Naveen Tummala poses with his bronze medal and the flag at the Pickleball World Cup in Da Nang in Vietnam.

Hyderabad: Hyderabad’s Naveen Tummala has won a bronze medal at the ongoing Pickleball World Cup in Da Nang in Vietnam. Naveen settled for bronze in the individual 50+, 4.0 DUPR event after beating Gonzalo Valdez of Argentina 21-0 in the match for the third place.

Chile’s Luis Urrutia grabbed the gold medal with a 15-9, 13-15, 15-8 win over Yukuan Ting of Chinese Taipei in the final of the tournament in which players from 66 countries are participating.

Earlier in the group stage, Naveen made an emphatic start by beating James Ptacek (USA) 21-12; Gabriel Solans Ruiz (Spain) 21-11 and Kora Kora (Cook Islands) 21-9. He then got past Japan’s Takahiko Nomoto 21-18 in the pre-quarterfinals. In the quarters, Naveen summoned his top game to defeat Bernard Yeung of Australia with a 21-16 scoreline before losing steam in the semifinal to go down to Yukuan Ting 14-21.


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