Indian sports wrap, August 21: Aditi, Diksha to play in Women’s Open

GOLF

Aditi, Diksha to play in Women’s Open at iconic Old Course in St Andrews

India’s Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar will tee off at the iconic Old Course on Thursday, hoping to put aside their indifferent form at the Paris Olympics earlier this month.

The Women’s Open, which carries a purse of USD 9 million, one of the biggest in the sport, will see the return of the Women’s Major to St. Andrews for the first time since 2013, when Stacey Lewis won the title.

The only other time the course staged the Women’s Major was in 2007, when it was won by Mexican star Lorena Ochoa.

Aditi is grouped with A Lim Kim of Korea and American Cheyenne Knight, while Diksha goes out with Japan’s Hikaru Yoshimoto and Casandra Alexander. Both start on the back nine.

While Diksha has not played on the course competitively in the past, Aditi played at the Old Course in 2015 when she won the St Rule Trophy, an amateur event. Aditi went on to win the title and is the only Indian to have done it.

Aditi, who started playing at the age of five, has numerous firsts to her credit.

Diksha, 23, has charted her own path in the sport. Born with a hearing impairment, Diksha overcame several odds to win gold at the Deaflympics and then became the first golfer ever to have played the Deaflympics and the Summer Olympics, which she has done twice.

Aditi is playing her eighth Women’s Open, where her best has been T-22 in 2018 — her best in a Major is T-17 at 2024 Evian Championship. Diksha, making her fifth Women’s Open start, achieved her best finish — a tied-21 — at the 2023 edition.

Diksha, who was with her family when their car met with an accident ahead of the Paris Olympics, said she is feeling better.

Her father, Naren Dagar, who is also her caddie, was behind the wheel when the mishap occurred.

Defending champion Lilia Vu is back and will try to emulate the commanding win she fashioned at Walton Heath.

-PTI

TENNIS

Ankita Raina in second round

Ankita Raina eased past Lucia Llinares Domingo 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Vigo, Spain, on Wednesday.

Ankita was top-seeded in doubles with Vasanti Shinde and the duo had a bye in the first round.

The results:

$15,000 ITF men, Arad, Romania

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Felix Balshaw (Fra) & Manas Dhamne bt Mircea Mortasifu (Rou) & Fredrik Solheim (Nor) 6-1, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand Singles (first round): S Mukund bt Park Seungmin (Kor) 6-3, 6-1; Vishnu Vardhan bt Jayden Court (Aus) 7-6(5), 6-3.

$25,000 ITF women, Vigo, Spain

Singles (first round): Ankita Raina bt Lucia Domingo (Esp) . . .

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Claudia Perez (Esp) & Shuqian Xu (Chn) bt Madhurima Sawant & Saumya Vig 7-6(8), 6-0; Sakura Hosogi & Misaki Matsuda (Jpn) bt Madison Frahn (Aus) Aaddi Gupta 6-3, 6-2.

$25,000 ITF women, Kunshan, China

Singles (first round): Hong Yi Cody Wong (Hkg) bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 6-3.

$15,000 ITF women, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand Singles (first round): Monique Barry bt Humera Baharmus 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Alisa Kummel bt Sonal Patil 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-3.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Patcharin Cheapchandej & Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) bt Vaishnavi Adkar & Yui Chikaraishi (Jpn) 6-3, 6-1.

-Kamesh Srinivasan