By Matt Smith
Ines Laklalech, the young Moroccan golfer who became only the second Arab woman to play on the Ladies European Tour, stormed to the top of the leaderboard at the French Open, thanks to a brilliant six-under 65 at Golf Barrière Deauville.

The 24-year-old shares the first-round lead with Meghan MacLaren and Nastasia Nadaud, while world No. 14 Celine Boutier is among six players tied for fourth place on four-under-par. The defending champion is joined by Anne-Lise Caudal, Smilla Tarning Soenderby, Anais Meysonnier, Klara Spilkova and Leonie Harm.

Moroccan Laklalech, who fired seven birdies and one bogey in the windier afternoon conditions, said: “I’m really pleased because I didn’t feel good on the practice range this morning but I went shot by shot and I’m happy with the way I finished my day. I couldn’t reach all of the par 5s but I just adapted my shots depending on what the wind was telling me to do. I think the difficult part was the tee shots and you had to focus hard on that.”

England’s MacLaren added: “I got off to a bit of a slow start but on the back nine everything fell into place. I think I gradually got more confident. I’ve been struggling a little bit lately and I felt quite good at the beginning of this week but at the start of my round I still wasn’t playing with the kind of freedom that I would do whenever I feel at my best. The longer the round went on I started to trust myself and I felt really good on the greens, which always helps. It’s just a combination of things clicking into place.”

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