GOLF
Jatiwal emerges halfway leader in Gurgaon Open golf
Chandigarh’s Rajiv Kumar Jatiwal followed up his first round of 66 with another top-notch effort of five-under 67 in round two to emerge as halfway leader at 11-under 133 at the Rs 1 crore Gurgaon Open golf tournament on Wednesday.
Bengaluru golfer M Dharma’s 69 placed him second at nine-under 135 at the Classic Golf & Country Club.
On a day when the wind played havoc by constantly switching directions, Gurugram-based Sunhit Bishnoi produced the joint lowest round of 66 to move into third place at eight-under 136.
Arjun Prasad of Delhi also shot a 66 to be placed a further stroke behind in tied fourth at seven-under 137 along with Tapy Ghai (68) of Gurugram.
The halfway cut went at even-par 144. Fifty-six professionals made the cut.
Jatiwal (66-67), overnight tied third and three off the lead, produced some great approach shots to set up short birdie conversions on three of the first four holes.
With the switching winds creating problems in club selection for most of the field including the 48-year-old Jatiwal, bogeys followed for him on the sixth and eighth.
Jatiwal, winner of one professional title in his rookie season on the Indian circuit back in 1998, rallied with another splendid approach shot from 215 yards on the par-5 ninth that led to a tap-in for eagle.
Jatiwal birdied the next hole before going through another slump with bogeys on the 11th and 12th.
He had a final flourish in store as he struck his irons and wedges to perfection to pick up three more birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th.
“While I putted really well in round one, today it was all about my approach shots. The eagle on the ninth was the highlight for me today. Importantly, I made good comebacks twice after suffering bogeys,” said Jatiwal.
“I’ll look to play my natural game from here on and repeat what I’ve been doing so far. Keeping my focus going will also be important. My game has been quite inconsistent so far this season as I’ve missed cuts by one or two shots.” Dharma (66-69) moved up one spot from his overnight tied third as a result of his 69 that featured four birdies and a bogey.
Dharma’s round included some exceptional bunker shots and chips and saw him land it within two feet of the pin on three occasions.
Bishnoi shot 66 to rise 21 spots to third place while Arjun Prasad also posted the same number to climb 36 places to tied fourth.
-PTI
TENNIS
Yuki Bhambri in ATP quarterfinals
Yuki Bhambri in partnership with Albano Olivetti of France knocked out the third seeds Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium 4-6, 7-6(5), [10-6] in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €651,865 ATP tennis tournament in Munich, Germany, on Wednesday.
Interestingly, the Belgian pair was fresh from winning the title in the Monte Carlo Masters.
In the quarterfinals, Yuki and Albano will play Robert Galloway and Evna King of USA.
The results:
€651,865 ATP, Munich, Germany
Doubles (pre-quarrterfinals): Yuki Bhambri & Albano Olivetti (Fra) bt Sander Gille & Joran Vliegen (Bel) 4-6, 7-6(5), [10-6].
$164,000 Challenger, Acapulco, Mexico
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rithvik Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha bt Juan Ficovich (Arg) & Joao Da Silva (Bra) 7-5, 6-2.
$15,000 ITF men, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Singles (first round): Yuvan Nandal bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-4, 7-6(1); Aryan Shah bt Grigoriy Lomakin (Kaz) 6-4, 6-4; Karan Singh bt Vitaliy Zatespin (Kaz) 0-6, 6-7(3), 7-6(3); Eric Vanshelboim (Ukr) bt Manish Sureshkumar 7-6(1), 7-6(6); Dev Javia bt Kazuki Nishiwaki (Jpn) 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.
$40,000 ITF women, Shenzhen, China
Singles (first round): Rutuja Bhosale bt Gao Xinyu (Chn) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rutuja Bhosale & Ma YeXin (Chn) bt Alevtina Ibragiimova & Anastasia Kovaleva 6-4, 4-6, [10-8]; Arianne Hartono (Ned) & Prarthana Thombare bt Choi Ji Hee (Kor) & Beatrice Gumulya (Ina) 6-4, 6-1.
$25,000 ITF women, Hammamet, Tunisia
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Vaishnavi Adkar & Ranim Rassil (Tun) bt Joyce Behnke (Ger) & Sameeksha Shroff 6-1, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Arabella Koller (Aut) bt Zeel Desai 6-2, 7-6(2).
$15,000 ITF women, Shymkent, Kazakhstan
Singles (first round): Sandugash Kenzhibayeva (Kaz) bt Saumya Vig 6-3, 6-0; Aruzhan Sagandikova (Kaz) bt Smriti Bhasin 7-5, 6-2; Ashmitha Easwaramurthi bt Ustiniya Lekomtseva 6-3, 6-3.
-Team Sportstar
GYMNASTICS
Dipa qualifies for final at Apparatus World Cup, Pranati misses out
Star India gymnast Dipa Karmakar on Wednesday entered the women’s vault final after finishing sixth in the qualifying round of the ongoing FIG Apparatus World Cup, a Paris Olympics qualifying event, in Doha.
The 30-year-old, who had finished a creditable fourth at the Baku Apparatus World Cup in Azerbaijan last month, scored 12.500 in the first vault and 13.066 in the second vault to total 12.783.
Navas Karla (13.916), Georgieva Valentina (13.316) and An Chang Ok (13.166) took the first three positions in the qualifying round.
The top eight finishers in the qualification round make it to the finals.
“I am thankful to SAI for sending me. Dipa is sixth now and she will look to do better in the final. She has gone through a lot. It is not easy to compete against world’s best after two ACLs (anterior cruciate ligament injury), so we are not thinking too much about Olympic qualification,” her long-time coach Bishweshwar Nandi told PTI.
The final is scheduled on Friday.
The other Indian in the fray, Pranati Nayak, however, failed to qualify for the final after finishing 11th in the qualifying round.
Pranati, 29, who had won the bronze medal in vault event at Cairo World Cup this February and also represented India at the Tokyo Olympics, suffered a fall in the second vault to come up with a score of 12.416.
“She had a bit of ankle swelling but it is mainly the fall in the second vault which affected her,” said coach Ashok Kumar Mishra.
Dipa, who battled two knee operations in 2017 and 2019 due to ACL tears and a 21-month suspension due to a doping violation, is unlikely to qualify for the Paris Games in vault as she currently has an Olympics qualification score of 34 and even a gold medal here will only take her score to 64.
“Only two gymnasts in each apparatus will qualify in women’s vault from this tournament and Bulgaria’s Valentina and Korea’s Chang are ahead with 84 and 80 points,” Mishra said.
Valentina had won the gold ahead of Chang in the last World Cup in Baku.
Gymnasts earn Olympic ranking points from the Apparatus World Cup series based on how well they do compared to other eligible gymnasts on each apparatus. The highest-ranked eligible gymnast in a final earns 30 ranking points, second highest 25, and so on.
Dipa, who returned after completing the dope ban only last year, didn’t participate in the World Cup in Cottbus, Germany (Feb 22-25).
Dipa had finished fifth in Cairo (Feb 15-18) World Cup, where Pranati won a bronze.
The Asian Championship, scheduled to be held in Uzbekistan from May 16 to 19, is the final Olympic qualifier.
“In Asian Championships, only one girl can qualify and that too in all-round. It will be extremely tough, our girls will have to do well not only in vault but also in other three apparatus,” Mishra said.
-PTI
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