GOLF
Diksha lone Indian to make the cut in Jabra Ladies in France
Diksha Dagar was the lone Indian to survive the 36-hole cut at the Jabra Ladies Open as the other four crashed out after the first two days.
Diksha, only the second Indian to have tasted victory on the Ladies European Tour after Aditi Ashok, carded 3-over 74 and was T-30 at 3-over 145 with one more round to go. She shot even par 71 on the first day.
Seher Atwal (75-74) missed the cut by one shot, while Tvesa Malik (76-75) and Amandeep Drall (72-79) were further down and Vani Kapoor (76-76) also had a rough week.
The first two rounds had starts from the sixth and 15th, but the final round will see all players tee off from the first as 67 players made the cut.
Anne van Dam (70) and Linn Grant (67) shared the lead heading into the final day with the pair locked on seven-under-par after two rounds of action.
Chasing a maiden LET victory, England’s Hayley Davis sits in third on five-under-par after posting a 67 (-4) in France.
-PTI
Lying third and one off the lead, Aditi eyes historic win on LPGA
Aditi Ashok, taking advantage of the warmer weather, moved up to tied third and within one shot of the lead at the 2023 Cognizant Founders Cup as she bids to become the first Indian to win on the LPGA Tour.
Following up on her first round 3-under 68, Aditi, playing her seventh year on the Tour, added 4-under 67 to get to 7-under 137 and one shot behind co-leaders, Australian Sara Kemp (65) and Korea’s Jin Young Ko (68).
Aditi is the winner of one Ladies European Tour event this season and runner-up at the JM Eagle LA Championship, where she lost in a play-off.
-PTI
Chipped-in eagle helps Manu Gandas make the cut in Belgium
Manu Gandas, playing in his rookie season on the DP World Tour, ended a streak of missed cuts with a solid 3-under 68 that included four birdies and an eagle as he ensured action over the weekend at the Soudal Open in Belgium.
He chipped in from off the green and almost 45 feet away for an eagle on Par-5 17th.
Gandas, who after three straight cuts has missed the last four, is now 3-under for two rounds and lying T-40.
His compatriot, Shubhankar Sharma, a two-time winner on the Tour, opened with a triple bogey on the 10th and had only one birdie to show for the remaining 17 holes. He missed the cut by one shot.
First-round leader Simon Forsström from Sweden is still the man to catch as he carded five birdies in a four-under-par round of 67. The Swede is 11-under par after two rounds and one stroke ahead of French rookie Jeong Weon Ko (66-66) at 10-under.
Local hero Thomas Detry goes into the weekend just two strokes back as he bids to become the first Belgian winner of the Soudal Open in nearly 70 years. Detry (67-66) is third at 9-under.
Gandas, who earned a DPWT (DP World Tour) card by topping the PGTI Order of Merit, under the new strategic alliance between the Indian and European Tours, started with five pars before he picked three birdies in four holes on the sixth, eighth and ninth holes.
Making the turn in three-under, he gave away two shots on the 10th and 12th but birdied the 14th. A chip-in for an eagle on the Par-5 17th boosted his chances and, despite a closing bogey, he made the cut.
Sharma, after a horrible start, just could not get his putts to fall and made an early departure.
Detry, 30, seeking a maiden DP World Tour victory on home soil, carded seven birdies as he followed his first-round effort of 67 with a five under par 66 to sign for a nine under par total at Rinkven International Golf Club. The last Belgian player to claim their national open was Flory van Donck in 1956, when he won the title for a tournament record fifth time.
Ko is playing in his first season on the DP World Tour after finishing inside the top-20 on the European Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca last year.
In a share of fourth place on eight under par are Frenchman Julien Brun, Jens Dantorp of Sweden and England’s James Morrison.
-PTI
TENNIS
India finishes fifth in Junior Davis Cup
Rethin Pranav and Kriish Tyagi won their singles matches to help India beat Hong Kong 2-0 in the match for the fifth place in the Asia-Oceania Junior Davis Cup under-16 tennis tournament in Shymkent, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.
Japan beat Korea 2-0 in the final to emerge the champion. The second seeded India had lost to Japan in the league stage and to Korea in the quarterfinals.
Host Kazakhstan, Thailand apart from Japan and Korea qualified for the World Group competition to be staged later in Europe.
The results (final)
Japan bt Korea 2-0 (Hyu Kawanishi bt Moobeeb Kim 6-0, 6-0; Hiromasa Koyama bt Yeonsu Jeong 3-6, 6-3, 6-4).
Fifth place: India bt Hong Kong 2-0 (Rethin Pranav bt Ngai Hoi Cheung 6-2, 6-0; Kriish Tyagi bt Jacob Shen 7-5, 6-3).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Bopanna and Ebden in second round of Rome
Rohan Bopanna, seeded seventh with Matthew Ebden, reached the doubles pre-quarterfinals with a 6-3, 7-6(6) victory over Federico Arnaboldi and Gianmarco Ferrari in the €8,637, 966 ATP tennis tournament in Rome, Italy, on Saturday.
The Indo-Aussie pair will play Alex De Minaur and Jason Kubler of Australia in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results:
€8,637,966 ATP Rome, Italy
Doubles (first round): Rohan Bopanna & Matthew Ebden (Aus) bt Federico Arnaboldi & Gianmarco Ferrari (Ita) 6-3, 7-6(6).
€73,000 Challenger, Francavilla al Mare, Italy
Doubles (semifinals): Nicolas Barrientos (Col) & Ariel Behar (Uru) bt Luca Margaroli (Sui) & Purav Raja 6-3, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Doubles (semifinals): Salma Drugdova & Katarina Kuzmova (Svk) bt Sharmada Balu & Lucie Wargnier (Fra) 7-6(4), 6-4.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
