SQUASH

Chotrani in Hamburg squash quarters

Indian world No. 47 Veer Chotrani defeated German eighth seed Raphael Kandra 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 in the men’s second round to move into the quarterfinals of the Hamburg Open squash.

However, his compatriots, fifth seed Abhay Singh, seventh seed Ramit Tandon, and former women’s world No. 10 Joshna Chinappa, bowed out in the second round of their matches of the PSA Bronze-level event on Thursday night.

Abhay lost to Sam Todd (England) 9-11, 11-7, 4-11, 2-11, Tandon fell to Balazs Farkas (Hungary) 10-12, 11-4, 5-11, 9-11, and Joshna was beaten by eighth seed Joelle King of New Zealand 11-9, 11-7, 9-11, 11-4.

-PTI

Om Semwal beats Egyptian fifth seed Elshafei

India’s Om Semwal beat Egyptian fifth seed Taha Elshafei 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-4 in the men’s second round to enter the quarterfinals of the HCL Squash PSA Challenger Tour at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai.

- Team Sportstar

GOLF

Pranavi best-placed among Indians to make the cut at Joburg Open

Pranavi Urs carded a bogey free 3-under 70 in the first round of the Joburg Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour and was best-placed to make the cut among the five Indians at the event.

At the end of Day 1, she was Tied-21st at the Par-73 Randpark Golf Club.

Tvesa Malik and Diksha Dagar ended the first round at 1-under 72 and were Tied-54th while Avani Prashanth shot 2-over 75 and Hitaashee Bakshi also had a disappointing day with 4-over 77.

Avani and Hitaashee will need to shoot very low rounds to make the cut.

Tvesa, playing her first LET event of the season, was 4-under at one stage through the front nine but finished at 1-under 72 as he gave away a double bogey and a bogey on the 15th and the 16th holes.

Diksha, ninth on the LET Order of Merit, had five birdies, three bogeys and a double in her round of 72.

-PTI

Rayhan makes slow start in Mexico

Rayhan Thomas carded an opening round of even par 72 and was T-60 at the Tulum Championship at the PGA Riviera on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Thomas began his round on the front nine and made birdies on the fourth and eighth holes, along with a bogey on the fifth to be 1-under par at the turn.

On the back nine, Thomas made a late bogey on the 17th to end his day with an even par card with two birdies and two bogeys to be placed T-60 on the leaderboard.

-PTI

Aditi T-59 despite under-par round

Aditi Ashok began her week in Los Angeles with a round of 2-under 70 to find herself placed tied 59th on the leaderboard at the JM Eagle LA Championship on the LPGA Tour.

Aditi began her round on the front nine and had made seven pars before dropping a shot on the eighth hole with a bogey.

From 1-over after 10 holes, she recovered on the back nine, making birdies on the 11th, 16th and 18th holes to pick up three shots and finish at 2-under par, seven shots behind the leader Chizzy Iwai.

-PTI

IGPL South Africa: Red-hot Mane fires flawless 64 to take six-shot lead

Continuing his red-hot form, India’s Udayan Mane shot a flawless eight-under 64 with a hole-in-one to open up a commanding six-shot lead after round two of the AM Green IGPL Invitational South Africa.

Having shot a bogey-free seven-under 65 on the opening day, the Olympian went one better at the Royal Johannesburg’s West Course to move to 15-under, the only player in double digits under par.

Trailing Mane in tied second place are: Manav Shah (65-70), Pukhraj Singh Gill (66-69) and Gaganjeet Bhullar (67-68).

Local favourite Musiwalo Nethunzwi (69-67) was sole fifth, while rookie pro Danish Verma (70-67) and another South African golfer, Alessio Graziani (72-65) were tied for sixth place.

One of the three first day leaders, Milind Soni, suffered a mid-round lapse with a bogey-double bogey show on the 11th and the 12th and carded 73 as he dropped to tied-eighth, alongside Raghav Chugh (69-69) and Karandeep Kochhar (67-71) at 6-under total.

Last week’s runner-up Veer Ganapathy (70-70) was tied 11th with Harshjeet Singh Sethie (70-70), Varun Parikh (70-70) and left-handed Kartik Sharma (69-71) a 4-under total.

