TENNIS
India’s challenge in singles ends at ITF juniors tennis tournament
Maya Dutta of USA beat top seed Suhitha Maruri 6-4, 6-2 in the girls quarterfinals of the ITF juniors tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Thursday.
The Indian challenge in singles ended as NIyati Kukreti and Madhurima Sawant were also beaten in the quarterfinals by Doinika Podhajecka of Poland and Allegra Korpanec Davies of Britain respectively.
Results
Boys: Timofei Derepasko bt Pranav Karthik 6-0, 6-2; Shingo Masuda (Jpn) bt Chieh En Hou (Tpe) 6-3, 6-1; Cho Se Hyuk (Kor) bt Rohan Belday (USA) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3; Donghyun Hwang (Kor) bt Ke Hau Hung (Tpe) 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Girls: Maya Dutta (USA) bt Suhitha Maruri 6-4, 6-2; Lidia Podgorichani (Tha) bt Kitti Molnar (Hun) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Dominika Podhajecka (Pol) bt Niyati Kukreti 6-3, 7-6(9); Allegra Korpanec Davies (GBR) bt Madhurima Sawant 6-3, 6-3.
Ankita, Rutuja lose second round
Seventh seed Ankita Raina was beaten 6-7(1), 6-0, 6-4 by wild card Aunchisa Chanta in the pre-quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Nonthaburi, Thailand, on Thursday.
Rutuja Bhosale also lost her match after winning the first set tie-break against fifth seed Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey.
The results:
$40,000 ITF women, Nonthaburi, Thailand Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Aunchisa Chanta (Tha) bt Ankita Raina 6-7(1), 6-0, 6-4; Cagla Buyukakcay (Tur) bt Rutuja Bhosale 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-3.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
FOOTBALL
Kerala beats Jammu & Kashmir 3-0 in Santosh Trophy
Host Kerala scored a comprehensive 3-0 win against Jammu & Kashmir in the Santosh Trophy qualifying tournament here on Thursday. All the goals came in the second half.
M. Vikensh drew first blood for Kerala six minutes after the interval. Riswan Ali and Nijo Gilbert scored the other goals.
It was Nijo’s fine long ball into the box that set up the opening goal, with Viknesh doing well to shoot from a difficult angle.
The second goal came off a superb square pass from inside the box by Vishak Mohanan, whose pace had beaten the defenders. Riswan did the rest. Then in the injury time, Nijo converted Viknesh’s cross.
The result:
Kerala 3 (M. Viknesh 51, Riswan Ali 76, Nijo Gilbert 90+3) bt Jammu & Kashmir 0.
-P. K. Ajith Kumar
TRAU registers 2-0 win over Sudeva Delhi
TRAU FC jumped from sixth to fourth position on the Hero I-League table with a convincing 2-0 win over Sudeva Delhi FC here on Thursday.
With 16 points to its name, as many as Real Kashmir, TRAU remains behind the latter on the points table by dint of the head-to-head record between the two sides.
This was TRAU’s fifth victory at home in as many matches and except for a few moments, it always looked in control.
It got more corners and many more attempts at goal than its opponent and had more possession. Goalkeeper Bishorjit Singh took care of the few openings created by Sudeva.
The hero for TRAU, however, was Ghanaian forward Nana Poku. His defence-splitting pass to the left for Bikash Singh gave the home team its opening goal in the 39th minute.
Poku himself made it 2-0 in the 54th minute when he got the ball inside the six-yard box, turned smoothly and let out a right-footer that took a slight deflection from a Sudeva defender before it went in.
Sudeva stays rock bottom with just one point garnered from its last match of 2022 against Mohammedan Sporting.
-PTI
GOLF
Avani shoots day’s best card of 68, lies T-8th at Australian Master of Amateurs
Avani Prashanth carded the day’s joint best score of 5-under 68 to jump 16 places to tied eighth at the Australian Master of the Amateurs here on Thursday.
Starting on the back nine, Avani found four birdies and added a fifth before dropping the day’s lone bogey on Par-5 seventh. She made up for that with a birdie on eighth.
At 3-over 222, Avani is lying tied eighth as Yuna Araki of Japan (67-74-68) led the field at 10-under 209. Taiwan’s Hsin Chun Liao (70-72-72) at 5-under was second.
