GOLF
Aditi exits early, Lee, Khang share lead as Olympic champion Ko lies 6th
Indian golfer Aditi Ashok carded a 3-over 75 in the second round to make an early exit from the ISPS HANDA Women’s Scottish Open.
Aditi, a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour, had a 81 in the first round.
Aditi had a bogey on the front nine and a double on the back nine and no birdies. It was one of those rare weeks, when she had no birdies in either round.
The Scottish Open has never been kind to Aditi, who has now missed the cut at the event six times in eight starts since 2017 with a best of T-55 in 2023.
She will be back in action at the AIG Women’s Open next week a St. Andrews.
At the top, Minjee Lee and Megan Khang share the lead on eight-under-par at the midway mark of the event that precedes the AIG Women’s Open.
-PTI
Lahiri 38th in Liv Golf Greenbrier
India’s Anirban Lahiri had one bogey and one birdie in his opening round of even par 70 at Liv Golf Greenbrier after the first day of the 54-hole event here.
Lahiri was tied 38th in a field of 54.
Talor Gooch, the 2023 Individual champion, grabbed a share of the first-round lead, shooting a bogey-free 7-under 63, which was matched by Jason Kokrak and Sebastián Muñoz.
Brooks Koepka is in a five-way tie for fourth, just one stroke back after his 64 on a day when play was suspended for 80 minutes due to inclement weather.
With Gooch, Kokrak and Koepka providing the contributing scores, Smash opened up a four-shot advantage over Ripper GC and Legion XIII on the team leader board.
-PTI
Jeev on tied-19th at Zambia Golf Legends
India’s Jeev Milkha Singh opened the Zambia Golf Legends Championship with a round of even par 72 for a tied 19th place.
Playing on a windy day at the Bonanza Golf Club, just outside Lusaka, Jeev had one birdie and one bogey in his first six holes and parred the rest.
Jeev, who is hosting a Legend Tour event in India next week, was 19th at the end of the first day as 18 players went under par.
Simon Khan made a fine start with a 6-under 66 as he looked for his maiden Legends Tour win.
-PTI
Czech Masters: Chouhan misses cut, Ravetto takes lead in Prague
David Ravetto cruised into the lead with a sizzling 9-under 63 at the Czech Masters golf tournament here on Saturday as India’s Om Prakash Chouhan missed the cut.
The Frenchman signed off with a closing birdie on the par five ninth – his last hole – to reach 13 under par and tie the course record, which was set earlier in the day by England’s Andrew Johnston, who shared the second place with Scotland’s Richie Ramsay and Jesper Svensson of Sweden.
Johnston, Ramsay and Svensson are at 12-under.
India’s lone entry for the week, Chouhan, playing his first season on the DP World Tour, missed the cut with rounds of 74-72.
It has been a season of learning for Chouhan, who has missed 11 cuts in 13 starts on the main Tour and made just a cut in Kenya.
-PTI
BADMINTON
India targets multiple medals at the BAC U-15/U-17 championships
Badminton Association of India will be sending a squad of 39 players to the Badminton Asia (U-15/U-17) junior championships to be played in Chengdu, China, from August 20-25, 2024 with an aim to win multiple medals and create a strong squad keeping in mind that India will host the 2025 World Junior Championship.
In the last edition of the BAC championship, India had bagged one gold, one silver and one bronze with Bornil Changmai standing atop the u-15 boy’s singles podium.
The Indian contingent left for Chengdu on Saturday after an extensive preparatory camp at the National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati under the watchful eyes of the Indian and foreign coaches.
Speaking about the team’s chances, BAI secretary Sanjay Mishra said, “India is fielding one of the biggest squad for the Badminton Asia Championships and I am confident that we can win sizable medals. The players and the coaches have put in a lot of work in the camp and our players are now ready to make a mark in the competition.”
