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THE HINDU DELHI FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2020 SPORT 19 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE End of the road for Paire and Prajnesh Indians’ schedule goes haywire Marcora stuns No. 1 seed while Kwon knocks out the Indian; Purav­Ramkumar duo beats Paes­Ebden after Coronavirus outbreak N. Sudarshan title in 2018 and reached the plan is to stay in Europe. I TATA OPEN PUNE final last year. don't know what's going to N. Sudarshan Following the outbreak of Ramkumar has played happen going forward. The PUNE the deadly Coronavirus in three Chinese Challengers in Olympics are at stake if it Tata Open Maharashtra’s China, the schedules of In­ each of the past two years goes on like this.” worst fears came true on dia’s top singles players have and reached the final of a China alone was set to Thursday as top seed Benoit been badly affected. $125,000 Challenger in Chi­ host 14 Challengers this year Paire, India No.1 Prajnesh In the recent past, Praj­ nese Taipei in April 2018. and there are now fears that Gunneswaran and crowd fa­ nesh Gunneswaran (No. Both Prajnesh and Ramku­ with the events getting can­ vourite Leander Paes all 122), Ramkumar Ramanath­ mar won’t be travelling this celled, the entry cut­offs at crashed out of the an (182) and Sasikumar Mu­ year. other tournaments will go tournament. kund (263) have used the ra­ “I was supposed to play in higher. Prajnesh, however, First Prajnesh was beaten pidly improving East Asian China, but won’t be going downplayed it. 6­3, 7­6(5) by South Korea’s swing of the ATP Challenger there,” confirmed Prajnesh. “Doesn’t really make it Soonwoo Kwon; then Paire circuit in March and April to “I’ll be playing in Kazakh­ more difficult,” he said. “It’s turned in an abject perfor­ prop up their rankings. stan or something. I just just a bit more tricky in that mance to lose to Italian Ro­ But with the ATP cancell­ have to look at the calendar it involves more travelling.” berta Marcora 6­4, 6­4 before ing all four Challengers in and go wherever tourna­ Paes’ defeat in his last appea­ China during March (Qujing, ments are available.” Closely monitored rance in an ATP 250 at home Zhuhai, Shenzhen and The ATP said it was monitor­ rounded off the evening. Zhangjiagang), the players Hard blow ing the situation closely. “We The Indian doubles le­ will now have to look el­ For Sasikumar, in particular, had to cancel / delay the Chi­ gend and his partner Aussie sewhere. The ATP is yet to it will be a hard blow, for he nese Challengers in March,” Matthew Ebden were make a decision on the tour­ played five Challengers in said Alison Lee, the ATP’s thrashed by Purav Raja and naments in April, but with March and April across Chi­ Executive Vice President, In­ Ramkumar Ramanathan 6­2, apprehensions about travell­ na and Chinese Taipei, in­ ternational Group. “We have 6­1. ing very high, the Indians cluding the two in Shenzhen had to adapt, shift a few tour­ The Indian pair was ruth­ are set to miss the whole and Zhangjiagang that have naments so that player flow less on the night, winning swing. been cancelled. was not affected. Natural oc­ 82% of its service points and Powering through: Purav Raja and Ramkumar Ramanathan proved too strong for Leander Paes and Matthew Ebden. * R. RAGU The $162,480 Anning “I don't have a schedule, currences like this happen not providing a single oppor­ Challenger scheduled for where can I plan next?” said and we have to be prepared. tunity to break. In contrast, Prajnesh 6­3. The 30­year­old played a hand to give Kwon two Gerasimov (Blr) bt Nikola Milo- April has been a happy hunt­ a worried Sasikumar. “The But it's mainly China. Alth­ showed a lot more fight. He much better second set, stay­ match points and the South jevic (Srb) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2. ing ground for Prajnesh. He tournaments got cancelled ough we may look at delay­ Mystifying surrender displayed much attacking ing with his opponent for the Korean took it on the second Doubles (quarterfinals): Purav won his maiden Challenger last Tuesday. For now the ing the April tournaments.” Paire’s, on the other hand, verve and constantly took up first eight games. with an easy forehand volley. Raja & Ramkumar Ramanathan was a