GOLF
Diksha stays in Top 10 of LET Order of Merit after Korea Championships
Indian golfer Diksha Dagar continued to be in the Top 10 of the Ladies European Tour’s Order of Merit, despite a tied 52nd place finish at the Aramco Korea Championships here.
The 24-year-old, who is now in her sixth year as a professional, finished with a score of six-over 222 at the New Korea Country Club.
Diksha has twice won on the Ladies European Tour, and multiple times on her home Tour, the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour.
Barring once in 2020, Diksha has always been in the Top-60 of the LET, with the best two finishes being 14th place in 2019, the year she won her maiden LET title, and third place in 2023, the year she had her second LET success.
After a modest 2024, when she was 29th in the LET list, Diksha began in style with a runner-up finish, losing a play-off in the season-opener in Morocco. Of the eight events this season, one was cancelled in Australia, due to weather, and Diksha has played all others.
Other than the second place at Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco, Diksha was also T-11th at NSW Open in Australia, T-8 in Joburg Open and T-9 in Women’s South African Open.
Pranavi Urs has also managed to keep her play at a good level. After being the top Indian in her rookie season in 2024 at T-17 with five Top-10s, she is 38th this year and right behind her rookie Avani Prashanth, who has also given a good account of herself in her first full season outside India.
Other Indians on the LET have been Aditi Ashok, who plays mostly on the LPGA but makes occasional appearances on LET and Tvesa Malik. Hitaashee Bakshi, Sneha Singh and Amandeep Drall have conditional status with limited starts available to them on the Tour.
The next event for the Indian women professionals will be the Dutch Ladies Open, starting May 16, where seven Indians will tee up as the Tour moves to Europe.
-PTI
Zara Anand is top Indian after Day 1 at Queen Sirikit Cup
Zara Anand was the top Indian at Tied-12th after the first round of the Queen Sirikit Cup on Tuesday.
Zara, one of the most promising amateurs in India, shot 1-over 73 with three birdies against four bogeys in the round. Two of those bogeys came on the 14th and the 18th.
The other two Indians in the prestigious competition are Heena Kang (76) at T-21 and Mannat Brar (77), who had an off day and was T-25.
Heena had two birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey, while Mannat had two birdies, five bogeys and a double bogey.
The Indians as a team were lying Tied-seventh with the two top individual scores giving them a total of 5-over 149.
– PTI
SHOOTING
Dehradun to host national selection trials 3 & 4 in Rifle/Pistol events next month
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has announced that the national selection Trials 3 and 4 in Rifle and Pistol events for Group ‘A’ shooters, will be held from the 24th to 30th of June, 2025, at the Trishul Shooting Range, Maharana Pratap Sports College, Raipur, Dehradun.
These trials will help in shaping the Indian team for the 16th Asian Shooting Championships 2025 in Kazakhstan in August and ISSF World Cup in China and Egypt later in the year.
As per the selection Criteria, only eligible shooters in Group “A” will be allowed to participate. The tials will cover all Olympic Rifle and Pistol events and will be limited to a select group of top-ranked shooters.
This includes 50 slots each for 10m Air Rifle (Men & Women) and 10m Air Pistol (Men & Women), 30 slots each for 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Men & Women), 20 slots for 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Men), and 30 slots for 25m Sport Pistol (Women).
Here’s the schedule:
The first day of the trials, on 25th June will see the qualifying round and finals of 10 M Air Rifle Men, 25 M Pistol Women an 50 M 3P Women of T3 which will be followed by the T4 qualifying and finals of the same events the next day.
The first day of the trials, on 25th June will see the qualifying round and finals of 10 M Air Rifle Men, 25 M Pistol Women an 50 M 3P Women of T3 which will be followed by the T4 qualifying and finals of the same events the next day.
– Team Sportstar
TENNIS
Bopanna-Pavlasek pair crashes out of Rome Masters
India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Czech partner Adam Pavlasek bowed out of the men’s doubles event at the Rome Masters with a straight-set defeat against the British team of Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski on Tuesday.
Bopanna and Pavlasek lost the pre-quarterfinal 3-6, 3-6 in one hour and eight minutes.
With Bopanna’s defeat, India’s challenge has ended in the elite clay-court tournament.
