TENNIS
Bopanna-Shapovalov pair loses in Stuttgart Open semifinal
Indo-Canadian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov bowed out of the Stuttgart Open at the semifinal stage on Friday.
Bopanna and Shapovalov, few hours after their quarterfinal win over the Kazakh-Pak duo of Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq-Qureshi, went down 6-7 (1), 6-7 (5) to third seeds Mate Pavic of Croatia and Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the final four fixture.
The Indo-Canadian pair was leading 6-4, 1-2 against Nedovyesov and Qureshi when play was suspended on Thursday due to rain which meant it had to play the semifinal on the same day after winning the quarterfinal.
Bopanna, 42, recently reached the French Open semifinals in men's doubles with Dutchman Matwe Middelkoop.
- Nihit Sachdeva
Sriram-Jeevan reach Bratislava Challenger final
Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat the top seeds Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler 5-7, 7-5, [10-4] to make the doubles final at the Challenger event in Bratislava.
In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Thailand, Rutuja Bhosale made the singles semifinals and doubles final. Second seed Ankita Raina, however, went down in three sets to Gao Xinyu in a quarterfinal battle that lasted three hours and 17 minutes.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Suhitha, Rushil reach singles finals at Khelo India Youth Games
Suhitha Maruri fought hard to beat top seed Shruti Ahlawat 2-6, 6-1, 7-6(1) in the girls tennis semifinals in the Khelo India Youth Games at the Gymkhana Club on Friday.
In the final, Suhitha will play Akanksha NItture who subdued Maharashtra State mate Vaishnavi Adkar for the loss of six games.
In the boys section, Rushil Khosla set up a title clash with Dhruv Hirpara. The absence of Chirag Duhan and Aman Dahiya, seeded No.1 and 2 in the boys event was a blow for host Haryana, in both singles and doubles.
In the girls doubles, Lakshmi Prabha and Janani Ramesh stopped an all-Maharashtra final, by beating Akanksha Nitture and Ruma Gaikaiwari 6-4, 2-6, [11-9].
After the energy sapping duel against Shruti, it was understandable that Suhitha could not stretch herself further in doubles with sister Reshma Maruri. The Karnataka pair retired after two games against Vaishnavi Adkar and Sudipta Senthilkumar.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
WPGT: Pranavi picks 3rd win of season in Bengaluru
Mysore teenager Pranavi Urs could afford the luxury of an even par round and still win the seventh leg of the Women's Pro Golf Tour by nine shots in Bengaluru on Friday.
The 18-year-old Pranavi, who started the week with 67-66, added 72 to total 11-under 205, even as her nearest rival Jahanvi Bakshi failed to make any headway on the final day at the Prestige Golfshire.
Jahanvi, who started the day eight shots behind Pranavi, carded 1-over 73 and finished at 2-under 214 and nine behind the winner.
The golfer bringing in the best card of the day was Asmitha Sathish (67) who moved from third to second place and amateur Vidhatri Urs (71) moved one place up from fourth to third.
Asmitha totalled 7-under 209, while Vidhatri had a total of 2-under 214 and was tied third with Jahanvi.
This was Pranavi's third win of the season, following successes in the first two legs of the year. She has also finished second once, as she cemented her place at the top of the Hero Order of Merit.
Pranavi, starting the day with a huge eight-shot lead, birdied the second and fifth holes, but then lapsed with back-to-back bogeys on sixth and seventh to turn in even par 36.
She birdied the 10th but dropped a double bogey on Par-4 12th before picking another birdie on the 14th. It was her 19th birdie of the week. She closed with four pars and romped home an easy winner.
A good solid week for Pranavi showed that she has overcome the injuries which have held her back.
She had suffered a wrist injury last year and then a few weeks back she had a shoulder problem, due to which she pulled out of the trials for the Asian Games, which have since been postponed to 2023.
Neha Tripathi (71) was fifth while Durga Nittur (70) shared the sixth place with amateur Heena Kang (72). Seher Atwal (71) with her first under-par round of the week was eighth while Ridhima Dilawari (75) ended ninth.
Khushi Khanijau (73) and Siddhi Kapoor (78) were tied for 10th place.
The eighth leg of the WPGT will be held at Karnataka Golf Association course from June 14 to 17.
-PTI
Mane finishes 10th at OB Invitational in Indonesia
Udayan Mane was unable to recapture the magic of the first two days as he finished 71-71 in the last two rounds for a tied 10th finish at the OB Invitational on the Asian Development Tour in Jakarta on Friday.
Mane, the lone Indian in the field, shot 65-69 in the first two rounds and was well placed to make a bid for his maiden pro win outside India.
In the weather-hit event, Mane shot 71 in the final round with three birdies against two bogeys for 71. Mane who was 10-under after the first two rounds, totalled 12-under for the week.
