SQUASH
Anahat finishes runner-up at NSW Squash Bega Open
Second seed Habiba Hani of Egypt beat top seed Anahat Singh in the final of the $27,500 Bega Open PSA women’s squash tournament in Australia on Sunday.
The 20-year-old Habiba led 9-11, 11-5, 11-8, 10-4 when Anahat retired, unable to sustain her challenge owing to an ankle injury.
Habiba Hani defeated Anahat Singh in the final of the NSW Squash Bega Open.
Habiba Hani defeated Anahat Singh in the final of the NSW Squash Bega Open.
The 17-year-old Anahat, who has 12 titles to her credit in the PSA circuit, and is viewed as one of the brightest talent in the sport, got off to a good start, but was not able to match the athleticism and energy of Habiba as the match progressed.
After winning the first set, Anahat lost five points in a row in dropping the second game from 5-6. In the third, from 8-8 Habiba won three points in a row to nose ahead. In the fourth game also, Habiba accelerated from 5-4 to 10-4 when Anahat chose to shake hands and end the entertainment that had spanned 28 minutes.
“It was quite tough. I tried to push through but could not. I have one more week to recover before the National championship. I am looking forward to it,” said Anahat who is the defending champion in the Nationals scheduled in Delhi from August 23.
“I felt good and was playing good,” said the 20-year-old Habiba who was winning her maiden PSA World series title.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
TABLE TENNIS
Europe Smash: Yashaswini bows out after first-round defeat
Yashaswini Ghorpade exited the Europe Smash after a 15-minute 0-3 loss in the first round to China’s Wang Yidi.
The Indian had earlier qualified for the main draw at the Europe Smash in Malmo, Sweden.
Yashaswini defeated Serbia’s Izabela Lupulesku 3-1 (7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6) in the final round of qualifiers.
Elsewhere, Diya Chitale lost 0-3 (7-11, 3-11, 9-11) to Germany’s Annett Kaufmann while Manush Shah went down 2-3 (11-7, 4-11, 9-11, 11-3, 7-11) to Luxembourg’s Luka Mladenovic in the final qualifying round.
-Team Sportstar
GOLF
Aditi Ashok shoots season best round of 65, rises to fifth in Portland
Aditi Ashok sunk in seven birdies to produce her best round of the season — a card of 65– that carried her into the top-5 after the third round of The Standard Portland Classic on the LPGA Tour.
Aditi, who had played only 12 events on the Tour before this week, has had only one top-10 this season — a Tied-9th position at Riviera Maya Open at Mayakoba.
Starting birdie-birdie on the first two, she added three in a row from the sixth to the eighth. Then came another back-to-back birdie pair on the 13th and he 14th for a 7-under 65 after 69-70 on the first two days.
Gurleen Kaur (65-68-70) at 13-under was fourth and Savannah Grewal (69-67-72) was 8-under and T-25.
Japan’s Akie Iwai of Japan eagled the fifth hole and picked birdies on other three par 5s at Columbia Edgewater, during a round of 8-under 64 to take a two-stroke lead.
-PTI
Veer Ahlawat tied-28th at Danish Open
Veer Ahlawat played a steady third round of one-under 70 on a moving day to reach tied-28th at the Danish Golf Championship at the Fureso Golf Klub in Copenhagen.
It was an interesting round as Ahlawat had 14 pars in a row from the start. He bogeyed the 15th but two pars later, Ahlawat finished the round with an eagle on the 18th for a one-under 71.
Earlier, Ahlawat had rounds of 73-68 and is now two-under for three rounds.
A good finish will see him get at least a top-30 finish for the second week running on the DP World Tour.
Meanwhile, Rasmus Hojgaard held the lead by one stroke heading into the final round. Playing in the same group as his closest rival Danish player Marco Penge, Hojgaard shot two birdies and one bogey for a third round score of one-under 70.
-PTI
Rayhan Thomas slips to tied-45 at Boise Open
Rayhan Thomas carded 2-under 69 on the third day as he slipped down to Tied 45 on the leaderboard at the Albertsons Boise Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The round included six birdies and four bogeys at the Hillcrest Country Club.
Thomas started his day with a bogey before making consecutive birdies on the second and third holes. Thomas added birdies on the eighth, ninth, 12th and 16th holes. Thomas with 65-70-69 is at nine under par.
American Jeffrey Kang shot a third round of 7-under 64 to move into shared lead with Russel Knox of Scotland and Adrien Dumont de Chassart of Belgium. Knox carded 6-under 66 for the day while Adrien carded 3-under 68. All three leaders are 15 under par.
