PADEL
MS Dhoni’s 7Padel opens centre in Chennai
7Padel, MS Dhoniʼs new padel brand — has launched its first-ever centre in Chennai, inspired by his long-standing love for the city and its sporting spirit.
A significant addition to Chennaiʼs sports and wellness scene, the new 7Padel center is located in Palavakkam, ECR. The 20,000 square feet facility features three padel courts, a pickleball court, a swimming pool, a gym, a recovery room, a cafe and a sauna.
Through 7Padel, Dhoni aims to build a movement that unites people through play, performance, and community.
“Chennai has always been special to me. The city has given me so much on and off the field and it feels only right to launch my first Padel centre here. Padel is exciting and addictive. More importantly, its inclusive and anyone, not just professionals can try the sport. I want 7Padel to be a place where athletes, families, and fitness lovers all find their space,” said MS Dhoni.
-Team Sportstar
MOTORSPORT
Gaurav Gill to lead Indian challenge at Sumatera Utara Rally
FILE PHOTO: Gaurav Gill to lead Indian challenge at Sumatera Utara Rally.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
FILE PHOTO: Gaurav Gill to lead Indian challenge at Sumatera Utara Rally.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The three-time champion Gaurav Gill will spearhead India’s challenge at the Sumatera Utara Rally, the third round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship’s (APRC) Asia Cup section, here from August 8 to 10.
Gill will start as hot favourite as a combination of Team JK Tyre and Vamcy Merla Motorsports has fielded a five-car challenge from India at the rally.
The qualifiers from Asia Cup and Pacific Cup will fight for the APRC title in the final round in Japan later.
The campaign marks India’s largest-ever factory-backed entry in APRC history with support from Vamcy Merla and Lokesh Gowda, promoter of Indian National Autocross Championship.
The squad will thus look to make its mark in the 12-stage and 200.6 kilometres battle across jungle tracks and volcanic gravel.
-PTI
CHESS
Velammal Vidyalaya wins gold medal at World Schools Team Championship
Chennai’s Velammal Vidyalaya, the alma mater of the youngest reigning world champion D Gukesh and grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, has added further laurels to its cap by winning the gold medal at the World Schools Team Championship in Virginia, USA.
The Velammal Vidyalaya, located in the Mogappair neighbourhood, has been a force behind the chess revolution in Chennai as it provides expert training to hundreds of budding chess players.
Velammal Vidyalaya, which has won the FIDE World School Teams Championship for five consecutive years in the past, follows the ‘7 to 17 programme’ which was introduced in schools by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s National School of Physics and Mathematics won the silver medal as they had the same number of match points as The Harker School from the USA, but “edged them out on tiebreaks”.
The Harker School finished third ahead of Astana 2 RSPM.
Velammal Vidyalaya’s Pranav KP who played reserve on board five, along with Imangali Akhilbay (Kazakhstan NSPM) on board two and Edisa Berdibaeva (Kazakhstan NSPM) finished with perfect scores (eight out of eight).
In all, Velammal Vidyalaya finished their eight games with 16 points.
-PTI
ARCHERY
Verma, Madhura among the top
Abhishek Verma and Madhura Dhamangaonkar emerged as the top Indian compound male and female archers respectively in individual qualification rounds of the World Games in Chengdu, China, on Thursday.
Verma shot 710 points to take the fifth place among men, while Madhura collected 705 to be third among women.
In mixed team, the only team event in the World Games, India claimed the top spot with 1415 points because of Verma and Madhura’s fine showing.
In individual rankings, Verma was followed by Rishabh Yadav (10th, 707) and Rakesh Kumar (19th, 699).
Parneet Kaur, the other Indian woman in fray, was 12th with 695 points.
– Y. B. Sarangi
GOLF
Angad Cheema leads India Open
Angad Cheema shot a three-under 69 in the third round to lead the field with an overall 11-under 205 in the Rs.1 crore Coal India Open at the Kensville Golf and Country Club on Thursday.
A champion of the last PGTI event in April this year, the 35-year-old Angad had a bogey on the 10th but followed with four birdies, to gain a one-shot lead over overnight leader Amardeep Malik.
“I played steady, and hit the greens in regulation. My putter was hot on the back-nine that helped me sink a lot of long putts,” said Angad who had gained considerable experience by competing in the qualifying event of The Open in United Kingdom.
Udayan Mane continued to be spectacular with his second successive round of 66, a remarkable change of fortunes after a disheartening 78 in the first round.
One of the leaders in the first round, Karandeep Kochhar had a three-under 69 to be third on the leaderboard.
The scores (third round):
1. Angad Cheema (69, 67, 69) 205; 2. Amardeep Malik (69, 65, 72) 206; 3. Karandeep Kochhar (69, 70, 69)
208; 4T. Udayan Mane (78, 66, 66), Arjun Prasad (71, 70, 69) 210; 6T. Jamal Hossain (75, 67, 69), Yuvraj Sandhu (70, 70, 71); Shaurya Bhattacharya (71, 66, 74) 211; 9. Anshul Kabthiyal (69, 73, 71) 213; 10. Rakshit Dahiya (72, 71, 71) 214; 11T. Om Prakash Chauhan (70, 74, 71), Manoj S (70, 71, 74) 215; 13T. Varun Parikh (74, 70, 72), Chandarjeet Yadav (73, 71, 72), Abhinav Lohan (71, 72, 73), Mohd. Azhar (73, 69, 74) 216.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Mahik to face Jeetesh Kumari in final at AITA tournament in New Delhi
Fourth seed Jeetesh Kumari beat second seed Samriti Punyani 6-2, 6-4 in the semifinals of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Thursday.
