Indian sports wrap, December 13: Shrivalli enters semifinals in Solapur ITF tournament

TENNIS

Shrivalli beats third seed to enter semis

Shrivalli Bhamidipaty saved two match points at 4-6 in the tie-break to beat third seed Tiantsoa Rajaonah of France 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(5) in the quarterfinals of the USD 25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the District Sports Complex in Solapur on Friday.

The French led 5-4 in the third set, but could not serve out the match in the tenth game, as she grappled with 13 double faults in the match.

Shrivalli served four aces and converted four of 11 break points to pull through for a memorable victory. In the semifinals, Shrivalli will play second seed Sahaja Yamalapalli who outplayed sixth seed Ekaterina Yashina for the loss of three games.

Sahaja holds a 1-0 record against Shrivalli in the professional circuit, having beaten her in three sets in the Navi Mumbai event last year.

The other semifinal will be between Bunyawi Thamchaiwat and Zhibek Kulambayeva. Bunyawi also made the doubles final in partnership with Thasaporn Naklo, and will play Akanksha Nitture and Soha Sadiq.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Six Indian women golfers enter Final Qualifiers of LET

Amandeep Drall and Avani Prashanth were among the six Indian women golfers who will play in the Final Stage of Lalla Aicha Q-School after the 54-hole Pre-qualifiers.

A total of 101 golfers qualified for the Final Stage.

The Final qualifiers will begin next week, with the five rounds to be played over two courses, Royal Golf Marrakech and Al Maaden Golf Marrakech.

The competition will be held from December 16 to 20.

Sneha Singh (69-73-75) had the best result among Indian golfers, finishing tied fourth. Drall (71-73-70) and Avani after rounds of 73-72-72 were tied fifth and ninth, respectively.

Vidhatri Urs, who was tied first after the first day at Samanah Club by Nicklaus was tied 14th with rounds of 68-77-75 at 4-over.

American Annika Borrelli won by five shots at Noria Golf Club, with New Zealand’s Amelia Garvey and French amateur Vanessa Bouvet topping the leaderboard at Golf Club Rotana.

Ireland’s Anna Foster, American Zoe Slaughter and Welsh amateur Darcey Harry shared first place at Palm Golf Ourika. Meanwhile, Australia’s Justice Bosio, Nigeria’s Georgia Iziemgbe Oboh and Iceland’s Ragga Kristinsdottir ended the week in T1 at Samanah.

-PTI

Ajeetesh wins Vishwa Samudra Open

Ajeetesh Sandhu stayed solid right through the fourth round for a 1-under 71 to run away with the trophy, with = an overall 12-under 276, in the Rs. 2 crore Vishwa Samudra Open golf championship at the Delhi Golf Club on Friday.

It was the seventh title of his career, and fifth in the domestic circuit for the 36-year-old Ajeetesh, and the first in five years, as he won by five shots against the champion of the last event in Digboi, Jamal Hossain of Bangladesh. The champion collected 30 lakh rupees.

“I have seen the greats of Indian golf win here at the DGC. So, I too wanted to win here,” said Ajeetesh, quite pleased to have won at the historic course in the presence of his wife, Tvesa Malik, herself a leading professional golfer.

Ajeetesh had jumped into the lead on the second day and stayed ahead thereafter, enhancing the lead.

“When you are leading at the DGC, you have to put your head down and grind it out. I got lucky with the weather as I didn’t have to push too much as the others had to do all the hard work to catch up,” he said.

Jamal had a double-bogey on the sixth hole and fell behind by four shots against the leader, and literally lost the race for the title. He won Rs. 20,00,000.

For his consistent performance over four rounds, that saw him close it at 5-under 283, Yuvraj Sandhu took the third place, one stroke ahead of M Dharma and Rashid Khan.

Apart from the champion, Yuvraj was the only player to score sub-par on all four days, and was rewarded with Rs. 11,99,600.

In tough windy conditions, only six players managed to record overall sub-par scores.

The seasoned SSP Chawrasia wound up with 1-under 287 for the sixth spot and a purse of seven lakh rupees.

Sachin Baisolya had the best card on the final day, a 5-under 67, that saw him finish tied seventh with Yashas Chandra, with 288.

The president of the PGTI, former cricket captain Kapil Dev had to rush back, owing to an emergency before the presentation ceremony.

The Executive Director of Vishwa Samudra Holdings, Shivdut Das, presented the trophy to the champion.

– Kamesh Srinivasan