Stay Updated with the Latest in Indian Sports: Rohan Bopanna, PV Sindhu, and More!
Welcome to ESPN India’s daily blog, where we aim to bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports: from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
June has plenty of sporting action taking place – which you can find listed out in ESPN India’s sporting calendar.
Second seeds Bopanna-Ebden into French Open semifinals
The second seeded Indo-Australian duo of Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden stayed on track for their second straight Grand Slam, reaching the semifinals of the French Open with a three-game win.
They Belgium’s Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 7-6 (3) 5-7 6-1 in an hour and four minutes.
Bopanna and Ebden prevailed to take the first set in the Tiebreak but the Belgians came back strongly to win the second set with a break of Ebden’s serve in the penultimate game.
However, Bopanna and Ebden were empathic in the decider as they broke early to quickly establish their dominance and never gave their opponents an inch.
It hasn’t been an easy road for the Australian Open champions as they played three-setters in their first and third round matches too. They had a walkover in the second round.
Sarabjot Singh qualifies for Munich final in top spot
Sarabjot Singh shot an impressive 588 to secure top spot in qualification and make the final of the men’s 10m air pistol at the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Munich,
Among other Indians in the men’s pistol, Arjun Cheema and Varun Tomar both shot scores of 582, to finish 10th and 11th respectively. The only Indian in the women’s air pistol, Rhythm Sangwan, could not make much headway either, finishing 16th with a score of 575.
The women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions (3P) squad however looked sharp as Anjum Moudgil (591), Sift Kaur Samra (588) and Ashi Chouksey (588), sailed through their elimination rounds. In the men’s 3P, Chain Singh (592), Swapnil Kusale and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar also comfortably negotiated the elimination hurdle. The 3P shooters will shoot their qualification rounds on Thursday.
Indonesia Open: Sindhu suffers loss in first round
PV Sindhu was expecting to have a deeper run at the Indonesia Open but unfortunately, she lost the first round match against world no. 26 Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei 21-15, 15-21, 21-14 in an hour and 10 minutes.
The Indonesia Open was one of the last big tournaments before the Paris Olympics and Sindhu was hoping to show her best but that was not the case.
She didn’t begin well, lost the opening game but recovered well to win the next game. The deciding game started close but a couple of errors, including a line judgement, turned the match around. Chi Hsu converted her opportunities and closed the game out.
The duo of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, however, progressed to the next round with a 21-15 21-15 win over Canada’s Jackie Dent and Crystal Lai in their women’s doubles first round clash.
In a women’s doubles round of 32 match, the Indian duo of Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda lost to Korea’s sixth-seeded pair of Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong 12-21 9-21.
Aakarshi Kashyap lost her women’s singles first round match to Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 18-21 6-21.
Norway Chess: Carlsen beats Pragg in armageddon; Vaishali secure bonus point
India’s R Praggnanandhaa lost to world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen in armageddon in Round 8 of the Norway Chess 2024. Carlsen has now extended his lead at the top to a full point while second placed Hikaru Nakamura suffered defeat against Alireza Firouzja in armageddon after their classical match ended in a draw.
R Vaishali, who lost her last two classical matches, secured a much-needed bonus point after beating Anna Muzychuk in armageddon.
Meanwhile, world champion Ding Liren once again squandered winning positions to lose against Fabiano Caruana in the armageddon.
Praggnanandhaa defended well against Carlsen’s white pieces to secure a draw in classical but couldn’t keep in armageddon where Carlsen was once again at his best.
With the extra point, Carlsen now has 14.5 points with two rounds to go followed by Nakamura with 13.5 points and Praggnanandhaa with 12 points. All three are still in the race to win the tournament.
There has been a change in lead in women’s standings with China’s Ju Wenjun on top after securing three points against Pia Cramling. She leads with 14.5 points to her name followed by Muzychuk with 13 and Vaishali with 11.5 points.
Another Indian in the fray, Koneru Humpy lost her classical match against Lei Tingjie.
In Round 9, Praggnanandhaa faces Caruana while Vaishali is up against Tingjie.
What’s on today?
Badminton: PV Sindhu faces Chinese Taipei’s Wen Chi Hsu in the first round of the Indonesia Open.
Tennis: Rohan Bopanna and his partner Matthew Ebden play their French Open Men’s Doubles quarterfinal against Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
Cricket: India face Ireland in their opening game of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Football: Expect news from Kolkata as India prepare for their crunch World Cup qualifier against Kuwait in what will be captain Sunil Chhetri’s last game for the national team.
What happened yesterday?
Tennis: Rohan Bopanna picked N Sriram Balaji as his partner for the men’s doubles event at the Paris Olympics.
Badminton: HS Prannoy lost to Priyanshu Rajawat in the first round of the Indonesia Open, Lakshya Sen beat Kanta Tsuneyama
Shooting: Esha Singh finished 6th in the women’s 25m pistol event at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich.
Chess: Arjun Erigaisi reached the top 5 of the FIDE Live Rating standings, making him the highest ranked Indian by live rating.
Chess: R Praggnanadhaa won an armageddon against world champion Ding Liren; Koneru Humpy beat R Vaishali
You can find all the details of yesterday’s events here.