Sweden's Annika Sorenstam lost her last chance to win an LPGA event this year and US teen Morgan Pressel served notice she will contend for the title on Friday at the LPGA Tour Championship.
Pressel fired a seven-under par 65 to grab a share of second after 36 holes at the season-ending LPGA showdown for a US$1 million top prize, but the scores are erased as the top 16 players enter the third round.
The top eight finishers in yesterday's third round will advance to today's final round for an 18-hole showdown for the top prize, 10 times what the runner-up will earn at the US$1.55 million event.
PHOTO: AP
Kim fired a 70 to hold off Pressel and stand on seven-under par 137 after 36 holes, even though it only meant she was the leading qualifier for the weekend with Pressel and fellow American Christina Kim sharing second on 138.
Kim, who shared the lead with US veteran Kim when the day began, birdied the sixth hole, took a bogey at seven but birdied the par-5 12th and par-4 14th, then parred her way in to remain in front.
"I'm thinking about people that are in eighth place right now, I have to beat them, which is only like three strokes or something like that," she said. "I just want to make it to Sunday. Whatever happens happens."
Pressel birdied the third, fourth and sixth and then began the back nine with three birdies in a row. Her lone bogey of the day came at the par-4 13th but she answered with back-to-back birdies and closed with three pars.
"Everything just kind of jelled," Pressel said. "I hit the ball really solid and I gave myself plenty of birdie opportunities and I putted better than I can ever remember putting, so that's kind of nice."
World No. 1 Lorena Ochoa of Mexico, who has already clinched the season money title, fired her second 70 in a row to stand with American Cristie Kerr on 140, a stroke ahead of Norway's Suzann Pettersen and American Paula Creamer.
Also advancing to the weekend were Sweden's Sophie Gustafsson, Americans Nicole Castrale, Julie Inkster and Natalie Gulbis, Koreans Seon Hwa Lee and Sarah Lee, Britain's Catriona Matthews, Australian Karrie Webb Japan's Ai Miyazato.
Gulbis, Miyazato and Annika Sorenstam were level for the last two spots on 147 but former world number one Sorenstam lost out in a two-hole sudden death playoff for the final two spots in the weekend.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier