A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
After three consecutive draws, Indian Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli bounced back with a win over CM Suleymanli Aydin of Azerbaijan in the seventh round of the Master's tournament of the Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival, in Abu Dhabi.
The World No. 9 Indian, playing with white pieces, started the game on an attacking note and gained an advantage in the initial stages of the game.
However, the 12-year-old lad from Azerbaijan put up a staunch fight to contain the attacking Indian, but couldn't do so as Harika took the game away from him after 40 moves.
"I got off to a great start and gained an advantage in the initial phases of the game but a few miscalculated moves from my end got me in a complicated position," Harika said.
"Although when we were both were under the pressure of the clock and both kings were under attack, I outplayed him with a few strategies of my own," she added.
After seven rounds in the nine-round Swiss tournament, Harika has amassed a total of four and a half points, courtesy three wins, three draws and just one loss. She has broken into the top-10 of the standings.
The ninth-placed Indian will take on GM Ivan Rozum from Russia in the eighth round of the tournament.
Mudit Dani bags three medals at ITTF El Salvador Junior Open
India's rising table tennis talent Mudit Dani underlined his progress on the ITTF World Junior Circuit, sweeping three medals including a gold in the 2017 El Salvador Junior and Cadet Open in San Salvador, El Salvador.
Dani, the lone Indian in the tournament, paired up with Jacobo Vahnish of Panama to overcome the home team, El Salvador A, comprising of Oliver Mendoza and Oscar Villalta in the finals to annex the gold medal in the team competition.
In the doubles, the second seeded pair of Mudit and Gerson Carballo of Costa Rica went down fighting to the top seeded Swedish pair of Oskar Danielsson and Oskar Hedlund 5- 11, 6-11, 8-11 to finish second on the podium.
"It has been a wonderful tournament for me. I played against some of the top junior players in the world and these wins give me a lot of confidence going forward," said Dani.
He featured in the singles as well and made a brilliant run till the semi-finals. There he went down to his team event partner Jacobo 11-6, 11-1, 3-11, 9-11, 9-11 to settle for the bronze.
The 18-year-old Mumbai paddler, who is coached by the Swedish legend Peter Karlsson, has been making waves on the junior junior circuit, even becoming only the third Indian player to break into the top-10 of the ITTF World Junior Boys' Circuit standings.
Indian Greco-Roman wrestlers off to poor start at Worlds
India's Greco-Roman wrestlers got off to a poor start at the World Wrestling Championships with all four in the fray today losing their opening round bouts in Paris.
Yogesh (71kg), Gurpreet Singh (75kg), Ravinder Khatri (85kg) and Hardeep (98kg) crashed out of the tournament following meek defeats.
None of them got a chance of a repechage as their respective opponents lost in the subsequent rounds.
Yogesh went down to Takeshi Izumi of Japan 1-3 while Gurpreet lost 1-5 to Mindia Tsulukidze of Georgia.
Khatri was trounced 0-8 by Viktor Lorincz of Hungary and Vilius Laurinaitis of Lithuania beat Hardeep 5-2.
Ministry orders enquiry into plastic tank ice bath
The Sports Ministry has ordered an enquiry into reports that national campers at a SAI centre in Bengaluru were using a broken container for ice bath and also sought a report from the Sports Authority of India.
It has been reported that members of the junior Indian hockey team were using a broken plastic water tank for an ice bath at the centre.
"The ministry has ordered an enquiry. After assuming charge as the Sports Minister during his visits to different SAI Centres in the country, Vijay Goel had emphasised the need to upgrade SAI Centres to provide the best facilities to the players practicing or getting trained at SAI Centres across India," a sports ministry official said.