Another Indian in the fray, Yuki Bhambri had exited the ATP 1000 event with American partner Robert Galloway after losing in the opening round 1-6, 2-6 to fourth seeds Marcel Granollers of Spain and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos on Sunday.
The results:
€8,055,385 ATP, Rome, Italy
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): JoeSalisbury & Neal Skupski (GBR) bt Rohan Bopanna & Adam Pavlasek (Cze) 6-3, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF men, Prijedor, Bosnia & Herzegovina
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Aryan Lakshmanan & Gabriele Noce (Ita) bt Maximilian Homberg & Michel Hopp (Ger) 7-5, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF men, Bucharest, Romania
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Giuseppe La Vela (Ita) & Kai Wehnelt (Ger) bt Gregorio Biondolillo (Ita) & Chirag Duhan 5-7, 7-5, [10-5].
$15,000 ITF men, Tehran, Iran
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): SD Prajwal Dev & Nitin Kumar Sinha bt Airik Abedinzadeh & Kiarash Sadeghizeidi (Iri) 6-3, 6-4; Dev Javia & Caheer Warik bt Cemil Duran & Bora Sengul (Tur) 7-5, 5-1 (retired); Maan Kesharwani & Atharva Sharma bt Chinmaya Dev Chauhan & Maties Ramis (Esp) 6-2, 7-6(2).
$30,000 ITF women, Changwon, Korea
Singles (first round): Hong Yi Cody Wong (Hkg) bt Vaidehi Chaudhari 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5).
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Qiu Yu Ye & Wushuang Zheng (Chn) bt Vaidehi Chaudhari & Punnin Kovapitukted (Tha) 6-1, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Monzon, Spain
Singles (first round): Madhurima Sawant bt Celine Simunyu (Irl) 6-2, 6-3.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Marie Villet (Fra) & Clara Vlasselaer (Bel) bt Suhani Patil & Angela Caral (Esp) 6-0, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Tsaghkadzor, Armenia
Singles (first round): Daria Koreshkova bt Akanksha Nitture 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(5); Alena Kharchenko bt Soha Sadiq 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Daria Belyaeva & Alexandra Cheishvili bt Iveta Dapkute (Ltu) & Pooja Ingale 6-1, 6-3.
– PTI and Kamesh Srinivasan
Om Patel beats Dev Nandasana in ITF Junior
Second seed Om Patel fought his way past Dev Nandasana 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the boys first round of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Vijayant Khand Stadium courts on Tuesday.
The results (first round):
Under-18 boys: Tanussh Ghildyal bt Om Verma 6-4, 7-5; Srikar Doni bt Rishi Yadav 6-1, 6-4; M Diganth bt Ayan Shetty 6-4, 6-2; Shivtej Shirfule bt Vivaan Bidasaria 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-4; Aaradhya Mhasde bt Tejas Ravi 6-0, 7-5; Om Patel bt Dev Nandasana 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Under-18 girls: Saiyette Varadkar bt Dhatri Dave 6-4, 6-4; Angel Patel bt Miraya Agrawal 6-3, 6-3; Karthika Padmakumar bt Insiyah Mhowwala 6-0, 5-0 (retired); Sherry Sharma bt Manvi Rathi 6-2, 6-2; Ananya Jain bt Nandini Kansal 6-1, 6-2; Aaradhya Meena bt Sanmitha Lokesh 6-2, 6-4.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
Junior Billie Jean King Cup: Indian girls beat Iran and Uzbekistan in the league phase
Indian girls beat Iran and Uzbekistan in the league phase to ensure their qualification for the knock-out stage along with Australia from their group, in the Junior Billie Jean King Cup under-16 tennis tournament in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
India will play Australia in the last league match on Wednesday to decide the group topper. In fact, all the other seeded teams, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Korea, New Zealand, China and host Kazakhstan have also qualified for the knock-out with two wins each from as many matches so far.
The top four teams from the region will qualify for the World Group stage.
The results (league):
India bt Iran 3-0 (Anandita Upadhyay bt Saba Kheyrmanesh 6-3, 6-2; Aahan bt Melina Abbaszadeh 6-0, 6-0; Parthsarthi Mundhe & Anandita bt Melina & Saba 6-1, 6-0).
India bt Uzbekistan 2-1 (Anandita Upadhyay bt Djeparova Veronika 6-1, 6-0; Aahan lost to Keira Kim 3-6, 6-3, 1-6; Aahan & Parthsarthi bt Emily Kim & Keira Kim 6-3, 3-6, [10-8]).