mystifying surrender. aggressive court positions. bt Leander Paes & Matthew Eb- “I don’t think I played a den 6-2, 6-1. The World No. 19 lost to an But Kwon, the tournament’s Upping the ante bad match," said Prajnesh. “I DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD opponent ranked a whop­ fourth seed, while being re­ Kwon, however, upped his am not much better than DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD ping 155 places below him. solute in defence, transi­ level in the ninth, earning him, but at the same time Order of Play Marcora broke in the fifth tioned seamlessly into attack multiple break points. But not much worse. So they Centre Court game of the first set to take it mode. Prajnesh proved equal to the were really small margins. 6­4, before breaking at a si­ On the day, he would hit task by saving four of them. But these are the kind of B Jiri Vesely (Cze) milar stage in the second to one winner more than Praj­ The match slipped into a tie­ matches I should be winning vs Ilya Ivashka (Blr) establish a firm grip. Paire nesh (22 to 21) and commit 12 break and there the World consistently.” B got one break back but lost errors fewer (35 to 47). No. 88 outshone Prajnesh. Yuichi Sugita (Jpn) The results: vs Ricardis Berankis (Ltu) serve immediately to hand After the two traded At 3­3, the 22­year­old Second round: Soonwoo Kwon B Roberto Marcora (Ita) the initiative to Marcora. The breaks in the first two games, Kwon hit an ace before a (Kor) bt Prajnesh 6-3, 7-6(5); vs James Duckworth (Aus) Italian did go down 15­40 Prajnesh down a break­point wide forehand by Prajnesh Roberto Marcora (Ita) bt Benoit while serving at 5­4, but the at 2­3, dumped an easy over­ left him on the threshold of a Paire (Fra) 6-4, 6-4; James B Soonwoo Kwon (Kor) result never seemed in head into the net. win. Duckworth (Aus) bt Taro Daniel vs Egor Gerasimov (Blr) Sasikumar Mukund. Ramkumar Ramanathan. Prajnesh Gunneswaran. doubt. He went on to lose the set Prajnesh netted a back­ (Jpn) 6-7(4), 7-6(6), 6-3; Egor DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD * R. RAGU * R. RAGU * R. RAGU Paes named in team for Croatia tie Manage your expectations: Lee India fined again “The selection committee Target players ranked 10­40, says ATP Executive VP DAVIS CUP had also decided that Anand Agence France-Presse Kamesh Srinivasan Dubey and Yash Pandey N. Sudarshan “Getting top­10 players is Dubai NEW DELHI would be the physios for the PUNE very difficult. You look at Team India was fined 80 The All India Tennis Associa­ team. But, it was brought to In light of the Tata Open Roger [Federer], Rafa [Na­ percent of its match fees af­ tion (AITA) has announced a the attention of the commit­ Maharashtra not featuring a dal] and Novak [Djokovic]. ter Wednesday's first One­ six­member team for the Da­ tee that Anand could be busy single top­10 player for the How many 250s did they Day International against vis Cup World Group quali­ with the Fed Cup team, if it first time since 2003, ATP’s play last year? I’m not saying New Zealand for a slow ov­ fier tie against Croatia to be was held the same week,” executive vice­president Ali­ it would be impossible to get er rate, the International played on indoor hard court said Bishwadeep. son Lee said on Thursday it a top­10 player, but I think Cricket Council (ICC) said. in Zagreb on March 6 and 7. Even though a six­member would have been prudent the focus should be on those It is the third consecu­ The team will have Praj­ team has been announced, for the organisers to have from 10 to 40,” she said. tive match that Virat Kohli's nesh Gunneswaran, Sumit only a five­member team has pursued players ranked 10 side has been fined for the Nagal and Ramkumar Ra­ to be intimated to the ITF. to 40. Changes likely offence, having been de­ manthan for singles. There One player would travel as a But she acknowledged that ducted 40 percent follow­ will be three doubles players reserve, and the name would Pushed back Alison Lee. while a comprehensive re­ ing the fourth T20I and 20

