McIlroy out of Open
Rory McIlroy has vowed to go “back to the drawing board” after his Open preparations hit another setback with an early exit at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
McIlroy needed to shoot in the 60s to avoid missing the cut for the fourth time in five years in the event, and he gave himself a good chance to play another 36 holes when he reached two under for the round with five holes to play.
But he dropped his third shot
Top seed Angelique Kerber survived a scare against American world number 70 Shelby Rogers to reach the Wimbledon last 16.
Germany’s Kerber, 29, lost a tight first set before fighting back to win 4-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in a thrilling battle on court two.
She will face Spain’s 14th seed Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round on Monday.
Kerber will lose her world number one ranking if she does not reach the final.
Muguruza, a Wimbledon finalist in 2015, powered to a straightforward 6-2, 6-2 victory over Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
Second seed Simona Halep could take top spot from Kerber by reaching the semi-finals, while Karolina Pliskova - despite her secondround exit - still has a chance of taking it.
Two-time Grand Slam champion Kerber’s form has dipped since winning the US Open last year. She has failed to win any tour titles since then and sits just 15th in the yearto-date rankings.
But the left hander, who was beaten by Serena Williams of the day at the short sixth - his 15th - and he then came up short with his wedge approach to the eighth and took four more to get down, the resulting double-bogey six ending his chances of playing over the weekend.
The tournament host and defending champion looked a forlorn figure as he tapped in for par at the last to complete a in last year’s final, is known for her fighting qualities and needed to show all of them to beat Rogers in two hours and 17 minutes.
After Rogers won the opener with a single break of serve, Kerber cut down on the unforced errors as the American’s aggressive style started to produce more mistakes than clean winners. disappointing 73 which left him at one over par, four outside the projected cut and in a tie for 120th.
McIlroy, whose season has been severely disrupted by two spells on the sidelines with a rib injury, was satisfied with his long game over the two days but he admitted he needs to put in a lot of work on his wedge play and his putting in particular as he looks
Kerber battled back from a break down in the second, winning three successive games before going on to dominate the tie-break.
The German took her seventh break point to nick a 13-minute opening game in the decider, then exchanged breaks again as the momentum swung between the players. to bounce back at next week’s Scottish Open before heading to Royal Birkdale.
“I’m really disappointed. The last two times The Irish Open has been in Northern Ireland, not playing at the weekend, it’s obviously not where I want to be,” said the 28-year-old, whose putting troubles were evident at the Travelers Championship two weeks ago as he used three different putters over the four rounds.