World No. 1 Luke Donald seized an early advantage in his title duel with Webb Simpson by charging into a seven-way tie for the lead in Thursday’s opening round of the Disney Classic at Lake Buena Vista in Florida.
Briton Donald coped well with breezy conditions as he fired a six-under 66 on the Palm course, one of two layouts hosting the final USPGA Tour event of the season.
That lifted him to the top of the leaderboard, alongside Americans James Driscoll, Gary Woodland, Scott Stallings and Derek Lamely, India’s Arjun Atwal and Australia’s Nathan Green.
Steven Bowditch of Australia carded a seven-birdie 68 on the more difficult Magnolia layout to lie one stroke off the pace with six other players.
American Simpson, who is vying with Donald for the USPGA Tour’s money list title and possibly also player of the year honors, opened with a bogey-free 68 on the Palm course.
With their head-to-head battle the biggest storyline of the week, the two have been paired together by organizers for the first two rounds and they each relished the opening day.
Simpson leads Donald by US$363,029 in the USPGA Tour money list going into the season finale.
Donald only committed to this week’s event when he knew his bid for the money title was under threat.
Among the other big names competing this week, double US Open champion Retief Goosen of South Africa opened with a 68, while British world No. 17 Justin Rose battled to a 75.
This week is also a nervous one for players bidding to secure their full playing privileges for next year by finishing in the top 125 on the season-ending money list.
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