Harsheel, Pratul, Hemanth advance
Sarawak (Malaysia): Young Indian shuttlers Harsheel Dani, Pratul Joshi and Hemanth M Gowda advanced to the second round of the season-opening Malaysia Masters Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament here on Tuesday. The 20-year-old Harsheel, who reached the quarterfinals at Syed Modi International Grand Prix Gold last year in lucknow, saw off Malaysia's Zii Jia lee 21-19, 21-17 in little over half an hour. Pratul, who clinched the Bahrain International title last year, saw off Singapore's Zin Rei Ryan Ng 15-21, 21-16, 24-22 in a hard-fought battle in the men's singles competition. Unheralded Hemanth M Gowda also reached the second round, beating Indonesia's Yehezkiel Fritz Mainaky 21-14, 21-15 in another match. Among others, Siril Verma suffered a narrow 10-21 21-18 17-21 loss to Thailand's Pannawit Thongnuam, while Abhishek Yelegar lost 13-21 14-21 to 13th seed Zulfadli Zulkiffli of Malaysia and Rahul Yadav Chittaboina suffered a 16-21 11-21 loss to Chinese Taipei's Hsueh Hsuan Yi.
Indian U-17 WC squad lose 0-1 to Iran
New Delhi: The Indian U-17 World Cup Squad lost 0-1 against Iran in the Granatkin Tournament in St Petersburg, Russia on Tuesday. The Indian Colts will now face Tajikistan in a play-off match on January 20, which will decide whether the Colts will finish 15th or 16th in a Tournament that featured 16 teams from across the globe. However, the Indian U-17 World Cup team dominated the early minutes of the match and as early as the 8th minute Abhijit Sarkar failed to tap the ball home into an empty net after he latched onto a Komal cross. In the 36th minute, Amarjit created a one versus one scenario against the Iranian custodian, but failed to find the back of the net as India pressed for a goal. Four minutes later, Iran found the back of the net as Sharifi chipped Tamal Naskar with ease to hand Iran the lead.