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Poojashree overcomes Barr

Special Correspondent

MUZAFFAR NAGAR: Poojashree Venkatesh warded off a stiff challenge from Cassandra Barr of Australia 6-4, 7-6(8) in the first round of the Bhavna Swarup Memorial $10,000 ITF women’s tournament on the grass courts of the Services Club here on Tuesday.

With her ability to stay tuned to the ball, Poojashree took a 5-1 lead in the first set, but found her opponent pulling hard till the 10th game.

In the second set, Poojashree squandered a 5-4 lead to be down 5-6 and had to endure a set point against her in the eventual tie-break at 7-8. Eventually, Poojashree converted her third match point much to the delight of the sparse gathering that cheered the Indian girl.

Poojashree will challenge her doubles partner, the eighth-seeded Alexandra Kolesnichenko of Uzbekistan in the pre-quarterfinals on the morrow. In doubles, the Indo-Uzbek combination prevailed over the fourth-seeded Koreans, Hae-Sung Kim and Jung-Yoon Kim 10-6 in the super tie-break.

Parija posts win

The seventh-seeded Parija Maloo saw through a tricky second set with competence against qualifier Geeta Manohar. Moving smoothly and striking the ball with punch, Parija reeled off three games in a row from 4-5 in the second set to make it a straight-set win.

The National runner-up Shweta Chandra Rana gave a good account of herself against the crowd favourite Patrycja Sanduska of Poland, as she clawed her way back from 1-4 to be on par in the second set, but could not ride on the wave of recovery any further.

Qualifier Archana Venkataraman teased the second-seeded Vivian Segnini as she ran up a 4-2 lead in the opening set but lacked the strength to win more than two games thereafter in the match, as the Brazilian smacked winners all around.

The results: Singles (first round): Chun-Yan He (Chn) bt Avni Jain 6-0, 6-0; Parija Maloo bt Geeta Manohar 6-2, 7-5; Sweta Kumari Solanki bt Anushri Thammana 6-2, 6-2; Poojashree Venkatesh bt Cassandra Barr (Aus) 6-4, 7-6(8); Emily Webley Smith (GBr) bt Saneeya Singh 6-0, 6-0; Leonie Mekel (Ned) bt Shalini Sahoo 6-2, 6-3; Patrycja Sanduska (Pol) bt Shweta Chandra Rana 6-2, 6-4; Vivian Segnini (Bra) bt Archana Venkataraman 6-4, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sanaa Bhambri and Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Ratnika Batra and Garima Vatwani 6-0, 6-2; Alexandra Kolesnichenko (Uzb) and Poojashree Venkaesh bt Hae-Sung Kim and Jung-Yoon Shin (Kor) 7-5, 3-6, 10-6; Vivian Segnini (Bra) and Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Iuliia Kirienko (Ukr) and Harshini Reddy 6-4, 6-4.

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