Indian sports wrap, April 19: Aditi Ashok cards 69 to move to T-36 in Los Angeles
GOLF
Aditi Ashok cards 69 to move to T-36 in Los Angeles
India’s Aditi Ashok fought back with three birdies on the back nine to move up to tied 36th place with a third-round card of 3-under 69 at the JM Eagle Los Angeles Championship.
Aditi birdied the sixth but gave it back on the Par-5 seventh. On the back nine, she birdied the 11th and added two more gains on the 16th and the 18th for a 69, after 70-72 on the first two days.
Korea’s Sei Young Kim led by two following a roller-coaster round of 71. She had five birdies on the front and ran up an eight-stroke lead with five holes left at El Caballero Country Club.
She then bogeyed four times in a row the 14th to the 17th. Her late meltdown with four straight bogeys gave two-time event winner Hannah Green and others a foot in the door.
She salvaged an up-and-down from off the back of the 18th green to salvage a two-shot advantage.
Kim (71) is 15-under, while Green, the 2023 and 2024 champion at Wilshire Country Club, had a 67 to join Suvichaya Vinijchaitham (67), Jessica Porvasnik (68) and Ina Yoon (71) at 13 under. Former UCLA star Patty Tavatanakit was another stroke back after a 67.
– PTI
Pranavi shoots 3-under to move to 30th place in Joburg
Pranavi Urs, the lone Indian in the weekend rounds, carded 3-under 70 to rise up to the 30th place at the Joburg Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour.
After 70-74 on the first two days, she had six birdies against three bogeys and reached 5-under for 54 holes and was placed a respectable T-30th in the Euros 330,000 event.
The other Indian golfers, Diksha Dagar, Tvesa Malik, Avani Prashanth and Hitaashee Bakshi, missed the 36-hole cut at the Par-73 course measuring 6710 yards.
Three French golfers, all past winners on Ladies European Tour (LET), Camille Chevalier, Celine Herbin and Agathe Laisne went low on moving day at Randpark Golf Club. They will now play in the final group.
Chevalier and Herbin lead the way on 16-under par after carding rounds of 67 (-6) and 68 (-5) respectively in South Africa.
– PTI
TENNIS
Balaji-Oberleitner pair wins Challenger title in Portugal
India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Austrian partner Neil Oberleitner won the doubles title at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Oeiras, Portugal, on Saturday.
The third-seeded Indo-Austrian duo beat Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia and Ariel Behar of Uruguay 6-7(7), 6-4, [11-9] in the final after saving a match point in the super tiebreak. The pair gained 125 ranking points.
It is the 18th career title on the second-tier challenger tour for Balaji and fourth in 2026 with Oberleitner.
Vaidehee Chaudhari and Dutch player Jasmijn Gimbrere finished as runner-up at the women’s USD 40,000 ITF event in Bujumbura, Burundi. The duo lost 4-6, 7-5, [10-5] to the American-Dutch pair of Julia Adams and Merel Hoedt.
On the junior circuit, teen sensation Maaya Rajeshwaran defeated Spain’s Paola Pinera Celorio 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 to clinch the J300 title in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, while Arnav Paparkar beat Japan’s Kanta Watanabe 6-1, 6-2 in the J200 final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
– Team Sportstar
Published on Apr 19, 2026