Lakshya storms into quarters of China Masters

New Delhi: Lakshya Sen stormed into the men’s singles quarterfinals of the China Masters badminton tournament with an easy victory over Ha Young-woong of South Korea. The Indian won 21-14 21-15 in a 46-minute contest in Lingshui.  Sen will take on Zhou Zeqi of China in the quarterfinals on Friday. 

Astana (Kazakhstan)

Indian men slip at final hurdle, finish fourth

It turned out to be a disappointing final round for the Indian men as they went downing fighting against Russia 1.5-2.5 in the ninth and final round of the World Team Chess Championship.

Having done some real hard work to be joint second after the penultimate round, a 2-2 result would have given the Indians the bronze and a victory would have ensured the silver for the team. National champion Aravindh Chithambaram missed out on a great opportunity to beat Dmitry Andreikin on the fourth board and Surya Ganguly could not convert a complex but advantageous position against Ian Nepomniachtchi on the second board. Both these games ended in draws. B Adhiban drew with Sergey Karjakin on the top board but SP Sethuraman lost a long-drawn game against Alexander Grischuk on the third board, putting an end to Indian hopes of a medal despite being among the frontrunners from Day 1. The Indian eves finished sixth on nine points after settling for a 2-2 draw with Hungary.

Colombo

SLC asks coach to return home from SA

Sri Lanka head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe was on Thursday told to return home from South Africa in the middle of the ODI series and fielding coach Steve Rixon will take charge of the team for the subsequent T20I series. Hathurusinghe will be returning to Sri Lanka after the final ODI game in Cape Town on March 16. Sri Lanka Cricket will ask Hathurusinghe about his plans for the World Cup in England in May-July. 

Cairo

Joshna goes down fighting in Black Ball Open

Joshna Chinappa’s memorable run in the Women’s Black Ball Squash Open came to an end after she went down fighting against world No. 5 Joelle King in the quarterfinals of the PSA gold event. King won the match 7-11 12-10 2-11 11-5 11-8.

Basel

Dey, Mookerjee advance to Swiss Open quarters 

Subhankar Dey and Riya Mookerjee advanced to men’s and women’s singles quarterfinals, respectively, of the Swiss Open badminton tournament. Dey registered a  12-21 22-20 21-17 win over Jonatan Christie of Indonesia, while Mookerjee made it to the quarterfinals after her opponent from Canada, Michelle Li, retired hurt when the score read 18-16 in favour of the Indian.  Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy registered a 21-14 21-17 win over the pair of Nadia Fankhauser of Switzerland and Iris Tabeling of the Netherlands to enter the quarers. — Agencies