HC dismisses PIl against IPl in Kanpur
Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest litigation which opposed the holding of two Indian Premiere league (IPl) cricket matches in Kanpur later this week due to a drought-like situation in Uttar Pradesh and possible use of huge volume of water for preparing the ground. A division bench, comprising Justice Dilip Gupta and Justice R N Kakkar, dismissed the PIl filed by Giriraj Kishore and two others, holding that the petition was “misconceived”. The petitioners had contended that there was a drought-like situation in Uttar Pradesh and holding such an event anywhere in the state would involve the use of a huge quantity of water for preparing the ground.
Bopanna gets closer to top-10
New Delhi: India’s doubles specialist Rohan Bopanna raised hopes of getting a direct entry into the Rio Olympic Games as he rose by two rungs to be 11th in the latest ATP Ranking charts issued on Tuesday. Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea had earned 360 points with a semifinal place at Rome Masters. A top-10 player has the luxury of choosing his partner for the doubles competition at the Games. leander Paes, who is gunning for his seventh Olympics and is playing at the Challenger level to earn points, was back in top-50 with a jump of four places. In the singles, Yuki suffered a steep loss of 12 places to be 141th and was followed by Myneni, who is 147th after slipping six places. But Ramkumar Ramanthan was at his career best rank of 199th. Sania Mirza continued to be world number one in women’s doubles ranking after winning the title in Rome.
Myneni advances, Ramkumar bows out
Paris: India’s Saketh Myneni tamed Duckhee lee in a tense three-setter to make it to the second round of the French Open qualifying event but his compatriot Ramkumar Ramanthan crashed out in the first round, here on Tuesday. Myneni, seeded 28th, won 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 against the Korean in the opening round of the Clay Court Grand Slam. Myneni is coming into the tournament after recovering from a shoulder injury. He had lost a few weeks on the Tour to recuperate from the injury. He next faces American Frances Tiafoe. But it was end of road for Ramkumar, who lost 3-6, 3-6 to Australia’s Matthew Barton. Ramkumar could convert only one of the four breakpoints he got in the match while lost his serve twice in each set.
‘National record has come at right time’
New Delhi: Olympics-bound runner Sudha Singh, who created a national record in women’s 3000m steeplechase at the IAAF Diamond league in Shanghai last week, on Monday said that her record-breaking performance has come at a right time and it will boost her confidence in the run-up to Rio Games. Sudha’s new record -- 9:26:55secs -- rewritten 15 days after Asian champion lalita Babar’s national mark in New Delhi last month, has intensified the friendly rivalry between the duo who train under same foreign coach Nikolai Snesraev. “We reached there (Shanghai) in advance and also trained a bit. It was a bit cold, around 15 degree Celsius, but once the race started I did not know what was happening. This was my first international race in steeplechase since 2014 Asiad,” said Sudha who clinched an Olympics berth in the first track event she participated after 2014 Asian Games during the Federation Cup on April 29 here with a 9:31.86secs effort. Sudha said coach Nikolai had motivated her to do well and “gift something back to her countrymen for their support”.