BADMINTON
Korea Masters 2024: Kiran George defeats Chi Yu Jen, through to quarterfinal
India’s Kiran George dished out yet another gritty performance to upset third seed Chi Yu Jen of Chinese Taipei in a tough three-game match and progress to the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Korea Masters badminton tournament on Thursday.
The 24-year-old Indian overcame his Chinese Taipei opponent, ranked 31 in the world, 21-17, 19-21, 21-17 in a second round match that lasted one hour and 15 minutes.
World number 44 George will play fifth seed Takuma Obayashi of Japan in the last-eight round. Earlier also, George had to dig deep to defeat Vietnam’s Kuan Lin Kuo 15-21, 21-12, 21-15 in the opening round of the BWF Super 300 tournament.
George, the lone Indian shuttler competing in the tournament, started brightly and always had his nose ahead of his Chinese Taipei rival in the opening game to eventually take the lead.
In the second game, George continued in the same vein and enjoyed early lead before Jen bounced back to draw level.
But the Indian returned to his elements in the decider and raced to 8-2 lead before his opponent slowly and steadily clawed his way back to level things at 14-14 and then to 17-17.
But from there on, it was George who took control of the proceedings to seal his quarterfinal berth.
-PTI
BEACH VOLLEYBALL
International beach volleyball is back in the city after 14 years. Marina Beach Sports Club will conduct the World Pro Tour Challenge at the Inter-Continental Hotels & Resort, ECR here from November 21 to 24. The men’s section will have 32 teams while the women’s will consist of 24 teams. The qualifying matches will be on Nov. 22.
The Indian participation will have four pairs, two each in men and women. S. Bharath and R. Robin will play in the main draw while S. Selvam and G. Thiyagarajan will compete in the qualifying.
In the women’s section, Kanimozhi and Sasikala will feature in the main draw and the pair of Pavithra and Deepika will be in qualifying. The total prize money of the tournament is $200000.
The duo of Bharath and Robin for whom it will be only its second Challenge Tour, said it will fight hard. “There are a couple of Paris Olympians–Austria’s Horst & Leitner, Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert (Australia), Trevor Crabb & Theodore Brunner (USA). The competition will be extremely tough but we will give our best,” said the pair.
Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, A. J. Martin Sudhakar, Secretary of Marina Beach SC said: “Marina Beach SC has signed an agreement with FIVB (International volleyball body).
FIVB has given us the consent to organise the event There are 18 tournaments this year. Chennai is the 16th stop. We appeal to the State Government to financially help us in running the tournament.”
– Team Sportstar
TENNIS
Rethin defeats Agafonov to advance to ITF men’s tournament quarterfinals
National champion Rethin Pranav got past fourth seed Egor Agafonov in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the Kalinga Stadium on Thursday.
Rethin led 2-6, 6-4, 4-0 when Agafonov retired. He will play Aryan Shah in the quarterfinals.
Dev Javia knocked out Davis Cupper Siddharth Vishwakarma to set up a quarterfinal against top seed Dalibor Svrcina of the Czech Republic.
In the other quarterfinals, Karan Singh will play third seed Bogdan Bobrov, while S. D. Prajwal Dev will clash with Nick Chappell of USA.
The results:
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Dalibor Svrcina (Cze) bt Manas Dhamne 7-5, 6-3; Dev Javia bt Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-3, 6-1; Rethin Pranav bt Egor Agafonov 2-6, 6-4, 4-0 (retired); Aryan Shah bt Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 6-3; Karan Singh bt M Rifqi Fitriadi (Ina) 6-1, 6-2; Bogdan Bobrov bt Yash Chaurasia 6-1, 6-1; Nick Chappell (USA) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-4; S.D. Prajwal Dev bt Rohan Mehra 6-4, 3-0 (retired).
Doubles (quarterfinals): Egor Agafonov & Bogdan Bobrov bt Raghav Jaisinghani & Bharath Kumaran 6-3, 7-6(2); Ishaque Eqbal & Faisal Qamar bt Dev Javia & Sidharth Rawat 7-5, 3-6, [10-8]; Siddhant Banthia & Vishnu Vardhan bt M Rifqi Fitriadi (Ina) & Karan Singh 2-0 (retired); Rishab Agarwal & Kabir Hans bt S. D. Prajwal Dev & Adil Kalyanpur 6-7(7), 6-3, [10-6].
