SQUASH
Senthilkumar, Abhay power into QSF 3 squash quarters in Doha
Velavan Senthilkumar and Abhay Singh have powered into the quarterfinals of the prestigious USD 53,500 QSF 3 squash – a PSA World Tour Bronze event – in Doha with stunning second-round wins over seeded opponents.
Reigning National champion Senthilkumar defeated Egyptian seventh seed Omar Mosaad, a former world No 3, 13-11, 11-3, 9-3 retd in 30 minutes, while Asian Games medallist Abhay beat sixth-seeded Frenchman Auguste Dussourd 11-7, 5-11, 10-12, 11-5, 9-3 retd in 59 minutes on Thursday.
World No 55 Senthilkumar will meet Egyptian top seed and world No 8 Tarek Momen next, while Abhay, ranked 67 in the world, will take on Malaysian third seed and world No 15 Eain Yow Ng.
-Team Sportstar
PSA Challenger, Indore: Pooja reaches semifinals
Pooja Arthi knocked out second seed Malak Samir of Egypt 12-10, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7 in the women’s quarterfinals of the HCL $6,000 PSA Challenger squash tournament at the Daly College in Indore on Friday.
RESULTS (Quarterfinals)
Men: Ravindu Laksiri (Sri) bt Diwakar Singh 9-11, 11-5, 11-6, 11-8; Vedant Patel bt KS Arihant 8-11, 12-14, 13-11, 11-8, 11-9; Shamil Wakeel (Sri) bt Tavneet Singh Mundra 11-5, 11-5, 11-2; Om Semwal bt Bader Almaghrebi (Kuw) 15-13, 11-7, 11-3.
Women: Rathika Suthanthira Seelan bt Navya Sundararajan 11-2, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6; Nirupama Dubey bt Anjali Semwal 7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 6-11, 11-3; Akanksha Gupta bt Yeheni Kuruppu (Sri) 11-7, 1-11, 11-7, 4-11, 12-10; Pooja Arthi bt Malak Samir 12-10, 11-6, 5-11, 11-7.
-Team Sportstar
Indian Open Junior championship: Diya progresses to under-19 quarterfinals
Diya Dhillon beat Durga Paradhi 11-4, 11-2, 11-7 in the girls under-19 pre-quarterfinals of the HCL Indian Open junior squash championship at the Daly College in Indore on Friday.
RESULTS
Girls: Under-19 (pre-quarterfinals): Diya Dhillon bt Durga Paradhi 11-4, 11-2, 11-7; Yashi Jain bt Diya Yadav (USA) 12-10 (retired); Aishni Pathak bt Dhritih Kandpal 11-7, 11-5, 11-7; Rewa Nimbalkar w.o. Waikhom Chanu; Chhavi Saran bt Yashvi Lakhwani 11-1, 11-1, 11-2; Niruama Dubey bt Garima Nagar 11-3, 11-3, 11-1.
-Team Sportstar
TENNIS
Bhambri-Olivetti pair reaches Lyon Open final
Yuki Bhambri and Albano Olivetti squeezed their way past top seeds Santiago Gonzalez and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-7(5), [10-7] in the doubles semifinals of the ATP 250 event in Lyon, France, on Friday.
In the final, the Indo-French pair will play Harri Helliovaara of Finland and Henry Patten of Britain.
RESULTS
€651,865 ATP, Lyon, France
Doubles (semifinals): Yuki Bhambri & Albano Olivetti (Fra) bt Santiago Gonzalez (Mex) & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) 6-3, 6-7(5), [10-7].
€74,825 Challenger, Skopje, Macedonia
Doubles (quarterfinals): Ryan Seggerman & Patrik Trhac (USA) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 7-5, 7-6(5).
$41,000 Challenger, Kachreti, Georgia
Doubles (semifinals): Charles Broom & Ben Jones (GBR) bt Yanki Erel (Tur) & Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-5, 7-6(6).
