Sports

Osaka (Japan), Aug 30 (IANS) Ace Indian shuttler HS Prannoy advanced to the men's singles round of 16 at the Japan Open 2022 badminton tournament, here on Tuesday.

Prannoy, the world No 18, was leading 11-10 in the first game against Hong Kong's Ng Ka Long Angus when the latter retired from the tie due to an apparent injury.

The Ng Ka Long Angus withdrawal means that Prannoy will get the must-needed rest for his next round encounter which will be against the 2021 world champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore.

The Indian, who reached the quarter-finals at the world championships last week after beating Kento Momota and Lakshya Sen along the way, will fancy his chances against Loh Kean Yew.

In the women's doubles, the pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam were knocked out after they lost 15-21, 9-21 to South Koreans Baek Ha Na and Lee Yu Lim.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will begin his Japan Open 2022 campaign against Kenta Nishimoto on Wednesday. The likes of Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal also begin their campaigns on Wednesday, as do the pairs of MR Arjun/Dhruv Kapila and Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand.

However, two-time Olympic medallist and former world champion PV Sindhu is still recovering from a stress fracture on her ankle sustained during the Commonwealth Games and will miss the tournament.


--IANS
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Mumbai, Aug 30 (IANS) Actress Sara Ali Khan was photographed on a dinner date with cricketer Shubman Gill at a Mumbai restaurant.

A picture of Sara Ali Khan and Shubman enjoying a meal together is doing the rounds on the Internet.

Earlier there were rumours that Shubman was dating Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar's daughter Sara Tendulkar.

Sara Ali Khan is actors Saif Ali Khan and Amrita Singh's elder daughter. She was earlier rumoured to be dating Kartik Aaryan, with whom she was seen in the film 'Love Aajkal 2'. Shubman Gill is part of the Indian cricket team and started his international cricket career in February 2017.

On the acting front, Sara, who was last seen on screen in 'Atrangi Re', will next be seen in 'Gaslighit' alongside Vikrant Massey. She also has Laxman Utekar's untitled project with Vicky Kaushal.

--IANS
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New York, Aug 30 (IANS) Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan caused a major upset at the US Open on Tuesday, showing fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas the exit door with a hard-fought 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 victory against the Greek player on Tuesday.

With the help of 41 winners, the world No. 94 reached the second round at Flushing Meadows after a two hours and 48 minutes slugfest on his main draw debut at the season's final major.

This was the 26-year-old Colombian's biggest win of his career.

"Definitely one of the best moments of my career," Galan was quoted as saying by atptour.com. "Definitely the best match of my career, not only because of the circumstances, also the opponent. I'm really happy."

Galan, who did not lose a set in qualifying, won the first 11 games of the match against Tsitsipas with a superb display of aggression.

"I think he (Tsitsipas) started playing better in the third set. He served much better than the first two and I was putting the serve in the court, but not putting pressure on him. He was always in control," Galan said.

"I think he felt really comfortable during those two sets. I tried to change a little bit the position when I was returning and that changed a lot because I was able to return (deeper) and he was not so offensive on the first ball, so I was able to do a little bit more."

Galan had entered the match with a 0-6 record against Top-20 opponents. He had reached the third round at Wimbledon and his confidence showed against Tsitsipas. The Greek has now lost in the first round of the US Open in two of his five appearances and has never advanced to the second week. He made 57 unforced errors compared to 28 winners in his defeat, according to atptour.com.

"He dominated the match," Tsitsipas admitted. "I just couldn't get into it."

--IANS

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