Winning startfor India

New Delhi: The Indian men’s team made a winning start to their campaign as they defeated Singapore 3-2 in the first match of the Thomas Cup Asia Zone preliminaries at Macau on Monday.

Kashyap beat Zi Liang Derek Wong 21-16, 21-19 while the doubles pair of Rupesh Kumar and Sanave Thomas crushed Zhao Jiang Terry Yeo and Liu Yi 21-8, 21-15. But Sourabh Verma lost 20-22, 16-21 to Yong Zhao Ashton Chen.

However, Akshay Dewalkar and Pranav Chopra drubbed Chayut Triyachart and H C Jeffrey Wong 21-19, 21-16 to take India to 3-1.

BIC to host

New Delhi: India will play host to the season’s final race of FIA’s GT1 World Championship on December 3 at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC).

The circuit, which hosted Formula One’s maiden Indian Grand Prix in October last year, will be the second venue in Asia after Beijing and Ordos in China.

Clos to drive

Madrid: Spaniard Dani Clos will be HRT’s reserve driver this season, the Madrid-based Formula One team said on Monday.

The team’s two drivers are 40-year-old Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa and 35-year-old Indian Narain Karthikeyan.

Promotion

Bangalore: UK Minister of state for foreign affairs Jeremy Browne played badminton with former All-England champion Prakash Padukone and ex-national coach Vimal Kumar here on Monday to “celebrate sport and the London 2012 Olympics”.

Coach sacked

London: Wolverhampton Wanderers sacked their manager Mick McCarthy on Monday, a day after they lost 5-1 at home to local rivals West Bromwich Albion and slipped back into the bottom three of the Premier League.

Boxing team

New Delhi: Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Paramjeet Samota (+91kg) and L. Devendro Singh (49kg) will spearhead a 10-man strong Indian challenge at the International Boxing Tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan starting from Monday.

The squad:

L Devendro Singh (49 Kg), Sunil Kumar (52 Kg), Chhote Lal Yadav (56 Kg), Vinay Kumar (60 Kg), M Thomas (64 Kg), Vijay Kumar (69 Kg), Kuldeep Singh (75 Kg), Sumit Sangwan (81 Kg), Manpreet Singh (91 Kg), Paramjeet Samota (+91 Kg).

Ghosal winner

New Delhi: Saurav Ghosal, the six-time national champion, added another feather to his cap on Monday after he registered an 11-8, 15-13, 10-12, 11-5 victory over Pakistan's Yasir Butt to win the Windy City Open Squash tournament.

Earlier, Saurav defeated Olivier Pett in the quarter finals and overcame the challenge of fourth seed Alan Clyne 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 in the semis.