GOLF
India veterans Atwal, Jeev to tee off at Senior PGA Championship
Veteran Indian golfers Jeev Milkha Singh and Arjun Atwal will tee off at the USD 3.5 million Senior PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas.
The Senior Majors are for 50-plus golfers.
Jeev, who has playing rights on the Senior Tours in Europe and Japan, got a special invite and so did Atwal, India’s first and only PGA Tour winner. Atwal was on the waiting list less than a week ago.
“Fields at the Seniors are very strong. They have players who have won Majors on the PGA Tour not too far back.
“Names like Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Ernie Els and the whole bunch of PGA stars, who are now on the Champions TOUR, as it is called, are good to give many a run for their money in any event,” said Atwal.
Jeev, who made his debut at a senior major at the PGA Championships last year, is thrilled to be back in Texas, where he played college golf.
“I’ve been granted a special invitation to the 83rd Senior PGA. I cannot wait to get back to Texas, where I played all my college golf. This really is a huge honour.” said Jeev.
While Jeev is yet to make a start this season on the PGA Champions Tour, Atwal was T-11 on his debut.
Jeev goes out early with Steve Pate and Jeff Gove in the morning, while Atwal will play late in the afternoon with Austrian Markus Brier and Doug Rohrbaugh. The field includes legends like Bernhard Langer, who is rewriting records on the Champions Tour, Colin Montgomerie, Vijay Singh, Steve Stricker, Els, Jim Furyk, John Daly, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Michael Campbell, and KJ Choi, among others.
-PTI
GOLF
Aditi falters in opening tie of match play in Las Vegas
India’s Aditi Ashok led for the most part against French golfer Perrine Delacour but lost the last two holes to go down in the first set of matches at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match-Play in Las Vegas.
It was a closely fought battle, where Aditi led for most part of the match. Aditi had five birdies and so did Delacour, but the latter added a sixth winning birdie on the 18th to outgun the Indian.
There are 64 players in the field who will be in action in three days of round-robin play. The winner from each of the 16 groups will advance to the knockout stage on the weekend.
Aditi, who has been in Top-5 in her last two starts, was never in deficit till the 17th as her rival kept fighting back. Aditi opened smartly and went 2-up in the first three holes, with birdies on the first and the third. The Frenchwoman rallied to win the fourth and eighth to tie the match.
Aditi again started the back nine with a birdie and won the 10th hole only to see Delacour get back the hole on 11th. Aditi again won the 13th and lost the 14th and yet again won the 15th.
With the 16th being halved with a bogey from both players on the Par-5, Aditi was 1-up with two to play. Once again the gritty Delacour won the 17th and then won the last hole to upstage the Indian.
Aditi will meet Caroline Inglis, who upset Jennifer Kupcho 4&3 in the other group match. Aditi will need to win to keep her hopes of advancing to the knockout stage.
Lilia Vu and Brooke Henderson, the two top 10 ranked players in the field, started with wins at Shadow Creek. Vu never trailed in a 4-and-3 victory over Lauren Hartlage. Henderson took the lead for good with a birdie on the par-5 ninth hole and relied on mistakes by Yaeeun Hong and won, 3 and 2.
- PTI
Diksha, Amandeep and Tvesa among five Indians in Belgium
India’s Diksha Dagar, who is showing signs of getting back to form, will hope for a good outing when she leads a squad of five Indians in the Belgian Ladies Open, which is taking place at Naxhelet Golf Club for the second consecutive year.
Diksha and Tvesa Malik got in late into the field, which also comprises Amandeep Drall, Vani Kapoor and Seher Atwal as the Ladies European Tour (LET) returned to Europe at the Naxhelet Golf Club for the summer run of events after a trip to Florida.
While Diksha is slowly getting back to form, Tvesa and Vani, who missed the cut last week, will be looking to making amends as will Amandeep Drall, who last year came within a whisker of winning the Hero Women’s Indian Open for her maiden LET success at home.
Seher, who earned the status through the LET Qualifying School, is looking to translate her home success on the LET.
This season India’s flag has been flown by Aditi Ashok, who is leading the LET’s Race to Costa Del Sol, but this week she is playing on the LPGA, where her last two starts have seen her finish T-2 and T-5.
Seher Atwal will be among the early starters, teeing off in the second group of the day with Emma Grechi and Emie Peronnin of France, while Vani Kapoor is the very next group with two other French stars, Camille Chevalier and Agathe Sauzon.
Just as Vani tees off from the first, Amandeep will play alongside Germans Sophie Witt and Laura Fuenfstueck at the same time from the 10th.
Diksha plays with England’s Chloe Frankish and Swiss golfer Kim Metraux from the first in the afternoon wave, and then Tvesa will be among the last few groups from the first with Thailand’s Mim Sangkapong and Slovakia’s Michaela Vavrova.
Home star Manon De Roey will be teeing it up once again in her home tournament after she finished in a tie for seventh place in 2022. The Antwerp native had a solid start to the LET season with three top-10 finishes, including T3 at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International.
- PTI
TENNIS
National Sub-Junior Championship
Sai Janvi beat fifth seed Yashika Shokeen 6-2, 6-4 in the girls quarterfinals of Ramesh Desai Memorial National sub-junior tennis championship at the KDLTA Complex in Kolhapur on Thursday.
In another match in the girls section, Prisha Shinde beat the sixth seed Aishwarya Jadhav 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. In the boys section, Praneel Sharma, Samarth Sahita, Arnav Paparkarand Aradhya Kshitij made the semifinals.
The results (quarterfinals):
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Challenger Skopje: Sumit Nagal loses second round
Sumit Nagal was beaten 7-5, 0-6, 6-2 by Mate Valkusz of Hungary in the pre-quarterfinals of the €73,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Skopje, Macedonia, on Thursday.
In the ATP event in Lyon, France, Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Mmyneni were beaten 6-3, 4-6, [11-9] in the doubles quarterfinals by Nicolas Mahut and Matwe Middelkoop. The Indian pair collected 45 ATP points and €5,220.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
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