GOLF
Madappa in Top-10 despite triple bogey, Bhullar moves up
Indian golfer Viraj Madappa's struggles on the front nine of the Slaley Hall Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort continued, but he also continued scoring very well on the back nine of the course.
Madappa, a one-time winner on the Asian Tour, opened with eight straight pars before running into a triple bogey on Par-4 ninth. He steadied himself on the back as he has done all week with four birdies and no bogeys. He finished with 1-under 70 and was placed tied eighth as the top Indian.
This week Madappa is 7-over for the front nine and 12-under for the back nine, indicating his liking and comfort for the back nine.
Travis Smyth (66) took the third-round lead after signing for a superb five-under-par 66.
Shiv Kapur, who is troubled by a bone spur, had a big struggle with six bogeys and a double bogey against three birdies in his 76 as he dropped from tied third to tied 29th.
Gaganjeet Bhullar (69) parred the entire front nine and then birdied 10th, 12th and 16th but dropped a shot on the 18th in his round of 69 and he moved up to tied 16th to give himself a shot at a Top-10 finish.
SSP Chawrasia (74) was tied 44th, S Chikkarangappa (73) was tied 48th, while Ajeetesh Sandhu (72), Karandeep Kochhar (72) and Jeev Milkha Singh (78) were tied 69th.
The Australian, 27, topped the leaderboard on eight under par at Slaley Hall Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort, near Newcastle – in an event that marks the Asian Tour’s debut in the UK.
Smyth leads by a shot from Thailand's Sadom Kaewkanjana, who matched the course record with a 65, Zimbabwe's Scott Vincent, in with a 69, and Korean Joohyung Kim, who carded a 70. South African Justin Harding, joint overnight leader with Kim, carded a 71 and is two off the lead.
Smyth is set to feature in the final group for the first time on the Asian Tour but shrugged off the pressure.
Sadom produced one of the finest rounds of his fledgling career to put himself in position to win his third Asian Tour title; in January he claimed the SMBC Singapore Open. Vincent, fresh from his third victory in Japan last weekend, will also go in search of a first Asian Tour title.
The final round promises to be a thrilling day especially as final places in next week's LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament are up for grabs: the leading two players not otherwise exempt will earn a place in the elite field, as will the leading three players not otherwise exempt from the International Series Order of Merit, from the International Series Thailand in March through to this week.
The inaugural USD 25 million LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament will be played at Centurion Club from June 9-11.
-PTI
Vani drops from top-20 to finish at T-31, Amandeep T-39 at Italian Open
A late double bogey on the Par-4 17th spoiled Vani Kapoor's card and she dropped from top-20 to finish tied 31st at the Ladies Italian Open golf tournament.
Vani ended with cards of 73-72-72 for a total of one-over 217, while another Indian Amandeep Drall (74-71-74), at three-over, was T-39th.
Other Indians Tvesa Malik, Ridhima Dilawari and Neha Tripathi missed the cut.
Morgane Metraux of Switzerland, who had a 69 in the regulation final round, eagled the first extra hole in a three-way play-off with amateur Alessandra Fanali (67) and England's Meghan MacLaren (67).
Metraux birdied three of the last four holes at Golf Club Margara and needed a birdie on the par-5 18th hole to win outright in regulation play, but her putt from six feet lipped out and she was tied on 10-under-par 206 with MacLaren and Fanali.
Vani opened the final round with a bogey but steadied herself with a birdie on the Par-5 fifth for the third time in three days. She added birdies on 11th and 16th and looked set for a top-20 finish.
Then came the double bogey and she finished with a par on Par-5 18th for 72.
Amandeep birdied the fifth and then had a disastrous run of four bogeys in six holes between 10th and 15th before finishing with a birdie for 74.
After MacLaren and Fanali both made two-putt birdies in front of a large gallery, Metraux then holed a 20 foot eagle putt to earn the victory, before embracing her father, Olivier, who was acting as her caddie.
Following her tie for third in the Mithra Belgian Ladies Open last week, Metraux moved up to 10th position on the Race to Costa del Sol Ranking, while MacLaren, who was tied for second, moved up to sixth place.
Another Italian amateur, Carolina Melgrati was tied for fourth place with South African Casandra Alexander, while Lee-Anne Pace, also of South Africa who held a three-stroke lead after she holed out for eagle on the fourth hole, had to settle for sixth place.
The third Italian player in the top 10 was Roberta Liti, who shared seventh position with Kim Metraux and Nuria Iturrioz from Spain.
The LET now moves to Sweden for the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, hosted by Henrik and Annika, a mixed gender event with the DP World Tour.
-PTI
TENNIS-
Sravya Shivani was beaten 6-1, 6-3 by third seed Stacey Fung in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Canada.
Sravya had earlier won the first round against Alexandra Riley of the US 10-7 in the super tie-break. The schedule of the tournament was severely affected owing to persistent rain.
In the $15,000 men’s event at the same venue, Siddhant Banthia was 7-6(10), 2-6 against sixth seed Fernando Yamacita of Brazil in the pre-quarterfinals when rain intervened.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
AITA selects three boys and girls for Asia U-12 team competition
The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has selected three boys and three girls to compete in the Asia under-12 team competition in Kathmandu, Nepal, from June 13 to 18.
Irfan Ahmed and Shivika Burman will be the coaches for the boys and girls teams respectively, performing the role of captain.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the other teams scheduled to compete in the tournament.
The top two teams in the boys and girls events from the South Asian competition will qualify for the Asian under-12 Finals to be staged in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
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