GOLF
Diksha Dagar makes cut in Irish Open with a late birdie
A late birdie saved Diksha Dagar on the second day as the Indian golfer made the cut despite a round of 1-over at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open here.
The two-time Ladies European Tour winner was one shot short of the cut line when she holed a birdie on the Par-5 17th hole to get to 1-over for the day.
Olympian Diksha who shot 1-under 72 on the first day had two bogeys on the Par-5 fourth and the eighth hole on the front nine on the second day as she turned in 2-over.
At that stage she was 1-over for the tournament. The birdie brought her back to even par for the two rounds and she squeezed into weekend action in tied-55th place.
Among the other three Indians, Pranavi Urs (73-74) missed by one while Tvesa Malik Sandhu (76-78) and Ridhima Dilawari (79-76) missed the cut by a fair margin.
Ursula Wikstrom fired back-to-back rounds of 68 (-5) to lead at the halfway stage.
After some early morning fog, there was a 30-minute delay to the tee times and afternoon tee times by 20 minutes.
-PTI
Shubhankar Sharma makes cut at British Masters
Two-time winner on the DP World Tour, India’s Shubhankar Sharma moved into the weekend round action at the British Masters despite a closing bogey on Day 2, where he shot an even-par 72.
Sharma, who had shot 1-under 71 on the opening day, was 1-under after two rounds of 71-72 and placed tied-37 after 36 holes.
The other Indian in the field Om Prakash (71-83) missed the cut after a disastrous second round.
Sharma, who was T-14 last week in Denmark, will now play the third round alongside Jeff Winther and Richie Ramsay.
England’s Tyrrell Hatton held a one-shot lead at the halfway stage after adding a second-round seven under par 65 to his opening 69.
The six-time DP World Tour winner made the most of the ideal morning conditions on Friday to set the clubhouse target at 10-under par and will take a slender lead into the weekend with none of the afternoon starters able to catch him at the summit.
Among those looking to hunt him down are Jorge Campillo of Spain, Frenchman Jeong weon Ko, and South Africa’s Brandon Stone, who posted a blistering round of 64 to sit one shot off the lead at nine-under.
-PTI
Jeev Milkha in hot pursuit of Haeggman at India Legends Championship
Jeev Milkha Singh, in the HSBC India Legends golf championship in Greater Noida on Saturday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Jeev Milkha Singh was in robust form, despite feeling physically drained in the second half, as he notched up his second four-under 68 score in the penultimate round of the $500,000 HSBC India Legends golf championship at the Jaypee Greens on Saturday.
His overall 8-under effort in the three-day event saw Jeev breathing down the neck of leader Joakim Haeggman of Sweden, one stroke behind.
The effort raised hopes of the 52-year-old Jeev winning his maiden international title at home.
Jyoti Randhawa followed with a par-72 score on the second day to be four strokes behind Jeev in the third place. Adilson da Silva of Brazil (141), Clark Dennis of USA (142) followed the leaders.
“The ninth hole was special because I hit a bad bunker shot and I holed a good 20-foot putt. Today was a much better putting day for me. I will just give it a best shot tomorrow,” said Jeev.
Haeggman conceded that it was crucial to be patient on the challenging course in tough conditions.
“I was hitting the greens today which is very important here because chipping and putting around thee greens are very tricky. The main difference today was I didn’t hole as many putts as I did yesterday,”, said Haeggman, who was 9-under 135, after having shot 7-under 65 on the opening day.
Jyoti Randhawa felt that he perhaps had put himself under pressure, “trying to play a good round”.
“It is great for the tournament that we have two Indians playing well,” acknowledged Haeggman.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
ITF masters: Sonal Vohra wins triple crown
Sonal Vohra won a triple crown in the ITF Masters tennis tournament organised by the Excellence Academy here.
Sonal won the league matches against Amita Maurya and Meenakshi Srinivasan to clinch the women’s over-45 singles title. She won the women’s doubles title with Meenakshi, and the over-35 mixed doubles title with Aditya Khanna.
In the men’s over-45 final, second seed Raj Kumar beat top seed Aditya Khanna 6-3, 6-3 for the title.
The results (finals):
- Team Sportstar
ITF: Vaidehi beats Bunyawi in semifinals
Vaidehi Chaudhari saved two match points to get past Bunyawi Thamchaiwat in the semifinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand, on Saturday.
Vaidehi was trailing 3-6, 3-5 and faced two match points in the eventual tie-break before turning the match around, with her strong serve in particular as shefired 15 aces in the match. Bunyawi retired with Vaidehi leading 2-0 in the decider.
In the final, Vaidehi will play seventh seed Rina Saigo of Japan.
The results:
- Team Sportstar
BADMINTON
Rawat, Tamiri reach India Junior International Grand Prix Badminton finals
Indian qualifier Suryaksh Rawat and seventh seeded Surya Charisma Tamiri on Saturday made their way to the boys and girls finals respectively in the India Junior International Grand Prix Badminton tournament.
Rawat continued his prime form as he defeated fellow qualifier Maharishiel Timotius Gain from Indonesia 21-18, 21-18.
Rawat will face Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Tzu Chieh in the final, who got past his compatriot Yang Chieh Dan 21-17, 18-21, 21-13 in the other semifinal.
Tamiri got the better of the third seeded Prashansa Bonam 21-9, 21-10 in an all India contest to set up the summit clash against Indonesia’s Thalita Ramadhani Wiryawan.
Thalita registered a 21-17, 21-14 win over Tanvi Reddy Andluri.
Results:
- PTI
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