The big story: Yuki Bhambri, Ramkumar Ramanathan post wins

India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan defeated New Zealand’s Jose Statham 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in their Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Group 1 first-round clash in Pune on Friday. Ramanathan appeared more confident and assured in his strokeplay, easily dispatching his opponent in straight sets.

In the early part of the day, Yuki Bhambri beat New Zealand’s Finn Tearney. Bhambri, ranked 368th in singles, beat his 414th-ranked opponent 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in just over two hours.

Other top stories

Cricket

  • The auctions for the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League were scheduled to be held on February 20 in Bengaluru, confirmed the Board of Control for Cricket in India.   
  • The India Under-19 team took a 2-1 series lead in the five-match youth One-Day International series against England with a comfortable seven-wicket win at the Brabourne Stadium.  
  • India’s registered its fourth victory in the T20 World Cup for Blind with a convincing nine-wicket win over South Africa at Mumbai. South Africa scored 157 for eight. In reply, India reached the target, scoring 158 for one, in just 13.5 overs.
  • Australia batsman Glenn Maxwell said he will be looking at the Indian players to learn spin, “So it’s going to be a real test of everyone. Even for the Indian players, you watch them, they go through different stages of their innings from sweeping, to using their feet, to playing off the back foot - they change all the way through their innings,” the 28-year-old said.
  • Pakistan Cricket Board chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq said that the selectors will start thinking and building a team for the 2019 World Cup “The World Cup is on our mind and we have to see how many of the available players can be in the national team when the tournament is held in 2019,” Haq said. 

Football

  • Mohun Bagan may be missing the services of Sony Norde and Balwant Singh during their I-League match against Aizawl FC on Saturday. 
  • Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho said that his club won’t be looking to close down “impossible deals” in the summer. 
  • Former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini said that he is eager to get back to the English Premier League.

Tennis

  • Praveen Mahajan was unanimously elected as the President of All India Tennis Association (AITA) till 2020 during its Special General Meeting, “In the Special General Meeting of AITA held today at Hotel Holiday Inn, Pune Ms Praveen Mahajan was elected unopposed as President of All India Tennis Association (AITA) for the period 2016-2020,” said AITA Secretary General Hironmoy Chatterjee in a release.

Wrestling

  • Iran banned US wrestlers from participating in the Freestyle World Cup competition in response to President Donald Trump’s order forbidding visas for Iranians.

Table Tennis

  • India’s top player Sharath Kamal, for the first time in four years, has been seeded number one in the men’s singles at the ongoing 11Even Sports Senior Table Tennis Nationals. 

Olympics

  • Former India Hockey captain Viren Rasquinha, who is part of the task force made by the sports ministry said that the upcoming summer games will be their first target, “We met today for the first time and discussed various processes and protocols on how to get things done within the timeframe. We decided that our first focus is 2020 Tokyo Olympics and myself, Gopi [P.Gopichand] and Abhinav [Bindra] are in charge of that,” Rasquinha said.

Hockey

  • Kalinga Lancers edged past Jaypee Punjab Warriors 6-5 win to post their first-ever victory against the defending champions, to jump to the top of the standings in the fifth edition of the Hockey India League.