Indian sports wrap, June 14: Avani takes sole lead at Hulencourt Women’s Open

GOLF

Rookie Avani takes sole lead second at Hulencourt Women’s Open

Teen star Avani Prashanth, who was second for the first two days, added a third-round card of 3-under 69 to take sole lead at the Hulencourt Women’s Open here.

The 18-year-old Avani, who is playing her first season as a pro, goes into the final round as a sole leader for the first time in her career.

Playing in her first season on the LET, Avani, who as an amateur has top-10 finishes in Hero Women’s Indian Open and Magical Kenyan Open in 2023, has had four top-20 finishes this season.

After rounds of 68-69-69, she is 10-under despite a closing bogey on the 18th and holds a one-shot lead over French golfer, Nastasia Nadaud (67), and Welsh pro, Darcey Harry (68), who are both at 9-under.

– PTI

Talwar makes cut in Czech Republic

Indian golfer Saptak Talwar made the cut at the Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge with a second-round score of 1-under 70 at Golf Resort Kaskáda, keeping his campaign alive for the weekend.

With rounds of 72 and 70, the 26-year-old sits at even-par 142 and is tied for 60th place. Talwar began the day on the front nine with a birdie on his first hole.

He picked up another shot on the fifth only to drop one on the sixth before closing the front nine with a birdie. On the back nine he made birdie on the 11th hole and followed that with a bogey on the 12th.

He made his final birdie of the round on the 15th hole but lost shots on the 16th and 18th holes to end the day with 70. His combined 36 round score sits at even par with scores of 72 and 70.

The second day ended with a four-way tie for the lead between Spain’s Sebastian Garcia (65-67), England’s Joshua Berry (68-64), Welshman Stuart Manley (66-66) American Palmer Jackson (65-67). The leaders all have a 36-hole combined score of 10-under par.

– PTI

Mannat loses narrowly after creating history by reaching pre-quarterfinals in Women’s Amateur

Mannat Brar produced a great performance at the 122nd Women’s Amateur Championship before losing a narrow match in the pre-quarter finals, the best-ever effort by an Indian.

Mannat, who was third at the R&A Girls a year ago, was 16th in the stroke-play competition and then won two matches to reach the last 16.

She beat Germany’s Uma Bergner 5 & 4 in the Round of 64 on the first day of matchplay. Mannat went five up with four holes left to wrap up the match.

The next day, Mannat played two matches. First the Indian teenager came from way behind to beat Ireland’s Rebekah Gardner on the 21st hole.

Mannat staged an amazing comeback as she was 3-down with three holes to go. She won the next three to get into extra holes.

Both players parred the first extra hole and bogeyed it the next time. On the third attempt Mannat parred and Rebekah bogeyed, handing the match to the Indian.

In the Round of 16, Mannat was again trailing by three holes after 10 holes against Spain’s Paula Francisco.

Mannat won the 11th with a birdie, the 13th with a par and the 15th with a birdie to get to all square.

The duo parred the 16th and the 17th to stay level. Then Mannat lost narrowly on the 18th and exited.

Thanks to her triumph over Brar, Francisco has set up an all-Spanish quarter-final showdown against Paula Martin Sampedro. Francisco and Martin Sampedro both earned their last-eight places the hard way as they were pushed the full distance.

The winner of this year’s championship gains entry to the AIG Women’s Open, Amundi Evian Championship, the US Women’s Open, the Chevron Championship and, by tradition, will earn an invitation to compete at the Augusta National Women’s Amateur.

-PTI

CHESS

Delhi GM Open 2025: Abhijeet Gupta wins fourth title

Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta emerged as the undisputed champion of the 21st Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament (Delhi GM Open) 2025, scoring 8.5 points out of 10 to clinch a record fourth title at Asia’s most prestigious open chess event, and take home Rs. 7,00,000 as prize money.

Gupta, 36, delivered a flawless campaign, remaining unbeaten across 10 rounds. His decisive Round 9 victory over Belarusian GM Mihail Nikitenko gave him the edge, and a final-round draw against IM Aronyak Ghosh secured the title outright in the tournament, which had a record prize pool of Rs. 1.21 crore.

Nikitenko (2520, Belarus) finished second with 8 points, edging Indian GM Diptayan Ghosh (2573) on tiebreaks. Ghosh claimed third place, having impressed with sharp play and a key final-round win over GM Karthik Venkataraman. Despite also finishing on 8 points, IM Aronyak Ghosh and GM Aditya S Samant settled for fourth and fifth respectively on tiebreaks.

Meanwhile, Category C—hosted at Tivoli Gardens, Chattarpur—featured 1,250 players and a total prize pool of Rs. 35 lakhs. The winner of the section was Dinesh Kumar H from Tamil Nadu, who took home the Rs. 4,00,000 top prize. He was followed by Naitik Sethi (Rs. 3,00,000) and Sibi M (Rs. 2,00,000) in second and third place respectively.

– Team Sportstar

TENNIS

Ankita Raina makes doubles final in Portugal

Ankita Raina, in partnership with Alice Robbe of France, made the doubles final with a 7-5, 7-6(7) victory over the second seeds Gabriella Da Silva and Elena Micic of Australia in the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Guimaraes, Portugal.

In the final, the Indo-French pair will play the Japanese third seeds Hiromi Abe and Kanako Morisaki.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

CRICKET

India’s first mixed disability cricket team to play IT20 series in England

India’s first mixed disability cricket team is set to participate in a Mixed Disability IT20 Series in England from June 21 to July 3.

Under Captain Ravindra Gopinath Sante, the team will tour England to play in a seven-match series. The highlight of the tour is a game at the legendary Lord’s – a first for India’s men’s mixed disability cricket team, with another match on July 1 in Bristol.

– PTI

BASKETBALL

UP men, Kerala women triumph

Uttar Pradesh men and Kerala women emerged champions in the first National under-23 3×3 basketball championships at the Regional Sports Centre in Kochi on Sunday.

UP, powered by the three internationals in its ranks, staved off a late challenge from Kerala 21-14 in the men’s final. Kerala had it easy in the women’s trophy-decider, finishing with a 19-11 verdict over Karnataka.

Kushal Singh, who played in the 3×3 Asia Cup in Singapore in March, was UP’s hero, scoring 11 points. That gave UP a good lead. The closest host Kerala came was 14-17 with one and half minutes left but UP broke away to win comfortably.

The women’s final, though one-sided, was a smart team affair with Akshaya Philip, Chinnu Koshy and Ann Mary Zachariah sparkling. “They (Karnataka) are good outside shooters so we focused more on defence,” said Akshaya, the Kerala captain.

The winning teams received a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh.

– Stan Rayan