September 16, Indian Sports Wrap: Tvesa Malik off to a good start in France

Here are all the major developments from Indian sports on September 16, 2022.

Tvesa Malik in action. (FILE) | Photo Credit: Getty Images

GOLF

Tvesa Malik off to a good start in France

India’s Tvesa Malik registered her best round since May as she opened with a card of 3-under 68 in the Lacoste Ladies Open de France.

She was was T-10th when all the players had finished for the day.

Amandeep Drall, who is coming off a career-best T-7 the previous week in Switzerland, had another good start with 2-under 69 that placed her T-21, while the other two Indian women, Diksha Dagar and Vani Kapoor carded 1-over 72 each to be T-48th.

Tvesa, who has been having a disappointing run, had three of her four birdies on Par-3s and one on Par-5. She had one bogey. She birdied the third, eighth, ninth and 15th and dropped a shot on fourth.

She hoped that it was the beginning of a reversal from a lack-lustre season. With only a handful of events left, this round will help Tvesa get some confidence.

Amandeep, who has become more confident as the season has progressed, had four birdies against two bogeys in her 2-under 69.

Meanwhile, the field was headed by Ines Laklalech, Meghan MacLaren and amateur Nastasia Nadaud, who all carded six-under 65s to share the lead following the first round.

World number 14 Céline Boutier is among six players tied for fourth place at Golf Barrière Deauville on four-under-par. The defending champion is joined by Anne-Lise Caudal, Smilla Tarning Soenderby, Anais Meysonnier, Klara Spilkova and Leonie Harm.

Moroccan Laklalech fired seven birdies and one bogey in the windier afternoon conditions.

England’s MacLaren started with a bogey on the 10th and rolled in her first birdie of the day on the 18th to make the turn in level par and then opened her inward nine of 29 with three straight birdies, followed by three more consecutive birdies to close her round on holes seven, eight and nine.

Nadaud was the sole member of the leaders to record a bogey-free round and she played in the first group of the morning from the 10th tee, before the wind gained strength in the afternoon.

This is the first time that Golf Barrière is hosting the tournament.

-PTI

Sharma disappoints with 75, Fitzpatrick leads with 65 in Italy

India’s Shubhankar Sharma got off to a disappointing start with a card of four-over 75 in the opening round of the DS Automobiles Italian Open golf tournament here.

It was a rough day right through for the Indian as he had no less than eight bogeys, four on either side of the course at the Marco Simone Golf & Country Club.

Sharma had four birdies, three on the front nine and one on the back nine.

Placed T-119, Sharma, who is 39th on the Race to Dubai standings, will need a low second round score to make the cut.

Meanwhile, US Open Champion Matt Fitzpatrick posted a late birdie run to edge clear of his Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy before fading light stopped play in the opening round.

Fitzpatrick picked up shots on the second and seventh holes on his front nine and then posted three consecutive birdies on the 11th, 12th and 13th holes to move to five under par, before being forced to stop his round on the 16th tee.

He is one shot clear of a group of eight players, including McIlroy, who recovered from a one-over par opening nine to come back in 30 shots and finish with a round of 67.

-PTI

Solid start for Aditi in Portland Classic golf

 India’s Aditi Ashok made a solid start for the second week in a row with a bogey free three-under 69 to be placed T-13th at the AmazingCre Portland Classic golf tournament here.

Aditi, who captured the imagination of the world’s golfing community with a fourth place finish at Tokyo Olympics, had three birdies on the second, sixth and 10th on Thursday.

She is sitting four shots behind the leader, Ayako Uehara of Japan (65).

Aditi, who needs some good results in the final run of the season, is lying 93rd on the Order of Merit, called the Road to CME.

She found 12 out of the 14 fairways and 15 of the 18 greens, but needed 30 putts. She missed some achievable putts that could have brought her score down at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club.

Japan’s Uehara shot seven-under 65 to lead the field. She was followed by the 2019 Portland Classic champion Hannah Green, who sits at six-under and one stroke behind Uehara.

This is the 38-year-old Uehara’s third start of 2022 since returning from medical leave. She carded five birdies on the front nine, including four in the five holes before the turn, and added three more in her final four holes. The only blemish on her scorecard was a 3-putt bogey on No. 13.

