15/02/2026

theSun on Sunday FEB 15, 2026

SPORTS 12

Akshay, Hisatsune lead at Pebble Beach

Chasing his first PGA Tour win since 2023, 37-year-old Fowler is on the mend after battling through injury in a 2025 sea son that saw him briefly drop outside the world top-100. Elsewhere, Harris English carded the day’s best round with a bogey-free 63, fea turing nine birdies, to bounce back from a disappointing opening-round 73 and reach 8-under at the event’s halfway mark. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler crept back up the leaderboard with a second round of 66, putting him 6-under for the tourna ment after an erratic opening round of 72. – AFP

The 23-year-old from Okayama, who won the 2023 Open de France on the DP World Tour, has been stepping it up in pur suit of a first US PGA Tour title. After a tie for second behind runaway winner Justin Rose at Torrey Pines, Hisatsune held the halfway lead at the Phoenix Open last week, before finishing 10th. Rickie Fowler also carded 64 to end the day in joint third place, on 14-under, with Sam Burns. Fowler bogeyed the 14th but produced an otherwise flawless round featuring nine birdies.

Akshay enjoyed six birdies and an eagle at the par-five 14th, where he chipped in from 47 feet out in the rough. “I feel like my golf swing’s in a really nice spot, shot options are in a really nice spot and starting to see some putts fall,“ he said. Meanwhile Japan’s Hisatsune built on his career-best 10-under opening round with a fine 5-under 67. He bogeyed both the 18th and 1st as he made the turn at Spyglass Hill – one of two in use for the event’s first two days – but regained his composure and eagled the par-five seventh and birdied the ninth for a strong finish.

AKSHAY BHATIA yesterday joined Ryo Hisatsune at the top of the PGA Tour Pebble Beach Pro-Am leaderboard on 15 under, with a resurgent Rickie Fowler hot on their heels. California-born Akshay scored 64, with back-to-back bogey-free rounds to join overnight leader Hisatsune at the pinnacle. It comes off the back of 24-year-old Akshay’s joint-third-placed finish at last week’s Phoenix Open. “Just building off last week. Played really nice last week, just starting to kind of catch my groove,“ said Akshay, who has two previous PGA Tour wins to his name.

SHORTS

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (inset) during pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

MBOKO SETS UP QATAR OPEN FINAL

Victoria Mboko advanced to the second WTA 1000 final of her career and secured her top-10 debut in next week’s world rankings with a commanding 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jelena Ostapenko at the Qatar Open yesterday. The 19-year-old, who claimed back-to-back top-10 wins in the previous two rounds over Mirra Andreeva and recent Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, is the first Canadian finalist in the tour nament’s history. For a shot at a second career 1000-level title, Mboko will take on Czech 14th seed Karolina Muchova, who came back from a set and a break down to defeat Greece’s Maria Sakkari 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. “It’s kind of crazy. I never expected something to happen so fast for me,“ said Mboko on Friday. “But it’s a nice feeling. It’s nice to see that, to have that milestone, to see that number. So I’m pretty happy with that.” In the second semifinal of the day, Muchova needed two hours and 13 minutes to overcome a resurgent Sakkari and reach her first final since Beijing 2024, 17 months ago. “It’s amazing. That’s why I play, to be in the finals, to be here the finals for the first time for me, it’s amazing. I’m very happy,“ said Muchova. FRITZ MAKES DALLAS SEMIS Top seed Taylor Fritz captured the last five points in a deciding tie breaker to defeat fellow American Sebastian Korda and advance to the ATP Dallas Open semifinals yester day. World No. 7 Fritz fought back to defeat 53rd-ranked Korda 6-7 (2-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) and book a place against Croatian Marin Cilic, the 2014 US Open winner, in the semifi nal. Fritz, now 4-1 lifetime against Korda, fired 22 aces and won all four break points he faced to conclude matters in two hours and 30 min utes. “Just (proud of) the way I handled those big moments in that match,“ Fritz said. “He was constantly put ting a lot of pressure on my serve. He was playing really well. “He put me in a lot of tough situa tions but every time I was down break points or in the tie-breaks I came through and played great tennis.” Cilic advanced by beating British qualifier Jack Pinnington Jones 6-1, 6-4.

‘He can retire’

Norris takes swipe at Verstappen after criticism of new F1 cars

LANDO NORRIS has batted away Max Verstappen’s criti cism of this year’s Formula 1 cars, simply saying of his rival: “He can retire if he wants.” Four-time world champion Verstappen was critical of this year’s new generation of F1 cars at pre-season testing on Thursday, claiming they are “anti-racing” and labelling the new focus on energy manage ment as “like Formula E on steroids.” Verstappen also did not rule out walking away from the sport, if the new cars are “not fun to drive”, and is already participating in endurance racing at the Nurburgring alongside his F1 commitments. Yet Norris, who pipped Verstappen to last year’s world championship by two points, does not agree with his rival and was dismissive of

as perfectly, but I’m sure if he came into this and this was the F1 car he started driving then he probably would say it’s amazing. “Comparing to the older cars, it doesn’t feel as pretty and beautiful to drive, but it’s still pretty good. And it’s all early days, it’s early days of a regulation that’s meant to be a good amount slower. “But if you fast forward to the end of this year and look ahead to next year already, we’re going to be going a lot quicker by then. “Anyone and everyone can make their own opinions and have their own opinions, and say and decide what they want to do. “No one should complain about that or be upset about it. Every driver has their own opinions and he didn’t like it and I like it.” – The Independent

have a lot of fun. So, no noth ing to complain about.” Despite Verstappen’s prot estations, initial impressions are that Red Bull look like a top contender, with superior straight-line speed so far in Bahrain, in what is their first year producing their own power unit alongside Ford. McLaren, who are using Mercedes engines, look there or thereabouts so far, and Norris insisted Verstappen will be as competitive as ever come the first race in Australia on March 8 March. “I don’t expect Max is going to go out and not give a s***, you know?” he said. “He’s going to try and win and Max is never going to not try, he’s just not going to smile as much maybe – I guess that might be the case. “It certainly doesn’t feel as quick as the past few years and it certainly doesn’t handle

the Red Bull driver’s com ments. “I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it,” Norris said yester day. “So yeah, if he wants to retire he can retire. “Formula 1 changes all the time, sometimes it’s a bit bet ter to drive, sometimes not as good to drive. But yeah, we get paid a stupid amount of money to drive so you can’t really complain at the end of the day. “Any driver can go and find something else to do, you know? It’s not like he has to be here or any driver has to be here. “It’s a challenge but it’s a good fun challenge for the engineers, for the drivers. It’s different, you have to drive it in a different way and under stand things differently and manage things differently. “But you still get to drive cars and travel the world and