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Anjali Rathi enters final of ITA women’s tennis tournament
Anjali Rathi eased past top seed Yubrani Banerjee 6-3, 6-2 to set up a title clash against second seed Sahira Singh in the Rs.2,50,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Thursday.
Yubrani did make the doubles final in partnership with Kashish Bhatia and will play second seeds Divya Bhardwaj and Chandana Potugari.
The results (semifinals):
Singles: Anjali Rathi bt Yubrani Banerjee 6-3, 6-2; Sahira Singh bt Durganshi Kumar 6-0, 6-0.
Doubles: Yubrani Banerjee & Kashish Bhatia bt Mirdhula Palanivel & Chevika Sama 4-6, 6-2, [11-9]; Divya Bhardwaj & Chandana Potugari bt Sahira Singh & Snigdha Patibandla 6-1, 6-2.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Raghav Sarode beats Daksh Patil in Endurance National clay court tournament
Raghav Sarode upset fifth seed Daksh Patil 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in the boys quarterfinals of the Endurance National clay court under-14 tennis championship at the Marathwada Centre on Thursday.
The results (quarterfinals):
Under-14 boys: Aaradhya Mhasde bt Viran Chaudhary 6-0, 6-1; Raghav Sarode bt Daksh Patil 6-2, 5-7, 7-5; Varad Undre bt Aarav Chhallani 6-2, 6-3; Pradnyesh Shelke bt M Puneeth 6-2, 6-2.
Under-14 girls: Aaradhya Meena bt Khushi Kadian 6-4, 6-2; Jensi Kanabar bt Pooja Nagaraj 6-2, 6-2; Shravee Deore bt Aarohi Deshmukh 6-3, 6-1; Srishti Kiran bt Vrandika Rajput 6-0, 6-4.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Saketh-Ramkumar pair lose in quarterfinal of Matsuyama Challenger tournament
Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan were beaten 6-3, 4-6, [11-9] by Thomas Fancutt and Ray Ho in the doubles quarterfinals of the $82,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Matsuyama, Japan, on Thursday. The Indian pair, which had won the title last week, collected 16 ATP points and $950.
In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Solarino, Italy, Riya Bhatia got a walkover from second seed Natalija Stevanovic of Serbia, in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results:
The results:
$82,000 Challenger, Knoxville, USA Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Aidan Mayo & Govind Nanda (USA) bt Francis Alcantara (Phi) & Sai Karteek Reddy 6-7(3), 7-6(4), [10-6].
$82,000 Challenger, Matsuyama, Japan Doubles (quarterfinals): Thomas Fancutt (Aus) & Ray Ho (Tpe) bt Saketh Myneni & Ramkumar Ramanathan 6-3, 4-6, [11-9].
$115,000 WTA, Midland, USA Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sophie Chang & Rasheeda McAdoo (USA) bt Prarthana Thombare & Anastasia Tikhonova 7-6(6), 7-6(5).
$40,000 ITF women, Veracruz, Mexico Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Jessica Gomez (Mex) & Hiroko Kuwata (Jpn) bt Zoe Hitt (USA) & Saumya Vig 6-2, 6-0; Sofia Dominguez (Ven) & Dasha Plekhanova (Can) bt Priyanka Rodricks & Ximena Senties (Mex) 6-1, 6-1.
$25,000 ITF women, Solarino, Italy Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Riya Bhatia w.o. Natalija Stevanovic (Srb).
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia Doubles (quarterfinals): Ekaterina Ivanova & Iva Ivanova (Bul) bt Valerija Kargina (Lat) & Vanshita Pathania 6-1, 6-4.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
POLO
Otamendi scores five as Vimal Arion Achievers beats Army-Navy in Cavalry Gold Cup
Daniel Otamendi scored five goals in guiding Vimal Arion Achievers to an 8 goals to 5 ½ victory over Army-Navy in a league match of the Habanos Cavalry Gold Cup polo tournament at the Army Equestrian Centre, Delhi Cantonment, on Thursday.
In the semifinals, to be played at the Jaipur Polo ground here on Friday, Vimal Arion Achievers will play Achievers, while the other match will be between Delta Polo and Jindal Panther.