$25,000 ITF men, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Singles (quarterfinals): Benjamin Lock (Zim) bt Ishaque Eqbal 7-6(3), (retired); Eliakim Coulibaly (CIV) bt Adil Kalyanpur 6-1, 6-4; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Kabir Hans 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Doubles (semifinals): Benjamin Lock & Courtney Lock (Zim) bt Chirag Duhan & Ishaque Eqbal 6-4, 6-2; Quarterfinals: Siddhant Banthia & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Raghav Jaisinghani & Sina Moghimi (Iri) 6-7(3), 6-2, [10-4]; Chirag & Ishaque bt Kabir Hans & Karan Singh 7-6(4), 6-1.
$15,000 ITF men, Kingston, Jamaica
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Aryan Shah bt Joshua Sheehy (USA) 6-1, 6-4.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Adhithya Ganesan (USA) & Aryan Shah bt Reece Falck (Nzl) & Timothy Gray (Aus) 6-4, 7-6(4).
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (quarterfinals): Zeel Desai bt Maria Gonzalez (Col) 6-4, 7-5.
Doubles (semifinals): Angella Okutoyi (Ken) & Merna Refaat (Egy) bt Zeel Desai & Daria Khomutsianskaya 6-3, 6-1.
-Team Sportstar
AITA Men’s Tournament: Suraj Prabodh completes ‘double’
Second seed Suraj Prabodh beat top seed Neeraj Yashpaul 6-2, 6-4 in the final of the HPCL Mittal Rs.100,000 AITA men’s ranking tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex in Chandigarh on Friday.
It was a double crown for Suraj, as he had won the doubles title earlier with Vilasier Khate.
-Team Sportstar
National sub-junior championship: Shivtej reaches semifinals
Shivtej Shirfule battled past fifth seed Prakaash Sarrann 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-4 in the boys quarterfinals of the Ramesh Desai memorial National sub-junior tennis championship at the KDLTA Complex in Kohlapur on Friday.
In the girls section, Swanika Roy beat second seed Anandita Upadhyay 6-3, 6-4.
Results (Quarterfinals)
Under-16 boys: Prateek Sheoran bt Neel Kelkar 6-1, 6-3; Hruthik Katakam bt Saksham Bhansali 6-3, 6-2; Tavish Pahwa bt Harsh Malik 6-0, 6-1; Shivtej Shirfule bt Prakaash Sarran 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 6-4.
Under-16 girls: Swasti Singh bt Deepshika Vinayagamurthy 6-2, 6-4; Parthhsarthi Mundhe bt Shaivi Dalal 6-2, 6-2; Ranjhana Sangram bt Nainika Bendram 6-2, 6-3; Swanika Roy bt Anandita Upadhyay 6-3, 6-4.
-Team Sportstar
MSLTA felicitates players, coaches and officials
The Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) felicitated Rutuja Bhosale, Nandan Bal, Nitin Kannamwar among others and presented cash awards for about Rs.15,00,000 at the annual celebrations.
About 35 players, 11 coaches and two tennis officials received the awards at the MSLTA premises.
Life time achievement awards were presented to tennis promoter and commentator Atul Premnarayan Davis Cup coach Nandan Bal and leading tennis official of Asia Nitin Kannamwar, for their continuing contribution to tennis in the State.
Solapur Association was awarded as the best district award for tennis promotion. Arjun Kadhe, Manas Dhamne, Vaishnavi Adkar, Atharva Sharma, Samarth Sahita, Arnav Paparkar, Prisha Shinde, Aishwarya Jadhav, Aarav Chhallani, Sonal Patil, Parthsarthi Mundhe were some of the other leading players in various age groups, getting the awards.
Coach Kedar Shah was presented an award for his trainee Rutuja Bhosale winning the Asian Games mixed doubles gold medal. He was also felicitated for his role as the women’s team coach for the National Games in Goa, along with men’s team coach Anvit Bendre, Other leading coaches Hemant Bendre, Sandeep Kirtane, Prosonjit Paul, Manal Desai, Ravindra Pandey, Girish Mishra, Gitesh Awasthi were presented special awards for their wards winning National championships.
