09/08/2025

SPORTS SATURDAY | AUG 9, 2025 28 Akshay sets early pace Fleetwood one behind after opening round in Memphis A KSHAY BHATIA fired an 8-under 62 in the first round of the FedEx St. Jude Championship to grab a one-stroke lead over England’s Tommy Fleetwood in the opening event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs.

Norris, Piastri will not fall out: Brown MCLARE N CEO Zak Brown insists Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will not fall out despite battling each other for the World Drivers’ Championship. Title battles between teammates have often caused major rifts, but McLaren are hopeful that will not hap pen between their drivers. Piastri currently leads Norris by nine points following the latter’s victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Their rivalry could ignite in the sec ond half of the season, particularly if the gap in the Drivers’ Championship standings remains close.

birdies and only one bogey. The top 70 in the FedEx Cup points standings qualified for the St. Jude, but second-ranked Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, the reigning Masters champion, opted to skip the playoff opener.

his 15th year on Tour. Cauley, who has never won a PGA Tour event, closed strong to make a run at Akshay. He birdied Nos. 10, 12, 15, 16 and 17, all of the putts inside 15 feet. He had moved to 7-under, but his approach on 18 found water and a bogey dropped him back to 6-under. Hall, who

Those who finish the final round ranked in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup points standings qualify for the second round of the playoffs to be held next week in Owings Mills, Maryland. The top 50 also will be

Fleetwood made a late charge up the leaderboard by birdieing the final four holes for his 7-under 63 at TPC Southwind, in Memphis, Tennessee. Two strokes behind Akshay at 6-under 64 are Bud Cauley and Englishmen Harry Hall and Justin Rose. Kim Si Woo of Korea shot 65. Collin Morikawa, Rickie Fowler, Maverick McNealy, Russell Henley and Ben Griffin are four back after 4-under 66s. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler had a chance to join them, but his short par putt on 18 slid past the hole and he settled for a 67. Akshay tossed aside a season filled mostly with disappointment to move atop the leaderboard. His strong start included four birdies on the front nine and an eagle-3 on the par-5 16th hole. The only blemish on Akshay’s scorecard was a bogey on the par-4 12th. He closed in impressive fashion, following the eagle on No. 16 with birdie putts on Nos. 17 and 18. “I felt like I wasn’t putting great throughout the day, but then those last couple putts managed to drop,” Akshay said. “All in all, I felt like (my) iron play was nice. “I just need to kind of clean up a couple things, like a couple wedge shots, and get a little more comfortable with the putter, but all in all, I felt like I was driving it nice.” Fleetwood has had five top-10 finishes this season, including a near-victory at the Travelers Championship in June when he was runner-up to Keegan Bradley. Yesterday, he was even after seven holes, but shot 7-under across his final 11 holes. “I felt like I hadn’t made the most of any of the chances that I had given myself (early in the round), and I think just being patient through that stretch and then I eventually got something going,” said Fleetwood, in CA N ADIA N Mboko conquered four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 yesterday, capping a fairytale run at the WTA Canadian Open with her first WTA title. Mboko, 18 and playing in her first WTA final, denied Osaka her first tour-level title since the 2021 Australian Open, wearing down the Japanese star, 27, who has struggled to find consistency since returning from maternity leave early in 2024. Mboko, who was ranked outside the top 300 to start the season and had climbed to 85th entering the week, is now projected to rise to 34th in the world. Before an ecstatic centre court crowd of 11,000, she converted eight of her nine break teenager Victoria B E N S HELTO N became the first American to win an ATP Masters 1000 title in Canada in more than two decades as he defeated Karen Khachanov 6 7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in Toronto final yesterday. The 22-year-old will rise one place to sixth in the world rankings, overtaking 24-time Grand Slam singles champion Novak Djokovic in the table. “It’s a surreal feeling,” said Shelton, who is the first American since Andy Roddick in 2003 to win the Canadian trophy. “It’s been a long week. It was not an easy path to the finals.

