Gupta loses in london open
london: Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta went down fighting against Jon ludvig Hammer of Norway and had to settle for a tied seventh place finish in the open section of london Classic here on Monday. After a disappointing exit by Viswanathan Anand from the quarterfinal of the premier event, Gupta, too, could not make it to the podium as he lost his way against Hammer. Hammer won the open section scoring 7.5 points and Abhijeet ended on 6.5. Among other Indians in the fray in the last round, Tania Sachdev and Eesha Karavade also ended on the losing side against Peter Sowray of England and Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, respectively. Eesha finished the tournament on six points, while Tania scored five points out of a possible nine. Grandmasters D Harika and M Shyam Sundar finished on a positive note by winning the last round games with both scoring six points in all. It was an anti-Grunfeld defense by Hammer that allowed Gupta to equalise early but the Norwegian kept pressing on the queen side.
Mahesh wins Bratislava squash
New Delhi: Teen sensation Mahesh Mangaonkar became the first Indian squash player to win the IMET Open, the PSA World Tour Challenger 5 event, in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava. The five-game victories over the event's top two seeds led to Mahesh making a breakthrough appearance in the sixth edition of the IMET Open. The 19-year-old World No.98 from Mumbai downed two-time champion Jan Koukal, the top seed from the Czech Republic, 13-11, 11-8, 9-11 7-11, 13-11 in the semi-finals in 98 minutes at the Imet Squash Centrum. Third seed Mahesh then lined up against defending champion Greg lobban, the No.2 seed from Scotland, who was celebrating his third successive appearance in a Tour final. Despite his heroics less than 24 hours earlier, the Indian teenager was still able to call upon reserves to recover from losing the first game to take a 2-1 lead. Edinburgh-based lobban, ranked 82 in the world, dug deep to take the fourth and force a fifth game decider.
Chetan, Rohan advance in nat’ls
New Delhi: Three-time national champion B Chetan Anand began his comeback journey from an injury curtailed season with a comfortable 21-5, 21-15 victory over Vishal Garg of Assam in the second qualifying round of the 78th Senior National badminton championship organised by Delhi Capital Badminton Association here on Monday. The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation employee, who was once ranked in world top-20, had been suffering from a knee injury for the last two years and hence had dropped down in the pecking order of the national rankings. However, Chetan hardly broke any sweat against Vishal and said he aims for atleast a last eight finish in the tournament. Also winning their qualifying matches comfortably were former junior national champion Rohan Castelino of Karnataka and U-17 national champion Daniel Farid, who had recently also won the Junior Nationals U-19 Category in Chandigarh.
Tevez nets 3 as Juventus win 4-0
Milan: Carlos Tevez scored his first hat trick for Juventus to help the Serie A leader crush Sassuolo 4-0 on Sunday and reinforce its bid for a third successive league title. Federico Peluso scored the other goal as Juventus bounced back from its midweek Champions league exit in emphatic fashion, with its eighth successive league win and clean sheet. "What emotion do I feel after the hat trickIJ The only emotion is that of winning a match which was very difficult after we were knocked out of the cup," Tevez said. Juventus moved provisionally six points clear of Roma, which visits AC Milan on Monday. Napoli is two points further back after also getting over Champions league disappointment with an entertaining 4-2 win over 10-man Inter Milan. Earlier, Fiorentina leapfrogged Inter into fourth spot after a comfortable 3-0 win over Bologna, while lazio beat livorno 2-0.
Sidhu 3rd, Anisa leads 25m Pistol
New Delhi: World cup gold medallist Heena Sidhu was in third position in the precision round of 25 meter women pistol event, which was topped by Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anisa Sayyed at the 57th National Shooting Championship here on Monday. Ahead of the finals tomorrow, Sayyed of Haryana was leading with a good score of 289 points, followed by Sonia Rai (287) of Himachal pradesh, while Heena of Punjab was third with a score of 286. Rahi Sarnobat of Maharashtra and Anita Devi of Haryana shot identical scores of 286 to be in the fourth position at the Karni singh shooting Ranges, Organising Secretary.
Salwan boys emerge champions
New Delhi: Alizaan Alam's all-round performance and Shivam Chauhan's spectacular half-century helped Salwan Boys Senior Secondary School, Rajender Nagar thrash Vidya Jain Public School, Rohini by seven wickets in the final match of the Coca-Cola Cricket Cup under-16 inter-school tournament, played at Bharat Nagar ground on Monday. Salwan Boys Sr. Sec. School won the toss and opted to bowl first. Vidya Jain Public School batsman started well with an inspiring 42-run knock by Vasu Sharma. He was well-supported by Garvit Chabbra, who scored a useful 38 runs. In reply, Salwan Boys achieved the target in 28 overs after losing only three wickets. PNS/Agencies