TENNIS
ITF W50: Ankita-Naiktha duo overtakes Riya-Vaidehi to reach women’s doubles final
Second seed Panna Udvardy overcame a slow start to beat Czech Laura Samson 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Friday.
It was the second victory in three sets for the Hungarian, who plays a solid game once she calms down. In the semifinals, Panna will face fourth-seeded Yuriko Miyazaki of Great Britain, who knocked out sixth-seeded Dalila Jakupovic for a four-game loss.
The other semi-final will pit top seed Darja Semenistaja, who has lost just 10 matches in three rounds, against seventh seed Tatiana Prozorova.
In the doubles semi-final, Ankita Raina combined strongly with Britain’s Naiktha Bains to claim a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Riya Bhatia and Vaidehi Chaudhari.
Riya and Vaidehi led 4-1 in the second set but failed to take the lead against tricky opponents.
In the final, Ankita and Naiktha will face American pair Jessie Aney and Jessica Failla.
The results:
Singles (quarter-finals):
Darja Semenistaja (Lat) against Anastasia Tikhonova 6-1, 6-3; Tatiana Prozorova against Maria Kozyreva 6-1, 6-1; Yuriko Lily Miyazaki (GBR) against Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) 6-1, 6-3; Panna Udvardy (Hun) against Laura Samson (Cze) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Doubles (semi-finals):
Jessie Aney and Jessica Failla (United States) against Maria Kozyreva and Anastasia Tikhonova 6-4, 3-6, (10-8); Naiktha Bains (GBR) and Ankita Raina against Riya Bhatia and Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-2, 6-4.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF Juniors: Maaya Rajeshwaran loses to Polina Kuharenko
Maaya Rajeshwaran’s fine run was halted by Polina Kuharenko with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat in the semi-finals of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Friday.
Champion of the last tournament in Delhi, Maaya, 15, had kept Indian hopes alive by winning three matches. It was physically a tough task and the talented Coimbatore girl, accompanied by Rafael Nadal Academy coach in Spain, Miguel Fragoso, remarkably supported her strong game until she found her match.
In the boys’ doubles final, Hitesh Chauhan and his partner Ilya Maltsev were defeated 10-8 in the super tie-break by Aaron Gabet and Hyeon Seok Seo.
The results:
Boys under 18 (semi-finals): Donghyun Hwang (Kor) against Erasyl Bakhtiyar (Kaz) 6-1, 6-2; Ruslan Kastsiukevich against Roman Kharlamov 6-2, 6-0.
Doubles (final): Aaron Gabet (Fra) & Hyeon Seok Seo (Kor) against Hitesh Chauhan & Ilya Maltsev 4-6, 6-1, (10-8).
Girls under 18 (semi-finals): Daria Koreshkova against Masa Jankovic (Srb) 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-3; Polina Kuharenko against Maaya Rajeshwaran 6-3, 6-3.
Doubles (final): Polina Berezina & Daria Koreshkova against Yesung Choo (Kor) & Yu-Chen Lin (Tpe) 6-4, 7-6(1).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
BR Adityan ITF Men’s Future Tennis Championship: Oliver Crawford storms into semi-final
Great Britain’s Oliver Crawford in action during the BR Adityan ITF Men’s Futures Tennis Championship. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
Great Britain’s Oliver Crawford in action during the BR Adityan ITF Men’s Futures Tennis Championship. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
Second seed Oliver Crawford of Great Britain blanked Yurii of Ukraine 6-0,6-0 with a superlative display of precision and power in 42 minutes to advance to the semi-finals of the BR Adityan ITF Championship Men’s Future Tennis which takes place at SDAT Tennis. Chennai Stadium.
Ukraine’s Eriv Vancshonhiem proved too strong for Manish Suresh Kumar, the only Indian in the quarter-finals. Eric, looking calm, got off to a good start, while Manish still seemed to be recovering from the long three-hour match he played the day before.
Egor got the better of the lanky Grigor Lomakin of Kazakhstan, who qualified in straight sets. Egor was firm in his groundstrokes and served with venom to gain the upper hand and gave Grigor no chance to recover. Egor’s quick recovery after each shot and his anticipation were of high quality.
The doubles final will be an all-Indian affair with youngsters Chirag Duhan and Dev Javia facing Ishaq Iqbal and Aryan Shah. Both teams achieved comfortable victories against their respective opponents.
