Saina beats Sun to remain lone Indian in Australian Open

NEW DELHI: Saina Nehwal notched up a hard-fought win over China’s Sun Yu to remaing the lone Indian survivor in Australian Open Super Series.

World No 1 Saina staved off Sun, ranked 9th, 21-19, 19-21, 21-14 to advance to the quarterfinals, where she will face two- time All England champion Shixian Wang .

Men’s world No 4 Kidambi Srikanthlost to China’s Tian Houwei 21-18, 17-21, 13-21; Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa lost to Indonesian pair of Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii 14-21, 10-21.

ISL: LAJONG END TIES

KOLKATA: Shillong Lajong FC today made it official that they’re exiting from their association with Guwahati- based Indian Super League football franchise NorthEast United FC.

“We remain committed to supporting the Indian Super League, IMGR and AIFF and shall continue to release our players for the ISL,” SLFC managing director Larsing Ming Sawyan said in an announcement.

SCOUTING FOR TALENT

NEW DELHI: Established to nurture talent among underprivileged children, the Golf Foundation announced on Thursday a nationwide talent search programme. Under it, four zonal centers have been set up at Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Pune. The initiative will kick off with the TGF SRF North Zone Talent Search Golf Championship at the Golden Greens Golf & Country Club (Gurgaon) from June 2-5. Similar events will be held at the other centres in June and July. The top-eight qualifiers from each zone across age groups will then be provided training by an elite panel of coaches.