From Sakshi Malik winning a bronze in Tunisia to a good performance of Indians at the Big Green Egg Open golf, here is all that has happened in Indian sports on July 15 so far.
GOLF
Pranavi keeps Seher at bay to win season’s 4th Hero WPGT title
Pranavi Urs struck form just when it was most needed as she fired four birdies in a span of five holes on the back nine in the final round to win the ninth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the Bangalore Golf Club here on Friday.
Her fourth win of the season extended her lead at the top of the Hero Order of Merit.
Pranavi shot two-over 71 with four birdies against six bogeys and totalled two-over 209, while Seher Atwal (71) with one birdie against two bogeys, aggregated five-over 212.
The scoring and conditions were tougher this week as none of the players finished with an under-par total and there were only two under par rounds, one each by Pranavi and Seher in the tournament.
Starting the final round with a three-shot lead at the Par-69 Bangalore Golf Club course, Pranavi overcame an early charge from Seher over the first 10 holes.
As Seher lost momentum, Pranavi came into her own and raced to victory by three shots despite a bogey-bogey finish.
Seher was two-over for the front nine, while Pranavi was three-over. That cut the lead by one. On the 10th, Pranavi bogeyed again, while Seher birdied the hole for a two-shot swing which saw the two level with eight holes to go.
Then between the 12th and 16th Pranavi birdied four times and Seher managed only pars.
As Pranavi bogeyed the last two holes, Seher dropped a shot on the 18th and Pranavi was three ahead, as she was at the start of the day, but by now the trophy and the winner’s cheque was also hers.
Pranavi, who feels she is fully fit and ready to go full throttle, won the first, fourth and seventh legs before this week. She was also second in the fifth and eighth legs. In short, she has finished first or second in six of the nine legs held so far.
As Seher finished second for the second time in succession, Hitaashee Bakshi, winner of third and sixth legs, was third. Hitaashee carded 72 for a total of 215.
Sneha Singh, winner of fourth Hero WPGT title as an amateur, finished fourth in her professional debut. She carded the final round’s best score of even par 69 and finished with a total of 216.
Oviya Reddi (70) and Gaurika Bishnoi (71) were tied for fifth and Afshan Fatima (73) and Nayanika Sanga (76) were tied seventh. Amateur Jasmine Shekar (72) was ninth while Gauri Karhade (74) and Ananya Datar (76) were tied 10th.
The 10th leg of the Hero WPG Tour will also be held in Bangalore, but at the Prestige Golfshire from July 20-22.
WRESTLING
Sakshi Malik wins a bronze Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series
Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik managed a bronze medal in the women’s 62kg category at the Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series wrestling tournament in Tunis, Tunisia, on Friday.
After being pinned by Brazilian Lais de Oliveira, Sakshi benefited as local wrestler Marwa Amri forfeited her match. Then Sakshi, the only Commonwealth Games-bound Indian woman wrestler competing in the event, lost to Germany’s Luisa Niemesch 5-2. She still managed a bronze in a field comprising virtually three wrestlers.
Sachin Sehrawat (67kg), Gyandender Dahiya (63kg), Sunil Kumar (87kg) bagged Greco Roman gold medals in seriously depleted fields on the opening day.
Arjun Halakurki (60kg) and Deepanshu (97kg) got a silver apiece, while Naveen (130kg) bagged a bronze.
GOLF
Aditi-Pajaree duo lie T-22nd at Great Lakes Bay Invitational golf
Indian golfer Aditi Ashok, playing with Thai Pajaree Anannarukarn, moved to tied-22nd after the second round of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational tournament, a team event on the LPGA Tour.
Aditi and Pajaree, who finished tied-third a year ago at this event, put up a vastly improved performance in the second round as they tallied eight-under in better-ball after a two-over showing in alternate-shot play on the first day.
Aditi Ashok in action at the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational at Midland Country Club on July 14, 2022 in Midland, Michigan.
On three of the holes, both players birdied, while Aditi’s birdies on fourth, fifth and 11th added to the gains.
Pajaree added to the kitty with her own birdies on ninth and 14th, which the Indian parred. There were eight holes where both parred and once when Aditi bogeyed 16th, Pajaree saved the situation with a par.
Meanwhile, Pauline Roussin made a hole-in-one and teamed up with fellow rookie Dewi Weber to take a three-stroke after the second round.
The first round leader, the legendary Annika Sorenstam and Madelene Sagstrom, fell five shots behind the leaders.
The 51-year-old Sorenstam and Sagstrom shot an opening five-under 65 in alternate-shot play on Wednesday.
They had 65 on first day and 66 on second. Roussin and Weber had a 61 at Midland Country Club in the better-ball round to reach 14-under 126. The pair had 65 on the first day and are now 14-under as against 11-under total for Jennifer Kupcho and Lizette Salas, who shot 68-61.
The teams will play alternate shots in the third round and finish on Saturday with better ball.
Sorenstam is making her second LPGA Tour start of the year and only her third since retiring after the 2008 season.
The Hall of Famer missed the cut in the US Women’s Open last month and then tied for fourth last week in Nevada in the mostly male American Century Championship.
