Hataoka gets a second hole-in-one
Japan’s Nasa Hataoka made a hole-in-one for the second straight day and shot a 6-under 65 Saturday to move into a tie with Australia’s Minjee Lee after two rounds of the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.
The 22-year-old Hataoka, whose first of four LPGA Tour victories came at this event in 2018, used a 5-iron to ace the 180-yard, par-3 sixth hole at Pinnacle Country Club.
Lee, who won the Evian Championship in July, fired an 8-under 63 in the second round and moved into a tie with Hataoka at 12 under.
Hataoka aced the 135yard 11th hole in Friday’s first round. She is the fifth player in LPGA Tour history to record multiple aces in the same event. The two aces will result in donations of $20,000 each to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
“It’s obviously something that’s not able to be done easily, so I really, really feel proud of it,” said Hataoka, who made five birdies with one bogey.
Hataoka stared in disbelief as her second ace disappeared into the cup.
Lee birdied seven of the first 10 holes in racing up the leaderboard.
First round co-leader Eun-Hee Ji is alone in third place at 11 under after a second round 68. Jeongeun Lee matched the tournament’s low round with a 63, moving into a tie for fourth with Ariya Jutanugarn at 10 under.
Boxing
JOSHUA’S REIGN ENDS >> Oleksandr Usyk ended Anthony Joshua’s second reign as world heavyweight champion in London with a unanimous points win in just his third fight since stepping up from the cruiserweight division.
Usyk became the third man, after Evander Holyfield and David Haye, to win world titles at cruiserweight then heavyweight. Six years after Wladimir Klitschko’s long heavyweight reign ended, Ukraine has another champion in boxing’s marquee division.
Joshua could not cope with Usyk’s superior reflexes and punching power, especially off his left, and ended the fight slumped on the ropes after a flurry of fast punches by the mandatory challenger to his WBO belt.
Usyk also took Joshua’s WBA and IBF titles.
The judges scored the fight 117-112, 116-112 and 115-113.
Figure skating
U.S. GETS THIRD QUALIFYING SPOT >> Two-time national champion Alysa Liu won the Nebelhorn Trophy women’s competition in Oberstdorf, Germany, giving the U.S. a third qualifying spot for the figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics in Beijing next year.
Liu led after her short program to “Gypsy Dance II” from Don Quixote, then won the free skate with a program that included seven triple jumps and three Level 4 spins. The 16-year-old from Clovis scored 207.40 points in total to earn gold in her second consecutive Challenger Series event.
Ekaterina Kurakova of Poland was second and Viktoriia Safonova of Belarus was third.
Earlier this year, the U.S. clinched two men’s and two women’s spots for Beijing based on their results from the world championships. Vincent Zhou’s victory at the Nebelhorn Trophy on Friday night gave them a third men’s spot, too.
The U.S. will send three ice dance entries and two pairs teams to the Winter Games in February.
Motorsports
LARSON VIES FOR SECOND
STRAIGHT PLAYOFF WIN >> Overlooked in the post-race spat between Kevin Harvick and Chase Elliott was another trip to victory lane for Kyle Larson, NASCAR’s championship favorite.
As Larson celebrated his Cup Series-high sixth points win of the season last week, Hendrick Motorsports teammate Elliott jawed with Harvick following their on-track dustup at Bristol Motor Speedway. A flat tire had ruined Elliott’s own shot at the win so he deliberately slowed Harvick to help his teammate beat his new rival.
Their feud injected excitement into NASCAR’s 10-race playoff series, which shifts today to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the opener of the second round. But the dustup between Harvick and Elliott distracted from the results; Larson potentially started another streak, and Hendrick Motorsports slid all four of its drivers into the next playoff round.
It’s a shift in momentum from earlier when Joe Gibbs Racing opened with wins from Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr., while Hendrick seemed vulnerable with William Byron and Alex Bowman in danger of elimination a week ago. Instead, all four Hendrick drivers go to Vegas with their title chances alive.
Tennis
SAKKARI GETS UPSET VICTORY >> Maria Sakkari upset top-seeded Iga Swiatek 6-4, 7-5 to set up a surprise final against Anett Kontaveit at the Ostrava (Czech Republic) Open. Kontaveit beat two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-0, 6-4.
There will be a first-time title winner at the Astana Open after two players who had never reached a tour final won their semifinal matches in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. James Duckworth of Australia will play South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo for the title today. Duckworth won 6-3, 7-6 (4) against Ilya Ivashka.