One stroke behind the leaders in fourth place is Richy Werenski.
Indian-American Julian Suri is Tied-20th, while Sudarshan Yellamaraju missed the cut.
-PTI
TENNIS
Fazal Meer and Shreyas move up in Unify ITF Junior Tennis Cup 2025
The Unify ITF Junior Tennis Cup 2025 got off to a sedate start at the SDAT Tennis Stadium with 24 Boys singles qualifying first round being completed on Saturday. Rain affected the evening session and the 24 Girls qualifying were rescheduled and completed on Sunday.
The results:
Boys Singles Qualifying I Round (All India except those mentioned): Lethaeesh S Kombila [1] beat Sankalp Kumar Sahani Kumar 6-2, 6-3; Shreyas Narendran (USA) beat Niraanjan Singh 6(5)-7, 6-1, 10-6; Pradnyesh Shelke beat Avi Agarwal 6-3, 2-6, 10-6; Atharva Shukla [10] beat Rishi Yadav 7-5, 0-6, 10-8; Sharan Somasi [2] beat Sri Sai Satyaram Harivansh Mygapula 7-5, 3-6, 10-8; Saksham Bhansali beat Namit Bhatia 6-3, 6-0; Aarav Gupta beat Arnav Harishankar 7-6(5), 6-2; Fazal Ali Meer beat Mokshak Reddy Challa [8] 6-1 6-2; Tae Jun Heo [3] (Korea) beat Chandra Siddharth Kopparapu 6-3 6-3; Tejas Ravi beat Nived Ponnapa Konerira 4-6, 6-1, 10-5; Ashwin Kabilan beat Mohd Shees 6-3, 7-6(5); Kabir Parmar [7] beat Ishir Mehta Beat 2-6 1-6; Uday Kaul [4] beat Vaibhav Charotia 3-6 6-1 10-5; Viren Suryavanshi beat Navya Yadav 6-4, 6-1; Pranav Rajesh beat Nidesh Balaji Peramaiyan 3-6, 6-2, 10-4; Rohan Karthik Vunnam [12] beat Shardul Khawale 6-1, 6-4; Gowtham Shanmugasundaram [5] beat Arav Aravindh 0-6, 1-6; Ribhav Saroha beat Alastair Victor Joseph Arputharaj 6-0, 6-0; Arjun Manikandan beat Aazaan Assiz 7-5 6-4; Lakshay Madankumar (AUS) beat Daksh Mudunoori [11] 6-2 7-6(5); Parthiv Nallagundla beat Amrit Vats [6] 0-6, 6-3, 10-8; Abhinav Goud Putta (AUS) beat Bhavik Mittal 0-6 4-6; Siddharth Jeebu beat Nithibbarath Ks 6-4, 4-6, 11-9; Niyanth Badrinarayanan (USA) beat Atharva Sriramoju [9] 6-2 6-2
Girls’ Singles Qualifying I Round: Yashitha Ereti beat Lanika Ramu 3-6, 6-3, 10-6; Anjhalle Meka beat Vaishnavi Singh 6-2 6-2; Janhavi Chougule [9] beat Mahaniya Subramanian beat 6-1, 6-0; Saanchi Dalal (USA) [2] beat Saanvi Ravikant Raju 6-2, 6-0; K A Aadira [3] beat P Sai Sanjana Reddy Polakala 6-2, 4-6, 10-3; Devanshee Prabhudesai [7] beat Preethi Premkumar (IND) 6-0, 6-0; Aishwarya Jadhav [1] beat Advita Gupta 6-2 5-0; Joshitha Santhanakrishnan beat Sanidhya Karanth 6-2, 6-3; Kasturi V G beat Keshmeya Vijayakumar 6-2, 6-0; Lavanya Tiwari beat Dhaanvi Dechamma Kanjithanda; Jemima Rebecca Christine John beat Isheeta Midha (walkover)Nalyaazhni Krishnaprabhu beat Vishmasri Thuraka 6-4, 6-3; Ilaiyanila Kannan beat Sarithra Entoori 6-4, 6-4; Tejaswi Manneni [5] beat Diya Harikrishnan 6-1, 6-1; Srinidhi Madhu (GBR) [10] beat Vaari Patankar 6-3, 1-6, 10-7; Diya Marichelvan beat Dhriti Sandra Bantupalli [4] 3-6, 6-2, 10-5; Tanushsri Maneni Sathesh beat Niyamika Balaji [11]; Samaira Kohli [6] beat Avyaktha Rayavarapu (USA); Devashree Mahadeshwar [12] beat Sahana Kamalakannan 6-0, 7-6(1); Suhani Bhasin beat Arunima Roy 7-6(4), 6-3; Pooja Nagaraj beat Aditi Khanpari (USA); Anamya Dubey beat Ayessha Bagla [8] (walk over)
-Team Sportstar
Parthsarthi Arun Mundhe and Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli crowned Champions
The Finals of the MCC-N.SANKAR Memorial National Junior U-18 Clay Court Tennis Championship 2025 saw intense competitive and intelligent tennis and the tennis loving spectators thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
In the Girls’ final, fifth seed 15 year old Parthsarthi Arun Mundhe of Maharashtra displayed tremendous maturity to out play unseeded 16-year-old Akansha Ghosh of West Bengal to win in two intensely fought sets. In the first set, Parthsarthi, playing fluently, ran away to 5-1 lead in a hurry breaking her nervous opponent’s serve twice to close out the set 6-1. In the second set, Akansha stroked with more confidence while Parthsarthi varied her tactics, slowed the game and followed up with strong groundstrokes and her double handed backhand was a treat to watch. The players were level 5-5 when Akansha became error prone and Maaya kept her cool to win the set 7-5 and become a deserving champion.
