Teenager Aditi stays in hunt for second straight top-10 finish

Aditi Ashok stayed in the hunt for a second successive top-10 finish on the Ladies European Tour as she finished her penultimate round with a 75 at the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España Femenino today.

The 18-year-old Ashok, who was fourth by the time the second round ended late yesterday, had an adventurous day with three birdies, but also had six bogeys and nine pars as she shot three-over. That saw her at even par 216 for 54 holes and she was Tied-eighth.

Aditi was unable to make good use of the clear blue skies and light airs, when the conditions are ideal for low scoring.

Beth Allen took over sole lead as she shot 67, including a closing birdie while overnight leader local Spaniard Azahara Munoz (70) was one behind at eight-under.

Aditi may be a bit too far behind to challenge the duo for the title, but third placed Diana Luna (69) and Sophie Walker (71) are just four-under and Aditi could make some ground on them or on fifth placed Gwladys Nocera (69) and Nanna Madsen (70) are at three-under.

Two weeks ago, Aditi was Tied-ninth at ISPS Handa Ladies European Masters for her first career Top-10 as a professional.

Aditi, who had her best career round of five-under 67 on the second day, was candid, as she said, "I missed a few putts that I normally wouldn't miss. Also I three-putted from the fringe a couple of times. Then I missed some greens on par-4s, so I was always scrambling for pars and even there I didn't make a couple."

She added, "I was never really under par. I was two-over after three and even though I had three birdies, I couldn't make up (for the bogeys). I could have been more steady like yesterday, but I will try on Sunday."

Aditi had bogeys on second and third and then sixth and seventh and at that stage she had just one birdie on par-5 fifth. On the back nine, she birdied the par-5 10th, but gave away that gain on 13th and then again she birdied par-5 16th only to give even that away on par-3 17th.

Local favourite Azahara Muñoz made the perfect start to her third round when she birdied the first hole at Aloha Golf Club, moving to seven-under-par and extending her overnight lead.

She then gained a three-stroke advantage when her closest challenger, Pamela Pretswell of Scotland, bogeyed the second hole.