PICKLEBALL
World Pickleball League announces Jio World Garden as venue for Season 2
The World Pickleball League (WPBL) announced Jio World Garden as the host venue for Season 2, set to take place in Mumbai from January 24 to February 8, 2026.
With six competing teams, World Pickleball League Season 2 will be the first-ever franchise sports league to be held at Jio World Garden.
– Team Sportstar
GOLF
Neha shoots stunning 65, takes 3-shot lead in 9th leg of Hero WPGT
Neha Tripathi, one of the most experienced stars on the Indian women’s circuit, produced a stunning 7-under 65 that catapulted her into a 3-shot lead after the second round of ninth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Clover Greens here on Thursday.
Even as the 33-year-old Neha made a move to the top, overnight leader Amandeep Drall suffered a big drop with a round of 4-over 76, seven shots worse than her first round at the Rs 15 lakh event.
Amandeep has now slipped from sole first to tied ninth at the Clover Greens par-72 layout.
– PTI
TENNIS
Kadhe and Prashanth shock second seeds to make Swiss Open semis
India’s Arjun Kadhe and Vijay Sundar Prashanth knocked out second seeds Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner in straight sets to advance to the semifinals of the Swiss Open in Gstaad, Switzerland.
The unseeded Indians shocked the higher-ranked Germans 6-3, 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals of the ATP 250 clay court tournament.
Kadhe has one ATP title under his belt, winning the Almaty ATP 250 event last year with compatriot Rithvik Bollipalli.
The Indian pair got an early break to go up 3-1 but dropped serve to let go of the advantage. However, they put the Germans under the pump one more time to take a 5-3 lead and earn an opportunity to nose ahead in the quarterfinal contest.
Kadhe came out to serve for the opening set and did the job after losing two points.
Both pairs played solid service games in the second set. There was no break of serve and the set was stretched to a tie-breaker.
The Indians trailed 0-3 after Kadhe lost both points on his serve but they roared back to restore parity as Schnaitter also lost consecutive points on his serve.
Kadhe and Prashanth quickly closed the match after Wallner lost a point on his serve at 5-4.
RESULTS
ATP 250 Gstaad, Switzerland
Doubles (quarterfinals): Arjun Kadhe & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Jakob Schnaitter & Mark Wallner (Ger) 6-3, 7-6(5).
ATP 250, Los Cabos, Mexico
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Reese Stalder (USA) bt Sadio Doumbia & Fabien Reboul (Fra) 6-4, 6-3.
€181,250 Challenger, San Marino
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Siddhant Banthia & Alexander Donski (Bul) bt Murkel Dellien & Federico Zeballos (Bol) 7-5, 6-3.
€91,250 Challenger, Pozoblanco, Spain
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anthony Genov (Bul) & Roy Stepanov (Isr) bt Daniil Golubev & Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-6(3), 7-6(3); Robin Bertrand (Fra) & Adil Kalyanpur bt Mateus Alves & Gabriel Sidney (Bra) 7-5, 6-7(2), [10-8].
€100,000 WTA, Porto, Portugal
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Francisca Jorge & Matilde Jorge (Por) bt Ankita Raina & Lanlana Tararudee (Tha) 6-2, 7-5.
$30,000 ITF men, Louisville, USA
Singles (first round): Dhakshineswar Suresh bt Giles Hussey (GBR) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Eric Perkowski (USA) & Saheb Sodhi bt Hoyoung Roh (Kor) & Kuangqing Xu (Chn) 7-6(4), 4-4 (retired); Nicolas Kotzen (USA) & Dhakshineswar Suresh bt Keshav Chopra & Matthew Thomson (USA) 6-3, 6-2.
$30,000 ITF men, Castelo Branco, Portugal
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Charles Broom (GBR) bt Manas Dhamne 6-1, 6-1.
$30,000 ITF men, Gandia, Spain
Singles (first round): Oscar Gutierrez (Esp) bt Prajwal Dev 6-7(3), 7-6(8), 6-2.
$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Dominik Palan (Cze) bt Arnav Paparkar 6-4, 6-4; Sidharth Rawat bt James Herzeele (Tha) 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3).
Doubles (quarterfinal): Sai Karteek Reddy & Tomohiro Masabayashi (Jpn) bt Siwanat Auytayakul & Jirat Navasirisomboon (Tha) 6-1, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF men, Hillcrest, South Africa
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Devin Badenhorst (RSA) bt Ishaque Eqbal 6-2, 6-2; Filip Peliwo (Pol) bt Aditya Balsekar 6-1, 6-1.
$60,000 ITF women, Olomouc, Czechia
Doubles (quarterfinals): Rutuja Bhosale & Wushuang Zheng (Chn) w.o. Emma Slavikova & Lucie Urbanova (Cze).
$30,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Yufei Ren (Chn) bt Vaideehee Chaudhari 6-3, 7-5.
