GOLF
Neha stretches lead to two shots in 12th Leg of WPGT
Neha Tripathi played superbly on the back nine for a 4-under 32 as she carded 5-under 67 and extended her one-shot overnight lead to two in the 12th Leg of Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Golden Greens Golf & Resorts Ltd.
As Neha moved to nine-under 135 with rounds of 68 and 67, she was being chased by Riya Yadav, who after a good first round added an even better 5-under 67 for a total of 7-under 137.
Asmitha Sathish (71-70) and Gaurika Bishnoi (69-72) were tied third at 3-under 141, while Ridhima Dilawari had a late double bogey in her 70 and was sole fifth at 2-under 142.
Neha, whose off-season work paid off in the earlier part of the year, has been working hard again during the recent break and her game showed a lot of sharpness with all-around improvement.
Riya had two birdies and a bogey on the front nine and four birdies and no bogeys on the return journey. Riya, who had a hole-in-one on the eighth hole in her first round, had her solitary bogey of the day on the same hole in the second round.
Asmitha had three birdies and a bogey in her second round, while Gaurika had three birdies against three bogeys and a double in her first 15 holes. She was 2-over for the day but then found birdies on the 16th and the 18th to salvage a par round.
Agrima Manral (74-69) made a five-shot improvement from her first round and moved to tied sixth alongside Jasmine Shekar (72-71) at 1-under 143.
Tvesa Malik had a better day with seven birdies but also gave away five bogeys in her round of 70 after a first round 75, as she was Tied-eighth with Khushi Khanijau (74-71) and Durga Nittur (74-71).
Seher Atwal, who shot 79 on the first day had a massive eight shot improvement with a 71 and she was T-18 at 6-over 150. The Hero Order of Merit leader, Sneha Singh (78-75) was T-22.
Neha, who won the 10th leg before the break in the Tour schedule, birdied the second and fifth holes for a tidy start before suffering her lone bogey on the Par-3 eighth.
On the back four birdies on 10th, 12th, 15th and 16th ensured a good day’s work and a two-shot cushion.
- PTI
TENNIS
ITF Juniors tennis: Second seed Samarth beats Daksh
Second seed Samarth Sahita beat Daksh Kukreti 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in the boys quarterfinals of the ITF juniors tennis tournament at the Ahmedabad City Foundation courts on Thursday.
In the semifinals, Samarth will play Vatsal Manikantan. The other semifinal will be between Aniketh Venkataraman and Tavish Pahwa.
In the girls section, Prisha Shinde, Priyanka Rana, Ruma Gaikaiwari and Mehak Kapoor made the semifinals.
The results (quarterfinals)
-Kamesh Srinivasan
25,000 ITF men’s tennis: Prajwal beats qualifier Montsi in pre-quarters
SD Prajwal Dev beat qualifier Siphosothando Montsi of South Africa 6-0, 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Kigali, Rwanda, on Thursday.
Ishaque Eqbal also made the quarterfinals. Prajwal and Ishaque also made the doubles semifinals as a pair, following a walkover from Michael Sobhy and Rishi Reddy.
In the $15,000 ITF women’s event in Monastir,, Tunisia, Vaishnavi Adkar got past the top-seed Elena Milovanovic of Serbia in a battle of wits that lasted nearly three hours. Vaishnavi led 5-0 in the decider when the top seed retired.
The results
-Kamesh Srinivasan
CHESS
Asian junior chess: Tejaswini takes one-point lead to final round; four-way tie in open section
She blundered from a winning position, but her opponent paid back the compliment straightaway, missing out on the chance to draw. S. Tejaswini pounced on that lucky break, went on to defeat Bristy Mukherjee and took a full one-point lead into the final round of the Tata Steel Asian junior girls’ chess championship.
The 16-year-old from Chennai is on seven points after Thursday’s eighth round and needs only a draw in the last round to win the title. The game lasted 95 moves, and checkmate was just one when Bristy resigned. “I had the advantage long before and should have won many moves earlier,” Tejaswini, seeded 11th, said.
Three players – top seed Nazerke Nurgali of Kazakhstan, third seed Bommini Mounika Akshaya and Bristy – are in the second position, with six points apiece.
In the open section, four players are in the lead, with six points each – top seed Aleksey Grebnev from Russia, S. Rohith Krishna, Ayush Sharma and S. Aswath.
Important results (eighth round, Indians unless specified):
-P.K.Ajith Kumar
BADMINTON
Simran-Ritika pair enters quarterfinals, only survivors at Vietnam Open
FILE PHOTO: Indian shuttlers Simran Singhi (R) and Ritika Thaker at an international tournament in 2018. | Photo Credit: PTI
Talented women’s doubles pair of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker kept India’s flag fluttering at the Vietnam Open Super 100 badminton tournament by progressing to the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Simran and Ritika, seeded third, beat the Malaysian pair of Lee Zhi Qing and Desiree Hao Shan Siow 21-10, 21-18, in the second round to set up a clash with Chinese Taipei’s Jiang Yi-Hua and Li Zi Qing.
It was otherwise a dismal day for India as all other players bowed out of the tournament.
In a close women’s singles match, Aditi Bhatt lost to Burmese Thet Htar Thuzar 14-21, 21-23, while Tanya Hemanth suffered a 17-21, 12-21 loss to Japanese Manami Suizu.
In mixed doubles, Japanese pair of Hiroki Nishi and Akari Sato vanquished India’s Bokka Navaneeth and Kukkapalli Maneesha 21-11, 21-6, while qualifying pair of Chanayat Joshi and Kavya Gupta lost 11-21, 17-21 against Taiwan’s Lin Bing Wei and Lin Chih Chun.
Satish Kumar Karunakara and Aadya Variyath also bowed out, losing to Indonesia’s Morz Reza Pahlevi Isfah and Marsheilla Gischa Islami 16-21, 15-21 in another match.
Women’s doubles pair of Kavya Gupta and Deepshikha Singh also lost 15-21, 13-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Hung En-Tzu and Lin Yu-Pei.
-PTI
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