Jakupovic secures her second straight crown
ormer World No. 1 Deepika Kumari, who missed the entire season last year after becoming mother in December 2022, topped the selection trials for the upcoming World Cups and Paris Olympics qualifier here on Sunday.
The threetime Olympian, who marked her return by winning two gold medals at the Baghdad Asia Cup in February, made the cut along with Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari in the fourmember squad.
Former youth world champion Komalika came in at the expense of Simranjeet Kaur. Making a comeback after 20 months,
Fthe 29yearold rallied to defeat Simranjeet in a foursetter to clinch gold at the Baghdad leg of the Asia Cup. India is yet to secure a quota in the women’s section for the Paris Olympics and the third stage of the World Cup in Antalya from June 18 to 23 will be the final qualifying event before the Games in JulyAugust.
Dhiraj Bommadevara, who has secured the only Paris Olympic quota for India so far, topped the men’s recurve section.
Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and Mrinal Chauhan are the other members of the men’s recurve squad.
Chauhan is the only change to the Asia Cup Leg 1 squad, coming in place of Parth Salunkhe.
“This squad is provisional (for the Olympics) and we may make one or two alterations,” said National high performance director Sanjeeva Singh.
As a matter of fact, a team consists of three members for the Olympics and it remains to be seen if India can qualify as a team for Paris Games.
The seasonopening first stage of the World Cup is slated in Shanghai from April 21 to 28. Yecheon in South Korea will host the second stage of the World Cup from May 21 to 26.
The squad:
Recurve: Men: Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai, Pravin Jadhav and Mrinal Chauhan. Women: Deepika Kumari, Bhajan Kaur, Ankita Bhakat and Komalika Bari. Compound: Men: Prathamesh Fuge, Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Priyansh. Women: Jyothi Surekha Vennam, Aditi Swami, Parneet Kaur and Avneet Kaur.
Jakupovic and Shrivalli pose with their prizes.
Second seed Dalila Jakupovic beat Shrivalli Bhamidipaty 63, 62 in the final of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Sunday.
It was the second singles title in a row for the 32yearold Slovenian following the double crown last week in Nagpur.
It was an anti climax for the fans as Shrivalli had a fine run beating top seed Irina Bara of Romania, Viktoria Morvayova of Slovakia, Justina Mikulskyte of Lithuania and Polina Iatcenko of Russia dropping just one set along the way.
Anil Dhupar, the secretarygeneral of All India Tennis Association (AITA), put things in perspective during the presentation ceremony, when he revealed the 22yearold Indian had been admitted to hospital overnight with high fever, heat stroke and dehydration apart from an upset stomach.
Discharged only in the morning, she had very little time for any preparation to play the final with full energy.
In such a situation, it was brave on the part of Shrivalli to have stepped on court and make a fight of it, even as the crafty Dalila gauged her level of strength with repeated drop shots.
Given the constraints, Shrivalli did play better as the match progressed, but could not capitalise on her chances. She could convert only one of nine break points in the match.
In contrast, the experienced Dalila played sharp, moving the opponent around the court all the time, and converted five of six break points to clinch the contest in just over an hour.
It was the eighth singles title for Dalila who was ranked a careerhigh 69 in 2018. She did not drop a set in the whole tournament and conceded only 24 games in all to her five opponents.