Green sits in solo second after making eight birdies, the most by a single player on Thursday, and two bogeys.

-PTI

TENNIS

Sharanya beats Sahira in AITA women’s tournament final

JALANDHAR: Sharanya Gaware beat second seed Sahira Singh 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Singha Sports Academy on Friday.

It was a fine run by Sharanya who did not drop a set in the whole tournament and beat the top seed Himaanshika Singh 6-4, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

Sahira also did not drop a set prior to the final, but was unable to cope with the crafty game of Sharanya in the title round.

The results:

Singles (final): Sharanya Gaware bt Sahira Singh 6-3, 6-3; Semifinals: Sharanya bt Anahat Pannu 6-3, 6-0; Sahira bt Isha Budwal 6-4, 6-1; Quarterfinals: Sharanya bt Himaanshika Singh 6-4, 6-2; Anahat bt Tanushri Pandey 6-1, 7-5; Isha bt Poorvi Bhatt 7-5, 4-6, 6-3; Sahira bt Gurleen Singh 6-0, 7-6(4).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Indian boys win Asian under-12 Championship

The Indian boys beat Chinese Taipei 3-0 in the last league match but ended up second to Thailand in group-B in the Asian under-12 tennis hampionship in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, on Friday.

With only the top teams from the two groups meeting in the final, Thailand will play host Kazakhstan in both the boys and girls finals.

The Indian boys will play Myanmar in the match for the third place, and the girls will challenge Chinese Taipei for the third place.

The results (league):

Boys: India bt Chinese Taipei 3-0 (Fazal Ali Meer bt Jui-En Tsai 7-5, 6-1; Tavish Pahwa bt Yu-Min Lin 6-1, 6-0; Kushagra Arora & Tavish bt Yu-Min Lin & Yen-Chia Tseng 7-6(5), 4-6, [10-4])

Girls: India bt Uzbekistan 3-0 (A Aahan bt Madinakhon Salidjanova 6-1, 6-1; Prachi Malik bt Muslimakhon Turdimuradova 6-3, 6-3; A Aahan & Anandita Upadhyay bt Elnura Boltaboeva & Madinakhon Salidjanova 7-6(4), 6-2).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Purav and Divij in final in Istanbul

Second seeds Purav Raja and Divij Sharan beat Tuna Altuna and Lorenzo Giustino 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles semifinals of the $53,120 Challenger tennis tournament in Istanbul on Friday.

In the final, the Indian pair will challenge top seeds, Arjun Kadhe and Fernando Romboli.

The results:

Doubles (semifinals): Purav Raja & Diivj Sharan bt Tuna Altuna (Tur) & Lorenzo Giustino (Ita) 6-3, 6-4; Fernando Romboli (Bra) & Arjun Kadhe w.o. Geoffrey Blancaneaux & Laurent Lokoli (Fra).

Quarterfinals: Romboli & Kadhe bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-4, 7-6(4).

$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt: Doubles (semifinals): SD Prajwal Dev & Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam bt Alec Beckley & Kris Van Wyk (RSA) 3-6, 7-5, [10-6].

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia Doubles (semifinals): Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta & Parikshit Somani bt Maximus Jones (Tha) & Karan Singh 6-7(6), 7-5, [10-5};

Quarterfinals: Jones & Karan bt Bekkhan Atlangeriev & Ivan Denisov 6-2, 5-7, [10-8].

$15,000 ITF women, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt: Singles (quarterfinals): Jacqueline Cabaj Awad (Swe) bt Sravya Shivani 6-4, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia: Doubles (semifinals): Ya-Hsin Lee & Chia Yi Tsao (Tpe) bt Milana Zhabrailova & Jennifer Luikham 6-3, 7-5.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHLETICS

National youth athletics from today

The 17th National youth athletics championships begin at the TT Nagar Stadium in Bhopal on Saturday. Over 600 athletes, in the under-18 age group, will be in action in the three-day meet.

The Indian team for the Asian youth championships, in Kuwait from October 13 to 16, will be picked from this event.

-Stan Rayan