In the final, Jeetesh will challenge the top seed Mahika Khanna who eased past Riya Sachdeva for the loss of three games.
Mahika also made the doubles final in partnership with Durganshi Kumar and the duo will play Jasmine Rawat and Jeetesh.
RESULTS
Singles: Mahika Khanna bt Riya Sachdeva 6-0, 6-3; Jeetesh Kumari bt Samriti Punyani 6-2, 6-4.
Doubles: Jasmine Rawat & Jeetesh Kumari bt Shagun Kumari & Shatakshi Choudhary 6-3, 6-2; Mahika Khanna & Durganshi Kumar bt Diya Desai & Bhumika Dahiya 6-3, 6-3.
-Team Sportstar
ITF: Riya Bhatia fights past Perelygina in pre-quarters
Qualifier Riya Bhatia sustained her good game and fought past Ekaterina Perelygina 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(6) in the pre-quarterfinals of the $60,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Amstetten, Austria, on Thursday.
In the quarterfinals, Riya will play Renata Jamrichova of Slovakia.
The results:
$100,000 Challenger, Chicago, USA
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Ramkumar Ramanathan bt Yu Hsiou Hsu & Tsung-Hao Huang (Tpe) 7-6(3), 5-7, [10-7]; Cleeve Harper (Can) & Dhakshineswar Suresh bt George Goldhoff (USA) & Ray Ho (Tpe) 6-3, 6-4.
€91,250 Challenger, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Prajwal Dev & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Tomasz Berkieta & Mateusz Lange (Pol) 2-6, 7-6(3), [12-10]; David Poljak (Czh) & Aoran Wang (Chn) bt Jan Jermar (Cze) & Parikshit Somani 6-3, 7-6(2).
$30,000 ITF men, Bali, Indonesia
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Yusuke Takahashi (Jpn) bt Sidharth Rawat 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-5; Leo Borg (Swe) bt Karan Singh 6-3, 7-6(3); Yanki Erel (Tur) bt Ajay Malik 6-2, 6-4; S Mukund bt Max Basing (GBR) 6-3, 6-3.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Alexander Chang (USA) & Anthony Susanto (Ina) bt Yanki Erel (Tur) & Karan Singh 1-6, 6-4, [10-7].
$30,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Manas Dhamne bt David Petrovic (BIH) 6-2, 6-1.
$30,000 ITF men, Brazzaville, Congo
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Seydina Andre (Sen) 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Bor Artnak (Slo) & Stefan Vujic (Aus) bt Aditya Balsekar & Stephane Kamendje (Can) 6-2, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF men, Singapore
Doubles (quarterfinals): Shintaro Imai & Yamato Sueoka (Jpn) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam & Manish Sureshkumar 7-5, 4-6, [10-7].
$100,000 ITF women, Landsville, USA
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Arianne Hartono (Ned) & Prarthana Thombare bt YeXin Ma (Chn) & Himeno Sakatsume (Jpn) 6-7(3), 6-4, [10-8].
$60,000 ITF women, Amstetten, Austria
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Riya Bhatia bt Ekaterina Perelygina (Aut) 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(6).
$15,000 ITF women, Singapore
Doubles (quarterfinals): Meiqi Guo & Ying Zhang (Chn) bt Smriti Bhasin & Sravya Shivani 6-1, 6-2.
$15,000 ITF women, Astana, Kazakhstan
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Anjali Rathi bt Alisa Kummel 6-4, 6-1.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
SQUASH
Tanvi Khanna in title clash at HCL Tour PSA Challenger
Tanvi Khanna sailed past fourth seed Goh Zhi Xuan of Malaysia 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 to set up a title clash against top seed Nour Khafagy of Egypt in the HCL Tour PSA Challenger squash tournament at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium on Thursday.
In the men’s semifinals, Mohamed Gohar was at his fighting best for over an hour to beat Ravindu Laksiri of Sri Lanka in five games. He will challenge the top seed Yassin Shohdy in the final.
RESULTS
Men: Yassin Shohdy (Egy) bt Seif Refaay (Egy) 11-8, 11-7, 11-7; Mohamed Gohar (Egy) bt Ravindu Laksiri (Sri) 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 12-14, 11-6.
Women: Nour Khafagy (Egy) bt Akari Midorikawa (Jpn) 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6; Tanvi Khanna bt Goh Zhi Xuan (Mas) 11-8, 11-8, 11-4.
-Team Sportstar
HOCKEY
Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra win in Junior Women hockey Nationals
Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra won their respective games while Punjab drew against Chandigarh in the Division A league matches of the Junior Women National Hockey Championship in Kakinada on Thursday.
Chhattisgarh defeated Karnataka 6-1 with Madhu Sidar (6’, 29’, 39’, 51’) scoring four goals, while Sheetal Yadav (48’) and Manisha Patel (41’) slotted home a goal each. Vyshnavi Arul (12’) scored the lone goal for Karnataka.
Maharashtra beat Andhra Pradesh 5-1, with Sanjana Raikwar (22’, 52’) and Sanika Chandrakant Mane (17’, 57’) scoring two goals each, while Sanjana Deshya Khetawat (13’) was also on target.
Punjab had a close game against Chandigarh, with the former taking the lead through Pawanpreet Kaur (32’). Chandigarh’s Priyanka (58’) equalised in the dying minutes.
Uttar Pradesh also played out a 1-1 draw against Bengal. Laltlanchhungi (43’) scored for Bengal while Kumari Peetambari (47’) was on target for UP team.
-PTI
