Third seed Ankita Raina warmed up for the tougher challenges ahead by beating Ya-Hsuan Lee 6-1, 7-6(7) in the first round of the $25,000 ITF women’s tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Tuesday.
From 5-2 in the second set, Ankita lost her way briefly to trail 5-6. In the eventual tie-break, she slipped from being 6-2 to 6-7, before saving the set point and closing out the match by winning the next three points.
Ankita will next face the winner of the match between two qualifiers, Michika Ozeki and Ekaterina Yashina.
Another wild card entrant, Riya Bhatia was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by sixth seed Sohyun Park of Korea.
In doubles pre-quarterfinals, Zeel Desai and Sahaja Yamalapalli beat third seeds Polina Iatcenko and Ekaterina Yashina in straight sets. Zeel and Sahaja will face each other in the singles first round on Wednesday.
The results:
Singles (first round): Yasmine Mansouri (Fra) bt Pehal Kharadkar 6-2, 6-0; Justina Mikulskyte (Ltu) bt Dayeon Back (Kor) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2; Ankita Raina bt Ya-Hsuan Lee (Tpe) 6-1, 7-6(7); Sohyun Park (Kor) bt Riya Bhatia 6-3, 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Shrivalli Bhamidipaty & Vaidehi Chaudhari bt Diva Bhatia & Kashish Bhatia 6-1, 6-1; Zeel Desai & Sahaja Yamalapalli bt Polina Iatcenko & Ekaterina Yashina 6-4, 6-2; Mei Hasegawa (Jpn) & Saumya Vig bt Humera Baharmus & Pooja Ingale 6-1, 4-6, [10-5]; Thasaporn Naklo & Mananchaya Sawangkaew (Tha) bt Ayumi Koshishi (Jpn) & Anastasia Zolotareva 4-6, 6-0, [10-8].
