Berlin, Jul 22 (PTI) 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 sports failed to make a mark in the World University Games here on Tuesday.
The 20-year-old Vaishnavi beat home favourite Sina Herrmann 6-1 6-4 in a dominant display in the women’s singles quarterfinals. She will face Eszter Meri of Slovakia in the semifinals on Thursday.
She will become only the second Indian to win a medal in the World University Games, after Nandal Bal clinched a silver in men’s singles in the 1979 edition in Mexico City.
Under the rules, two bronze medals are awarded in tennis competition in the WUG.
Vaishnavi’s feat was the lone bright spot for Indians who endured another medal-less day. India has won just one medal so far through the badminton mixed team event as the WUG crossed the half-way mark.
In the swimming pool, 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 4×200 freestyle relay team comprising Srihari, Aneesh, Shivank and Shoan failed to reach the final round after finishing seventh in the 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 (sixth, 687) and Avneet Kaur (22nd, 673) were the next best Indians, helping the women’s compound team secure the second seeding behind South Korea.
The team got a bye to the quarterfinals, where they will face the winners 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).
As expected, South Korea dominated the event, clinching 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. PTI PDS TAP PDS UNG
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