Former world No. 1 golfer Yani Tseng said yesterday she was happy to be back in Taiwan for the Sunrise LPGA Taiwan Championship and felt that she would have an advantage on her home turf.
“I’m very happy to be home, to be back to a familiar place,” the 24-year-old Taiwanese player said at a press conference in Taoyuan County also attended by Norway’s Suzann Pettersen, and Americans Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson.
Tseng, whose ranking has fallen to 25th in the world, said she had a good practice round yesterday, despite gusting winds, and she was looking forward to her home tournament.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“The LPGA events in Asia over the past three weeks have been good preparation for this tournament” said Tseng, who finished third in Taiwan on the LPGA Tour last year.
Tseng goes into the event looking to recapture some of the form and consistency that kept her ranked in the top 10 in the world from mid-2008 to July.
She showed signs of playing better on the first leg of the LPGA Tour’s fall Asian swing, the Reignwood LPGA Classic, in which she finished sixth, but then struggled at the next stop in Malaysia and finished tied for 27th at the HanaBank Championship in South Korea last weekend.
“There have been ups and downs, but I know anything can happen. This is how playing a sport works,” Tseng said of her difficulties over the past year. “Returning to Taiwan, I’ve forgotten the happiness and disappointments of the past. I’m not setting a goal for the week; I just hope not to disappoint the fans and have fun playing the course.”
This year’s event in Taiwan, which carries a purse of US$2 million, will tee off tomorrow at the Sunrise Golf and Country Club in Yangmei.
TOP 10
Four of the top 10 players on the LPGA Tour’s money list will be taking part in the four-day tournament. They are Pettersen, Thompson, Spain’s Beatriz Recari and South Korea’s Choi Na-yeon.
Two other players among the top 10 money winners this year, South Koreans Inbee Park and Ryu So-yeon, have pulled out of the event.
The Sunrise Golf and Country Club is hosting the tournament for the third year in a row, but is in the final year of a three-year contract with the US-based LPGA.
Hsu Tien-ya, president of the Golf Association of the Republic of China and chairman of the club, has said he hopes a new sponsor can take over the tournament in the future.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
INTER AWAIT: Superb saves by PSG ’keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma inspired the victory, as Arsenal were punished for misses, including one by Bukayo Saka Arsenal on Wednesday fell short on the big stage again as their painful UEFA Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain left Mikel Arteta to rue his club’s failure to provide him with enough attacking options. Arteta’s side were unable to reach the Champions League final for the first time in 19 years as PSG clinched a tense 2-1 win at Parc des Princes. Trailing 1-0 from last week’s first leg in London, the Gunners made a blistering start to the second leg, but could not convert their chances as Gianluigi Donnarumma’s superb saves inspired PSG’s 3-1 aggregate victory. Arsenal were punished for
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
RSS