Former French champion Nantes fires coach Pierre Aristouy
Nantes, Nov 29: Nantes coach Pierre Aristouy, who helped the eight-time French champion avoid relegation last season, was fired on Wednesday. The Ligue 1 team said in a statement that Aristouy was relieved of his duties, with his replacement to be announced later in the day. Sports daily L’Equipe reported that Nantes has reached an agreement in principle with former Lille coach Jocelyn Gourvennec. “Nantes would particularly like to thank Pierre Aristouy and his staff, who put all their human qualities and talent at the service of the club. Appreciated by all, they helped the club to maintain its position at the end of last season,” the club said. Nantes was in 17th place in the league, with four of the 20 clubs getting relegated last season, when Aristouy took over from Antoine Kombouaré with four league games left to play. This season, the club got off to a poor start but Aristouy had managed to put the team back on track before a four-match winless run – including three defeats – left Nantes in 11th place, 15 points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain . (AP)
Manish overcomes top seed Orlov
at ITF Kalaburagi Open
Kalaburagi (Karnataka), Nov 29: Manish Sureshkumar scripted the first upset victory of the ITF Kalaburagi Open when he ousted the top seed Vladyslav Orlov in the first round of the USD 25,000 prize money event, here on Wednesday. The 24-year-old played amazing shots to take the first set 6-3 and was leading 2-0 before his Ukrainian rival threw in the towel citing a shoulder injury, which seemed more out of frustration than being in pain. Qualifier Rishi Reddy become the second player from Karnataka to enter the last 16 stage as he battled fatigue and won against Parth Aggarwal 6-4, 7-5. Meanwhile, the seeded players sailed into the pre-quarterfinals without breaking much sweat. The fourth seeded Siddharth Rawat – the highest ranked Indian left in the fray – overcame Taisei Ichikawa from Japan 6-3, 6-4 while fifth seed Ramkumar Ramanathan, who is just back from lifting the ITF 25K title in Mumbai for his second win in as many months, blanked qualifier Ajay Malik 6-0, 6-0 in just 40 minutes. Sixth seed Rishab Agarwal faced some resistance from wild card entrant Jagmeet Singh before overcoming 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. The top seeded pair of Purav Raja and Ramkumar were knocked out of the doubles competition by the duo of Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta and Kabir Hans, who won in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 to enter the quarterfinals. This was the fifth time that the 24-year-old Manish and Orlov were meeting, with each having won twice. The player from Chennai raced to a 4-0 lead courtesy two breaks in the second and fourth. However, the visitor, who was once ranked as low as 45th on the ITF rankings, showed signs of recovery by breaking Manish’s serve in the fifth game and held his serve to reduce the margin. Both the players gave a fine example of themselves, especially Manish, who, on many occasions, foiled his opponent’s attempt to attack the net which irritated Orlov, who lost his cool and his serve in the eight game and eventually lost the first set 3-6. In the second set, the Indian broke his opponent’s serve in very first game and pocketed the second after which Orlov quit the match. “It’s a great start, beating the top seed. I knew his game as we have played before. I grew in confidence during the first few games. My aim was to keep the ball in the court and I managed to do it,” said Manish. (PTI)
Duggal, Garg set up junior snooker title showdown Natl championships
Chennaii, Nov 29:Chandigarh’s Ranveer Duggal defeated Madhya Pradesh’s Mahendra Chauhan to set up a title clash with Gujarat’s Mayur Garg in the junior snooker category of the National Billiards and Snooker Championships, here on Wednesday. Duggal, who won the junior boys’ billiards crown last week, beat Chauhan 4-3 (57-81, 84-24, 17-92, 79-30, 73-52, 39-58, 82-17) in the semifinal, while Garg overcame Kamran Masjid of Jammu and Kashmir 4-3 (74-54, 46-54, 66-54, 69-20, 35-84, 48-55, 56-10). Garg has won the sub-junior boys’ billiards title and finished runner-up in the sub-junior boys’ category in the ongoing championships. (PTI)