed 2-6, 6-3, [13-11] by Sai Karteek Reddy and Vishnu Vardhan.
The outcomes:
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Oliver Crawford (GBR) bt Mitsuki Leong (Mas) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1; Aryan Shah bt Thijmen Loof (Ned) 5-0 (retired); Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) bt Nam Hoang Ly (Vie) 2-6, 6-3, 6-0; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Matt Hulme (Aus) 6-4, 6-2; Manish Sureshkumar bt Kris van Wyk (RSA) 6-1, 7-6(4); Bogdan Bobrov bt Raghav Jaisinghani 6-2, 6-1; David Pichler (Aut) bt Tsung-Hao Huang (Tpe) 7-6(1), 6-3; Dominik Palan (Cze) bt Luca Castelnuovo (Sui) 6-4, 7-6(3).
Doubles (quarterfinals): Ishaque Eqbal & Faisal Qamar bt Rishab Agarwal & Tsung-Hao Huang (Tpe) 6-2, 6-4; Sai Karteek Reddy & Vishnu Vardhan bt Parikshit Somani & Manish Sureshkumar 2-6, 6-3, [13-11]; Nicholas Bybel (USA) & Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) bt Woobin Shin (Kor) & Kris van Wyk (RSA) 6-1, 6-4; Bogdan Bobrov & Luca Castelnuovo (Sui) bt Kabir Hans & Aryan Shah 7-5, 6-3.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF Junior tennis: Rethin, Cahir make it to the semis
Fourth seeded Rethin Senthil Pranav and eighth seeded Cahir Warik stored the Indian flag flying as two produced emphatic wins of their respective quarterfinal outings within the Central Excise and CGST ITF Junior (J200) tennis on the artificial courts of the BTA Complex on Thursday.
Rethin needed to dig deep into his assets to beat seventh seeded Duje Markovina of Croatia in a contest lasting greater than three hours. Rethin, who gained his quarterfinal match 6-4, 7-6(1), shall be going through prime seeded Nikita Bilozertsev of Ukraine within the semifinal on Friday. Bilozertsev obtained the higher of Japan’s Hikaru Takahashi 6-4, 6-1. Cahir Warik additionally produced a robust recreation to breeze previous second seeded Vojtech Vales of Czech Republic 6-1, 7-6(8). Fourth seeded Cahir shall be assembly third seeded Ognjen Milic of Serbia within the different semifinal match.
The outcomes:
Boys’ singles (quarterfinals): Nikita Bilozertsev (Ukr) bt Hikaru Takahashi (Jpn) 6-4, 6-1, Rethin Pranav Senthil Kumar (Ind) bt Duje Markovina(Cro) 6-4, 7-6(1), Ognjen Milic (Srb) bt Iliyas Maratuly (Kaz) 6-1, 6-0, Cahir Warik (Ind) bt Vojtech Vales (Cze) 6-1, 7-6(8).
Girls’ singles (quarterfinals): Maayan Laron (Isr) bt Shihomi Li Xuan Leong (Mas) 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-1, Christasha McNeil (USA) bt Anastasiya Krymkova (Kaz) 6-0, 6-1, Daria Shadchneva (Rus) bt Sara Borkop (Den) 6-3, 6-2, Maria Golovina (Rus) bt Maya Iyengar (USA) 7-5, 6-4.
– Team Sportstar
Rithvik and Niki in Challenger semifinals
Rithvik Bollipalli and Niki Poonacha beat Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia 6-3, 6-7(4), [10-5] within the doubles quarterfinals of the $82,000 Challenger tennis event in Nonthaburi, Thailand, on Thursday.
The Indian pair had earlier knocked out the second seeds Manuel Guinard and Gregoire Jacq of France in straight units.
The outcomes:
€120,950 Challenger, Abama, Spain Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Karol Drzewiecki & Piotr Matuszewski (Pol) bt Sathi Chirala & Fabio Fognini (Ita) 7-5, 6-3; Arjun Kadhe & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt David Marrero (Esp) & Dhruva Mulye (USA) 6-2, 6-1.
$82,000 Challenger, Nonthaburi, Thailand Doubles (quarterfinals): Rithvik Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha bt Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) & Christopher Rungkat (Ina) 6-3, 6-7(4), [10-5]; Pre-quarterfinals: Ray Ho (Tpe) & Kaichi Uchida (Jpn) bt Saketh Myneni & Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-7(5), 7-5, [10-7]; Rithvik & Niki bt Manuel Guinard & Gregoire Jacq (Fra) 6-3, 6-4.
$40,000 ITF girls, Antalya, Turkey Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Cristina Dinu (Rou) & Nika Radisic (Slo) bt Sebastianna Scilipoti (Sui) & Vasanti Shinde 6-2, 6-2.
