Denmark Open: Srikanth to clash with Lin Dan; women’s doubles team in Rd 2
ODENSE, DENMARK: World No 6 Kidambi Srikanth set up a second-round clash with Lin Dan after an easy win over HansKristian Solberg Vittinghus even as one Indian women’s doubles pair was knocked out of the Denmark Open, here Wednesday. Srikanth needed 35 minutes to get the better of Vittinghus 21-16, 21-10 in the opening round of the $7,75,000 event.
Srikanth has lost three of his four matches against Lin Dan but the Chinese great is not the force he once was. The former world No 1 is now placed 14th in the international rankings. The last time Sriknath beat Dan was in 2014 at the China Open.
If Srikanth gets past Dan and Sameer Verma overcomes Asian Games gold-medallist Jonathan Christie, it will be an all-indian quarter-final in the bottom half of the singles draw.
In doubles, Ashwini Ponappa and N Sikki Reddy moved to the second round of women’s doubles with a 21-7, 21-11 win over the American team of Ariel Lee and Sydney Lee. But it was curtains for Meghanna Jakkampudi and S Ram Poorvisha, who lost 17-21, 11-21 to the Swedish combination of Emma Karlsson and Johanna Magnusson.
SANDEEP BAGS TITLE
NEW DELHI: Sundeep Gulati won his fifth Delhi State 15-Red Snooker title defeating Avinash 5-1 in a rather one-sided match. In the first frame, Avinash missed an easy pink in the centre pocket and Sandeep capitalised on it with a break of 40 followed by a break of 96.
The score in the first frame was 140-1. In second frame too, Sandeep made a break of 55 and won comfortably, the score reading 88-4.
In the third frame, Avinash tried to steady the ship with a break of 54 and won 69-18. But that was the only resistance offered by Avinash, who later surrendered to his more experienced opponent. The final score was 140-1, 88-4, 18-69, 60-17, 93-22 and 58-45. Ravi Tandon, former vice-president, Billiards and Snooker Federation of India gave away the prizes. Sandeep and Avinash will represent Delhi in the Nationals at Indore.
NEHRU HOCKEY
NEW DELHI: Sangrur’s Government Sr Sec School scored a 26-0 win over Gautam Public School, Ahmednagar in the league stage of the Nehru Sub-junior Hockey Tournament on Wednesday. Imphal’s Jai Hind School scored a 14-4 win over Sri Guru Nanak Khalsa High School, Ganganagar. In another match, Punjab State Institute of Sports outplayed SNBP School, Pune 10-0. Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Rai suffered a 1-3 loss to One Thousand Hockey Legs team.
A FIRST FOR WRESTLING
NEW DELHI: Indian wrestling will score yet another first, with the U-15 girls’ entry in the Asian Junior Championships in Fuji-mi, Japan.wrestling Federation of India has named a 10-member junior girls squad for the event, to commence from November 16. All the 10 girls named for the Fuji-mi event are the top performers in their respective categories at the U-15 Nationals, held earlier this year.
BENGALURU TRIUMPH
SONEPAT: Bengaluru Bulls earned the bragging rights in the Southern derby as they beat Tamil Thalaivas 44-35 in Vivo Pro Kabaddi Season VI. Pawan Sehrawat with 16 points and Kashiling Adake (12 points) were the star performers for Bengaluru as they registered their second consecutive win. This was Thalaivas’ fifth straight defeat.
ARAVALI POLO WIN
NEWDELHI: Aravali Polo beat 61st Cavalry by 7 goals to 3 ½ in the Bhopal-pataudi Cup (8-goal) polo tournament on Wednesday. Nine teams are competing in the half league with cross-semifinal format. The scorers for Aravali were Manolo Llorentte (5) and Angad Kalaan (2), while for Cavalry Ravi Rathore (2) and Akshay Malik (1) were on target.
YUKI SUFFERS DEFEAT
NEWDELHI: Yuki Bhambri’s comeback to the ATP circuit after recovering from a knee injury didn’t go well as he suffered a first-round defeat at the European Open in Antwerp, Belgium. Playing his first match after the US Open in August, Yuki lost 6-7(6) 7-5 1-6 to Italian Salvatore Caruso in the €686,080 hard court tournament.