Rabat, May 23 -- India's rising star Pranavi Urs produced a composed and confident opening round of 3-under 70 to move into tied second place after the first day at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco. The 23-year-old stayed firmly in contention in a tightly packed leaderboard, just two shots behind Australia's Kelsey Bennett, who carded a superb 5-under 68 to take the outright lead.

Pranavi, who has shown consistent form in recent months, once again demonstrated her growing maturity on the Ladies European Tour. Starting from the back nine, she settled in quickly with an early birdie on the 11th hole and then played steady golf with seven successive pars to make the turn at 1-under.

Her momentum gathered pace on the front nine as she reeled...