Tennis meet: Four Indian girls ousted in 1st qualifying round

Mumbai, Nov 18 (PTI) All four Indian girls seen inaction in the first singles qualifying round of the L & TMumbai Open WTA USD 125K Series bit the ...

Mumbai, Nov 18 (PTI) All four Indian girls seen inaction in the first singles qualifying round of the L & TMumbai Open WTA USD 125K Series bit the dust in straight setsat the Cricket Club of India's courts here today.

Those who got ousted without putting up a semblance ofa fight were India no. 3 Pranjala Yadlapalli, no. 4 RiyaBhatia, no. 7 Natasha Palha, who got a wild card, and no. 9Nidhi Chilumula.

Pranjala, 18 and ranked 500th in the world, lost 0-60-6 to former world junior no. 2 Ana Bogdan of Romania, a wildcard and seeded no. 1, in the qualifiers with a world rankingof 111.

Pranjala was overwhelmed by the tall and big-servingBogdan who fired down seven aces even as the Indian committedfive double-faults on her own serve.

Bhatia, ranked 545, was felled 6-3 6-0 by Alize Lim ofFrance, seeded fifth at this stage with a rank of 308.

The 20-year-old Riya made a promising start againsther higher-ranked 27-year-old French opponent with an earlybreak to seize a 3-0 lead. But, thereafter she completelyfizzled out and lost the next 12 games.

Wild card Natasha, the India no. 7 who is ranked alowly 783, slumped to a 1-6 0-6 defeat against second-seededDeniz Khazhniuk of Israel, ranked 274th in the world.

The fourth Indian girl in action, Chilumula, who isranked ninth nationally and a distant 855th globally, wasbeaten 6-1 6-3 by no. 7 seed Anna Morgina of Russia, who isranked 337th.

Four more Indian girls - national no. 1 Ankita Raina,no. 2 Karman Kaur Thandi, no. 5 Rutuja Bhosale and no. 6 ZeelDesai - will be seen in the singles main draw of thetournament commencing on November 20.

Australia's Naiktha Bains, of Indian origin, providedsome cheer to the home country fans as she came through herfirst qualifying round match.

The 19-year-old England-born girl, ranked 374th in theworld, showed good touch and variety in her play to sidelineCornelia Lister of Sweden in straight sets.

Naiktha cruised to a 6-2 6-0 win against the 437thranked Cornelia and later said she was glad to be in Mumbaiand playing her maiden WTA event in India.

"It's great to be here in Mumbai and India. I arrivedhere on Thursday and just love this place. Both mygrandparents are from Punjab and it feels nice to play here inIndia," said Naiktha, who was born in England and moved toAustralia with her parents at the age of eight.

Meanwhile, the tournament lost some sheen followingthe pull-out of former world no. 2 Vera Zvonareva of Russiabecause of an injury sustained in the Hua Hin Challenger.

"I am writing on behalf of Vera Zvonareva to extendher apologies for withdrawing from your tournament.

Unfortunately, she has got injured (rib problem) inHua Hin (in Thailand) and currently not able to practice, soshe is not able to be ready for the Mumbai event," said heragent Maya Kurilova in a message to Tournament DirectorPrashant Sutar.

First qualifying round results: Singles: 1 WC-AnaBogdan (ROU) bt Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) 6-0 6-0; 8-NaikthaBains (AUS) bt Comelia Lister (SWE) 6-2 6-0; 2-Deniz Khazaniuk(ISR) bt WC Natasha Palha (IND) 6-1 6-0; 6-Ling Zhang btOksana Kalashnikova (GEO) 4-6 6-1 6-1; 3-Hiroko Kuwata (JPN)bt Naoko Ito (JPN) 6-0 6-0; 7-Anna Morgina (RUS) bt NidhiChilumula (IND) 6-1 6-3; 4-Julia Glushko (ISR) bt KseniaParkina (KGZ) 6-3 6-2; 5-Alize Lim (France) bt Riya Bhatia(IND) 6-3 6-0. PTI SSRRSY.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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