Indian sports wrap, May 10: Anahat, Veer, Abhay advance to the second round of Squash World Championships

SQUASH

Squash World Championships: Anahat, Veer, Abhay advance to the second round

Anahat Singh, Veer Chotrani, Abhay Singh and Ramit Tandon made it to the second round of Squash World Championships while Velavan Senthilkumar was knocked out in Chicago on Friday.

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Veer Ahlawat misses cut in Turkey

Veer Ahlawat followed up his first round 75 with a 73 and missed the cut at the Turkish Airlines Open here.

The only Indian in the field this week, Ahlawat was coming back after a gap of almost six weeks.

He had two birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey in his two-over 73 and was six-over as the cut fell at one-under.

Ahlawat’s next event is likely to be the Soudal Open, where he is on the waiting list.

Shubhankar Sharma will return to action at the Belgium event.

-PTI

India’s Saptak Talwar on tied 11th in Spain

India’s Saptak Talwar produced a bogey-free second round of five-under 66 to knock on the doors of top 10 at the Challenge de Espana at Fontanals Golf Club on the Hotel Planner Tour here.

Talwar, whose first round was two-under 69, is now seven-under 135 and tied-11th. He is four shots behind the leaders Oliver Gillberg (65-66) and Luis Masaveu (64-67) at 11-under.

The 26-year-old Talwar, who had his breakthrough win on the Indian Tour last month, was also the runner-up in another event on his home Tour. On the Hotel Planner, the second level Tour to DP World Tour, Talwar has four cuts in five starts and he had also made the cut in the Hero Indian Open.

Talwar had two sets of back-to-back birdies on the third and the fourth and again on the eighth and the ninth. A fifth birdie on the tenth brought him to five-under but he then ran out of birdies but did not drop any shots either.

– PTI

Diksha, Pranavi Tied-32nd in Aramco Korea Championship

Indian golfers Diksha Dagar and Pranavi Urs faced contrasting fortunes, but both ended at Tied-32nd after two rounds at the Aramco Korea Championship in Seoul on Saturday.

While Diksha rallied from a disappointing front nine of three-over, Pranavi dropped three shots on her second nine, which was the front side of the course.

Diksha carded two-over 74 and Pranavi was three-over 75 and both are now three-over 147 for two rounds at the New Korea Country Club.

Meanwhile, Avani Prashanth (79-73) despite a good second round failed to make the cut and also missing out was Tvesa Malik (79-76).

In the team event, Team Diksha was seventh and Team Pranavi, which included Avani, was T-11. Tvesa Malik, part of Team Pia Babnik, was T-24.

Diksha had three bogeys on the front nine, but she recovered well on the back nine with one eight pars and one birdie for a two-over card.

Pranavi was even par for the back nine after starting from the 10th, but she gave away three bogeys on her second nine, which was the front side of the course.

-PTI

Modest third rounds for Bhullar and Chawrasia in Japan

Indian golfers Gaganjeet Bhullar and SSP Chawrasia returned modest third-round scores to be placed tied-43rd and tied-62nd, respectively at the USD 2 million International Series Japan here on Saturday.

Bhullar, an 11-time winner on the Asian Tour, shot even par 71 at the par-71 Caledonian Golf Club in Chiba to lie two-under after 54 holes, while Chawrasia, a six-time winner on the Asian Tour, including four times on the DP World Tour, carded 1-over 72 and he was now one-over for three days.

Bhullar had three birdies, one bogey and a double bogey, while Chawrasia had three birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey.

The other five Indians missed the cut.

-PTI

TENNIS

Karan Singh in singles final, wins doubles title

Karan Singh beat Prajwal Dev 6-4, 6-4 in the semifinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday.

In the final, top seed Karan will be challenged by qualifier Ali Yazdani of Iran.

Karan won the doubles title in partnership with Dev Javia, with a 12-10 victory in the super tie-break against Ivan Denisov and Kabir Hans.

It was the second career doubles title for the 21-year-old Karan. For Javia, it was the third doubles title of the season, and fifth of his career. The 23-year-old Javia had won two doubles titles earlier this season with Chirag Duhan.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Om, Sohini win junior titles

Om Patel and Sohini Mohanty won the boys and girls titles, respectively, in the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Kalinga Stadium on Saturday.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

SHOOTING

Kirti, Rajeshwari miss women’s trap final at shotgun World Cup

Kirti Gupta and Rajeshwari Kumari shot 114 and missed the women’s trap final by three points in the shotgun World Cup in Nicosia, Cyprus, on Saturday.

In men’s trap, Olympian Kynan Chenai shot 117 and placed 40th. Shardul Vihan (113) and Bhowneesh Mendiratta (113) placed 70th and 77th, respectively.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CUE SPORTS

Pankaj Advani to face Ishpreet Chadha in NSCI Baulkline Snooker final

Pankaj Advani and Ishpreet Singh Chadha will meet in the final of the NSCI Baulkline Snooker tournament after impressive wins in their respective semifinal matches on Saturday.

Advani defeated Himanshu Jain in a one-sided match to reach the final while Chadha defeated Aditya Mehta 8-6 in a narrow contest. The final will be a repeat of last year’s summit clash.

Advani cut loose with three century-plus breaks to dominate a match in which Jain pinched two frames.

Advani emerged winner 8-2 with scoreline of 69-15, 73-71, 121 (120)-0, 74-26, 24-71, 72 (50)-5, 135(135)-7, 37-70, 134(112)-20, 60-18.

Chadha was leading 7-2 when Mehta won four in a row to make a strong comeback.

But Chadha found his rhythm back again to win the 14th frame and seal the game with a scoreline of 86-37, 65-39, 59-60, 97-32, 58-60, 76-55, 78-14, 88-31, 83-27, 1-88, 23-97, 0-63, 0-71, 63-61.

-PTI

ATHLETICS

Junior Fed Cup postponed to a later date: AFI

The National Junior Federation Athletics Championships, scheduled to be held in Bhopal from May 27 to 29, has been postponed, the AFI said on Saturday.

The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said new dates and details of the venue of the championships will be announced later.

“The 23rd National Junior Federation Athletics Championships, which was scheduled to be held in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, from 27th to 29th May 2025 has been postponed since they have shown their inability to conduct the meet,” the AFI said.

-PTI

CHESS

Top seeds make winning start in All India Chess Masters FIDE Classical

Top seeded players, including Daksh Jagesia and Yash Kapadi, made winning starts in the All India Chess Masters Mumbai FIDE Masters Classical tournament in Mumbai on Saturday.

Jagesia, playing with the black pieces, defeated Mayan Jha 1-0 on the top board. On the second board, Kapadi defeated Sandeep Arth with the white pieces.

The other winners were Darsh Shetty, Om Gada, Jahavi Soneji, Abhishek Patil, Sidharth Kumar, Swaminathan Vageesh and Mayuresh Parkar.

-PTI