Indian sports wrap, January 25: Maaya, Paparkar bow out of Australian Open with opening round defeats
TENNIS
Maaya, Paparkar bow out of Australian Open with opening round defeats
India’s singles challenge at the junior Australian Open ended in a matter of hours, with Maaya Rajeshwaran Ravathi and Arnav Paparkar losing their respective opening round matches here on Sunday.
Maaya, competing in the girls’ singles, struggled to find her rhythm against Anna Pushkareva and went down 4-6, 1-6 in a match that lasted just over an hour.
After a closely fought first set, the Indian lost momentum in the second as Pushkareva stepped up the aggression and raced through the set.
In the boys’ singles, Paparkar too made an early exit, losing 3-6, 4-6 to American Vihan Reddy.
Pararkar fought hard in both sets but was unable to convert key opportunities, with Reddy proving steadier in the crucial moments to seal the straight-sets win.
Paparkar has been named as a practice partner for India’s Davis Cup squad for their upcoming 2026 Qualifiers tie against the Netherlands.
-PTI
PARA TABLE TENNIS
3rd National Para Ranking Table Tennis Championships: Bhavina wins gold in women’s singles class 4 category
A participant in action at the 3rd National Para Ranking Table Tennis Championships at IIT Madras, Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A participant in action at the 3rd National Para Ranking Table Tennis Championships at IIT Madras, Chennai.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Paralympic silver medallist Bhavinaben Patel defeated Kajal Makavana 3-0 (11-2, 11-4, 11-6) to win the gold medal in the Women’s Singles Class 4 category in the 3rd National Para Ranking Table Tennis Championships at IIT Madras, Chennai, on Sunday.
Around 220 players from 19 states took part in the event. Champions were crowned in Class 1-10 in the men’s event and Class 2-10 in the women’s competition.
Winners in the wheelchair category received new wheelchairs along with medals and also, there were attractive cash prizes for winners across all classes.
Top six players from the championships will also get the chance to train at former Indian table tennis player Sharath Kamal’s High-Performance Centre in his next summer camp for three days.
RESULTS
Men
Class 1: Gold – Jehan Dorab Madan, Silver – Sandeep Dangi, Bronze – Mayank Srivastava & Neeraj Kumar Sreenivasan
Class 2: Gold – Avinash Gopinathan, Silver – Jaganath Hm, Bronze – Dave Jai Bhole Pravinbhai & Pravinbhai Prabhubhai Rojasara
Class 3: Gold – Shubham Wadhwa, Silver – Navneet Kadiyan, Bronze – Rajeev Gupta & Saravanakumar P
Class 4-5: Gold – Sumit Sehgal, Silver – Raj Aravindan Aiagar, Bronze – Chaudhary Rameshbhai Vajabhai & Rishit Nathwani
Class 6: Gold – Yezdi Aspi Bhamgara, Silver – Vikas Thakur, Bronze – Pramod Kumar & Udaya Kumar Rout
Class 7: Gold – Shivam Pal, Silver – Harsh Trivedi, Bronze – Ramesh & Sanjeev G Hammannavar
Class 8: Gold – Kunal Arora, Silver – Shashidhar Kulkarni, Bronze – Vijay Veerappan & Gajanan Parmar
Class 9: Gold – Nitish Y, Silver – Dattaprasad Jotiram Chougule, Bronze – Utkarsh Marwal & Saravana Kumar P.T.
Class 10: Gold – Hitesh Dolwani, Silver – Vishwa Vijay Tambe, Bronze – Jagannath Mukherjee & Biprojit Deb
Women
Class 2-3: Gold – Sonalben Patel, Silver – Vidya Kumari, Bronze – Vaishnavi Vinayak Sutar & Deepika Rani Ramanathan
Class 4-5: Gold – Bhavinaben Patel, Silver – Kajal Makavana, Bronze – G Vijaya Deepika & Paddhariya Bharti Dineshbhai
Class 6: Gold – Jamani Nurjahan Noorali, Silver – Poonam, Bronze – Bhavikaben Vallabhbhai Kukadiya
Class 7: Gold – Prachi Pandey, Silver – Dabhi Sonalben Shamajibhai, Bronze – Priyanka Sharma & Mirraa Priyanka Madhvapathi
Class 8: Gold – Savita V Ajjanakatti, Silver – Nisha Innani, Bronze – Solanki Sarlaben Mansukhbhai & Pragati Kesharwani
Class 9: Gold – Mehak Kaur, Silver – Gunjan Dhaka, Bronze – Pruthvi Jaydev Barve & Bhartiben Virabhai Sundhiya
Class 10: Gold – Kanchan Ban, Silver – Devyani Walhe
– Team Sportstar
SQUASH
Anahat nearly pulls off an upset before going down in New York
Rising Indian squash talent Anahat Singh nearly pulled off an upset before going down to Japanese world No. 7 Satomi Watanabe in the second round of the Sprott Tournament of Champions in New York.
