Ai Miyazato moved within one match of her first LPGA Tour victory, beating Maria Hjorth 3 and 2 on Sunday in the semi-finals of the HSBC Women's World Match Play Championship.
"It's a beautiful day," said Miyazato, the 22-year-old Japanese star seeded 12th in the 64-player event. "I just had fun. It was a great match."
Miyazato, a 14-time champion on the Japanese tour, but winless in 42 career LPGA Tour starts, faced No. 22 Lee Seon-hwa (22) in the afternoon final on the hilly, tree-lined Wykagyl Country Club course.
PHOTO: AP
"I need to make birdies," Miyazato said.
Lee defeated No. 10 Kim Mi-hyun 2-up in an all-South Korean semi-final.
"Ai's a really good player," Lee said. "I'm just going to try to enjoy it."
Trying to become the 10th Japanese player to win on the LPGA Tour and the first since Akiko Fukushima in 1999, Miyazato took a 2-up lead with a par on the par-4 11th. After Hjorth cut the lead in half with a birdie on the par-4 12th, Miyazato took the par-4 14th and par-5 16th with pars to close out the tall Swede.
Miyazato got off to fast start, winning the par-4 third and fifth with pars to take a 2-up lead. Hjorth won the par-3 seventh with a par.
After opening victories over No. 53 Becky Morgan (5 and 4) and No. 21 Sherri Steinhauer (4 and 2), Miyazato beat No. 37 Christina Kim (2 and 1) and No. 61 Amy Hung (1-up) on Saturday to reach the semi-finals.
The 21-year-old Lee parred the par-4 fifth to pull even with Kim, then moved ahead with a birdie on the par-5 ninth. Lee won the 11th with a par and the 12th with a birdie to take a 3-up lead. After Kim won the par-3 13th and par-5 16th with pars, Lee ended the match with a birdie on the par-5 18th.
"I putted really well on the back nine," Lee said.
Lee won the final ShopRite LPGA Classic last year in New Jersey for her lone LPGA Tour title, closing with a 63, and was the rookie of the year. She also won a Futures Tour event two years ago in Albany.
The South Korean reached the quarter-finals with a 3-and-2 victory on Saturday over No. 35 Lindsey Wright after beating No. 43 Diana D'Alessio (1-up), No. 54 Janice Moodie (5 and 4) and No. 27 Laura Davies (2 and 1) in the first three rounds.
The champion will receive US$500,000 from the US$2 million purse. The runner-up will get US$300,000, third place is worth US$200,000 and fourth place is worth US$150,000.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
RSS