Lorena Ochoa, Annika Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak and Suzann Pettersen all advanced in the HSBC Women’s World Match Play Championship. Karrie Webb, Cristie Kerr and Morgan Pressel did not.
Of the 32 opening round matches, the higher seed won 20 and lost 12. In addition to the three mentioned above, Juli Inkster, Ji-Yai Shin, defending champion Brittany Lincicome and Julieta Granada were Top 20 seeds who fell. Sorenstam and Pettersen had to go to extra holes to avoid the same fate.
Let’s be positive now – the surprise winners included Charlotte Mayorkas (1-up over Webb), Amy Hung (5&4 over Kerr), Birdie Kim (2-up over Pressel), Hye Jung Choi (4&3 over Inkster) and Carin Koch (4&3 over Lincicome). The most dominant performance of the day was Ochoa’s 6&5 win over Ashleigh Simon. Nicole Castrale, Sherri Steinhauer, Mi Hyun Kim, Ai Miyazato and Hung all won their matches 5&4.
As for my bracket, Pressel and Lincicome’s losses really hurt because I had them reaching the semis and quarters, respectively. In-Kyung Kim was the only other losing player I picked who I also had winning in Round Two. Bottom line – I got 20 right and 12 wrong, picking Kang to upset Castrale (bad wrong) and IK Kim to upset Young Kim (close match, lost by 1), but correctly picked Lindsay Wright and Meaghan Francella to beat their higher seeded opponents. Of course they were all four 30-something seeds but an upset called is an upset called, right?
With my picks in bold (and if there isn’t one, that means my pick already got knocked out), here are Friday’s sixteen matches:
Ochoa vs Francella
Prammanasudh vs Hurst
Creamer vs Hjorth
Choi vs Stanford
Hung vs Young Kim
Koch vs Rankin
Pak vs Christina Kim
Miyazato vs Steinhauer
Mayorkas vs Diaz
Jee Young Lee vs Castrale
Pettersen vs Hetherington
Mi Hyun Kim vs Sarah Lee
Sorenstam vs Wright
Jang vs Angela Park
Birdie Kim vs Davies
Moodie vs Seon Hwa Lee
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