Prajnesh top seeded for Chennai Open
Chennai: India's top singles player Prajnesh Gunneswaran headlines the field for the second edition of the Chennai Open ATP Challenger 80 tennis tournament, to be held at the SDAT Nungambakkam stadium here from February 4 to 10. The tournament, to be organised by Tamil Nadu Tennis Association, carries a prize money of $ 54,500. Prajnesh, currently ranked 109 on the ATP list, had recently qualified for the Australian Open, the year's first Grand Slam before losing in the first round. Japan's Yuichi Sugita, ranked 145, Courentin Moutet of France (151), Martinez Pedro of Spain (165) and Mohamad Safwat of Egypt (186) would be seeded behind Chennai player Prajnesh. The other Indians in the fray are Saketh Myneni, who is on a comeback trail and the young Sasikumar Mukund.
Pantsulaia wins Delhi Int'l Chess
New Delhi: Third seed Georgian Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia won the 17th Delhi International Chess tournament after settling for a quick draw with Grandmaster SL Narayanan in the 10th and final round, on Wednesday. It was a seven way tie at the top between Pantsulaia (Georgia), Mosadeghpour Masoud (Iran), Stupak Kirill (Belarus), Amonatov Farrukh (Tajikistan), Diptayan Ghosh, Abhijeet Gupta, and Narayanan on eight points apiece in the event but Levan was declared the winner based on his better tie-break. There were norms galore at the tournament. International Masters Gukesh D and Visakh NR secured GM norms while Aditya Mittal, Saurabh Ananad, Bharat Kumar Reddy and Neelash Saha scored IM Norms respectively.
indian Eves to play four friendlies
New Delhi: In a bid to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, the Indian women's football team will play two matches each against Hong Kong and Indonesia. The 25-member squad will leave Indian shores on Saturday to travel to Hong Kong to play back-to-back friendlies on January 21 and 23. The team will then travel to Indonesia to play matches on January 27 and January 30. "In our quest to qualify from the Round 2, we have to play against tough teams and both Hong Kong and Indonesia will provide us with challenges of their own and help in our development," Head Coach Maymol Rocky said. "The Olympic qualifiers will be a test and a challenge for all of us and we are preparing to script history and make the nation proud," he added.
Newcastle survive Blackburn scare
New Delhi: Newcastle survived an FA Cup scare at Blackburn as they blew a two-goal lead before hitting back to win 4-2 after extra time in the third-round replay. The stand-ins made a fast start on Tuesday when Sean Longstaff scored his first goal for Newcastle. Callum Roberts then doubled their lead in the 22nd minute with his first goal for the club. But Blackburn pulled a goal back 12 minutes before half-time through Adam Armstrong. And then Darragh Lenihan equalised for Blackburn with a header in first-half stoppage time. It took extra time to settle the tie, with Blackburn's Bradley Dack missing a golden chance before Joselu pounced to slot home in the 105th minute after Rovers goalkeeper David Raya spilled Fabian Schar's drive. Ayoze Perez completed Newcastle's escape act moments later when he cut in from the right and fired home.
Haryana lift Vijay Merchant Trophy
Mulapadu: Haryana lifted the Vijay Merchant Trophy after beating Jharkhand in the final on the basis of first innings lead, riding on lion-hearted effort from new ball bowlers Vivek Kumar and Anuj Thakral. In the final of the National U-16 Cricket tournament, Haryana scored 247 in their first innings with Ahan Poddar top-scoring with 57, hitting 10 boundaries. Jharkhand's Abhishek took six wickets for 48 runs but Haryana seamers Vivek (5/59) and Anuj (5/53) bowled the opposition out for 186 in 66.1 overs. The 61-run first innings lead proved to be decisive in the end as Haryana batted Jharkhand out of the contest, scoring a mammoth 502 for 9 before declaring.
