Coco Gauff overcomes vomiting on court to beat Sorana Cirstea
MADRID, April 27: Coco Gauff has advanced to the fourth round of the Madrid Open despite falling ill and vomiting on court.Gauff, a finalist in Madrid last year, rallied to beat Sorana Cirstea 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 on Sunday.The American threw up on court in the middle of the second set.“When I actually threw up on the court, that was like a little bit embarrassing,” Gauff said.“Then after that first game and the second, I was like that took everything out of me.” On Saturday, fourth-ranked Iga Swiatek withdrew due to an unspecified illness while playing her round-of-32 match against American Ann Li.Gauff said she was determined to carry on her match.“I’m someone who doesn’t like to pull out. I don’t like to do that unless I really feel like I have no other options,” Gauff said.“So the plan was to always just try to finish, even if it ended up with me just playing just to get through it.” She recovered from a break down three times before winning the set 7-5.The third-ranked Gauff said she doesn’t know how she “got through that,” and said she almost threw up in the middle of a point.“I felt fine all this morning. I felt a little weird last night, but I was OK. Woke up this morning, felt fine. And mid-first set, I was feeling like I was going to throw up. And then I did,” she said.“They gave me some pills and that definitely helped. After that, once I felt the feeling of throwing up, then I just felt nauseous and tired. I just didn’t want to throw up in the middle of the point, which I almost did at one point.” Gauff will next meet No. 13 seed Linda Noskova. (AP)
Pranavi finishes T-24 at Women’s SA Open
CAPE TOWN, April 27: Pranavi Urs carded 1-under 72 to finish as the top-Indian at tied-24th in the Investec SA Women’s Open golf tournament, even as compatriot Diksha Dagar (76) slipped on the final day here.Pranavi and Diksha finished T-24th and T-37th respectively, while Avani Prashanth (77) was T-57th.Three other Indians in the fray, Vani Kapoor, Tvesa Malik and Hitaashee Bakshi had missed the halfway cut.Meanwhile, England’s Esme Hamilton earned her maiden LET title with two-shot victory. Hamilton fired a final round 71 (-2) to beat Cara Gainer and Pia Babnik for the title following an epic battle with compatriot Cara Gainer.A former SA Open winner, Diksha opened with five pars before she bogeyed the sixth and the ninth. On the back nine, she birdied the 11th but double bogeyed the 15th for a disappointing finish.Pranavi, who has come close to a title a few times including at the Indian Open, teed off from the back nine and had two bogeys and one birdie on the stretch.On the second nine, she birdied three times between the first and the fifth, but gave away a shot on eighth and dropped out of Top-20.Avani had two birdies, two bogeys and two double bogeys.It was a wet windy final day at Royal Cape Golf Club as Hamilton grabbed a two-shot victory with a 15-under par total. The win is Hamilton’s first on the LET in just her 23rd start after joining the circuit as a rookie last year. (PTI)
Mascarenhas, Karumbaiah finish seventh on WRC3 debut
LAS PALMAS (Spain), April 27: Indian rally driver Dean Mascarenhas and co-driver Gagan Karumbaiah finished seven on their WRC3 class debut at the Rally Islas Canarias here.Driving a Ford Fiesta Rally 3 prepared by PH Sport, the Indian pair finished overall 48th and seventh in their WRC3 class.“We overcame brake issues and settled down, and on Saturday the focus has been on regrouping and learning as much as possible from every kilometre. Every stage taught us something new,” Mascarenhas said in a release. (PTI)