Avani began the week with a disappointing 79 and followed that up with a 75 at the challenging Southern Golf Club, one of the finest courses on Melbourne’s famous sandbelt.
The other Indian woman golfer in the field, Nishna Patel (82-77-75) missed the cut, as only the top-25 and ties from women’s section qualified for the final round.
In the men’s section, both Shaurya Bhattacharya (75-74-71) and Aryan Roopa Anand (77-81-74) missed the cut.
Interestingly, Avani will play the final round with an Indian-origin golfer, Shyla Singh, who is Australian by nationality. The 16-year-old Shyla, a promising talent from Gold Coast, has had rounds of 76-72-74.
Avani, who recently won the final leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour while being an amateur last month, has also won the All India Ladies and All India Junior titles in December. She headed into the week with three wins on the trot.
Avani is currently ranked 104th in the World Amateur Golf rankings. She is looking at getting into the Top-100.
The Australian Master of the Amateurs is a 72-hole medal play Championship and has of late become one of the elite championships in amateur golf. Like The Masters, the champion receives a Green Jacket. Contestants participate in the first round of the championship with professional golfers in a unique Am-Pro Invitational.
The Master of the Amateurs winner gets an invitation to the Porter Cup in the U.S.
The Indian Golf Union has also sent a four-member team for the Australian Master of Amateurs and a five-member team for the Australian Amateurs to be held next week at New South Wales Golf Club and St Michael’s Golf Club outside Sydney from Jan 10-13.
The five players for Australian Amateurs will be Avani and four boys, Aryan Roopa Anand, Shaurya Bhattacharya, Yuvraj Singh and Milind Soni.
PTI
VOLLEYBALL
Telangana bounces back to beat Kerala in National sub-junior volleyball championship
Telangana girls bounced back after losing the first games to beat Kerala 21-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-6 in the league stage of the ONGC 44th National sub-junior volleyball championship at the Laxmi Public School, Karkardooma, on Thursday.
The results (league):
Boys: Group-A: Delhi bt Kerala 25-14, 25-15, 25-23; Karnataka bt Madhya Pradesh 23-25, 18-25, 25-14, 25-20, 15-8; Haryana bt Andhra Pradesh 25-23, 25-17, 25-19.
Group-B: Jammu & Kashmir bt Puducherry 25-20, 25-19, 25-21; Gujarat bt Chandigarh 25-22, 25-21, 25-22; Maharashtra bt Jammu & Kashmir 23-25, 19-25, 25-17, 25-23, 15-11.
Group-C: Tamil Nadu bt Bihar 25-21, 25-21, 25-21; West Bengal bt Jharkhand 22-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-17, 15-9; Uttar Pradesh bt Uttarakhand 25-22, 25-18, 17-25, 25-17; Bihar bt Jharkhand 25-19, 25-21, 25-17; Uttar Pradesh bt West Bengal 25-13, 25-20, 25-11; Uttarakhand bt Tamil Nadu 25-15, 25-18, 25-20.
Group-D: Punjab bt Telangana 25-20 25-20, 25-22; Rajasthan bt Manipur 25-20, 25-17, 25-23; Himachal Pradesh bt Assam 25-20, 25-18, 25-20.
Girls: Group-A: Karnataka bt Madhya Pradesh 25-14, 25-8, 25-4; West Bengal bt Delhi 25-18, 25-14, 25-9.
Group-B: Uttar Pradesh bt Assam 25-19, 25-14, 25-11; Rajasthan bt Bihar 25-3, 25-8, 25-11; Maharashtra bt Punjab 25-10, 25-11, 25-11; Uttar Pradesh bt Punjab 25-15, 25-10, 25-6; Assam bt Bihar 25-5, 25-12, 25-15; Rajasthan bt Maharashtra 25-18, 30-28, 25-10.
Group-C: Haryana bt Himachal Pradesh 25-17, 25-19, 25-7; Gujarat bt Jharkhand 25-19, 25-15, 25-12.
Group-D: Puducherry bt Jammu & Kashmir 25-21, 25-17, 25-15; Uttarakhand bt Tamil Nadu 25-5, 25-8, 25-2; Telangana bt Kerala 21-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 15-6.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
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