Women's Indian Open: Impressive Gwladys Nocera wins by five

Gwladys Nocera had little trouble in holding on to her lead to win the Hero Women's Indian Open in New Delhi.

The Frenchwoman led the tournament from start to finish and, on a closing day when scoring was a struggle, her one-under 72 was enough to take the trophy by a comfortable five strokes.

As it transpired the closest challengers did not come from those in with a chance after Friday's second round, with Korean's Hyeon Seo Kang and Switzerland's Fabienne In-Albon finishing with rounds of 69 to share second with England's Hannah Burke (71).

Nocera struggled on the front-nine, with one birdie and two bogeys, to lead by only one at the turn, but she picked up key shots at the 11th and 12th to put the tournament beyond much doubt. One more bogey and a final birdie at the 17th would come before victory was confirmed.

For most of the round Indian rookie Vaishavi Sinha looked like filling second place, or even challenging Nocera, but she struggled on the greens for the second round running and then made a double bogey at the last to drop to fifth overall. Her round of 76 was completely devoid of birdies.

The victory is the 13th of Nocera's European Tour career and second in India.

"It’s always good to win, I love it, and it’s nice to win in India for a second time, so I’m really pleased," said Nocera.

"It worked out really well the first day and after that I tried to play my game and that’s it.

"I’ve played on tour for 12 years so experience always helps and it did today. Today, my putting was not too good but I told myself I am capable of shooting a good score. I stayed patient and it paid off."

Burke equalled her career best finish in a tie for second and it was a landmark day for In-Albon, who was registering the best result of her time on tour and effectively did enough to secure playing privileges for 2015.

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