GOLF
Amandeep Drall, one of the top performers in the last season, will lead the field in the season-opening event of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour which will make its first-ever stop at the Golmuri Golf Course in Jamshedpur.
The field includes numerous winners from the 2024 season. Jasmine Shekar who won two of the last three legs in 2024, Sneha Singh (Leg 2 and Leg 4), Anvitha Narender (Leg 8).
Other seasoned pros to watch out for include Neha Tripathi, Seher Atwal, Shweta Mansingh and Khushi Khanijau.
Amandeep and Sneha, who have conditional status in Category 16 on the Ladies European Tour for 2025, will be the leading contenders.
The 2024 Order of Merit winner, Hitaashee Bakshi, who also earned a status on the LET, is skipping the first two legs.
Amandeep won once and finished runner-up twice last season in 14 starts and finished second on the Merit List.
After having missed out on playing on LET for most of 2024, she is looking at getting some valuable tournament play before heading to the LET this year.
She is among the reserves for LET’s opening event in Morocco next month. Also among the reserves currently are Sneha and Hitaashee.
The opening event will have two players making their pro debut: Lavanya Jadon, who ended a runner-up in the eighth leg last year as an amateur, and Jia Kochhar.
-PTI
TENNIS
Siddharth Vishwakarma sails into second round with ease USD 30,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament
Two-time National champion Siddharth Vishwakarma got past fourth seed Florent Bax of France in the first round of the USD 30,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the Arera Club on Tuesday.
Siddharth led 6-2, 4-3 when the Frenchman retired. Bax later retired early in the second set of the doubles as well.
The doubles champions of the last tournament in Indore, Parikshit Somani and Dhakshineswar Suresh ousted the second seeds, Egor Agafonov and Bogdan Bobrov 7-6(8), 7-6(5) in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results:
Singles (first round): Dev Javia bt Adhiraj Thakur 6-3, 6-2; Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Florent Bax (Fra) 6-2, 4-3 (retired); Egor Agafonov (Rus) bt Udit Kamboj 7-5, 6-4; Yuta Kawahashi (Jpn) bt Dominik Palan (Cze) 6-1, 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Constantin Kouzmine (Fra) & Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr) bt Yunseok Jang (Kor) & Rishi Reddy 6-3, 6-3; Yeongseok Jeong & Uisung Park (Kor) bt Sergey Fomin (Uzb) & Maxim Zhukov 6-3, 6-3; Sai Karteek Reddy & Vishnu Vardhan bt SD Prajwal Dev & Adil Kalyanpur 6-2, 3-6, [10-4]; Luca Castelnuovo (Sui) & Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) bt Ishaque Eqbal & Aryan Shah 6-4, 4-6, [10-2]; Nitin Kumar Sinha & Manish Sureshkuar bt Yurii Dzhavakian (Ukr) & Sidharth Rawat 6-1, 6-1; Maan Kesharwani & Rohan Mehra bt Florent Bax (Fra) & Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) 6-2, 1-1 (retired); Chirag Duhan & Dev Javia bt Tanik Gupta & Arthav Neema 6-3, 6-1; Parikshit Somani & Dhakshineswar Suresh bt Egor Agafonov & Bogdan Bobrov 7-6(8), 7-6(5).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Maaya Rajeshwaran enters second round of ITF juniors
Maaya Rajeshwaran unleashed a better arsenal and demonstrated a strong composure to beat the fourth seed Ada Kumru of Turkey 6-1, 7-6(1) in the girls first round of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Tuesday.
Maaya Rajeshwaran expresses grit during her victory over the fourth seed in the ITF junior tennis tournament in Delhi on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
Kamesh Srinivasan
Maaya Rajeshwaran expresses grit during her victory over the fourth seed in the ITF junior tennis tournament in Delhi on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
Kamesh Srinivasan
Serving well and stroking with flair, Maaya called the shots from the start. She could have finished the match a lot quicker, but the 74th ranked Ada was quite audacious with her recovery after being down a break in the second set.
