Singles

Paes out of Hall of Fame Open

New Delhi: Ramkumar Ramanathan notched up a straight set win over Canada's Vasek Pospisil to reach his first ever ATP semi-finals but veteran Leander Paes bowed out after losing his doubles quarterfinal at the Hall of Fame Open grasscourt tournament in Newport. The 23-year-old from Chennai took one hour and 18 minutes to get across Pospisil 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals on Thursday. The 161-ranked Indian will meet American Tim Smyczek in the last four of the tournament. Ramanathan, who had stunned world No 8 Dominic Thiem at the Antalya Open last year, sent down five aces and converted the three break points that came his way. Paes, who is playing his first match since creating the Davis Cup world record in February for most number of wins in doubles, and his American partner Jamie Cerretani suffered a 3-6, 6-7 (3) loss to giant-killers Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Austin Crajicek in the doubles quarterfinals.

Lakshya ensures medal for India

jakarta: Sixth-seeded Lakshya Sen caused one of the major upsets so far in the Badminton Asia Junior Championships when he toppled second-seeded Chinese Li Shifeng 21-14, 21-12 to enter the men singles semi-finals on the third day of the individual events at Jakarta on Friday. Lakskya, who ensured himself at least a Bronze medal, will take on Indonesian and fourth seed Ikhsan Leonardo Rumbay in the semi-finals on Saturday. However, the men doubles' pair of Manjit Singh and Dingko Singh bowed out in the pre-quarters to top-seeded Chinese duo of Di Zijian and Wang Chang, the title favourites. The Chinese pair won 21-7, 21-15.

SESA gets AIFF accreditation

margao: The AIFF on Friday accorded accreditation to the SESA Football Academy, which will enable it to participate in the Under-13, U-15 and the U-18 Youth Leagues in the coming season. For promising young footballers in Goa, it is a major boost. President, SESA Football Academy, Annanya Agarwal said: "Sports can inspire and engage youth in a tremendous way and we at SFA envision to provide a platform to young budding footballers."

IOA rejects ministry's latest proposal

new delhi: The Indian Olympic Association on Friday rejected the government's proposal to relax Asian Games selection norms for some specific sports, saying the Sports Ministry's concerns have already been addressed while picking the contingent earlier this month. The development comes after the ministry, on July 18, had urged the IOA to relax selection norms in specific cases concerning athletes or sports who/which could not qualify due to lack of exposure or non-participation in ranking events but have a strong chance of either winning a medal or finishing in top four, but the IOA stuck to its earlier criteria of picking athletes.