PUNE: Ankita Raina went down fighting to world No. 98 Jodie Burrage of Britain in the first round of the WTA Tour event in Warsaw, Poland, on Tuesday.
Having come through two rounds of qualifying into the main draw, the India No. 1 sustained the momentum to take the first set but the 24-year-old Burrage clawed her way back to take the match 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) in two hours and 37 minutes.
The ninth game in the second set saw the tide change in the Briton’s favour as she broke the 200th ranked Indian at 15 to go up 5-4.
The third set saw both players struggling to hold serve. Burrage took a 4-1 lead only for Ankita to tie it 4-4.
The gritty 30-year-old then broke the Londoner twice when the latter served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 before Burrage finally prevailed in the tiebreak.
"It was a very close second and third sets, of course, from the score. But even in the games it was quite neck to neck," Ankita said after the match.
"(Towards) the end of second set, there were some points or situations where I had the chance to step in and attack, be more aggressive, but actually ended up a bit far from the baseline. So she had a bigger area to play," she added.
"Third set, got broken in the first game but broke back in the very next game. Then went down 1-4, those three games went away quick!
"However I held my composure and fought back to 4-4. Then had a game point here and at 5-5, but did good to break her. So returned really well today."
