GOLF
Aditi Ashok off to a good start in Founders Cup on LPGA
Aditi Ashok got to a fine start at the Cognizant Founders Cup with a round of 3-under 69 that put her in Tied-12th place and was three shots behind Korea’s Sei Young Kim (66), who is leading the pack.
Aditi, who has been on the LPGA Tour since 2017, but is still searching for her first win on the Tour, however, has four wins on the Ladies European Tour, including one this year.
Aditi started on the back nine of the Upper Montclair Country Club and opened with a birdie on the 10th, to which she added another one on the 13th.
A dropped shot on 16th saw her turn in one-under. She fell to even par with a second bogey on the first. Then she roared back with three birdies on the second, third and seventh and did not drop any more shots for a round of 69 on a course that has narrow fairways and demands a lot of accuracy off the tees.
Aditi found the fairways only 50 per cent, but played well with the irons, finding 14 of the 18 greens and needing 29 putts.
This season in four starts, Aditi missed the cut in the first three but finished second in her last tourney. On the LET she has won once, finished second once and once she was third and leads the LET rankings.
Sei Young Kim shot a bogey-free 6-under 66 to take the first-round lead. She had four straight birdies — on the par-5 12th, par-4 13th, par-5 14th and par-3 15th — and parred the final three holes.
The 30-year-old South Korean player, the 2016 tournament winner in Phoenix, has 12 LPGA Tour titles — the last two in 2020.
South Korean rookie Hae Ran Ryu was a stroke back. She had eight birdies and three bogeys in a 67.
A bunch of nine players carded 4-under 68 to be tied third while Aditi with 69 was T-12 along with 12 others in what was a very tight leaderboard. Ryu made eight birdies and three bogeys.
-PTI
Shubhankar Sharma off to solid start in Belgium
Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma carded a 3-under 68 to be placed Tied-18 after the first round at the Soudal Open here.
Sharma, who has been landing a lot of birdies, did so again with five birdies, but also ensured he did not drop too many shots as he bogeyed twice on day one of the DP World Tour event.
Sharma’s compatriot, Manu Gandas (71), shot even par and was T-75 and will need a good start to make a run and make the weekend rounds.
Sharma, who is currently in Top-60 of the Race to Dubai rankings, needs to stay there to qualify for the season-ending events.
Sweden’s Simon Forsström carded his lowest round of the 2023 season as he took a one-stroke lead after the first day. The Swede made the turn in 32 strokes, four under par, and then carded three successive birdies from the 11th hole to sign for a bogey-free seven under par 64 at Rinkven International Golf Club.
Sharma started with a birdie on the first but gave away that shot on the second. Then he went to collect three birdies from fourth to sixth and added one more on 11th. He dropped a shot on the eighth. He found a lot of fairways, almost 80 per cent, and hit the greens on more than 77 per cent and needed 29 putts.
Forssttrom is one stroke ahead of his compatriots Jens Dantorp, James Morrison and Andrew Wilson of England.
-PTI
Diksha starts with solid even par round, lies 11th in France
Diksha Dagar gave herself a fair start with an even par 71 on a day when just 10 players went under par in the first round of Jabra Ladies Open.
Diksha had two birdies and two bogeys at the Evian Resort Golf Club, where players started from the sixth and 15th tees. Diksha, starting from the sixth, bogeyed the eighth but got the shot back on the Par-4 10th.
She gave away her second bogey on the Par-3 16th before getting back to par with a birdie on Par-3 second. Her round of 71 gave her Tied-11th place for the day.
Also getting off to a decent start was Amandeep Drall, who shot 1-over 72 with two birdies and three bogeys to be placed T-20th.
Among the other three Indians in the field, Seher Atwal, niece of the Indian golf legend, Arjun Atwal, shot 4-over 75 and was T-67.
Tvesa Malik, who got into the draw barely 48 hours before the start, had a rough start, as did Vani Kapoor. Both carded 5-over 76 and were T-83rd, needing solid second rounds to make the cut, which will fall after two rounds with Top-60 and ties playing the final round.
Dutch star Anne van Dam fired a bogey free six-under 65 to lead by two shots after round one. Starting her round on the 15th tee, the five-time Ladies European Tour (LET) winner got off to a solid start when she birdied the par-4 17th before making the turn.
Herbin sits in solo second after carding a 67 (-4) on home soil. Hot on Herbin’s heels is Sweden’s Linn Grant who sits in third after firing a 68
-PTI
HANDBALL
Jaipur to host the inaugural season of the Premier Handball League
The first edition of the Premier Handball League is set to be played from June 8 to 25 at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium in Jaipur.
The league will see six teams -Rajasthan Patriots, Garvit Gujarat, Maharashtra Ironmen, Golden Eagles Uttar Pradesh, Telugu Talons and Delhi Panzers will compete on a Teraflex handball surface manufactured by Gerflor. The stadium has also hosted multiple Pro Kabaddi League matches since 2014 as it is the home of Jaipur Pink Panthers. The venue is owned and managed by the Rajasthan State Sports Council.
The inaugural season of the Premier Handball League will be broadcast on Viacom18 which will provide multi-platform coverage on JioCinema, Sports 18-1 (HD & SD) and Sports 18 Khel.
- Team Sportstar
TENNIS
ATP Busan Challenger: Kadhe exits in doubles semifinals
Arjun Kadhe in partnership with Nam Ji Sung of Korea was beaten 6-4, 4-6, [10-8] in the doubles semifinals by Max Purcell and Rubin Statham in the $160,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Busan, Korea, on Friday.
RESULTS
- Team Sportstar
Lakshit wins AITA men’s tennis
Lakshit Sood beat Parth Aggarwal 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the Rs.100,000 AITA men’s tennis tournament at the Little Angel’s School on Friday.
The results (final):
- Team Sportstar
Tavish and Prachi win AITA National series juniors
Tavish Pahwa and Prachi Malik won a double crown each in the AITA National series junior tennis tournament at the Singha Sports Academy on Friday.
Tavish beat Raghav Sarode 6-3, 6-1 in the boys final. He won the doubles title in partnership with Kushagra Arora. Prachi Malik beat Havisha Choudhary 7-6(4), 6-3 for the girls title. Prachi partnered Hiya Kugasia for the doubles title.
The results (finals):
- Team Sportstar
India into junior Davis Cup playoffs
India won both the singles matches through Aarjun Pandit and Kriish Tyagi to beat Australia 2-1 in the positional play-off for the 5-8th places in the Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup under-16 tennis tournament in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Friday.
In the match for the fifth place, India will play Hong Kong on Saturday. In the semifinals, Korea beat host Kazakhstan 2-1 and Japan beat Thailand by the same margin. All the four teams had ensured their berth in the World Group competition to be played later in Europe.
The results:
- Team Sportstar
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