
CHENNAI: V Veera Thamizan’s two goals helped Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu beat Punjab and Sind Bank 3-2 in the 91st all-India Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.
Results: HUT 3 (Sarvana Kumar 5th; V Veera Thamizan 26th, 33rd) bt Punjab and Sind Bank 2 (Jaskaran Singh 4th; Gaganpreet Singh 41st), Punjab National Bank 3 (Shamsher Singh 41st, 55th; Sanjay 69th) bt Army XI 0; Indian Railways 4 (Ajit Kumar Pandey 19th; Malik Singh 32nd; Ajmer Singh 34th; Raju Paul 38th) bt BPCL 2 (Abhishek 12th; Devinder Walmiki 55th).
Gopinath in quarterfinals
Seven of the top eight seeds scored facile victories in the first and second rounds and entered the quarterfinals of the Marina Open AITA Wheel Chair Tennis Championships at the SDAT Tennis Stadium.
Top seed Shekar Veeraswamy of Karnataka blanked Alexander James of Tamil Nadu 9-0. Shekar moved well and displayed excellent control. Second seed Shivaprasad (also of Karnataka) put down Neelanjanaiah with a similar score.
The only seed who had to face a challenge in both rounds was eighth-seeded Gopinath of Karnataka. He had to dig deep to down state-mate Madhusudhan 9-7 in the first round, and then Inderjeet Pandey 9-6 in the second round. Former Davis Cup champion Ramesh Krishnan inaugurated the tournament.
Results: Men’s singles (Rd 2): Shekar Veeraswamy bt Alexander James 9-1, Kumar S Suresh bt Sagar B 9-1, Mariappan bt Sathasivam 9-1, Karthik bt Shankarlinga 9-1, K Gopinath bt Indrajeet Pandey 9-6, Anand Selvaraj bt Sharanappa 9-0, Subramanian Balachandar bt Raajesh Ranal 9-0, Shivaprasad bt M Neelanjan 9-0. Women’s singles: Group A: Nalani Buob bt Pratima Rao 9-0, Nalani Buob bt Madhu Bhagri 9-0, Pratima Rao bt Madhu Bhagri 9-7; Group B: KP Shilpa bt Nalini Kumari 9-4, KP Shilpa bt Khusbu Ganatra 9-0, Nalini Kumari bt Khusbu Ganatra 9-0.
Santhome win
Santhome HSS beat MVM HSS in their boys’ clash in the SAN Academy inter-school state volleyball tournament.
Results: Boys: PAK (Chennai) bt KCS Nadar HSS 25-14, 25-15; Santhome HSS bt MVM HSS 23-25, 25-14, 25-21; Khajamian (Tiruchy) bt St George AI 25-6, 25-12; American (Madurai) bt Don Bosco (Chennai) 25-18, 25-15; St Peters (Chennai) bt MVM HSS 25-11, 25-11; St Peters (Chennai) bt Anikar HSS 25-2, 25-7; Khajamian (Tiruchy) bt Bishop AI (Chennai) 25-4, 25-5. Girls: Bharathiyar (Attur) bt Gundur Subbiah (Chennai) 25-8, 25-10; Velammal (Mogappiar) bt GGHSS (Mayiladuthurai) 25-10, 25-7; GGHSS (Dharmapuri) bt Chennai MH Road 25-4, 25-3; NDJA Vivekanda bt Chennai Girls 25-19, 25-16.