BASKETBALL
FIBA Women’s Asia Cup, Division B: India stays in contention for semifinal spot
India women’s basketball team beat Tahiti 78-55 in its final Group A match of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup (Division B) in Shenzhen, China, on Wednesday.
Sreekala Rani (15 points) and Sathya Krishnamurthi (11 points) were the top scorers in India’s second win of the tournament.
India (five points) finished second behind Chinese Taipei (six points) in its group. While Chinese Taipei goes directly into the semifinals, India will face third-placed team from Group B on Friday for a place in the last-four stage.
The competition, which concludes on July 20, had eight teams divided equally into two groups with. Winner of the tournament is set to be promoted to Division A.
India has previously won the Division B title in 2017 when it was also the host. However, the team missed out on playing in Division A in 2023 and aims to find its way back.
-Team Sportstar
CHESS
AICF to host 10 FIDE trainer seminars in 2025
The All India Chess Federation (AICF) will conduct 10 FIDE trainer seminars this year and one in January 2026.
The trainer seminars, aiming to empower the Indian chess coaches for training all levels of growing talents, will start from Vijayawada in August and will cover a host of Indian cities before finally culminating in Ranchi in January 2026.
“For the first time ever, we are witnessing a national federation organising 10 FIDE Trainers’ Seminars in a single calendar year — and remarkably, a proposal for the 11th seminar has already been submitted for January,” said Sami Khader, the chair of the TRG (FIDE trainers commission).
“This outstanding initiative by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) is a testament to their unwavering commitment to developing chess trainers and raising the bar for training standards across the region.
“The FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) would like to emphasise that this is not only a record-breaking achievement but also reflection of the strong, ongoing collaboration and mutual trust between AICF and TRG.”
AICF head of operations, A K Verma said the initiative is a part of producing trained coaches, who can provide quality coaching to budding chess players. “We have been trying to provide a lot of training support to our coaches and give them the best available training so that they can use the knowledge to train students in their respective academies, institutes, personal coaching as well as in schools,” said Verma.
“For the past could of years, the AICF has been organising five such seminars and from five to 10 is a big leap forward, we just hope more and more coaches join to reap the benefits of this initiative.”
Verma also added that he hoped schools will also take cognizance of the importance of having properly trained trainers/teachers with a valid training certificate coming from the apex world body.
Top Indian coaches, FST and Dronacharya awardee R B Ramesh, head coach Indian team N Srinath, head coach Indian women team Abhijit Kunte, GM Pravin Thipsay and GM Tejas Bakre have confirmed their participation as coaches for these seminars.
SCHEDULE
Vijayawada August 8–10; Madurai August 22–24; Kottayam September 12–14; Pune September 19–21; Jaipur September 26–28; Noida, November 14–16; Kolkata November 28–30; Guwahati December 5–7; Bengaluru December 19–21; Ahmedabad December 26–28; Ranchi Januaru 23–25.
-PTI
GOLF
Amandeep takes 2-shot lead despite late bogeys in 9th Leg of Hero WPGT
Amandeep Drall opened with a fine 3-under 69 to take a two-shot lead in the first round of the ninth Leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Hosur on Wednesday.
Amandeep dropped two late bogeys on the 16th and the 17th holes but despite that she had a handy lead over seasoned Neha Tripathi and Seher Atwal, who carded 1-under 71 each at the Clover Greens.
Five other players Vidhatri Urs, Anaggha Venkatesh; Jasmine Shekar, Sneha Singh and Jahaanvie Walia shot even par 72 each to be Tied-fourth.
The Order of Merit leader and four-time winner this season, Vani Kapoor, struggled to 3-over 75 with three birdies against four bogeys and a double bogey. She was lying T-16 and eight shots behind her friend Amandeep.
-PTI
TENNIS
Arjun and Prashanth advance to Swiss Open quarterfinals
The Indian pair of Arjun Kadhe and Vijay Sundar Prashanth on Wednesday moved to the quarterfinals of the Swiss Open with a straight-sets win but their compatriots N Sriram Balaji and Rithvik Bollipalli suffered a first-round exit from the ATP 250 event in Gstaad, Switzerland.
Kadhe and Prashanth got the better of Nicolas Barrientos from Colombia and Miguel Rayes-Varela from Mexico 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round of the clay court tournament.
However, the pair of Balaji and Bollipalli fell 6-4, 6-7(8), [10-7] to local wild card entrants Jakub Paul and Dominic Stricker in a hard-fought match.
Meanwhile, competing in the ATP 250 hard court event in Los Cabos, the Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Niki Kalyan Poonacha went down 6-4, 6-3 to second seeds Rajeev Ram and Christian Harrison.
-PTI
Aryan Shah reaches quarterfinals of Pozoblanco Challenger
Qualifier Aryan Shah beat Eliakim Coulibaly of Ivory Coast 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the first round of the €91,250 Challenger tennis tournament in Pozoblanco, Spain, on Wednesday.
