Sakamoto and Crawford reach Delhi Open semi-finals
NEW DELHI, Feb 20: Second seed Rei Sakamoto on Friday set up a date with fifth seed Oliver Crawford at the Delhi Open singles semifinal, while two unseeded players will contest the other last-four match here.In the doubles draw, the top two seeded teams, Siddhanth Banthia/Alexander Donski and Niki Kaliyanda Poonacha/Pruchya Isaro advanced to the semifinals.Japan’s Sakamoto, a former junior World No. 1 and the 2024 Australian Open boys’ singles champion, came from a set down to defeat sixth seed Federico Cina of Italy 6-7(7) 6-3 6-2.Crawford won the all-British contest against Jay Clarke 3-6 7-5 6-3 after saving a match point late in the second set.“Jay is one of my good mates. We have played for the same country, so spent a decent amount of time travelling around, and seeing the tournaments and practicing together, so I knew it was going to be a battle,” Crawford said after the win. ”I was lucky to get away in the second, and then I thought the level was very high from both ends in the third, and just very pleased to get over the line.” The second singles semifinal will see Greece’s Stefanos Sakellaridis take on Great Britain’s Felix Gill.Sakellaridis registered a commanding 6-0 6-3 victory over eighth seed Rio Noguchi of Japan, while Gill needed three sets to overcome Belgium’s Michael Geerts 4-6 6-3 6-4.The possibility of an Indian champion in the doubles event remains alive.Top seeds Banthia and Donski recorded a 6-3 6-4 win over wildcard entrants Divij Sharan and Karan Singh.Second seeds Poonacha and Isaro, who won the Chennai Open last week, extended their winning streak with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Switzerland’s Luca Castelnuovo and Japan’s Rio Noguchi. (PTI)
Top race walkers to compete in 21km and 42km events
CHANDIGARH, Feb 20: Some of the country’s top race walkers will compete in the newly-introduced events of 21km half marathon and 42km full marathon senior men’s and women’s events at the Indian Open Race Walk Competition beginning here on Saturday.The two-day domestic race walk competition will be conducted on Saturday and Sunday at Chandigarh’s picturesque Sukhna Lake.Till the 2025 season, the standard distance in senior men and women race walk was 20km and 35km in all competitions sanctioned by World Athletics.The main attraction during the two-day competition will be the men’s half marathon walk (21km).Four Paris Olympians — Akshdeep Singh, Paramjeet Singh Bisht, Suraj Panwar and Vikash Singh — will be seen in action on Sunday.All the four will be battling with Servin Sebastain, who had dominated the 2025 season and represented India at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Servin is all set to compete over 21km event.One foreign athlete, Germany’s promising race walker Frederick Weigel will compete in the men’s 21km event.The field is equally impressive in the men’s full marathon walk (42km).In the women’s full marathon race walk event, Olympian Priyanka Goswami will battle with Payal (Uttarakhand) and Manju (Punjab) for supremacy. Only nine athletes have entered for the women’s full marathon walk. The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has also invited three foreign race walk judges, including one from Malaysia, to oversee the two-day competition. (PTI)
Pakistan to tour Bangladesh next month for ODI series
KARACHI, Feb 20: The Pakistan cricket team will tour Bangladesh next month to play a three-match One-Day International series as part of its preparations for the 2027 50-over World Cup.The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) announced on Friday that the matches would be played on March 11, 13 and 15 at the Shera Bangla stadium in Dhaka.Pakistan last toured Bangladesh in July 2025 for a T20 series which they lost.Pakistan are also due to tour Bangladesh this year for a two-Test series which is part of the ICC World Test Championship.The 2027 ODI World Cup will be jointly hosted by three African nations — South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in October and November. (PTI)