The results (league):
Vimal Arion Achievers 8 (Daniel Otamenndi 5, Shamsheer Ali 3) bt Army-Navy 5 ½ (Bautista Alberdi 3, Vishal Chauhan, handicap 1 ½).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
HOCKEY
Tamil Nadu makes Senior Men’s Nationals quarters after thrashing Andaman and Nicobar
It was not a good advertisement for the sport as Tamil Nadu handed a 43-0 drubbing to a hapless Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) in a Pool-C tie of the 14th Hockey India-Senior National men’s hockey championship. This win enabled the side to enter the knockouts (quarterfinals), while also raising lots of questions on the need to have a relook at the format of the Nationals.
The number of one-sided matches–Maharashtra thumping Gujarat 30-0, Manipur thrashing Bihar 19-1, Madhya Pradesh (MP) blanking A&N 29-0 and a host of others–definitely warrant a discussion.
After Madhya Pradesh thumped Andhra Pradesh 17-0 in a Pool-C contest, TN, which next took on A&N, was presented with a clear target: win by a margin of 40 goals to enter the last eight and prevent MP from doing so.
The results:
The results:
Pool B
Mizoram bt Telangana 2 (Stalin Abilash 46, 49) bt Telangana 1 (Venkatesh Telugu 18).
Pool C
MP 17 (Yousuf Affan 10, 30, Shreyas Dhupe 13, 22, 29, 36, 41, Armaan Qureshi 17, Sushil Dhanwar 18, 51, Mohd. Umar 27, Mohd. Zaid Khan 30, 46, Mohd. Nizamuddin 33, Sourabh Pashine 38, 53, 57) bt AP 0.
TN 43 (S. Karthi 1, 2, 8, 19, 21, 25, 32, 37, 38, 43, 48, 56, B. P. Somanna 3, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 51, 53, Sundarapandi 4, 9, 22, 25, 27, 30, 35, 49, 60, G. M. Pruthvi 7, 32, 41, S. Mareeswaran 14, 24, 28, 29, 37, 54, K. Selvaraj 34, 45, H. Shyam Kumar 58) bt A&N 0.
Pool D
Chandigarh 9 (Sumit 7, 8, Paramvir Singh 12, 15, Amandeep Singh 18, 26, Surinder Singh 35, Mohit 37, Manjinder Singh 59) bt Uttarakhand 0.
Pool F
Uttar Pradesh 4 (Chandan Singh 4, Arun Sahani 19, Manish Sahani 20, Faraz Mohd. 26) bt Delhi 1 (Govind Singh Bisht 17).
– Team Sportstar
GOLF
Karandeep Kochhar, Naveed Kaul continue as joint leaders in Poona Club Open
Chandigarh’s Karandeep Kochhar and Kshitij Naveed Kaul of Delhi continued as joint leaders for the second day running at The Poona Club Open, an INR 1 crore event on Thursday.
Kochhar (64-66) and Kaul (64-66), the round one joint leaders by one shot, continued in the lead at the halfway stage with totals of 12-under 130 after they carded scores of five-under 66 in round two at the Poona Club Golf Course.
TATA Steel PGTI Ranking leader Veer Ahlawat and Samarth Dwivedi too returned rounds of 66 to be tied third at eight-under 134.
The cut came down at even-par 142. Fifty-eight professionals made the cut.
Kochhar, a 10th tee starter, couldn’t have asked for a better start to the day as he holed his chip from 35 yards for an eagle on the Par-4 10th. A couple of good iron shots and two long conversions then earned him birdies on the 13th and 16th.
The bogeys on the 18th and the second holes did not derail his round as Kochhar rallied with a great recovery shot over the trees to claim an eagle on the seventh. Kochhar followed that up with a 15-feet birdie conversion on the eighth.
Kaul drove the Par-4 14th green for the second consecutive day to pick up a birdie there. He added another birdie thereafter but stumbled with a couple of bogeys on the 17th and third.
Kaul, who won his maiden professional title at the Poona Club Golf Course back in 2019 and has also won amateur, junior and sub-junior events at the same venue, went on to bag an eagle with a 12-feet conversion on the Par-5 seventh.
He signed off with a flourish by following up the eagle with birdies from short range on the eighth and ninth.
-PTI