The Indian contingent, which was picked after an extensive selection trials in Bengaluru, will be led by Gnana Dattu and Tanvi Reddy Andluri in the u-17 category, while Shyam Bindiganavile and Tanvi Patri will be the top singles players in the u-15 category.
Shaina Manimuthu will be the only player to be involved in two events as she will be playing in the girls u-17 singles and girls doubles with Aikya Shetty.
India Squad:
U-15
Boys Singles: Shyam Bindiganavile, Shashank Vanamala, Prangan Choudhary, Pushkar Sai
Girls Singles: Tanvi Patri, Shaina Manimuthu, Gatha Suryawanshi, Hithaishree L Rajaiah
Boys Doubles: Rahul Kadapakula/Vedant Pahwa, Shashwat Chaudhary/Shaurya Chaudhary
Girls Doubles: Shaina Manimuthu/Aikya Shetty, Nidhi Atmaram/Selvasamruddhi Selvaprbhu
Mixed Doubles: Sahid Ibrahim Peer/Dheeshitha Singha Gopinath Singh, Kaveyugan KA/Anushka Jennifer AS
U-17:
Boys Singles: Gnana Dattu TT, Prateek Koundilya, Dev Ruparelia, Abhinav Garg
Girls Singles: Tanvi Reddy Andluri, Adarshini Shri NB, Parul Choudhary, Durga Isha Kandrapu
Boys Doubles: Bjron Jaison/Aathish Sreenivas PV, Abhinav Kandari/Yogansh Singh
Girls Doubles: Annaya Bisht/Angel Punera, Diya Bheemaiah B/Baruni Parshwal
Mixed Doubles: Showrya Kiran J/Keerthy Manchala, Manish Reddy/Deepak Raj Aditi
-Team Sportstar
CUE SPORTS
Kothari, Sitwala knocked out in quarterfinals of Western India Billiards and Snooker C’ship
National champions Sourav Kothari (snooker) and Dhruv Sitwala (billiards) crashed out in the quarterfinal while Pankaj Advani won both his matches in the Western India Billiards and Snooker here on Saturday.
Former national champion Kamal Chawla from the Railways potted steadily and charged past Kothari (ONGC) by a 5-3 (71-38, 53-65, 96-0, 70-9, 29-79, 55-17, 26-96, 96-40) margin in the senior snooker event.
Chawla, from Madhya Pradesh, constructed breaks of 50, 84, and 54 in the second, third and fourth frames before signing off with an effort of 77 to seal the win.
Later, S Srikrishna from Tamil Nadu rolled in a neatly constructed break of 248, which helped him beat Sitwala 694-610 in the contest lasting 150 minutes.
Srikrishna was leading by 400 points at the halfway stage before the three-time Asian billiards champion Sitwala fought back to close the gap but his effort went in vain.
Srikrishna won a tense deciding frame to edge out Laxman Rawat 5-4 (15-65, 40-59, 64-62, 78-22, 87-29, 72-58, 19-68, 59-22, and 69-31) victory to enter in the snooker quarter-finals.
But it was a memorable outing for Advani who won both his snooker and billiards quarterfinal clashes.
In snooker, Advani blanked Anuj Uppal 5-0 (50-1, 78-18, 73-24, 109-5, and 91-15). The ace cueist Advani’s best efforts were 49, 49, and 90 in the last three frames.
Advani returned later to crush Rayaan Razmi in their billiards clash while producing breaks of 290, 133 and 108.
Results
-PTI
TENNIS
Ankita Raina loses semifinals
Alina Charaeva stopped the fine run of Ankita Raina with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory in three hours in the semifinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Ourense, Spain, on Saturday.
The results:
$164,000 Challenger, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Doubles (semifinals): Sriram Balaji & Fernando Romboli (Bra) w.o.
Andres Andrade (Ecu) & Liam Draxl (Can).
$40,000 ITF women, Ourense, Spain
Singles (semifinals): Alina Charaeva bt Ankita Raina 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Comments
SHARE