KAEC: India's Aditi Ashok and Tvesa Malik made the cut with improved cards in their second round at the Aramco Saudi Ladies International here.
Aditi shot 3-under 69 after looking set for a much better score, while Tvesa also carded 3-under 69.
Aditi at 2-under total was tied 16th, while Tvesa with 1-under aggregate was tied 27th. England's Alice Hewson rose to the top of the leaderboard with a second round 64.
Diksha Dagar (74-74), at 4-over, is likely to miss the cut, which is expected to fall at 3-over.
Aditi opened with a birdie and then, despite a bogey on second, she rolled three birdies in a row from fourth to sixth and added one more on eighth to turn in 3-under 33.
On the back nine she had birdies on 11th and 13th to get to 5-under for the day, before she dropped a double bogey on Par-3 16th.
Tvesa bogeyed Par-5 fourth, but three birdies in four holes between sixth and ninth saw her turn in 2-under. Two birdies, including one on 18th, against one bogey saw her finish at 69.
Hewson began the day at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club on one-under-par, and kicked off her round with a birdie on the first, despite dropping a shot on the third. Hewson rolled in birdies on six and ninth to make the turn in 34 (-2). Then she had six further birdies on the back nine to propel herself to the top of the leaderboard on 9-under-par.
Finland's Sanna Nuutinen carded a 7-under 65 to be at 8-under-par for the tournament. She is in second place, ahead of Lydia Ko (67-70), Caroline Hedwall (71-66) and Linnea Strom (68-69).
The top 10 is rounded off by five players who sit four shots behind leader Hewson on five-under-par including Spain's Carlota Ciganda.
