India File

Mixed luck for shuttlersBANGALORE: Top seed Aparna Popat India, squandered an 8-2 lead in the second game, to lose 8-11, 9-11 to China'...

Mixed luck for shuttlers

BANGALORE: Top seed Aparna Popat India, squandered an 8-2 lead in the second game, to lose 8-11, 9-11 to China8217;s Huimin Wu in the first round of the 1999 US Open Badminton Championship.

India8217;s Nikhil Kanetkar reached the last eight of the men8217;s singles, beating Steve Isaac England 15-1, 15-7 in the first round and Canada8217;s Mike Bercs, 15-6, 15-13 in the pre-quarters.

Abhinn Shyam Gupta, Sachin Ratti, Manjusha Kanwar and BR Meenakshi reached the semis of the New Zealand International at Wellington.

Eighth-seeded Gupta upset No 4 Stuart Brehaut Aust 15-4, 15-7 while Ratti beat sixth-seeded Conrad Hueckstaedt Ger 12-15, 15-10, 15-10. Kanwar beat Larisa Kishore New Zealand 11-4, 11-0, and Meenakshi ousted Renee Flavell New Zealand 6-11, 11-6, 11-3.

Geet Sethi to lead

MUMBAI: Geet Sethi will lead the four-man Indian team in the first-ever billiards test against England at Bombay Gymkhana here from September 16-18.Nalin Patel, Ashok Shandilya andDevendra Joshi are the other members of the Indian team.

World champion Mike Russell will lead England team, which also consists of Peter Gilchrist, David Causier and Chris Shutt.

HC seek replies

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JAIPUR: Rajasthan High Court today sought replies from Prasar Bharati and Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI on a petition challenging the granting of cricket telecast rights to Doordarshan. A division bench granted them 10 days time to submit replies. The petitioner, Ranji cricketer Anil Sinha, has contended BCCI had awarded the contract without inviting tenders.

Bula8217;s round trip

CALCUTTA: Ace swimmer Bula Choudhury, who recently became the first Asian woman to cross the English Channel twice, hopes to accomplish her childhood dream of swimming the treacherous Channel both ways next year. The 29-year-old swimmer crossed the Channel on September 2 this year. Bula had to drop her plans of crossing the Channel both ways owing to hostile weather.

8212; ENS amp; Agencies