Indian sports wrap, July 18: India beats Sri Lanka in campaign opener at Badminton Asia Junior Mixed Team C'ships
Badminton Asia Junior Mixed Team championships: India beats Sri Lanka in opening match
India kicked off its Badminton Asia Junior Mixed Team championships campaign in style as it thrashed Sri Lanka 110-69 in its Group D clash in Indonesia on Friday.
The mixed doubles combination of Vishnu Kode and Reshika U began India's march with a 11-5 win over Keneth Aruggoda and Isuri Attanayake in the relay point system where a team had to bag 110 points to win the match.
Sisters Gayatri and Mansa Rawat then extended India's lead to 22-14 against Attanayake and Sithumi De Silva before junior world no. 1 Tanvi Sharma stamped her class against Sithuli Ranasinghe to make it 33-21 for India.
Not one India singles player or pair lost any 11-point relay and by the time the match reached the half way mark the winners had taken a 55-31 lead.
India will now face United Arab Emirates in its second group game on Saturday before taking on Hong Kong China on Sunday which could decide who tops the group standings.
-Team Sportstar
BASKETBALL
FIBA Women's Asia Cup, Division B: India out of semifinals race
India women's basketball team lost 76-93 to Thailand, ending its hopes of reaching the semifinals of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup (Division B) in Shenzhen, China, on Friday.
India will take on Kazakhstan in a classification match for 5th-6th place on Saturday.
-Team Sportstar
FOOTBALL
Punjab FC extend Leon Augustine's contract until 2027
Punjab FC has announced the extension of the contract of Leon Augustine ahead of the upcoming season on Friday.
The versatile player will remain in the club until 2027. The 26-year-old initially signed for The Shers in the 2023-24 season and will continue his journey with the club after some impressive performances last season, where he played in multiple positions across the field for the club.
After making only four total appearances in his first season at the club, Leon made 20 appearances in the ISL last season playing 1020 minutes and scored once against Odisha FC.
- Team Sportstar
Shillong Lajong names Birendra Thapa as new head coach
Meghalaya's Shillong Lajong FC on Friday has appointed former player and long-time club associate Birendra Thapa as the club's new head coach ahead of the upcoming I-League season.
Popularly known as Coach Biru, Thapa brings with him nearly two decades of experience, having been associated with the club since 2001 in multiple roles, including player, team manager, and assistant coach.
Thapa played for the club from 2001 to 2009 and was part of the historic squad that qualified for the 2009-10 I-League season.
- PTI
TENNIS
Maaya strengthens Indian team for Rod Laver Junior Challenge
The Indian team has been strengthened with the inclusion of Maaya Rajeshwaran for the IC Rod Laver Junior Challenge tennis tournament to be played in Barcelona, Spain, from July 26 to 30.
India had won the Asia-Oceania regional competition in December last year, beating host Singapore and Japan.
Sohini Mohanty was part of that team and gets replaced by the 16-year-old Maaya, ranked No.55 among the juniors in the world.
Sohini had played her part well in the world wide competition in 2023, helping India win the title in USA, and receiving the trophy from Rod Laver himself, along with Manas Dhamne, Rushil Khosla and Asmi Adkar.
Vikram Anand has been the captain of the team and exuded confidence about India's chances of defending the title in Spain. The tournament will be on clay in two venues, clubs which have a combined strength of 56 clay courts.
'Maaya, Samarth Sahita and Aradhya Kshitij are already in Europe. I will be going along with Rishitha Basireddy,' said Vikram.
The captain also recalled that Rushil attends Cornell University on a full scholarship and would be soon joined by National men's champion Rethin Pranav who was also part of the IC team in the past. He was pleased with the professional development of Manas in the men's circuit.
The world wide challenge in Barcelona will feature Argentina, Italy, Mexico, South Africa and Spain apart from India.
The six teams will play a round robin league. Each tie will have two boys singles, two girls singles apart from boys and girls doubles. In case of a 3-3 tie, there will be a mixed doubles match.
Team with the maximum number of wins will emerge the champion at the end of the league.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Neeraj Yashpaul wins AITA men's tennis tournament title
Eighth seed Neeraj Yashpaul won the title in the Rs. 100,000 AITA men's tennis tournament at the Harvest Academy, Jassowal.
Neeraj led 6-3, 3-0 when qualifier Caheer Warik retired in the final.
The results:
Singles (final): Neeraj Yashpaul bt Caheer Warik 6-3, 3-0 (retired); Semifinals: Neeraj bt Aarjun Pandit 7-6(5), 6-2; Caheer bt Yash Yadav 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (final): Paramveer Singh & Omkar Shinde bt Mayank Sharma & Jatin Nain 5-7, 7-5, [10-6].
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Mahika Khanna beats Tejasvi Dabas to secure HPCL Mittal AITA tournament
Mahika Khanna outplayed top seed Tejasvi Dabas 6-2, 6-2 in the final of the HPCL Mittal Rs. 100,000 AITA women's tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Friday.
It was a double crown for Mahika as she had earlier won the doubles title in partnership with Riya Sachdeva.