Appearing in her first PSA Platinum-level event, the women’s world No. 31 Anahat won the opening two games before the experienced Japanese sixth seed rallied to claim a 6-11, 6-11, 11-2, 11-8, 11-6 result in her favour.
“It was a really difficult match for me – she (Anahat) played such amazing squash and her winners were insane,” Satomi said.
“All I could do was retrieve those ones which weren’t straight to the point… I’m just happy to get through today,” she added
-Team Sportstar
SHOOTING
Sainyam and Gaurav win 10m Air Pistol Trial 2 Finals
Sainyam of Chandigarh and Gaurav Kumar of Uttar Pradesh came on top in the women’s and men’s 10m Air Pistol Trail 2 finals, respectively, as the National Selection Trials 1 & 2 concluded in New Delhi on Sunday.
World Cup Final silver medallist Sainyam continued her good run of form, finishing on top in the finals with a dominant final score of 243.1, 5.4 points more than Rhythm Sangwan (237.7).
Meenu Pathak once again finished in the top three in the finals, finishing with a score of 218.5.
Earlier in the qualification, Suruchi Singh finished on top with an impressive 587-31x, but could only finish in eighth place in the finals. Palak shot 579-16x to finish second in qualification and shot 178.2 in the finals to finish fifth.
The experienced Shwetha Singh took the third spot in qualification with a score of 578-18x and came back in the finals to finish in sixth place.
Meenu Pathak shot 577-12x in qualification while Priya Muralidhar hit 576-16x. Rhythm Sangwan and Sainyam scored 576-15x and 576-13x while Divya T.S completed the top eight with a score of 575-19x.
Gaurav improved on his second-place finish in Trial 1, finishing on top in T2 in a tightly contested final. Gaurav, who qualified third for the finals with a score of 584-21x, shot 245.5 in the finals to take the top spot ahead of Yogesh Kumar, who finished second with a final score of 244.6.
Harsh Swami of Uttar Pradesh took the third spot with a final score of 221.9 after qualifying for the finals in second place with a score of 585-26x.
-Team Sportstar
FOOTBALL
India defeats Sri Lanka to finish runner-up in SAFF Women’s Futsal Championship
India brought its SAFF Women’s Futsal Championship 2026 campaign to a positive close with a commanding 5-2 victory over Sri Lanka at the Hua Mak Indoor Stadium in Bangkok on Sunday.
India dominated proceedings from the first whistle, with Sonali Mondal producing a superb hat-trick performance. Mithila Ramani and Pooja Gupta also added a goal each.
The win ensured India finished second in the standings behind champion Bangladesh, collecting 12 points from six matches with four wins and two losses.
-Team Sportstar
East Bengal beats Mohun Bagan in RFDL regional qualifiers
In a cagey affair at the Naihati Stadium in Kolkata, 10-man East Bengal defeated Mohun Bagan SG by 2-0 in their final match of the Reliance Foundation Development League (RFDL) 2025-26 Regional Qualifiers on Sunday.
East Bengal had the better share of opportunities in the first half as it pushed the Mariners’ defence on the back foot; however, failed to take the lead.
The Red & Gold Brigade continued to look sharp following the restart and quickly took the lead in the 46th minute. Guite Vanlalpeka, who earlier came agonisingly close to scoring for East Bengal, delivered a dangerous pass inside the box. Mohun Bagan’s Gurnaj Singh Grewal attempted to clear his lines, but the ball rebounded off Laikhuram Ricky Singh and ended up straight into the back of the net.
The game picked up pace following the change in the scoresheet as Mohun Bagan, too, made its first set of close attempts. However, the East Bengal defenders led by Sonam Tsewang Lhokham maintained thier stance.
Despite going down to 10 men with the sending off of Guite, East Bengal looked sharp in the attack and went on to double its lead in the stoppage time. Laikhuram Ricky Singh once again made it to the scoresheet as he finished off a fiery counter-attacking move in the 92nd minute after Debojit Roy’s attempt was saved by Mohun Bagan goalkeeper Priyansh Dubey.
The result means Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Diamond Harbour progress to the Zonal Group Stage of the league.
-Team Sportstar
MOTORSPORT
Ishaan Madesh, Sai Shiva Sankaran emerge winners at National 4W Racing Championship
Bengaluru’s 17-year-old schoolboy Ishaan Madesh and Pune teenager Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran won the premier MRF Formula 2000 and Formula 1600 titles respectively as the fourth and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2025 concluded at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday.
Ishaan, the reigning National Karting champion, finished the weekend and the season with a triple crown as he overcame a stiff resistance from Pune’s Arjun Chheda who finished runner-up in the championship standings. Sai Shiva won one of the three races to emerge National champion, sealing the title with a race to spare.
