Priyanshu Rajawat makes first-round exit from China Open
CHANGZHOU, (China) Sep 17: Rising Indian shuttler Priyanshu Rajawat suffered a straight-game defeat to Canada’s Brian Yang as he made an opening-round exit from the China Open here on Tuesday.The 22-year-old Indian, who won the Orleans Master last year, went down 13-21 16-21 to his Canadian opponent in a 36-minute men’s round-of-32 contest of the Super 1000 tournament.Rajawat, the world number 36, was a member of the Indian team that won the historic Thomas Cup title two years ago.World number 40 Kiran George is now the lone Indian challenger left in the men’s singles event. He will take on Japanese shuttler Kenta Nishimoto in the round of 32.The Indian shuttler, who competed at the Paris Olympics including PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, are giving the tournament, the year’s last BWF Super 1000 event, a miss.Commonwealth Games bronze medallist duo of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly and Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda will compete in the women’s doubles event while N Sikki Reddy and B Sumeeth Reddy will lead the challenge in mixed doubles competition.Aakarshi Kashyap, Malvika Bansod and Samiya Imad Farooqui will compete in the women’s singles event. (PTI)
Korea Open: Former US Open champion loses in first round
SEOUL, Sep 17: Former US Open champion Sloane Stephens loses in first round in South Korea Seoul (South Korea), Sep 17 (AP) Hailey Baptiste defeated fellow American and 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the first round of the WTA’s Korean Open on Tuesday.In other matches in Seoul, Amanda Anisimova had an upset 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over sixth-seeded Yulia Putintseva, Polina Kudermetova beat Priscilla Hon 7-5, 6-4 and Viktoriya Tomova beat Tatjana Maria 6-2, 1-6, 6-0.
Weather stops play in Thailand
Play at the WTA’s Thailand Open was suspended due to rain and storms. One of the suspended matches included top-seeded Dayana Yastremska’s first-round match against Mai Hontama, who led 4-3 in the first set when play was stopped. (PTI)
Two Indian teams to participate in Pickleball World Cup
NEW DELHI, Sep 17: Two Indian teams comprising a total of nine players have been selected to compete in the Pickleball World Cup, which will be organised in Lima (Peru) from October 22-27.The Indian Pickleball Association said it was invited to send two teams to compete on the global stage.“At the recently-concluded selection trials in Ahmedabad, organised under the aegis of the IPA and the Gujarat State Pickleball Association (GSPA), nine talented players were selected to represent India,” IPA made the announcement in partnership with Pickleball World Rankings on Tuesday.The Indian team for Open category will be led by Dhiren Patel and will feature Himansh Mehta, Suraj Desai, Rakshika Ravi and Anshi Sheth.The Seniors 50 plus category will feature Nozer Amalsdiwala, Kiran Salian, Bela Kotwani and Sujay Parekh.The sport shares similarities with tennis but players in Pickleball use paddles instead of racquets, and play on a court which is similar to the size of a doubles’ badminton court. The height of the net is 36 inches on the sidelines and in the middle it is 34 inches. (PTI)
ICC announces equal prize money for men and women
DUBAI, Sep 17: The International Cricket Council on Tuesday announced equal prize money for men and women in World Cups, starting with the women’s T20 showpiece in the UAE next month.The winners of the Women’s T20 World Cup will be rewarded with USD 2.34 million, a 134 per cent increase on the USD 1 million awarded to Australian women when they clinched the title in South Africa in 2023, said the ICC in a statement.India, who won the men’s T20 World Cup earlier this year, received USD 2.45 million in cash prize.“The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be the first ICC event where women will receive the same prize money as their male counterparts, marking a significant milestone in the sport’s history,” said the ICC.“The decision was taken at the ICC Annual Conference in July 2023, when the ICC Board took the step of reaching its prize money equity target seven years ahead of its schedule of 2030, making cricket the only major team sport to have equal prize money for its men’s and women’s World Cup events.” The Women’s T20 World Cup begins in the UAE from October 3. (PTI)
Double 1960 Olympic champion Otis Davis dies at 92
WASHINGTON DC, Sep 17: America’s Otis Davis, the Olympic champion in the 400 meters and 4×400 relay at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, has died at 92, University of Oregon said. “We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Otis Davis, our first Olympic gold medalist. He was a two-time Olympic champion (400, 4×400) at the 1960 Games in Rome and is one of the icons featured on the tower at Hayward Field,” Oregon Track and Field posted on X late on Monday.Davis only started running the 400m competitively at the age of 26 but the US athlete became an Olympic champion a couple of years later. He was the first man to break 45 seconds in the one-lap event when he ran 44.9 in that 1960 Olympic final to win ahead of Germany’s Carl Kaufmann in a photo finish, and he went on to anchor the US team to the Olympic 4x400m title. “World Athletics is deeply saddened to hear that Otis Davis, who won 400m and 4x400m gold at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, died on Saturday (14) at the age of 92,” World Athletics said in statement. Davis stormed to the title in Rome as he narrowly held off Kaufmann. They both clocked 44.9 – becoming the first to dip under 45 seconds for the event – and they met again in the 4x400m final two days later, when Davis anchored the US quartet to victory in another world record of 3:02.2, according to World Athletics. (IANS)