Indian sports wrap, January 26: Ankita Raina to face seventh seed Elena Pridankina in ITF women’s tournament
Indian sports wrap, January 26: Ankita Raina to face seventh seed Elena Pridankina in ITF women’s tournament
The country’s No.1 player, Ankita Raina will open against seventh seed Elena Pridankina in the NECC $60,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament to be played at the Deccan Gymkhana in Pune from Monday.
Three of the other four Indians, making their entry through wild cards, Sahaja Yamalapalli, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Vaishnavi Adkar have drawn qualifiers in the first round. The fourth, Vaidehi Chaudhari, will face the champion of the Delhi event, Tatiana Prozorova.
Even though some of the main draw action would start on Monday, the second and final qualifying round matches would also be completed on Monday.
Zeel Desai was the only Indian, among 16, to progress in the qualifying event, and will play Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan in the final round. Zarina beat Maaya Rajeshwaran for the loss of six games in the first qualifying round.
The seedings: 1. Leolia Jeanjean (Fra), 2. Sara Bejlek (Cze), 3. Panna Udvardy (Hun), 4. Kathinka von Deichmann (Lie), 5. Laura Pigossi (Bra), 6. Yuriko Miyazaki (GBR), 7. Elena Pridankina, 8. Emina Bektas (USA).
– Team Sportstar
Gary Hall, who has guided British taekwondo to 10 Olympic medals, four Paralympic medals and 37 World Championship medals, has been appointed as the High Performance Director by JSW Sports at the Inspire Institute of Sports (IIS) in Vijayanagar.
Not just taekwondo, but Gary has 22 years of experience in developing performance strategies of athletes and leading multi-disciplinary teams. In his new role, Gary aims to guide IIS athletes to enhanced performance across all levels.
“I am happy to drive an exciting, positive, creative and supportive performance culture. I firmly believe that IIS athletes can be intensely competitive and deliver medal winning performances that inspire the whole of India,” said Gary, in a statement on Sunday.
– Team Sportstar
