None of the five seeded Indian players in action on Tuesday, not even No.1 Natasha Palha, managed to win their first round matches in the Amul $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here.
The top-seed lost 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to the unranked Abbie Myers of Australia, whom she had beaten fairly easily the last time they had met, a $25,000 event recently.
While none of the other four seeds Nidhi Chilumula, Prerna Bhambri, Bhuvana Kalva and Eetee Maheta managed to win a set, exception has to be made for Prerna who pulled out with an injury after four games against qualifier Jennifer Luikham.
Firing aces, at times even on second serve at crunch times, and free-flowing strokes, Natasha did recover after a slow start. However, after swinging the match with a sharp game in the second set, Natasha got broken early in the decider.
The 20-year-old Myers went for her shots, and eventually wound the match up in style with an ace. The fourth-seeded Nidhi played well, but it was Kanami Tsuji of Japan who won the points that mattered in racing to a 6-2, 6-3 victory.
Han Sung-Hee of Korea put out the seventh-seeded Bhuvana Kalva who has not played a tournament in a long time because of her academic commitments.After a spell of rain in the evening, qualifier Sai Samhitha dismissed eighth-seeded Eetee Maheta 6-4, 6-2.
Former Asian junior champion Rutuja Bhosale worked hard but could not find a way past Kim Dabin of Korea, falling 7-6(2), 6-4.
Among others, Simran Kaur Sethi recovered from a sharp dip in fortunes and eventually pulled through in straight sets, after her opponent, qualifier Nithya Raj Babu Raj failed to serve out the second set.
The results: First round: Abbie Myers (Aus) bt Natasha Palha 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Amrita Mukherjee bt Dhruthi Venugopal 6-1, 4-6, 6-2; Katherine Ip (Hkg) bt Sri Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy 6-4, 6-3; Kanami Tsuji (Jpn) bt Nidhi Chilumula 6-2, 6-3; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Mahitha Dadi Reddy 6-1, 6-1; Arthi Muniyan bt Akshara Iska 6-4, 6-0; Sai Samhitha bt Eetee Maheta 6-4, 6-2; Jennifer Luikham bt Prerna Bhambri 2-2 (retired); Karman Kaur Thandi bt Jelena Stojanovic (aus) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2; Snehadevi Reddy bt Adnya Naik 6-2, 6-0; Han Sung-Hee (Kor) bt Bhuvana Kalva 6-4, 6-3; Simran Kaur Sethi bt Nithya Raj Babu Raj 6-1, 7-5; Kim Dabin (Kor) bt Rutuja Bhosale 7-6(2), 6-4.
Doubles (quarterfinals): Rushmi Chakravarthi & Natasha Palha bt Rishika Sunkara & Shweta Rana 6-4, 6-4.