The results (final):
Mahika Khanna bt Tejasvi Dabas 6-2, 6-2.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Anirudh Chandrasekar in ATP doubles semifinals
Anirudh Chandrasekar in partnership with Reese Stalder of USA beat Manuel Sanchez and Bernard Tomic 7-5, 6-1 in the doubles quarterfinals of the $920,480 ATP tennis tournament in Los Cabos, Mexico.
The Indo-American pair was scheduled to play Blake Bayldon and Tristan Schoolkate of Australia in the semifinals.
RESULTS $920,480 ATP, Los Cabos, Mexico
Doubles (quarterfinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Reese Stalder (USA) bt Manuel Sanchez (Mex) & Bernard Tomic (Aus) 7-5, 6-1. €100,000 WTA, Porto, Portugal
Doubles (quarterfinals): Estelle Cascino & Carole Monnet (Fra) bt Riya Bhatia & Mariana Drazic (Cro) 6-2, 6-1. €181,250 Challenger, San Marino
Doubles (quarterfinals): Siddhant Banthia & Alexander Donski (Bul) bt Inigo Cervantes & Daniel Rincon (Esp) 3-6, 6-3, [10-4]. €91,250 Challenger, Pozoblanco, Spain
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Aryan Shah bt Ryan Peniston (GBR) 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Inaki Torre (Esp) & Sun Fajing (Chn) bt Robin Bertrand (Fra) & Adil Kalyanpur 6-2, 6-4. $30,000 ITF men, Louisville, USA
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Vignesh Gogineni (USA) bt Dhakshineswar Suresh 7-6(2), 6-0. $15,000 ITF men, Hillcrest, South Africa
Doubles (quarterfinals): Gerard Henning & Philip Henning (RSA) bt Ishaque Eqbal & Thando Longwe-Smit (RSA) 6-4, 7-5. $15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
Singles (quarterfinals): Thantub Suksumrarn (Tha) bt Sidharth Rawat 6-4, 7-5.
Doubles (semifinals): Jake Delaney (Aus) & Ryotaro Taguchi (Jpn) bt Sai Karteek Reddy & Tomohiro Masabayashi (Jpn) 3-6, 7-6(4), [10-5]. $60,000 ITF women, Olomouc, Czechia
Doubles (semifinals): Rutuja Bhosale & Wushuang Zheng (Chn) bt Magdalena Smekalova (Cze) & Laura Svatikova (Svk) 2-6, 6-2, [10-8]. $15,000 ITF women, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
Singles (quarterfinals): Zeel Desai bt Qiu Yu Ye (Chn) 6-3, 6-0. $15,000 ITF women, Huamantla, Mexico
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Dalayna Hewitt & Dasha Ivanova (USA) bt Gala Arangio (Arg) & Diva Bhatia 6-2, 6-2. $15,000 ITF women, Hillcrest, South Africa
Doubles (quarterfinals): Akanksha Nitture & Soha Sadiq bt Polina Leykina & Paola Lopez (USA) 3-6, 6-3, [10-8].
-Kamesh Srinivasan
CUE SPORTS
Advani to lead India's charge in World 6-Red Snooker Championship
Three-time champion Pankaj Advani will lead a strong Indian contingent at the World 6-Red Snooker Championship that begins here on Saturday.
Advani, who got a wildcard – along with Brijesh Damani and Aditya Mehta -- into the event after leading India to the Asian Team Snooker triumph last month in Colombo, will look to carry that form into the World bash.
India squad: Men:
Kamal Chawla, Paras Gupta, Pushpender Singh, Malkeet Singh, Pankaj Advani, Brijesh Damani, Aditya Mehta. Masters:
Manan Chandra, Vijay Nichani and Rushabh Jain. Under-21:
Shahyan Razmi, Mayur Garg, Gadda Srikanth, Mayank Karthik, Aarav Sancheti, Bhavya Pipaliya, Jayad Aarav, Rahul Williams and Vaibhav Chadha.
- PTI
GOLF
Jasmine wins ninth leg of Hero WPGT
Jasmine Shekar carded a sublime final-round 4-under 68, marked by a flawless back nine, to clinch the ninth leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour in Hosur on Friday.
Jasmine became the fifth different winner this season as she totalled 9-under with two superb rounds of 67-68 on the last two days.
Neha Tripathi, who led by three shots going into the final round, seemed on course to win her first title in two years till she ran into a troubled stretch between the 12th and the 16th as she dropped four shots in five holes and lost by three to Jasmine, who played in the same final group. Neha was 6-under 210.
As Jasmine and Neha took the first two places, Ridhima Dilawari shot the day's best card of 5-under 67 and jumped to third place at 4-under 212.
Seher Atwal (69) was fourth at 3-under 213 and there were three players including Vani Kapoor, who won four of the first eight events, in tied fifth place.
Vani carded 70 and was tied fifth alongside Amandeep Drall (69) and Kriti Chowhan (72) at 2-under 214. Sneha Singh produced a third straight round of even par 72 and was eighth, while Lavanya Jadon (70) was ninth.
Jahaanvie Walia (70), who had one of the two eagles on the final day, was Tied-10th with the top amateur Saanvi Somu (76).
Vani continues to lead the Hero Order of Merit, while Amandeep is second and Sneha is third. Jasmine moved to the fourth place, Neha was fifth and Ridhima Dilawari was sixth.
- PTI
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