TENNIS
Women’s ITF, Navi Mumbai: Ankita Raina reaches second round
Top seed Ankita Raina overcame an indifferent start to beat Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ganesh Naik Complex on Tuesday.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Ankita will play Thasaporn Naklo of Thailand.\
The champion of the tournament last week in Solapur, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty beat the runner-up of that event, Bunyawi Thamchaiwat of Thailand yet again, with a 6-4, 6-2 margin in the first round.
Shrivalli will play qualifier Zuzanna Pawlikowska of Poland in the second round. Riya Bhatia beat compatriot Tanisha Kashyap 6-3, 6-4 to set up a pre-quarterfinal against eighth seed Priska Nugroho of Indonesia.
RESULTS
Singles (first round): Ankita Raina bt Valentini Grammatikopoulou (Gre) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4; Thasaporn Naklo (Tha) bt Diana Marcinkevica (Lat) 6-1, 7-5; Zuzanna Pawlikowska (Pol) bt Honoka Kobayashi (Jpn) 6-0, 6-1; Shrivalli Bhamidipaty bt Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) 6-4, 6-2; Naho Sato (Jn) bt Akanksha Nitture 7-6(8), 6-4; Tian Fangran (Chn) bt Kanako Morisaki (Jpn) 6-3, 6-2; Ekaterina Yashina bt Arina Arifullina 6-7(4), 7-5, 6-1; Punnin Kovapitukted (Tha) bt Anastasia Kulikova (Fin) 6-4, 6-1; Riya Bhatia bt Tanisha Kashyap 6-3, 6-4; Anri Nagata (Jpn) bt Viktoria Morvayova (Svk) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Eva Garkusha bt Jizel Fernandes (GBR) 6-2, 7-5.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Kanako Morisaki & Naho Sato (Jpn) bt Punnin Kovapitukted (Tha) & Tian Fangran (Chn) 7-5, 6-3; Hiroko Kuwata (Jpn) & Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Vaishnavi Adkar & Pooja Ingale 6-3, 4-6, [10-7].
– Team Sportstar
AITA Men’s Tournament: Sarthak Suden reaches quartefinals
Third seed Sarthak Suden overcame stiff resistance from Amandeep Singh Baha 6-4, 7-6(3) in the pre-quarterfinals of the seventh Rajesh Patel memorial Rs.100,000 AITA men’s ranking tennis tournament at the Tennis Vidyalaya in Sector-61, Gurugram, on Tuesday.
In the quarterfinals, Sarthak will play Aarjun Pandit. Top seed Parth Aggarwal, second seed Bushan Haobam, Deep Munim, Bhicky Sagolshem, Samuel Jones and Mayank Sharma were the others making the quarterfinals.
RESULTS (PRE-QUARTERFINALS)
Parth Aggarwal bt Arnav Harsh 6-1, 6-1; Deep Munim bt Aryan Vij 6-3, 6-1; Aarjun Pandit bt Shivam Devam 6-3 6-3, Sarthak Suden bt Amandeep Singh Baha 6-4, 7-6(3); BhickySagolshem bt Aditya Tinjani 6-4, 7-6(5); Samuel Jones bt Krishan Hooda 6-3, 6-3; Mayank Sharma bt Udit Gogoi 6-2, 7-5; Bhushan Haobam bt Mayank Yadav 6-3, 6-2.
– Team Sportstar
FOOTBALL
Santosh Trophy: Odisha clinches first win, Delhi continues unbeaten run
Delhi continued its unbeaten run with a 2-0 win against Tamil Nadu while Odisha earned its first victory of the 78th Senior National football championship for the Santosh Trophy at the Deccan Arena in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Delhi maintained its position with six points from two matches while Odisha, on the other hand, hauled itself up from the bottom to the third spot.
Delhi led 1-0 at the breather.
The capital side got off to a swift start, gaining the lead in the seventh minute itself as Bhaaranyu Bansal produced a beautiful, left-footed volley into the bottom corner. Ashish Shaw (65’) capitalised on a miscued clearance to head it in from close range, doubling his side’s lead.
