May 20 Indian sports report: Sania Mirza in the Strasbourg 2022 final, Dhruv and Riya crowned U-16 champions
ARCHERY
Archery World Cup Stage 2: India’s mixed compound team advances to bronze medal match, Jayanta Talukdar narrowly misses semis
India’s mixed compound team remained in medal contention by qualifying for the bronze medal, while recurve archer Jayanta Talukdar narrowly missed out on the men’s individual semi-finals in Stage 2 of the Archery World Cup in Gwangju, Korea on Friday.
India’s sixth-seeded compound Avneet Kaur and Abhishek Verma were byes in the first round and beat Denmark 157-155 and Mexico 156-153 before losing to Estonia 158-156 in the semi-finals .
Avneet and Abhishek will face Turkey in the bronze medal game on Saturday.
India’s mixed recurve team Ridhi Phor and Tarundeep Rai, ranked seventh, earned a bye and beat Japan – consisting of three-time Olympic medalist Takaharu Furukawa and partner Utano Agu – 5-3 (33 -38, 36-36, 38-32, 38-36) before losing to Germany – composed of Katharina Bauer and Felix Wieser – 5-1 (37-37, 32-35, 36-37) in quarterfinal.
May 19 Indian sports report: Sania enters the semi-finals of Strasbourg 2022, the Indians win bronze in classic
39th-placed Jayanta Talukdar, who was leading 5-0 at one point, nearly managed a second upset before losing 6-5 (29-26, 29-27, 28-28, 26-29, 26-27, SO 10-X) to double Olympics and multiple world champion gold medalist and second seed Korea’s Woojin Kim – who beat Tarundeep Rai 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals – in the individual quarterfinals classic masculine.
Earlier, Talukdar upset current Olympic Games individual champion Mete Gazoz of Turkey 6-0, Felix Weiser of Germany 6-4 and Eric Peters of Canada 6-2.
Sachin Gupta came out in the second round, while Neeraj Chauhan fell in the first round.
In the women’s individual recurve competitions, Ridhi, ranked 14th in the standings, beat Poland’s Kamila Naploszek 6-0 and Mexico’s Olympic bronze medalist Alejandra Valencia 6-2. She found an obstacle in third-place Korean Gahyun Lee and lost 6-5 (9-8 shootout) in the pre-quarterfinals.
Ankita Bhakat was ousted in the second round, while Komalika Bari and Simranjeet Kaur were defeated in the first round.
-YB Sarangi
TENNIS
Sania Mirza in the Strasbourg 2022 final
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Lucie Hradecka beat Kaitlyn Christian and Lidziya Marozava 6-3, 6-3 in the doubles semi-final of the €203,024 WTA tennis tournament in France on Friday.
In the final, Sania and Lucie will face Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Daria Saville.
In the ITF $60,000 women’s event in the United States, Sharmada Balu reached the semifinals in doubles with Maria Mononova.
The results: €203,024 WTA, Strasbourg, France Doubles (semi-finals): Lucie Hradecka (Cze) & Sania Mirza bt Kaitlyn Christian (US) & Lidziya Marozava 6-3, 6-3. $60,000 ITF Women, Pelham, USA Doubles (quarter-finals): Maria Kononova & Sharmada Balu v Samantha Buyckx & Ali Despain (US) 1-6, 6-4, [10-3]. $25,000 ITF Women, Montemor-O-Novo, Portugal Doubles (quarter-finals): Julie Belgraver (Fra) & Riya Bhatia bt Ines Murta (Por) & Olga Parres Azcoitia (Esp) 6-4, 6-4; Jacqueline Cabaj Awad (Sweden) & Sowjanya Bavisetti v Sara Borkop (Den) & Sana Garakani (Por) 6-2, 6-1; Francisca Jorge & Matilde Jorge (Por) v Sara Lanca (Por) & Vasanti Shinde 6-3, 6-4. $53,120 Challenger, Tunis, Tunisia Doubles (semi-finals): Nicolas Barrientos (Col) and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela (Mex) against Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 7-6(4), 6-3; Quarter-finals: Balaji & Jeevan vs. Michael Geerts (Bel) & Michael $25,000 ITF Men, Osijek, Croatia Doubles (quarter-finals): Lukas Pokorny (Svk) & Dev Javia bt Alen Moritz Hodzic (Ger) & Frane Nincevic (Cro) 7-5, 6-1. $15,000 ITF Men, Cancún, Mexico Doubles (quarter-finals): Jake Bhangdia (US) & Dhruv Sunish bt Hiroyasu Ehara & Kosuke Ogura (Jpn) 6-4, 3-6, [10-7]. $15,000 ITF men, Oran, Algeria Doubles (semi-finals): Robin Bertrand (Fra) & Mirko Martinez (Sui) bt Ishaque Eqbal & Digvijay Pratap Singh 6-3, 6-7(7), [10-4]. |
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Dhruv and Riya become Asian U-16 champions
Dhruv Sachdeva played to potential as the top seed and beat Akshat Dhull 6-2, 6-4 in the Asian Under-16 tennis tournament final at the Modern School courts, Barakhamba Road on Friday .
