Shuttlers Unnati, Ayush lead India’s domination at World Jr C’ships
New Delhi, Oct 3: Unnati Hooda and Ayush Shetty put up impressive performances as Indian shuttlers made a dominating start to the individual events at the Badminton World Junior Championships in Spokane, USA. Unnati, the 2022 Odisha Open champion, displayed her prowess to register a resounding 21-7 21-11 victory over Tahiti’s Heirautea Curet in the opening round of the girls singles match. Ayush, on the other hand, also secured a convincing 21-6 21-13 win against Italy’s Simone Piccinin in the boys singles first round. Tushar Suveer, Devika Sihag and Lokesh Shetty Kalagotla were the other three Indians who also entered the singles round of 64. Tushar defeated Andrei Schmidt of Estonia 21-12 21-15, while Lokesh received a walkover in the boys section. Devika defeated Elisaveta Berik of Estonia 21-13 21-9 in the girls’ singles match. This came after the pairs of Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram-Vaishnavi Khadkekar and Samarveer-Radhika Sharma provided India a winning start with the contrasting victories in the opening round of mixed doubles category. While the duo of Sathwik and Vaishnavi notched up a commanding 21-4 21-7 win over Artyom Hakobyan and Ani Sahakyan of Armenia, Samarveer and Radhika had to work hard during their 21-16 17-21 21-14 win over Chen Yong Rui and Jiang Pei Xi of China in a closely contested match. (PTI)
Top-ranked Sabalenka, Gauff
advance at China Open
Beijing, Oct 3: Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka and U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff navigated tricky second-round opponents to advance at the China Open on Tuesday. Sabalenka, making her debut at No. 1 in Beijing, came from a break down in each set to see off qualifier Katie Boulter 7-5, 7-6 (2). “In the key moments I played a little bit better than her,” said Sabalenka, who will play 36th-ranked Jasmine Paolini in the last 16. “I think it was all about the last games in each set. I mean, she had the opportunity. I’m super happy that I didn’t give her easily those sets.” The third-ranked Gauff had to rally from a break down in the deciding set to defeat Petra Martic 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (2). The 48th-ranked Martic served for the match after breaking Gauff for a 5-4 lead, but the American broke back and then dominated the tiebreaker. Fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula came from a set down to beat 39th-ranked Anna Blinkova 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-1 in just over two hours. The American, who was a finalist at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Saturday, will play 13th-seeded Julia Ostapenko next. In other second-round matches, Marta Kostyuk ousted seventh-seeded Ons Jabeur 7-6 (5), 6-1, ninth-seeded Caroline Garcia beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and China’s Wang Xinyu beat 11th-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 6-2. (AP)
Brazil replaces injured Raphinha with David Neres for WC qualifiers
Rio de Janeiro, Oct 3: Brazil winger Raphinha won’t play in the next two rounds of South American World Cup qualifying because of injury. The Brazilian soccer confederation said Monday that David Neres will replace the Barcelona star in the national team squad for games against Venezuela on October 12 and five days later at Uruguay. Raphinha injured his right thigh in Barcelona’s 1-0 win at Sevilla in the Spanish league on Friday. (AP)