Lucknow ITF Futures: India’s Ankita Raina loses to Mutagachi in singles final

Depleted with a bout of illness, India’s Ankita Raina came up short against Japan’s Emi Mutaguchi and lost in three sets 6-3, 6-7, 1-6 in a keenly contested final showdown of the $10,000 ITF Lucknow Futures tennis tournament at the Oudh Gymkhana Club Tennis Complex in Lucknow.

Appearing in her fourth consecutive ITF Futures final, Ankita fought hard against the eight seeded Mutaguchi.

The national grasscourt champion lost her serve in the third game, but brought things on an even kneel before bagging the first set 6-3.

The top-seed, who is enjoying a good run having clinched the Chennai Futures last week, was trailing 2-5 in the second set but exuded nerves of steel to level things and stretch the set into a tie-breaker.

However, it was the Japanese who pocketed the tie-breaker.

Mutaguchi was on song in the decider. The Gujarat girl, who is now based in Pune, failed to keep her game together, committing numerous unforced errors.

The 524th ranked Indian kept losing her serve consistently to hand Mutagachi a facile 6-1 win in the third set.

Ankita earlier got the better of fourth seed Shweta Rana in the semifinals.

Shweta had earlier shown the tournament exit door to Simran Kaur Sethi in the quarterfinals – the girl who shocked seventh seed Australian Angelique Svinos in the first round.

Earlier, Ankita, who finished runners-up in the two ITF Futures tourneys in Hyderabad last March, made a whirlwind beginning to her campaign in the Lucknow event, whipping another fellow Indian country mate Anushka Bhargava in the opening round before sailing past Preethi Ujjini in the second round to secure her passage to the quarterfinals.

Earlier in the semifinals, Japan’s Emi Mutaguchi slugged out third seed Prarthana G. Thombare..

It may be worth recalling that Mutaguchi is the lone foreign player left in the fray. Only three foreign players made it to the main draw – Australia’s Angelique Svinos, bowed out in the first round while China’s Wang XI-Yao also crashed out in the opening round.

Earlier, the $10,000 ITF Futures women’s tennis tournament was dealt a big blow after around 80 foreign players pulled out.

It is learnt that these foreign players have decided to give the ongoing $10,000 ITF Futures women’s tennis tournament a miss on account of security concerns.

Apparently, the foreign players had intimated the organizers that they are crying out owing to security apprehensions.

In fact, these players had been told by their respective governments to participate in the Lucknow event at their own risk.