Himanshu Gosavi, Riya Chaphekar were presented awards for the efficient and excellent work in their field.
-Team Sportstar
HOCKEY
Indian junior men’s hockey team loses 4-5 against Dutch local club
The Indian junior men’s hockey team fought hard after a sluggish start but could not prevent a 4-5 loss to local Dutch side Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push in its third match of the ongoing tour of Europe here.
After a narrow 2-2 (4-2) penalty shootout victory, India had slumped to a 2-3 loss to the Belgium junior side in their previous match.
Captain Rohit (18th minute), Sourabh Anand Khushwaha (24th), Ankit Pal (32nd), and Arshdeep Singh (58th) sounded the board for India, but the side was unable to overturn the five-goal deficit on Thursday.
Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push began the game aggressively, earning a penalty corner and scoring from it in just over a minute.
In the very next minute, the local side overpowered the Indian defence to score another penalty corner goal.
The Indian colts resisted the initial pressure and attempted to score but fell short as Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push held firm and finished the first quarter with a 2-0 lead.
Determined to gain a foothold in the game, India earned a penalty stroke as the second quarter began and captain Rohit stepped up to score from the spot.
The respite was short-lived as Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push bounced back to earn another penalty corner and breached India’s goal again.
Sourabh Anand Khushwaha scored through a penalty corner to reduce the deficit to a goal heading into the second half.
A splendid comeback seemed on the cards as Ankit Pal scored a field goal two minutes into the third quarter but Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push took control of the game and went on to restore their lead in the 42nd minute and end the quarter 4-3 in their favour.
The intensity stepped up a notch in the final quarter as India continued to look for a chink in Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push’s defence. Arshdeep Singh breached the net in the 58th minute to make it 4-4. But Bredase Hockey Vereniging Push refused to give up and scored in the last minute to win the match 5-4.
The Indian junior men’s team will play its next match against Germany in Mönchengladbach on May 28.
-PTI
VOLLEYBALL
Indian women lose to Philippines in AVC Challenge Cup
Indian women’s volleyball team suffered its first defeat in the ongoing AVC Challenge Cup, losing 1-3 (25-22, 21-25, 17-25, 18-25) to the Philippines in a Group A match on Friday.
India defeated Iran 3-0 (25-17, 25-23, 25-21) in its opening group match before registering a 3-0 (25-19, 25-13, 25-16) victory over Chinese Taipei.
India faces Australia in its final group match on Saturday.
-Team Sportstar
CRICKET
Renovation of Moin-ul-Haq Stadium set to commence in September
Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) president Mr Rakesh Tiwari has confirmed that the reconstruction work of Moin Ul Haq stadium will begin in September this year. The main goal of BCA will be to make it a top-notch stadium.
In March 2024, the BCA secured the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium from the Bihar government on a long-term lease. The stadium currently serves as the home ground for the Bihar cricket team and has been the site of nine international matches since its establishment in 1969.
Following the elections, the agreement papers / MOU will be signed paving the way for the cricket complex premises which shall include mainly two cricket grounds of standard size. First shall be the main Stadium and the other one to facilitate Board matches and other matches.
The BCA president also informed that completion of the reconstruction work of the Moin Ul Haq stadium will take around 1.5 years to get over.
-Team Sportstar
GOLF
Atwal, Jeev open with 69s, lie T-19 at Seniors PGA Championship
Indian golfers Arjun Atwal and Jeev Milkha Singh opened with identical rounds of 2-under 69 each and were Tied-19th at the end of the first round at the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship, one of the Majors for the Seniors, on the Champions Tour here.
As the Indian duo began strongly, leading the field in the USD 3.5 million seniors’ event (over-50s), were Australian Richard Green and Englishman Richard Bland, who shot 7-under 64 each at Harbor Shores.
Green hit all 13 fairways and 17 of the 18 greens in regulation en route to the 64.
