Indian sports wrap, December 10: Vaishnavi Adkar beats Madhurima Sawant in the first round of ITF women’s tennis tournament

TENNIS

Vaishnavi Adkar beat wild card entrant Madhurima Sawant 6-0, 6-1 in the first round of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the District Sports Complex on Tuesday.

Second seed Sahaja Yamalapalli did better by blanking qualifier Ishwari Matere.

In doubles pre-quarterfinals, Smriti Bhasin and Sravya Shivani beat top seeds Valentini Grammatikopoulou and Ekaterina Yashina in straight sets.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHLETICS

Rajesh Vetcha elected for four-year term to Association of International Marathons and Distance Races

Rajesh Vetcha, founder of Hyderabad Runners and Race Director of the NMDC Hyderabad Marathon, by becoming the first individual from the running community and the second from India to be elected for a four-year term to the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) since its inception in 1982.

Rajesh has been a trailblazer in the Indian running movement, founding Hyderabad Runners in 2007.

Currently serving as Race Director for the NMDC Hyderabad Marathon, a World Athletics Basic Label event and the second-largest marathon in India, Rajesh has also played a pivotal role in mentoring and establishing running groups and marathon events nationwide, including in Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Bhopal, Raipur, and Visakhapatnam.

-V. V. Subrahmanyam

GOLF

Jamal Hossain takes lead on opening day of Viswa Samudra Open

Jamal Hossain of Bangladesh scored a five-under 67 to take the lead on the opening day of the Rs.2 crore Vishwa Samudra Open golf championship at the Delhi Golf Club on Tuesday.

On a cold and windy day, action got delayed at the start owing to fog and thus 27 players could not complete their round when light faded in the evening. They will resume on Wednesday and complete their first round, before the start of the second round.

The 39-year-old Jamal has been on a hot streak, as he had won the last event in Digboi. He started well with two birdies, and had the only bogey on the third. He picked three more birdies on the front nine. He had eight pars on the back nine, and wound up with a 20-feet putt for a birdie on the 18th hole.

“At the DGC, you need to hit it straight and that is what I did well today. The conditions were not easy as it was quite cold. I had to adjust as I come from a much warm place. I hit all fairways and made 16 regulations which is excellent for this course. I also putted well on the front nine,” summed up Jamal.

Ravi Kumar, Ajeetesh Sandhu, Sudhir Sharma, M Dharma and Manish Thakran were joint second with three-under 69.

Among the other prominent players, Rashid Khan was tied seventh at two-under 70, while the TATA Steel PGTI ranking leader, Veer Ahlawat was one-under through 15 holes.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

HANDBALL

India loses to China in to finish second Asian women’s handball championship

The Indian team was beaten 41-30 by China in the match for the fifth place in the 20th Asian women’s handball championship at the KD Jadhav arena of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Tuesday.

Qu Wenna spearheaded the Chinese attack with 13 goals and was adjudged the “player of the match”. Zhang Pingping (6), Liu Yuting (5) and Wang Jiayi (4) were the other main scorers for the Chinese team which led 23-15 at half time.

Bhawana continued to excel for the home team and scored nine goals. She was ably assisted by Menika (7) and Gulshan Sharma (6).

India had finished sixth in the last edition as well. India could have finished among the top four, and qualified for the World Championship next year, but for losing to the gutsy Iran by two goals in the league stage.

Japan dethroned 16-time champion Korea 25-24 to emerge victorious for the second time in the championship. It cut short Korea’s seven-time winning streak, after having trailed 9-12 at half time.