Indian sports News- September 13th
September 13, 2019
Bytes: ATP Challenger events, Hongkong Open, Arun Jaitley Stadium, County Championship, Belgian International, Vietnam Open, National Trials, Boxing World Championship, Junior Women’s Nationals, Chess World Cup, Pro Kabaddi League, Kim Clijsters return
YoGems makes sure that you won’t miss a thing in the field of sports, so here is a quick recap to all the happenings from the last 24 hours:
Tennis:
ATP Challenger events- It was a mixed day for India’s singles players on the ATP Challenger Tour as Prajnesh Gunneswaran and Sumit Nagal notched strong wins while Ramkumar Ramanathan crashed out. Playing his second straight Challenger after the landmark US Open debut, Sumit Nagal reached the third round in Banja Luka, Bosnia. The sixth seeded Indian beat Matija Pecotic 6-1,6-1 after beating Ivan Nedelko 6-3,7-6(3) in his opener. Before this, he had lost in the first round of the Genoa Challenger right after the Grand Slam. At the ATP Challenger in Shanghai, top seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran beat Goncalo Oliveira 6-3, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinal. It was a smoother performance after the 6-4, 7-6(3) win over James Ward in the first round. He will play eighth seed Hiroki Moriya for a place in the final. In the doubles, second seeds Divij Sharan and Saketh Myneni advanced to the semi-finals with a 7-6(2), 6-3 win over Toshihide Matsui and John Paul Fruttero.
Kim Clijsters- Belgium’s former world No 1 Kim Clijsters announced on Thursday her return to competitive tennis in 2020, seven years after retiring to become a stay-at-home mum of three children. The 36-year-old four-time singles Grand Slam champion said she loved being a mum but missed the adrenalin of the tennis world tour. “These last seven years I’ve been a full-time mum. And I love it, I really do. But I also loved being a professional tennis player. And honestly I miss that feeling,” she said on Twitter. Clijsters won the US Open in 2005, 2009 and 2010, and the Australian Open in 2011.
HongKong Open- The WTA Hong Kong Open women’s tennis tournament has been postponed, organisers said on Friday, citing the “present situation” after months of sometimes violent pro-democracy protests. “In light of the present situation, Hong Kong Tennis Association and the WTA are announcing the postponement of the 2019 Hong Kong Tennis Open,” a Hong Kong Tennis Association statement said. The Hong Kong Open, which was scheduled for October 5-13, has previously attracted a number of top players including Venus Williams, Angelique Kerber and Caroline Wozniacki, the 2016 champion. It is played at Victoria Park, one of the main gathering points for the mass protests that erupted more than three months ago over the erosion of freedoms under Beijing’s rule.
Cricket:
Renamed- The Delhi and District Cricket Association on Thursday renamed the Feroz Shah Kotla as Arun Jaitley stadium in memory of the late politician-cum-sports-administrator. Home Minister Amit Shah digitally inaugurated the renamed Arun Jaitley Cricket Stadium in presence of late finance minister’s family. DDCA also unveiled a stand at the Feroz Shah Kotla after skipper Virat Kohli, who recently became the most successful India captain in Test cricket, surpassing MS Dhoni. Besides the family members of Jaitley, the event was attended by Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, Olympian Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari, ex-skipper Kapil Dev and former India player Chetan Chauhan, among others.
County- Ravichandran Ashwin put in yet another brilliant performance for Nottinghamshire in the ongoing County Championship by claiming a nine-wicket match haul against Kent. The Indian off-spinner added to his four wickets in the first innings with a five-for in the second on Thursday at Trentbridge, Nottingham. Nottinghamshire were in deep trouble in the match after being bowled out for just 124 in their first innings, in reply to Kent’s total of 304. Ashwin had bowled a fine spell to pick four wickets in the first essay but could only manage seven runs when his turn came to bat. However, the 32-year-old turned it on with the ball once again by picking five wickets in Kent’s second innings to help Nottinghamshire bowl out their opposition for 259. Ashwin has been in stellar form in county cricket this season. This is just his fourth match and he has already claimed 32 wickets. This five-for was his fourth in seven innings for the Trent bridge side, and he has one 10-wicket match haul to his name as well (when he picked up six in each innings against Surrey).
Wahab Riaz- Pakistan’s seasoned left-arm fast bowler Wahab Riaz on Thursday announced that he’s taking the indefinite break from the longest format of the game, saying he will concentrate on one-day and T20 cricket for the time being. Wahab said he will not play in the revamped Quaid-e-Azam Trophy first class tournament which kicks off from Saturday. He said he will be concentrating on the shorter formats of the game. He also said he may be returning to red-ball cricket at a later date.
