TENNIS

Barcelona Open: Bopanna-Ebden pair reaches quarterfinals

The Indo-Australian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden reached quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open, an ATP500 occasion, on Wednesday.

Bopanna and Ebden received 7-6(4), 3-6, [10-8] towards the fourth-seeded Croatian pair of Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic and can subsequent face the Mexican-French duo of Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

Bopanna and Ebden have received titles in Doha and Indian Wells to date and are at the moment fourth within the race for a spot within the ATP Tour Finals on the finish of the season.

-Team Sportstar

Oeiras Challenger: Jeevan-Balaji pair exits in first spherical

The all-Indian duo of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji misplaced within the first spherical of an ATP Challenger Tour occasion in Oeiras, Portugal on Wednesday.

The second-seeded Indian pair went down 5-7, 6-3, [7-10] to Polish duo of Karol Drzewiecki and Szymon Walkow within the spherical of 16 fixture in an hour and 38 minutes.

RESULTS

ATP Oeiros Challenger

Men’s Doubles, 1st Round - Karol Drzewiecki/Szymon Walkow (POL) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan/ N Sriram Balaji 5-7, 6-3, [7-10]; Sander Arends (NED)/Petros Tsitsipas (GRE) bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth/Artem Sitak (NZL) 6-4, 3-6, [10-6]; Igor Zelenay (SVK)/Petr Nouza (CZE) bt Purav Raja/Charles Broom (GBR) 6-2, 6-2

ITF W100 Charleston

Doubles, 1st Round - Prarthana Thombare/Jessy Rompies (INA) bt Carol Zhao (CAN)/Nao Hibino (JPN) 6-1, 6-3

ITF W25 Nottingham

Singles, 1st Round - Amarni Banks (GBR) bt [2] Ankita Raina 6-4, 6-3, Rutuja Bhosale bt [Q] Ingrid Vojcinakova (SVK) 6-1, 6-3

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals) - [2] Ankita Raina/Rutuja Bhosale bt Ingrid Vojcinakova (SVK)/Vlada Ekshibarova (ISR) 6-1, 6-3

ITF M25 Jakarta

Singles, 1st Round - [Q] Yuta Kawahashi (JPN) bt [4] Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-2, retd.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals) - Taisei Ichikawa/Yuki Mochizuki (JPN) bt Parikshit Somani/Kelsey Stevenson (Can) 6-4, 6-4; Ray Ho (TPE)/Sun Fajing (CHN) bt Sai Karteek Reddy/Shashank Theertha 6-3, 6-1

ITF W25 Guayaquil

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals) - Kaitlin Quevedo (USA)/Noelia Melgar (BOL) bt Diva Bhatia/Valentina Vargas (ECU) 6-1, 6-0.

ITF W15 Monastir

Singles, 1st Round - Jennifer Luikham bt Esther Bataille (FRA) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5; Selina Dal (GER) bt [Q] Vaishnavi Adkar 7-5, 6-1.

-Team Sportstar

Sumit Nagal reaches second spherical of Challenger occasion in Italy

India’s top-ranked male participant Sumit Nagal progressed to the second spherical of the ATP75 Challenger occasion Roseto Degli Abruzzi, Italy on Wednesday.

World No.366 Nagal beat fellow qualifier and native participant Jacopo Berrettini 6-3, 6-0 and can subsequent face both Edoardo Lavagno, one other native qualifier, or seventh-seeded Romanian Nicholas David Ionel.

Jacopo is the youthful brother of 2021 Wimbledon runner-up and former World No.6 Matteo Berrettini.

RESULTS

First Round

[Q] Sumit Nagal bt [Q] Jacopo Berrettini (ITA) 6-3, 6-0

Qualifying

2nd Round - [6] Sumit Nagal bt Riccardo Balzerani (ITA) 6-3, 6-3

1st Round - [6] Sumit Nagal bt [WC] Giorgio Ricca (ITA) 6-1, 6-2

-Team Sportstar

Indian groups introduced for South Asian under-12 match

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has chosen the girls and boys groups for the South Asian under-12 tennis match to be staged on the Sheikh Jamal National Tennis Complex, Dhaka, Bangladesh, from May 16 to twenty.

Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, aside from host Bangladesh, would be the different groups.

Two groups will qualify for the Asian under-12 occasion to be staged in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan.

SQUADS

Boys: Vivaan Mirdha, Smit Undre, Rishikesh Mane. Coach Indra Kumar Mahajan.