RESULTS
€91,250 Challenger, Pozoblanco, Spain
Singles (first round): Aryan Shah bt Eliakim Coulibaly (CIV) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.
$30,000 ITF men, Castelo Branco, Portugal
Singles (first round): Seydina Andre (Sen) bt S Mukund 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-3; Manas Dhamne bt Goncallo Castro (Por) 6-1, 7-5.
$25,000 ITF men, Gandia, Spain
Singles (first round): Ignacio Parisca (Ven) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 7-6(3), 7-5.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Adrien Burdet (Sui) & Yanaki Milev (Bul) bt Prajwal Dev & Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-4, 2-6, [10-6].
$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
Singles (first round): Hikaru Shiraishi (Jpn) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam 6-4, 6-2; Arnav Paparkar bt Sai Karteek Reddy 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sai Karteek Reddy & Tomohiro Masabayashi (Jpn) bt Ali Habib (GBR) & Nikita Ianin 6-7(5), 6-3, [11-9].
$15,000 ITF men, Poprad, Slovakia
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Aryan Lakshmanan & Kristjan Tamm (Est) bt Xavier Jakubovic & Alex Lapsansky (Svk) 6-1, 6-1.
€100,000 WTA, Porto, Portugal
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Riya Bhatia & Mariana Drazic (Cro) bt Lizette Cabrera & Taylah Preston (Aus) 6-3, 6-4.
$60,000 ITF women, Olomouc, Czechia
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Magdalena Smekalova (Cze) & Laura Svatikova (Svk) bt Klaudija Bubelyte (Ltu) & Sravya Shivani 7-6(3), 6-4.
$40,000 ITF women, Nottingham, Britain
Singles (first round): Jamilah Snells (USA) bt Maaya Rajeshwaran 6-2, 6-3.
$30,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Vaidehee Chaudhari bt Chihiro Muramatsu (Jpn) 6-4, 6-2.
$15,000 ITF women, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
Singles (first round): Zeel Desai bt Maria Herazo (Col) 6-2, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF women, Huamantla, Mexico
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Emily Sartz-Lunde (Nor) & Maria Sholokhova bt Shria Atturu (USA) & Saumya Vig 6-0, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Hillcrest, South Africa
Singles (first round): Akanksha Nitture bt Isabella Basson (RSA) 6-3, 6-1; Victoria Mulville (USA) bt Soha Sadiq 6-2, 6-4; Caterina Odorizzi (Ita) bt Smriti Bhasin 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Akanksha Nitture & Soha Sadiq bt Ellie Blackford (GBR) & Andre Lukosiute (Ltu) 5-7, 6-3, [11-9].
-Kamesh Srinivasan
AITA Tournament: Aditi reaches semifinals
Aditi Tyagi beat her doubles partner and third seed Riya Sachdeva 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the HPCL-Mittal Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Wednesday.
In the semifinals, Aditi will challenge Mahika Khanna who was equally authoritative in beating second seed Sohini Mohanty. The other semifinal will be between top seed Tejasvi Dabas and Arushi Raval.
RESULTS
Singles (quarterfinals): Tejasvi Dabas bt Lakshmi Gowda 6-3, 6-3; Arushi Raval bt Jeetesh Kumari 6-2, 5-7, 6-0; Aditi Tyagi bt Riya Sachdeva 6-4, 6-2; Mahika Khanna bt Sohini Mohanty 6-4, 6-2.
Doubles (semifinals): Ruma Gaikaiwari & Priyanka Rodricks bt Divya Sharma & Tejasvi Dabas 7-6(4), 6-4; Riya Sachdeva & Mahika Khanna bt Sherry Sharma & Reet Arora 6-2, 6-4.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
MOTORSPORT
Salman Khan unveils Indian Supercross Racing League Season 2
Salman Khan is serving as the brand ambassador for the Indian Supercross Racing League Season 2.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Salman Khan is serving as the brand ambassador for the Indian Supercross Racing League Season 2.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
The second season of the Indian Supercross Racing League (ISRL) was unveiled on Wednesday, with Bollywood star Salman Khan serving as the brand ambassador.
As part of the mission to elevate Supercross in India to a global level, Salman also launched the ‘ISRL Proving Grounds’ dedicated to grassroots motorsport development in India.
The facility, to be built on a 7-acre site near Pune, will feature multiple purpose-built tracks, including those for amateurs, kids, motocross, supercross, ATVs, electric bikes, trail riding, and more.
Speaking at the event, Salman said, “I’ve always been passionate about motorcycles and off-roading, when I saw what ISRL is building bringing together world-class talent, supporting home-grown athletes, and creating an entire ecosystem and lifestyle around the sport, I knew this was something I wanted to be part of, not just as a face, but as a believer. This league is about pushing boundaries, and that’s something I connect with deeply.”
-Team Sportstar