Easy win for Prarthana

Chennai: Top seeded Prarthana G. Thombare swept past fellow-Indian Victoria Chehal 6-1, 6-2, to enter the second round of the KS Narayanan Memorial ITF Women’s Futures tennis tournament, here Tuesday.

In contrast, Sharrmadaa Balu, the fifth seed from Bangalore had to struggle against Riya Bhatia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Sharrmadaa, possessing a good serve, ran over Riya in the first set to win 6-1. In the second, Riya clawed her way back with committed tennis and helped by unforced errors from Sharrmadaa, particularly on the forehand side, won the second set 6-4. Sharrmadaa once again took charge of the third set leading 4-0 when she lapsed into a series of double faults and an unforced errors allowing Riya to narrow the gap. At 5-4, Sharrmadaa finally forced an error on the second match point to win the set 6-4 and the match. In the third longest match of the day, the determined fourth seeded Chinese Xi-Yao Wang got the better of Yui Saikai of Japan in a well fought match. Saikai played smart tennis in the first set, mixing the pace and playing drop shots to win 6-4. In the second, Wang began to play attacking tennis and finally won the set 7-5 with the last three games of the set lasting20 minutes. Wang kept up the tempo in the third to win it 6-3. The results: Singles: 1-Prarthana G. Thombare bt Victoria Chehal 6-1, 6-2; Sharon Sanchana Paul bt Damini Sharma 6-3, 6-2; Varunya Wongteanchai (THA) bt Nithya Raj Babu Raj 7-5, 6-1; 5-Sharrmadaa Balu bt Riya Bhatia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4; 4-Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) bt Yui Saikai (JPN) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Efriliya Herlina (INA) bt Manya Nagpal 7-5, 6-2; Swetha Sree Hari bt Jeni Patel 6-2, 5-7, 6-2; 2-Natasha Palha bt Bhavani Balakumar 6-3, 6-2; 3-Rishika Sunkara bt Arthi Muniyan 6-1, 6-2. Doubles: Vaniya Dangwal / Sneha Padamata bt Bhavani Balakumar / Reshma Ganapathy 6-1, 6-3; 4-Nidhi Chilumula / Xi-Yao Wang (CHN) bt Riya Bhatia / Pranjala Yadlapalli 6-2, 6-2; Yui Saikai (JPN) / Preethi Ujjini bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi / Chun-Yan He (CHN) 6-2, 6-7(6), 10-4.