However, Maaya handled the tie-break with aplomb, running up a 5-0 lead before closing it out without any fuss.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Maaya will play qualifier Manon Favier of France.
Top seed, the 51st ranked Yoana Konstantinova was knocked out with surprising ease 6-3, 6-1, by qualifier Yuka Naito of Japan, ranked 481.
In the boys section, lucky-loser Maximus Zavier Wong of Singapore, taking the place of second seed, raced past Sehaj Singh Pawar 6-1, 6-1.
Arjun Rathi went down fighting in the second set tie-break to Arturs Zagars of Latvia.
The results (first round):
Under-18 boys: Daniel Tazabekov (Kaz) bt Aarjun Pandit 6-0, 6-2; Emanuel Ivanisevic (Cro) bt Fedor Alutkhov 6-1, 6-2; Arturs Zagars (Lat) bt Arjun Rathi 6-3, 7-6(3); Kanata Ozaki bt Haydar Gokpinar (Tur) 6-4, 6-3; Damir Zhalgasbay (Kaz) bt Aaron Gabet (Fra) 6-4, 6-0; Maximus Zavier Wong (Sgp) bt Sehaj Singh Pawar 6-1, 6-1.
Under-18 girls: Yuka Naito (Jpn) bt Yoana Konstantinova 6-3, 6-1; Manon Favier (Fra) bt Rira Kosaka 7-6(5), 6-2; Maaya Rajeshwaran bt Ada Kumru (Tur) 6-1, 7-6(1); Priyanka Rana (USA) bt Yesung Choo (Kor) 6-1, 6-4; Eleejah Inisan (Fra) bt Misaki Yamagishi 7-6(4), 6-1.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
BASKETBALL
Delhi women beat Madhya Pradesh in a nail-biting finish
Delhi women scored a thrilling 76-71 victory over Madhya Pradesh in a group-A league match of the 74th National Basketball Championship at the Sidsar Sports Complex on Tuesday.
It was the second victory for the Delhi team, which was well served by Garima Gosain, Preeti Kumar, Prakriti Ranjan and Namrata.
In the men’s section, Rajasthan scored a 82-70 victory over Kerala, with Ayush Choudhary top scoring with 19 points.
Karnataka and Punjab scored strong wins over Madhya Pradesh and Chandigarh respectively in men’s group-B matches.
The results (league):
Men: Group-A: Rajasthan 82 (Ayush Choudhary 19, Piyush Meena 14, Mahaveer 14, Sharad Dadich 10, Jaideep Rathore 10) bt Kerala 70 (Sejin Mathew 20, Vaisak Manoj 13, Antony Johnson 12).
Group-B: Karnataka 75 (Prathyanshu Tomar 18, Aaron Michael 14) bt Madhya Pradesh 51 (Harshvardhan Singh 15).
Punjab 89 (Gurwinder Singh 20, Amritpal Singh 17, Kanwar Gurbaz Singh Sandhu 17, Amjyot Gill 14) bt Chandigarh 47.
Women: Group-A: Punjab 73 (Manmeet Kaur 25, Priyanka Behal 23, Komalpreet Kaur 11) bt Karnataka 62 (T Mohanabala 18).
Delhi 76 (Garima Gosain 19, Preeti Kumar 15, Prakriti Ranjan 15, Namrata 12) bt Madhya Pradesh 71 (Yashika Singhal 22, Riya Khunghadkar 16, Priya Goswami 10).
Group-B: Chhattisgarh 89 (Divyani Gangwal 28, NIsha Kashyap 21, shanti Xaxa 15) bt Uttar Pradesh 81 (Jasmeen Kaur 27, Manali Vora 20, Rakhi Rai 11).
Gujarat 65 (Aahana George 14, Hemangnee Gamit 14, Talveer Kaur 11) bt Uttar Pradesh 60 (Anushka Chouhan 18, Nancy Gupta 16, Manali Vora 11).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com