Ankita Raina booked her place in the second round of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament after administering a straight-set dismantling of qualifier Treta Bhattacharya at the DLTA Complex here on Tuesday. The second seed won 6-1, 6-0.
Ankita, the highest-ranked Indian in the draw, looked in perfect shape for the match with her serve and forehand proving too lethal for her opponent. Treta’s inclination to regularly serve to the second seed’s forehand further weakened her position.
Ankita broke the 21-year-old in the very first game and went on to establish a 4-0 lead. Treta made far too many errors from her backhand, a weakness well exploited by her opponent.
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A minor deviation in the form of a service hold by Treta in the fifth game notwithstanding, Ankita sealed a facile win after 50 minutes of play.
Rushmi beats Sharon
The second seed will next meet Rushmi Chakravarthi, who overcame Sharon Paul in straight sets. Rushmi had to save two break points in the 12th game of the opening set before taking a hard-fought tiebreak 7-4.
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In the second set, the 35-year-old again had to dig deep before denying another couple of break points while serving for the match. Rushmi won the set 6-3.
Ankita met the experienced campaigner earlier this year on clay in Chennai, an encounter the 20-year-old won in three sets. Overall, she holds a favourable 2-1 record over Rushmi.
Interestingly, the duo is playing as a team in the doubles tournament here and began its campaign with a 6-2, 7-5 win over third seeds Sanae Ohta and Shweta Rana.
In other singles matches, third and eighth seed Rishika Sunkara and Natasha Palha, respectively, progressed to the second round with straight-set victories too.
The results: First round:Singles: Eetee Maheta bt Aishwarya Agrawal 6-1, 3-0 retd.; Naomi Totka (Hun) bt Zainab Ali Sajjad 6-2, 6-2; Ambika Pande bt Jeni Patel 6-0, 6-1; Vaniya Dangwal bt Nehel Sahni 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(2); Natasha Palha bt Arantxa Andrady 6-1, 6-0; Sneha Padamata bt Manya Nagpal 5-7, 6-2, 6-2; Adnya Naik bt Bhuvana Kalva 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(3); Rishika Sunkara bt Damini Sharma 6-4, 6-3; Prarthana Thombare bt Likitha Shetty 6-4, 7-6(9); Sai Samhitha bt Megha Sehrawat 6-2, 6-3; Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Sharon Paul 7-6(4), 6-3; Ankita Raina bt Treta Bhattacharyya 6-1, 6-0.
Doubles: Amrita Mukherjee & Shreya Pasricha bt Ambika Pande & Megha 6-3, 6-4; Ankita & Rushmi bt Sanae Ohta (Jpn) & Shweta Rana 6-2, 7-5.