Nishna Patel shot 1-under 71 and was tied 11,while her compatriot Avani Prashanth returned , 1-over 73 to be at tied 21^st and was six shots behind the leader Kim Minsol after the first round of the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific (WAAP) Championship.in Singapore on Thursday.

.

Avani ,the 16-year-old winner of the Queen Sirikit Cup 10 days ago and one of the strong contenders for the event, played with Kim Minsol, the World No. 14, who shot 67 Japan’s Rin Yoshida, the highest-ranked player at No. 4, who carded 3-over-par 75.

Among the other Indians was US-based Anika Varma (74), who was 1-under through 12 holes but dropped three shots in last six holes. Anika was tied 28^th. The other three Indians were Mannat Brar (76) at T-53^rd, Vidhatri Urs (77) at T-60 and Lavanya Jadon (78) at T-64.

The leader Korean Kim Minsol, whose 67 included an eagle and a double bogey besides five birdies. Behind the leader, there were three players, Ni Zixin of China, Thailand’s little-known Navaporn Soontreeyapas and Hong Kong’s Sophie Han were tied second with cards of 4-under 68 each.

Playing in her third start at the annual marquee event Nishna, said she was learning from the experience of playing a lot of internationals in recent times.

Nishna said, “It was quite good overall. I was hitting the ball really well. I was happy with it, and the putting was good, though I could have saved a few shots as some birdie putts lipped out.”

Avani said, “I had a lot of dropped shots. I made four birdies, but dropped five shots which was not needed at all. Made some silly mistakes on the course and I couldn’t cover them up. My up-and-down game was absolutely off today, but hopefully it’s better tomorrow.

“As for putting,  I had a couple of mis-reads and was not really trusting the line as much, even though what I saw was perfectly correct. And just a couple of times I hit it to the wrong places.”

Meanwhile in Cape Town , Pranavi Urs opened with a steady 2-under 70 in the first round of the South African Women’s Open and was the best of the five Indian women in action this week The Indian was tied 23^rd at Steenberg Golf Club.

Among other Indians, Ridhima Dilawari shot 1-under 71 and was tied 40^th. Vani Kapoor and Amandeep Drall were tied 54^th with rounds of even par 72 and Diksha Dagar was way down in tied 109^th place with 75.

Pranavi, who topped the Hero Order of Merit on the domestic circuit had three birdies against a late bogey in her round as the Ladies European Tour’s South African swing comes to an end this week.

Germany’s Chiara Noja fired a record 62 (-10) to lead by two shots at the end of the first day. South Africa’s Ashleigh Buhai sits in second place on eight-under-par having produced a round of 64 on the first day of competition.

Pranavi was three-under through 14 holes with birdies on seventh, 11^th and 12^th holes. A dropped shot on 15^th pulled her back but she closed with three pars. Ridhima had three birdies against two bogeys.