Manas Dhamne reaches Maha Open ATP Challenger quarters
PUNE, Feb 25: Wildcard entrant and local player Manas Dhamne on Wednesday qualified for the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Maha Open ATP Challenger 75 tournament here.Dhamne made it to the final eight after Belarus’ Ilya Ivashka, who was once ranked in the top 50, retired from the contest due to an injury while he was trailing 3-6. Dhamne will take on Croatia’s Duje Ajdukovic in the quarterfinal on Friday.Meanwhile, unseeded Ajdukovic, Alastair Gray of Great Britain and sixth seeded Italian Federico Cina were the other players from the top half to qualify for the quarterfinals.Ajdukovic produced a dominant performance to upset the fifth seeded Frederico Ferreira Silva of Portugal 6-2, 6-2.Britain’s Gray came back strong from being a set down to upset third seed Ilia Simakin 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 in two hours and 50 minutes.Italy’s Cina recorded a 6-1, 6-4 triumph against Japan’s Yuta Shimizu.In the doubles first round, top seeds Siddhant Banthia (India) and Alexander Donski (Bulgaria) overcame a stiff first-set challenge to beat Luca Castelnuovo (Switzerland) and Uisung Park (Korea) 7-6(5), 6-2.Indian wildcards Saketh Myneni and Digvijaypratap Singh recorded a commanding 6-3, 6-3 victory over Japan’s Masamichi Imamura and Kokoro Isomura, whereas the pair of Jay Clarke (Great Britain) and Michael Geerts (Belgium) registered a clinical 6-3, 6-4 win over Japanese duo Takuya Kumasaka and Rio Noguchi.Ryuki Matsuda (Japan) and Ilia Simakin battled past Aryan Lakshmanan (India) and Mitsuki Wei Kang Leong (Malaysia) 7-6(3), 7-5. (PTI)
Army defends Khelo India Winter Games Team C’ship
GULMARG, Feb 25: Army won an overall nine goal medals including eight in the Gulmarg leg to defend their team championship title in the Khelo India Winter Games, here on Wednesday.Himachal Pradesh finished as the runner-up with four goal medals on the final day of the competition.The closing ceremony the KIWG will be held at the Golf Course here on Thursday, hosted by the Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council and managed by the Sports Authority of India.The first leg of KIWG was held in Ladakh from January 20-26.On the third day of the competition, Army and Himachal Pradesh won equal number of four golds medals apiece while hosts J&K won their first gold.Karnataka’s veteran skier Bhavani Thekkada Nanjunda, who had clinched a hat-trick of gold medals in last year’s KIWG, finished at the top of the podium in Nordic women’s sprint across 1.5kms.Bhavani has participated in each of the six editions of the KIWG.Zubaid Ahmad Lone brought cheer to Jammu and Kashmir by winning the men’s giant slalom race in the snowboarding competition. He warded off a stiff challenge from Army’s Vivek Rana.J&K finished with a gold and a silver and 10th spot in the medal standings.While Armyman Mayank Panwar was the slalom man of the Games with a pair of gold medals, Army showed complete domination in the Nordic (cross-country) events.In the 15kms Nordic skiing race, Mohammad Ali (34:21.49 secs) led an Army 1-2-3 with Padma Namgail (34:36.74 secs) winning the silver medal and Sunny Singh (35:16.83 secs) claiming the bronze.Three skiers finished with double gold medals in this year’s KIWG as CRPF’s Kajal Kumari Rai was joined by Panwar and Himachal Pradesh’s Preeti Thakur, who topped in both the slalom and giant slalom races in snowboarding. (PTI)
