Italian teen Matteo Manassero led a dynamic charge of the next generation in the Accenture Match Play Championship, joining Rickie Fowler among the 16 players who advanced to the third round on Thursday.
The 17-year-old Manassero withstood a late rally by Charl Schwartzel of South Africa with a 6-iron into 4 feet on the 17th hole that carried him to a 1-up victory. Fowler, a 22-year-old who wears a matching pink shirt and shoes, hit a pair of 4-irons into the par 5s for eagle on the back nine to hand Phil Mickelson his worst loss ever in this tournament.
Joining them in the third round was 29-year-old Nick Watney, who steadied his emotions over the last three holes to knock out top-ranked Lee Westwood — the third straight year the No. 1 seed did not make it out of the second round.
Photo: AFP
The highest seed remaining after two wild days was No. 2 Martin Kaymer, the 25-year-old PGA champion from Germany who had to go 20 holes to beat Justin Rose.
Of the 16 players remaining, eight are under the age of 30.
Manassero keeps setting age records wherever he goes — the youngest to win the British Amateur, the youngest to be low amateur at the British Open and the Masters, the youngest to win on the European Tour.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a big sense of achievement for me,” Manassero said.
He was in control for much of his match against Schwartzel until nearly giving it away. His tee shot on the 16th bounced off the corporate tents and into a cactus, and the Italian felt as though he might have moved the ball while trying to remove a loose branch. So he conceded the hole to Schwartzel, and put it behind him quickly.
His 6-iron on the 17th set up birdie, and Manassero closed it out with a par on the 18th.
Mickelson didn’t play his best, and it might not have mattered.
Fowler seized control with a tough pitch to close range on the eighth, chipped in from off the green on the 10th, then made two eagles. He ended the match with a 4-iron from 232 yards that rolled so close to the flag that Mickelson conceded the eagle.
Also winning on Thursday was Jason Day, a 23-year-old from Australia, who beat last year’s finalist, Paul Casey, in 16 holes.
This was Day’s debut in the Match Play Championship, and he is already showing some guile. He irritated Casey by making him putt from short distance, and Casey missed his share. Day never trailed in winning their match, 4 and 2.
One youngster who did not advance was 21-year-old Rory McIlroy, the No. 7 seed from Northern Ireland. He ran into Ben Crane, who played perhaps his quickest round ever — the match ended on the 11th hole, an 8-and-7 victory.
US Open champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland had no trouble with Ross Fisher in a 4-and-2 victory, which assured he will move ahead of Tiger Woods to No. 3 in the next world rankings.
Kaymer, meanwhile, kept alive his chances of going to No. 1 when he held on to beat Rose and Westwood was beaten. The German will have to make it to the championship match to reach the top ranking.
Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker and Jim Furyk were eliminated in the first round on Wednesday.
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