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The week in Indian sports

TENNIS
Sandeep Kirtane wins ITF title
Bombay, June 9: Twenty-seven-year-old Sandeep Kirtane won his first ITF Indian Satellite men's singles title last week. In the final, the sixth seeded Kirtane disposed off an ailing top seeded Danai Udomchoke of Thailand in straight sets 6-0, 6-2. After trying his hand at Satellite tennis for close to seven years, Kirtane finally broke the jinx with a facile win over the Thai Davis Cup player.

Udomchoke did not start the final as favourite because of an injured thigh muscle. In the semi-finals against another Indian, Harsh Mankad, too, the Thai had complained of similar injury worries but had managed to pull through in that encounter. However, in the final the injury was too troublesome and Kirtane took full advantage of his opponent's discomfort. He wrapped up the first set in 25 minutes, without conceding a game.

In the second set too, Kirtane got an early break to take a 2-0 lead. Udomchoke came back into the match with some fine winners but his mobility around court was severely affected and Kirtane went on to clinch the title. He won $812.50 for his first title in the professional circuit. The doubles was won by Vikrant Chadha of India and Kunj Majumdar of the USA; they defeated Alexandre Sikanov and Alexey Gavrilov of Russia, in three hard-fought sets 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Kirtane's win was not a flash in the pan and it came after a sequence of impressive wins during the week. In his semi-final encounter against second seed Per Thornadtsson of Sweden he completely dominated proceedings with a 6-3, 6-0 win. Among the other Indians who had fruitful outings were Harsh Mankad, who made it to the semi-finals before bowing to Udomchoke. Davis Cupper Vishal Uppal put up a disappointing show to go down in the first round itself to fellow-Indian Rishi Sridhar. The second leg of the circuit is being played in Bangalore.

CHESS
Abhijit Kunte is national champion
Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte won the 37'th National 'A' Chess championships in Bombay last week. In his final round against another Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, Kunte assured himself of a draw to clinch the title. At the end of his match with Barua, Kunte finished with 13.5 points to ensure a winning lead over the runner-up, who finished with 12 points. His final round draw ensured that Kunte avoided the tie-breaker to settle the championships.

In the fortnight-long championships, Kunte won nine of his games and drew the other nine to emerge unscathed from the event. Barua, who had to win outright in his final round to elevate his position in the championships, started aggressively. However, Kunte defended his position well and ultimately the duo had to settle for a draw.

"I am thrilled to win this strongest ever national championship and that too in my home state," said the 23-year-old from Pune.

Meanwhile, defending champion Sasikaran defeated Vishal Sareen easily in his final round to clinch the second spot. Dibyendu Barua ensured that he clinched the third spot by defeating Sandipan Chadha in the final round. Also on line were places for the Indian national team and seventeen-year old International Surya Sekhar Ganguly became the youngest member of the squad after a draw against Atanu Lahiri. Ganguly finished with 11 points to clinch the fifth spot.

Besides Kunte, Sasikaran, Barua and Ganguly, International Master D V Prasad will represent India in the Chess Olympiad to be held in Istanbul, Turkey. Boy wonder Harikrishna, who surprised everyone by finishing sixth, would take the final spot in the team in case Viswanathan Anand decides against participating at the championships. Among those to miss out was Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, who finished with 10 points, which was not enough to make the grade.

MOTORSPORT
Karthikeyan third in seventh race
England, June 5: Narain Karthikeyan was in brilliant form at the Brands Hatch circuit in England last week for a podium finish in the seventh race of the Formula-three championships. Karthikeyam, India's Formula-three champion raced his Stewart Racing Dallara to third place behind Antonio Pizzonia and Takuma Sato.

