Indian Sports Closing, December 11: Shrivalli Bhamidipaty advances to second round of ITF women’s tennis tournament

TENNIS

Shrivalli Bhamidipaty advances to second round of ITF women’s tennis tournament

Shrivalli Bhamidipaty beat Ekaterina Reyngold 6-4, 6-1 to set up a second-round clash against Thailand’s Punnin Kovapitukted in the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the District Sports Complex on Wednesday.

FILE PHOTO: Shrivalli Bhamidipaty in action. | Photo credit: K Murali Kumar/The Hindu

Akanksha Nitture, Humera Baharmus and Laalitya were the other Indian players who progressed to the second round that day, and they all beat their Indian opponents.

Ekaterina Kazionova saved three match points in the second set tie-break to beat Poland’s Zuzanna Pawlikowska 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1. Zuzanna struggled with her serve and committed 17 double faults in the match.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

BADMINTON

Inter-ministerial championship: Gogoi and Yadav record victories

Anshuman Gogoi and Shubham Yadav won their singles and doubles matches to help Ministry of Communication secure a 3-1 victory over Delhi Audit in the final of the Inter-Ministerial Badminton Championship at the AIIMS Gymkhana.

In the women’s final, Namita Pathania won her singles match and teamed up with Swati Sharma to win the doubles as well, taking Delhi Audit to a 2-0 victory over Ministry of Communication.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHLETICS

National Juniors: Haryana wins both team championship titles on offer

Home favorite Pratik Maharana defied a bad back to set a new competition record while winning gold in the men’s under-18 category on the final day of the National Junior Athletics Championships at the Stadium from Kalinga, Wednesday.

Running at a good pace, Maharana confidently maintained his lead as he lowered his personal best of 21.41, recorded at the South Asian junior competition in Chennai in September, to 21.28 to register an impressive victory.

“I did light training to balance my rehabilitation and preparation for this competition. I was aiming for the national record (21.08), but had to settle for the meet record,” said 17-year-old Maharana, training in Rourkela.

Sumit Rathee (8:45.75) broke the meet record in the under-20 men’s 3000m steeplechase, winning by a margin of more than 11 seconds while leading a field of four runners.

National record holder Deepika (52.45m) rewrote the meet record with her second throw and won the under-20 women’s javelin title.

Sakshi Chavan, who won gold in the under-20 100m, moved on to the under-18 200m to win her second gold in a meet record (24.14).

Homeboy Dondapati Mrutyam Jayaram, who added the under-20 200m crown to his 100m title, and Prachi Devkar, who makes his national debut in the 3,000m steeplechase after winning the 5,000m yellow metal, also won their second gold medal.

Haryana won both the men’s and women’s team championships.

-YB Sarangi

BRIDGE

Manyavar wins team title at Ashok Ruia Memorial Winter National Bridge Championship

Manyavar clinched the team title while Bindiya Kohli and TV Ramani won the mixed pairs competition at the Ashok Ruia Memorial National Winter Bridge Championship on Wednesday.

Manyavar, who led after four rounds in the team event on Tuesday, won the remaining three rounds on Wednesday to register a convincing victory.

The team, ranked 13th, consisted of Anil Padhye, Anand Samant, Sundaram Sridhar, Jitu Solani and Rajesh Dalal.

They scored a total of 105.93 points to seal the victory and also booked a place in the semi-finals of the Indian team selection trials for the World Championship.

Seventh-ranked Hemant Jalan team finished second beating second-placed Dhamapur Sugar Mills unit and third-placed Shree Cements team by just 0.8 points.

Dhampur Sugar Mills finished third, while Team Aristos finished fourth and Aquarius fifth.

Meanwhile, in the mixed pairs competition, Bindiya and Ramani won by a wide margin of 23 points over the second-placed pair Aditi Zaveri and Vishwajit Poddar.

-Press Trust of India

GOLF

Ajeetesh Sandhu takes second round lead at Vishwa Samudra Open

Ajeetesh Sandhu shot a second-round score of 67-under to take the sole lead with an overall score of 8-under 136 in the Rs.2 crore Vishwa Samudra Open Golf Championship at the Delhi Golf Club on Wednesday.

On a sunny day, as the cool breeze kept the golfers focused on their task, Ajeetesh rose from second place overnight with a bogey-free card.

Ajeetesh Sandhu in action. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

“A bogey-free round at DGC is only possible when you hit a lot of fairways. I did it today. I was solid from the start and hit some good iron shots. I have only been in the rough a few times and that too, just off the fairways. It was a solid day,” said Ajeetesh, international champion.

Manish Thakran followed in second place, scoring 70-under 70 for the day, giving him a hole-in-one on 12. He was three shots behind Ajeetesh at 5-under 139.

It could have been much better for Manish, but for a double bogey at the 18th.

“I played aggressively and capitalized on my putting strength. Even the double bogey on the last hole happened because of my natural tendency to attack the pins. It was a great feeling to achieve my first hold-in-one in a tournament,” said Manish.

Overnight leader Jamal Hossain of Bangladesh dropped to third place with a 1-over 73 for the day and a 4-under 140 total.

Among others, SSP Chawrasia rose from obscurity to 10th place with a 4-under 68 for the day, the same as Om Prakash Chouhan. Both recovered from 3-over 75 on opening day.

The reduction was applied to five out of 149, and 51 professionals succeeded.

-Kamesh Srinivasan