Sidharth Rawat beat Vaclav Safranek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-6(5) in the first round of the $25,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament here on Tuesday.
In a similar tournament in the women’s section, at the same venue, Ankita Raina made the doubles quarterfinals with Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands.
The 27-year-old Ankita, who had won both the singles and doubles titles last week, could not enter the singles as she was scheduled to compete in the FedCup which was eventually got postponed by three weeks.
Riya Bhatia, another member of the Indian squad, could get into the qualifying event. Ankita chose to capitalise on the time by competing in the doubles event, before the WTA event next week in Hua Hin.
The results:
First round: $25,000 ITF men, Nonthaburi, Thailand: Sidharth Rawat bt Vaclav Safranek (Cze) 6-3, 7-6(5).
Doubles: Benjamin Bonzi & Corentin Denolly (Fra) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam & Manish Sureshkumar 6-1, 6-2; Kim Cheong-Eui (Kor) & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt He Yecong (Chn) & Jumpei Yamasaki (Jpn) 7-6(4), 4-6, [10-6].
Women: Bibiane Schoofs (Ned) & Ankita Raina bt Kamonwan Buayam & Patcharin Cheapchandej (Tha) 6-3, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF men, Sharm El Sheikh: Mehluli Don Ayanda Sibanda (Zim) & Aryan Goveas bt Tristan Boyer (USA) & Oleksandr Ovcharenko (Ukr) 6-4, 6-4; Shalva Dzhanashiya (Rus) & Aleksei Khomich (Blr) bt Jaime Caldes (Esp) & Sahil Gaware 6-4, 6-4 .