McLaren have so far dealt with any disagreements, and Brown expects that to continue to be the case. “I don’t think they’ll properly fall out because of the commu nication, trust and respect we all have, and they have

played in the same group with Akshay, had a bogey-free round. Rose, the runner-up to McIlroy at the Masters, had seven

eligible for each of eight PGA Tour signature events in 2026. – Field Level Media

Akshay Bhatia – REUTERSPIC

father, former ATP player Bryan Shelton. “I was clutch, I persevered, it was brilliant, I’m developing qualities that will help in tennis and in life,” Shelton said. “Karen was bullying me around the court, I felt like a freight train coming at me. The balls were coming fast but I was able to redirect. “I hit some big shots and flipped the momentum of the match.” Toronto marks the third career title for Shelton after victories in Tokyo in 2023 and Houston in 2024. – AFP for each other,” he said. “We’re very fortunate to have the two personalities that we have. We love the challenge. I’m looking forward to them racing each other. “I’ve said to both of them individu ally, at windows of opportunity, ‘has your teammate ever done anything to annoy you?’ (The answer is) ‘Never’. And that’s what they both said. “So there’s competitiveness brew ing. We’re not feeling any tension. As the championship builds I’m sure that tension will grow, but like Montreal – I’m glad we got it out of the way, because it was a non-event, Lando owned it, Oscar understood, it was a mistake.” Brown referred to Norris inadver tently colliding with Piastri at the Canadian Grand Prix in June. The American believes similar incidents will happen again when the Formula One season resumes at the end of the month. However, he does not expect either Norris or Piastri to purposely crash into their colleague. Brown continued: “I’m positive they’re never going to run each other off the track, and that’s where you get into bad blood. “If something bubbles up, we’ll deal with it. “And how we operate, which is (in) an open, transparent, deal with it right away (manner). “It seems like from the outside look ing in, when you’ve seen battles between other teammates, you’ve kind of seen it brewing, and you kind of go like ‘have they jumped on that, or are they just kind of letting it build up?’ “We’ll take the air out of the balloon right away, if we feel like anything’s bubbling up, but we’ve not seen any of it.” – Express Newspapers

Canadian teen Mboko stuns Osaka

The American fired 16 aces as he used his powerful serve to fuel the emotional comeback victory. For the second night in a row in a showpiece match, glitches in the heralded computerised line calling technology caused commotion. The problem came to light in the fifth game of the second set, when the audio went out and left the players uncertain as to what balls were in and which were out. Shelton scrambled into the stands after clinching match point to celebrate with his Osaka, who came into the tournament ranked 49th in the world, had appeared energised in Montreal after a coaching shakeup. She posted her best performance in a WTA 1000 tournament since she reached the final at Miami in 2022, but her disappointment came through as she addressed the crowd at the trophy ceremony. “I don’t really want to take up too much time,” she said. “I’ll just say thank you to everyone.” “Thank you to my team, and the ball kids, and the organisers, and the volunteers. “I hope you guys had a good night.” – AFP/Agencies whole week. You guys were incredible, and I couldn’t be more grateful.”

“But my best tennis just came out when it mattered the most.” The victory in two and three-quarter hours denied 11th seed Khachanov a chance a a second Masters shied more than six years after he won his first at Paris Bercy in 2018. Shelton stormed through a final set tiebreaker with leads of 3-0 and 5-2 on his opponent. The left-hander lined up four match points and converted on the second to clinch the biggest title of his career. points, seizing her fourth win of the week over a Grand Slam winner. She ousted former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the second round and toppled reigning French Open champion Coco Gauff in the fourth before saving a match point en route to a semifinal victory over former Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina. “It’s been an incredible week here in Montreal,” Mboko said at the trophy presentation. “I also want to thank Naomi for an incredible match. I’ve always looked up to her when I was really little, so it’s always great to play with an amazing player like you.” “Lastly, I want to thank every single one of you who came to support me throughout this

Shelton tops Khachanov to win first Toronto Masters