Chennai: All the matches in the men’s quarterfinals ended in straight sets in the Sairam senior state volleyball championship at the MRK Stadium on Tuesday.
Champions IOB set the ball rolling with a 25-13, 25-22, 2517 hammering of STC (Pollachi). The bank team will take on Chennai Customs who put out Armed Policed (Tiruchy) 25-19, 25-22, 25-22. In the other two matches, Income Tax and SRM University had it easy against Indian Bank and Chennai Spikers respectively.
The semifinals in the women’s section were more competitive. PKR (Gobichettipalayam) sent champions St. Joseph’s College of Engineering crashing 25-19, 20-25, 26-24, 2517. Thus the reign of St.
Joseph’s, champions in the last three editions, has come to an end. The superb defensive performance of PKR put paid to the hopes of the Chennai team. PKR had lost to St. Joseph’s in the semifinals last year.
St. Joseph’s coach A.K.A. Vela said PKR were outstanding in defence. “They retrieved open smashes. PKR have certainly improved from the last edition,” he added. PKR will take on Panimalar, who ousted Sivanthi Club 21-25, 25-11, 2518, 25-19, in the final on Wednesday.
Results: Men: QF: IOB bt STC (Pollachi) 25-13, 25-22, 25-17.
Customs bt Armed Police (Tiruchy) 25-19, 25-22, 25-22.
Income Tax bt Indian Bank 2520, 25-19, 25-21. SRM bt Chennai Spikers 25-20, 25-19, 25-21.
Women: SF: PKR (Gobi) bt St.
Joseph's 25-19, 20-25, 26-24, 25-17. Panimalar bt Sivanthi Club 21-25, 25-11, 25-18, 25-19.
Action today (from 5 pm): Women: Final: PKR vs Panimalar. Men: SF: IOB vs Customs. Income Tax vs SRM.
Aravindh, Karthikeyan impress in second round
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Hyderabad: International master P Karthikeyan and Himanshu Sharma held top seed Russian GM Ivan Popov and second seed Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia respectively in the second round of the Hyderabad International GM Tournament here on Tuesday.
Continuing his impressive form in the season, Chennai Grandmaster event winner Vr. Aravindh Chithamabram held higher seeded Armenian GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan while S. Ravi Teja and Aniruddha Deshpande forced their higher-rated rivals GM Levon Babujian of Armenia and GM Vasily Papin of Russia to sign the peace treaty in the second round.
