SQUASH
Saurav Ghosal exits New Zealand Open in second round
Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Saurav Ghosal was knocked out of the New Zealand Open, a PSA silver level world tour event, in Tauranga on Wednesday.
Fifth-seeded Ghosal, who received a bye in the opening round, lost 2-3 (7-11, 4-11, 11-8, 11-7, 7-11) to Argentina’s Leandro Romiglio in 67 minutes in the second round.
READ: Saurav Ghosal continues to live the dream in a season like no other
World No. 15 Ghosal, who recently led the country to its first-ever gold medal at the Asian Team Championships in Kuwait, was 3-8 down in the third game after losing the first two against World No. 68 Romiglio before making an incredible comeback to level the score at two-games-all.
However, the Argentine got his concentration back just in time to edge Ghosal in the final game and clinched the biggest win of his career.
“I started really solid in the first two games and then he started to play in the third and fourth. He found his way back into the game, and so I am really happy to finish it off in the fifth, really,” Romiglio told psaworldtour.com after the win.
- Team Sportstar
TENNIS
Dalwinder eliminates Russia’s Bekhan Atlangeriev
Dalwinder Singh knocked out sixth seed Bekhan Atlangeriev of Russia 1-6, 6-1, 7-6(6) in the first round of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Wednesday.
Making the main draw as a lucky-loser, the former National champion Dalwinder was at his fighting best, as he saved a match point in the 12th game of the decider to force the tie-break. In a contest of fluctuating fortunes, Dalwinder converted his second match point to set up a pre-quarterfinal against wild card entrant Raghav Jaisinghani.
The champion last week, Digvijay Pratap Singh was beaten 6-3, 7-6(7) by lucky loser Woobin Shin of Korea. Manish Sureshkumar, Niki Poonacha, Nitin Kumar Sinha and Karan Singh were the other prominent Indian players to lose first round.
Fifth seed Sidharth Rawat fought his way past qualifier Faisal Qamar in three sets.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivaan
Karman Kaur Thandi wins first round
New Delhi: Third seed Karman Kaur Thandi beat Michaela Bayerlova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in the first round of the $60,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Calgary, Canada.
Karman, who had taken a week off owing to an injury and had skipped a $125,000 event, was scheduled to play Ana Sofia Sanchez of Mexico in the pre-quarterfinals.
The Results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Amandeep, Vani join Tvesa and Diksha at Aramco Series in Jeddah
Jeddah: Hero Women’s Indian Open runners-up Amandeep Drall and the talented Vani Kapoor will look to put up a good show when they make their debut at the Aramco Team Series in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia beginning on Thursday.
The final event of the Aramco Series and also the penultimate event of the 2022 Ladies European Tour season, will see no less than four Indians.
Besides Amandeep and Vani, Diksha Dagar, who has been part of the winning team once in 2021, and the LET regular Tvesa Malik are also in the field.
Amandeep had finished tied second at the USD 400,000 event in India, while Vani signed off at tied eighth at the same event. The duo will look to continue their good run here.
For Tvesa, this is the final shot at getting into the Tour Championship in Spain, for which Diksha, Amandeep and Vani have already booked their places.
Olivia Cowan, who clinched her maiden title with a win in India, and has no less than 27 top-10 finishes on the LET, is looking forward to playing at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club.
Cowan was runner-up at the Aramco Team Series – Jeddah in 2021.
“It was only two weeks ago that I won, and I was obviously waiting a long time for this win. I came close a few times and had to take some knock-backs, but I think you learn from them. I wouldn’t say so I feel pressure,” Cowan said.
“I had a good week in India, I came out on top, but this is a new week, and anything can happen. There are great players here, and all I want to do is just continue what I did in India and have fun playing golf. If I end up at the top in the end, that’s great.” The Aramco Team Series – Jeddah will see an individual 54-hole stroke play tournament take place alongside a 36-hole Team event, with each tournament having a prize pool of USD 500,000.
England’s Georgia Hall, who is ninth in the 2022 Race to Costa del Sol, returns to the scene of her victory having won the earlier edition of the Aramco Saudi Ladies International.
Defending champion of the Individual tournament Pia Babnik is back looking for more success in Jeddah as are England’s Bronte Law and Belgium’s Manon De Roey, who won the Individual events in London and Bangkok, respectfully.
There are 11 winners from the 2022 LET season, who will be searching for another title, with seven of the top 10 in the Race to Costa del Sol also competing, while there is a return to professional competition for European Solheim Cup Captain Suzann Pettersen.
-PTI
Kapil continues fine form at Telangana Golconda Masters
Hyderabad: Kapil Kumar of Delhi, the runner-up at the last PGTI event in Pune, continued his fine form despite injury concerns with a nine-under 61 to take the round one lead at the Rs. 40 lakh IRA Telangana Golconda Masters at the Hyderabad Golf Association (HGA) course here on Wednesday.
Kapil sank seven birdies and an eagle for a bogey-free round. He was off to a terrific start with birdies on the first four holes making a couple of conversions from 10 to 12 feet. An eagle on the par-5 eighth followed by a birdie on the ninth took Kapil to seven-under at the turn. He produced a couple of great wedge shots on the 15th and 17th to add two more birdies to his flawless card.
Local amateur Milind Soni, 17, struck a brilliant seven-under 63 to be tied second with Gurugram’s Manu Gandas, a three-time winner on the PGTI this year.
Soni, who represented India at the Eisenhower Trophy earlier this year, had a tremendous start. He began the week with an eagle-two as he holed his approach from 134 yards on the first hole. With his approach game in top shape, he went on to pick up four more birdies on the front-nine including three tap-ins.
Soni made further inroads on the back-nine with birdies on the 10th and 14th. He drove the green on the par-4 14th. His only blip was the bogey on the 17th where he found the water.
-V. V. Subrahmanyam
Afshan Fatima takes two-shot lead over Gaurika in 14th leg of Hero WPGT
Panchkula: Afshan Fatima returned to form with a two-under 70 to take a two-shot lead after the first round of the 14th Leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour here on Wednesday.
Afshan, who was twice runner-up in 2019 and once before that in 2018 and has not won since the 13th Leg of the 2018 season, was on top of the leader board after a very long time.
Her card was the day’s only under par score at the Panchkula Golf Club.
The 26-year-old from Jaipur had a bogey on the second hole itself but she fought back with three birdies on third, seventh and ninth and another one on 11th to go 3-under for the day. She dropped a shot late on the 17th.
Gaurika Bishnoi, who won the weather-hit 13th Leg and then had a creditable Top-10 finish at the Hero Women’s Indian Open, overcame a bogey-bogey start with a string of pars till the 12th hole.
She birdied the 13th and then closed with another birdie on 18th to ensure she finished at even par 72.
As many as six players finished at 1-over 73.
Shweta Mansingh suffered a crippling triple bogey on Par-5 15th after a bogey start. She also had three birdies. Ridhima Dilawari bogeyed 14th, 15th and 17th after being 1-under till then. She finished 1-over.
Seher Atwal had just one birdie on the eighth and two bogeys on the back nine, while Saaniya Sharma was hit by three bogeys in a row from sixth to eighth as she had four other birdies, three of them in the last five holes. Overall she had four birdies against five bogeys.
Khushi Khanijau had two birdies against one bogey and one double, while amateur Vidhatri Urs had two birdies against three bogeys.
Three players Neha Tripathi, Agrima Manral and Asmitha Sathish shot 2-over 74 each.
Sneha Singh carded a disappointing 6-over 78, while another pre-tournament favourite Hitaashee Bakshi carded 4-over 76.
-PTI
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