Praneeth, Ashwini-sikki advance in Malaysia
SIBU (MALAYSIA): India’s Sai Praneeth and the women’s doubles duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy advanced to the prequarterfinals of the $120,000 Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Wednesday. Praneeth got the better of Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 21-13, 21-13 in 44 minutes in the first round.
Ashwini-sikki took only 25 minutes to ease past Germany’s Johanna Goliszewski and Lara Kaepplein 21-15, 21-12.
In the men’s singles category, Danish reigning world champion Viktor Axelsen became the sole survivor among the top players as China’s Lin Dan, Chen Long, South Korea’s Son Wan-ho and Malaysian veteran Lee Chong Wei were eliminated in the first round.
PNB IN SEMI-FINALS
IMPHAL: Central Secretariat will face Canara Bank and Bengaluru Hockey Association will take on Punjab National Bank in the semi-finals of the Senior Men’s National B Hockey Championship in Imphal on Friday. Central Secretariat beat Hockey Coorg 4-2 while Canara Bank beat Delhi Hockey 4-1in the first two quarter-finals. In the next two, Punjab National Bank beat Food Corporation of India 6-2 and Bengaluru Hockey Association beat Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 2-1.
VEER MARATHAS WIN
NEWDELHI: Commonwealth Championship silver-medallist Parveen Rana fought his way to a hard-earned win to help Veer Marathas win the battle between two Maharashtra teams in the Pro Wrestling League Wednesday. With the scores level 3-3, he overcame Praveen Dahiya of Mumbai Maharathi 6-4 to give the debutants their first victory in the league.
Parveen looked in great touch and warded off attempts by his opponent to register his first win in this edition. In the two bouts before his, World Championship bronze medallist Levan Berianidze of Armenia first beat Satender Malik 5-0 in super heavyweight to make it 3-2 in favour of the Marathas. But Odunayo Adekouroye of Nigeria pulled off a 5-1 win over Rio bronze medallist Marwa Amri to level the scores.