Indonesia's Naraajie E. Ramadhanputra turned in a flawless nine-under par 63 to clinch victory on debut as a professional golfer. He beat compatriot and fellow ADT debutant Jonathan Wijono to win by four strokes on the Damai Indah Golf's BSD Course. Ramadhanputra totalled 24-under 264 while Wijono aggregated 20-under 268.
Filipino Lloyd Jefferson Go was third 17-under and China's Chen Guxin (68) was fourth.
The USD 70,000 event was hit by rain delays for the first three days of the tournament but the final day turned out fine, and despite needing to clear up the stragglers from round three in the morning finished with time to spare.
Ramadhanputra, who turned professional after the recent SEA Games, began the day tied for the lead at 15 under. He was under early pressure from the in-form Wijono, who started with three straight birdies to open up a small lead.
But a brace of awkward bogeys on holes four and five for Wijono soon put the impetus back with Ramadhanputra and the pair traded birdies and one eagle to make the turn with a significant lead over the rest of the field.
Wijono, who was playing his first ADT event as a pro, faltered again with a bogey on the 10th hole and despite recovering the dropped shot within the next two holes, a string of birdies from Ramadhanputra and two more dropped shots as the round drew to a close meant he had to ultimately concede defeat.
-PTI
Madappa lies T-16 at Liv Series in London; Schwartzel leads
Viraj Madappa, the first Indian on the breakaway Liv Golf Invitational Series, opened with an action packed 1-over 71 and was placed T-16 in the 48-man field.
He was six shots behind the South African Charl Schwartzel who scored 5-under 65 to hold the first round lead at the USD 25 million tournament at the Centurion Golf Club near London.
The leader board had a strong African flavour to it with four South Africans and Zimbabwean occupying five of the top six players. Thai Phachara Khongwatmai was the lone outsider in T-3 with 3-under 67.
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Madappa had an eagle, three birdies, two bogeys and two double bogeys in his card as the players went off with a shot-gun start.
He eagled the Par-5 13th, and he almost holed it for an albatross. He double bogeyed Par-4s, ninth and 16th.
South African Hennie Du Plessis (66) was sole second at 4-under, while Zimbabwe's Scott Vincent and Khongwatmai were tied for third at 3-under while Branden Grace and Justin Harding were tied for fifth at 2-under.
Two of the top stars, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, were among the four tied for seventh at 1-under, along with Sam Horsfeld and Laurie Canter.
The highlight of Schwartzel’s card was his 6-under 30 on the back nine while Du Plessis had three birdies in a four-hole stretch early.
The two leading South Africans form part of the team called Stinger GC, which has two other South Africans, Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace.
At 9-under, they hold a six-shot lead in the team competition, which has USD 5 million allocated to it.
The 48 players have been divided into four-man teams. Hy Flyers GC and Crushers GC are the closest pursuers at 3 under.
The event is a 54-hole, no cut contest on the Par-70 course and is part of the eight-event series in 2022. The winner this week in London will receive USD4 million.
A little after the first shot was struck Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, was among the 17 golfers suspended by the PGA Tour.
However, 10 of the 17, including Schwartzel, had already resigned their PGA Tour membership.
-PTI
Rough start for Diksha, Tvesa and Sharma in Sweden
Indian golfers Diksha Dagar, Shubhankar Sharma and Tvesa Malik endured a rough start at the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed and run the risk of missing the cut.
Diksha with a 2-over 74 was the best of the three Indians at 114th place, while Sharma and Tvesa carded 4-over 76 each and were T-140th.
All three will need solid second round cards to make the weekend. The top 65 and ties will make the cut.
Diksha had two birdies, two bogeys and a double bogey, while Tvesa had three birdies but also three bogeys and two double bogeys.
Sharma, who has missed four cuts in last five starts, looks likely to miss another one. He had two birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey.
Meanwhile, Italian amateur Carolina Melgrati produced a spectacular opening round of 7-under 65 to be in a four-way share of the lead.
The Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed is a co-sanctioned event between the LET and DP World Tour with 78 men and women each playing for the same prize fund of USD 2 million and one trophy with Henrik Stenson and Annika Sörenstam as hosts.
Melgrati, 19, who finished T4 at last week’s Ladies Italian Open, landed an eagle on par-5 11th besides six other birdies against just one bogey on eighth.
Melgrati was joined at the top of the leader board by Scotland’s Craig Howie, France’s Matthieu Pavon and Spain’s Santiago Tarrio, who all carded rounds of 65.
Four players were tied for fifth place including England’s Liz Young and Sweden’s Linn Grant after they both fired rounds of 6-under 66.
At the end of the first day, 16 players are Tied-11th on four-under-par including local LET winner Julia Engström, German duo Karolin Lampert and Leonie Harm, France’s Anne-Lise Caudal, England’s Rosie Davies and Italy’s Virginia Elena Carta.
-PTI
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