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

PICKLEBALL

Monsoon Pickleball Championship: Duong, DeHeart set up summit clash

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