Wild card Mihika ousts Russian Yana to enter last 16
Pune, Nov 7 (PTI) Asian junior champion Mihika Yadav justified the wild card awarded to her as she toppled seventh seed Yana Sizikova of Russia in straight sets to enter the second round of the USD 25000 Pune Open ITF women's tennis championships here today.
Mihika, who had won the Asian juniors earlier this year and reached the finals of the ITF event last year at the MSLTA school of tennis in Balewadi, notched up a 6-3 7-5 win in one hour and 41 minutes to enter the last 16.
Second seed Karman Kaur Thandi was tested by qualifier Riya Bhatia in an all-India clash before recording a 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(5) victory after a grim tussle lasting three hours and 9 minutes tussle.
Riya fought valiantly, saving 6 match points and coming back from 2-5 down to level scores and force a tie-break in the deciding third set, which she could not clinch.
In a match between two local players, Rutuja Bhosale took 1 hour and 12 minutes to get the better of wild card and junior Snehal Mane 6-4 6-2 to make it to the round of 16,
Another local girl and qualifier Salsa Aher squandered six set points in the second set and went down to sixth seed Ana Veselinovic of Montenegro
6-1,7-5 while Oman's Fatima Al Nabhani edged out India no 3, Pranjala Yadlapalli, 6-4 6-7(4) 6-4 to make it to round two.
Fourth seed Valeriya Strakhova of Ukraine got past another Indian player, Nidhi Chilumula, 6-1 6-3 to reach the second round.
Results: Singles (1st round): Deniz Khazaniuk [1] (ISR) bt Olesya Pervushina (RUS)
6-4 6-2; Jaqueline Adina Cristian [2] (ROU) bt Berfu Cengiz (TUR) 7-5 6-2; Karman Kaur Thandi [3] (IND) bt Riya Bhatia (IND) 6-4 4-6 7-6(5); Valeriya Strakhova [4] (UKR) bt Nidhi Chilumula (IND) 6-1 6-3; Ana Veselinovic (MNE) [6] bt Salsa Aher (IND) 6-1 7-5; Mihika Yadav (IND) bt Yana Sizikova [7] (RUS) 6-3 7-5; Tereza Mihalikova [8] (SVK) bt Prerna Bhambri (IND) 6-1 6-2; Rutuja Bhosale (IND) bt Snehal Mane (IND) 6-4, 6-2; Karin Kennel (SUI) bt Ksenia Palkina (KGZ) 6-3, 6-3; Fatma Al Nabhani (OMA) bt Pranjala Yadlapalli (IND) 6-4 6-7(4), 6-4.
Doubles: (Quarterfinals): Pei-Chi Lee(TPE) /Yana Sizikova [3] (RUS) bt Sai Samhitha Chamarthi (IND) Amrita Mukherjee (IND) 6-2 6-0; Stefanie Tan (SGP) /Dhruthi Venugopal (IND) bt Snehal Mane (IND) /Natasha Palha (IND) 6-2 6-3