Happy to be in Pakistan: Indian cueist
Karachi: She was apprehensive about making the trip to Pakistan but India's top woman cueist Chitra Magimairaj said ignoring the worries and deciding to come for the World Eight Reds Snooker team and individual championships here has turned out to be a good experience for her. A large Indian contingent, including cueists, officials and referees are here to participate in the World event after much persuasion by the Pakistan and Indian Billiards and Snooker Federations.
“Honestly speaking I was very worried about coming to Pakistan and Karachi having heard so many things about it and also because of the relations between the two countries,” she said.
Podium for Armaan
Kuala lumpur: Indian racer Armaan Ebrahim overcame an engine snag to finish a creditable third in the round 3 of the lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia Series here. Having missed the first practice session, qualifying was always going to be difficult and Armaan, who is JK Tyre Brand Ambassador, qualified 5th. With a few changes made on the roll bar stiffness and suspension post qualifying, Armaan attacked from the word go as overtaking was extremely difficult in the narrow street circuit. Armaan was in second place and was putting the leader under immense pressure for some time but during the Pit stop, the engine shut off due to overheating issues and by the time they managed to restart and get out, Armaan had lost a place and finally finished third overall to retrieve valuable points lost in Race 1.
Abhijeet dumps Chen, in joint lead
Al Ain (UAE): GM and Commonwealth Champion Abhijeet Gupta crashed through the solid defences of lin Chen of China to join the leaders pack after the seventh round of Asian continental chess championship here. Gupta was in his elements against overnight joint leader lin Chen as the latter was outplayed in the endgame after offering stiff resistance. For the records, it was a Slav defense wherein Gupta managed to complicate matters in the middle game as white and after regulation exchanges a queen and pawn endgame was reached. lin Chen succumbed when he could no longer tie the white king down. Methodical development of position by Gupta shut the come-back doors for Chen and although it was a long battle, Gupta made sure of his full point after 57 moves.
Bopnna-Mergea bow out of semis
Washington: Third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea bowed out of the Citi Open tennis tournament after losing to the top-seeded pair of Bob and Mike Bryan in the men's doubles semifinals, here. The Indo-Romanian pair were always playing catch up in their 3-6, 4-6 loss against their much-experienced American opponents in the hard-court event at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center. Bopanna-Mergea entered the final-four stage after receiving a walkover from Bulgarian-American combine of Grigor Dimitrov and Mardy Fish. The Bryan brothers will now face the second-seeded Brazil-Croat pair of Marcelo Melo and Ivan Dodig at the $1.5 million event.
Ghosal goes down in title clash
New Delhi: Despite high expectations, India's top male player Saurav Ghosal failed to cap a memorable week's show with a title when he went down to giant killer Alfredo Avila of Mexico in the final of the $50,000 Albierto Colombiano 2015, a PSA event in Colombian capital of Bogota. World No.16 ran out of steam against his 54th-ranked opponent, losing 9-11 11-8, 4-11, 8-11 on Saturday night. The Indian had surprised top seed and World No.4 Miguel Rodriguez in a thrilling semifinal. Ghosal's conquerer in the final was another Mexican Avila, who had come to the main draw as a qualifier. But then he proved statistics are mere numbers with his stupendous effort.
Nishikori beats Cilic
Washington: Kei Nishikori beating Marin Cilic at the Citi Open doesn't offset losing the same matchup in the 2014 U.S. Open final. Regardless, payback was sweet for the Japanese star. Nishikori rallied to beat Cilic 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on Saturday in the Citi Open semifinals in their first showdown since Cilic beat Nishikori in the U.S. Open final exactly 11 months ago. “It's good to win against a top 10 player and especially Marin,” the second-seeded Nishikori said. “We had a battle last year at the U.S. Open. It's great to have revenge today and I hope I can keep it going tomorrow.”
Kalinga lancers retains five players
Bhubaneswar: Hockey India league (HIl) franchise Kalinga lancers on Sunday retained young Indian players — lalit Upadhyay ($30,000), Devindar Sunil Walimiki ($35,000) and Gurjinder Singh ($50,000) — for the next two editions. Along with them, the franchise has also retained young Australian talents — striker Aran Zalewski ($50,000) and goalkeeper Andrew Charter ($40,000).