GOLF
Ajeetesh shoots 70, slips to 31st in Shinhan Donghae golf in Japan
Indian golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu slipped down the ladder despite carding 1-under 71 in the third round at the 38th Shinhan Donghae Open in Japan on Saturday.
Sandhu, who was Tied-13th after the second round, is now T-31st.
The other Indian to make the cut, Shiv Kapur, also shot 1-under 70 and dropped from T-60 to T-65.
Sandhu had four birdies against three bogeys while Kapur had three birdies against two bogeys.
Thailand’s Tirawat Kaewsiribandit opened up a three-shot lead after the third round following a fine five-under-par 66. Playing some of the best golf of his 12-year professional career, he reached 19-under par for the tournament -- which is the second lowest 54-hole total of the season.
Korean Siwoo Kim, the event’s marquee player with three wins on the PGA Tour, fired a 67 to sit solo second.
Canadian Yonggu Shin and Sanghee Lee from Korea both returned 66s and are a further shot back.
Tirawat led after the first two rounds thanks to a pair of sublime 64s and began on Saturday in the same impressive manner.
Despite being relatively unknown, Tirawat has won before on the Asian Tour, at 2018 UMA CNS Open Golf Championship in Pakistan. A year before that, he also triumphed in the Betagro All Thailand Championship on the Asian Development Tour.
Siwoo Kim, ranked 75th in the world, will most definitely be his main threat on Sunday.
Malaysian Ben Leong carded the joint-best round of the day, a 65, and is six behind the leader.
American Todd Baek and Japan’s Ryosuke Kinoshita both came in with 66s, and Japan’s Kazuki Higa -- the current Japan Golf Tour number one -- a 70 and are five off the pace.
Amandeep lie 3 shots behind leader; Diksha, Vani T-17 in Switzerland
India’s Amandeep Drall shot one-under 71, that included an eagle, to stay in contention on tied ninth spot at the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open golf tournament here.
Amandeep was six-under and lying three shots behind the leader, Liz Young of England.
Meanwhile, Vani Kapoor and Diksha Dagar are looking at a top-10 finish in the Ladies European Tour event as they were T-17 after 36 holes.
Tvesa Malik gained in confidence with a two-under 70 that saw her make the cut very comfortably. At two-under for 36 holes, she is T-25.
But Ridhima Dilawari (76-72) and Neha Tripathi (77-74) were sure to miss the cut, which is likely to fall at one-over.
Amandeep, who had a superb first round of five-under 67, started the second round with nine straight pars on the front nine.
She then landed an eagle on Par-5 10th but later dropped a shot on par-4 13th and parred the rest for 71.
Diksha looked set for a solid second round and rose as high as sixth as she was three-under for the second round after 10th. An unfortunate triple bogey on Par-4 14th saw her lose a lot of ground, but a birdie on 15th was small compensation as she ended with 71. At three-under she is T-17.
Vani had three birdies against two bogeys in her 71 and Tvesa was bogey free and two-under till she came to the Par-5 16th, where she dropped a shot. She did manage to get that back and was two-under for the day and two-under for the tournament.
England’s Young fired a round of 67 (-5) on day two at Golfpark Holzhäusern.
Round one was completed only on Friday morning and it also led to second round being left incomplete on Friday evening. Five groups still need to complete their second round.
However, it was an excellent day for Young, who followed up her first round of 68 (-4), with a bogey-free 67 to sit atop the leader board on nine-under-par.
Amandeep is tied for ninth alongside Finland’s Karina Kukkonen, who has three holes to play.
-PTI
Aditi adds 70 to first round 68, lies T-15 in Kroger Queen Champs
Indian golfer Aditi Ashok fired five birdies before dropping three bogeys for a two-under 70 in the second round to lie T-15th at the Kroger Queen Championship.
Aditi played almost as well as she did in her bogey free first round, but results were somewhat different.
Aditi shot four-under 68 in the first round with four birdies and no bogeys.
At six-under for two rounds, Aditi is now T-15th as the LPGA Tour moves into the last quarter of the season.
The highlight of Aditi’s second round was a hat-trick of birdies from 12th to 14th after birdies on second and ninth.
She dropped shots on par-5 fourth, par-3 eighth and then right at the end another bogey came on the Par-4 18th.
In the first round, Aditi birdied second, fifth, ninth and 12th.
The best finish for Aditi this season has been T-13 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio in January.
The current week must have been a relief for Aditi, who has had five missed cuts in the last six starts.