Tamil Nadu remained fifth in Group B with a solitary point from its two matches so far. In another match, Odisha bounced back from its initial defeat against Delhi to beat Goa 2-0.
The teams were locked at halt-time.
Odisha pulled up its socks after resumption, Rahul Mukhi (60’), who was played through behind the Goa defence, entered the box and laced a low shot into the bottom corner to put Odisha in the lead.
Put in charge of a close-range free-kick, Kartik Hantal (64’) accurately placed the ball in the top corner, giving his side a two-goal cushion.
With two 0-2 defeats from two matches, Goa remains the only team in Group B to have not scored a single point thus far.
RESULTS
Delhi 2 (Bhaaranyu Bansal 7’, Ashish Shaw 65’) bt Tamil Nadu 0.
Odisha 2 (Rahul Mukhi 60’, Kartik Hantal 64’) bt Goa 0.
– Team Sportstar
GOLF
Strong start for Amandeep and Avani in LET Q-School
Indian stars Amandeep Drall and Avani Prashanth were placed tied 13th after carding 3-under 70 in the first round of the Final Qualifier of Lalla Aicha Q-School here on Tuesday.
Amandeep played on the Al Maaden Golf course, while Avani played at the Royal Golf Marrakech. The Indian duo is five shots behind the leader Ecuador’s Daniela Darquea 65 (-7).
Darquea began her day from the 10th tee and started with a birdie before making further birdies on 14 and 17.
Among other Indians, the 2023 Hero OOM winner in India, Sneha Singh (72) and Vani Kapoor (72) were tied 56th, the 2024 Hero OOM winner HItaashee Bakshi (76) was T-108, and Vidhatri Urs (77) was T-123.
A field of 154 players from 39 nations are competing in the Final Stage. The players will play 90 holes of stroke play competition with a cut after 72 holes.
The top 65 and ties progress to the final day for 18 holes. For the first four rounds, competitors will alternate between Royal Golf Marrakech and Al Maaden Golf Marrakech. The fifth round will be played at Al Maaden Golf Marrakech.
The players finishing 1-20 (and ties) get Category 12 status, while those between 21 and 50 get Category 16 status. The remaining players will be Category 19.
-PTI
Ajeetesh Sandhu shares lead in Asian Tour Q-School
Fresh from his win on the domestic Tour in India, Ajeetesh Sandhu took a big step to get back his playing rights on the Asian Tour, as he grabbed a share of lead with Korea’s Kyungnam Kang in the Final Stage of Qualifying School here on Tuesday.
He shot 8-under 63 on the A and B nines at Lake View Resort and Golf Club, ahead of Filipino Sean Ramos, who returned a 64.
Karandeep Kochhar (67) on A and B nine was T-12, Pukhraj Sing Gill (68) on C and D course was T-27, Aryan Roopa Anand (69) was T-44 on C and D course, and Aman Raj (70) was T-64 on C and D course.
Other Indians in the field are Rashid Khan (71) at T-87, Ashish Kabthiyal (72) at T-123, S Chikkarangappa, Khalin Joshi and Arjun Sharma with 73 each are T-137th, Honey Baisoya (74) at T-165, Syed Saqib Ahmed (75) at T-179 and Dhruv Sheoran (78) at T-199.
Sandhu comes into the week having won the Vishwa Samudra Open 2024 presented by Kapil Dev last week on India’s professional circuit – his fifth win on that Tour.
He had a disappointing year finishing 82nd on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, with the top 65 retaining playing rights.
The 38-year-old looks like he is on a mission to bounce back from that this week. He made a brilliant start, with birdies on the first three and then later three in a row from seven to go out in six-under. He dropped his only shot of the day on 10 but collected three more birdies later.
Argentina’s Miguel Carballo, Korean Doyeob Mun, Niklas Regner from Austria, Flint Bekkers from the United States and Australian Jack Thompson, are next best following 65s.
Regner, who has spent the last three years on Europe’s Challenge Tour, was the only one to record his 65 on the C & D nines, and are behind the top three — Sandhu, Kang and Ramos.
Four more rounds remain before the top 35 win their tour cards, with a cut made after Wednesday’s round and also after the fourth round on Friday.
-PTI
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com