BVG Pune Open ITF women’s championship: Raina stands tall, 3 Indians knocked out of tournament

Ankita Raina and India number one was the only city player to make it to the second round of the BVG Pune Open ITF $25k ITF women’s championship after she beat Amina Anshba of Russia on the second day of the tournament played at Shiv Chhatrapati sports complex in Balewadi on Tuesday.

Wild card entrants — city’s Snehal Mane and Rutuja Bhosale — and Jennifer Luikham of Manipur — failed to make it to the next round.

Raina, who took only 58 minutes to register 6-2, 6-1 victory over Anshba, said, “It was a good match for me. As it was my first match, it took me two games to adjust, but I think the level I maintained was good.”

Raina won seven service games out of eight, while her opponent could only win two.

The second set turned out to a cakewalk for Raina as she broke the opponent in the second and fourth game to wrap up the contest. Raina will be up against Ekaterina Yashina of Russia in round two match on Wednesday.

Rutuja falls short

Upcoming tennis player Rutuja showed a glimpse of form before going down 6-7 (6-8), 6-7 (5-7) to Kai-Lin Zhang of China in two hours eight minutes battle.

“I had my chances in the match, but I played a little safe and missed some chances,” said Rutuja after her loss, adding that Kai Lin is an experienced player and made her to play the shots.

Snehal goes down

Snehal Mane who was competing in her fourth women’s tournament lost to six seed Deniz Khazaniuk of Israel 3-6, 1-6.

“She is a seeded player and I have just started playing tournaments. On a wild card entry, I started well and the first set was 3-all, but I could not continue the momentum,” said Snehal.

Admitting that Deniz’s service was the main obstacle, Snehal said, “Her service completely outplayed me. I need to better my strength and consistency to win matches.”

Meanwhile, third wild card entrant, Jennifer Luikham of Manipur went down 6-7 (2-7), 3-6 to Marina Melnikova of Russia.

Results

Main Draw(First Round)

Singles: 1-Tamara Zidansek (Slo) bt Ya-Hsuan Lee (Tpe) 6-3, 6-3; 2-Ankita Raina (Ind) bt Amina Anshba (Rus) 6-2, 6-1; Marina Melnikova (Rus) bt wc-Jennifer Luikham (Ind) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3; Kai-Lin Zhang (Chn) bt Rutuja Bhosale (Ind) 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5); 6-Deniz Khazaniuk (Isr) bt Snehal Mane (Ind) 6-3, 6-1; Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) bt 7-Katy Dunne (Gbr) 6-1, 6-3; 8-Quirine Lemoine (Ned) bt Pia Cuk (Slo) 6-1, 6-1; 5-Olga Doroshina (Rus) bt Katarzyna Kawa (Pol) 6-3, 6-2; Reka-Luca Jani (Hun) bt Kaylah Mcphee (Aus) 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-3); Jaqueline Adina Cristian (Rou) bt Miyabi Inoue (Jpn) 6-1, 7-5; 3-Jia-Jing Lu (Chn) bt Katarzyna Piter (Pol) 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.

Doubles: Aleksandrina Naydenova (Bul) and Tamara Zidansek (Slo) bt Maria Marfutina (Rus) and Anna Morgina (Rus) 6-1, 6-0; 3-Ana Veselinovic (Mne) and Ekaterina Yashina (Rus) bt Mariam Bolkvadze (Geo) and Albina Khabibulina (Uzb) 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.