GOLF
Aditi Ashok suffers double bogey
Cincinnati: Indian golfer Aditi Ashok suffered a double bogey as she finished her third round at 5-over 76 at the Kroger Queen City Championship here on Sunday.
Aditi, who has been playing well in patches, had an early birdie on second, but a double bogey on par-5 fourth saw her drop from a healthy T-15 to T-50.
She later had a bogey on 10th and a further one on 17th followed by a double bogey in 18th. In between she birdied the 16th.
Two-time LPGA Tour winner Ally Ewing leads the pack at 16-under after firing a 5-under 67 in round three, highlighted by six birdies, three of which came in her first four holes.
Her three-day total of 200 ties Ewing’s career-low on the LPGA Tour.
Ewing is also looking for her first win since last year’s 2021 Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play.
Her challengers include chaser Maria Fassi, who sits one back at -15 after matching Ewing’s 5-under 67 on the Moving Day.
The 24-year-old made four birdies and one bogey to turn in 33, and after carding five straight pars from Nos. 10-14, she holed a flop shot on the par-5 15th for an eagle.
Sitting in solo third is Xiyu Lin after a slow-and-steady 2-under 70.
A quartet of players round out the top-five at 12-under, including last week’s runner-up Megan Khang and 12-time LPGA Tour winner Ariya Jutanugarn.
-PTI
Ajeetesh finishes 38th in Shinhan Donghae golf tournament
Nara, Japan: Indian golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu shot a bogey-free final round, but his 2-under 69 effort was only good enough for a T-38 finish in the Shinhan Donghae Open here on Sunday.
Sandhu did have four sub-par rounds at 68-66-70-69, but in a week when the scores were quite low, he had to settle with a 38th-place finish, as Japan’s Kazuki Higa birdied the final two holes to win the tournament at Koma Country Club in Nara, near Osaka.
Shiv Kapur, the other Indian who made the cut, shot even par 71 but finished Tied-66th.
Higa showed just why he is currently ranked the number one player in Japan when as he holed a pressure-packed 15-foot birdie putt on the short, driveable par-four 18th to return a six-under-par 65 for a tournament total of 20 under.
He secured a two-shot victory over Tirawat Kaewsiribandit of Thailand, Korean Mingyu Cho and Yonggu Shin of Canada.
Tirawat, who started the day with a three-shot advantage and held a narrow lead for much of the day, closed with a 72 including an incredible albatross. while Cho fired a 66, and Shin a 68.
Korea’s PGA Tour star Siwoo Kim, playing in the final group, returned a 70 to end three behind the winner, in a tie for fifth, along with the 2019 champion Jbe Kruger of South Africa, who signed off with a 63 -- the best of the day.
Higa’s bid for victory came at the very death. Playing in the penultimate group and trailing Tirawat by one with two to play, he birdied the par-five 17th to draw level before the under-pressure Thai golfer bogeyed the 16th to fall one behind.
However, Tirawat bravely bounced back with a birdie on the 17th to draw level again before Higa made his brilliant birdie on the last, where he found a greenside bunker from the tee before splashing out to set up his sensational closing putt.
That meant Tirawat needed to make a birdie to force a sudden-death play-off but he missed.
-PTI
TENNIS
Sasikumar Mukund wins title
New Delhi: Second seed Sasikumar Mukund beat seventh seed Duarte Vale of Portugal 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-0 in the final of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Sintra, Portugal, on Sunday.
In the battle that lasted two hours and 45 minutes, the 25-year-old Mukund converted four of nine break points that he forced. He led 5-3 in the first set before winning it in the tie-break, saving a set point.
Mukund dropped serve in the sixth game of the second set, which proved decisive. However, Mukund raced through the decider, as he dominated his opponent’s serve, conceding only six points in all in three games.
Mukund served three of his four aces in the match in the final set to assert his authority.
This was the sixth singles title in the ITF circuit for Mukund, who had last won one in 2017. He was ranked a career-best 229 in 2019 and has been busy in the Challenger circuit.
Mukund had opted to compete in the ITF events in an attempt to get more matches before the Davis Cup tie against Norway.
The result
-Kamesh Srinivasan
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