After a smooth start and a smooth run to win the first set, Dhruv found himself in a tight spot as he led 2-4 in the second set. However, Akshat was unable to maintain his best play which had earned him the lead, and slipped quickly to win.
Dhruv Sachdeva (right) beat Akshat Dhull while Riya Sachdeva beat Nainika Reddy in the final. – Kamesh Srinivasan
Later in the afternoon, Dhruv joined Jason David to win the doubles title as well, defeating Karan Rawat and Fatehyab Singh in straight sets.
There was literally no opposition for women’s event top seed Riya Sachdeva, as her opponent Nainika Reddy retired after three games, due to abdominal pain.
It was a memorable outing for Riya, a modern school student, who took her board exams alongside the event.
In fact, the tournament was supposed to end on Saturday, but was adjusted for an earlier end to help Riya negotiate her final exam without having to play a match that day. On her
part, Riya did her school proud with the title triumph.
The results (final): Boys: Dhruv Sachdeva v Akshat Dhull 6-2, 6-4. Doubles: Jason David and Dhruv Sachdeva v Karan Rawat and Fatehyab Singh 6-2, 6-4. Girls: Riya Sachdeva bt Nainika Reddy 2-1 (retired). |
-Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Lahiri gives up 3 shots on the back nine to sit 78th
A bogey-double midway through the back nine spoiling his card, Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri returned a three of 73 that put him tied for 78th after the PGA Championship opening round at Southern Hills here.
Rory McIlroy led the pack with 5-under 65, his lowest first-round score at a major championship since the 2011 US Open, which he won. He was followed by Will Zalatoris and Tom Hoge, who delivered 66 each.
World No. 1 and FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler opened with a 1 of 71, while 15-time major winner Tiger Woods winced in obvious pain as he circled in 74 and looked in danger of miss the cut at Southern Hills, where he won the PGA Championship in 2007.
Lahiri had a bogey to start the day on the 10th and made amends with a birdie on the 11th. Ten pars followed and he was still level, although he missed putts within seven feet and three more from 10 to 11 feet. Still, scoring wasn’t easy, so pars were a consolation.
Then came the two holes, the fourth and the fifth, which were his 13th and 14th. In the rough right off the tee, he entered the bunker on the green with a second shot. Still, he came out well leaving himself just over five feet for par. He missed.
The very next, par-5 14th, he went from the fairway bunker to the right fairway to get to a green side bunker with his third shot. He missed the bunker shot and he was on edge in five.
Two putts from there meant a seven, which saw his upcard move to 3-over but ensured no further damage.
In a week where Lahiri welcomed the arrival of her second child and enjoyed a nine-hole practice round with Woods on Wednesday, Lahiri’s 73 could easily have been par or at worst 1-over. . That left him with some work to do to get halfway there on his first big start in nearly three years.
Lahiri was eight strokes behind leader McIlroy (65), including the final major rounds of an eight under the Masters final, where he was second.
-PTI
Tvesa T-16 after Round 1, Aditi gets hole-in-one in Round 2 at Jabra Ladies
Indian golfer Tvesa Malik had two birdies and as many bogeys for an even par 71 to lie T-16 alongside compatriot Aditi Ashok after the first round of the Jabra Ladies Open here.
Aditi, who came from the LPGA Tour, also had 71 cards but had a turbulent round with five birdies and five bogeys. The Indian duo were five strokes behind Spain’s Carmen Alonso who held a one stroke lead after a 5-under 66 run.
While Tvesa hadn’t started her second round until late afternoon, Aditi Ashok was an early starter on day two and she had a hole-in-one on the Par-3 eighth hole.
It was her first hole-in-one as a professional. However, she carded a modest 3 of 74 that had an ace, a birdie and six bogeys. At 4 of 36 holes, she was T-44th and should make the cut comfortably.
Things didn’t go too well for the other three Indians as Amandeep Drall (72-82) was T-94th and Vani Kapoor (79-85) was T-123. They were sure to miss the cut, which was likely to come down to 5-over.
Tvesa is looking to regain the form that saw her finish 19th in the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit.
The winner of this week’s tournament will earn a place in the $6.5 million Amundi Evian Championship, the only Continental European Major, to be played in July at the same venue, so there is fierce competition for the first price.
Australia’s Whitney Hillier, who won the team competition at the Aramco Team Series – Bangkok last week, started her round with three straight birdies 15-17 and signed for a four-under 67 for take second place alongside LET Rookie Gabrielle Macdonald of Scotland.
-PTI