The scoring has been rather low with 27 players at par or better after 36 holes and there is one more round to go in the event.

Mannat Brar (74-69) was the best-placed woman player at T-21, as Vidhatri Urs (72-72) slipped to T-25.

Beginning the second day on the Par-5 first, Mane opened with an eagle and then shot a hole-in-one on the Par-3 fifth as he went to 4-under in very quick time.

Another gain on the ninth saw him turn in 5-under. Three more birdies on the back nine gave him a superb 8-under card that carried him to 15-under.

Mane is coming off a third place in Mauritius and his game has been looking sharp.

A natural long-hitter, the big-built Mane is also reaping benefits of a much sharper short game.

Three-time IGPL winner Bhullar is always a threat in any event. More so in recent times in AM Green IGPL.

After a 67 on Day 1, he added a 68 to stay in the hunt.

Meanwhile, Ranjit Singh also landed an ace on the Par-3 16th later in the day.

Ranjit (69-73), however, was back in T-17th place at 2-under total.

Last week’s winner Sachin Baisoya had a rough day.

He dropped back-to-back bogeys early on the third and the fourth and later double bogeyed the 10th.

Baisoya ended with a 2-over 74 card and was T-17, but is capable of hauling himself into the Top 10 with a good final round.

In the team competition, Green Fuels Hyderabad led the standings with consistent performances by all four players—Shah, Verma, Graziani, and Soni.

With the top two cards counting each day, Green Fuels were 18-under and 10 shots ahead of Atri Mumbai, which has Mane in its team.

The third-placed team is Honer Gurugram, spearheaded by Pukhraj Singh Gill.

-PTI

SHOOTING

NRAI plans to reach out to 7.5 lakh students for 75th anniversary celebrations

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the governing body for shooting in the country, has unveiled extensive plans for their 75th anniversary celebrations.

Providing details of the celebrations planned in the coming days, Pawankumar Singh, Secretary General, NRAI said, “We have year-long celebrations planned. To begin with we have set a target of introducing 7.5 lac (7,50,000) new school students to Shooting, where we will either visit their schools of call them to the nearest range and make them shoot 10-shots each. We will take the help of the Government, the Ministry of Sports as well as all the Shooting Academies and even Local Shooting Clubs across the cities and districts of the country in order to achieve this goal. This will help unearth new natural talent. Apart from this we plan to felicitate all the Arjuna, Khel Ratna, Dronacharya awardees and Olympic medalists in Shooting during the National Championships, as well as the State Awardees during the State Championships. Finally, during the ISSF World Cup Olympic quota event next year in Delhi, we plan to host an exhibition match between our Olympic medalists past and present.”

- Team Sportstar

FOOTBALL

I-League 3 2025-26 to begin on April 27

The 2025-26 season of the I-League 3, the fourth tier of the Indian men’s football league system, will commence on April 27, with four groups being hosted in four different venues, where the clubs will play each other in a single round-robin format.

Group A and Group B matches will be played in Imphal at the Khuman Lampak Stadium and the SAI Turf Ground, respectively, while Group C fixtures will take place at the Mulna Football Stadium in Balaghat, and Group D at the Padukone-Dravid Centre for Sports Excellence in Bengaluru.

At the end of the group stage, the top team from each group, along with the two best second-placed teams, will qualify for the Final Round which will be conducted in a centralised single round-robin format.

The top two teams at the end of the Final Round will earn promotion to I-League 2 2026-27. A total of 20 teams will participate in I-League 3 2025-26, divided into four groups of five teams each.

Karnataka crowned champion of Under-13 ASMITA National Football League 2025-26

Karnataka was crowned champion of the Under-13 ASMITA National Football League, defeating host Punjab 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the final on Thursday, in Mahilpur.

Placed in Group B, Karnataka began its campaign with a 2-1 win against Rajasthan, followed by a 2-2 draw against Jharkhand, and a 3-0 victory over Assam to secure qualification for the knockout stage.

In the semifinal, Karnataka defeated Mizoram 2-0 to book its place in the final.

In the final, Karnataka’s Subhathra A scored the opening goal in the 31st minute before Tanveer Kaur equalised for Punjab in the 38th. Madhumetha K netted Karnataka’s winning penalty in sudden death.

