Indian sports wrap, August 23: Aditi, Diksha fight hard on opening day at AIG Women’s Open

GOLF

Aditi and Diksha fight hard on a tough opening day at AIG Women’s Open

Indian golfers Diksha Dagar and Aditi Ashok made crucial birdies on their final holes to keep alive their chances of making the cut after the first round of the AIG Women’s Open.

Aditi carded a 4-over 76 to be T-79 while Diksha was 5-over 77, sitting at T-100 as play ended late on the opening day which was marred by strong winds.

The cut looked likely at 3-over or 4-over after the second round.

For a long time, Diksha’s score on the board showed a birdie on Par-5 14th, which was later corrected and it was shown as 5-over.

Aditi opened with two pars and then had a bogey on 12th and a double on 13th for 3-over first nine. She dropped further shots on first and second to go 5-over before the birdie on ninth made it 4-over for the day.

Diksha, T-21 last year at Walton Heath, was 5-over for her first nine holes, the back nine of the Old Course with bogeys on 10, 11, 13, 16 and 17.

-PTI

Shubhankar makes decent start in Denmark, Hojgaard takes lead

Shubhankar Sharma had identical scores of 2-under 69 in his first two rounds at the Danish Golf Championship and was lying tied-fifth on Friday.

Shubhankar, who took a short break after the Paris Olympics, was tied-14th when the first round ended late on Wednesday.

He was one over for the second round, before he birdied the first, seventh and eighth to finish with a second 69, and at four-under he was well-placed.

India’s other player, Om Prakash was way behind at 5-over 76 and was tied-145th. He will need a very low round to have a chance of weekend play.

Rasmus Hojgaard started his Danish Golf Championship title defence in earnest, firing a six-under par 65 to lead by two strokes. Currently 20th on the Race to Dubai Rankings, Højgaard has set his sights on earning a PGA Tour card and joining his twin brother Nicolai as a dual member for 2025.

– PTI

PICKLEBALL

Monsoon Pickleball Championship: Duong, DeHeart set up summit clash

USA’s Quong Duong in action.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

USA’s Quong Duong defeated India’s Armaan Bhatia 2-0 to set up the men’s singles summit clash with compatriot Ryler DeHeart at the second Monsoon Pickleball Championship in Mumbai on Sunday.

DeHeart beat headliner Jay DeVilliers of France 2-0 in the other semifinal on Friday.

Britain’s Thaddea Lock and Chinese Taipei’s Pei Chuan Kao will fight it it out in the women’s singles event.

Thaddea defeated Emilia Shmidt in a closely-contested 2-1 semifinal, while Pei Chuan Kao beat Nicola 2-0.

Jason Tailore, Yeong Ding Hwang and KuochiungWen, Hsieh Yu, Shourya K/Samaira Sippy won the gold respectively in the men’s singles 30+, mixed doubles 50+, women’s singles 30+ and mixed intermediate doubles.

Eight more categories will be played on Day 4 of the championship at NESCO, Mumbai.

The Championship offers a prize money of USD 100,000 across 47 categories.

-PTI

TENNIS

ITF: Vaishnavi beats Miho Kuramochi in quarterfinals

Eighth seed Vaishnavi Adkar overcame a tough start to beat second seed Miho Kuramochi of Japan 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand, on Friday.

In the semifinals, Vaishnavi will challenge the third seed Rina Saigo of Japan.

– Team Sportstar