Inbee Park takes 1-stroke halfway lead at LPGA Singapore

SINGAPORE: Inbee Park made a birdie on the last hole Friday to take a one-stroke lead over Michelle Wie and two others after two rounds of the LPGA’s Women’s Champions tournament.

Park lost her place atop the leaderboard when she made a double-bogey on the 12th hole, her only blemish in two rounds at the Sentosa Golf Club, but regained her composure with birdies on the 14th and 18th holes.

The Olympic gold medalist had a second consecutive five-under-par 67 to lead the $1.5 million event at 10-under 134.

Wie, who led overnight after an opening round of 66, shot a bogey-free 69 to join Hur Mi-Jung (67) and Ariya Jutanugarn (68) in a three-way tie for second.

Suzann Pettersen (67) and Park Sung-Hyun (68) reached the halfway stage at 8 under, tied for fifth.

Six others, including No.1-ranked Lydia Ko, who shot 68 Friday, trail Park by three strokes and are tied for seventh.

With the greens soft after a morning rain shower, Park birdied five of her first nine holes to go out in 31 before an unlucky break at the 12th when she got mud on her ball.

“I hit a good shot but it’s that unlucky bounce. Making double-bogey was a mistake,” she said. “I didn’t want to ruin the day with one bad hole with an unlucky shot. I think it’s just trying to keep the calm emotions going. Obviously there were a few birdie holes coming in, so I was trying to get a couple from there.”

Wie made a flying start when she sank two long birdie putts, but managed just two more for the rest of the round.

“I hit it in the bunker on 2, and then I hit it to about 25 feet and made that putt, which is a nice one to make on the second hole,” she said.

“And then the next hole I made a 15-footer. It was just one of those days where after that, it looked like every putt was going to go in, but just didn’t go in.”

Ko’s putter was running hot at the end of her round as the New Zealander knocked in three long birdie putts at the 16th, 17th and 18th on the new Tanjong course at Sentosa.

DUBAI/ACAPULCO: Britain’s Andy Murray beat Frenchman Lucas Pouille 7-5, 6-1 to reach his second Dubai Championships final.

Murray returned to the court just 24 hours after his epic quarterfinal win over Philipp Kohlschreiber which saw the world No.1 save seven match points in a 31-minute, 38-point second set tiebreak.

Murray, who was involved in a 31-minute tie-break in his quarterfinal, struggled in the first set against seventh seed Pouille.

The pair broke each other twice before Murray took the set after 68 minutes with his third break.

The final set was a one-sided affair, as Murray set up a meeting with Fernando Verdasco in Saturday’s final.

Murray, 29, is into his second final of the year but has never won the title in Dubai, losing to Roger Federer in his previous final appearance in 2012.

Playing his first tournament since his fourth-round defeat at the Australian Open in January, the Scot could extend his lead at the top of the world rankings with victory on Saturday.

Earlier, Fernando Verdasco broke three times in the deciding set as the unseeded Spaniard defeated Robin Haase 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-1 to enter the final.

Verdasco won his last trophy 11 months ago on clay in Bucharest and was a Doha semifinalist at the start of the season.

The Spaniard improved his career record over Haase to 4-3 thanks to Friday’s victory, which was sealed in two and a quarter hours.

Verdasco recovered from a break in the opening game of the match, winning the first set in a tiebreaker before his Dutch opponent levelled at a set each.

However, Verdasco ran off with the win in the decider, overcoming eight aces while producing just two himself for his eighth victory of the season.

In Mexico, Australian bad boy Nick Kyrgios shocked Novak Djokovic in straight sets at the Mexico Open, dealing a major blow to the world No.2’s hopes of regaining his mantle of invincibility.

The 21-year-old Kyrgios overpowered Djokovic with 25 aces in the 7-6 (11/9), 7-5 triumph as the Serb sought to rebuild confidence after his shattering second round defeat at the Australian Open in January.

The Australian, letting his tennis skills take center stage instead of his tantrums, won 81 percent of his firstserve points as he dominated his first ever match with Djokovic.

“It’s what I dreamed of as a little kid, playing on these great venues against some of the greatest players in the world,” said Kyrgios. “I never have a problem getting up for these matches.

“I wasn’t thinking about winning at any stage,” he added. “I knew I had to stay in the moment because I’ve been in situations where matches have gotten away from me, so I had to stay switched on the whole time. I knew that if I just waited and waited, eventually I’d get my chance.”

Djokovic fell in the Australian Open to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin, then did not play again until this week.

After beating Slovakia’s Martin Klizan he rallied to defeat Juan Martin del Potro, before losing his quarterfinal to Kyrgios.

The world No. 17 Kyrgios delivered another giant killer performance as he also beat Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in their first ATP tour level meetings.

He is the youngest player to record victories over the tennis Big Five — Djokovic, Federer, Nadal, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka — and is now 11-17 against top ten players.

Kyrgios will be seeking to reach his first final of the season when he faces big-serving American Sam Querrey in the semis.

Nadal bounced back from a break down in both sets to defeat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 and book his semifinal spot.

The second-seeded Spaniard, a twotime winner in Acapulco, hammered five aces in the battle between the two lefthanders.

“He is so quick,” Nadal said. “I felt I needed to choose the right shots to do the damage. I was trying to hit the winner too early sometimes and too late other times, so it was tough to get my rhythm.”