Roussin, the Frenchwoman playing on Bastille Day and her mother’s birthday, aced the par-3 seventh with a 46-degree wedge.
-PTI
India’s Diksha lies T-3, Vani T-5 in Big Green Open golf in Netherlands
Diksha, the 2019 Investec Women’s South Africa Open winner, was just one shot adrift of co-leaders Sarah Schober and Liz Young. (File Photo)
India’s Diksha Dagar got off to a flying start in the opening round with a superb card of four-under 68 that placed her tied-third at the Big Green Egg Open golf tournament.
Diksha, the 2019 Investec Women’s South Africa Open winner, was just one shot adrift of co-leaders Sarah Schober and Liz Young, who had opening round scores of 67 (-5) at the Rosendaelsche Golf Club in the Netherlands.
Another Indian in fray Vani Kapoor (69) was tied-fifth, while Ridhima Dilawari (72) was T-28, Amandeep Drall (73) was T-41 and Neha Tripathi (79) was T-111.
Diksha opened with a par but then birdied the next three to get to three-under in four. Another birdie on ninth saw her turn in four-under 32.
On the back nine, she birdied 12th and 17th but dropped shots on 10th and 13th.
Diksha was delighted with her performance on the greens.
“It was a really good day. I’ve been working on my putting and I was feeling confident about my putts so I was making more of them, and that was helping my hitting too,” she said.
“Because I’ve been practising I found it easier to read the greens and find the lines. My hitting was also very good, I was able to attack the flag and make the putts. I was only in the rough once but I was lucky that I had a good lie so I was able to make par from there, otherwise I was hitting all the fairways.” Vani had a slow start with one bogey on the front nine, but then had five birdies against just one more bogey for a fine round of three-under 69 that put her inside Top-5.
Ridhima started from the 10th had three birdies against one double bogey and one bogey.
Sitting one shot behind co-leaders Schober and Young are Dagar and Whitney Hillier, with the duo both shooting 68 (-4) as they made the most of the fine weather.
Local hopes lie with Pasqualle Coffa after the opening round with the Dutch star shooting 69 (-3) to sit three shots off the lead.
Four others including Vani shot 69.
– PTI
Suchitra Ramesh lies T-40 at Trust Golf Link Series
Indian golfer Suchitra Ramesh shot a 6-over 78 in the opening round of the Trust Golf Link Series to finish at T-40 here at the end of the first day.
Germany’s Patricia Isabel Schmidt and Chiara Noja have shared the lead after firing rounds of four-under 68 each.
Both Schmidt and Noja are one shot clear of the chasing pack heading into round of the competition.
The English duo of Gemma Clews and Amy Taylor are tied in third place at three-under 69 while Czech Republic’s Sara Kouskova is another shot back after the opening round.
At one-under-par 71 are Thailand’s Arpichaya Yubol, Scotland’s Kirsty Mitchell, and Italy’s Clara Manzalini as the three share the sixth spot. Wales’ Lea Anne Bramwell and Dutch Lizzy Peeters round out the top 10 at level-par.
-PTI
FOOTBALL
KSFL to help identify talents from grassroot level
A total of 32 schools from in and around the city will participate in the third edition of Kolkata School Football League (KSFL), which is an effort to tap talents at the grassroots level. Meant for the under-18 age group category, the tournament will be played at NKDA Stadium, New Town from July 22.
The tournament, organised by Sports Connect under the aegis of the state body Indian Football Association, has come up with an innovative format where former international footballers like Krishnendu Roy, Amit Bhadra, Tarun Dey, Alok Mukherjee, Mihir Bose, Bikash Panji, Achintya Belel and Syed Rahim Nabi will be working as mentors. Each mentor will have four schools under his charge and will be working with the teams to improve their performance.
There are host of former players in the tournament advisory board compromising of former India captains like Bhaskar Ganguly, Monoranjan Bhattacharya, Prasanta Banerjee and Debasis Mukherjee. After generating a lot of interest in the first two editions in 2018 and 2019, the tournament could not be held in next two seasons because of the pandemic.
TENNIS
Ramkumar loses doubles semifinal in Newport
Ramkumar Ramanathan and his Australian partner John-Patrick Smith lost 4-6, 4-6 to the fourth-seeded all-American pair of William Blumberg and Steve Johnson in the men’s doubles semifinal of the ATP250 event in Newport on Friday.
Adith Amarnath beat third seed Vansh Nandal 9-6 in the boys quarterfinals of the AITA National series under-18 tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy.
In the girls section, Laxmi Sri Dandu beat the second seed Suryanshi Tanwar 9-4 in the quarterfinals.
With rain having upset the schedule, the organisers had best of 17 games format in the quarterfinals, after having played best of three sets in the pre-quarterfinals.
