Vaishnavi Adkar to become second Indian to win a tennis medal in WUG after reaching semis

Vaishnavi Adkar assured India of a rare tennis medal at the World University Games by reaching the semifinals. Most other Indian athletes across disciplines failed to advance in a tough outing

Berlin: India is assured of a rare medal in tennis as Vaishnavi Adkar made it to the women’s singles semifinals, while most of her compatriots across disciplines failed to make a mark in the World University Games (WUG) here on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Vaishnavi beat home favourite Sina Herrmann 6-1, 6-4 in a dominant display in the quarterfinals. She will face Eszter Meri of Slovakia in the semifinals on Thursday.

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Vaishnavi will become only the second Indian to win a medal in the World University Games, after Nandan Bal clinched a silver in men’s singles at the 1979 edition in Mexico City.

As per the rules, two bronze medals are awarded in the tennis competition at the WUG.

Vaishnavi’s feat was the lone bright spot for India, which endured another medal-less day. India has so far won just one medal through the badminton mixed team event as the WUG crosses the halfway mark.

In swimming, Srihari Nataraj missed out on a semifinal spot in the men’s 50m freestyle despite winning his heat with a time of 23.06 seconds. He finished 28th overall, with the last semifinal qualifier clocking 22.72 seconds.

Nithik Nathella (men’s 200m backstroke), Nina Venkatesh and Latiesha Mandanna (women’s 50m freestyle), Divyanka Pradhan and Naga Vasupalli (women’s 100m breaststroke) also failed to make the semifinals.

The men’s 4×200m freestyle relay team comprising Srihari, Aneesh, Shivank, and Shoan failed to reach the final round after finishing seventh in their heat.

In archery, Asian Games team gold medallist Parneet Kaur spearheaded India’s challenge, topping the women’s compound ranking round by edging South Korea’s Yerin Park by a solitary point with a score of 701.

Madhura Dhamangaonkar (6th, 687) and Avneet Kaur (22nd, 673) followed, helping the Indian women’s compound team secure second seeding behind South Korea. The team received a bye to the quarterfinals and will face the winner of Italy vs Ukraine on Thursday.

In contrast, the men’s recurve archers struggled. Aryan Rana was the best-placed Indian at 29th with 640 points, followed by Vishnu Chaudhary (42nd, 627) and Mrinal Chauhan (47th, 622). South Korea clinched the top two spots.

The Indian men’s recurve team finished 12th overall and will open their knockout campaign against fifth-seeded USA in the pre-quarterfinals.

Track and field athletes continued to disappoint. Arjun Waskale clocked 3:47.36 to finish seventh in the men’s 1500m Round 1 and failed to qualify for the final.

Ruchit Mori missed out on the 400m hurdles final after finishing seventh in his semifinal heat with a time of 51.04 seconds. Sreevarthani Kavitha and Deekshita Ramakrishna also failed to reach the women’s 400m hurdles semifinals.

Manikanta Hoblidhar and Gurindervir Singh failed to reach the 100m semifinals after finishing 26th and 40th respectively, clocking 10.74 and 11.00 seconds.

In table tennis, India’s campaign ended in women’s singles after Suhana Saini lost to Chien Tung-Chuan of Chinese Taipei 1-4 (11-8, 3-11, 1-11, 3-11, 7-11) in the round of 32.

Out of four Indian entries in women’s singles, only Suhana reached the round of 32.