Fifth seed Sahaja Yamalapalli warmed up for the challenges ahead with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Ayumi Koshishi of Japan in the first round of the Federal Bank $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Tennis Project, Baliawas, on Wednesday.
Sahaja, who stroked with intensity, converted four of eight break points to snuff the Japanese challenge. She did drop serve once but overall handled her service games with competence.
In the pre-quarterfinals, Sahaja will play Riya Bhatia who has been without match practice for some time. Riya overcame the fluent play of qualifier Anjali Rathi 7-6(5), 6-4. She also did well to make the doubles quarterfinals with Michika Ozeki of Japan.
