GWALIOR: Fourth seed Ankita Raina brushed aside qualifier Rishika Sunkara 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the City Centre tennis complex on Tuesday.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Ankita will play Berfu Cengiz of Turkey, who did not break into a sweat in beating the local wild card Isha Budwal.
Qualifier Snehadevi Reddy outplayed fellow qualifier and the national champion Riya Bhatia for the loss of five games. The diminutive Snehadevi, equipped with a better serve and smooth strokes, had beaten the semifinalist of the last event in Bhopal, Kanika Vaidya, in the final round of the qualifying event and will challenge seventh seed Despina Papamichail of Greece in the second round.
Rutuja Bhossale failed to capitalise on a good start against eighth seed Ana Veselinovic of Montenegro and lost 4-6 in the third set, in which she had led 4-2 and had two game points at 40-15 to go up 5-2 on her serve. Ana served three aces to close out the match in the 10th game.
Qualifier Nidhi Chilumula put up a good fight against the finalist of the last tournament Emily Webley-Smith of Britain.
The results:
Singles, first round: Valentyna Ivakhnenko (Rus) bt Mihika Yadav 6-0, 6-2; Yana Sizikova (Rus) bt Nudnida Luangnam (Tha) 6-4, 6-3; Ankita Raina bt Rishika Sunkara 6-2, 6-1; Berfu Cengiz (Tur) bt Isha Budwal 6-0, 6-0; Snehadevi Reddy bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 6-2; Tereza Mihalikova (Svk) bt Fatma Al Nabhani 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(2); Bunyawi Thammchaiwat (Tha) bt Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) 6-1, 6-4; Ana Veselinovic (Mne) bt Rutuja Bhosale 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-2, 6-4.
Doubles, pre-quarterfinals: Nudnida Luangnam & Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Tha) bt Amandine Hesse (Fra) & Valentyna Ivakhnenko (Rus) 2-6, 6-3, 10-8; Karin Kennel (Sui) & Pranjala Yadlapalli bt Natasha Palha & Rishika Sunkara 6-4, 6-3; Freya Christie (GBR) & Albina Khabibulina (Uzb) bt Tereza Mihalikova (Svk) & Karman Kaur Thandi 7-6(3), 6-4; Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) & Emily Webley-Smith (GBR) bt Despina Papamichail (Gre) & Riya Bhatia 6-2, 3-6, 10-8; Berfu Cengiz (Tur) & Rosalie Van Der Hoek (Ned) bt Nicha Lertpitaksinchai & Peangtarn Plipuech (Tha) 2-6, 7-6(5), 10-5.
