Saina advances to second round but Prannoy loses

Barcelona

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Saina Nehwal advanced to the women’s singles second round of the $170,000 Barcelona Spain Masters with a 21-16 21-14 win over Germany’s Yvonne Li here today. In men’s singles, Kidambi Srikanth and Ajay Jayaram sailed into the pre-quarterfinals. While Jayaram beat Christo Popov of France 21-14 21-12 in a 30-minute match, third seed Srikanth defeated compatriot Subhankar Dey 23-21 21-18 in a hard-fought 41-minute contest. Srikanth and Jayaram run into each other in the pre-quarterfinals tomorrow. Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Sikki N Reddy won their mixed doubles first round match against Denmark’s Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Boje 10-21 21-16 21-17. However, HS Prannoy lost to Malaysia’s Daren Liew 18-21 15-21.

Chennai

10-year-old Hansini set for ITTF debut

Following impressive performances on the national circuit, 10-year-old M Hansini is all set to feature in her maiden International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) junior circuit event – the Swedish Junior and Cadet Open to be held in Orebro from February 19 to 23. It has been a memorable year for the Class 5 student who bagged a bronze medal in the cadet girls’ singles at the 2019 National Championships. She will start the upcoming season as the India No. 1 in the U-12 category.

London

Pujara signs up with English county Gloucestershire

India’s Test specialist Cheteshwar Pujara was today signed up by Gloucestershire for the first six matches of the English County Championship starting April 12. Pujara’s stint with Gloucestershire will be from April 12 to May 22. “I am really excited to get the opportunity to represent Gloucestershire this season,” Pujara said. Pujara has previously played in England for Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire in the County Championship. Pujara is the first Indian to play for Gloucestershire since Javagal Srinath in 1995.

Mumbai

Keshavan plans academy to promote winter sports

Manali’s Shiva Keshavan, the first Indian representative to compete in luge at the Winter Olympics, is aiming to build an academy to nurture talented youngsters and is in talks with a couple of state governments. “My idea is to have a residential complex with all the multi-sports facilities and since it will be in the mountains, we will have access to the ski area, ice hockey,” Keshavan said.

Kuala Lumpur

India awarded hosting rights of 2022 Women’s Asian Cup

India will host the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup. India was awarded the tournament by the Asian Football Confederation’s Women’s Committee here. It was felt that India, which will also host the FIFA Women’s U-17 World Cup later this year, was best placed among the three bidders — Chinese Taipei and Uzbekistan were the other candidates — to maximise the promotion of the women’s game. The tournament will likely be staged in October-November 2022. Agencies