– Kamesh Srinivasan
CRICKET
Aryan Club clinch Women’s Club League One-Day title
Aryan Club defeated Mohun Bagan AC by 47 runs to emerge champion in the CAB Women’s Club Cricket League One-Day tournament on Tuesday.
Electing to bat after the match was reduced to 25 overs a side, Aryan Club posted 175/4 at the 22 Yards Sports School Ground.
Tanushree Sarkar (76 off 50), Priyanka Bala (43 not out), Dyuti Paul (23) and Jhumia Khatun (18) impressed with the bat.
For Mohun Bagan, Diya Nandi bagged two wickets while Priti Mahata and Aradhya Kumari Tiwary claimed one wicket each.
Mohun Bagan were dismissed for 128 in 25 overs. Ankita Chakraborty top-scored with 42 runs.
For Aryan Club, Sritama Nandi (4/29), Jhumia (2/12) and Sinjini Sarkar (2/28) shared eight wickets.
-PTI
Bhowanipur Club emerges CAB First Division One-Day champions
Bhowanipur Club defeated Eastern Railway Sports Association by five runs to win the CAB First Division Senior Knockout One-Day Tournament in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Asked to bat, Bhowanipur posted 207 in 49.5 overs. Vivek Singh (55), Aamir Gani (42) and Abhimanyu Easwaran (35) were the pick of the Bhowanipur batters.
For Eastern Railway, Nikhil Singh (3/26), Tanmoy Pramanick (2/46) and Saiket Das (2/46) impressed with the ball.
In reply, Eastern Railway was dismissed for 202 in 49.1 overs. Ravi Singh top-scored with a fighting 69.
For Bhowanipur, Jesal Karia (3/37), Rajkumar Pal (3/52) and Ravi Kumar (2/28) were the top wicket-takers.
-PTI
WRESTLING
Wrestling team for Ranking Series
The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has named wrestlers for the Ulaanbaatar Open Ranking Series to be held in the Mongolian capital from May 29 to June 1.
After missing two Ranking Series events, this is the first one of the season where the Indian wrestlers will be able to participate following the Sports Ministry’s decision to revoke its suspension of the WFI.
India squad for Ulaanbaatar Open Ranking Series
Men: Freestyle: Aman Sehrawat, Rahul (57kg), Udit (61kg), Rohit (65kg), Vishal Kaliraman (70kg), Jaideep (74kg), Amit (79kg), Ashish (86kg), Deepak Punia (92kg), Vicky (97kg), Dinesh (125kg); Greco Roman: Anil Mor (55kg), Suraj (60kg), Chetan (63kg), Neeraj (67kg), Ankit Gulia (72kg), Nishant Phogat (77kg), Prince (82kg), Karan Kamboj (87kg), Nitesh (97kg), Prem (130kg).
Women: Neelam (50kg), Antim Panghal (53kg), Pushpa (55kg), Neha (57kg), Muskan (59kg), Manisha (62kg), Shiksha (65kg), Monika (68kg), Harshita (72kg), Reetika (76kg).
– Y. B. Sarangi
CHESS
WCM Kirti Patel beats Dhairya Yadav in All India Chess Masters
Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Kirti Patel gave a commanding performance to beat Dhairya Yadav in the All India Chess Masters FIDE Rating tournament in Mumbai on Tuesday.
In other matches, Chris Isaiah outplayed Janhavi Soneji in a well-contested tie, while Darsh Shetty and Yash Kapadi won convincingly against Parv Hakani and Dhruv Patel respectively.
Results:
Dhruv Patel 0 lost to Yash Kapadi 1; Parv Hakani 0 lost to Darsh Shetty 1; Chris Isaiah 1 beat Janhavi Soneji 0; Vageesh Swaminathan 0.5 drew with Shraddha Padvekar 0.5; Deepak Soni 1 beat Punit Dodiya 0; Tvesha Ashish 0 lost to Shreyas Kaushik 1; Ravi Vihaan 0.5 drew with Goyal Hridaya 0.5; Dhairya Yadav 0 lost to Kriti Patel 1; Shravana Agraval 1 beat Atharva Kadam 1; Om Gada 0.5 drew with Gangwal Ambar 0.5.
– PTI