GOLF
Shubhankar shoots 3-under despite late bogeys in Denmark
Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma carded a three-under 68 to lie T-47th after the opening round of Made in Himmerland on the European Tour.
Sharma, who had a superb start of five-under through his first nine, which was the back nine of Himmerland Course, however, gave away some of those gains on the second nine, as he had three bogeys in a row from second to fourth.
A birdie on the fifth then soothed things for Sharma, who is 33rd on the Race to Dubai standings.
Also giving his early gains was Indian-American Aman Gupta, who had three birdies and an eagle on his first six holes on the back nine. After that he had six bogeys against two birdies on Par-5 fifth and eighth. He ended at 1-under and finished the day in T-81st.
Englishman McGowan finished with a flourish late in the day with an eagle on the eighth, his penultimate hole, followed by a closing birdie at the ninth to storm into the early lead on nine under par 62.
But the story of the day was five Danish stars placed within three strokes of the leader.
The second place was shared by compatriot Helligkilde, Scot Ewen Ferguson, England’s Matt Southgate and Justin Walters of South Africa.
Four-time DP World Tour winner Søren Kjelden was a shot further back on seven under, while Niklas Nørgaard Møller and Lucas Bjerregaard were among the bunch of players tied for 13th position on six under.
-PTI
Aditi’s search for form continues, shoots 76 in Dana Open
Indian golfer Aditi Ashok’s search for form continued as she had a disappointing start with a five-over 76 in the first round of the Dana Open on the LPGA.
Aditi, who has missed cuts in four of her five previous starts, had six bogeys against a lone birdie. That puts her in a difficult position, needing to return a very low round on the second day to ensure some action on the weekend.
Meanwhile, Hye-Jin Choi, Ruoning Yin and Carlota Ciganda carded 6-under 65 each to take the first-round lead.
Ciganda, a two-time LPGA Tour champion whose wins came in 2014, opened with two birdies in her first three holes and added four more after the turn on Nos. 10, 11, 13 and 18 for her best first-round score of 2022. Ciganda has already logged three top-five finishes this season.
The other two co-leaders Yin and Choi are both rookies. Yin has been battling a wrist injury and didn’t travel for the European swing. She did play two Epson Tour events and finished T30 and T13.
Vani and Diksha rally superbly to be Tied-12th in Finland
Indian golfers Diksha Dagar and Vani Kapoor rallied to card a matching even par 72 after being three-over within the first six holes of the opening round at the Aland 100 Ladies Open here.
While Dagar had a troublesome start on the front nine, Vani had a big double bogey after starting from the back nine. However, the two ensured they finish round one at Tied-12th.
Finland’s Ursula Wikstrom and Austrian Emma Spitz shared the first round lead after a matching four-under 68 each in challenging and windy conditions here.
Among the other Indians, Ridhima Dilawari and Amandeep Drall shot two-over 74 each and were T-27, while Tvesa Malik (75) was T-39. Neha Tripathi (80) had a very rough day.
Vani, started with a birdie on the ninth, the starting hole for the back nine at the Alands Golf Club, but dropped a crippling quadruple bogey on the Par-4 13th, which was her fifth hole.
She had another bogey on Par-5 16th at which point she was 3-over after six holes. From there, she rallied superbly to finish the day at even par.
Making a similar rally was Diksha, who started on the first nine and dropped shots on second, fourth and sixth. She recovered from there with birdies on 12th, 13th and 15th to get back to even par 72.
Ridhima and Amandeep had just one birdie each against three bogeys, while Tvesa had one birdie against four bogeys in 3-over 75.
Finland’s Ursula Wikstrom, one of the most experienced players on the LET, had just one bogey against five birdies, while Spitz started with a bogey on first and had six birdies and an eagle against four bogeys in an eventful round of 68.
Home hope Wikstrom, who started from the ninth, birdied the 11th, 14th and 17th holes before sinking a five metre putt on the 18th green to tie for the lead. She dropped a shot on the first hole, but quickly recovered with a birdie on the fourth.
-PTI
Indian team 32nd, Rayhan Thomas 45th as Japan lead in World Amateurs
India’s Rayhan Thomas landed an eagle in his second round of 2-under 70 at the Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche in the 32nd World Amateur Team Championship here.
Thomas, who went from his Dubai base to college at the Oklahoma State University in the US, had earlier shot 1-over 72 at the Le Golf National. With a total of 1-under, Thomas was placed tied 45th.
India’s other players are Milind Soni with 4-over 75 at Le Golf and 1-over 73 at National Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche and at 5-over he was tied 103rd. Raghav Chugh (73 at Golf National and 77 at Golf de Saint-Nom-La-Bretèche) was tied 118th.
In the team championship, which is what the WATC is primarily held for, India were lying tied 32nd.
At the top Japan’s Taiga Semikawa, with a 6-under-par 65, led his team to a record 36-hole score of 264.
World No. 1 amateur Keita Nakajima added a 69 for Japan’s second-round 134 and their team score of 264 broke the 36-hole mark of 266.
-PTI
Hitaashee Bakshi wins the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour - 11th leg
Hitaashee Bakshi survived a late charge from Pranavi Urs to emerge champion in the 11th leg of the Hero Women's Pro Golf Tour, here on Friday.
Hitaashee recovered from a double bogey on the Par-5 seventh hole on the front nine, to card an even par 72 in the final round.
This was Hitaashee's third win of the season, having won the third and sixth legs of the Tour.
The victory took her earnings to Rs 8,15,000 and she is now in second place with Seher Atwal (Rs.7,50,000) in third place.