-Team Sportstar
ATHLETICS
Bugatha and Man Singh bank on high altitude training for success in 20th Tata Mumbai marathon
India’s top elite athletes at the Tata Mumbai Marathon media center on Friday (left to right), defending champion Thakor Nirmaben Bharatjee; Shymali Singh; Man Singh, 2024 Asian marathon champion; Defending champion Srinu Bugatha and Olympian Gopi T. along with Sir MO Farah, ambassador of the international event, Tata Mumbai Marathon 2025. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
India’s top elite athletes at the Tata Mumbai Marathon media center on Friday (left to right), defending champion Thakor Nirmaben Bharatjee; Shymali Singh; Man Singh, 2024 Asian marathon champion; Defending champion Srinu Bugatha and Olympian Gopi T. along with Sir MO Farah, ambassador of the international event, Tata Mumbai Marathon 2025. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
Reigning Indian elite champion Srinu Bugatha and his army comrade Man Singh hope their high-altitude training in Ooty will give them an edge in the historic 20th edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon to be held on Sunday.
“I’m looking to break the course record. I trained in Ooty. This is my fifth participation in the Tata Mumbai Marathon, which is the best and largest marathon in India. It’s nice for us Indian runners to be able to run alongside the Kenyans and Ethiopians. And for those of us who are familiar with the course, it is useful to know the route because it also helps us in our training,” Bugatha said.
Asian marathon champion Man Singh also has his eyes on the top prize. “My goal is to beat the course record on Sunday. If the weather permits, then all of us Indian runners can aim for good timing this year. I have been training hard in Ooty and am aiming for a personal best of 2.14,” he said.
The star-studded India Elite line-up includes Olympian Gopi T, talented Kalidas Hirave and 2023 Asian Games 10,000m silver medalist Kartik Kumar in the men’s section and Thakor Nirmaben and Shymali Singh, among others, in the women’s section.
The top three finishers in the Indian elite men’s and women’s categories will receive prize money of INR 5 lakh, INR 4 lakh and INR 3 lakh respectively out of the total fund of USD 389,524.
An incentive award of INR 2 lakh is up for grabs for establishing a new TMM mark currently held by NS Rawat (men, 2:15:48) (2016) and Sudha Singh (women, 2:34:56) (2019). ).
The experienced Gopi is a two-time winner and three-time runner-up among Indians in this World Athletics Gold Label race.
-Team Sportstar
MOTOR SPORTS
Dakar Rally 2025: Sanjay Takale finishes 18th overall, 13th in his category
FILE PHOTO: India’s Sanjay Takale pictured. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
FILE PHOTO: India’s Sanjay Takale pictured. | Photo credit: Special arrangement
Rally driver Sanjay Takale became the first Indian to complete the Dakar Rally in the 4W Classic.
Earlier, he was the first Indian to participate in the four-wheeler section of the 4W class in the 2025 Dakar Rally, which took place in Saudi Arabia from January 3 to 17.
Takale, who became the first Indian to win an Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) title in the production category, has teamed up with Compagnie Saharienne, a French team, and will pilot a Toyota Land Cruiser HZJ78 in the Dakar Classic 2025 for 14 days and more than 8,000 km, including 5,000 km of 12 special stages.
Takale finished 18th overall and 13th in his class.
-Team Sportstar
WAREHOUSE
Kho Kho Women’s World Cup: India crush Bangladesh, reach semi-finals
The Indian women’s team put up a clinical performance to crush Bangladesh by a huge margin of 109-16 and book their place in the semi-final of the Kho Kho World Cup in Delhi on Friday.
Led by captain Priyanka Ingle, India dominated the contest throughout the four rounds, including an impressive dream run in round 2 that lasted over five minutes and went on to record 100 or more runs for fifth consecutive times.
India dominated from the start of the quarter-final against Bangladesh, scoring a half-century of runs through Nasreen Shaikh and Priyanka in the first round as their runs crossed the 50-mark.
India eventually won 109-16 at the end of round 4.
In other matches, Uganda scored a decisive victory against New Zealand, securing their place in the semi-finals with a final score of 71-26, South Africa beat Kenya 51-46 to advance in the next round while Nepal crushed Iran 103-8.
In the men’s division, Iran produced a stellar performance against Kenya to win 86-18 while South Africa triumphed over England to secure their place in the semi-finals with a 58-38 victory . Nepal also qualified for the final four after beating Bangladesh 67-18.
-PTI