* in Rohan Bopanna, Leander Leander Paes... back in the mix. * R. RAGU be decided in due course. With the ATP Cup taking the SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT view has been planned for percent after the fifth T20I Paes and Divij Sharan. coveted start­of­the­season 2023, there could be chang­ last Sunday. Kohli accepted Rohit Rajpal continues as team for the year 2020,” clar­ before the team was Clarity needed slot and Doha 250, with its have to go after players fairly es to the calendar before the charge after India's the captain of the team, even ified Akhouri Bishwadeep, finalised. “We could have announced hefty prize purse, running aggressively. that. four­wicket defeat in Hamil­ though he was originally sup­ CEO, AITA. the team later, but some of concurrently, Pune had to “The tournament director “The 2021 calendar is al­ ton on Wednesday. posed to be the skipper only The selection committee What happened? the players whose availability push its dates by a month. here [Prashant Sutar] ack­ ready published and Pune ICC rules state that for the tie against Pakistan. meeting was held under the When asked about the with­ we had sought, wanted clari­ “This is not necessarily a nowledges they didn't know will be in the same week. But teams are fined 20 percent Zeeshan Ali will be the coach. chairmanship of Balram drawal of the press release a ty as they needed a three­ bad week,” Lee said on what to really expect. They 2022 is not set and I know of its match fees for every “Once the Davis Cup tie Singh on Thursday, and was few minutes after it was sent week period to enter tourna­ Thursday. “Montpellier and have seen that they have to Doha is very keen to move over it falls short in a speci­ was shifted out of Pakistan attended by Rajpal and Anki­ by the AITA, the CEO clari­ ments, if they were not se­ Cordoba this week have very go after other top players or out of week one. So while fied time. India was four ov­ and played in Kazakhstan, it ta Bhambri. fied that the person who had lected for Davis Cup duty. good player fields. They’ve rising stars. I think everyone Pune is in this week now, it ers short before the cut­off was decided that Rohit Zeeshan and Nandan Bal sent the release thought that Hence, the team has been an­ been in those weeks for a has to manage their expecta­ may not be here forever,” point as New Zealand would be the captain of the were consulted over phone there was a mistake. nounced now,” said the CEO. long time and know they tions,” she said. she added. chased down 348. Bangladesh No impact of T20 loss on ODI unit: Nicholls Raptors storm into semifinals to meet India in final Opener lauds Taylor and Latham’s role in NZ’s highest successful ODI chase Leverdez and Sai Praneeth help the team blank Warriors INDIA IN NZ cholls said. PBL U-19 WORLD CUP On Lathham’s knock, he Press Trust of India said: “Tom and I have played V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM PRESS TRUST OF INDIA Auckland together for a long time, so I HYDERABAD POTCHEFSTROOM New Zealand batsman Henry have certainly seen him play The brilliance of Brice Lever­ Bangladesh stormed into Nicholls on Thursday said like that before. He is very dez and captain B. Sai Pra­ its maiden ICC under­19 the One­Day International versatile and adaptive to the neeth helped defending World Cup final with a com­ squad did not carry the bag­ game scenario and condi­ champion Bengaluru Rap­ prehensive six­wicket win gage of the T20 blanking by tions. The way he started, tors outplay Awadhe War­ over New Zealand here on India and that reflected in its well it was slow, 2 off 10 balls riors 5­0 And enter the sem­ Thursday, setting up a title highest run chase in 50­over or something. But he man­ ifinal of the Premier clash with record four­time cricket. aged to put the pressure back Badminton League at the Ga­ champion India on Sunday. Riding on Ross Taylor’s on Kuldeep (Yadav) and their chibowli Indoor Stadium Mahmudul Hasan Joy 21st hundred, the hosts other spinners. Being cap­ here on Thursday. rose to the occasion with a chased down their highest tain he led from the front and Warriors got off to a per­ 100 off 127 balls, helping total in ODIs on Wednesday that partnership changed the fect start with the men’s Trump card: Sai Praneeth cruised past Wong Wing Ki Vincent Bangladesh overcome the to take a 1­0 lead in the three­ game for us,” he said. combine of Ko Sung Hyun in straight games. * NAGARA GOPAL 212­run target in 44.1 overs. match series. The second Seddon Park’s dimensions and Shin Baek Cheol scoring