While Hitaashee claimed the top spot, Pranavi finished second.
Sneha Singh, lying one shot adrift, had a rough day with a double bogey and three bogeys against three birdies for a 74 that saw her slip.
She still awaits her maiden trophy as a professional, even though she has emerged triumphant as an amateur.
It was expectedly a close battle between the three players in the lead group of Hitaashee, Sneha and Pranavi.
Hitaashee extended her lead on the very first hole with a birdie as Pranavi parred and Sneha bogeyed.
On the next hole, Sneha got back the shot, but Hitaashee dropped a shot and Pranavi parred yet again in a steady manner and the trio was exactly where they had started and stayed so for the next two holes with pars from all three.
As Pranavi and Sneha birdied the fifth, Hitaashee birdied the sixth and the tussle continued.
Then came the setback for Hitaashee who double bogeyed the Par-5 seventh and Sneha did the same as Pranavi safely parred the hole.
Hitaashee played the back nine without a blemish and one birdie and that carried the day for her as Pranavi did have three birdies, but she also dropped two shots on the back nine.
Nayanika Sanga, who landed an eagle two on Par-4 ninth shot even par 72 and at 3-under 213 for 54 holes, finished fourth, while amateur Keerthana R Nair shot 73, including a double bogey on Par-5 seventh, which on the final day proved a big trouble spot for many golfers.
Keerthana was fifth and the best amateur.
Khushi Khanijau (72) ended sole sixth, while another amateur Heena Kang (75) was seventh at 2-over 218.
Shweta Mansingh (73) and Seher Atwal (75) were tied for eighth place at 4-over 220, while amateur Vidhatri Urs (77) ensured the presence of three amateurs in the Top-10. She was 5-over 221.
YB Sarangi
Around 3000 women boxers expected to participate in zonal championships
Around 3000 youth and junior female pugilists are expected to participate in the five zonal championships to be held under a joint initiative by the Boxing Federation of India and the Sports Authority of India.
The first event, the Khelo India East Zone Open women’s boxing championships, will be held in Guwahati from September 16 to 22. Successful pugilists from four zonal events will progress to the combined championship.
YB Sarangi
TENNIS
Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni sailed into the doubles semifialss with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Dmitry Popko and Kaichi Uchida in the €45,730 Challenger tennis tournament in Spain.
In the $15,000 ITF men’s event in Tunisia, Rishab Agarwal made the semifinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over Alex Knaff of Luxembourg.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Suhitha Maruri, Kriish Tyagi wins ITF J4 singles titles in Secunderabad
Suhitha Maruri and Kriish Tyagi won the singles titles at the ITF J4 event held on hard courts at the Ash Tennis Academy in Secunderabad on Friday.
Top seed Suhitha defeated fourth-seeded Ruma Gaikaiwari 6-2, 6-1 to make it two J4 singles titles in two weeks. The 16-year-old Bengaluru girl had also won the J4 event in Chennai last week.
Fourth seed Kriish Tyagi, who also hails from Bengaluru, beat sixth seed Pranav Karthik 6-3, 6-3 to win the boys’ singles title. National junior champion Kriish had lost to Pranav in the semifinals of the J4 event in Chennai.
Suhitha and Kriish both earned 60 ITF ranking points each while Pranav and Ruma each got 36 points.
Both losing singles finalists got reasons to celebrate later in the day as Pranav and Ruma won the doubles titles.
Fourth-seeded duo of Pranav and American Pavan Uppu beat the unseeded pair of Vineeth Mutyala and Skandha Prasanna Rao 6-2, 6-4 in the boys’ doubles final.
In the girls’ doubles summit clash, top seeds Ruma and Sonal Patil defeated second seeds Madhurima Sawant and Nandini Dixit 6-2, 4-6, [10-7].
The winning doubles pairs collected 45 ITF ranking points each while the runner-up duos took 27 points.
-TEAM SPORTSTAR
Dhruv and Divya victorious in the AITA U18 Championship
Dhruv Kumar and Divya Ungrish won the boys and girls titles respectively in the AITA Championship series under-18 tennis tournament at the Master Mind Academy, Pitampura.
Divya Ungrish with her coach Tushar Jagota at the Master Mind Avademy. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
In the finals, Dhruv and Divya asserted themselves as the top seeds, by beating Kunsh 7-5, 6-4 and Yashika 6-2, 6-4 respectively.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
WRESTLING
National under-23 wrestling championships: Gold for Sumit and Neelam
Chandigarh’s junior international Sumit defeated Delhi’s Parvesh by technical superiority and won the men’s 60kg Greco-Roman gold in the National under-23 wrestling championships which began at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Friday.
Meanwhile, in the women’s section, UP’s Neelam beat Haryana’s Sweety, also by technical superiority, for the 50kg gold.
The results (finals only):
Men: Greco Roman: 60kg: Sumit (Chd) bt Parvesh (Del) by technical superiority.
72 kg: Rahul (SSCB) bt Vishal (Chd) by pts.
97kg: Nitech (Har) bt Viresh (UP) by tech sup.
Freestyle: 61kg: Aakash (SSCB) bt Sahil (Pun) by tech sup.
74kg: Raviraj (Mah) bt Ankit Kumar (Del) by fall.
92kg: Parveen (Har) bt Akash (UP) by points.
125kg: Anirudh (Del) bt Deepak (UP) by tech sup.
Women: 50 kg: Neelam (UP) bt Sweety (Har) by technical superiority.
57kg: Nikita (Har) bt Aarju (UP) by fall.
65kg: Sumitra (Del) bt Preeti (Har) by fall
Stan Rayan