The Boys singles finals was a battle between firm solid groundstrokes of qualifier Rohith Hari Balaji of Tamil Nadu and the crafty game of Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli of Karnataka. Both the players had a solid start and level 3-3 Gandharv broke Rohith in the 8th game to take a 5-3 lead and serve for the first set. However, Rohit broke him again 5-4. Gandharv served well in the 10th game and took the first set 6-4. In the second set Gandharv played positive tennis to gain a 5-2 lead and win the set 6-3 to be crowned champions. The winners will get 200 AITA points Runner Up 150 points.
Promising player awards were given to Rohith Hari Balaji of Tamil Nadu and Akansha Ghosh of West Bengal.
The results:
Boys’ Singles final: Gandharv Gourav Kothapalli (KA) beat Rohith Hari Balaji (TN) 6-4, 6-3.
Girls’ Singles final: Parthsarthi Arun Mundhe (MH) beat Akansha Ghosh (WB) 6-1, 7-5.
-Team Sportstar
HOCKEY
Odisha, UP, Punjab begin junior national hockey championships with victories
Day 6 of the 15th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship featured two Division ‘B’ and four Division ‘A’ matches. Hockey Association of Bihar and Hockey Bengal won their respective matches as Division ‘B’ came to a conclusion. Hockey Chandigarh and Delhi have won Pool A and Pool B respectively and are promoted to Division ‘A’ for the next year while Hockey Himachal and Assam Hockey have been relegated to Division ‘C’. Hockey Association of Odisha, Hockey Haryana, Uttar Pradesh Hockey and Hockey Punjab won their Division A matches of the day in Jalandhar, Punjab.
In the first Division ‘B’ match of the day Hockey Association of Bihar defeated Assam Hockey 4-3 in Pool B. Nandlal Shah (18’, 47’) scored a brace along with goals from Md Alishan Ahmad (1’) and Ranjan Kumar (6’) for Hockey Association of Bihar. Sadique Ahmed (6’), Ashish Kumar (26’) and Rohan Ekka (57’) were the three scorers for Assam Hockey.
In the last match of Division ‘B’, Hockey Bengal enjoyed a comfortable 4-1 win over Hockey Uttarakhand. Bijay Shaw (3’), Captain Prince Gabriyal Dhan (7’), Aman Kumar Thakur (36’) and Karan Shaw (37’) scored goals for Hockey Bengal while Naveen Prasad (60’) scored a late and only goal for Hockey Uttarakhand.
In the first Division ‘A’ fixture of the day, Hockey Association of Odisha won against Hockey Karnataka in Pool D with a narrow scoreline of 2-1. Nitesh Sharma (37’) scored the opening goal of the game for Hockey Karnataka but Ritik Lakra (50’) and Aryan Xess (51’) scored back-to-back goals in the final quarter to help Hockey Association of Odisha win three points in their first match of the tournament.
In the next Division ‘A’ match, Hockey Haryana registered a dominant 5-0 victory over Manipur Hockey in Pool C. Sunil (15’), Chirag (27’), Navraj Singh (50’), Rahul (56’) and Ansh Kamboj (59’) were the goalscorers for Hockey Haryana.
In the next fixture of the day, Uttar Pradesh Hockey defeated Hockey Jharkhand 2-0 in Pool B. Ujjwal Pal (26’) scored from a penalty corner in the second quarter followed by a field goal from Satyam Pandey (32’) in the third quarter to seal the win for Uttar Pradesh Hockey.