$25,000 ITF girls, Petit-Bourg, France Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Jaeda Daniel (USA) & Katarina Kozarov (Srb) bt Brianna Baldi (USA) & Priyanka Rodricks 6-0, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF males, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Miljan Zekic (Srb) bt Chirag Duhan 7-6(5), 7-6(7); First spherical: Chirag bt Alexander Donski (Bul) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.
$15,000 ITF males, Manacor, Spain Singles (first spherical): Manas Dhamne bt Stefan Hampe (Ger) 6-4, 6-0.
– Team Sportstar
Sasikumar Mukund highest ranked Indian in ITF Men’s 25k Futures
Sasikumar Mukund was on Thursday revealed as the best ranked Indian for the third version of the ITF Men’s 25K Futures to be held right here from January 22-28.
The organisers have elevated the whole prize cash to USD 25,000 together with extra ATP factors for each singles and doubles.
Six Indians have been granted direct entry into the principle draw, with Mukund (ATP rating 556) main the pack which additionally has SD Prajwal Dev (616), Manish Sureshkumar (924), Karan Singh (ITF rating 795) and Aryan Shah (ITF rating 1,242).
Great Britain’s Oliver Crawford (215) is the highest seed whereas the previous world No 17 Bernard Tomic from Australia would be the spotlight ot the event, seeded third.
“It’s an opportunity for Indian players to get points. We are planning to conduct more such tournaments, as it serves as the stepping stone. And, unless you collect more points, you can’t participate in the larger tournaments,” AITA Joint Secretary Premkumar Karra informed PTI throughout the occasion launch on Thursday.
The competitors shall be organised on the Gandhinagar Club.
The singles winner will obtain a prize cash of USD 3,600 and the runner-up will get USD 2,120. The doubles winners obtain USD 1,550, whereas the runners-up get USD 900.
The ATP factors supplied to the winner shall be 25 whereas the runner-up will get 16.
– PTI
ARCHERY
Around 220 archers, together with a number of prime names, shall be seen in motion within the Indian Open Indoor Archery Tournament to be held on the Biswa Bangla Exhibition Centre in Kolkata from Friday.
The three-day occasion, being organised for the second time after six years by the Dola and Rahul Banerjee Sports Foundation, may have competitions in under-18 and elite classes in recurve and compound divisions.
“Young archers get to interact with big names as the number of entries is so huge. Indoor shooting requires consistency as weather conditions are not a factor here. With smaller targets, shooting has to be perfect and a little error can prove costly,” stated ace archer Deepika Kumari at a press convention right here on Thursday.
The organisers are planning to show the occasion right into a circuit with three legs.
– Team Sportstar
HOCKEY
Beighton Cup: Kolkata Port Trust beats West Bengal Police
A. Suresh Sharma scored 4 objectives as Kolkata Port Trust thrashed West Bengal Police 9-1 in a qualifying spherical match of the 125 th Coal India Beighton Cup hockey event right here on Thursday.
The outcomes (qualifying spherical)
Kolkata Port Trust 9 (A.Suresh Sharma-4, Anand Ekka-2, Bidyananda Singh-2, A. Bada) bt West Bengal Police 1 (Santosh Rajbhar); Police Athletic Club 2 (Dipak, Karambir Singh) bt Vivid Youth Hockey Club 0.
SNOOKER
Advani, Chadha qualify for All India Snooker closing
Pankaj Advani recorded an authoritative 8-2 win over Varun Kumar within the semifinal to arrange summit conflict in opposition to Ishpreet Chadha within the All India Snooker Open right here on Thursday.
Advani compiled a sequence of great breaks in opposition to Tamil Nadu’s Kumar, together with two centuries, and dominated the primary session racing to a 5-0 lead on the break.
Kumar performed some poor security pictures and supplied Advani with ideally suited alternatives.
Advani recorded an 84-break as he knocked in a well timed 74 to grab the body from Kumar, who was main 49-0.
Later, Advani was lucky to get simple openings and fired in breaks of 105 and 104 to swell the lead earlier than successful the fifth with a 53 break.
After the break, Kumar did effectively to halt Advani’s cost as he constructed a break of 72 to pocket the sixth body.
Advani regained his contact and rolled in a 76 to take the seventh, earlier than Kumar with regular play and small runs claimed the eighth to delay the opponent’s run to the end line.
However, Advani was not ready to attend any longer as he clinched the ninth and tenth frames to wrap up the competition, with the frames scores studying 105-23, 74-49, 105-0, 104-4, 75-31, 0-81, 97-20, 0-80, 78-0, 67-43.
In the second semifinal, Chadha defeated final 12 months’s runner-up Aditya Mehta 8-4 (111-5, 26-81, 130-0, 137-0, 91-51, 0-86, 0-129, 93-25, 68-58, 24-63, 113-18, 80-0).
– PTI