After losing the openers ODI will be played on came into sharp focus, as a an impressive win over Arun win five straight points and beatable 4­0 lead. cheaply in the chase, Joy Saturday. shorter boundary on one George and Rian Agung Sa­ seal the contest. Sai Praneeth’s ability to paired up with Towhid Hri­ side benefitted the chase. putro. get his smashes right whe­ doy (40) first before team­ No pressure The second ODI will be Raptors’ World No. 39 Tai Tzu on song never he was under pressure ing up with Shahadat Hos­ “We didn’t feel it as part of Game­changers: The experienced Taylor and stand-in skipper played at Eden Park which Brice Leverdez cruised past World No. 2 Tai Tzu Ying proved decisive in the final sain (40 not out) to share a the group coming in. So I Latham, right, gave India a reality check. * GETTY IMAGES has still shorter boundaries. World No. 64 Ajay Jayaram outslugged a defiant World analysis. 101­run stand for the fourth wasn’t feeling any pressure “The short boundary in the Trump match for the No. 14 Beiwen Zhang in wo­ Raptors joined North­ wicket and fashion a re­ and there is no need to prove and to actually win the game, there as well, the experience proved to be really important latter. The former overcame men’s singles, warding off a Eastern Warriors, Chennai sounding win. anything. It was a small it was great,” he said. he brings is immense. It is for us. There was some a hesitant start — he looked spirited comeback by the lat­ Superstarz and Pune 7 Aces New Zealand had reco­ ground and a big chase, so it Taylor smacked an unbea­ not just about the runs, be­ breeze as well in the evening. rattled by Jayaram’s decep­ ter midway through the se­ in the semifinals. vered to make 211 for eight was nice we were able to do ten 109, with Tom Latham cause batting with him in the So whenever they bowled tive shots at the net — to cond game. The results: Bengaluru Rap­ after being 74 for four at that,” Nicholls said on knocking 69 off 48 balls. middle, you keep having through the middle, or bow­ score six points in a row in Tai swung the match in tors bt Awadhe Warriors 5­0 one stage, courtesy an un­ Thursday. Their stand broke India’s those conversations that help led short, we pushed back the first game and wrap it up her favour whenever her op­ (Arun George & Rian Agung Sa- beaten 75 off 83 balls from “It was great, our biggest bowling strength in the mid­ your batting too. with boundaries. Their at­ in quick time. ponent gained ground with putro lost to Ko Sung Hyun & Beckham Wheeler­Gree­ chase ever in ODI cricket and dle overs. Nicholls paid rich “The dimensions of the tacking bowlers couldn’t In the second, Leverdez impeccable drop shots. Shin Beak Cheol 15-14, 7-15, 11- nall. it was good to be able to con­ tribute to the two senior ground helped us and he cer­ bowl with the bigger boun­ was more aggressive as he With a 2­0 cushion, World 15; Brice Leverdez bt Ajay Jaya- The scores: New Zealand ram (T) 15-9, 15-9; Tai Tzu Ying tribute in it. In the past, play­ batsmen. tainly likes batting there. It dary and it played into our took a comfortable 8­2 lead No. 11 B. Sai Praneeth, play­ 211/8 in 50 overs (Beckham bt Beiwen Zhang 15-12, 15-12; B. Wheeler-Greenall 75, Nicho- ing India in India, we have was a great partnership and hands. Ross managed it pret­ only to see Jayaram fight ing the Trump match for Sai Praneeth (T) bt Wong Wing las Lidstone 44) lost to Ban- had a couple of chases More than just runs great knock from him. Ross ty well and again for Tom to back with a solid net game. Raptors, warded off a spirit­ Ki Vincent 15-11, 15-13; Chan gladesh 215/4 in 44.1 overs around the 300­mark and “Having someone like that at being there till the end to be come to the crease, and at­ However, the Raptors shut­ ed challenge from World No. Peng Soon & Eom Hye Won bt (Mahmudul Hasan Joy 100, others we got close. It was number four, especially with not out and win the game tack the way he did, it really tler shifted gears and came 41 Wong Wing Ki Vincent Ko Sung Hyun & Christinna Pe- Shahadat Hossain 40 n.o.). nice to do that again at home, Kane Williamson not being was immense for us,” Ni­ changed the game. up with telling smashes to and gave his team an un­ dersen 7-15, 15-12, 15-11).

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