Even as India’s senior talents have been performing on the ATP and WTA tours, younger players are not far behind. Touted as India’s next big singles star, 18-year-old Karman Kaur Thandi finished the runner-up at the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Hua Hin, Thailand.
Having knocked out several seeded players en route to the finals, Thandi pulled a muscle during her semi-final win, leading to what she described as a less than ideal performance in the finals, where she lost to the title to China’s Hanyu Go.
The injury has led Thandi to pull out of this week’s ITF tournament in Japan.
This marks Thandi’s second loss in a singles final – although she already has two doubles titles with Dhruti Venugopal.
Prarthana Thombare, who has partnered Sania Mirza on multiple occasions in the doubles – most recently at the Rio Olympic Games, won her opening match at the ITF women’s event in Nigeria over local talent Melissa Ishuan Ifidzhen; she will next face top-seed Valentini Grammatikopoulou.
Men do well on Challenger tour
22-year-old Ramkumar Ramanathan, who made his Davis Cup debut for India this year, made the finals of the ITF men’s futures in France, but lost with Venezuelan partner Jordi Munoz-Abreu to Antoine Hoang and Gregoire Jacq of France in straight sets, 3-6, 4-6.
India’s top singles player Saketh Myneni is into the pre-quarters at the ATP Challenger in Vietnam; he beat Andrew Whittington of Australia in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. Myneni has had perhaps his strongest year on the ATP circuit so far, making it to the main draw of the US Open
Sanam Singh, who is a regular doubles partner of Myneni, also made his way to the main draw of the event, winning his final qualifying match against Japan's Kento Takeuchi 6-2, 6-2.
