TENNIS
Indian pair Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Prashanth in quarterfinals of ATP Tour event in US
The Indian pair of Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Prashanth advanced to the men’s doubles quarterfinals at the US men’s clay court championship ATP tour event after a straight-set win here.
The Indian duo beat American wild card entrants Michael Mmoh and Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-4 in a round of 16 match that lasted one hour and 19 minutes on Monday.
Chandrasekar and Prashanth face fourth-seeded Australian duo of M Purcell and J Thompson in the quarterfinals. Prashanth is currently ranked 101 in doubles while Chandrasekar is at 113.
A few other Indians are also in the fray in the doubles competition.
Arjun Kadhe and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan play against the pair of Marcus Daniell of New Zealand and Luis Martinez of Venezuela in the pre-quarterfinals while N Balaji and his German partner Andre Begemann face top seeds Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek in another round of 16 match.
-PTI
ITF Masters: Quamaruddin beats Rohan Bhasin
Quamaruddin Khan beat second seed Rohan Bhasin 6-4, 3-6, [11-9] in the men’s over-45 final of the ITF Masters tennis tournament at the Jai Club.
In the over-75 event, Rakesh Bhandari beat top seed Suresh Bajoria 6-1, 7-6(3) for the title.
The results (finals):
Men
Over-30: Gaurav Jain bt Dinesh Kumar Deenu 6-1, 6-2.
Over-40: Riyaz Ahmed bt Punar Bhasin 6-2, 6-2.
Over-45: Quamaruddin Khan bt Rohan Bhasin 6-4, 3-6, [11-9]
Over-50: Deepak Bagora bt Asheesh Malpani 6-0, 6-0.
Over-55: Gurdarshan Singh Ramana bt Laxmi Kant Tanwar 6-4, 7-5.
Over-60: Sanjai Kumar bt Anil Nigam 6-2, 6-1.
Over-65: Sunil Kumar Pandey bt Lalit Sharma 6-4, 6-4.
Over-70: Jagat Singh Rathore bt Surendra Singh Wadhawan 6-3, 7-5.
Over-75: Rakesh Bhandari bt Suresh Bajoria 6-1, 7-6(3)
Women
Over-30: Rani Smita Jain bt Punam Sood 6-3, 6-2.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
CRICKET
Bengal Pro T20 League is ready for a grand launch.
The debut edition of Bengal Pro T20 League (BPL), organised by the Cricket Association of Bengal, featuring franchise-based teams, will get underway in June 2024.
Much like in IPL, the eight teams in the T20 League will be named after cities/districts of West Bengal having multiple districts as their catchment area.
For the Inaugural year, the players will be selected by the franchises through a draft process from various categories including Bengal seniors to players from District catchment areas, as per the guidelines provided by the CAB.
Each team will comprise of a squad of 17 players for men and 16 players for women, that is a total of 264 top cricketers of Bengal will be participating. There will also be pools of the coaches and support staffs from Bengal for the franchises to choose from as per the BCCI guidelines.
The CAB will also introduce the Code of Conduct for all teams similar to the ICC & BCCI Code of Conduct and the entire league will be monitored by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the BCCI.
The tournament will be played in a league-and-knockout format, that is a total of 31 matches each for both men and women. All men’s matches will be played at the Eden Gardens and the women’s matches at the BCCI approved Jadavpur University, Salt Lake Campus Ground.
Spectator entry will be free at both venues. The men’s matches will be shown live on one of the top sports channels and the women’s matches will go live on a leading OTT platform.
“We have been planning to organise the Franchise based League for some time now. After doing a very careful study of similar Leagues in India and abroad, we are now ready to organise the Bengal Pro T20 League this year. We have all necessary permissions from BCCI and the blueprint for the League is also in place.” said CAB President Snehasish Ganguly.
– Team Sportstar
WEIGHTLIFTING
Bindyarani Devi claims bronze in IWF World Cup
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Bindyarani Devi claimed a bronze medal in the women’s 55kg category in the IWF World Cup, an Olympic qualifying event, in Phuket on Tuesday.
Bindyarani, also an Asian medallist, lifted 83kg in snatch and 113kg in clean and jerk for a total of 196kg. She may find it extremely difficult to qualify for the Paris Games.
Kang Hyon Gyong (223kg) of North Korea and Mihaela Cambei (201kg) of Romania won the gold and silver respectively.
Tokyo Olympics silver medallist Mirabai Chanu, who aggregated 184kg on her return to competition from a six-month injury layoff, remained a strong contender for a berth in Paris after finishing third in women’s 49kg Group-B on Monday.
– Team Sportstar
