A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday.
Disappointing start for Shubhankar
Houston: Shubhankar Sharma had a disappointing opening outing at the Houston Open, as he shot one-over 73 on a day when the scoring was rather low.
It was the late stages of his second nine, the front side of the course that brought the Indian youngster down.
Starting from the tenth he was two-under through the opening nine but then bogeyed second and then had three in a row from fifth to seventh to fall to 2-over.
A consolation birdie on 18th made it 1-over for the day. But he will need a solid second round to make the cut a week before the Masters at Augusta.
Sharma was lying tied-126 and the cut looks likely at 2-under or even 3-under.
Tour rookie Sam Ryder was 8-under through 15 holes and was on top of the leaderboard. Ryder holed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 15th hole to reach 8-under par before it was too dark to continue.
The opening round was delayed by two hours because of more than two inches of overnight rain at the Golf Club of Houston. Lucas Glover and Kevin Tway each shot 7-under 65 in the morning.
Phil Mickelson, who won in Mexico three weeks ago, shot 30 on the front nine and was one off the lead until a double-bogey on the 14th hole when it took him two shots to get out of a bunker. He shot 68, along with Jordan Spieth.
Aditi lies tied-36th in ANA golf
Rancho Mirage: India's Aditi Ashok, playing the seventh Major of her fledgling career, opened with a 1-under 71 to be tied-36th after the first round of the ANA Inspiration golf tournament.
Aditi had two birdies against one bogey, all on the front nine. She bogeyed the third but birdied the eighth and ninth and parred the entire back nine.
Pernilla Lindberg, a 31-year-old, who has never won an LPGA event, grabbed the first-round lead with a seven-under par 65 in the first Major of 2018.
One stroke back with rounds of 66 are Ayako Uehara, a 34-year-old from Japan, who has also never won on the LPGA, and Beatriz Recari, a 30-year-old Spaniard.
Two strokes off the lead is Albane Valenzuela, a 20-year-old amateur from Switzerland who plays at Stanford University; Jessica Korda and Ha Na Jang.
At four-under par is a star-studded group that includes Lexi Thompson, 40-year-old Cristie Kerr, a two-time major winner, Sung Hyun Park, last year’s Rolex Rookie of the Year and Co-Player of the Year; former US Women's Open champion In Gee Chun, Chella Choi and Brittany Altomare.
Kashyap, Sameer enter quarter-finals
Orleans: Indian shuttlers Parupalli Kashyap and Sameer Verma entered the quarterfinals of the Orleans Open World Super 100 tournament with straight game wins.
Fifth seed Kashyap, who clinched the Austrian Open last month, defeated Ireland's Joshua Magee 21-11, 21-14, while Swiss Open champion and top seed Sameer beat local hope Thomas Rouxel 21-16, 21-15 in another match played on Thursday.
Kashyap, a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, will face Denmark's third seed Rasmus Gemke, while Sameer takes on another local player Lucas Corvee, seeded eighth.
Kashyap, who was handed a bye in the opener, brushed aside Croatia's Zvonimir Durkinjak 21-16, 21-7. Sameer, who also got a bye in the opening round, defeated Russia's Sergey Sirant in the second round.
The men's doubles pair of Francis Alwin and K Nandagopal, seeded sixth, prevailed over Poland combo of Milosz Bochat and Adam Cwalina 15-21, 21-17, 21-17 to also advance to the quarter-finals.
The Indian duo will face third-seeded German combo of Mark Lamsfuss and Marvin Emil Seidel next.
Slowly making a comeback after recovering from a year-long battle with ankle injury, R M V Gurusaidutt went down fighting 20-22, 21-17, 17-21 to 2015 World Champion bronze medallist Jan O Jorgensen who is also returning from a foot injury.
Another Indian Mugdha Agrey lost 11-21, 9-21 to Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia as Indian challenge ended in women's singles at Palais des Sports.
