E-Paper
Saina bows out of Thai Grand Prix
Defending champion Saina Nehwal's hopes of retaining her Thailand Grand Prix Gold title went up in smoke as she suffered a stunning three-game defeat to Singapore's Juan Gu in the quarterfinals of the women's singles competition on Friday.
Defending champion Saina Nehwal's hopes of retaining her Thailand Grand Prix Gold title went up in smoke as she suffered a stunning three-game defeat to Singapore's Juan Gu in the quarterfinals of the women's singles competition on Friday.
The world number two lost 21-13, 12-21, 18-21 to eighth seed Juan in a 53-minute. This was Saina's first defeat to the Singaporean in six encounters.
Vishnu loses points
Albena (Bulgaria): Vishnu Prasanna’s unbeaten run was halted by Grandmaster Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia as the Indian suffered his first defeat in the sixth round of Grand Europe Albena International Chess Tournament.
It proved costly for Prasanna as he now trails the leaders by a one point. He has 4.5 points in his kitty. Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta played draw against Alexej Gorbatov of Russia.
Hockey league
New Delhi: The second edition of the Hockey India League (HIL) will be played from January 23 to February 23 next year. A new team will be added to make it a six franchise based tournament, Hockey India announced Friday.
The first edition saw more than 60 top domestic players including international participants competing for five franchises.
Pune FC sign Prakash
Pune: Pune Football Club have signed up city-born Prakash Thorat to strengthen their forward line for the forthcoming season. Prakash has signed a two year contract (2013-14 and 2014-15) with the club as the 28-year-old becomes only the third player from Pune to ever figure in the main squad.
Divij, Purav lose
New Delhi: Divij Sharan and Purav Raja squandered a superb start to crash out of the ATP Challenger event in Furth, Germany as they lost the quarterfinals to local favourites Kevin Krawietz and Dominic Schulz. The third seeded Indian pair bowed out with a 5-7, 3-6 defeat in the clay court event.
Siddana, Unmukt shine
New Delhi: Mayank Siddana’s consecutive century (100 of 90 balls) and Chetan Sharma’s 72 helped FCI beat Hargopal Club to enter the final of Lala Raghubir cricket tournament. In GG Dutt event, Unmukt Chand hit 93 to help ONGC beat Teddco Club and enter the semifinals.
Maheswary qualifies
Chennai: Renjith Maheswary won gold medal in triple jump event in the national inter-state athletics meet. His efforts of 16.98m helped him achieve qualification mark for world meet.
