Three players withdraw due to injury and heat
Third seed Zeel Desai and fourth seed Ankita Raina recorded straight-sets wins, while three players quit their respective first-round singles matches due to injury and heat in the MSLTA-NDHTA ITF 15K Women’s World Tennis Tour at the NDHTA Ramnagar courts on Wednesday.
Zeel got into form early and did not give her opponent A. Easwaramurthi any chance, winning the match 6-2, 6-2.
Ankita showed her brilliance and why she has been a dominant force on the tennis circuit for over a decade, defeating fellow Indian Soha Sadiq 6-3, 6-4 in the first round. After a one-sided first set, young Soha put up a tough fight in the second. Early on, both players traded serves and at one point Soha even took the lead, but an experienced Ankita raised her game a couple of notches to finish the match in straight sets. “Opening round matches of any tournament can be a little tricky. I was a bit rusty and did not know much about my opponent as I had never played her,” Ankita said after the match.
Unseeded Kashish Bhatia showed her class in a 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Bela Tamkhankar.
The heat took its toll as three players — Emma Van Poppel, A. Niture and Abhilasha Bista — conceded their singles matches due to injury and heat. Out of nine singles matches, only six were completed, while there was a walkover in one of the three doubles matches scheduled for the day.
Top seed Vaishnavi Adkar will face Ksenia Laskutova, while Zhibek Kulambayeva (52) takes on Pooja Ingale. Zeel will play Ekaterina Khodzhaeva, and Ankita (S4) will meet Sonal Patil in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
Sheetal Iyer, Tournament Supervisor, is managing the tournament along with a team of chair umpires. The NDHTA courts are being well maintained daily by the ground staff.
A large number of tennis enthusiasts, including budding players and coaches from various academies in the city, are turning up to watch the ITF tournament.
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