Welcome to ESPN India's daily blog, where we aim to bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports: from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
May has plenty of sporting action taking place - which you can find listed out in ESPN India's sporting calendar.
Nishant Dev becomes first Indian male boxer to earn Paris Olympics quota; Panghal, Siwach edge closer
Nishant Dev (71kg) became the first Indian male boxer to secure a Paris Olympics quota when he reached the semifinals of the Boxing Olympic qualifiers. Dev, a bronze medallist at the boxing worlds, had narrowly missed an Olympic berth in the previous qualifiers, but finally earned the quota after defeating Vasile Cebotari of Moldova 5-0 in the quarterfinal.
It is India's fourth quota place with women boxers Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) having already secured their passage to Paris.
The 71kg weight class had five quotas on offer. Dev, who has been dominant all tournament, was off to a flyer, landing sharp, accurate punches. The Indian was more composed and used his punches judiciously. In the second round, Cebotari landed a couple of blows and Dev looked a bit out of breath but the Indian continued to hit accurate shots. In the last three minutes, both boxers looked spent but Dev continued to land punches at will. Cebotari earned a point deduction for his punch to Dev when the Indian was down on the canvas.
In the evening session, Amit Panghal out-punched South Korea's Kim Inkyu in the pre-quarterfinals. The 2019 world championship silver medallist is now one win away from winning an Olympics quota. Sachin Siwach too inched closer to an Olympic berth with an impressive 4-1 win over 2021 world championships bronze medallist French boxer Samuel Kistohurry in the quarterfinals. However, with only three quota places on offer in the 57kg weight category, he needs to win one more bout to seal his Paris berth.
But, India's quest for booking a quota in the women's 60kg and 66kg and men's 92kg ended with Ankushita Boro, Arundhati Choudhary and Sanjeet losing their respective bouts.
French Open: Balaji/Miguel progress into second round, Yuki Bhambri exits
The Indo-Mexican duo of N Sriram Balaji and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela progressed to the second round of the men's doubles event in the French Open, beating the Dutch-American pair of Sem Verbeek and Reese Stalder in straight sets 6-3, 6-4 in the first round encounter. Balaji-Miguel will take on the French duo of Daniel Added and Theo Arribage in the next round. Meanwhile the Yuki Bhambri - Albano Olivetti duo, lost out to Australian pair John Peers and Roman Safiullin by a 6-3, 7(7)-6(5) scoreline in the first round.
Elsewhere, Rohan Bopanna and Mathew Ebden are slated to play on Saturday.
Football: Mehtab Singh departs India's preparatory camp
The AIFF released a statement announcing that defender Mehtab Singh had left the camp, stating:
"Defender Mehtab Singh has left the India Senior Men's Team camp in Kolkata because of personal reasons. The Blue Tigers camp continues in Kolkata with 26 players."
Igor Stimac's side face Kuwait in a crucial FIFA World Cup qualifier on June 6, which will also be Sunil Chhetri's farewell match in India colours.
Boxing Federation of India leaves IBA, joins World Boxing
The Boxing Federation of India (BFI) announced their decision to part ways with the suspended International Boxing Association (IBA) and joined the breakaway World Boxing in a bid to counter the threat to the sport's Olympic future. The move comes months after the International Olympic Committee reiterated its threat to leave boxing out of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics if national federations continued to align themselves with the IBA.
"It is absolutely vital to the sustainability of boxing that it retains its Olympics status, so we are delighted to join World Boxing," BFI president Ajay Singh said in a press release. Singh said he looks forward to working closely with the WB Executive Board to "shape the future development of the sport and deliver a brighter future for boxers across the world."
World Boxing, whose president is former IBA presidential candidate Boris van der Vorst, was launched in April 2023 and aims to ensure that boxing remains at the heart of the Olympic movement. The membership application was approved by the BFI's General Assembly and will be ratified by World Boxing's Executive Board.