The first round leader Xiyu Lin witnessed a superb second round from her playing partner Jeongeun Lee, who fired a bogey-free nine-under 63. The highlight was four consecutive birdies from holes 7-10. She also tied her second-lowest career round on the LPGA Tour.
Playing with Lee, the 18-hole leader Lin backed up her opening 64 with a bogey-free four-under 68 to sit one shot back at 12-under. Her two-day total is 132.
A total of 76 players made the cut at one-under.
-PTI
TENNIS
Ankita Raina up against Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria in Chennai Open first round
India's top singles player Ankita Raina will run into fourth-seeded Tatjana Maria of Germany in the first round of the singles main draw in the Chennai Open WTA 250 tennis tournament, beginning here on Monday.
Raina got a spot in the main draw courtesy a wild card along with the country's No.2 singles player Karman Kaur Thandi, who has been drawn to meet eighth-seeded Chloe Paquet of France in round one.
The draw ceremony for the WTA tournament being held in Chennai for the first time was conducted here Saturday afternoon and saw the top-seed Alison Riske-Amritraj (USA), the world No.29, getting Anastasia Gasanova as her opponent in round one.
Second-seeded Varvara Gracheva will start her campaign against a qualifier while the third-seeded Magda Linette (Poland) opens with a match against Japan's Moyuka Uchijima.
The India No.1 Ankita, ranked No. 139 as of August 29, recently lost in the final of an ITF tournament in Britain. She faces a battle against 35-year old German Maria, a mother of two, ranked 85 on the WTA list and a semifinalist at Wimbledon in July.
Meanwhile, Thandi, ranked 365, meets Paquet, who is 111 on the rankings list and would aim for a strong performance given the gulf in the ratings.
Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard of Canada, who is on a comeback trail and received a wild card into the singles of the Chennai Open, will face Joanne Zuger of Switzerland in her opening match.
She is expected to be among the big draws in the tournament especially following the withdrawal of the in-form Caroline Garcia.
International tennis action returns to the city after more than five years with the WTA tournament. The event lost a couple of its top players when Frenchwoman Garcia, the world No.17, and Belgian Elise Mertens withdrew due to scheduling challenges and injury respectively.
Key first round matches:
-PTI
Shekar makes a comeback to register a win the AITA wheelchair tennis tournament
Second seed V Shekar bounced back from a slow start to beat third seed K. Karthik 4-6, 6-4, [10-2] in the final of the AITA wheelchair tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on Saturday.
In the final, it was Karthik who raced to a 5-0 lead, but Shekar got into his rhythm and dictated the flow of the contest thereafter.
It was a double crown for Shekar, as he later partnered S Balachandar to clinch the doubles title, beating D Mariappan and K Karthik 6-4, 6-3.
The women’s title was bagged by N Prathima as she cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over MK Mubina.
The results (finals):
-Kamesh Srinivasan
National series juniors
Manish Yadav beat top seed Tanishq Jadhav 6-0, 5-7, 6-4 in the boys final of the AITA National series junior tennis tournament at the Singha Sports Academy in Jalandhar on Saturday.
In the girls final, Aakruti Sonkusare beat Sejal Bhutada in straight sets.
Results (Finals)
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Mukund Sasikumar reaches ITF $25k final in Portugal
Second seed Sasikumar Mukund beat Daniel Rodrigues of Portugal 6-1, 7-5 to reach the final of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Sintra, Portugal, on Saturday.
In the final, Mukund will play seventh seed Duarte Vale of Portugal.
In the $15,000 event in Madrid, Digvijay Pratap Singh in partnership with Alberto Senise of Spain was beaten 10-8 in the super tie-break of the doubles final by Luis Francisco and Pablo Masiuan Ginel of Spain.
RESULTS
$25,000 ITF men, Sintra, Portugal
$15,000 ITF men, Madrid, Spain
-Kamesh Srinivasan
ATHLETICS
AFI postpone Indian Grand Prix 5,6
The Athletics Federation of India has postponed the fifth and sixth legs of the Indian Grand Prix, scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on September 11 and 18.
The Indian Open 400m meet, to be held in Jamshedpur on October 1 and 2, has also been put off.
The AFI appears to have postponed these events as they are either very close to or clashing with the National Games in Gujarat. Athletics at the National Games will be held in Gandhinagar from September 30 to October 4.
The new dates of the AFI events will be announced later.
- Stan Rayan
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