Despite losing the opening set, top seed Ankita Raina rallied back to prevail over eighth seed Eetee Maheta and advanced to the semifinals of the Chennai ITF Women’s Tennis Championship.
Barnara Bonic, the 7th-seed overcame a sluggish start to overcome Prarthana Thombare the, fourth seed, in three sets. Barbara will now meet Ankita Raina while Natasha Palha will meet Angelique Svinos in the second semifinals
Singles: Ankita Raina (IND) [1] Bt Eetee Maheta (IND) [8] 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, Angelique Svinos (AUS) Bt Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) 1-6, 6 6-4, 6-0, Natasha Palha (IND) [6] bt Mahitha Dadi Reddy (IND) 6-2, 6-3, Barbara Bonic (SRB) [7] Beat Prarthana G. Thombare (IND) [4] 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Bridge Tournament
IIT Madras Alumni Association (IITMAA) is holding its inaugural All India Bridge Championship on April 21 at the IIT Campus. It is a pairs championship and the only condition is that one of the pairs must be associated with an IIT.
The preliminary contests have been held at Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai and 24 teams have qualified for the finals. Bridgemates will be used for the finals along with pre-dealt boards and barometric scoring will be done so that at the end of each session, all the teams will know their relative positions.
The championship has received wide appreciation from alumni of all IITs and is expected to be an annual event in the bridge calendar of India.
K’taka Rout Kerala
Karnataka were ruthless to their neighbours Kerala, who they trounced 8-1 in the girls’ category of the South Zone Sub-Junior Hockey Championship at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Thursday. Their win was set up by Kaveramma, who notched up a hat-trick inside the first seven minutes. In the boys’ section, Tamil Nadu accounted for Andhra Pardesh 4-1.
Results (girls): Karnataka 8 (Kaveramma 2, 3, 7, Sindhu HP 12, Kruthika 22, 51, OG 61, Soundarya 62) bt Kerala 1 (OG); Boys: Tamil Nadu 4 (A Mascow 10, Suryaprakash 15, Md Faiyz 26, Joshua Benedict 58) bt AP 1 (Shahbhaz Khan 30m).
Champs Rewarded
As per the announcement of the Chief Minister J Jayalalitha, the State Level Championship for Chief Minister’s Trophy for men and women was conducted in athletics, basketball, football, hockey, kabaddi, volleyball, swimming, tennis, table tennis and badminton. And the winners were rewarded with a hefty pay-cheque.
The winners bagged Rs 1 lakh, runners-up Rs 75,000 and second runners-up Rs 25,000. As per the scheme, 710 athletes were rewarded. The entire prize-money came up to Rs 4,03,45,000. In a function at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, 270 players were given the cash prize.
K Rajaraman, member secretary of Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu. Md. Nasimuddin, principal secretary to the government, Youth Welfare and Sports Development Department and minister for school education Vaigaichelvan attended the function.