Overnight leader Christian Nilsson shot a solid, bogey-free 2-under 69 on Sunday to win his first European Tour title at the Saint-Omer Open.
“It’s obviously a massive win for me, so it might take a while to realize just what it means,” the 30-year-old Swede said. “I’m still in shock at the moment.”
Nilsson, ranked 478th in the world, sank two birdies to finish with a 13-under 271, ensuring there would be no repeat of his disappointment last year. Nilsson had also started the final round last year at the top of the leaderboard, only to finish second behind Englishman David Nixon.
This time, he built on a comfortable four-shot lead overnight to beat Jose-Filipe Lima of Portugal by six strokes — the biggest winning margin yet for the tournament. Lima, the 2004 champion, had three bogeys, but holed six birdies to take second place with a 68.
Javier Colomo of Spain shot the round of the day to finish with a share of third, tied with Lorenzo Gagli of Italy, Richard McEvoy of England and Ake Nilsson of Sweden.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
A goalkeeper with one of Iran’s top soccer clubs has been suspended after he embraced a female supporter during a championship match, sports daily Khabar Varzeshi reported on Monday. Hossein Hosseini, 31, who plays for Tehran team Esteghlal, was suspended after the incident on April 12. The Esteghlal fan rushed onto the pitch where stadium security attempted to detain her. Hosseini approached the woman while security staff were trying to hold her back and briefly took her into his arms. The newspaper said that the Football Federation Islamic Republic of Iran fined the goalkeeper the equivalent of US$4,700 and gave him a one-match
A wine merchant who blind tasted a different glass of wine at each mile of the London Marathon on Sunday has said he feels “honored” his challenge went viral on social media, as he surpassed his fundraising target. Tom Gilbey, nicknamed “the wine guy,” sampled 25 glasses of wine during the race, stopping to guess the drink’s grape variety, country of origin and vintage at each mile. A video he posted on TikTok has amassed more than 3.2 million views. He had his first sip at about 9:30am, shortly after the race began. Gilbey said he aimed to raise £2,000 (US$2,487) for Sobell