In the final Division ‘A’ match of the day, Hockey Punjab enjoyed a slim 3-2 win over Hockey Madhya Pradesh in Pool A. Om Rajnesh Saini (3’), Lovenoor Singh (14’) and Japnit Singh (41’) scored goals for Hockey Punjab. Mohd Anas (19’) and Sohil Ali (39’) scored the two goals for Hockey Madhya Pradesh.
WATER POLO
78th National aquatics championships: Services, Kerala emerge champions
Services and Kerala won the men’s and women’s water polo crowns respectively at the 78th National aquatics championships, which concluded here on Sunday.
The results (winners only):
Diving: Men: Synchronised platform: N. Willson Singh and Indiver Sairem (SSCB) 287.40; 3m springboard: Satish Kumar Prajapati (SSCB) 303.85; 3m synchronised springboard: Surajit Rajbanshi and Y.Premson Meitei (SSCB) 290.19; 1m springboard: Surajit Rajbanshi (SSCB) 298.30; Platform: Siddharth Pardeshi (SSCB) 316.60.
Women: 3m springboard: Shravani Suryawanshi (Mah) 186.50; Synchronised platform: Hrutika Shriramand Esha Waghmode (RSPB) 159.09; Platform: Shravani Suryawanshi (Mah) 181.45; 3m synchronised springboard: Esha Waghmode and Hrutika Shriram (RSPB) 157.62; 1m springboard: Ashna Chevli (Guj) and Hrutika Shriram (RSPB) 146.50.
Waterpolo: Men: Gold: SSCB bt RSPB 11-10 via penalty shootout; Bronze: Indian Police bt Maharashtra 11-10; Women: Gold: Kerala bt Indian Police 17-7; Bronze: Karnataka bt Bengal 9-6.
– Team Sportstar
CHESS
All India Chess Masters: Varshney scores second successive win
International Master Aryan Varshney beat Sunil Vaidya for his second consecutive win in the All India Chess Masters, the second season of the Mumbai FIDE Classical Tournament here on Sunday.
Darsh Shetty got the better of Deepak Raina for his second win on the trot while Pasbola Samvid defeated Mohsin Yunus Shaikh to maintain his winning run as well.
Om Gada beat Shubh Patel while AFM (arena FIDE master) Prashant Chogle defeated Anil Suchit.
Results top-10 round 2:
IM Aaryan Varshney 2 beat Sunil Vaidya 1; ACM Arvind Iyer 2 beat Azad Marazban Irani 1; Deepak Raina 1 lost to Darsh Shetty 2; Kabnurakar Rushikesh 1.5 drew with AFM Idhant Vishal Parmar 1.5; Shubh Patel 1 lost to Om Gada 2; AFM Sahil Prashant Chogle 2 beat Anil Suchit 1; Mohsin Yunus 1 lost to Pasbola Samvid 2; Apurv Desmukh 2 beat Mayan S Jha 1; Manya Balani 2 beat Mayuresh Parkar, 1; AIM Jaiveer Patil 1.5 drew with Kabir Chouksi 1.5.
– PTI
WRESTLING
Vishal in hunt for bronze in U20 World Wrestling
Freestyle wrestler Vishal will fight for the bronze medal after losing his 97kg freestyle semifinal bout to UWW grappler Magomedgadzhi Magomedov on the opening day of the U20 World Championships, here on Sunday.
The 20-year-old Indian lost the closely-fought semifinal 9-11 and will now take on a yet-to-be-confirmed grappler in the bronze-medal bout.
Vishal gave his opponent a tough fight and had the grappler, who was fighting under the United World Wrestling (UWW) flag, in all sorts of trouble before Magomedov managed to eke out a narrow win.
Magomedov led 10-4 when Vishal mounted a comeback. The Indian scored a takedown and Magomedov was cautioned for a singlet foul, which made it 10-7.
As the bout restarted, India appealed for two more points but the referee had already blown the whistle before the control from Vishal. That challenge gave Magomedov enough time to recover and hang on to a slender lead.
Earlier in the quarterfinal, Vishal’s opponent, Japan’s Noah Leibowitz, pulled out due to injury when the Indian was leading 12-9.
Sagar (70kg) and Jaspooran (125kg) lost their opening-round bouts to Iran’s Ebrahim Esmaeil and UWW’s Inal Gagloev respectively.
Parvinder Singh (74kg) lost in his quarterfinal bout to Italy’s Raul Caso 4-5 on points.
-PTI
