GOLF
Shaurya Bhattacharya wins Chhattisgarh Open
Shaurya Bhattacharya capped his fabulous run with a six-under 63 in the fourth round and emerged the champion by a five-shot margin, with a 27-under 249 in the SECL Rs.1 crore Chhattisgarh Open golf championship at the Fairway Golf and Lake Resort on Friday.
The 22-year-old Chandigarh lad, Shaurya had a five-shot lead overnight following scores of 64, 61 and 61, in the picturesque par-69 course.
It was the second title in the professional circuit for Shaurya, who had won his maiden title in his rookie season last year.
“It was a solid week for me with just one bogey through the four rounds. It was all about focusing on my breathing and staying in the present,” said Shaurya, who received the winner’s purse of Rs.15,00,000 from PGTI president Kapil Dev and the Dy. Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Arun Sao.
“I was striking it well through the week. It gave me a lot of confidence at the start today. The plan was to attack the flags since it is a scoring course. I gave myself a target of three to four under for the day as I knew that would be good enough to win. I am glad that I managed to do even better,” said Shaurya.
With his champion’s purse, Shaurya shot up from 59th to No.2 in the PGTI Order of Merit, with a total purse of Rs.15,85,325, behind Yuvraj Sandhu (Rs.30 lakh).
Sachin Baisoya had the best card for the day with an eight-under 61 and pocketed the second prize of Rs.10 lakh, for his 22-under 254.
Sri Lankan Thangaraja was one shot adrift in third place and got Rs.4,99,,800. Leader after two rounds Khalin Joshi was joint fifth with two others, and won Rs.3,49,967. The first round leader Shaurya Binu finished tied eighth with Udayan Mane and won Rs.2,36,250.
The results:
1. Shaurya Bhattacharya (64, 61, 61, 63) 249; 2. Sachin Baisoya (67, 62, 64, 61) 254; 3. N Thangaraja (66, 63, 62, 64) 255; 4. Shammim Khan (69, 63,, 61, 63) 256; 5T. Pranav Mardikar (67, 62, 65, 63), Abhinav Lohan (64, 64, 64, 65), Khalin Joshi (64, 60, 67, 66) 257; 8T. Shaurya Binu (660, 67, 68, 63), Udayan Mane (63, 666, 64, 65) 258; 10T. Akshay Sharma (63, 63, 67, 66), Samarth Dwivedi (68, 64, 61, 66), S Manoj (66, 61, 65, 67) 259.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Vaidehi Chaudhari defeats fifth seed Haruka Kaji in ITF women’s tennis tournament quarters
Vaidehi Chaudhari sustained her fine run and beat fifth seed Haruka Kaji of Japan 6-1, 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ahmedabad Tennis Foundation courts on Friday.
The 25-year-old Vaidehi, who has had a fluent run, not dropping a set in three matches so far, will play Sohyun Park of Korea in the semifinals.
Having run into formidable opponents Vaidehi does have a remarkable victory over the Korean in their only previous meeting last year in the professional circuit.
Having run into Tatiana Prozorova twice apart from Darja Semenistaja in the last three tournaments in Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune, winning a mere 18 games in all, Vaidehi would be keen to capitalise on the favourable flow.
The other semifinal will be between top seed Arina Rodionova who had to fight her way past Amandine Hesse 7-5 in the third set, and eighth seed Mariia Tkacheva.
In the doubles semifinals, Vaishnavi Adkar and Ankita Raina beat Zeel Desai and Rinon Okuwaki of Japan 10-8 in the super tie-break. The Indian pair will play the Japanese duo of Akiko Omae and Ikumi Yamazaki in the final.
The results:
Singles (quarterfinals): Arina Rodionova (Aus) bt Amandine Hesse (Fra) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5; Mariia Tkacheva bt Anastasia Gureva 6-4, 6-4; Sohyun Park (Kor) bt Ekaterina Reyngold 6-4, 6-2; Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Haruka Kaji (Jpn) 6-1, 7-6(5).
Doubles (semifinals): Vaishnavi Adkar & Ankita Raina bt Zeel Desai & Rinon Okuwaki (Jpn) 5-7, 6-3, [10-8]; Akiko Omae & Ikumi Yamazaki (Jpn) bt Thasaporn Naklo & Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) 7-6(3), 6-0.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ATP tennis tournament: Bhambri-Popyrin beat Grand Slam champions Murray-Peers in semis
Yuki Bhambri in partnership with Alexei Popyrin of Australia beat Grand Slam champions Jamie Murray and John Peers 6-2, 4-6, [10-7] in the doubles semifinals of the $3,415,700 ATP tennis tournament in Dubai on Friday.
The unseeded Indo-Aussie pair, which had beaten the top seeds in the first round, will play second seeds Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten in the final.
Sriram Balaji progressed to the doubles semifinals with Miguel-Reyes Varela of Mexico in the ATP event in Mexico. Rithvik Bollipalli also made the doubles semifinals with Nicolas Barrientos in the ATP event in Santiago, Chile.
The results:
$3,415,700 ATP, Dubai, UAE Doubles (semifinals): Yuki Bhambri & Alexei Popyrin (Aus) bt Jamie Murray (GBR) & John Peers (Aus) 6-2,, 4-6, [10-7].