$15,000 ITF women, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Zeel Desai bt Yuno Kitahara (Jpn) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF women, Hillcrest, South Africa
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Ayumi Miyamoto (Jpn) bt Akanksha Nitture 6-1, 6-1.
– PTI
AITA women’s tournament: Tejasvi beats Arushi in HPCL Mittal AITA tournament
Doubles champions Riya Sachdeva and Mahika Khanna in the AITA women’s tennis tournament in Chandigarh on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Doubles champions Riya Sachdeva and Mahika Khanna in the AITA women’s tennis tournament in Chandigarh on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Top seed Tejasvi Dabas had to be at her fighting best to beat Arushi Raval 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-5 in the semifinals of the HPCL Mittal Rs. 1,00,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Thursday.
In the final, Tejasvi will play Mahika Khanna who cruised past Aditi Tyagi for the loss of three games.
Mahika also won the doubles title in partnership with Riya Sachdeva.
RESULTS
Singles (semifinals): Tejasvi Dabas bt Arushi Raval 7-5, 6-7(4), 7-5; Mahika Khanna bt Aditi Tyagi 6-2, 6-1.
Doubles (final): Riya Sachdeva & Mahika Khanna bt Ruma Gaikaiwari & Priyanka Rodricks 5-7, 6-4, [10-5].
-Kamesh Srinivasan
FOOTBALL
FC Goa announces signing of midfielder Harsh Patre from Bengaluru FC
FC Goa on Thursday announced the signing of midfielder Harsh Patre from Bengaluru FC ahead of the 2025-26 season.
The 22-year-old returns to his home state after a stint with Bengaluru FC, becoming the latest addition to the Gaurs’ squad as the club continues to strengthen its local core.
– Team Sportstar
Oriental Cup 2025 returns for Its third season, strengthening Delhi’s school football ecosystem
The third edition of the Oriental Cup, an emerging school football tournament, is scheduled to be held from July 21 to July 29, 2025, at the iconic Dr. Ambedkar Stadium.
The competition will be bringing together 36 teams from schools across Delhi, 24 in the boys’ (U-15) category and 12 in the girls’ (U-19) category for competitive school football.
The 2025 edition will have a three-stage format, starting with qualifier rounds followed by league phase and culminating finals for both boys’ and girls’ category.
– Team Sportstar
KABADDI
PKL 12: Yogesh on his record-breaking move to Bengaluru Bulls
Yogesh Dahiya was bought by Bengaluru Bulls during PKL 12 players auction.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Yogesh Dahiya was bought by Bengaluru Bulls during PKL 12 players auction.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Yogesh Dahiya emerged as the most expensive Indian defender bought during a PKL season 12 Player Auction, after he was signed by Bengaluru Bulls for a staggering INR 1.125 crores.
“I was watching the player auction live on TV. I could see Bengaluru Bulls bidding, then Patna Pirates, then Bengal Warriorz. I was watching all this unfold,” recalls the 23-year-old defender.
The auction room drama translated into a whirlwind of emotions for the young athlete. “There was a little nervousness – what will happen? Who will take me? Which franchise will I join? But overall, it was very interesting and fun,” he reflected.
– Team Sportstar
MISCELLANEOUS
World University Games: Indian shuttlers get past Macau; Rohit Benedicton erases 50m butterfly national record
Indian shuttlers thrashed Macau 5-0 in the mixed team event, while teenage swimmer Rohit Benedicton smashed the seven-year-old national record in the men’s 50m butterfly on an otherwise disappointing opening day of the World University Games in the Rhine-Ruhr region of Germany on Thursday.
Indian badminton players blanked Macau in their opeing Group F match with the men’s doubles pair of Saneeth Dayanand and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran winning in straight games against Chi Chon Pui and Kok Weng Ving.
Women’s singles player Devika Sihag defeated Chi Wa Pui, while Saneeth came back to defeat Fei Long 2-0. The Indian women’s doubles pair of Tasnim Mir and Varshini Viswanath beat the duo of Sam Kio Ieong and Wai Kei Wang, while the mixed team of Karunakaran and Vaishnavi Khadkekar overcame Kok Weng Vong and Chi Wa Pui.
The third team in the group is Hong Kong China.
The highlight of the day was young swimmer Rohit, who broke the seven-year-old national record of Virdhawal Khade with a time of 24:00 seconds as he finished 12th overall to qualify for the semifinals. Khade had timed 24:09 seconds in 2018.
Last month, at the national aquatics championships in Bhubaneswar, Rohit had clinched the 100m butterfly gold by clocking 52.57, thus breaking Khade’s record of 52.79 seconds.
Rohit, 19, was the only Indian swimmer on day 1 to progress to the next round.
In fencing (men’s sabre), Abhay Shinde was the only Indian to make it to the knockout rounds, before he lost to a Spanish opponent 13-15 in the round of 64.
In women’s epee event, Mitva Chaudhari lost in the round-of-32 to Germany’s Alexandra Zittel 11-15.
– PTI