Green shared the lead with Englishman Richard Bland, playing his first over-50s event. Bland showed great overall form and did not miss a fairway until the eighth hole, which was his 17th of the day. He was bogey free on his debut on the PGA TOUR Champions.
Defending champion Steve Stricker opened with a 5-under 66 and was among five players with 66.
Jeev, playing from the first alongside Italian Emanuele Canonica (69) and Jeff Schmid (66), opened on the first with three pars and then had a great run. He birdied the fourth and then had three in a row from seventh to ninth to turn in an impressive 4-under.
On the back, he missed a couple of birdie chances but was hit by a double bogey on Par-4 12th and no more birdies or bogeys to finish with 69.
Atwal, the only Indian to have won on the main PGA TOUR, began on the 10th with a birdie and added a second on the 12th. He dropped three shots in a row from 16th to 18th and turned in 1-over.
On the back nine, Atwal birdied the first, third and the ninth and bogeyed Par-4 sixth to finish in 69, while his playing partners Jake Reeves (89) and Kirk Triplett (75) struggled through the day.
Presidents Cup International team captain Mike Weir mixed six birdies with one bogey to open in 5-under 66 and was T-4. He played alongside Darren Clarke (67) and Ernie Els (70).
-PTI
CARROM
PSPB wins men’s, women’s team events at All India Inter-Institutional and veterans carrom championship
Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) bagged a ‘double’ winning the men’s and women’s team events in the Union Bank of India-All India Inter-Institutional and veterans carrom championship at Navya Bharati Global School in Nizamabad on Friday.
In the men’s section, PSPB defeated Jindal Irrigation Systems Ltd 2-1 in the final while Reserve Bank of India recorded a similar 2-1 win over Central Civil Services Cultural & Sports Board to settle for third place.
In the women’s final, PSPB recorded a 2-1 win over Airports Authority of India while Life Insurance Corporation of India also notched up an identical 2-1 win over Jindal Irrigation Systems Ltd for third place.
RESULTS
Team event: Men: Final: PSPB bt JSIL 2-1 (K. Srinivas bt Abhijit Tripankar 20-2, 12-17, 24-6; Mohd Gufran bt Zaid Ahmed Farooque 25-3, 25-20; Sandeep Derukhar & Yogesh Pardesi lost to Anil Munde & Rahim Khan 25, 21-12-15, 9-23).
Semifinals: PSPB bt RBI 2-1 (K. Srinivas bt L. Suryaprakash 25-16, 19-18; Mohd Gufran bt Prashant More 21-17, 25-21; Sandeep Deorukhar & Yogesh Pardesi lost to V. Akash & Hidaayaath Ansari 16-21, 21-15, 1-25).
JSIL bt CCSCSB 2-1 (Abhijit Triankar lost to Abdul Rahman 12-17, 19-18, 20-25; Zaid Ahmed Farooquee bt M. Ashok Kumar 25-1, 25-0; Anil Munde & Rahim Khan bt Rahul Solanki & Praful More 25-0, 20-17).
Women: Final: PSPB bt AAI 2-1 (Rashmi Kumari bt Mantaasha Iqbal 25-7, 20-21, 23-10; V. Mithra & Akanksha Kadam bt Shainy & Nidhi Gupta 23-22, 17-25, 21-10; M. Khazima lost to Bharat Nisha 12-25, 25-9, 9-25).
Semifinals: AAI bt LICI 3-0 (Mantaasha Iqbal bt S. Appoorwa 21-19, 23-5; Nidhi Gupta bt P. Nirmala 25-20, 5-21, 22-21; Shainy & Barkath Nisha bt Deepika Sinha & Shilpa Paalnitkar 21-16, 25-16).
PSPB bt JSIL 2-1 (Rashmi Kumari bt Samruddhi Ghaddigaaokar 25-10, 20-2; M. Khazima bt Shriti Sonawane 25-12, 15-19, 24-10; V. Mithra & Kajal Kumari lost to Aisha Sajid Khan & B. Pushkarni 15-25, 25-0, 6-25).
– V.V. Subrahmanyam
