SHOOTING
Manu Bhaker tops 10m air pistol women’s final at National Trials
Olympian Manu Bhaker topped the 10m air pistol women’s final in the National Selection Trials T3 (Group A) which concluded on Tuesday at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range. Trial two winner Sainyam finished second while Esha Singh secured the third spot in the eight-woman final.
Manut, who squeezed into the finals as the last qualifier, maintained her lead from the end of the second series to finish on top with a final score of 246.1, which was a comfortable 4.2 points more than World Cup Final silver medallist Sainyam who finished with a score of 241.9. Asian Championship gold and World Championship bronze medallist Esha Singh finished third with a score of 220.6.
Asian Games champion Palak Gulia finished fourth after a score of 200.2 followed by Anjali Choudhary who hit 179.8. Surbhi Rao finished in sixth place with a score of 158.2 followed by Deaflympics medallist Pranjali Prashant Dhumal and Muskan who scored 138.7 and 117.0, completing the top eight.
Esha had qualified for the final in top spot with a score of 580-21x followed by Surbhi Rao who shot 578-12x. Muskan qualified in third place after scoring 577-15x followed by Anjali Choudhary (575-19x), Sainyam (575-16x), Palak (574-14x) and Manu (574-11x).
The national squad athletes will now start the coaching camp which will be held at New Delhi from March 11 to March 21.
Other Results
50m Rifle Prone Men – 1. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (628.3), 2. Niraj Kumar (622.6), 3. Goldi Gurjar (622.2)
50m Rifle Prone Women – 1. Sift Kaur Samra (628.3), 2. Aakriti Dahiya (627.0), 3. Manini Kaushik (626.6)
– Team Sportstar
TABLE TENNIS
Sreeja Akula suffers defeat in first round of WTT Champions Chongqing
Sreeja Akula was knocked out of the WTT Champions event in Chongqing, China, after a first-round defeat on Tuesday.
Sreeja went down 1-3 (12-14, 11-5, 9-11, 8-11) to Welsh wildcard Anna Hursey in 33 minutes.
Manav Thakkar, the only other Indian in the competition, will face Germany’s Dang Qiu in the first round of men’s singles on Thursday.
– Team Sportstar
TENNIS
Sahaja Yamalapalli qualifies for main draw in Kyoto
Indian No. 1 Sahaja Yamalapalli secured a spot in the main draw of the W75 ITF event in Kyoto, Japan, on Tuesday.
Yamalapalli defeated local wildcard Karen Tsutsumi 6-0, 6-1 before beating Yuki Naito, another Japanese player, 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 to qualify for the main draw where she’ll face Cyprus’ Raluca Georgiana Serban in the first round.
– Team Sportstar
Government of Maharashtra, MSLTA announce 20 International ITF tournaments
After successfully hosting major international events such as the ATP Tour 250, WTA 125, and PMR Challenger tournaments for the past five consecutive years, the Directorate of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Maharashtra, along with the ATP Organising Committee, has decided to expand tennis development directly to the district level in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA).
Under this new initiative, a total of 20 international tournaments sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) – offering prize money of USD 15,000 and USD 25,000 – will be organised across various districts in the state.
The first tournament is scheduled to be held in Mumbai at MSLTA from March 15 to 22, followed by Nagpur from March 22 to 29, and then later in Sambhahjinagar from March 29 to April 5.
-Team Sportstar
Shanmugam through to second round at Central Excise and CGST ITF tournament
Wild card entrant Abhinav Shanmugam of India delivered an impressive performance to upset seventh seed Timofei Derepasko of Russia in the first round of the men’s singles main draw of the Central Excise and CGST – ITF M25 tournament at the Bengal Tennis Association Complex on Tuesday.
Abhinav seized the initiative early in the contest, breaking Derepasko in the fourth game of the opening set. Maintaining firm control on his serve thereafter, the Indian comfortably closed out the set 6–3. The second set saw Derepasko attempt a fight back. The Russian broke Abhinav in the second game and surged to a 3-0 lead to briefly shift the momentum in his favour. However, Abhinav got back his form and broke his opponent three times to overturn the deficit and clinch the set 6–3 and the match in straight sets.
Second seed Karan Singh of India also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals after surviving some early challenge from unseeded compatriot Aditya Balsekar. The opening set went to a tie-break, where Karan held his nerve to edge it 7–5. Carrying that momentum forward, Karan wrapped up the match with a 6–4 win in the second set.
Top seeded Luca Castelnuovo of Switzerland had a far more comfortable outing, defeating India’s Maan Kesharwani 6–2, 6–2 to progress to the next round.
Results
Luca Castelnuovo (Sui) bt Maan Kesharwani 6-2, 6-2, Philip Sekulic (Aus) bt Atharva Sharma 6-0, 6-0, Ishaque Eqbal bt Tarun Karra 6-2, 6-1, Dev Javia bt Kabir Hans 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, Abhinav Shanmugam bt Timofei Derepasko (Rus) 6-3, 6-3, Karan Singh bt Aditya Balsekar 7-6(5), 6-4.
– Team Sportstar
PARA BADMINTON
Double delight for Krishna Nagar at Nationals
Paralympic champion Krishna Nagar delivered a dominant performance to clinch two gold medals in the SH6 category of the 7th Senior National Para Badminton Championship in Hyderabad.
Krishna first secured the men’s singles SH6 title, defeating Sudarsan M S in the final with a 21-10, 21-19 victory.
He then went on to secure his second gold medal in the mixed doubles SH6 event, partnering Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan. The pair defeated Sudarsan M S and Shreya Kumari 21-7, 21-11.
SH6 is a classification in para-badminton for players of short stature, usually caused by conditions such as dwarfism.
– PTI
GOLF
Hero Indian Open set to tee-off with record prize purse
The prize purse for the Hero Indian Open has been increased to Rs. 23.44 crore for the 2026 edition, the event organisers announced on Tuesday.
Sanctioned by the DP World Tour and Indian Golf Union (IGU), the tournament will be held from March 26 to 29 at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.
-Team Sportstar
Record field of 57 players assembles for fifth leg of Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour
A record field of 57 players led by Ridhima Dilawari and Tvesa Malik will tee-off in the fifth leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour in Gurugram on Wednesday.
The record number of 57 entries includes eight amateurs and 49 professionals. The event will carry a whopping Rs. 18 lakh prize purse. Ridhima has won two of the four events held this season, while Tvesa and Jasmine Shekar have one each. All four are in the field this week.
Sneha Singh and Amandeep Drall are also in the large field as is Neha Tripathi. The eight amateurs in the field are Alysha Dutt, Riddhima Singh, Lavanya Gupta, Priya Kumari, Ceerat Kang, Aradhana Manikandan, Mahreen Bhatia and Rashi Mishra.
-PTI
BOXING
Indian youth boxers shine with 5 wins in Futures Cup
Five Indian youth boxers registered wins on the third day of the World Boxing Futures Cup here on Tuesday.
In the morning session, Chandrika Pujari (50kg) secured a convincing 5-0 unanimous decision win over a Venezuelan boxer, while Joyshree Devi (54kg) continued her strong run with a Referee Stopped Contest (RSC) victory in the third round against her Kazakh opponent.
In the men’s division, L. Ambekar (50kg) also advanced with a dominant 5-0 win over his rival from Ecuador.
The evening session saw Gunjan (48kg) edge past her Italian contestant in a close 3-2 win, while Prachi (60kg) delivered a commanding performance to defeat the competitor from Ecuador with an RSC victory in the first round.
– PTI
Published on Mar 10, 2026
