U-14 Subroto Cup kicks off
New Delhi: KH Ninthouigamba inspired Infant Jesus Academy, Vasco, to an upset win over Krishnadevpur High School, Burdwan, while Nagaland made a thumping start to their campaign with a 10-0 hammering of GSS, Car Nicobar, in the Under-14 category of the 54th Subroto Cup football tournament here on Saturday. The marquee clash of the day was obviously between the country’s two footballing nurseries of Goa and West Bengal and the former managed to turn around a 2-0 deficit in style. India U-14 international Ninthouigamba scored a brace (49th and 51st minute) and skipper Abhijit Sarkar (39th) and Abu Taheer (42nd) chipped in with a goal each to complete the turnaround. Earlier, Sayan Das’s 24th minute strike and and Sheikh Mohammed Ali’s opportunistic goal in the 35th minute had put the Burdwan side in driver’s seat. Earlier in the day, Nagaland rode on hat-tricks from Ghunaka (12th, 46th, 48th) and Noketho (20th, 33rd, 38th) to bulldoze the Car Nicobar outfit. Other results: Betkuchi High School, Assam, 1(Nayanjyoti Kuli 42) bt BKSP, Bangladesh, 0. (PTI)
Sania wins 4th title of the season
Tokyo: Sania Mirza continued her impressive run as she captured her fourth title of the season and 18th overall with Cara Black of Zimbabwe, recording a come-from-behind win over Liezel Huber and Hao Ching Chan to lift the Pan Pacific Open trophy, here on Saturday. The unseeded slayers of the top seeds in the semifinals, pipped the American-Taiwanese combination 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 in one hour and 25 minutes. After losing the opening set, Sania and Cara made a stunning recovery as they bageled their opponents with three breaks to push the match to super tiebreaker, where the Indian-Zimbabwean combo rallied again to edge past the rivals 11-9 win. (PTI)
Johor Cup: India draw with Malaysia
Johor Bahru (Malaysia): India wasted a two-goal advantage to draw 3-3 against hosts Malaysia in their last inconsequential round-robin match of The Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 hockey tournament, here on Saturday. With this match, India finished on top of the standings but the result of the tie was merely of academic interest as both India and Malaysia have already qualified for Sunday’s summit clash ahead of Saturday’s game. (PTI)