Sports Shorts: Anil Kumar strikes gold as Narang misses out

After topping the charts in the qualification round, London Olympics bronze medalist Gagan Narang missed out on a medal in the 10M Air Rifle category as Madhya Pradesh's Anil Kumar annexed the gold on day two of the 18th KSS Memorial Shooting Championship in New Delhi.

Anil started off on the right foot and maintained his grip to score 246.7 while Air Force's Manoj Dalal scored 245.2 to take the second spot. Manoj's teammate from the Air Force also looked in great touch as clinched the bronze with a 224.6.

In the 10M Air Rifle Youth Men category, Aishwarya Tomar of Madhya Pradesh had thought he done enough to clinch the gold with a 249.9, but Sahu Mane of Maharashtra shot to glory with a narrow difference of .2 on the cumulative score line (251.1). Rajasthan's Yashwardan settled for bronze with a 229.9.

Para-shooter and last year's defending champion of the 10M Air Rifle (IPC) Standing Championship (Para), Swaroop Unhalkar of Maharashtra, left his opponents behind as he defended his title with a 608.5.

Prajnesh misses clash with Federer after losing 2nd round in Stuttgart

Prajnesh Gunneswaran missed out on a clash with the legendary Roger Federer after losing his second round at the ATP Mercedes Cup to Argentina's Guido Pella in Stuttgart.

Prajnesh, who qualified into the tournament and stunned world number 23 Denis Shapovalov in the opening round, lost 6-7(4), 4-6 to the world number 75.

The Indian left-hander, playing his maiden ATP World Tour event, saved four of the five break points but could convert none of the two chances he got in the one-hour 29 minute contest.

"I played ok but not as good as I needed to. He was very solid and got me to make more errors than I should have. I needed to be a bit more clinical in putting away the shorter balls. I did not do that well enough and it made it difficult for me to win," the 169th-ranked Prajnesh said.

When asked about the missed chance to play against the 20-time Grand Slam champion, he was not very disappointed.

"It does not matter. If it comes later, it does, if it does not, it does not. I am not too bothered about that. Overall it is a very good experience for me. I understood what I need to do and what I need to improve to be at this stage," he said.

He picked up 32 ranking points, including 12 from qualifying, and earned euro 11,210 for his effort.