Indian sports wrap, February 16: Aditi Ashok shoots 75, slips to tied 53 in Saudi Ladies International

GOLF

Aditi Ashok shoots 75, slips to tied 53 in Saudi Ladies International

Aditi Ashok played a disappointing round of 3-over 75 and slipped to tied-53rd at the Saudi Ladies International in Riyadh on Sunday.

Aditi with rounds of 69-72-75 totalled even par 216 for three days. This was her first event of 2025 on the Ladies European Tour.

It was a tough day with two birdies, three bogeys and a double bogey in the 75 at the Par-72 Riyadh Golf Club.

The other three Indians, Pranavi Urs, Diksha Dagar and Tvesa Malik had missed the cut earlier on.

– PTI

Jeev on tied-19th with one more round remaining in Marbella Legends

Jeev Milkha Singh endured a difficult day with 1-over 73 in the second round of the season-opening Marbella Legends.

The Indian ace, now in his third season on the Legends Tour, who had a 68 on the first day, is now 3-under for 36 holes but slipped down from T-12 to T-19 with one more day to go at the Aloha Golf Club.

Simon Griffiths (65-68) reached 11-under and Colin Montgomerie (65-70) headed the chasing pack with 18 holes to play.

Jeev teed off from the first and birdied the third but gave that shot away on the very next hole.

He ran into a rough patch with bogeys on the eighth, ninth and 11th but still fought back with birdies on the 15th and 16th, which he had birdied a day earlier also.

Englishman Griffiths moved to the summit as he started on the back nine and cruised to the turn in 32 strokes with birdies at the 10th, 12th, 17th and 18th. He matched a pick-up at the 5th with only his second dropped shot of the week at the 6th to sign for a 68.

Montgomerie started on the 10th and recovered from a bogey-bogey start to post a good round of 70 to reach 9-under.

He also dropped a shot at the 18th, but he had birdies at the 13th, 15th, 2nd, 7th and 9th.

The eight-time DP World Tour number one again finished his day to a rapturous cheer from the wonderful galleries as he picked up a shot on his final hole for the second successive day.

Playing with Montgomerie over the first two rounds, local favourite Miguel Angel Jimenez is three strokes off the lead at 8-under after a late surge kept his hopes of a very popular victory alive.

He’s joined at 8-under by Keith Horne and Lionel Alexandre.

– PTI

Late bogeys push Lahiri down to Tied-seventh in Adelaide

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri, who was six-under through his first 11 holes, carded a three-under 69 in the final round to finish tied 7th at the LIV Adelaide on Sunday, with late bogeys derailing his progress.

Lahiri looked like a contender for his maiden title before he was hit by four bogeys in the last seven holes, though he also had a birdie.

The Indian had rounds of 71-70-69 and totalled six-under.

Joaquin Niemann overcame a three-shot deficit to claim the title, carding the day’s only bogey-free round with a 7-under 65 to finish at 13-under.

Abraham Ancer, who led the majority of the day before suffering three bogeys on his final five holes, finished in a tie for second with Carlos Ortiz (70) at 10-under.

Two months ago, Niemann won the PIF Saudi International and also the season-long International Series championship.

Niemann won for the second time in his career in Australia, having captured the Australian Open in 2023.

Ancer, also a former Australian Open champion, was still able to celebrate atop the Adelaide podium, with the Fireballs claiming the team title by six strokes over Jon Rahm’s Legion XIII, with Torque finishing third.

Ancer will enter LIV Golf’s next tournament in Hong Kong as the defending champion.

– PTI

TRIATHLON

Asia Triathlon Cup 2025: Di Basilico, Pratiwi win titles

Francesco Di Basilico of Italy and Indonesia’s Martina Ayu Pratiwi won the SDAT Triathlon Cup Triathlon in the Elite men’s and women’s category at the INS Adyar here on Sunday.  

“It is my first win in the international level. Happy to win here. For me, swimming is always tough. I was in the top 7 in swimming, and midway in the final race, I overtook the Japanese (Takuto Oshima) to win the championships,” said the 20-year-old Italian. 

