Sourabh & Sindhu in semis

Bangalore: P.V. Sindhu stunned fourth seed Aditi Mutatkar to enter the women’s semi-finals, while top seed Sourabh Verma made the last-four stage of the men’s with a hard-fought win in the 76th Senior National Badminton Championships, here on Tuesday. Sindhu beat Mutatkar 21-20, 21-12 in just 28 minutes. In men’s singles, Sourabh got the better of fourth seed HS Prannoy 21-23, 22-20, 21-16 in a contest that lasted one hour and five minutes.

Sharath upbeat

Lucknow: Sharath Kamal is confident of qualifying for the London Olympics this year but does not see an Indian paddler finishing on the podium at the quadrennial extravaganza. “I am confident I will be there, but realistically speaking, we don’t have any medal chance,” said Sharath, who has just returned from Bremen after training.

Sourav up

Pune: Defending champion Pankaj Advani, Sourav Kothari and Brijesh Damani held aloft the flag for the youth brigade by storming into the pre-quarter finals of the National Billiards Championships, here on Tuesday. The trio made the grade with an impressive all-win record in the group league stage of the competition.

Jeje doubtful

Calcutta: Striker Jeje Lalpekhlua has been advised eight-weeks rest and is doubtful for India’s campaign in the forthcoming AFC Challenge Cup to be held in Nepal. Jeje suffered an injury on his left knee during his club Pune FC’s I-League campaign. His MRI report reveals bone contusion and grade 2/3 injury to MCL of left knee.

India begin their campaign in the AFC Challenge Cup against Tajikistan on March 9, 2012.

Ekka captain

Calcutta: Avoy Ekka will lead a 16-member Bengal squad for the All India KD Singh Memorial sub-junior hockey tournament to be held in Lucknow.

The squad: Avoy Ekka (captain), Kaushik Majhi, Kumaresh Dutta, Karan Dhanuk, Amit Masih Ekka, Rahul Deo Shaw, Milan Saha, Biswajit Gayen, Kaushik Das, Akhilesh Santra, Subham Sarkar, Rahul Minz, Dipak Mondal, Rohit Kujur, Rohit Basnet, Sourav Das. Coach: Prodip Kumar Das. Manager: Himangshu Ghosh.

Tennis meet

Calcutta: Adavelly Kumara Partha Saradhi of India rallied to defeat Taipei’s Yu Hao Chen 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (17) in a first round boys’ singles under-18 match of the Gujarat NRE ITF Junior Tennis tournament, being held at the courts of Dakshin Kalikata Sansad on Tuesday.

Other Winners: Boys’ Singles U-18: Sumit Nagal (Ind), Wei De Lin (Tpe), Ivan Divkovic (Cro), Hyeon Chung (Kor), A Ivorra Alvcaraz (Esp).

Girls’ Singles U-18: A Prokopenko (Ukr), Surthi Shivalangaiah (Ind), Sanae Otha (Jpn), Carol Augustine Benito (Esp), K Sharifova (Rus).