Indian sports news wrap, February 2
GOLF
Chouhan starts with round of 71 in Bahrain
Indian golfer Om Prakash Chouhan, playing his maiden season on the DP World Tour, dropped a late double bogey for an opening round card of 1-under 71 at the Bahrain Championship here.
He was placed T-69 and will need a sharp second round to make his first DP World Tour cut outside India.
Chouhan, who won the PGTI’s Order of Merit to grab a full card to the DP World Tour, missed the cut last week in Ras Al Khaimah.
In Bahrain, where he is the lone Indian as Shubhankar Sharma has taken the week off, Chouhan did a fine job by picking three of his birdies on the Par-5s and putted well.
He bogeyed the second and the fourth, but birdies on the par-5 third and Par-3 seventh from 16 feet meant he turned in even par. A birdie on the par-5 11th from nine feet and a hole out from 27 yards on the Par-5 14th saw him get to 2-under but a double bogey on Par-3 16th ruined his card. He did manage a 13-foot birdie on the 18th for a 71.
-PTI
Avani on fifth, stays in hunt; debutant Saanvi makes cut
India’s Avani Prashanth stayed in the top five with another solid card of 3-under 69 in the second round of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific Championships here on Friday.
The 17-year-old Avani began with a flourish with three birdies in the first six holes, but thereafter the putter went dry, and she had just one more birdie and one bogey.
At 7-under for 36 holes, Avani is tied fifth with China’s Yahui Zhang (69), but the leader, Chun-Wei Wu of Taiwan, playing in the second last group after a tenth tee start, was on fire in her second nine.
Wu carded 7-under 65 to get to 12-under and five ahead of the Indian.
Apart from Avani, the only other Indian to make the cut was debutant Saanvi Somu (72) who played superbly to hang on for the weekend.
The other Indians missed the cut. Vidhatri Urs, who was 1-over after the first added a 77 and at six-over as she missed the cut by four shots.
She had a rough 7-over front nine. Mannat Brar (82-75) showed a lot of improvement, and Heena Kang (81-79) and Keerthana Rajeev Nair (81-79) also missed the cut.
-PTI
Hitaashee ends 22-month title drought with win in 3rd leg of Hero WPGT
In-form Hitaashee Bakshi ended a 22-month title drought as she triumphed at the third leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour with a superb performance at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata on Friday.
Hitaashee won three times in 2022, but then had a winless 2023 during which she was also injured. After two successive runner-up finishes on the 2024 Hero WPG Tour, she finished on top by a convincing margin of four shots.
Playing steady golf with two birdies against one bogey, she carded 1-under 69 and was 2-under 208 for the week.
Hitaashee’s last win on the Tour came 22 months ago in September 2022 in the 11th Leg of the 2022 season in Hyderabad.
Jasmine Shekar shrugged off an early double bogey to bring in 69, the only other under par card of the day to be second at 2-over 212.
Ananya Garg, who was tied for second overnight, dropped bogeys on the 16th and 17th and finished third, while Ridhima Dilawari, who was also tied second after two rounds, ended fourth.
Hitaashee, who recently won the Qualifying School and full playing rights to the All-Thailand Pro Golf Tour, started the day with a three-shot margin over Ananya and Ridhima, both of whom dropped further back with a bogey start.
Hitaashee parred the first two holes and a birdie on the third put her further ahead.
Neither Ananya nor Ridhima could come close to Hitaashee, who played solid with just one bogey on the sixth, which she made up for with a birdie on the seventh. She parred the last 11 holes.
Jasmine did make a bid with three birdies, but the double bogey dented her hopes, and she also missed a few birdie putts.
Amateur Anaahat Bindra (72) was tied fifth with Seher Atwal (74), while Khushi Khanijau (70), the first round leader, was seventh.
Sneha Singh (71), winner of the second leg, ended in a tie for eighth place with Amandeep Drall (75) and Gauri Karhade (77).
Hitaashee also moved to the top of the Hero Order of Merit with the win, that followed second place finishes in the first two legs.
Hitaashee has now won Rs 3,69,000 while Sneha has taken home Rs 3,29,500 and Jasmine Rs 2,16,900. Khushi Khanijau and Amandeep Drall are fourth and fifth on the Hero Order of Merit.
The fourth leg of the Hero WPGT will be held at the Vizag, East Point Golf Club from February 6 to 9.
-PTI
TENNIS
ITF Indore: Jakupovic reaches semifinals
Dalila Jakupovic beat Saki Imamura 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Friday.
In the semifinals, fifth seed Dalila will play fourth seed Carole Monnet of France. The other semifinal will be between second seed Polina Kudermetova and the third seed Alexandra Eala.
The Indian challenge ended as Shrivalli Bhamidipaty and Vaidehi Chaudhari were beaten by the Japanese team of Saki Imamura and Mana Kawamura in straight sets in the doubles semifinals. Saki and Mana will play fourth seeds Jessie Aney and Lena Papadakis in the final.
RESULTS
Singles (quarterfinals): Dalila Jakupovic (Slo) bt Saki Imamura 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Carole Monnet (Fra) bt Dejana Radanovic (Srb) 6-4 (retired); Alexandra Eala (Phi) bt Anca Alexia Todoni (Rou) 7-5, 6-2; Polina Kudermetova bt Eri Shimizu (Jpn) 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-2.
Doubles (semifinals): Jessie Aney (USA) & Lena Papadakis (Ger) bt Zhibek Kulambayeva (Kaz) & Sapfo Sakellaridi (Gre) 7-5, 6-1; Saki Imamura & Mana Kawamura (Jpn) bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty & Vaidehi Chaudhari 6-1, 6-4.
-Team Sportstar
BOXING
Boxing: Amit, Ishneet, Sachin move to semifinals of Boxam International
Indian boxers Amit Kumar (63.5kg) and Ishmeet Singh (75kg) entered the semifinals of the Boxam International Tournament in La Nucia, Spain with contrasting victories.
Sachin Kumar (80kg) too moved to the last four stages after receiving a walkover from Spain’s Pablo Coy Bernal on Thursday.
Amit put up a brilliant performance as he eked out a stunning 3-2 split decision win to defeat Mexico’s Miguel Angel Martinez, who has already qualified for the Paris Olympics in the light welterweight category.
He will face Uzbekistan’s Ruslan Abdullaev of Uzbekistan in the semifinal.
Ishmeet too registered a split decision win in the quarterfinal. He knocked out local pugilist Didac Lopez Gomez 4-1 to set up a last-four clash with Poland’s Michal Jarlinski.
However, it was the end of the road for Bilal Mohammed (54kg), Dikshyant Dahiya (60kg) and Rubal Sindh Dhanda (67kg) after disappointing quarterfinal losses.
While Bilal suffered a third-round RSC defeat to Portugal’s Marcio Cardodo, Dikshyant lost by a 5-0 unanimous decision to Munarbek Seiitbek Uulu of Kyrgyzstan and Dhanda suffered a 1-4 defeat to Mateusz Grejber of Poland.
-PTI