Indian sports wrap, July 31: Six-city tour aims to boost India’s Olympic squash prospects

SQUASH

India to host six PSA Challenger Tour events in 2025-26 season

In a boost to the country’s squash ambitions, especially with the sport’s debut at the LA 2028 Olympics, Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI), in partnership with HCL, launched the HCL India Squash Tour 2025-26 on Thursday.

The Professional Squash Association (PSA) Challenger Tour series in India has been expanded to six cities.

HCL Squash India Tour 2025-26 Schedule:

• Jaipur (PSA Challenger 9K event) – August 4-8 (Sawai Man Singh Stadium)
• Mumbai (PSA Challenger 9K event) – September 8-12
• Bengaluru (PSA Challenger 6K event) – September 26-31
• Chennai (PSA Challenger 15K event) – December 1-5
• Ahmedabad (PSA Challenger 6K event) – January 27-31, 2026
• Delhi (PSA Challenger 6K event) – February 3-7, 2026

All tournaments will award equal prize money to men and women, with champions taking home USD 15,000, 9,000, or 6,000, depending on the event tier. Each leg will follow a 24-player knockout format, with the top eight seeds receiving byes into the second round. The Tour is open to PSA-registered players aged 15 and above.

SRFI also announced that the Senior National Squash Championship will be held at the Dhyanchand Stadium in New Delhi from August 23 to 28.

-Team Sportstar

Indian boys’ team wins bronze medal at World Squash Junior Championships

Indian boys’ team finished its campaign at the World Squash Junior Championships in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday with a bronze medal.

The Indian team lost 2-0 to USA in the semifinals.

Alexander Dartnell beat Sandhesh Pr 3-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-5) in the opening match before Jack Elriani took down K S Arihant 3-0 (11-6, 11-4, 11-7) to seal USA’s spot in the summit clash.

-Team Sportstar

HOCKEY

30 teams to feature in Junior Women National hockey championship

The 15th edition of the Hockey India Junior Women National Championship will begin here from Friday with 30 teams vying for top honours.

The tournament, to be played in the newly-introduced division-based format, will conclude on August 12, and the teams will be divided into three segments — A, B and C.

The two bottom-placed teams in A and B divisions will be relegated to B and C groups respectively for the tournament’s next year’s edition.

Meanwhile, the top two teams of B and C divisions will be promoted to A and B clusters respectively.

Division A comprises top 12 teams in the country and will feature defending champions Hockey Jharkhand in Pool A, last year’s runners-up Hockey Madhya Pradesh in Pool B, and second runners-up Hockey Haryana in Pool C.

Meanwhile, Division B and Division C will comprise teams that are not in the top 12 national rankings, fighting to climb the ranks.

Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey said, “After the Senior Nationals and the Sub Junior Nationals, the new format will now be implemented in the Junior Nationals tournament. We have had really positive outcomes from both the Senior and Sub Junior teams and are confident that the junior domestic players will be equally pleased playing this new format.”

-Team Sportstar

15th India Sub Junior Men National Championship: Mizoram thrashes Tripura 15-0

Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Manipur emerged victorious in their respective matches, while Rajasthan drew with Puducherry and Bihar drew with Uttarakhand on Day four of the 15th Hockey India Sub Junior Men National Championship.

In the first Division ‘C’ match of the day, both Rajasthan and Puducherry scores two goals each. In the next match, Bihar and Uttarakhand, too, played out a 3-3 draw.

The final Division ‘C’ match of the day saw a dominating performance by Mizoram as it defeated Tripura with a 15-0 scoreline. Malsawmkima (3’) scored the opening goal for his team, while Vanlalhmangaiha (20’, 29’, 34’, 37’, 39’) scored five, and captain Joseph Malsawmtluanga (24’, 48’, 53’, 54’) found the back of the net four times. Lalmalsawma (56’, 60’) recorded two goals, and Lalvenpuia (42’), Laldampuia Pachuau (23’), and Lalhruaipuia (58’) scored one each to secure the win for Mizoram.

In the first Division ‘B’ match, Chhattisgarh gave no chance to Arunachal and defeated it with a comfortable 4-0 scoreline.

In the next Division ‘B’ match, Gujarat defeated Goa in a close 5-3 match. Gujarat scored two decisive goals in the final quarter. Sanjay Khersing Patel (5’, 15’, 56’) of Gujarat gave his team an early advantage by scoring two goals in the first quarter, but Goans Hockey soon caught up with Suraj Sudhir Kharsel (21’) and Gaonkar Ansh Ankush (16’, 44’) scoring three goals for their team. It was captain Piyush Patel (42’), Alpeshbhai Vala (53’), and Sanjay Patel’s hat-trick goal in the second half of the match that secured the win for Gujarat.

The next Division ‘B’ match, Kerala gave Manipur a tough fight. Both teams were neck and neck until the final minute, when Manipur clinched the game. It was Rohit Baxla (17’) who scored for Kerala, while the equaliser was scored by Lisham Max Singh (35’) of Manipur, followed by Manimatum Maibam (60’) who scored the decisive goal for his team in the final minute.

The final match of the day will feature Andhra Pradesh taking on Telangana.

TENNIS

Shanker upsets seeded Jagmeet in AITA ranking tournament

Qualifier Shanker Heisnam beat fourth seed Jagmeet Singh 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-2 and set up a title clash against top seed Sarthak Suden in the HPCL Mittal Rs.200,000 AITA ranking tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Thursday.

The women’s final will be between the top two seeds, Sahira Singh and Tejasvi Dabas.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

India finishes second-last at IC Rod Laver Challenge

The Indian team lost the doubles and mixed doubles matches as it went down 3-4 to Mexico in the last league match of the IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge tennis tournament in Barcelona, Spain.

While host Spain emerged the champion, India placed fifth ahead of South Africa in the six-team competition. The injury to Maaya Rajeshwaran had proven decisive in depleting the defending champion.

There was some consolation for India, as Araadhya Kshitij won the “best sportsmanship” award.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

Challenger tournament: Anirudh-Ramkumar pair moves to quarterfinals

Anirudh Chandrasekar and Ramkumar Ramanathan beat Nicolas Mejia and Cristian Rodriguez 6-3, 6-2 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $100,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Lexington, USA.

– Kamesh Srinivasan