American Morgan Pressel shot a two-under-par 69 to cling to a one-stroke lead over fast-closing Swede Anna Nordqvist heading into yesterday’s final round of the Shoprite LPGA Classic in Galloway, New Jersey.
Taiwan’s Min Lee, who had been in a four-way tie for second after the first round, began the second round promisingly with birdies on the 12th and 14th holes, but five bogeys over the rest of the day saw her score slide to one-under 141 to finish the round tied for 21st.
Pressel, who led overnight by one shot following her opening-round 66 on Friday, built her lead to three strokes at seven-under before slipping with a bogey at the 13th.
Photo: AFP
Nordqvist birdied the last three holes to overcome back-to-back bogeys at 11 and 12. She also posted 69 to finish on six-under-par 136 in the 54-hole event at Stockton Seaview Hotel and Golf Club.
Five players were tied for third, three shots off the pace — Catriona Matthew of Scotland (70), Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg (70), Christel Boeljon of the Netherlands (70) and Americans Kelly Shon (68) and Gerina Piller (70).
South Korean world No. 2 Park In-bee, the highest-ranked player in the field, registered a 70 for 141, six strokes behind Pressel.
Defending champion Stacy Lewis, ranked third in the world, shot 73 for 145.
Reigning US Women’s Open champion Michelle Wie, back in action after withdrawing from the Kingsmill Championship two weeks ago because of a hip injury, followed her opening 74 with a 72 and was tied for 82nd at 146.
Taiwan’s Hsu Wei-ling finished tied for 26th with a 70 for an even-par 142 total, while Yani Tseng hit a 75 to go three-over 145, to be tied for 66th.
Additional reporting by staff writer
INJURY TURMOIL: Despite stunning French Open champions Paolini and Errani to advance, Chan was forced to pull out after her partner’s tearful women’s singles defeat Last year’s mixed doubles champions Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Poland’s Jan Zielinski on Monday crashed out of the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, leaving the Taiwanese star focused on pursuing a fifth women’s doubles title in London, while a partner injury forced compatriot Chan Hao-ching to give up on her doubles campaign. Hsieh and Zielinksi, who last year also won the Australia Open title, narrowly lost their opening set 7-6 (9/7), before Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani stunned the former champions 6-3 at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. The Taiwanese-Polish duo had been dominant in the first two
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus’ four-year suspension for doping, ruling that her positive test for a banned substance was caused by kissing her then-boyfriend, American fencer Race Imboden. Thibus, a silver medalist in team foil at the Tokyo Games, had tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited muscle-building substance, during a competition in Paris in January last year. However, CAS concluded there was no intentional wrongdoing, finding it scientifically plausible that repeated kissing over several days with Olympic medalist Imboden — who was taking ostarine at the time — led to accidental contamination. The court
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Switzerland’s Riola Xhemaili on Thursday scored a last-gasp goal to salvage a dramatic 1-1 draw with Finland that sent the joyous hosts through to the quarter-finals at Euro 2025, and heartbroken Finland home. Switzerland, who needed only a draw to advance based on goal-difference, finished second in Group A behind Norway to go through to the knockout round for the first time and are to face the winners of Group B, which would be world champions Spain as things stand. “I think we set ourselves a goal on the pitch, to write history, to go into the knockout stages, which we’ve never
RSS