TENNIS

Top-seeded Bax saves four match points to scrape past Mukund at the MSLTA $25K ITF Men’s Tournament

Top seeded Florent Bax of France saved four match points to overcome seventh seed Sasikumar Mukund 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(3) in a marathon contest lasting over three hours to enter the mens singles semifinals at the MSLTA $25,000 ITF Men’s Tennis Tournament, organized by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association at the Dr. G.A. Ranade Tennis Centre.

In the semifinals, he took on India’s Sidharth Rawat, who made a strong statement, and ousted fourth seed Italian Alexandr Binda 6-4, 4-0 before the latter was forced to retire.

Fifth seed Philip Sekulic registered a solid 7-5, 6-3 win over Timofei Derepasko of Russia. Sekulic will take on Sweden’s Leo Borg, who delivered a dominant performance, toppling second seed Luca Castelnuovo 6-0, 6-2 in under an hour.

In the doubles semifinals, the top-seeded Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Ramkumar Ramanathan cruised past Alexandr Binda and Timofei Derepasko 6-3, 6-4 to enter the final. The Indian top seeds will take on the duo of Leo Borg and Yurii Dzhavakian, who also progressed to the final with a 6-3, 6-2 win, stopping the good run of local wildcards India’s Anup Bangargi and Nirav Shetty.

BADMINTON

Tanvi beats Nidaira to storm into semis at Orleans Masters

India’s Tanvi Sharma stunned Japan’s sixth seed Natsuki Nidaira in straight games to storm into the semifinals of Orleans Masters Super 300 badminton tournament on Friday.

The 17-year-old, who is a silver medallist at the BWF World Junior Championships, registered a 21-14, 21-14 in 43 minutes in the women’s singles quarterfinals.

Tanvi, who is the youngest Indian to reach a BWF World Tour final at the 2025 US Open Super 300, will take on either former World champion Nozomi Okuhara of Japan or Vietnam’s Nguyen Thuy Linh next.

Isharani Baruah emerged the winner in another quarterfinal after Malvika Bansod retired while lagging 9-21, 7-15 in an all Indian clash .Isharani, who reached the finals of Odisha Masters Super 100, will face Thailand’s Pitchamon Opatniputh.

In the men’s doubles quarterfinals, Leo Carnando and Bagas Maulana of Indonesia ended the campaign of Hariharan Amsakarunan and MR Arjun with a 21-12, 22-20 win.

-PTI

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Aditi has slow start in California

India’s Aditi Ashok opened her campaign at the Fortinet Founders Cup with an even-par 72 to be placed tied 60th, nine shots behind leader Hyo Joo Kim here.

Ashok began her round in the back nine and made one birdie and one bogey before the turn and another birdie and a bogey on the front nine.

The birdies were made on the 17th and third holes, while the bogeys came on the 11th and sixth holes.

The 27-year-old is playing her second event of the year and would be looking to continue her fine form from China, where she finished in the top five.

Hyo Joo Kim leads the field by two strokes after carding 9-under 63 on the first day.

-PTI

CRICKET

Top stars to turn out for Dr. Vece Paes Cup

Cricketers Kapil Dev, Karsan Ghavri, Yusuf Pathan and Kirti Azad along with tennis legend Leander Paes will be part of the Dr. Vece Paes Cricket Cup, featuring a match between CCFC and Dr. Vece Paes XI, to be held here on Sunday. Other well known cricketers such as Arun Lal, Ashok Malhotra and Manoj Tiwary will also be seen in action.

-Team Sportstar

ATHLETICS

7th Indian Open 400m to feature competitve men’s field with Asian Games in sight

The 400 metres is one of India’s strongest events at the continental level. In an Asian Games year, the 7th Indian Open 400m meet, which will be held at the LNCPE Athletics Stadium, gets special attention and will be the testing ground for the country’s leading quarter-milers.

The season opener has evoked strong interest in the men’s category with 67 entries. V. Mohammed Ajmal, Mohamed Anas, T.S. Manu Amoj Jacob are some experienced runners who will be participating in the men’s event, while a few youngsters like T. Shar who graduated from the Under-20 category will be competing in the men’s event for the first time. 

The focus will also be on the national campers attached to NCOE in Thiruvananthapuram and the event will be an opportunity for the coaches to assess their fitness and progress.

The women’s event has attracted a significantly lesser number of entries with only 27 runners in fray.

