Sharma loses momentum midway, cards one-over 72
ANTALYA : Shubhankar Sharma was unable to convert his early chances and lost the momentum around the turn to finish with a round of one-over 72 to drop to tied 53rd at the halfway stage of the Turkish Airlines Open golf tournament here on Friday.
Shubhankar, who shot one-under 70 on first day, is now even par for 36 holes and will need to get a couple of solid rounds to get his confidence back and also make a nice move up the leaderboard.
Defending champion Justin Rose moved two shots clear of the field going into the weekend. He shot a second successive 65 at Regnum Carya Golf & Spa Resort to move to 12-under.
KOCHHAR IN JOINT LEAD
CHANDIGARH: City-based teenager Karandeep Kochhar kept local hopes alive on Day 2 of the Jeev Milkha Singh Invitational golf as he carded two-under-70 to move into joint halfway lead along with Bengaluru’s Chikkarangappa on Friday. Kochhar (66-70) and Chikka (70-66) were tied for the lead with a total eight-under-136.
LAHIRI STRUGGLES
LAS VEGAS : Returning from a twoweek break, Anirban Lahiri opened with a one-under 71 to be placed tied 52nd after the first round of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open golf tournament. Lahiri started from the 10th and had three birdies on 13th, 14th and 15th to go to threeunder. But two bogeys on the second nine, on third and sixth, saw him fall to one-under.
GANGJEE TIED-25TH
OKINAWA (JAPAN): Rahil Gangjee shot a second successive sub-par round to get to three-under 141 and lie tied 25th at the midway stage of the Heiwa PGM Championships on Friday. Gangjee shot one-under 71 with three birdies against two bogeys.
SHENZHEN TENNIS
NEW DELHI: Top seeds N Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan defeated the Indo-thai tennis combine of Arjun Kadhe and Sanchai Ratiwatana 6-7(4), 6-4, 10-6 to enter the doubles final of the Shenzhen Challenger on Friday. The Indians will take on Chinese Taipei-indonesian second seeds Cheng-peng Hsieh and Christopher Rungkat, who outplayed Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan, 6-4, 6-4 in the semis. In men’s singles, Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Sasi Kumar Mukund 6-4, 6-2 to enter the semis.
GILL EYES TITLE
ITANAGAR: Indian driver Gaurav Gill will aim to inch closer to his sixth national title as the Rally of Arunachal, Round 3 of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2018, unfolds here over the weekend. The Mahindra Adventure rallyist has been in good form, winning the first two rounds with ease. Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif will have to be ready for the challenge from teammate Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik).
NEHRU HOCKEY
NEW DELHI: Directorate General NCC (Red) beat Faizabad’s Ram Niwas Singh Inter College 2-0 to enter the semi-finals of the Nehru junior hockey tournament on Friday. In the other matches, Danapur’s Army Boys Sports Company thrashed Bhilwara’s Government Senior Secondary School 24-0, while Jalandhar’s Government Senior Secondary School fought back to score a 3-2 win over Odisha’s Town Nodal High School. Jharkhand’s St Ignatius High School defeat Ludhiana’s Malwa Khalsa Senior Secondary School 6-4.
SINDHU AMBASSADOR
MUMBAI: Rio Olympics silver medallist, badminton player PV Sindhu will be the brand ambassador of the inaugural Pro Volleyball League along with legendary American spiker David Lee. The inaugural season of the Pro Volleyball League will start in February 2019.
DEY IN SEMIS
NEW DELHI: Subhankar Dey, who stunned two-time Olympic champion Lin Dan on Thursday, entered the singles semi-finals of the Saarlorlux Open with a 21-16, 21-9 victory over English seventh seed Toby Penty on Friday. P Kashyap exited the event with a 16-21, 18-21 loss to French shuttler Toma Junior Popov in the quarter-finals at Saarbrucken, Germany.
THALAIVAS WIN
GREATER NOIDA: Tamil Thalaivas defeated UP Yoddha 46-24 to end their losing streak in the Pro Kabaddi League Season VI on Friday. Manjeet Chhillar and Amit Hooda caused great difficulties for UP Yoddha as they secured eight and six tackle points respectively. Sukesh Hegde did the damage in the first half with his amazing 15th minute raid to inflict an all out.