Badminton:
Belgian International- Indian shuttlers Lakshya Sen, BM Rahul Bharadwaj and Shikha Gautam made positive starts to their respective singles campaign at the Belgian International challenge in Leuven on Thursday. Asian Junior champion Lakshya thrashed Denmark’s Rasmus Messerschmidt 21-9 21-7, while Rahul overcame Denmark’s David Kim 21-14 9-21 21-10 to enter the second round of men’s singles. Next Lakshya will face Finland’s Eetu Heino, while Rahul takes on top seed Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands. Shikha defeated Iran’s Soraya Aghaeihajiagha 21-11 21-13 in the women’s singles first round. She will meet top seed Turkey’s Neslihan Yigit next.
Boxing:
World Championships- Commonwealth Games silver medallist Manish Kaushik (63kg) hardly broke a sweat as he out-punched Kyrgyzstan’s Uulu Argen Kadyrbek to enter the second round of the men’s boxing World Championships in Yekaterinburg on Thursday. Kaushik won via a unanimous 5-0 decision in the thoroughly lop-sided opening-round bout. He will next face the Netherland’s Enrico Lacruz. Kaushik, the only Indian in action on Thursday, was advised to keep his distance from Kadyrbek by his corner and he executed the plan to perfection. Earlier, Asian champion Amit Panghal (52kg), and the duo of Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) and Ashish Kumar (75kg) got first-round byes.
Junior Nationals- Hosts Haryana dominated on the semi final day with eight wins at the third Junior Women’s National Boxing Championships in Rohtak on Thursday. Punjab also ensured at least three silver medals with Anjali, Tanishvir Sandhu and Khushi winning their respective bouts. Haryana’s Preeti Dahiya (60kg) managed to continue her Nation’s Cup form into the nationals as she overcame a tough challenge posed by Manipur’s Thongam Devi in a 3-2 bout. Besides Dahiya, Tannu (52kg), Khushi (63kg), Kalpana (46kg) and Neha (54kg) made it look easy with impressive 5-0 wins against their respective opponents. Tamanna (48kg), Rinku (50kg) and Lashu Yadav (66kg) also stood victorious in their semi-final bouts. Tamanna was made to sweat for her win as she faced stiff resistance from Uttarakhand’s Nivedita but eventually won 3-2.
Shooting:
National Trials- World Championship silver medalist Anjum Moudgil won the women’s 50m Rifle Prone National Shooting Trials while Delhi’s Tarun Yadav won the corresponding men’s event even as India international Annu Raj Singh representing Air India, picked up the women’s 25m Pistol (Sport Pistol) title at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range on Thursday. Anjum who finished just outside the podium spots in the women’s 10m Air Rifle trials on Wednesday, shot 619.4 in Prone to edge out former world champion Tejaswini Sawant, who shot 618.9 to finish second. In the corresponding Men’s Prone event, Delhi’s Tarun Yadav shot 623.9 to overcome the CISF’s Navdeep Singh Rathore’s challenge which ended at 622.7. The seasoned Sanjeev Rajput came third with 622.3. In the only Olympic event final scheduled on the day, India international Annu Raj Singh, who represented the country in the recently concluded Rio World Cup, won by shooting a score of 37 in the finals. She was way ahead of Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat, who shot 29 to finish second.
Chess:
Chess WC- Indian Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram VR kept his nerves against a much experienced Michael Adams to clinch the first round encounter in the second blitz game in the Fide Chess World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, on Thursday. The 20-year-old now joins the likes of GM Nihal Sarin, GM P Harikrishna, GM Vidit Gujrathi and GM B Adhiban in the second round. Aravindh, who had drawn both the classic games on Wednesday, had to fight hard to salvage draws in the four rapid games and the engine showed a difficult position for the Indian, playing black in the first blitz game. However, he managed to hang on for a draw and then made the most of his pawn advantage to force Adams into surrender after 69 moves in the second game. He will now face Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia in the second round.
Kabaddi:
PKL- Maninder Singh was the star for home Bengal Warriors as they beat defending champions Bengaluru Bulls 42-40 in a high-scoring Pro Kabaddi encounter in Kolkata on Thursday. Maninder scored 17 raid points for Bengal as they survived a raiding fest by Bulls’ Pawan Sehrawat who finished with 19 points to finish their home leg with three wins and a tie at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium. The league’s best raider, Pawan Sehrawat, could hardly make an impact in a closely fought first half that saw the defenders step their game up to thwart the raiders. Mohammad Nabibakhsh dominated the early stages of the match, pulling off two impressive tackles to set the tone for what was to follow.