$2,763,440 ATP, Acapulco, Mexico Doubles (quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Miguel Reyes-Varela (Mex) bt Hans Verdugoo (Mex) & JJ Tracy (USA) 6-7(5), 6-2, [10-8].
$710,735 ATP, Santiago, Chile Doubles (quarterfinals): Nicolas Barrientos (Col) & Rithvik Bollipalli bt Marcelo Demoliner & Marcelo Zormann (Bra) 3-6, 7-6(2), [10-8].
$15,000 ITF men, Pretoria, South Africa Singles (quarterfinals): Pepijn Bastiaansen (Ned) bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-3, 6-2; Pre-quarterfinals: Isshaque bt Noah Thurner (Ger) 7-6(5), 6-4; First round: Ishaque bt Alexey Aleshchev 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Pretoria, South Africa Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Marelie Raath (GBR) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-3, 6-3.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Abhilasha Bista (Nep) & Sapir Cohen (Isr) bt Shria Atturu (USA) & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 6-7(2), 6-4, [10-7].
-Kamesh Srinivasan
BASKETBALL
INBL Pro League: Stallions beat Heat in semifinals
Gujarat Stallions did its best to beat Chennai Heat 89-85 after leading 45-41 at halftime in the semifinals of the INBL Pro Basketball League at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Friday.
It was the combined effort of Trendon Hankerson, Joshua Duach, Nate Roberts, Jock Perry and Mandeep Singh who shared the responsibility of scoring the points and pouncing on 35 rebounds between them.
Chennai fought hard through Tad Dufelmeier, Arvind Kumar, Malok Majak and Matt Gray but could not overtake the Gujarat team.
In the final, Gujarat will face Punjab Warriors which outplayed Hyderabad Falcons 98-72.
The results (semifinals):
Punjab Warriors 98 (Gurbaz Sandhu 16, Thomas Garrett 16, Stokley Chaffee 15, Vaisakh Manoj 12, Uche Dibiamaka 12) bt Hyderabad Falcons 72 (Kushal Singh 23, Jack Purchase 14, Harsh Dagar 11, Riyanshu Negi 10).
Gujarat Stallions 89 (Trendon Hankerson 21, Joshua Duach 20, Nate Roberts 16, Jock Perry 11, Mandeep Singh 10) bt Chennai Heat 85 (Tad Dufelmeier 25, Malok Majak 21, Matt Gray 16, Arvind Kumar 18).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
TABLE TENNIS
WTT Youth Contender Vadodara 2025: Jennifer Varghese, Balamurugan Rajasekaran pair strikes gold in U-19 mixed doubles
Jennifer Varghese and Balamurugan Rajasekaran in action during WTT Youth Contender Vadodara 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Jennifer Varghese and Balamurugan Rajasekaran in action during WTT Youth Contender Vadodara 2025.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Jennifer Varghese and Balamurugan Rajasekaran beat the in form Taneesha Kotecha and Preyesh Suresh in the U/19 mixed doubles event.
Even though the score line reads 3-2 (11/7,9/11,11/8,1/11,12/10), the pair never really looked like they were in any trouble, with both Jennifer and Balamurugan believing that they could win. The fourth set would have rattled any team after losing 1/11 but not Jennifer and Balamurugan as they quickly dusted it off. The pair found a way to foil Preyesh’s control and Taneesha’s hard-hitting cross court shots to take home the gold.
In the second finals of the day, Ananya Muralidharan and Ritvik Gupta beat Divyanshi Bhowmick and Sahil Rawat by barest or margins to win the U/15 mixed doubles event. The score line of 3-2 does complete justice to how close the match was. Each time it looked like Divyanshi/Sahil were going to run away with the match, their opponents found a way to claw back into the contest eventually winning 3-2 and 13-11 in the decider. The winning pair had to work extremely hard for each point but finally found a way to convert to be on the right side of the competition.
The WTT Youth Contender Vadodara 2025 also kicked off the group stages for the U/19 and U/15 categories for the boys and girls today with Ankur Bhattacharjee and Sayali Wani looking to defend their top ranking. The U/11 and U/15 categories have also commenced with predominantly Indians and Sri Lankans in the draw.
The day started with the group stages of the U/15 boys with Shouren Soman, the highest ranked in the draw winning both of his matches to qualify into the main draw. Sahil Rawat, the runner-up of the U/17 boys started his campaign with two wins in the group stages and will definitely be looking to change the result of the finals. Divyanshi Bhowmick, who is ranked 29 in the world, had a similar start to her group matches as she topped the group easily. The current favourite for the event, Divyanshi is looking to carry the momentum of her win in the U/17 to take home the U/15 as well.
The group matches of the U/19 boys saw some close matches as the boys competed but there were no notable upsets moving into the main draw. Ankur Bhattacharjee looked his best as he won both of his matches in the group. Second seed, Choi Jiwook had a similar outing as he moved to the main draw easily as well.
The last day of the event tomorrow will be witness to the finals of six events, U/11 boys and girls, U/15 boys and girls and the U/19 boys and girls’ singles event as the WTT Youth Contender Vadodara moves into its final day.
– Team Sportstar
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com