-Team Sportstar

India loses to Russia in third and final friendly ahead of AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2026

The India Under-17 women’s team concluded its tour of Russia with a 0-3 defeat in the third and final friendly against the host at the Matsesta Football Center in Sochi on Friday.

After a goalless first half, Russia took the lead in the 46th minute through Valeria Menyailova, before Polina Frolova doubled the advantage in the 80th. Substitute Anna Bykhanova added the third in stoppage time (90+2’) to seal the result.

India was reduced to 10 players in the 82nd minute of the match when Julan Nongmaithem was shown a second yellow and sent off.

The Young Tigresses, coached by Italian Pamela Conti, used the three-match series as part of their preparations for next month’s AFC U-17 Women’s Asian Cup 2026.

India had earlier lost 0-4 in the opening match and 0-3 in the second friendly, making it a challenging but valuable learning experience against a physically stronger and more experienced Russian side.

-Team Sportstar

MOTORSPORT

Gaurav Gill sets early pace with stunning drive

Gaurav Gill, returning to rallying after a year’s break, showed no sign of any rust as he put in a dominating performance to top the time sheets in the 49th South India Rally which commenced at the Madras International Circuit in Chennai.

The three-day event is also the second round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship powered by Vamcy Merla and Round-1 of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship.

The 44-year-old Delhi-based Gill, a three times APRC champion and winner of seven National titles, clocked a combined time of two minutes, 51.5 seconds for the two loops of 1.45 Kms dirt Super Special Stage piloting a Volkswagen Polo to finish 5.1 seconds ahead of his arch rival Karna Kadur in the APRC segment with Mangaluru’s Jason Saldanha in third place.

- Team Sportstar

RUGBY

Odisha beat Bihar to emerge national champion

Odisha women scored a commanding 27-0 victory over defending champion Bihar to emerge champion in the 13th Senior National Rugby 7s Championship in Rajgir.

Odisha’s charge was led by Nirmalya Rout, who scored 15 points through three tries, while Tarulata Naik added 10 points with two tries.

Parbati Hansdah also got on the scoresheet, sealing a comprehensive win and a third national title in six years for Odisha women.

West Bengal secured the bronze medal with a 26-0 win over Delhi in the third place playoff.

The scoring effort was shared by Riya Oraon (7 points), Rima Oraon (5 points), Namista Oraon (5 points), and Sandhya Rai (9 points).

In the semifinals, Odisha defeated West Bengal 31-7, while Bihar overcame Delhi 33-7.

- PTI

TABLE TENNIS

Second-seed West Bengal produced a disciplined and well-rounded performance to beat top seed Tamil Nadu 3-1 in the Under-19 girls’ team final at the 87th UTT Inter-State Junior and Youth National Table Tennis Championships in Dehradun.

Coming into the final with strong credentials, Tamil Nadu leaned heavily on former national champion M. Hansini and the in-form Ananya Muralidharan, both of whom had been instrumental in their semifinal victory over Maharashtra.

However, the duo could not quite recreate the same impact in the title clash. Ananya, though, managed a notable win over Syndrela Das, keeping Tamil Nadu in the contest. But the overall team effort lacked consistency at crucial moments.

West Bengal, on the other hand, displayed composure and depth across the line-up. Avisha Karmakar set the tone by overcoming Hansini in a hard-fought opening rubber, before Ananya restored parity for Tamil Nadu.

The momentum, however, swung decisively in West Bengal’s favour thereafter, as Ditsa Roy edged past Shriya Anand in a tense four-game battle to hand her side a 2-1 lead.

With the tie delicately poised, Tamil Nadu once again turned to Hansini to keep their hopes alive. But the experienced paddler struggled to find her rhythm under pressure. Syndrela, sensing the opportunity, raised her level at the right time and delivered a commanding straight-games victory to seal the tie and the championship for West Bengal.

- PTI

TENNIS

Bhambri bows out

India’s Yuki Bhambri, along with partner Michael Venus, exited the Munich Open in the semifinals. The duo lost to Germans MarkWallner and JakobSchnaitter 1-6, 5-7 in the last-four clash.

- Team Sportstar

Published on Apr 17, 2026