An opportunity for local talents

July 20, 2014 11:54 pm | Updated 11:54 pm IST - NEW DELHI:

The back-to-back $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournaments in the Capital over the next fortnight should serve as a good opportunity for the second string of players in the country, led by the top-seeded Natasha Palha.

Most of the players, from Ankita Raina and Prarthana Thombare have been competing around the world, and will be happy to compete at home for a change, even though Delhi can be just as expensive as any other city in the world.

With the Asian Games slated for September, a lot of players will be keen to enhance their ranking in time to make the Indian squad. It will be interesting to see how well players like Bhuvana Kalva, Rishika Sunkara, Prerna Bhambri, Shweta Rana, Eetee Maheta and Nidhi Chilumula, not to forget Olympian Rushmi Chakravarthi, capitalise on the two events to stake their claim for national selection.

The likes of Asian junior champions Snehadevi Reddy and Rutuja Bhosale will also be keen to step it up. Of course, Snehadevi has one more round to negotiate in the qualifying event.

Some of the qualifiers will meet each other in the first round, and should pose a serious threat for direct entrants.

There is foreign representation, led by the sixth-seeded Katherine Ip of Hong Kong. The Indian girls have gained a lot in terms of confidence and should be able to go for the title, despite the presence of the Australians, Koreans and the Japanese.

Natasha starts against Abbie Myers of Australia and has Ip in her quarter.

Though the players are ranked from 514, the competition should be lively.

The seedings: 1. Natasha Palha, 2. Rishika Sunkara, 3. Shweta Rana, 4. Nidhi Chilumula, 5. Prerna Bhambri, 6. Katherine Ip (Hkg), 7. Bhuvana Kalva, 8. Eetee Maheta.

The results: Qualifying event (second round): Victoria Chehal bt Shreya Pasricha 6-4, 6-2; Jennifer Luikham bt Thanushree Vale 6-1, 6-0; Srishti Slaria bt Likitha Shetty 6-4, 6-2; Karman Kaur Thandi bt Avika Sagwal 6-1, 6-0; Nithya Raj Babu Raj bt Megha Sehrawat 6-3, 6-0; Moulika Ram bt Preethi Ujjini 6-4, 7-6(6); Disha Satish Agarwal bt Krishnali Bhonsle 6-2, 6-2; Akshara Iska bt Saumya Vig 6-1, 6-4; Vineeta Singh bt Dhara Bharat Thakur 6-1, 6-1; Arthi Muniyan bt Anupreet Bedi 6-0, 6-2; Snehadevi Reddy bt Ananya Jha 6-1, 6-1; Yukina Saigo (Jpn) bt Abhilasha Vishwanath 6-2, 6-0; Masako Makiba (Jpn) bt Ramya Natarajan 6-3, 6-2; Adnya Naik bt Teertha Iska 6-1, 6-1; Sai Samhitha bt Arushi Bhasin 6-1, 6-1; Rishika Ravindran bt Sudeshna Sen 6-1, 6-0.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.