Brazilian Adilson Da Silva produced some fine golf during a superb five-under-par 65 to share the third round lead with tenacious Indian Himmat Rai at the ISPS Handa Singapore Classic yesterday.
The 39-year-old Da Silva, a nine-time winner in South Africa including last weekend, was magnificent at the Orchid Country Club, shooting seven birdies against two bogeys to lead at 10-under 200.
He was joined in the top spot by an equally impressive Rai, who battled blustery conditions to shoot four birdies for an unblemished 66.
South African Jbe Kruger, runner-up here last year and the highest ranked player in the field, charged into contention at the US$300,000 Asian Tour event with a 65, highlighted by an inward 29 to lie two back alongside Finnish rookie Kalle Samooja, who carded a 68.
A 67 pushed young Korean Baek Seuk-hyun into fifth place on 203, while veteran Thai Thaworn Wiratchant struggled in the winds for an even-par 70 to lie a further shot back with South Africa’s Tjaart van der Walt and Englishman Miles Tunnicliff.
After Da Silva dropped a bogey on the challenging 501-yard 18th hole where the players were struggling to reach the green, Rai sank a 20-footer to ensure he stayed level with the experienced Brazilian.
“It was tremendous. As a professional golfer, you must know every shot counts out here. I was mentally prepared for that putt,” said the 24-year-old Rai, who fired birdies on the second, ninth, 11th and 17th holes.
In-form Da Silva produced some spectacular shots, including a monster birdie putt off the 14th green to give himself a chance of winning a title in his Asian Tour debut season.
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
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed