Indian sports wrap, September 21: Three Indians make cut as Ridhima T-15 at La Sella Open

GOLF

Three Indians make cut as Ridhima T-15 at La Sella Open

Three Indians — Ridhima Dilawari, Pranavi Urs and and Tvesa Malik — made the halfway cut, while Seher Atwal missed out by just one shot after Round 2 at the La Sella Open.

The cut fell at level par with 62 players making it through to the final two days.

Ridhima (70-71) was tied-15th, while Pranavi (72-71) and Tvesa (70-74) were T-34th and T-52nd respectively. Seher missed out after rounds of 72 and 73.

Ridhima, who started from the 10th, dropped a shot on the 13th, but quickly made up with birdies on the 14th and the 18th to turn in 1-under. A bogey on the first pegged her back, but she birdied the fifth, dropped a shot on the seventh and closed with a birdie for a 1-under 71.

Pranavi had four birdies against three bogeys in her 71 and ensured the weekend rounds.

Tvesa had to fight hard as she had one eagle, one birdie and five bogeys in a round of 74 as she squeezed inside the cut-line.

Kirsten Rudgeley, Sara Kouskova and Virginia Elena Carta are tied for the lead at the halfway mark, with all three ending day 2 on seven-under par

-PTI

Shubhankar Sharma misses cut at Wentworth

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma ended a disappointing week early, missing the the cut at the BMW PGA Championship.

Sharma had two birdies and three bogeys in a row in the middle of the round. He then birdied on the 12th followed by a bogey on the 15th for a second round of 74.

He had shot 75 in the first round.

Matthew Baldwin consolidated his strong start with a brilliant 66 to sit two shots clear after day two of the championship.

The Englishman was one of two players — the other being Frenchman Jeong weon Ko — to keep a clean card during Thursday’s opening round of 65 at the third Rolex Series tournament of the year, and he continued his fine form on Friday.

-PTI

TENNIS

Prashanth-Nedunchezhiyan and Yuki move to semifinals in separate events in China

India’s Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan found a way to prevail over second seeds Julian Cash and Llyod Glasspool in a tough battle in the Hangzhou Open quarterfinals while Yuki Bhambri progressed to the Chengdu Open semifinals with his partner on Saturday.

In Hangzhou, Prashanth and left-handed Nedunchezhiyan lost the opening set but came back strong to emerge 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 10-8 winners in an energy-sapping contest that also tested their nerves. The match lasted two hours. They next face third seeds Ariel Behar and Robert Galloway.

“We played a good match. We knew we are playing a good team. I don’t think they have played together before. Both of them have big serves. We knew if we kept holding our service games, we will have chances in the tie break,” said Prashanth.

“We took the mini chances in the tie break. We stuck to our team plan,” added Prashanth, who played the first half of the season with Anirudh Chandrasekar before teaming up with Nedunchezhiyan.

In Chengdu, Bhambri and his third seeded French partner Albano Olivetti also came back after losing the first set to win 5-7, 6-3, 12-10 against Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo.

They are now up against second seeds Ivand Dodig (Croatia) and Rafael Matos (Brazil).

-PTI