Halep, Kontaveit reach semis; Raducanu falters

Cluj-Napoca (Romania): Top-seeded Simona Halep cruised into the semifinals of the Transylvania Open, but US Open champion Emma Raducanu lost to a fellow teenager in less than an hour. The third-seeded Raducanu lost 6-2 6-1 to 19-year-old Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine. No. 2-seeded Anett Kontaveit also had a smooth path into the semifinals, beating Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 6-3 6-1 for her 13th straight indoor win.

Riga (Latvia)
FIDE Grand Swiss chess tourney: Harika beats former world champ

India’s Dronavalli Harika defeated former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the third round of the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament here to grab a share of the lead.

After three rounds, a group of nine players with 2.5 points, led by Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia, are in joint lead. On board two, Harika defeated Stefanova with pieces in 68 moves. In two all-Indian matches, Padmini Rout beat R Vaishali while Vantika Agrawal got the better of Divya Deshmukh. In the men’s section, Grandmaster seventh-seed P Harikrishna beat Ivan Morovic Fernandez to move up to 1.5 points. The 17-year-old Nihal Sarin, beat Teimur Kuybokarov (Australia) in 40 moves in a Ruy Lopez game.

Tunis (Tunisia)
G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai win men’s double title

The Indian table tennis duo of G Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai today notched up their first international pro tour title with a dominating 3-1 win over Emmanuel Lebesson and Alexandre Cassin in the men’s double summit clash at the WTT Contender Tunis here. Sathiyan and Desai beat the French duo 11-9 4-11 11-9 11-6. —Agencies