Lorena Ochoa shot a 7-under par 65 on Thursday to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the million euro (US$3.25 million) Evian Masters.
Ochoa was a stroke ahead of three players: Taiwan’s Candie Kung, South Korea’s Ahn Sun-ju, and Angela Park.
The 26-year-old Mexican started with a birdie on the first hole and added six more on the back nine in a bogey-free round.
“I’m just glad I’m at the top,” Ochoa said. “I had a slow start. I made birdie on the first hole and didn’t give myself a lot of birdie chances. I had a break on 10 and 11. I got a really good confidence and started feeling good over the ball and the putting.’’
Park, a 19-year-old Brazil-born South Korean who gained US citizenship last month, began with eight pars before making birdies on six of the final 10 holes.
Ochoa has won six times this season on the US tour but arrived for Europe’s richest women’s tournament — worth 310,000 euros (US$487,500) to the winner — after a three-week break since finishing 31st in the US Women’s Open.
“I have my goal for the second part of the season,” Ochoa said. “I’m very motivated to continue playing good and I’m glad I got a good start.”
Laura Diaz teed off before 8am and took the clubhouse lead with a 5-under 67.
Like Ochoa, the 33-year-old American had taken a short break from golf before Evian and dominated the back nine, birdieing five of the last eight holes.
Unlike Ochoa, Diaz arrived in the French lakeside resort with an injury inflicted by her toddler son, Robert.
“My son injured my right rib the Saturday before last and I was forced to withdraw from the Jamie Farr Classic,” Diaz said.
“I took a whole week off and didn’t hit a ball until I got here. I didn’t even know if I was going to play,” she said.
It was the first time Diaz had shot under 70 in opening round in 17 tournaments this season. A four-time Solheim Cup player, she has two wins on the US LPGA Tour, both in 2002 when she climbed as high as seven in the women’s golf rankings.
Diaz was joined at 5-under by fellow Americans Juli Inkster and Angela Stanford, Meena Lee of South Korea and Norway’s Suzann Pettersen.
South Koreans Kim In-kyung and Kim Young were another shot back along with compatriot Amy Yang, while defending champion Natalie Gulbis — who played with Ochoa Thursday — led a group of seven at 3 under.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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