Biren Pithawalla, the 44-year-old businessman from Mumbai, survived the whole gamut of emotions and frustrations beginning with misbehaving brakes, drop in power and a deep cut in his right forefinger, through the weekend to retain the title in the premier Indian Touring Cars category. Three podium finishes this weekend fetched the N1 Racing driver enough points to edge out Lonavala’s Dhruv Chavan by 10 points in the championship stakes.
The results (Provisional):
MRF F2000 (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (21min, 00.736sec); 2. Arjun Chheda (Pune) (21:14.310); 3. Shivesh Selvarathnam (Bengaluru) (21:19.348). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Ishaan Madesh (12:47.405); 2. Arjun Chheda (12:52.727); 3. Tarun MB (Bengaluru) (13:06.385). Driver Champion: Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru).
MRF F1600 (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran (Pune) (21:56.732); 2. Nigel Abraham Thomas (Bengaluru) (22:02.561); 3. Arjun S Nair (Bengaluru) (22:04.050). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Nigel Abraham Thomas (13:57.378); 2. Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran (14:06.172); 3. Gyan S (Bengaluru) (14:17.826). Driver Champion: Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran (Pune).
Indian Touring Cars (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Karna Kadur (Coimbatore, Arka Motorsports) (19mins, 15.138secs); 2. Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1 Racing) (19:25.275); 3. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts Motorsports) (19:25.733). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Arjun Balu (14:55.495); 2. Biren Pithawalla (15:09.053); 3. Rithesh Rai (Chennai, Buzzing Hornet) (15:15.953). Driver champion: Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1 Racing). Champion Team: Buzzing Hornet Motorsports.
ITC 1625 (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Nikanth Rambalu (Coimbatore, Performance Racing) (20:22.211). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Nikanth Rambalu (16:10.997); 2. Vidyaprakash Damodaran (Coimbatore, Performance Racing) (16:11.924). Driver Champion: Vidyaprakash Damodaran (Coimbatore, Team Performance Racing). Team: Team Performance Racing.
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) (20:03.408); 2. RP Raja Rajan (Chennai, Performance Racing) (20:39.977); 3. Jarshan Anand (Chennai, DB Motorsports) (21:07.201). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, Performance Racing) (15:31.018); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (15:34.664); 3. RP Raja Rajan (16:10.218). Driver Champion: Rithvik Thomas (Bengaluru, Race Concepts). Team: Team Performance Racing.
Super Stock (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Anirudha Arvind (Chennai, DTS Racing) (21:12.952); 2. Diljith TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (19:24.991 +1 lap); 3. Deepa S John (Thiruvananthapuram, DTS Racing) (19:37.628+1 lap). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Dilijith TS (16:35.981); 2. Krishanu Dutta Bhuyan (Guwahati, Zion Racing) (16:51.049); 3. Anirudha Arvind (16:55.613). Driver Champion: Diljith TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing). Team: DTS Racing.
Formula LGB 1300 (Race-2, 10 laps) (Open and Junior): 1. Bhuvan Bonu (Visakhapatnam, MSPORT) (21:44.649); 2. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai, Momentum Motorsports) (21:53.533); 3. Joel Joseph (Ernakulam, DTS Racing) (21:54.505). Race-3 (8 laps) (Open and Junior): 1. Vinith Kumar (Tirupur, DTS Racing) (15:09.078); 2. Lokithlingeash Ravi (Pollachi, DTS Racing) (15:09.805); 3. Joel Joseph (Ernakulam, DTS Racing) (15:10.039). Driver Champion (Open and Junior): Joel Joseph (Open and Junior). Team (Open and Junior): DTS Racing.
MRF Saloons (Race-2, 9 laps): 1. Akshay Muralidharan (Coimbatore) (27:04.714); 2. Tarushi Vikram (Chikkamagalur) (27:30.993); 3. Dr MM Annamallia (Chennai) (27:33.844). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Tarushi Vikram (Chikmagaluru) (17:56.618); 2. Mohammed Arafath (Chennai) (16:01.703+1 lap); 3. Salvius Karthik Roy (Chennai) (16:11.300+1 lap). Driver Champion: Akshay Muralidharan (Coimbatore).
Volkswagen Polo Cup (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Ojas Surve (Navi Mumbai) (26:21.764); 2. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai) (26:56.419); 3. Aman Nagdev (Noida) (27:04.902). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai) (15:43.686); 2. Aman Nagdev (Noida) (15:48.564); 3. Pratikk Sonawane (Mumbai) (15:50.882). Race-4 (8 laps): 1. Aman Nagdev (Noida) (15:30.275); 2. Ojas Surve (Navi Mumbai) (15:31.585); 3. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai) (1538:083). Driver Champion: Aman Nagdev (Noida).
– Team Sportstar
Published on Jan 25, 2026
Publicar comentário