In the initial stages of the race, Karthikeyan's progress was halted by Ben Collins, who was in pole position for the race. However, displaying admirable grit and superb driving control, the 24-year-old from Coimbatore raced past Collins in an excellent manoeuvre and fought back to regain his position among the top three. However, he was unable to catch up with the leaders and finished in a time of 30 minutes 55.402 seconds. Pizzonia was in superlative form to clinch top spot in 30 minutes 43.445 seconds. Sato was almost eleven seconds behind in second place, clocking 30 minutes 55.402 seconds, under a one second ahead of the Indian champion.

Karthikeyan kept up the pressure on Takuma Sato until the very last lap, leaving the back-markers far behind and winning a creditable lead. Karthikeyan thus earned 12 more championship points and increased his tally to 56, to remain in third place for the championship. Antonia Pizzonia currently leads the championships with 111 points. He is followed by Tomas Scheckter with 92 points. Narain certainly has a lot of catching up to do if he entertains any hopes of improving his present status in the standings as he is substantially behind the leaders on the points table.

JUDO
Brojeshwari ensures Olympic berth for India
Osaka, June 5: Manipur judoka L Brojeshwari Devi won an Olympic berth for India in the women's 52 kg category at the Asian Judo championships with a fifth place finish in Osaka, Japan, last week. Brojeshwari ensured the required 100 points for qualification, even though a lesser effort from her would have won India the spot. The rules of the International Judo Federation require that a country needs to accumulate 100 points in a particular weight category for men or women, not necessarily by a single judoka, in order to ensure an Olympic berth.

India had a good chance in this category, having got 81 points even before Brojeshwari's creditable show. Another judoka, Anuradha had clinched 54 points by finishing seventh at the Asian championships in Wenzhou, China, apart from 18 points by participation in the Asian Games in Bangkok. Bharti Dogra had ensured ninth points with a ninth-place finish at the Women's International championship in Fukuoka, Japan, last year.

"This is a new system of qualification whereby competitions are categorised and points for each stage marked out. The berths are given to the National Federations who then nominate a judoka for participation," informed Mr L K Daga, secretary, Judo Federation of India. No surprises are however expected as to who will go to Sydney. The JFI in all probability will send Brojeshwari Devi keeping in mind her effort and form.

GOLF
Gaurav Ghei sets statistical high
New Delhi, June 9: Delhi based pro Gaurav Ghei, whose form has swung dramatically since a poor run last year, has received a boost ahead of the British Open qualifying campaign next month. The 32-year-old, who is currently 19th in the Asian PGA Order of Merit, has earned the distinction of leading in all three important statistical tables. According to the latest release of "On Tour", the official newsletter of the Asian PGA tour , Ghei is leading the averages for putting and strokes as well as birdies per round. The statistics will hold good till the fifth event of the APGA tour, according to a release.

Ghei's putting average of 1.66 per hole stood ahead of Felix Casas of the Philippines and Derek Fung of Hong Kong, who both had an identical 1.71. The Indian, who had two to five finishes from three of the five APGA events this year, had a stroke average of 70.5 per round, just ahead of South Africa's Nico Van Rensburg (70.67). Ghei also made 4.3 birdies per 18 holes which compared better than Taiwan's Yeh-Wei-Tze , the Malaysian Open winner (4.07) and India's Arjun Atwal (4.05)

Ghei, who failed to win a single event last year barring the Asian Nation's Cup, paid tributes to the guidance received from Australian coach Ken Llewellyn for his recent upsurge. "If someone had told me last season that I would be playing like this I would have laughed. But now things have fallen in place although I am a little unhappy that I could not win the Indian Open or the Myanmar open," Ghei, who won the Rs. 20 lakh Wills Masters this year, said.

Ghei will now join four other Indian golfers at the final qualifying round for the British Open in Scotland on July 16 and 17. The other four who will compete for places in the third major tournament of the golfing calendar will be Jeev Milkha Singh, Jyoti Randhawa, Arjun Atwal and Amandeep Johl. The British Open will be held at St. Andrew's in Scotland from July 20 to 23. 27 APGA tour players will participate in the qualifying tournament in which normally 50 spots are at stake.