Briefly
New Delhi
Women’s hockey team gears up for World League Round–2
Ranked highest in the tournament, Indian women’s hockey team begins its campaign against Ghana on the opening day of the FIH World League Round-2 at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here on Saturday. High on confidence after their good show at the recent tour of Spain, the Indian women would look to start their campaign on a winning note. The eight-team event holds importance as each team will look at making it to the World League Round-3 which is the final stage of qualification for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Divided into two pools of four teams each, India are placed in Pool A with Poland, Ghana and Thailand, while Malaysia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Singapore are placed in Pool B.
KUALA LUMPUR
Wozniacki reaches quarters of Malaysian Open
Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open by beating Zhu Lin of China 6-4 6-1 on Thursday. The fifth-ranked Dane had seven aces in the match. Wozniacki will next take on unseeded Carina Witthoeft of Germany. Witthoeft knocked out fifth-seeded Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 7-6(3) 6-0. Also, Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan defeated Misa Eguchi of Japan 6-3 3-6 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal clash with Russian teen Elizaveta Kulichkova, who won the Australian Open junior singles and doubles titles last year.
Cappelle Le Grande (France)
Abhijeet Gupta held to a draw, slips to 8th
Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta survived a scare before settling for a draw with Federico Perez Ponsa of Argentina in the sixth round of the 31st Cappelle Le Grande International Chess tournament here today. The draw proved costly as Gupta slipped to joint eighth spot with just three rounds to go. Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi elevated himself to be joint third after defeating Pierre Bailet of France while S Arun Prasad continued with his fine run in the tournament and held Alexander Kovchan of Ukraine to a hard-fought draw.
Mumbai
Gurbani, Toshniwal win under-15 titles
Top seed Rohan Gurbani of Nagpur and second seed Smit Toshniwal of Nashik clinched the boys’ and girls’ under-15 titles in the West Zone Juniors Badminton tournament here today. While Gurbani tamed Aniruddh Sinh Kushwaha of Valsad in straight games (21-13 21-15) in the boys’ final, Toshniwal downed a top seed Simran Singhi of Mumbai 21-15 18-21 21-15. — Agencies