Hima Das, R. Vithya Ramraj, Dandhi Jyothika Sri, Prachi, Gowrinandan, Anu Raghavan and Poovama Raju are some of the prominent runners taking part in the event. Competition will also be held in Under-20 and Under-18 categories for boys and girls respectively.

-Team Sportstar

TABLE TENNIS

National TT wrap: Defending champion Chitale moves to semifinals

The race for a place in India’s squad for the World Championship in May intensified on Friday, the penultimate day of the 87th National Table Tennis Championship, as seeds tumbled at the Abhay Prashal Indoor Stadium.

Defending champion Diya Chitale, who survived a major scare against fellow Mumbai teenager Divyanshi Bhowmick in the quarterfinals, was the only top-four seed to progress to the semifinals in the women’s draw.

In the men’s singles, with several favourites exiting in the round of 32 and pre-quarterfinals earlier in the day, Manav Thakkar kept his hopes of a maiden national title alive. The bespectacled paddler halted the impressive run of giant-killer Kushal Chopda, who had earlier defeated eighth seed S.F.R. Snehit.

Second seed and defending champion Manush Shah, who is also battling to secure a spot in the World Championship squad, suffered a surprise loss to 15th seed Jeet Chandra in the pre-quarterfinals. Jeet then endured a marathon quarterfinal against H. Jeho, the only defensive player in the draw. In a 65-minute battle, Jeet edged past Jeho, capitalising on two errors from his opponent in the closing stages.

Third seed Payas Jain was another big casualty, going down to left-hander Neil Mulye in the round of 32. Mulye, however, could not build on the upset and was eliminated by Albuquerque in the round of 16.

SQUASH

Anahat meets Tanvi; Abhay, Veer in semifinal of Indian Open

Top seed Anahat Singh and unseeded Tanvi Khanna will meet in the women’s singles semifinals of the JSW Indian Open squash tournament after registering facile wins in the last-eight phase on Friday. However, Joshna Chinappa lost 11-8, 8-11, 11-6, 11-1 to Egypt’s Nadien El Hammamy.

In the men’s section, second seed Abhay Singh and fourth-seeded Veer Chotrani entered the semifinals. While the former got past Egypt’s Yassin Shohdy 11-8, 7-11, 11-5, 11-7, the latter defeated another Egyptian Mohamed Sharaf in straight games.

Anahat underlined her status as one of the top contenders for the title with an 11-2, 11-6, 11-4 victory over Malaysia’s Sehveetrraa Kumar.

The No. 1 seed raced through the opening game 11-2 but faced some resistance from the Malaysian in the second before winning 11-6. In the third, Anahat dictated the pace and cruised home.

Tanvi stunned fourth seed Ainaa Amani 11-6, 7-11, 11-5, 11-8. She won the opening game with ease before the latter levelled it with an 11-7 win. Tanvi, however, held her nerve in the remaining games.

-Team Sportstar

SNOOKER

Young Shahyan stuns Nayyar to make semis of the CCI Snooker Classic

Mumbai’s Shahyan Razmi showed tremendous character and composure to edge past his senior opponent Sahil Nayyar 5-4 in the quarter-final of CCI Snooker Classic here on Friday.

The 20-year-old left-handed Shahyan exhibited solid fighting qualities. After trailing 3-4 in the best-of-11-frame contest, he constructed two match-winning breaks of 52 and 48 to pocket the last two frames and clinch a well-deserved 57-54, 7-56, 70-33, 51-16, 65-1, 25-71, 31-75, 73-35, 64-32) victory to seal his place in the semifinals.

Nayyar, who competes on the World Snooker Tour, made the best efforts of 65 and 48 in the sixth and seventh frames.

Meanwhile, in a quarter-final battle between two former champions, Brijesh Damani (PSBP) blanked Aditya Mehta (PSPB) 5-0 (77(69)-21, 74-34, 58-13, 108(80)-0, 76-26).

The Kolkata-based Damani produced two notable breaks of 69 in the first frame and 80 in the fourth frame.

Punjab’s Digvijay Kadian defeated Mumbai challenger Kreishh Gurbaxani 5-1 (83-23, 62-30, 72-32, 75-15, 67-4, 84-37) to advance to the semi-finals.

Earlier, another heavyweight Sourav Kothari (PSPB) crashed out losing rather tamely to Shahyan in four straight frames.

The promising Shahyan potted steadily and grabbed his chances to accumulate the points to register a 60-30, 61-34, 59-52 and 72-43 win to cruise into the quarter-finals.

-PTI

Published on Mar 20, 2026