The results:
Boys (quarterfinal): Om Yadav bt Deepam Malik 9-7; Adith Amarnath bt Vansh Nandal 9-6; Keshav Goel bt Dhruv Kumar 9-8(2); Jason David bt Rakshak Tarun 9-5. Pre-quarterfinals: Deepam Malik bt Kavin Karthik 6-4, 6-2; Om Yadav bt Nishant Kumar 6-4, 6-1; Vansh Nandal bt Sagar Kumar 1-6, 6-3, 6-2; Adith Amarnath bt Ritvik Nadikude 6-3, 4-6, 6-2; Keshav Goel bt Pratyushraj Goel 6-2, 3-6, 3-0 (retired); Dhruv Kumar bt Gauransh Sood 6-2, 6-3; Rakshak Tarun bt A Mukherjee 6-2, 6-0; Jason David bt Arjun Rathi 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Girls (quarterfinals): Hannah Nagpal bt Harleen Kaur Dhanda 9-7; Sreenidhi Balaji bt Jennika Jaison 9-2; Asmi Adkar bt Riya Sachdeva 9-5; Laxmi Sri Dandu bt Suryanshi Tanwar 9-4.
Pre-quarterfinals: Hannah Nagpal bt Gia Alana Pereira 9-4; Harleen Kaur Dhanda bt Samya Sikand 6-2, 6-2; Sreenidhi Balaji bt Bhumika Dahiya 6-2, 6-0; Jennika Jaisson bt Prashansa Shrivastava 9-7; Asmi Adkar bt Suhani Gaur 9-5; Riya Sachdeva bt Harnoor Kaur Sidhu 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3; Laxmi Sri Dandu bt Neha Reddy Dandu 6-0, 6-0; Suryanshi Tanwar bt Samaira Malik 9-4
Prajnesh reaches semis in $25K ITF event in Kazakhstan
In the $25,000 ITF men’s event in Kazakhstan, second seed Prajnesh Gunneswaran reached the semifinals with a 7-6(3), 6-2 victory over qualifier Zura Tkemaladze of Georgia.
In a similar women’s event in Kazakhstan, Ankita Raina made the doubles final with Momoko Kobori of Japan. The pair will face the top seeded Koreans, Choi Je Hee and Ha Na-Lae in the final.
The results:
€ 90,280 Challenger, Iasi, Romania: Doubles (quarterfinals): Diego Hidalgo (Ecu) & Cristian Rodriguez (Col) bt Petros Tsitsipas (Gre) & Arjun Kadhe 7-5, 6-1.
$53,120 Challenger, Rome, US: Doubles (quarterfinals): Yosshihito Nishioka & Sho Shimabukkuro (Jpn) bt Sriram Balaji & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 6-2.
$25,000 ITF men, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan: Singles (quarterfinals): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Zura Tkemaladze (Geo) 7-6(3), 6-2.
$25,000 ITF men, Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal: Doubles (quarterfinals): Valentin De Carvalho & Goncalo Oliveira (Por) bt Rishab Agarwal & Adil Kalyanpur 6-3, 2-6, [10-7].
$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia: Singles (quarterfinals): Mu Tao (Chn) bt Manish Sureshkumar 6-2, 4-0 (retired). Doubles (quarterfinals): Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha bt Maximus Jones (Tha) & Zheng Baoluo (Chn) 6-3, 6-7(5),, [10-6]; Omar Brigida & Gabriele Maria Noce (Ita) bt Guy Orly Iradukunda (Bdi) & Tushar Sharma 6-2, 5-7, [10-6]; Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta & Manish Sureshkumar w.o. Dong Bohua & Sun Qian (Chn).
$15,000 ITF men, Lakewood, US: Doubles (quarterfinals): Jaimee Floyd Angele & Ronan Joncour (Fra) bt Elijah Strode (US) & Sathi Reddy Chirala 6-3, 6-3.
$25,000 ITF women, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan: Doubles (semifinals): Momoko Kobori (Jpn) & Ankita Raina bt Mariia Tkacheva & Anastasia Zolotareva 6-4, 6-3.
$25,000 ITF women, Guimaraes, Portugal: Doubles (quarterfinals): Francisca Jorge & Matilde Jorge (Por) bt Ines Murta (Por) & Vasanti Shinde 6-4, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia: Doubles (quarterfinals): Valentina Ivanov (Nzl) & Lisa Mays (Aus) bt Priska Madelyn Nugroho (Ina) & Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-3, 5-7, [10-4].
– Kamesh Srinivasan
BASKETBALL
India suffers second defeat in FIBA Asia Cup
The Indian men’s basketball team lost 59-101 to Philippines for its second consecutive defeat in the FIBA Asia Cup in Jakarta on Friday.
For India, Muin Bek Hafeez shone bright with 14 points followed by Pranav Prince with 11.
William Navarro (18 points) and Thirdy Ravena (17) starred for Indonesia.
India had earlier lost 47-100 to New Zealand in the opener.
India is currently placed third in Group D with two points, just above Lebanon which has the same tally but has played a game less.
India on Friday missed its captain Vishesh Bhriguvanshi due to an injury.
India will face world no. 54 Lebanon in its final Group D match on Sunday.
The top team from the four groups will advance directly to the quarterfinals while the second and third-placed sides will face each other in the play-offs for the remaining four last-eight berths.
India’s best showing at the FIBA Asia Cup was a fourth place finish in the 1975 edition.
– PTI