Girls: Karthika Padmakumar, Srishti Kiran, Niesha Enja. Coach Asha Sharma.

-Team Sportstar

CYCLING

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj to develop into Cycling Federation of India president

BJP’s Noida MLA Pankaj Singh is ready to be declared because the president of the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) on Saturday after he emerged because the lone candidate for the highest submit.

Not solely Pankaj, all the opposite 24 members of the CFI government council, will probably be elected unopposed through the election assembly to be held in Nainital, Uttarakhand, on Saturday.

He will succeed former Punjab minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, who has develop into ineligible to contest the elections underneath the Sports Code as he has served three phrases (12 years since 2011) as head of CFI.

Pankaj, son of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, served as president of Fencing Association of India for a short interval earlier than resigning from the submit in April final yr, citing his “commitments as a legislator” within the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Incumbent Maninder Pal Singh can even be re-elected as Secretary General for his second consecutive time period as he's the lone candidate for the submit. Sudeesh Kumar of Kerala would be the treasurer.

One president, one senior vice chairman, six vice presidents, one secretary basic, one treasurer, six joint secretaries and 9 government council members are to be elected within the elections.

The elections for all of the 25 posts will probably be unopposed. Returning officer Justice (retd) RK Gauba on Wednesday declared the ultimate listing of contesting candidates.

The election course of had began on March 24.

- PTI

GOLF

Sharma returns to motion in Japan after a month-long break

FILE PHOTO: Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma.| Photo Credit: Getty Images

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma will return to motion after a month’s break as he tees up on the ISPS HANDA Championship, which will get underway Thursday on the PGM Ishioka Golf Club in Omitama, Japan.

The occasion is the primary DP World Tour occasion to be co-sanctioned with the JGTO in Japan.

Sharma has been given a marquee group as he's grouped with the legend Shingo Katayama, who turned 50 this January, and the Danish veteran Soren Kjeldsen. Katayama, a five-time winner of the Japan Tour Order of Merit, has received as many 34 titles in his profession, 31 of which have been on the Japan Tour. His final win got here in 2017.

Sharma who has missed three cuts in final 4 – in between he was T-13 at his residence occasion, the Hero Indian Open – is seeking to recuperate the shape that noticed him end T-7 on the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in the beginning of the yr.

Sharma, who was twenty ninth within the DP World Tour Rankings in 2022, is already assured of a begin within the Open on the Royal Liverpool at Hoylake.

Meanwhile, the Japanese gamers perceive the chance is there for the taking as this week’s winner is ready to earn a two-year exemption to compete on the European flagship circuit.

One of these seeking to seize the chance of taking part in in a DP World Tour occasion with a home-ground benefit is Rikuya Hoshino.

Hoshino is at the moment holding a conditional standing on the DP World Tour by advantage of being the highest three finishers of final season’s JGTO Money Rankings, however he desires to enhance on it.

“This is important for me to play in this event and I’m so happy that I can play the course that I know well so I would like to play well and try to win,” stated Hoshino, who’s now ranked 144th on the Race to Dubai.

The subsequent technology of European stars are additionally trying ahead to teeing it up on the occasion.

Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre excited to be visiting a brand new location as he returns to motion for the primary time because the Magical Kenya Open offered by Absa.

Meanwhile Rasmus Højgaard is relishing his first occasion in Japan since representing Denmark within the Olympic Games in 2021, and his return to motion for the primary time since February following a shoulder harm.

All eyes will probably be on the South African legend Ernie Els will probably be aiming to roll the years as he seeks a 3rd profession win in Japan.

At 53, the four-time Major winner Els confirmed he has loads of fuel left within the tank with a few spectacular outcomes of late, most notably profitable the Hoag Classic on the PGA Tour Champions final month for the 76th win of his skilled profession.

- PTI

Shamim Khan early pacesetter at Ahmedabad Open

Shamim Khan of Delhi struck a five-under 31 to be the early pacesetter on the Ahmedabad Open on Wednesday.

Sri Lankan Mithun Perera, Bangladesh’s Jamal Hossain, Delhi’s Kshitij Naveed Kaul, Faridabad’s Abhinav Lohan and Greater Noida’s Arjun Bhati, have been bunched in tied second place with scores of three-under 33.

The first two rounds of the occasion comprise 9 holes every. After 18 holes the lower will probably be utilized. The third and fourth rounds will then comprise 18 holes every. The match will probably be performed over a complete of 54 holes. The par for the course within the first two rounds is 36.

-PTI