Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood remain on track for a semi-final showdown and a chance at the world No. 1 ranking after comfortable wins in the third round of the World Golf Championship (WGC) Match Play Championship.
On a day when only one of the eight round of 16 matches made it to the 18th hole, England’s Westwood pumped American Nick Watney 3 and 2 and Northern Ireland’s McIlroy managed to take down Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez 3 and 1.
Should either player win the tournament, they will usurp Luke Donald as world No. 1, although currently they are on a collision course for a semi-final clash at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club.
First, Westwood must account for Scotsman Martin Laird, who won an all-Scottish battle over Paul Lawrie 3 and 1 to advance. McIlroy meets South Korean Bae Sang-moon, who continued his charge with a 1-up win over Australian John Senden in the only match to make it to the final hole.
Westwood, who had never advanced past the second round before this year, refused to look toward a potential dogfight with McIlroy, saying most people who had done so had been made to look like fools up to this point.
“I had a little chuckle watching The Golf Channel on Wednesday morning and listening to them make all their predictions,” he said. “I don’t think they got many right. It’s virtually impossible. All I can do is keep playing the way I’m playing and do that against whichever opponent I’ve got in front of me. You can’t control what your opponent does, if he comes out and shoots 62, I’m going home.”
For his part, McIlroy was not looking too far ahead either.
“It [the semi-final showdown] will be good. Obviously Lee is playing well at the minute, but we both have to win our matches tomorrow,” he said. “And I’m going to have a very difficult opponent in Sang-moon Bae. I played with him in the last round of the Korean Open in 2009 and I might actually have been tied for the lead going into the last day with him. He ended up winning. I was really impressed with him.”
Westwood spent 22 weeks at world No. 1 over two stints in 2010 and last year and while he said returning to the top of the mountain would be a treat, he was more focused on notching up a maiden WGC win.
“It’s a World Golf Championship and I haven’t won one, so it’s very important you try and set yourself goals that you haven’t achieved in the past,” he said. “Obviously I’d like to be No. 1 in the world, but it’s not really a priority. It’s not really a goal I’ve set. To win a major championship, to win these World Golf Championships, to win in the states and do that more regularly, those are goals. If I do that, then the No. 1 just comes along as a product of that. But obviously I’d be lying if I didn’t say every guy playing this week wants to be No. 1 in the world.”
It was a day full of routs with four matches finishing on the 15th hole. Germany’s world No. 4 Martin Kaymer was handed a 4 and 3 spanking by American Matt Kuchar, who set up a quarter-final with countryman Hunter Mahan.
Mahan also won big in the round of 16, hammering Steve Stricker by the same margin.
It became a popular winning score when under-rated American Mark Wilson upset big-hitting Dustin Johnson, once again to the tune of 4 and 3.
Wilson will meet Swede Peter Hanson in the next round after Hanson dusted American Brandt Snedeker, also by the 15th hole with a 5 and 3 belting.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set