"India is a very important country in international boxing and we look forward to welcoming the BFI into the growing World Boxing family. This is a very exciting development which will significantly increase our presence in Asia and I look forward to working closely with the BFI in delivering our common goals," Van der Vorst said.
On May 7, WB held its first formal meeting with the IOC which signalled the start of a formal collaboration between the two organisations aimed at establishing a pathway for boxing to remain in the Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had de-recognised the IBA in 2019 over long-standing financial, sports integrity, and governance issues. Boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics is set to be overseen by the IOC. It will be the second successive time, after the Tokyo Olympics, that the IBA will have no involvement in bouts at the mega-event, although the governing body raised eyebrows by announcing a monetary reward for Olympic medallists in Paris.
Gayatri-Treesa beat another seeded pair to reach Singapore Open semis
Continuing their brilliant run the Singapore Open Super 750 event, Indian women's doubles duo Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated yet another seeded South Korean pair to reach the semifinals.
The world No 30 Indians beat the World No. 6 pair of Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong in a thrilling quarterfinal, coming back from a game down to win 18-21, 21-19, 24-22. The first two games were as close as they come and in the nervy decider, with momentum shifting at the end, the Indians squandered three match points. But they kept calm and their attacking game finally saw them convert the fourth for an extra time win.
The Indian duo will face the world No. 4 pair of Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida. The Japanese duo lead them 2-1 in H2H but the Indians won their most recent meeting, the historic Badminton Asia Team Championship victory in February.
Norway Chess: Vaishali beats Cramling, Praggnanandhaa loses to Nakamura
Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali continued her dream run to defeat veteran GM Pia Cramling of Sweden, while her brother R Praggnanandhaa went down fighting against Hikaru Nakamura of USA in the fourth round of the Norway chess tournament.
Vaishali stretched her lead to 2.5 points following her second win under classical time control. The Indian now has 8.5 points and is followed by women's world champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.
Muzychuk defeated Koneru Humpy for her first win in the tournament while Wenjun got through her compatriot Tingjie Lei in the Armageddon.
With six rounds still remaining in the six-player double round-robin tournament, Lei stands fourth on five points, two points clear of Humpy and Cramling.
In the men's section, world number one Magnus Carlsen grinded down arch-rival Fabiano Caruana of United States on a day that witnessed all decisive games under classical time control.
Nakamura capitalised on some unforced errors from Praggnanandhaa. The Nimzo Indian defense by the Indian resulted in a dynamic balance but Praggnanandhaa got too optimistic in the resulting middle game and sacrificed a knight.
The compensation, however, was not enough and Nakamura converted his extra material into a full point after 86 moves.
In the other game of the day, Firouzja Alireza of France put it across reigning world champion Ding Liren of China.
Carlsen is third with six points to his credit while Praggnanandhaa slipped to fourth position on 5.5 points. Caruana is a close fifth at this stage with five points while Liren is a distant last on just 2.5 points thus far.
What's on today?
Boxing: The World Boxing Qualification Tournament, the final chance for Indians to secure Paris Olympic sports, continues in Bangkok.
Chess: The Norway Chess 2024 continues with India's sibling duo of Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali leading the standings.
Badminton: The Singapore Open Super 750 continues, with the women's doubles pair of Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly the last standing Indians.
Tennis: N Sriram Balaji and Yuki Bhambri will be seen in doubles action at the French Open.
What happened yesterday?
Chess: R. Praggnanandhaa beat 5-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen to lead the standings at the Norway Chess 2024, while his sister Vaishali tops the women's category.
Badminton: PV Sindhu lost to Carolina Marin, while HS Prannoy was defeated by Kenta Nishimoto at the at the Singapore Open. However, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stunned the world No 2 pair of Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee.
Boxing: Sachin Siwach (57kg), Sanjeet Kumar (92kg), Amit Panghal (51kg) and Jaismine (women's 57kg) progressed at the Olympic qualifiers.
You can find the details of yesterday's events here.