For Martina, too, this was her first win at the International level. “It feels happy to be a first-time winner. For me, swimming was challenging, but the weather was not a problem as it is the same in my country,” the 21-year-old said.  

Sarungbam Athouba Meitei and Dolly Devidas Patil finished best among the Indians in 15th and 10th places in the men’s and women’s sections, respectively. 

– K. Keerthivasan

EQUESTRIAN

NEC Show Jumping 2024-25: Tejas Dhingra retains National Championship title

Tejas Dhingra at the National Equestrian Championship Show Jumpin 2024-25 event in Meerut.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Tejas Dhingra of Beeya’s Riding Facility successfully defended his National Championship title at the National Equestrian Championship (Show Jumping) 2024-25, held at Modi Equestrian Academy, Meerut, on Sunday.

Dhingra, the reigning champion, secured his victory with 16 points in the championship tour, finishing ahead of joint runners-up Amar Sarin of Tarc Equestrian Centre and Ashray Butta of EGC Stables.

Meanwhile, it was a moment of double delight for Yashaan Zubin Khambatta of Tarc Equestrian Centre, who reigned victorious in both the Novice and Medium Tours.

Sehaj Singh Virk and Abhishek Chopra shared second place in the Medium Tour, while Narayan Singh joined Yashaan on the podium for the Novice Tour, securing the runner-up position after Yashaan impressively claimed both the top two spots.

Meanwhile, in the young horse championship, Modi Equestrian Stables rider Gaurav Lonkar triumphed on Aziza, scoring 8.0 points. Abhishek Chopra took second place with his horse Chicago, while Gurvinder, riding Viduthi, secured third place for Team RVC Centre & College.

– Team Sportstar

TENNIS

Pune Open ATP Challenger 2025: Ramkumar beats Ymer to reach final qualifying round

Unseeded Indian Ramkumar Ramanathan pulled off an upset win against top seed Elias Ymer of Sweden to enter the final qualifying round of the Pune Open ATP Challenger on Sunday.

The 30-year-old Ramanathan took revenge of his Davis Cup loss from last year against the top-seeded Swede, winning 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 in the match that lasted one hour and 52 minutes.

The 28-year-old Ymer played solid tennis to wrap up the first set but Ramanathan fought back with his attacking serve-and-volley game to win the second set.

The Chennai player managed to break Ymer’s serve in the fifth game of the decider to win the match.

Ramanathan, currently ranked 403, served nine aces in the match to move into the final round qualifying.

In other matches, sixth seeded Russian Ilia Simakin took one hour 15 minutes to get past India No. 2 Mukund Sasikumar, winning 6-4, 6-3 to also advance to the final round qualifying.

Twelfth seeded Matthew Dellavedova of Australia proved too experienced for 16-year-old wildcard Arnav Vijay Paparkar, winning 6-2, 6-3. Paparkar showed glimpses of his quality but could not get past the experienced Australian.

Former winner of Tata Open Maharashtra, an ATP 250 event held at the same venue in the past, World No. 35 Jiri Vesely proved strong for local wildcard Siddhant Banthia, winning 6-2, 6-3.

Eleventh seeded South African Kris Van Wyk had to toil hard against wildcard entrant Nitin Kumar Sinha before eventually winning 7-5, 7-5, while fourth seeded Blake Ellis of Australia quelled a first-set challenge before accounting for another Indian wildcard Sidharth Rawat 7-5 ,6-2.

In the other two upsets of the day, Russian Petr Bar Biryukov beat second seeded Oleksandr Ovcharenko of Ukraine 6-3, 7-6(6), while Japanese Hiroki Moriya ousted fifth seeded Jacopo Berrettini of Italy 7-5, 6-3.

– PTI

BASKETBALL

INBL Pro League: Punjab Warriors clinches comeback win against Chennai Heat

Punjab Warriors recovered from being down 59-64 at the end of the third quarter to beat Chennai Heat 76-70 in the INBL Pro basketball league at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

Quite remarkably, all the six teams were tied on six points each, with three wins and three losses, after 18 matches in the race for the semifinals.

All the teams have four more matches, before the knock-out stage at the end of 30 league matches .

– Kamesh Srinivasan