A “very happy” Edoardo Molinari confirmed his recent return to form by posting a second-round 68 on Friday to claim a share of the halfway lead at the Johannesburg Open.
The injury-plagued Molinari’s round included four birdies, leaving him on 11-under-par at the end of day two, tied in the lead with Scotland’s Craig Lee.
Molinari’s 68 on the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington West Course followed a 64 on the easier East Course on Thursday.
The field play both courses on the first two days, then switch to the East Course after the cut.
Molinari, who played in the 2010 Ryder Cup, but had seen his world ranking slip to 220, last week recorded a top-10 finish in Dubai and said his good form was continuing on the latest global leg of the European tour.
Lee, who shot a 67 on the West Course to go with a 65 on the East on the first day, said he achieved his aim of not slipping back into the field.
One shot further back were England’s David Horsey and the home favorite, George Coetzee.
Horsey posted an eight-under-par 63, which included six birdies in the first 14 holes.
The four are being closely chased by a strong field, with seven players just two shots off the lead on nine under, including Scotland’s Alastair Forsyth.
The eventual winner of the Joburg Open will take home 206,050 euros (US$280,965) and one of three automatic qualifications for The Open.
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
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with